RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 18.3B] The City of Urtullan (HX-24)

Conrad looked at Bors while checking his equipment one more time. It could be his death if this thing didn't work as promised. He hoped Sienna was that great a technician. His faith was there, but his life was also in this thing's hands.

''Two thing I know for sure Bors. This ain't gonna be a nice debriefing...and I'm gonna be cooking. So you can order the striek team on Gravedigger's ass with a muffin. You hungry yet?''

Conrad strapped the rebreather on tighter, and henceforth couldn't talk anymore. It was their turn to go. the last time he'd hear that awful noise. He lit his NSP flashlight, and moved forward, way up the ladder.

After the room flooded with the dreaded sulpherous air, Conrad almost forgot to breathe for a moment in natural reflex, but he managed to correct himself quickly enough. As he moved to get out of the tube, he was almost disappointed. He knew the surface was bare, and probably without a welcome committee this time. But this empty...

Sune watched Egil work the controls of the airlock. If he was a superstitious person he would have crossed his fingers. As the system made its various groans and clanks it became apparent by the AMES HUD that the atmosphere was exchanging. I just hope this equipment hangs in long enough for the others to come through. he thought.

He used his natural anti-grav to ascend from the airlock. When he got close to Sienna he let her 'assist him' by giving her his good arm. That way he did not risk jarring or banging the damaged arm. Once clear of the hatch he looked at Sienna, "Thank you." he said moving a few steps away.

Sune surveyed the area around them looking for anything that could be used as cover should they needed it. He then looked upwards to look for the shuttle.

"Might have to fight Mango or Lime over that, I havent seen anyone else in there aside from them sense I've been on board"

Bors said to Conrad, Training his NSP's light down the corridor they just came from looking for anything unfriendly rounding the corner.

"I'm more concerned about the tech you got in your mouth at the moment, just hoping it holds up for you long enough to get off this rock."

Glancing over his shoulder he saw the lights next to the airlock swich from red to green.

"Time to put that re-breather of yours to the test." He said opening the Airlock door motioning for Conrad to go in before he closed and locked it.

The outer door screeched open a third time, revealing Bors and Conrad's hulking forms. Sienna offered each of them a hand as well, stealing a quick glance at Conrad's makeshift rebreather and goggles to be sure he had everything where it was supposed to be. He seemed to be having no difficulty breathing at the moment. She flashed him an hesitant "thumbs up" to confirm it, asking her silent question with a single interrogative nod.

She waved the last two member away from the hatch and started to cycle it shut again, but her hand hovered a few inches off the handle set in the catwalk, a thought occurring to her. She looked around on the grating behind her, spotting the snapped-off cover she'd discarded from the outer release valve. Snatching it up, she slid her backpack off of her shoulders and dropped it to the walkway. Reaching into one of the small side pouches, she withdrew a folding utility knife, opening it to reveal a simple pair of pliers. Working quickly, she pinched the cover door along a corner with the pliers, gripping the tool in one hand and the cover in the other. Biting down on her rebreather's mouthpiece hard with the effort, she grunted a little as she bent the little cover's corners down into a triangular wedge. On the opposite side she bent the end upwards and back on itself, folding it until there was a flap about an inch and a half long doubled back onto the body, sitting a few degrees inward from perpendicular.

She pulled out a pair of insulated work gloves and flipped over onto her stomach, sliding up to the open airlock and leaned inside, bent over at the waist on the corner so that her legs were flat against the walkway, her torso hanging inside the airlock chamber. Retracting the pliers and flipping open a small knife blade, she felt around the inner lock valve until she found a tighter cover plate secured just below the handle with rusted screws. Jamming the knife blade into the screw heads, she jiggled each of the four screws on the corners until they broke free from their rust, dropping them one by one to the closed bottom hatch with a quiet clatter. With the last one withdrawn, she shoved the point of the blade along each side of the cover panel, jimmying it, gently coaxing it free from its stubborn resting place.

After less than a minute of effort, the plate finally broke free, revealing a jumbled mishmash of wires of all colors crisscrossing a surprisingly pristine circuit board. She shook her head and sighed through her mask. What a disorganized, hopeless mess. Good thing she wasn't interested in sorting it out.

Grabbing a hold of as many of the mess of wires as she could get her gloved hand around, she wrenched them free, some of them tearing the soldered contact points out of the circuit board with it. With a few blue sparks, the lights inside the airlock all turned orange and started to flash. A monotonous, droning beep came through the klaxon within, accompanied by the same broken voice repeating its message: "Airlock malfunction. Contact maintenance personnel. Seek alternate route."

Taking the metal wedge she'd fashioned, she placed the point in the middle of the circuit board, lightly tapping on the makeshift "nails head" she'd created on the opposite end with the handle of her utility knife. Gently she drove it through the fragile board's carbon fiber surface. The combination of the blood rushing to her head as she hung there nearly upside down and the annoying klaxon's constantly repeating message making her both a little irate and dizzy, she finally got it driven in far enough so that she could let it go without it falling out.

Dragging herself out of the lock, she sat up on the catwalk, taking a breath as her circulation rebalanced itself, her face feeling like it started to deflate again. Once she'd regained her vision, she turned around on her bottom, shimmying over to the edge once more and descended one or two rungs down the ladder into the lock.

With her boots right at the level of the wedge she'd driven in, she reared one of her feet back and delivered a sharp kick as hard as she could straight into the end of her homemade spike. It rammed straight through the circuit board, shattering it to pieces and crunching into several other unseen electronic and mechanical parts hidden behind it. Blue, white and yellow sparks flew everywhere with a sudden, startling zapping sound, and almost immediately all of the lights in the airlock went out, the klaxon's endless droning silenced.

She climbed back out of the airlock, putting her tools back into her backpack, and heaved it back onto her shoulders as she looked up to the sickly yellow sky. This was it, she'd done everything she knew to do. It was up to them to uphold their end of the bargain now.

Natsumi breathed a bit of a sigh as Bors and Egil made it out of the airlock. She wondered what Sienna was doing with it once they were out, but could only pay half attention as she was looking for the shuttle and trying to keep an eye out for Gravedigger.

The loud pops and zaps of electronics shorting and burning out told her exactly what Sienna had done with the airlock, made sure no one was following them that way any time soon. She smiled at their new friends ingenuity.

Her attention focused upwards, Natsumi finally spotted the sleek shape of a Yamataian shuttle craft emerging through the thick ugly clouds that hung low in the sky.

"There it is!" Natsumi said, then turned to Egil, "Bring it down and I'll get it opened up, Mashiro-San!" she felt the excitement rushing through her. They were so close to getting off this moldy rock. She had to force herself to calm. Now was the most dangerous time to let herself get worked up.

There was still the threat of Gravedigger, she was sure there were plenty of other airlocks he could get to the surface from not too far from where they were and a shuttle landing away from the landing pads wasn't the most subtle thing around. Worse yet there were those parasites they had been told about. Who knew where they were skulking around.

Egil returned a thankful nod to Sienna’s gesture to clear the pad so the final cycle could begin. He and Sune moved back and joined Natsumi in inspecting the area. He remembered it being different on the way in, but that was probably because that was a more inhabited part of the wasteland than where they were now. Thankfully they’d be out of here soon enough.

About a minute later both Bors and Conrad joined them on the outside, just as the shuttle zoomed in overhead. Natsumi was quick to point it out and Egil couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. The shuttle stopped in mid-air about 50 feet away from the group and started to descent when it received the landing instructions. Egil slightly lowered his weapon and moved over to inspect it as it touched down on the ground.

No graffiti, rotten tomatoes or angry mobs. At least one thing was looking up. “Let’s get out of here!” he shout out at the rest while Natsumi worked to get the shuttle open.

Surface

Sune listened as Sienna did her best to sabotage the airlock. When he heard the system sound alarms of the malfunction he knew she had damaged it sufficient. He was not truly concerned by the alarm, because the airlock had already indicated that it had been cycled three times. Anyone curious enough to investigate would find a way to get here by what ever means necessary.

Sune watched the shuttle as it approached. As he saw it there were three points when their hosts could thwart them. First was by destroying the shuttle as it approached. The second would be when they made to get into the shuttle. Last would be when they lifted off.

When nothing happened to their transport and it touched down he thought, Okay, first point cleared shuttle has safely arrived. Now to board it safely.

He started to make his way over to it. "Keep sharp, until we are in the shuttle and away from this miserable rock do not let your guard down. Riko and Hightower-Hei, take positions to provide cover fire if necessary. Once we have the shuttle open, Mashiro and Yamashiro will provide cover for your approach." Sune said.

As she sprung to her feet, Sienna had to consciously fight the urge to get a running start and leap for the shuttle, even if she didn't have a clue where to start looking for a means of ingress. She was so eager to get off of this dead rock that she was literally trembling in anticipation. She tightened the straps of her backpack and fidgetted, pacing back and forth, the shuttle's descent seeming to slow down with every passing second. It was driving her crazy - here she was, her first real shot at starting over somewhere else so close that she could taste it, but so much still could go wrong. Up until this point she had been relatively calm, but now that she'd contributed all that she could to getting the Yamataians off world, her illusion of control over the situation had vanished. She was now officially in their care, a civilian refugee at their mercy.

Nervously her eyes kept darting around the landscape, looking for signs of trouble. She wondered what the team had done to attract the attention of an obviously well-funded assassin. Maybe it was better that she didn't know. She fidgetted impatiently even more as the shuttle made its final approach, lowering to the ground, kicking up yellow and brown dust in a circular cloud around it. Watching each member of the team in turn, she anxiously waited for instructions.

Natsumi watched the shuttle come in for a smooth landing. She glanced at Sienna and could see the woman's excitement to get off the planet.

As soon as the shuttle was down Natsumi floated up to it, accessing the hatch controls and inputting the security lock out code she had set when they had first arrived. The hatch sprung open, revealing the way in, the way home.

Natsumi drew her NSP once more, taking up position to the left of the hatch, her red eyes on the look out for any danger.

"Lets go!" She said as she waited for the others to get in. Natsumi glanced at Sienna, quickly nodding for her to get in too.

Sune followed behind Natsumi and stepped into the shuttle as soon as she went in since he was not capable of fighting at the moment. He looked at Sienna, "Sienna, come in and take a seat in the back and strap in. We will be lifting as soon as the others get onboard.

Natsumi, as soon as everyone is onboard, get to the cockpit and launch, fly nap of the earth until we are well out of sight of this place. I would not put it past someone to fire a missile at us on our way up. So best to not give them a chance.

Not having a weapon, and needing to perform first aid to stop the bleeding in his arm; he made his way into the passenger compartment. Sune opened one of the overhead storage compartments. He pulled out a fresh medical kit and placed it on one of the seats.

She didn't have to be told twice. No sooner than the words got out of Sune's mouth, she darted up through the hatch right behind Natsumi. She ran to one of the many empty seats in the passenger bay, towards the front bulkhead and in the middle, but didn't sit or strap in just yet. She turned, backpack still on and ready to hide, defend herself, or bolt at the first sign of trouble, watching for the rest of the team to get aboard.

Natsumi rushed for the cockpit, dropping herself into the pilots seat and quickly running her hands over the controls, taking over from the shuttle's auto-pilot. Once the others were aboard she would take off.

She was already plotting in a ground hugging course over the surface with an average altitude of fifty feet or less until they were well away from the city, then she would take the shuttle up into space and back to Eucharis as quick as possible.

Conrad had been worried every second. The air was sour, his rebreather held, but it felt as if Damocles' Sword was hanging above his head. Bors had mirrored his doubt, but their doubts were not realised. Not yet.

It was so that Conrad had given Sienna a double thumbs up. As he sat down on one knee for stability, Conrad and Bors would check every vigilant for anyone or anything that might oppose their ascension from this planet. It did not happen, but they were not gone yet.

Conrad nodded all the time he was ordered. No words, no reason for the rebreather to stop. As he guarded the descended shuttle, he wondered not if, but how much different he would feel himself armed with very heavy arnaments. He would approach ms. Murakami for that.

But first, it was time to get off this abysmal planet.

With Sienna, Sune, and Natsumi safely into the shuttle, Egil, Bors, and Conrad were the only ones in position to see a hatch open further down the city dome, where Gravedigger emerged with a huge shoulder-fired weapon of some kind. At the same time, a Mishhuvurthyar parasite zipping through the air at almost 100 kph slammed into Conrad's back with the force of a rifle round and began to try to burrow its way into him with its sharp teeth.

Egil was just about to turn around and hop into the shuttle so the rest could enter safely when a hatch opened a little further down the dome where they had exited. From the hatch emerged a familiar broad shouldered figure, clearly raising a heavy weapon directly at their shuttle.

“Gravedigg-..!” He shouted out while raising his NSP towards the new threat. He didn’t finish the name though, being interrupted by Conrad getting struck in the back by something, but it was clear enough who had shown his face. They were given no chance to think and in hindsight he forgot about the Nepleslian on their tail when he noticed the gruesome parasite embedded on his roommate’s back, trying to burrow its way inside.

Sparing no second thoughts on what to do Egil pushed himself off the shuttle’s exterior and raced the few meters towards his companion in record time. The parasite had easily torn through the protective suit and its sharp teeth were already sawing through skin and flesh, its body rapidly spinning and squirming around.

“Help me get him in the shuttle!” He shouted out to the rest whilst trying to get a grip on the wormlike creature to stop it from burrowing any further. He raised his NSP to the creature's side nonetheless, intent on killing it without harming Conrad in the process. He was lucky he was such a big man, but this was not the only threat near the shuttle.

Just when i thought things were finally going our way.

"Keep him covered and get that thing out of him, Last thing we need is a damn zombie."

As he spoke he ran for the nearest piece of cover and started to unload his NSP at Gravedigger attempting to keep his head down so he could get a better shot at the assassin and hopefully take him down.

When the shouting started outside the shuttle, Sienna didn't have to stick her head out to know what was going on. When the first NSP shots rang out, she instinctively ducked behind the row of seats, gritting her teeth on the rebreather, not yet daring to take it off while the ramp was still open. Whoever these folks had crossed, they really wanted them dead. She wondered if they had multiple assassins on their tail; they must have, because for that Gravedigger fellow to follow them topside after the flying and the sabotaged airlock was no small feat.

Her blood turned to ice in her veins when she heard Bors shout out the word "zombie" after mentioning getting something out of Conrad. She felt panic starting to creep up from deep within her. She was so near to getting away, but right now she was trapped in the shuttle, and Bors could only be referring to one thing.

The biggest, strongest looking member of their team was infected with one of those horrible mind-worms. In the more primal part of her mind, she felt like there were only one or two logical responses to such a thing.

Her heart racing, her eyes wide, and her hands trembling, she fingered the knife slid inside her boot, staying hidden behind the seats.

Egil's hands were having a hard time gripping the horrid creature as it pushed its way deeping into Conrad. It was already halfway in. As he freed one had to bring his NSP to the creature's side it went in further. It was now or never to pull the trigger.

Explosions blossomed near Gravedigger as Riko sprayed fire in the assassin's direction. The persistent pursuer took aim with the bazooka-thing and fired a missile at the shuttle which hit almost instantly, creating a fiery explosion that covered the area around the shuttle with a thick cloud of black smoke. Gravedigger next took a moment to erect some sort of energy shield before trying to aim again through the smoke obscuring the shuttle.

Inside the cockpit, alarms went off announcing major damage to the starboard engine, including the CFS systems, as well as an ongoing fire in the engine space there. Anti-gravity was still online and the shuttle was able to hold its hovering position.

Shuttle

Natsumi was ready to fly the shuttle up, she was just waiting for everyone to get inside and wondered what was taking so long for the last 3 people to step inside and seal the hatch.

"Come on!" she grumbled.

Then there was screaming and yelling and she thought she heard the word 'Zombie' which made her blood run cold. Someone had been hit with a parasite. What else could go wrong?

Then there was the explosion, Natsumi was almost thrown from her chair. Alert klaxons shrieked and the systems display lit up like a Christmas tree with damage indicators.

It was bad, very bad. The starboard engine was blown to hell and burning and the CFS had been damaged as well. Natsumi quickly activated the emergency fire suppression system to douse the fire raging in the starboard engine space and routed power away from the crippled drive. She cursed as she worked, with the CFS hit they didn't have shields and another hit like that they would be done for.

"Everyone in the shuttle NOW!" Natsumi yelled over their comm channel. "We have to go now or we are never getting off this rock!"

As the explosion rocked the shuttle, Sienna was violently thrown from where she was hiding in a crouch onto her side before she even realized they'd been hit. Her eyes watered and she coughed hard when she slammed into the floor, and the respirator was knocked from her mouth. She involuntarily gasped for air, immediately choking it off in horror when she realized she'd just taken a breath without her mask.

When she realized the air inside the shuttle was breathable, there was no time for her too feel any sort of relief. Her head had landed where she could see down the aisle between the rows of seats and out the rear door, and caught a glimpse of something that confirmed what she had feared she heard.

Egil was gripping the slimy, writhing tail of a nightmarish Mishhuvurthyar parasite-slug, half-buried in Conrad's back as he struggled to get it out. She couldn't stop a scream of terror.

She scrambled for the next aisle of seats for cover, kicking her legs frantically as she slid across the floor on her back. Once there, she leaped to her feet, her entire right side throbbing from the impact, and returned to a crouch, yanking the knife from her boot again and clutching it in a white-knuckled grip. She doubted Conrad could be saved - she'd seen for herself what those parasites were capable of doing.

"Just who the hell did y'all piss off to want you dead this bad!?" she shouted at Natsumi. She was used to taking care of herself, and had survived so far by doing exactly that. She truly was starting to regret breaking that rule. Being flogged or raped in the slums was starting to sound a lot better than the situation she found herself in now.