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

Shuttle

Sune upon hearing the others call out started he turned towards the rear. How did he find us so quickly. Let alone get here, we flew up to the top and entered the airlock. Not to mention how did he know which one we went out. Someone must be helping him. He thought.

Sune no sooner took a step towards the back to survey the situation when the shuttle was rocked by an explosion. He was knocked off his feet and into the double row of seats along the middle. Blinding white pain overwhelmed him, he screamed "AAAAAGGGGAAAAHHH" and he collapsed to the floor between two sets of chairs disoriented.

Getting a firm grip on the creature proved to be a hard task, doubly so when he finally managed and needed to let one hand go to reach for the gun he had holstered on his way over. Determined not to let go he pulled out the pistol, placed it firmly on the squirming creature and put two rounds in it. Blood and guts blew in the opposite direction as the creature went limp. He quickly pulled the now lifeless husk away from his friend and threw it off to the ground.

He’d hoped that would have been the last of it, but a loud explosion coming from the shuttle served as a wake-up call that there was still someone after their blood. The shuttle buckled under the impact, but managed to stay afloat. It was hard to see if everyone was alright with the smoke covering the impact, but whatever the damage, that shuttle was their only means off planet right now.

“Bors! Let’s go!” He shouted out when Natsumi’s voice rang out of the comms. He pulled Conrad back to his feet, the big man still able to move around with his support, and started moving back towards the shuttle. Using his innate anti-gravity it didn't take very long to get there and with Bors covering their asses Gravedigger had other things to worry about. He quickly pushed Conrad into the damaged shuttle, pulled himself up and joined in on the shooting with volleys of heavy rounds of his own to provide cover fire for Bors.

''Graved..Aaah!''

In a split second, a thrashing pain went straight for Conrad's back. One thought came to mind instantly as he went for his back with one hand. He got shot. Someone had come up and shot him in the back without getting noticed by anyone else. Did the mercenary have backup?

Sadly, this was not Conrad's fate, to be merely shot. The pain did not only remain, it got worse fast, forcing him to claw at his own back but with no result. The pain got the better of him as he fell to the ground, his mind racing, flooded with adrenalin as he would do everything to escape the immense pain. He had no idea what had hit him, and he had no way to find out. There could be only only logical explanation: a parasite slithered around and found his body a suitable target.

The pain did not stopped, maddening the Santo Hei. He tried as hard as he could to keep breathing but hyperventilation had struck him. Flailing like a madman, he tried to shake off the morbid creature but could not, jolts of pain racing through his body as the creature burrowed deeper.

Many thoughts and memories flashed before the young recruit's eyes. Memories of past events, questions never answered, but one question remained. If this was it for him..why not end it himself? One last flint of rage, aimed straight at the mercenary? To save his new comrades and friends one more moment. To become a mindless zombie, hoping to strike the mercenary in death. Yet Conrad's mind could not think rationally enough to stand up, overpowered by pain and flooded by memory and emotion.

Conrad's vital signs were dropping after both hyperventilation and the seemingly endless assault of the creature. He believed this would be his end. Never to return as he was. It was then that he noticed someone to be near him. Gravedigger perhaps, coming to finish him off?

After what seemed like eons of pain, something changed. A distant voice seemed to beckon Conrad. Not talking to him directly, but it was someone who shouted. They wished to drag him back. After a moment, Conrad realized it was his cabin buddy. Egil's face flashed before his eyes. Conrad thought he shouted his name, but it was merely a whisper, muffled by the rebreather. After all it had experienced, the rebreather was calling it a day and decreased in functionality.

What seemed like an explosion woke Conrad up from his experience. The pain was not gone, but the creature seemed to have seized function. His mind was hazy and his body in pain, ready to stop. Yet Egil hoisted him up and it was clear he wanted to go on. Somewhere, buried deep inside his mind, Conrad could not give in and be a quitter when his friend was ready to push on. Stubbornly but surely, Conrad moved with him, step by step. It did not feel rejuvenating, more a primal notion, but subconsciously the big guy made a mental step with every step they took together. He would fight to the end. Even for his own life. Before he realized it, Conrad was pushed inside the shuttle.

All went dark as Conrad was unable to move. His breath had slowly returned to normal after the parasitic onslaught, but his body was in a bad shape. Collapsing much akin to a pillar shouldering too much weight, the giant slammed down on the shuttle floor unconscious.

Bors rolled behind a external ventilation shaft just as the explosion erupted from the shuttle. Peering over his shoulder he was reveled when he saw that it was still floating, Least our rides still working for now he thought to himself before turning his attention back to Gravedigger.

Bors watched as Gravedigger set up his shield and wished at that moment that he had at least one grenade so this could quickly be over with. Fortunately for him though, the assassin was preoccupied with Egil's covering fire allowing Bors to move to a position slightly behind Gravedigger. Once in position he opened fire with his NSP in an attempt to gun down the Assassin.

Gravedigger glanced over his shoulder as Bors' shot slammed into his portable forcefield with a blue flash. "Maybe you should have just gone back where you came from!" he shouted to Bors, followed by a laugh. He aimed the bazooka at the shuttle again. "If they were smart they would have left your ass when you slid down here. You're too far to make it back before I shoot you or your ride. Give me one reason why I shouldn't pull the trigger, asshole."

Shuttle

Natsumi's hands flew over her console, inputting commands, compensating for the dead starboard engine. She looked back through the open hatchway between the cockpit and the main cabin in time to see Conrad stumble into the shuttle, followed by Egil and, she thought, Bors backing into the shuttle, laying down cover fire. What she did not know, was that Bors had actually gone and moved to circle around Gravedigger in an attempt to take him out rather than get into the shuttle. There was so much smoke in the air it was hard to tell that not everyone was in the shuttle.

"Okay, lets get out of here!" Natsumi yelped, slapping the button to seal the hatch, she then turned back to the flight controls. "Everyone hang on!" she added and pushed the throttle up to full power. They could not afford to stick around any longer. One more shot from Gravedigger's weapons and they were surely done for.

The shuttle rocketed forward, away from where they had been hovering. As it jetted away, clouds of dust kicked up and masked the shuttle's departure as Natsumi kept it skimming low to the ground as per Sune's earlier order.

With the starboard engine gone, Natsumi had to compensate with the reaction controls to keep them from drifting to the right, making flying the wounded shuttle interesting to say the least.

She ducked the shuttle into a low valley, then swung it around and behind mountain, putting something big and solid between them and Gravedigger's rockets. Natsumi watched the range between their landing way point and them open rapidly. She wanted as much space between them and him in case he had some longer range anti-aircraft weaponry on hand. Gravedigger seemed to be able to pull whatever he needed out of thin air. She wasn't going to give him another chance to lob rockets at the shuttle.

Range grew, miles, then a dozen miles as the shuttle sped to a safe distance. Natsumi let out a long sigh of relief. "Is everyone alright back there?" she asked, not knowing Bors wasn't there.

Shit.. Bors thought as the shuttle flew over his head leaving him alone with the Assassin.

"Well seems they got smart." Bors said from behind the ventilation shaft while reloading his NSP. "So its just you and me Gravedigger, and if you still want a reason for not shooting me I can give you one. You seem to like money as much as the next bounty hunter or else you wouldn't still be after me. What was it 5000 credits? Anyway this isn't the first time I've had a price on my head and I happen to know of one such bounty that's worth at least 30,000 if your interested."

Bors hoped the assassin was biting on his story, it was after all mostly true, but just in case he looked for another piece of cover he could quickly move to.

" Long story short I pissed off a mob group called the Orange Moons a few years back and they want me back on Neplesia alive and i'm sure there willing to pay handsomely for it. Now you pry know a few Nepleslian Mafia groups with the work you do here, so I think you can connect the dots."

The story was mostly true, Bros unfortunately thought to himself, the only thing that wasn't true was the 'alive only part'. "I really need to fake my own death or something to get rid of that" he said to himself before listening to what Gravedigger had to say. If his plan worked he could hopefully get the assassin into hand to hand combat where he at least had a fighting chance, there was no way he was going to out gun this bastard.

Shuttle

"Son of a--" Sienna's broken-off swear caught in her throat as the sudden acceleration nearly knocked her off of her feet again. She steadied heself on the armrest of the seat she was crouched in front of in a viselike grip, trying to keep herself steady as the crippled shuttle bobbed and weaved along the rocky terrain. Not once if she could help it did she take her eyes off of Conrad's hulking form lying in a face-down heap in the aisle, with Egil tending to him. She had seen Sune thrown by the explosion as well, but wasn't sure where he had landed, nor did she particularly care at that moment. He wasn't the one who potentially had one of those slugs inside of him.

She heard Natsumi call back into the passenger compartment with her question. Still not taking her eyes from Conrad's form, she tilted her head just enough to yell back over her shoulder. The effort made the side she'd landed on ache a little. "I'm fine. You got two down," she shouted over the engines and the atmosphere roaring around the shuttle hull. "Dunno where your captain landed, and I think Conrad's got a worm." She shifted her attention to Egil, too preoccupied with the threat the unconscious giant potentially posed to notice that they were missing one of their number. "Egil, is it?" she asked Egil, her voice carrying an unmistakable color of dire urgency. "You know what that thing will turn him into if it got in his mind, don't you?" she asked as she turned her knife to a reverse grip in her palm, staying where she was. "You know we're all dead if that happens and he wakes up." There wasn't any question what she was implying.

Egil lost his aim as the shuttle accelerated and forced him to grab hold of the railing to not fall down. They were still missing Bors, why were they leaving? He quickly checked on the wounded man on the floor, concluded he needed Sune for a check-up and was about to move to the cockpit to inform Natsumi when Sienna interjected.

“Get back.” Egil pulled his gun back up, flicked the fire-mode on stun and focused the sights on her when the conversation took an unpleasant twist. He wasn’t about to let her stab his wounded friend to death. “I know you’re looking out for yourself, but I’m not jumping to conclusions without examination. Why don’t you drop the knife, sit down and enjoy the ride we’ve given you.“ He didn’t want to end up shooting the person responsible for saving his life, but behind the calm assertive voice were a set of eyes filled with resolve. They were not going to lose anyone on his first mission, not Conrad nor Bors or anyone else.

Sienna's expression and eyes displayed no sign of malevolence, but this time she was not intimidated looking down the barrel of a gun. She was very obviously concerned, even afraid of Conrad's unconscious form, and Egil threatening to shoot her didn't seem to be a comparable menace, at least in her view.

"I'm about sick of getting guns pointed at me," she said coolly, rising slowly to her feet, still clutching the knife. "Look, I don't wanna kill him any more than you do. Shit, I even like him. But I'm telling you," she continued, her voice rising in urgency, starting to speak through clenched teeth, "you can't afford to wait. If we wakes up under that thing's influence, you think you and I can take an eight-foot humongasaur by ourselves? Your captain's out cold and Natsumi's gotta be plenty busy tryin' to keep us in the air and away from your pal back in Urtullan. And Bors..." she began, looking around the passenger compartment, now looking even more concerned. Her eyes got even wider as the realization they'd left him sunk in. "...damn iit..."

She gripped the knife tighter, taking a tentative step forward, looking intently at Egil, her jaw tight. "You shoot me, you're alone on this one," she said sharply. "Ain't an easy choice, but that's life. It worth the gamble to you?"

Sune's head cleared as the pain subsided. He felt the surge of the shuttle's movement and then could make out bits of the discussion between Egil and Sienna.

Using his good arm and his natural anti-grav he extricated himself from between the chairs. He looked briefly at the injured arm and noted that it was bleeding again. Damn, need to deal with that, but first things first.

He stood on his own feet and surveyed the passenger compartment. Noted Conrad face down with a wound to the back that he recognized as a parasite attack. Unci he swore mentally.

He looked at Sienna with her knife and Egil with his gun. He opened his helmet and yelled. "Both of you lower your damn weapons now. It is bad enough everyone else has tried to kill us here, without you two doing their job!!"

He then fixed his gave on Egil, "Mashiro-Santô Hei give me a sitrep now!!"

If she hadn’t stepped in they could’ve been on their way back to Bors already, or checked up on Conrad’s vitals at very least, but no, killing someone with a reasonable chance of living was the only sensible things to do wasn’t it… Egil's reaction was only a natural response to getting a team member's life threatened when she pulled out a knife. Besides they could restrain him and he had enough bullets left to deal with one oversized zombie should it come to that. She was right about one thing; there was too much going on to handle on his own. That didn’t change the outcome of the gamble one bit though, as rendering her unconscious would take one item off that already growing list and allow him to get on with the rest.

Egil's grip on the trigger tensed when she stepped closer to him. "Yeah it is, I've got more urgent things to take care off and that's going to be hard enough without you making things more complicated." He was about to pull the trigger when Sune showed up and ordered him to stand down. “Yes sir.” His voice sounded both relieved and a bit defeated as he lowered his weapon.

“This woman wants to end Hightowers-san’s life. He was hit by a parasite around the time Gravedigger took out our starboard engine. I managed to remove it, but I don’t know how he’s doing. The shuttle took off when I got him on board, leaving Bors-Hei behind in the process. We have to circle back and get him!”

He hoped Sune would be able to calm the situation further by examining Conrad so they could deal with their missing team member together.

Sienna's heart was racing so fast she could feel her blood pounding in her face like a jackhammer. Judging from the look on Egil's face, he was fully prepared to shoot her in the face if it meant stopping her. Part of her wondered if it wasn't a preferable fate to being shot down in the poisonous atmosphere, choked to death by a gigantic zombie, or reanimated as a zombie herself if that thing in Conrad decided she'd make a prettier puppet. She was gripping her knife so tightly that she felt like her fingernails were about to cut into her palm.

With the tension in the air so thick it could be cut, Sune's barked orders made her jump so hard that her heart felt like it stopped. She was used to being shouted at, but not with that kind of authority.

She took a step back and lowered her knife almost involuntarily, but didn't release it. While Egil painted the picture of her as a murderer to Sune, she continued to eye Conrad's unconscious body, pondering the consequences of going after him while they were distracted. She noted where each of them was standing. Sune was far enough away that she felt like she'd have a reasonable chance of doing the job before he could react and stop her, but Egil was still crouched right next to him. Gravedigger had gotten the drop on him in the alley, but she wasn't sure she could get past him without the element of surprise. Even if she did manage to put Conrad out of his misery, there wasn't much stopping them from shooting her dead immediately afterward. They might have posthumously thanked her for stopping the threat, but she wasn't feeling that charitable. Particularly not after the fourth time she'd been threatened with a gunshot.

Then Egil's mention that he had removed the parasite caught her attention, and her eyes went instantly to him. If that was true, she'd just made a gigantic ass of herself.

She didn't have time to verify it before he said something about going back for Bors, and she instantly became defensive again. They'd barely scraped out of there in one piece. Going back was insane. She dared not say so, however, because Sune looked like he meant business, and she knew better than to argue further.

Shuttle

Sune took a moment to process what he heard, he could understand the young lady's fears. But prompt action could solve the situation without resorting to 'lethal' measures. "I will check Conrad, and treat him as necessary.

Ms Sienna, I understand your concern, but we do not kill our people without due cause. Kindly either take a seat and strap in, or work with Egil to come up with a way for us to grab our person quickly.

Egil check the survival kits, and pull out the cord, we may have to retrieve Bors with a fly by. See if you can rig some thing that he can grab as we pass. Perhaps the backpack could be used, so that he can put his arm through the straps. We also will need something to distract Gravedigger long enough for us to evac."

He turned back grabbed the medical kit with his good arm and made his way to Conrad. He sat on the floor pulled out a scalpel and cut open the sleeve on his AMES. He then grabbed the liquid bandage and applied it to to the wound to keep himself from bleeding out.

Sune then picked up the PMS-1 and hit Conrad with the hypospray, and then started examining the wound. He had a laser scalpel handy if he need it.

City Dome

"If put down your weapons and kick them down the side of this dome, I'll let you live. I'll even avoid stunning you if you don't act up. You're going to surrender and I'm going to take you to this noble guy that will sort this shit out. Your friends left you for dead so your best shot is to make amends once I get my money," Gravedigger ordered/explained to Riko, his hand over button of the shield controller.

Shuttle

"What do you mean he's not on the shuttle?!" Natsumi said as soon as she hears Evil. Her blood turned to ice as she realized she had left her roomie behind. How could she have not seen he wasn't aboard?

A sick feeling built up in the pit of her stomach. There was a good possibility Bors was already dead. "We're going back! We can't leave him behind" she said and swung the shuttle around.

She hoped deep down he was alright and maybe, just maybe had managed to defeat Gravedigger.

City Dome

"I don't exactly trust you armed either, deactivate your shield and shoulder your weapons." Bors said ejecting his battery from his NSP, "To show I'm serious here's my magazine."

Sliding his magazine toward Gravedigger hoping he would take the bait.

City Dome

"Hey, fuck you!" Gravedigger said. "You're not in charge here, I am. You better start complying if you want to live," he warned Bors, swapping his giant bazooka for his assault rifle. He took aim at Bors with it. "Drop your weapon and raise both hands above your head, now! And don't talk again or I'll blow your brains out." Gravedigger lowered the forcefield so that he could open fire at Bors if the Star Army soldier made any suspicious movement. Apparently it blocked shots both ways.

City Dome

Bors was about to make a snarky remark but was swayed other wise by the assault rifle pointed at him, he had already been shot by it once today and didn't really want to be shot by it again anytime soon.

Sliding his Pistol over to grave digger he did what he was told and put his hands up over his head.

Shuttle

At Sune’s order Egil moved to the supply cache in the cockpit. Hopefully they had enough stuff to fix up a solid enough rope and harness for this daring flyby pickup. He’d have preferred a guns blazing stop-and-go himself, but this was probably a lot safer for the shuttle. They still needed it in one piece to get out of here.

As he entered the cockpit he nodded towards Natsumi. He’d thought about asking her why she took off prematurely, but dropped the question thinking she’d never do something like that intentionally. She looked at least as worried as he did.

“Need to fetch some supplies. We’re doing a flyby rescue.” he spoke up while moving over to the panel labeled with the word supplies. Several large cases were revealed once he removed it along with some medical kits and some more essentials. He opened one of the cases, pulled out two sets of 20m rolled up high-strength cord and began rummaging through the other contents. Sleeping bags, poncho’s and even body bags, but nothing that struck him as a solid enough to hold onto. In the end he only grabbed tape dispenser and a medkit along with the cord, thinking it might come in handy with Conrad’s treatment, before leaving the cockpit area again.

“Got a medkit here sir.” He spoke to Sune, dropping the medkit on the floor near Conrad. “How’s he doing?” He put the rest of the stuff near the side entrance and began to ponder on how to proceed, remembering he was quite terrible with knots and makeshift crafting.