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

Sienna could barely believe what she was hearing, but when the crippled shuttle suddenly banked, she knew that at the very least, Natsumi was deadly serious about going back. She grabbed the back of one of the passenger seats to steady herself, squeezing to one side as Egil shoved past her. Neither of the choices Sune offered sounded reasonable to her, but she was certainly not going to be talked into simply sitting down and waiting. She stood there in silence for a few moments, hoping against hope that someone would come to their senses and realize just how crazy it sounded to tempt death yet again after they'd barely scraped out of there with everyone's lives and limbs intact.

She wanted to protest, even demand that they continue to flee. Her freedom was so close, she had no delusions of dying in some heroic fantasy. But the words were simply caught in her throat. She was outnumbered and in a small space, and these were trained soldiers. Even if by some miracle she did manage to overpower them and escape in the shuttle, presuming she was able to figure out the controls before they crashed, where would she go? She had no experience in interstellar navigation, and if she simply sent out an emergency broadcast, whoever picked her up in this system would likely not be friendly. Who was to say she wouldn't end up sold back to Olaf, or kept as a slave someplace else?

Gritting her teeth in frustration, she swore under her breath as she slid her knife back into her boot. She looked over her shoulder to see Egil coming back out of the cockpit, carrying two coils of high tensile cord and a medkit. After watching him stare helplessly at the rope for a few seconds, she groaned and moved to assist him, obviously not looking pleased, but with no other rational options available to her.

"Gimme those," she said quickly, not waiting for his answer before snatching the coils off his arm. She slipped her arms out of the straps on her backpack and opened the zipper. Carelessly she turned it upside down and dumped the contents of the pack out in a pile on the row of seats next to her, then repeated the process with all of the side pockets. Clothing, undergarments, toiletries, and one or two tools fell in a disorganized heap, one or two effects falling from the seat onto the cabin floor. She yanked off her outer jacket, leaving her in a snug fitting tank top, and wadded it up, stuffing it inside the backpack to give it some of its weight back. If she lost her pack in this harebrained stunt, at least she'd still have a few clothes to get by with.

She threaded one cord through each of the pack's straps, securing them with a tight bowline, and turned the pack upside-down so that the narrow parts of the straps were facing upwards, and the broader, more comfortable halves would bear Bors's weight under his arms without cutting into him. Warily watching Conrad, she moved to the back row of seats and sat behind them on her backside, off to the starboard side. Looping one of the cables around one of the struts that anchored the seat to the floor, she tied off the other end of one of the cables with a slipknot, then braced her foot against the seatback and pulled as hard as she could with both hands, straining to tighten it as much as possible. She then moved to the port side and secured the other cable. As she was tightening the other side, she looked up at Egil. "Come check the other one and get it as tight as ya can," she shouted over the noise.

City Dome

Without taking his eyes or aim off Bors, Gravedigger took the NSP and the magazine and reunited the two, aimed the NSP at him, and then shouldered his rifle. "Keeping your hands above your head, move to the airlock hatch over there and get inside," he ordered.

While Sune checked Conrad for any trace of parasite infestation he sent a message to the Eucharis.

Away Team to Eucharis
Shuttle damaged by hostile fire. Shuttle is operational but at diminished capacity. Hightower-Hei has been attacked by a parasite. Struck him in the back. Parasite was killed by Egil, verifying he is free of contamination.

We are missing one member of the away team. Status unkonwn, Riko-Hei was left behind when the shuttle lifted after it was attacked. We are contemplating an attempt to evacuate him, but it might be better if Eucharis could have two Mindy Clad personnel teleport to the landing site to rescue him from the attacker. Please advise.

Click to expand...

With the message sent, he set about applying a local anesthetic to the parasite wound.

Shuttle

"Whatever you guys are going to do back there, be quick, we will be back to the landing area soon!" Natsumi said as she piloted the shuttle back to where they had left Bors behind.

She pulled up the forward sensors, scanning ahead. She quickly picked up two life signs, which meant Bors was still alive, at least for the moment! Natsumi's stomach twisted, she knew he was there with Gravedigger. The sensors told her they were about ten to twenty meters apart, moving slowly back to one of the airlocks. It looked like Bors had been taken prisoner. That had to be the only explanation for it. She knew if Bors had won the fight he wouldn't have been leading Gravedigger back to the city, let alone have left the bounty hunter alive.

The angle they were approaching had them coming in from behind Gravedigger. They were still pretty far out, but the range was closing fast.

An idea sprung into her mind and a devilish grin touched her lips.


The terrain all around was flat desert, the surface village was on the far side of the city dome with the landing pads. This side was clear. There was enough space between them and just enough time before they would be able to hear the sound from the approaching shuttles engines.

Without a word, Natsumi gunned the engines to full power, giving them a burst of speed, then cut out the forward propulsion, setting the shuttle to coast at high speed. Then, carefully as she could, she dropped their altitude until they were barely skimming the surface at 4 or 5 feet, using the anti-grav to keep the shuttle from scraping the ground. She gripped the flight controls, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of her face as she concentrated on the complex flying she now had to do to save her friend.

Natsumi was going to clothesline Gravedigger with the shuttle's hull then skid the shuttle around to avoid hitting Bors and land close. There was just enough space.

"Bors, drop!!"

Click to expand...

Natsumi yelled over the comm as the shuttle came silently charging in behind Gravedigger.

Egil watched intensely as Sienna worked her magic on the improvised air-lift rescue kit. Being somewhat impressed at her quick inventive thinking it was probably a good thing Sune stepped in earlier. It might've been nice to have the time to braid the lines together and there was some doubt in his mind about her backpack being strong enough to survive the rescue, but other than that he was sure they could get Bors out of there in one piece. Too bad there wasn't much time for field testing. He grabbed the other cord when asked, checked the seating it was attached to and yanked it a few times with as much strength as he could muster until it didn't look like it could get any tighter. The actual getting a person up would have to come from them without any kind of hoist or pulley, so the enhanced strength of his species would come in handy.

“That should do the trick. Let’s get ready.” He picked up the bag and moved over to the back door controls, keeping the cords tightly stretched between him and their anchor so the initial shock would be dampened. The gloves on his suit would protect his hands from rope burn. The dome was already back in sight and closing rapidly when Natsumi called out to them. “We've got about 15 meters left. Ready when you are!”

He hadn't even finished his sentence when the shuttle dropped to a dangerously low altitude, making him pray their pilot knew what she was doing. He tightly gripped and held up the backpack, looked back towards Sienna and spoke up, ready to open back of the shuttle. “You ready?”

"Does it matter!?" Sienna replied sharply, her voice charged with adrenaline and tension bordering on terror. She took a hold of the other cable and secured her footing, nodding to him to open door and drop the pack outside. Goosebumps washed over her as she realized that in the commotion, she'd forgotten to put on her gloves, but it was too late now. Her hands were calloused and rough enough to be able to handle it, but if the wire rope were to slip or drag, it was going to be unpleasant. Hopefully the cable was high enough quality not to splinter, or she wouldn't be doing much with her hands for a few days. If they survived.

Stealing a glance at Sune tending to Conrad, she strongly hoped they knew what they were doing. If that giant woke up with a worm in his brain...

Suddenly she felt a fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach, a tickle that radiated out to her extremities. She looked up, seeing the look on Egil's face as they both realized they had suddenly dropped in altitude. Her eyes widened less than a second after his did - this wasn't what they expected. Looking back over her shoulder, she caught a glimpse out of the front viewport of Gravedigger's form, silhouetted against the city dome, rapidly getting larger as Natsumi ratcheted up the speed. The assassin didn't appear to be aware of their approach.

She didn't have to think very hard about what Natsumi had in mind.

At the same time as she gripped the cable even tighter and dug in her heels to brace herself, she only had time to say "Ohhh shhh--"

City Dome


Bors started to back away slowly toward the Airlock entrance,keeping his eyes on the quickly approaching shuttle. He had to time his move exactly right or else face the same fate as Gravedigger of being smacked by the shuttle. The seconds it took for the shuttle to reach the point Bors was waiting for seemed to take forever and he could tell Gravedigger was getting impatient with him. At the last moment he could Bors dove behind a pile of trash hoping to avoid being splattered by the shuttle.

Surface

There was a horrible scraping noise as the damaged shuttle bumped along the rocky surface, throwing up trash, sand, and rocks as it touched briefly, tossing everyone inside towards the nose of the shuttle. As it approached Gravedigger, he was able to duck in time and in fact the shuttle bounced above him to the point where it wouldn't have hit him anyway. Immediately the merc fired a spray of NSP fire, emptying the battery in seconds with the rapid heavy-mode feature, but the shuttle was moving as such speed and bouncing that the best hit he made was the edge of the rear door. A warning light illuminated on the rear door's control panel as the air-containment forcefield flickered out due to the damage. Gravedigger tossed the NSP aside and got out his bazooka, readying himself to take on the shuttle when it came around for another pass. Off to one side was the smoke trail from the damaged engine.

surface

Bors cursed to himself as he watched the shuttle harmlessly bounce over Gravedigger, and quickly pushed himself to his feet. As the merc emptied his NSP's magazine at the shuttle Bors made a dash at him to try and tackle him so he couldn't get another clear shot at the shuttle with his rocket launcher, and also if he could try and break the seal on their attackers mask.

Surface

Bors slammed into Gravedigger, knocking the assassin backward. Hitting the man felt like running into an oil drum full of sand. The missile launcher fell to the ground and Gravedigger couldn't get his assault rifle off his back since he was laying on it. Gravedigger's full helmet protected his face against any blows and stayed on just fine. As Bors scuffled with him, Gravedigger pulled the garrote wire from his wristwatch and across the back of Riko's neck and was trying to wrap it the rest of the way around. "Fuckin' asshole!" the Nepleslian fighter grunted at the Star Army soldier.

Shuttle

As the shuttle skipped along the ground like a rock, Sienna lost her footing and narrowly avoided smacking the side of her head on one of the seats' armrests, barely catching herself as she crashed down onto the floor face-first. She grunted through gritted teeth, grabbing on tight to the seat inches to her left and holding on for dear life as the craft bounced and rocked several more times before ricocheting suddenly back up into the air.

She felt another impact ripple through the hull, vibrating the decking, and an alarm sounded. Still clinging to the chair leg, she managed to turn her head enough to see sparks flying and warning lights flashing from the open bay door, a gale-force wind screaming across the opening as the damaged shuttle blasted along in barely-controlled flight.

Her eyes suddenly felt like they were full of hot sand, and a flood of tears blurred her vision. Even before her next breath sent her into a searing coughing fit, the next horrifying realization set in: the air containment field had failed, and she was without a mask.

She wheezed and coughed frantically, letting go of the chair leg with one hand and clutching desperately at her throat. Her lungs were on fire. Her survival instinct kept her gasping for breath, and her reactions kept expelling the poisonous air in violent gags and coughs.

Against the bucking and rattling of the wild ride, she clawed at the flooring, dragging herself along the aisle to the front row where she remembered losing the mask. She probably only had seconds, a couple of minutes at the most. Forcing herself to hold her breath, she blinked hard, futily trying to clear her vision long enough to see where she was going, but already she was getting woozy from the effort and a lack of air.

Shuttle

She missed. That pissed Natsumi off. She landed the shuttle as fast and close as she could and launched herself out of the pilots seat and into the main cabin. Immediately she saw the hell in there, klaxons shrieking as the toxic atmosphere flooded the small craft. She caught site of Sienna on the deck without her mask but could not see where the device had tumbled off to.

"Damnit, no time!" she yelped and rocketed out the open hatch using her gravity manipulation. As she exited she slapped the hatch control, sealing it so the clean atmosphere could be restored for those inside. "Egil! Get out here as soon as you can!"

Natsumi spotted Bors and Gravedigger right away. Bors had tackled the bounty hunter and was struggling to subdue him. At the same time, Gravedigger was trying to get his garrot wire around Bors neck to strangle him. He was distracted, his attention focused on trying to kill Bors.

She charged at them, her NSP drawn, clutched tightly in both hands as she landed next to them on her knees, digging the muzzle of her pistol against Gravedigger's head. She was already pulling the trigger when her gun made contact with his helmet. She kept the trigger squeezed down, emptying her entire power cell into Gravediggers head.

Surface

Bors flopped off the now limp body of Gravedigger, dusting some of the dirt off of his suit as well as some of the blood splatter from Natsumi's point blank shooting.

"You didn't have to crash the shuttle ya know." Bors said calmly as he rolled the would be assassin over to get his assault rifle, "But thanks for coming back to get me."

Getting himself to his feet Bors picked up the assassins rifle and fired several rounds into Gravediggers corpse before shouldering the rifle,

"Thats for earlier." He said before retrieving and holstering his NSP and heading off towards the shuttle.

Sune had been cleaning any traces of the parasite out of Conrad's injury when the shuttle impacted the ground and sprawled him on top of his patient. He did not even have time to think about had happened as white stabbing pain from his left arm drove him to the edge of blacking out.

The pain reduced enough that he could lift himself off Conrad and start coughing from the contaminated area. He closed his suit helmet, and reached into the medical kit. He pulled out the tank of oxygen, and the bag valve mask and put it on Conrad's face.

With the wound as cleared of debris and no sign of infestation, Sune started applying a liberal amount of Hemosynth fluid to the entire injury. Once done with that he covered the injury with liquid bandage. It was only then that he took time to survey the situation. The rear door was closed and the shuttle was not flying at the moment.

He saw Sienna present, but wondered where Natsumi was.

Surface

"Any time..." Natsumi breathed a long sigh, letting out the breath she had been holding.

She stared at Gravediggers unmoving form. She was breathing hard, her hands trembled as she slowly put her spent pistol back into its holster and slowly forced herself back to her feet. Her knees hurt bad. She had landed on them hard when she had charged in to help Bors and that had done a number.

Using her gravity manipulation, Natsumi floated back to the shuttle. It looked like hell. The attempt to run down Gravedigger had not been good for it's health. She glanced back at Gravedigger, expecting him to suddenly spring up and come after them. He had defied logic and reason in his ability to out maneuver them repeatedly already and she wouldn't be surprised if he could cheat death and come tearing after them.

She quickened her pace, getting to the shuttle. "Everyone without a mask hold your breath, Bors and I are coming back in" Natsumi said, then pressed the button to open the hatch. She moved aside so Bors could board the shuttle first.

Shuttle

Sienna was practically blind from the tears flooding her eyes and the narrowing tunnel vision. In a panic, she dragged herself ahead, searching the floor with her hands for her lost mask in a frenzy. Her clarity of thought had given way to pure, primal terror and survival instinct. She clawed at everything she could reach, but found only flooring, seats, and her scattered clothing from the backpack.

After what seemed like a hellish eternity of searching, her burning lungs and weakening muscles could take no more. She slumped over, still prone, and involuntarily gasped for air, expecting the next lungful of corrosive air to kill her, or at least knock her out to spare her from a slow and agonizing death.

Surprisingly, the breath didn't burn as much as before. As much as the diminishing rational part of her mind wanted to be cautious, her body simply would not have it and began sucking down as much air as it possibly could without her consent. It still stung her chest and throat to breathe, but she found it much easier with each breath.

Still curled up on the floor, clutching her abdomen, she opened her eyes, blinking away the tears as another coughing fit wracked her. She had never felt such relief in her life. Even though she knew it had to have only been a minute or two, it felt like she was been suffocating for hours.

She managed to pull herself up to her hands and knees, still coughing and sputtering and bleary-eyed. She looked through hazy vision around her environs. The first thing she noticed was that the rear door was now closed. Someone must have shut it, and the shuttle's air filtration must have kicked in, expunging the toxic vapors back to the outside. The next thing she noticed was that they were no longer moving. And Natsumi was not in the pilot's seat. She couldn't see Egil, Sune, or Conrad from where she was.

Natsumi's voice came from the rear of the shuttle, declaring that they were coming in. At first she was bewildered. Coming in where? Were they actually outside? How had she spoken through the door?

She heard the seal on the rear hatch crack open, and her eyes went wide as she tried to cry out for them to wait, but all that came out was another painful fit of coughing. As she saw the bright line form and start to expand as the door slid open, she took in another breath of clean air, buried her face in the crook of her elbow, and wrenched her eyes shut.

Sune saw Sienna and realized that the resourceful woman had apparently lost her breather. With Natsumi's announcement he realized that Sienna's life was in jeopardy.

"Natsumi, hold one need to get Sienna into the cockpit." he sent telepathically.

He used his anti-grav to get off the floor, and move over to her. "Hold your breath." he called out. Then reaching down with his good arm he grabbed Sienna by the back of her clothes and lifted her up. It was not the most graceful of ways to move her, but with only one good arm, it would have to do. He then took to the two of them into the cockpit and deposited her into one of the seats.

Rotating he closed and sealed the isolation door. Once it slid shut he hit the environmental control console to flush the compartment. When his suit showed that the compartment was clear he opened his helmet. "It is safe to breath down, though I suggest to take a few deep breaths to help flush your lungs, then breath normally.

"Clear to proceed, Natsumi. I have Sienna in the cockpit. I presume you have Bors, what is his status?" he sent

Sune's message got to Natsumi just before she hit the button to open the hatch. She held off, she didn't want to cause their new friend any further pain, it sounded like she had not recovered her mask. Once she got the OK. Natsumi opened the hatch allowing Bors and herself to board.

Before floating into the shuttle she looked back once more at Gravedigger, still expecting him to get up and come after her. She boarded the shuttle and sealed the hatch once everyone was aboard, then moved forward to the cockpit and opened the isolation door. With the outer hatch sealed the atmosphere was all safe inside.

"Bors is safe" She replied to Sune's question as she dropped herself into the pilot's seat and pulled her AMES helmet off and set it aside.

"Sienna, are you okay?" She asked and started preparing the shuttle to take off again and take them home.

The anti-grav systems had gotten scraped up during the landing and the shuttle was wobbly feeling when it finally lifted up but the computer was able to compensate automatically. It would be a slow, turbulent ride back to the ship.

Sienna slumped back into her seat, her shirt twisted and uneven from where Sune had used it as a harness and handhold. She was sweating at this point, and her hair stuck to her forehead, partially covering her eyes and nose. She couldn't reply for a moment, clutching her chest and wheezing for the fresh air between continuing fits of coughing. Her vision was starting to clear a little, but she only opened them for fleeting seconds at a time, trying to blink away the stinging haze.

"Fine," she managed to rasp, then lapsed into coughing again for another moment as Natsumi started prepping the crippled shuttle for their ride out. When she finally regained control of her diaphragm she continued. "I don't think y'all have a future in travel services, though," she said hoarsely, still grimacing in pain despite her sarcastic joke.