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RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 19.2B] Clues (HX-12 II Crashed Ship)

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Hanako's voice came on again with some static from the sandstorm. "Away team two, this is Eucharis. How soon will you be done? Currently we are making sure the enemy base is destroyed and we are gathering infantry forces for a mop-up operation. Also, have you found anything identification for the ship or any recoverable data?"
 
Natsumi frowned as they pushed into the ruined engineering compartment and began to explore. The place was utterly trashed. She had no idea what of value they were going to find unless someone wanted a heap of moldy scrap metal.

She looked around the room with the others. She hoped they did not find any more bodies, or anything mean and nasty.

"I wonder if there is any power left in the reserve batteries, or if the computer functions?" she asked. Some information as to what happened would be nice. As she spoke, Natsumi stepped over to a dark computer terminal and prodded at one of the keys to see if there was any life.
 
Derelict Ship - Engineering

The particular computer that Natsumi examined seemed to be destroyed by the fire, as was a lot of the electronic equipment in the room. A small pile of fire extinguishers lay on the floor near the dead guy. From here on up towards the fore of the ship it seemed to be all machinery, which included some forward phasing laser cannons, sensors, and storage tanks. Sand was leaking in from another hole near the ship's nose, covering much of that compartment. It looked like they'd explored all of this deck.
 
Sienna inched up behind Natsumi, watching her fruitlessly try to revive the dead electronics. After a moment or two of no results, she surveyed the rest of the room, running a gloved hand lightly across the bulkheads as she slowly walked, looking at anything that seemed like some sort of clue as to the ship's origins, mission, or former crew.

The ship's hull groaned around them in the relentless, pounding winds of the storm outside, and she crouched a bit, looking warily up toward the "ceiling" above her, almost expecting to see it give way any second. Hanako's voice cracked over the radio. Much as it sounded like the captain was in a hurry to get their mission over and done with,not to mention how she herself was starting to wish they were back on the ship as well, that storm outside meant they were stuck where they were for a good while.

She finished her lap around the room, watching the sand pour in from the punctured hull, trying to keep her mind off of the fact that they were sharing a room with a cadaver still. "Guess there ain't much to see on this deck," she mused. "This place is cooked and dead."
 
Natsumi frowned and chewed on her lower lip as the computer did not respond. Not that she had expected much anyways. It would have been nice though, if they had been able to retrieve some kind of information from the ships computer.

"Well" she said, "do you think there is a black box or flight recorder we could pull and hook up to our computer back on the Eucharis?" she asked Takeyu.
 
Takeyu llistened to the message from Hanako, then waited a moment before replying. "Away team here, we had a brief problem with the storm before getting into the ship. We are currently searching the ship and will report back if we find anything of importance."

The Taii stared at the weapons and mused for a moment. "Tag some of the machinary here, we might be able to recover it later." He then turned toward Natsumi and nodded. "I would expect it to have one, but trying to locate it would the issue. Let's see if we can try and locate the ships computer core," he gestured toward the rooms exit and started to make his way out.
 
Natsumi nodded and started towards the exit hatch. Maybe the flight recorder would be with the computer system. Then she thought of something.

"Hey, the last time Eucharis was here did they ID the type of ship this is? If they did we could pull the internal plans from the database. Probably make it a lot easier to find our way around this wreck"
 
Derelict Ship

"Thank you, Eucharis out," Hanako responded.

Outside the engineering compartment where the team had entered, the was the ladder that led to the upper deck of the ship, which, with the ship on its back, meant going deeper underground. Going by the rust and decay, the ship had been abandoned for quite some time. From the floor below came more sounds: metallic groans, shifting sand, and dripping water.
 
"That's probably a good idea," Sienna agreed halfheartedly with Natsumi, "but if the rest of the decks didn't burn up like this one did, I'd be shocked if they didn't pancake in on themselves when it hit this rock. Or if more of that slime-mold ain't already filled it up. Dunno if we're gonna find anything worth the trip."

She eyed the deteriorated, rusting, forgotten hulk around them, groaning tiredly as it was buffeted again and again by the storm. As they approached the deck ladder, she slowed her pace, listening as the sounds from the upper decks below them echoed hauntingly up through the metal grates and ceilings. She really had a bad feeling about what might be down there, but she assured herself that it was just her imagination getting the best of her.
 
"Yeah" Natsumi replied and looked through the opening to the next deck. She sighed and redirected one of her drones to go down and take a look around, waiting a moment for it to get to them and zip down into the hole.

"I'm going down" she announced and decided to use her gravity manipulation rather than subject the rusted out ladder to the extra heavy wight of her MINDY.

Natsumi cautiously made her way down to the next deck, making sure to double check the sensor data from her drone as she went so she knew what to expect there.
 
Sienna knelt next to the opening where the ladder descended into the upper decks of the inverted ship, watching Natsumi float down into the darkness. She moved her head slightly from side to side, trying to see if she could get her headlamp to illuminate anything of interest, or of any possible threat to them.

She looked up expectantly at Takeyu, trying to see what he was thinking.
 
The lower deck had been partially buried. As the descended into it, they found themselves in a swamp of fungus and putrid-looking liquids on a base of sand that partially filled each room. As the explored the immediate area, they found crew living spaces and a passage that promisingly was labeled "to bridge" that led downward toward the vessel's nose.

As Natsumi descended, she bumped into something in the muck that felt like a hand.
 
Takeyu followed closely, not having said a word and instead just kept his ears open. He could hear the sand storm outside and had to wonder at what point this ship could be entirely buried - hopefully - without them being inside.

He watched one of his drones as they zipped about the ship. Come on little one, find something of interest...
 
Ramiro continued to follow the group, keeping a sizeable distance behind them and spending most of his time walking backwards, weapon held tightly into his shoulder, eyes scanning every nook and cranny for the slightest sign of movement.
 
Natsumi trudged through the slime and sludge that filed the lower compartment. Again, stuck wading through muck. How did they end up wading in stuff like this?

She frowned and then almost jumped as she felt the hand like shape. "Ayahh so gross!" she said squeamishly and took a step back. She really really hoped that wasn't a hand and wasn't attached to something that was about to jump out of the sludge at her! She aimed her rifle at where she figured the arm and its body was and waited a moment to make sure.
 
Sienna followed Takeyu, descending the ladder as carefully as she could, going much slower than she otherwise would. Each rung creaked under her increased weight, and with each step she held her breath, half expecting the ladder to give way beneath her. There was no telling how much more painful a landing would be in this gravity.

When she reached the bottom, it felt as if she had stepped into thin mud. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she faintly heard the sucking, slopping sound her boot made as it sank into the muck. "Ugh," she groaned. "What the hell is this?" Sloshing forward, staying close to the other two while Ramiro brought up the rear. She swung her head around, letting the beam of her headlamp illuminate the buried-flooded deck, further disturbed by the putrid decay all around them. She'd seen some unpleasant, revolting things, but this was on an entirely different level. The deck above was eerie, but this one felt utterly alien and unwelcoming. She found herself wondering how she'd wound up knee-deep in this foul concoction.

Natsumi's yelp startled her, causing her to jump violently as she whipped her head back to her to see what happened, instintively crouching and ready to dodge or flee. The power-armor-clad Neko was pointing her weapon at something she'd seen in the muck. Turning her light on where the barrel of the rifle was pointing, she searched for what had caught Natsumi off guard, her eyes wide with alarm and every muscle in her body tensed and coiled. For a moment she couldn't see anything other than the slowly rippling, iridescent surface of the muck.
 
Whatever Natsumi felt, it stayed where Sienna couldn't see it, still submerged in the muck, which was particularly thick due to the high gravity. Someone would have to touch it and haul it up if they wanted a look. Every step they took left a hole in the sand underneath and standing in one place meant sinking into the wet sand at the bottom and possibly into the broken ceiling lights. As Sienna shone her light around, she could see the very dark teal fungus covering most of the walls, obscuring most of the ship behind them. In certain places their were sheets of wispy, moist strands that went across the way like cobwebs, impeding the movement of the power armors' drones.

Ramiro didn't see any sign of movement that the team hadn't caused.
 
And Natsumi had absolutely no desire to reach in and pull out whatever that hand like shape was attached to. After she was satisfied it wasn't going to jump out and pounce on her, Natsumi moved on, pressing forward towards the bridge.

She checked on the feed from her drones and frowned as they were getting impeded by the fungus. She hoped they did not get lodged and immobilized. Loosing their sensor feed would be frustrating.

She brushed as many of the wet strands out of her way as she could, clearing up as much of the path ahead as she could.
 
Sienna's eyes widened further as she found herself now over knee-deep in the sludge and sinking slowly as she stood there, coiled to react to whatever had spooked Natsumi. Her breath quickened as she wriggled back and forth, trying to regain her footing and keep from being swallowed up. Fighting against the exhausting pull of the planet's gravity and the resistance of the muck, she was able to free herself, but now realized she had to keep moving.

Once Natsumi seemed to convince herself that whatever she'd felt wasn't a threat, the Neko moved on, ignoring it. Sienna could hardly blame her, but it did little her ease her mind. Natsumi was a soldier--a white-haired, oddly cutsie-poo looking one, but a soldier nonetheless--and if something startled her, Sienna couldn't imagine that it was something to discount so quickly.

She followed her closely, but maintaining enough distance to allow for some movement and evasive action if needed. The increasingly alien environment was starting to get to her; adrenaline was surging through her system and her senses were heightened to the point of near hysteria. She knew that there was no going outside in this storm, but she was rapidly losing her nerve to descend further into this forboding hive of repulsive rot.

She finally noticed the "To Bridge" sign. She hoped that whatever they found there satisfied the Yamataians' curiosity so they could at least get back to the deck above them out of the slimy goo.
 
A hand... wonder what its attached to.. pondered Takeyu although that answer didn't come as Natsumi had apparently chosen not to indulge in any curiousity. Well, perhaps its for the better, last thing we need is for that hand to be attached to the body of a zombie, the Taii grinned within his helmet.

"Pull the drones back, they are encountering some problems.." he said to the team, noticing the strange webbing that left him more curious than spooked. A creature maybe? the Taii was rubbing his chin, he reallly wanted to check that out.

"Move carefully through the sludge..." he muttered although not really to anyone around him and mostly to himself, he was really just reminding himsel to take things one step at a time and not try to rush it, even though his more freelancer part of him 'really' wanted to go to town here.
 
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