RP: YSS Ryūjō Mission 2 - Ambush at Home

Deck 4

Woosh! From the corridor behind her, Tomiko heard more shots and wordless yelling, an odd 'scrunch' noise, and at last the doors slamming shut, followed by a muffled explosion, accompanied by one-liner from the phod. "I tried to let 'em down easy! What a drama queen." The last she heard from the squad leader before rounding the corner was "It could still work, but I don't think that one's 'step two', Fridge."

Tomiko flew into the medical bay at high speed, and it was to her good fortune that she'd arrived just after the others had left, but before any more anxious pilots or infantry had decided to leave without being cleared. Less than half of the other staff were still present, and most of the beds were still full. They converged on Tomiko almost immediately to check Lucas Zion's status. Tomiko already knew what to do well ahead of time.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

“Gotcha,” Fyodor said, moving his hand to his holster. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have a chance to pull his pistol again, which he realized just in time to make his choice.

Today is such complete and utter garbage, the Kodian thought in his last moments, as he dropped his 600 kg bulk onto the Neko. If I’m not a good enough shield, then nothing would have worked.

Shuttle Bay #5

Errowyn's NSP didn't seem to be working, and even after fishing out a replacement power cell from her Kawarime, it was still reporting a malfunction. She had to get it checked out at the armoury, and likely the same went for the others who'd been caught in the blast.

The technician, meanwhile, gingerly glued the intruder to the bay floor hand and foot, with a brief interrupt from the infantry Neko to ask what he was doing. It seemed they received orders to let him proceed, though they stood a few paces further back, which had the effect of making him a bit nervous and hasty to finish.

The captive began to stir, sluggishly, but seemed to pass out again as soon as its last free limb was bound, without any need for Sandr to put her foot down on them. Literally.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

The wounded Neko managed a strained 'Oof!' that ended with her exhaling more than anyone probably ever should outside of being thrown into hard vacuum, but at least Fyodor didn't hear the sounds of bones breaking. It was probably fortunate he hadn't tried this on any a member of any other species aboard the ship, with one or two exceptions.

Fyodor was hit by a spray of fire from the intruder during his fall, but aside from feeling terribly unpleasant--a sensation resembling that experienced while recovering from one's foot being asleep and slamming one's toe into something at the same time--it didn't seem to have much effect, as the bolts couldn't disable him entirely. They did make it awkward to stand up again, though Fyodor could afford to save that for a later moment. After another second or two of extreme cacophony, there was another explosion, this one with the pressure wave and wash of radiated heat Fyodor had come to expect from such things.

There was an unusual silence after the burst, as the simulation bay it had come from had now also gone dark, ending the mock invasion of Yamatai that had been ongoing within it. The smell of burning metal was becoming quite distinctive, though the sound of it was indecipherable over the ringing in Fyodor's ears.

Looking back the other way, Fyodor saw the Azorean seated, because her foot was trapped under the flesh of his shoulder. She made an excited fist-pumping gesture, and gave him what he had to assume was the Azorean equivalent of a smile in the half-lit conditions. A moment later, she signed to him, "One down!" How many were there to go?

Hanger 5

Once the Intruder was secured, "Make sure that intruder stays put. I'll return shortly." Errowyn spoke as to the Techs "I'm heading to get a replacement weapon."

Errowyn scowled and took off for the Armory to get a replacement weapon. She pulled the power cell from it and secure it. This was going to be interesting as she sent text message up the chain of command that one of the intruders was still alive and glued to the hanger deck to await transport to the brig and SAINT interrogation.

Simulation Bay, Lower Level

Well, looks like we lived, Fyodor thought, shaking himself in a vain attempt to get rid of the numb feeling on his back. “Sorry about falling on both of you,” he said, sitting up to free the Neko and the Azorean, “Glad we got one though.” But how many are there still on the ship? Sounded like there were at least a few more intruders around. Wait…aren’t there two levels of simulators? Uggh, I hate my life.

“I’m going to go check the bay below us,” the Kodian said, slowly getting to his feet and stuffing grenades in his pockets, “If anyone wants to come, they’re welcome to. Someone needs to take care of the wounded as well.”

Medical Center

The terrified medic wished she could just hand Zion off to someone else. She couldn't just abandon him now and hide in a corner, though. With a wave of her hand, she dismissed the people rushing towards her and pushed her way past. Tomiko walked quickly to a free hemosynthetic reconstruction tube. She opened it and placed him inside, then closed it.

A tear falling from her eye, she watched the tube fill up. These things always amazed her. She had read about the medical practices of primitive societies. It was hard to fathom that some civilizations couldn't do the things they could. She couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to be part of the glorious Yamatai Star Empire. They had finally conquered the biggest goal of medicine. Death was no longer a fear.

She wanted to run away but she sighed and turned around, putting on her game face. "Okay people, I'm taking charge while the Kohosei is down. I want everyone not tending to a patient to be organized and searching for wounded. No one goes anywhere without a buddy. Check in every five minutes on your communicator." Tomiko pointed at a random person. "You, take someone and get to the bridge. Find out what the hell is going on here. And tell them to get the rest of the medical staff down here now, I don't care what it takes!"

Medical Center

"But the rest of the staff are out searching for--" began one of the other medics, before glancing toward the hemosynth tank. "Oh!" She promptly ran off after that, likely more out of embarrassment as there was nothing keeping her from contacting them remotely.

Fortunately, the others had caught on already. Tomiko was soon left with only one other medic, who also took a moment to realize he was the only one left maintaining the bay without orders. He turned his head and asked Tomiko, nervously, "What do we do with all the patients from the last battle?"

The medical bay had been nearly full just from those who'd been injured in combat, but most of them seemed to have no visible injuries--they'd just been knocked out by alien weapons that no one on board understood. The remaining injuries had apparently all resulted from malfunctioning technology and/or collisions.

It was an unusual scene for a Star Army medical bay. Several pilots and infantry were sitting up in their beds, waiting to be cleared, and without Lucas Zion presiding, they'd been waiting a long time. With new casualties arriving, the medical bay would run out of spare beds within two or three minutes if nothing was done, but what was the right procedure to follow?

Simulation Bay

Fyodor found his makeshift squad short-handed. The Azorean was eager to follow him, tough that left the wounded to take care of themselves, and each other. If there'd been anyone else on the same level who wasn't among the wounded and unconscious, they didn't seem any more willing to follow Fyodor than the one who'd shot at him before hiding away.

The only functional way up to the upper level inside the bay was a ladder, which didn't seem wise to use, given that anyone using it would have to turn their back to the hall during their ascent. The quickest alternative route to the upper level seemed to be the maintenance lift in the hangar bay Fyodor had just left.

Shuttle Bay #5

After a short delay, while she was still in the adjacent corridor, Errowyn had her response from Captain Gorganis. "Acknowledged, Yumeoibito-Heisho. Good work. We're still working out the logistics of how to transport personnel between decks at this time."

The Geshrin Heisho hauled his Minkan crewmember, slung over his shoulder, while dragging another Neko she hadn't seen into the shuttle bay, past Errowyn, meanwhile. Both of those he was carrying were infantry soldiers, and still unconscious. Apparently, they weren't being transported to the medical center, either.

Errowyn stepped aside to let the Geshrin pass. She blinked at the direction he was taking. "Infirmary is in the other direction." She sang out to the Greshrin. "Unless...." She wrinkled her nose at the thought that he was carrying the dead with him. "Huh? The Morgue is not in there." She watched with morbid fascination.

Shuttle Bay #5

The Geshrin seemed to miss the suggestion he was carrying dead squadmates, though the Neko inside shut one eye and stared at Errowyn with the other. In any case, he stopped briefly and turned his head to answer, "Half the ship is on lockdown, we can't just go to Deck 4." Turning his head back to the others, he went on, "Might as well keep the squad in one place, and secure the area."

Hanger 5

At least Errowyn had the time now to check over her aerospace fighters. Even the new one that sat in the hanger waiting area. She nodded in response to Geshrin and returned to hanger 5. She stopped long enough to put on mechanic coveralls and moved to assist in working on her crafts.

Simulation Bay

Let’s see what other fun stuff we got to look at, Fyodor thought, starting to walk back the way he had come. Wait a minute, am I forgetting something? Oh, dang it all, he thought as he stopped in his tracks and facepalmed himself, the shuttle bay! What have I missed there playing hero here? Augghh.

“Change of plans,” the Kodian said, turning to the Azorean, Never caught her name, “I was supposed to go to the port aft shuttle bay before I helped you guys out. You still want to come along or do you want to stay here?” he asked, slowly backing towards the door that led to his original destination. Not like you’re in my chain of command or anything.

Shuttle Bay #5

Errowyn's Kawarime didn't have any mechanical problems, but just like Nocnimura's, it had electrical faults by the hundred. Repairing them all was less about finding them to begin with, and more about fixing everything, then going back to check what had been missed on the first pass. Even though nothing was seriously damaged and every vital component was intact, there were so many minor problems that bringing the fighter back into working order would take hours of work.

In contrast, the Nodachi she had on loan was ready to go, as unlike Nocnimura's, it didn't need any modifications to accomodate its current assigned pilot. On the other hand, climbing into the cockpit through hard vacuum without any protection would still be a bit difficult. Presumably, they'd do something about that before the next mission. Any temporary fix would do more harm than good if the fighters needed to be scrambled in another ambush.

Deck 6, Corridors

The Azorean started to nod to Fyodor, then shook her head and backed against the wall next to the entrance to the simulation bay, indicating that she'd stay and cover the exit. She didn't seem to like talking, much. The wounded Neko was more ambivalent, and said, "Sure, why not? There's no response from my squad, and the upper decks are giving me form letters..."

Shuttle Bay 5

As the Nodachi sat tethered to the Ryujo, Errowyn sighed she thought of all the pros and cons of having a bigger fighter and specially having it unable to access the hangers for easy access to. Her hope lay in getting her Kawarime '5' ready to for duty. She shook her head as she gave a depreciating smirk before returning to her usual neutral expression. She spun away from the view of space and the Nodachi, moving with purpose to lend a hand with the repairs and whatever was needed to be done.

For now her pilots were on their own to recover and spend time with their crafts in getting them ready for future engagements. She had already sent off the reports she could get from the Megami on the pilots and the other crafts to pass up to the ship's CO.

Deck 6, Corridors

“Yeah,” Fyodor said, shaking his head as he went over to the wounded Neko. “Hopefully the officers will figure things out one way or another soon. You want to be carried still or can you walk?”

Either way, the Kodian and his backup left the simulation bay and made their way to the port aft shuttle bay. Hopefully I’m not too late, he thought, eyebrows furrowed, I’m still an idiot though.

Most of the Ryujo's pilots were still in the medical bay, waiting for Lucas Zion. While he'd finally arrived, he'd been dead at the time, and the staff were still curing that, which put the other crew behind in the queue, Errowyn's commander included. Of those who were out, it was more likely they'd flouted procedure than that they'd been cleared for duty, though the ship's chief (and only) medical officer was in no position to complain about that, either. Was all going to plan for the boarders, or for Captain Gorganis? Perhaps neither one.

The Neko answered Fyodor, "I can't stand," and listed her assets as, "I have eyes and one hand to shoot with." Despite a few scares--it seemed the defenders were retreating to fortified positions, though no boarders were confirmed to still be on Deck 6 or 7--there were no interruptions as Fyodor navigated the corridors carefully. He arrived in time to see two downed members of another squad being hauled by their squad leader into Errowyn's hangar bay.

Deck 6, Corridors

“Another set of eyes is always welcome,” Fyodor said to the Neko in her accustomed place under his arm. “As is a gun.” Dang it, I sound like Dad. I’m not that old, even if my colleagues are less than a year old. “Let’s just try and do better than certain other people and not shoot our crewmates.” After a few moments, he looked down at his passenger and asked, “What’s your name, anyway?”

Coming to the shuttle bay, the Kodian saw the burdened squad leader and rushed forward. “Hey, Zima-hei, SAINT agent,” he said, “I was told to come here. Sorry if I’m late, ran into a few, hmm, obstacles.” Catching a glimpse of the familiar pilot further into the bay, he nodded towards her, but waited to see if the other soldier had anything to add.

Shuttle bay 5

Errowyn nodded to the Fyodor as she was busy assisting the techs on her Kawarime. She was helping to trace down faulty parts and the electrical pathways of the Kawarime.

Shuttle Bay #5

Fyodor's passenger introduced herself as Kato Rio, Santô Hei. She didn't seem in the mood for much conversation, though. The Geshrin squad leader just outside the hangar bay was much more difficult to discourage in that regard, though not to the point where he was willing to stop to chat.

"We're holing up in here, with the wounded. My squad captured one of the boarding party, but the ship's locked down, so there's no recovery teams and no route to the medical bay. Take your time and be careful, every one that we've captured before self-destructed, and it's not good to be nearby when that happens."

Fydor found the intruder bonded to the floor with two crippled arms, plenty of missing gear, and a flickering cloaking device. They were still moving, but couldn't get anywhere. It was some sort of tall, thin humanoid in a greyish high-tech armoured environment suit, with a visored helmet.

Shuttle Bay #5

Errowyn glanced at the group forming by the access to the Hanger bay. It was getting to be a quite the party. Unsure of what the future held at the moment as rest of the ship was under lockdown. It gave her time to learn even more about her craft in the technical end instead of trying to stunts with it and pushing it to its limit. She was happy that '5' was slowly coming alive again with passing minute.

Shuttle Bay #5

Fyodor nodded at the squad leader’s words, looking between him and the intruder. “So, how did you guys get this one pinned down?” he asked, “And you haven’t been able to talk to any officers either? This sure is a mess.”

Looking at the gathering group of soldiers, he asked, “Who’s here that’s relatively uninjured and the critically wounded? Could try to push for the medbay if we have enough people to force our way through.”