RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 20] Strangers (Essai Dreamworld)

Out side the Armory

"bors I know what you're thinking, but if we are not there holding the armory then they will be advancing to nowhere. The fire should be out by now let's get back inside." She clawed her way back to a standing position, "Mitsuko please help me I can't shoot... but i got a few ideas."

She moved to get back into the Armory, it was still filled with smoke and haze but the fire was out at least. Motioning to a med kit, "Can you get my hands wrapped up they'll heal... Bors pull a few of these crates into the hall way, don't block the whole path but give yourself a fighting position, Mitsuko never mind my hand help him." She started to fumble with a roll of gaus. using her mouth and grunting in pain when she had to use her other hand she got her right hand wrapped up loosely. Once it was covered she went to work helping push items to Bors and Mitsuko.

Wardroom

Deziarra heard Junko's command to get auxiliary computer systems online and run a full diagnostic on them followed by Kale's suggestion to use the console on the bridge.

"I'll get to work on it," she said heading towards the bridge.

Bridge

As soon as Deziarra reached the bridge, one of the robots was waiting for her. This time, however, she was prepared. A quick blast for her NSP caught the robot unaware. It fell to the ground in a shower of sparks. She shot it again, just to make sure before sealing the bridge and making sure the automatic defenses were online.

This was the first time she had used her NSP since joining the YSS Eucharis. Her shooting was 100 percent. Seated at the computer, she shook her head at her own tendency to make lame jokes even in a crisis situation. The bridge was a vital area and her beginner's luck would not last.

As she ran the diagnostic, she did a scan for more of the robots. Three of them were just outside the door to the bridge waiting for her. Although safe for the moment, she was trapped.

Wardroom

Takeyu ducked when the first few bolts were fired, and could smell the burning pieces of his hair. He grumbled as he took aim at the first drone and let off a burst of fire before her felt a warming sensation on his left wrist, which quckly led to it going numb.

He switched hands quickly, putting his NSP in his right hand and continuing the volume of fire, taking out the drone at the bottom of the stairs. His attention was then drawn to the second drone, which caused the Taii to let out a series of silent curses. "Up up up! No cover here!" he shouted to Sienna and the others.

Wardroom

Chieko assured both Ayumi and Natsumi that she should be fine. That said she did add a telepathic message to the medic that it may be best she stop by medical first as her NSP was still there and extended strain would be good to avoid. The scientist then stuck close to Sienna as much as she could with all the robots starting to show up again.

Soon the academic found her progress to the stairs hampered and flew back to the kitchen as quickly as she safely could. Dodging the bolts was difficult and required flying backwards - a decision that caused her to bump Lime into a wall near the entry back into the Galley. Chieko cursed again, then decided staying in the cooking area until things were clear was the best plan of action.

Once inside, the young Minkan gently placed her burden down again and began closing access points. During this, a few bolts managed to wiz by, angering her with each blast. The frustration grew until she made a critical timing error - a blast caught Chieko in the chest, and the scientist crumpled to the ground.

Wardroom

Ayumi was being bombarded by so much information, while trying herself to figure out what she should do. She looked at the chair, deciding that it was not going to be possible to throw it to Sienna no matter how good an idea it had been. She felt a bolt connect with her elbow, tensing her hold on her NSP as her left arm fell uselessly to her side.

With a sharp glance around she saw Chieko moving back to the kitchen, and decided she should return to her. The Minkan had been right, they did need to get to the medbay to get her NSP.

She entered the kitchen just in time to see Chieko fall to the floor. A shot fired into her already useless left shoulder. She aimed with her right hand pressed firmly on the trigger and disabled the drone which had harmed Chieko, then rushed over to her side to check her vitals.

"Chieko is down." She sent a general telepathic message to the other Nekos in the room.

Maintenance Conduits

Junko triggered the hatch in the deck and her comms at the same time. “Aye aye, sir. My intention is to double back through Engineering and try to get into the main conduits. I should have decent mobility from there. Takeda, out.”

She flew head first down the shaft, forsaking her normal preference of actually climbing the ladder. Nearing the bottom, she tucked into a ball and, as the conduit branched off aft from the lower junction, pushed off from the hatch to the lower cannon tunnel like a swimmer. At the hatch leading back into Engineering, she paused, gathering herself, considering the situation, and replying to another communication.

“Namach-Hei, Takeda. I’m in a conduit right outside of Engineering. I’m going to attempt to covertly move to another conduit across the Mainspace. State your position, over.”

With a deep breath, she reached out and triggered the hatch controls. It slid smoothly and silently out of her way and she slowly poked her head out into the compartment. She didn’t see any immediate sign of the drones and so floated out, closing the hatch behind her. She took cover behind a coolant tank stack and peered about again. This time, she could see two of the drones. One was at the top of the forward bulkhead ladder, attempting to force its way through the hatch into Power Systems. The other was loitering on the deck 4 catwalk beneath it.

Seeing her chance, she floated aft, toward the main hatch to the 0-G corridor. She had no intention of exiting that way; rather, she came to a stop next to the damage control station against the aft bulkhead. The access panel slid aside quietly enough and she reached in for an AMES helmet and sealed it over her head. Then she reached back again, this time for a plasma cutter. It was short ranged, true - if 2-3 inches even counted as that - but it was the only weapon she could get her hands on.

Unfortunately, it seemed to have been bracing some other equipment because as she removed it a hull patch kit shifted on its shelf, teetered, and fell to its side with a dull thud.

Junko turned in horror, just in time to see the third drone vault over a coil of coolant piping, not five meters from her, and charge.

Wardroom

Izokia was fully focused on bringing down the drones with her crew mates. She didn't even realize Chieko was hit until Ayumi called out through a telepathic message. She started back peddling to provide cover for Ayumi and Chieko at the same time she called out to the room "We need to get out of here or we are all going-" She was cutoff by a strange feeling of numbness in her right leg followed by a hard fall onto her side.

Armory

Mitsuko chewed on her lip as she helped Misato to her feet. She really wanted to rush her roommate to seek medical attention, but Suzume was being as stubborn as always. She was probably right, too. Mitsuko was at least good at moving boxes, ensuring the ones they used to create a defensible position did not contain anything explosive or otherwise dangerous.

She wasn't the best shot, especially not compared to the two Infantry troops, but she did what she could. Mitsuko quickly became comfortable with the GP-12, as a pile of sparking robotic corpses began to pile up outside the Armory. She just hoped the others were safe, and would arrive soon.

Wardroom

Still flattened against the wall, Sienna watched as Takeyu managed to gun down the advancing drone in front, but from the looks of him, not without being grazed himself. Looking back towards the smashed chair, she spotted Ayumi standing nearest to it. Her urgent expression demanded that the medic comply with her, but Ayumi made no move to do so, looking overcome by the din and fury unfolding around them.

She flinched again and pressed her slender build back against the wall with another thud as yet another volley of energy bolts shredded the air inches in front of her. Takeyu's barked command met her ears at the same time as his smoking left hand grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her ahead, nearly bowling her face down to the ground. The skittering of metal legs followed up the stairs close behind them, and the drone hardly gave them more than a brief pause in its persistent onslaught.

Half out of instinct, and half out of very nearly losing her balance, Sienna dove forward, narrowly missing coming down on her chin, but barely able to roll out of it before crashing gracelessly into the legs of the booth table before her. The wok she clutched in her hand clattered to the ground noisily as she landed and tumbled forward onto her knee and left foot, steadying herself with her palms. Not wasting any time, she looked back over her shoulder, seeing the squat form of the robotic assailant mounting the last few steps like some kind of nightmarish spider crossbred with a trash can. Eyeing one of the chairs pulled up to the table next to her, she snatched the nearest one by the legs and swung it in a wide arc with a shout, releasing it and letting it fly as hard as she could fling it at the robot.

The chair shot straight towards the robot's legs, tumbling end over end and bouncing once across the floor before it slammed into them hard. The drone, which evidently had been prioritizing its targets, was caught off guard by the projectile, and staggered as one leg of its motivational tripod bent sideways, nearly toppling it over, but it stayed upright. Its volleys of electrical bolts ceased for a second as it wobbled precariously on the edge of the stairs.

"Shoot it!" Sienna screamed. "Shoot it, damn it!"

Dreamworld Market

With her breathing gear in place along with the other supplies she needed, Akane remained quiet. Her role was to help gather supplies and make sure the purchasing mission went off without any hazards getting in the way.

She kept in mind her sidearm and recalled the tentacled merchant who'd stopped her as soon as she arrived the first time. Even though they hadn't all dispersed, Akane knew how tenacious the people around her would be. A few might be more determined to make a sale than the merchant she encountered before.

Lounge

Muscles spaseming Kale lay on the floor of the lounge. The bloody thing was playing with him. He knew that couldn't have been a full power bolt or he would have been out cold rather then nastily stunned. There was another chittering sound from right behind him. Taking as much control as he could over his left leg he kicked backwards, violently. He was rewarded by a sharp snap and the thud as a weight hit the deck.

'I'm currently in the Lounge, Heisho. Ill be a bit later then expected. Got ambushed by the little buggers.'

Kale took some deep breaths and suppressed his convulsions.

That. Hurt.

By his reckoning there was still one active threat near the door and one that was merely disabled. Maybe he could reprogram it later. Edging forwards as he was as of yet unable to stand. Kale took aim at the remaining droid and fried its brain. Threat over he sank into the carpet and began to deal with the remaining pain.

Wardroom

Takeyu swung his NSP around when he watched the other drone get disabled by Sienna, and fired a few shots at the disabled bot and watched as several scored good hits with the final one passing through one end and out the other, destroying it instantly.

With a heavy sigh, Takeyu glanced down the rest of the stairs to look for the last and final drone, which he could moving around 'somewhere' beneath them.

Wardroom

Chieko looked to be breathing and her pulse seemed to settle out of an irregular rhythm and into something more normal, but slow. The scientist will not be getting back up too quickly from the looks of things; however when she does she definitely will not be a happy, comfortable girl. A couple twitches show up now and then, but soon their frequency would dwindle.

Armory

Misato was impressed with Mitsuko's capabilities with the weapon, she was going to comment on it but a thought rolled through her head. She asked Charisma to set her up a ship wide comm channel. Attention crew, we have the Armory secured please make your way here for arms. I repeat, we have the Armory secured please make your way here for arms.

Once the ship wide was sent she started looking around the armory for something that might allow her to help out.

Dreamworld Landing Area

Sune listened to the Essai and its explanations, which to him did not make sense.

"A hallucinogenic gas that resulted in several of our crew members being seriously injured is not enjoyable or comfortable. Such chemicals are debilitating, combined with your attempt to interfere with out ship's operation makes a case that you wanted to keep us here against our will." Sune said.

He briefly considered drawing his NSP to convince the creature to back off. Since the creature at present was only blocking Hanako physically he considered a course of action that might give her the means to get past the Essai.

He propelled himself into the air with his natural anti-grav and proceeded to fly over the giant staff.

Wardroom

Ayumi softly cursed under her breath, looking back up at the rest of the room as she confirmed that Chieko was at least alive and not gravely injured. She stood slowly, her left arm hanging uselessly at her side. She offered an apologetic smile to Izokia, "Fighting is not my strong point." She offered, nodding to her stunned arm.

It was at this moment that the announcement came over the ship's intercoms and Ayumi flinched, "What if these drones are intelligent?" She asked, "They will head to the armoury now." The usually quiet Neko did not realise she'd probably spoken in the last few moments more than she had the rest of her time on the ship. The safety of her crew mates was much more important to her.

"We need to get Chieko and the chef out of here." Ayumi decided softly, turning around to try and figure out how to lift the two just in time to meet two more drones moving around the kitchen. She yelped slightly as a shot hit her right hip, and aimed a single successful shot at one drone before she found herself upon her knees, right hand bracing herself on the kitchen floor.

Wardroom

The second drone crackled and sizzled as sparks furiously spouted from its "wounds" after Takeyu finished it off. As it slumped over, its precarious position on the top of the stairs faltered, and the inactive robot slowly tipped over and tumbled down the stairs with loud, clattering bangs.

Sienna didn't have a chance to sigh in relief or celebrate, however, before the announcement came over the ship's intercom, and her shoulders slumped as she groaned in exasperation. Ayumi in front of her said the same thing she thought at that moment; if the drones understood their language, which she felt she could safely assume they did, whoever had broadcast the message had just given away their intent to the invaders.

Then another loud clattering came from the kitchen, followed immediately by the sound of spindly legs skittering and energy bolts screaming through the air. Still lying on her side, nearly prone, Sienna ducked her head towards the floor on reflex, though the shots were aimed too high to be intended for her. Looking up, she noticed that Chieko was down, and was just in time to see Ayumi land one shot on the second drone, staggering it briefly, then take a shot in the hip and crumple down to one knee.

Thinking quickly, her eyes shot to the wok she had dropped, a few feet away. Staying as flat on her belly as she could, she crawled forward, pulling herself along on her elbows and keeping her chin next to the floor. A shower of sparks rained down on her as an errant shot richocheted off of the stairway banister, and she winced as the heat washed over her back, bottom, and legs, praying that her clothing didn't catch fire as a result.

Finally reaching the wok, she snatched it and clutched it tightly in her right hand, taking several hard, rigid breaths in and out as she lifted her head just enough to be able to peek over the center table. Two more drones emerging from behind the buffet, still relatively close to one another. Psyching herself up, and cursing her suicidal stupidity at the same time, she heaved two more rough breaths and sprang up, throwing the heavy metal wok at the one in front as hard as she could.

The drone spotted the incoming projectile and turned to face it. However, it evidently didn't consider it a threat, as it did nothing to evade it or fire upon it. The second one, smoking from Ayumi's NSP bolt, reacted even less, only turning slightly to assess the attack, and in less than a second deciding to continue its initial course of action. The wok smashed into the first drone with the loud, resounding PWANG! of metal on metal, but other than the satisfying sound it created, the drone was unaffected and unmoved.

However, a meaningful attack was not Sienna's goal. She didn't truthfully expect a flung frying pan to do any real damage to the spindly-legged automatons, but it did successfully serve to distract the attackers' attention for a fleeting instant.

Within that blink of an eye, Sienna launched herself forward towards Ayumi, over the railing and into the middle of the wardroom. Her shoulder slammed into the medic's upper back, bowling her forward, and wrapped her arms tightly around her torso as her dive-tackle carried them both sliding next to the cover of the table. Another volley of electrical bolts seared the air less than a hair's breadth above them.

Their landing and rough stop against the back side of the table caused pain to course anew through Sienna's hands and body, and she felt a sharp sting on the side of her forehead as she nicked it on the corner of a chair they slid past. In seconds the painkillers took over again, however, and it subsided, but she knew that after they wore off, she was going to be extremely uncomfortable for a while.

She turned her eyes to Ayumi. The medic was favoring her hip, and didn't look like she could move very quickly for the time being. "Gimme your gun," Sienna demanded of the injured Ayumi, her eyes cold and focused.

Armory

"Just let em know we're all here eh?" Bors said as he placed one of the Type 30B Machine Guns on a box behind a that he placed on its side covering the door leading towards the Cargo elevator.

"That should stop any problems for a minute." he said to himself before racking back the bolt and before hearing some interesting conversation over his comunicator.

"Seems like their having a bit of trouble upstairs." Bors said glancing over his shoulder, his voice was casual, as if he was going out to get some groceries as he grabbed another pulse rifle off of the wall rack as well as a LASR-SLAG and a Aether/Scalar Submachine Gun. "I'm gonna go help them out I'll be back in a minute."

Doing a quick scan with his rifle Bors made his way towards the cargo elevator, quickly going inside and closing the doors. Once they were closed he checked the ammo on his Pulse rifle before pulling out his Ecig and pressing the button to head up towards the lounge. As the elevator went painfully slow for his taste, Bors couldn't help but think this thing needed music or something else to pass the time.

As the door slid open Bors was suprised to see that most of the hostile threats were taken care of. Casually he fired several rounds from his pulse rife at the only active robot still in the lounge, the sparks erupting from it as it fell over over onto the ground.

"Not bad for a tech." Bors said noticing Kale lying on the floor, "Though, I reckon they got ye seeing as your lying there on the floor."

Setting his rifle on the floor next to the 06C, Bors lifted him so that Kale was sitting upright resting his back against a nearby table and gave him a pat on the shoulder, "You the only one down here kid? Or is someone hiding behind the bar or something."

Lounge

Just then, the night shift made their move, with Cherry and Blackberry and Mango emerging from their cabins in exercise uniforms. "Check the other cabins," Cherry ordered. "We had robots in ours trying to rob our dreams."

Dreamworld Landing Area

Hanako dodged the Essai's staff and zipped towards the Eucharis to help, following Sune. Before behind her, the spindly alien let out a noise that could be reasonably described as a "disappointed vibrating fart."

As Hanako reached the rear cargo bay door, she noticed it was now dipping into purple water. The giant lily-pad that the Eucharis had landed on was now sinking into the crater-lake and a flood of water was coming across its surface, washing away the black goo. Looking down into the now-visible lake, she now could see hundreds of other ships were trapped down there.

Dreamworld Market

"Ah, you must be from the latest ship, yes?" asked a voice at Akane's shoulder, as if by magic. "Forgive a stranger for intruding, but I believe your overseer has hurried back to the ship looking worried. Perhaps you should also return?"

If she turned around she would find the alien merchant that Bors' team had run into on the earlier expedition, tucking some kind of notebook into the chest pocket of shirt, a modest cascade of lace at the collar. It appeared to have changed its clothes since the crew had last seen it.

"As your comrade appears to have accepted my modest gift, I certainly hope she decided to return me the gift of passage." It said, picking up the handles of a wheeled cart, the back covered in bulging blankets. "Perhaps you could show me aboard?"

It tipped its head curiously, staring at her through one large golden eye.