RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 22.2] Echoes of the Past - Part 2

~~PA Bay~~

She stood there speechless at first, watching how Mitsuko shot the Alien. It took her a full three seconds to find her voice. "Fuck a duck Joto Stock Girl... Are you brain damaged?" Tony sputtered as she roughly pushed past the neko. "You didn't have to kill it.... Though I doubt you were ever trained to detain?" She growled as she leaned out of the hatch and looked out towards the remaining Aliens.

"Bridge this is Stark..." She transmitted to the bridge though her DAISY, and hoping they had time for her. "Can you patch my comms into the Ship's external speakers? I would like to try talking to them before your blood thirsty Stock Clerk here attempts to kill any more of them, while they still hold the injured Hei Darkfire." With the last phrase she looked back glaring at Mitsuko. She hoped the neko would start thinking before she acted, or she was going to get the three of them killed.

Derelict Ship Airlock

Slowly, the battered outer airlock door automatically closed behind Tsuguka and Taharial, and a panel next to the inner door went from red to yellow and then to green. Their suits' sensors told them that the airlock had filled with a warm, moist, breathable air. The walls in here were metallic gray and the airlock was labeled in faded Trade language. A number of lockers was on one side, and one of them, left open, was filled with three old spacesuits that looked human-sized. There was a knob on the panel that would presumably open the inner airlock door.

YSS Eucharis - Power Armor Bay

Alien guts and blood sprayed out onto the shiny black deck as the alien intruder stumbled backwards and lifelessly fell to the surface. A moment later, one of his buddies fired a retaliatory rocket into the power armor bay, causing an forceful explosion that filled it with debris by blowing out most of the ceiling lights. It also hit some of the hydraulics for the power armor bay's large side doors. The blast shutters slammed down throughout the ship, trapping Stark and Mitsuko in the power armor bay.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Hanako shook her head. "Negative. Darkfire-hei is down there and needs to be rescued before we do anything else."

Beneath the Eucharis

One of the Rixxikor jumped on top of Sam and began teabagging him enthusiastically. His armor rated his overall armor integrity as "1, on a scale of 1 to 8." His forearm shield was still in good condition, though. Around the ship, hundreds more of the short bugmen in spacesuits started pouring out of holes in the ground.

Derelict Crash Site

Aikiko and Kale began to see activity as Rixxikor fighters began emerging from the gravel and from caves and tunnels from the underground. They began to take potshots at the Star Army soldiers, and the airwaves became saturated with profanity, crude insults, and demands for a ride off the planet.

Beneath the Eucharis
Sam noticed one of the little dudes doing things to his armor. Aw, look at the little guy go. Seeing as the air supply seemed to be the only thing that worked, he decided to watch the show. Could an alien really get off on a suit of armor? He was curious to find out.

PA Bay

Mitsuko sighed again, this one caught by the Mindy's speakers as the Neko did not even attempt to hide her displeasure. A squeak followed that, as Stark shoved past her, but the Neko otherwise remained silent. As the Daisy leaned out through the doorway to observe the aliens, Murakami shifted further back, putting even more distance between herself and the opening. Not to mention between her and the Nepleslian, who glared back at her a moment later, after making that report to the Bridge. Murakami tried to make a point of ignoring her, but it was hard to fully appreciate her silent treatment when that rocket whizzed past the distracted Stark, narrowly missing her before exploding inside of the Power Armor Bay. Thankfully the surprised yelp from Mitsuko was silenced by her helmet. Debris flying everywhere, lights flickering off, the Neko was bounced about for a few moments before recovering. She could see, and hear, the blast shutters sealing the exits from the Bay back into the ship. That seemed like a wise plan.

Wirelessly contacting the ship through her Mindy, she begin attempting to secure the opening the aliens had already twice taken advantage of. Closing the doors was the first thing to start, that command immediately followed by raising the force field. Even if the hydraulics for the doors had sustained some damage, the armored covers that made another layer of defense rose from completely separate mechanisms in the floor for a good reason. Mitsuko kept an eye on the opening during all of this, engaging the force field and armored covers for the door that had remained closed while she was at it. She was on high alert, shields ready, weapon leveled as she took a firm stance.

Murakami contacted the Bridge, including Stark in the transmission even though she was still ignoring the Nepleslian and talking around her. "I am attempting to secure the Power Armor Bay. I do not think we should risk any of those...things...getting on board. The Away Team might be able to recover Darkfire during their return."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Sigurd swallowed again and replied: "Understood, ma'am." Then he turned to his station again and felt his face heaten up a bit more. That didn't go so well. He couldn't agree with his superior in this case. In his eyes, the security of the ship weighted more than the life of one of its soldiers. Especially when said soldier got himself into the mess because of his own stupidity. But it was the shôshô's call, not the one of a fresh Santô Hei like one Bjarnison Sigurd.

When he returned his attention to his screens he cursed mentally. There were more of these aliens by now, hundreds of them. And by now his scans had revealed the tunnel network they were pouring out.

"More hostiles surfacing all around us. Several hundreds, but I can't make an exact count", Sigurd reported. "They're coming out of a huge underground tunnel network that stretches for the whole surrounding area. I think we have by far not seen the end of it, ma'am."

After his quick report he thought about how to get Hei Darkfire out of this mess, for that seemed to be the imperative now.

Surface/ (not) Derelict Crashsite

Aikiko's Mindy threat board wailed a soft tone of hostilities, as the coms channels filled with insults and demands for a ride. Aikiko grabbed her weapon and returned fire with precision at the sudden appearance of those Aliens that were firing in her direction as she levitated up off the ground for quicker mobility.

"Hostile Contact," Aikiko sent out hoping that everyone recieved her transmission on the Scouting Team. With Kale in position, hoping the transmission was automatically relayed to Tugs and Taharial.

Surface - Outside Derelict

"Well this is just peachy!" Kale exclaimed as the new arrivals began to literally crawl out of the ground infront of him. "Tsuguka, Tahariel. There's large numbers of unarmored hostile infantry gathering near the airlock. If you can hear this I strongly suggest a mission abort. I repeat we have numerous enemy contacts, reccommending abort mission."

To him the mission was as good as over already. It was time to prioritise team safety, though that might mean entering the wreckage to retreve the rest of the team. Kale set the two remaining drones to stealth reconnesance, activating their active camoflage and taking to the skies to provide an accurate battlefield map. The young engineer was forced to jump sideways to avoid a laser round to the faceplate. Seeking a tactical strongpoint he made the short jump onto the roof of the wreckage directly above the airlock.

"Akashiro-san, we need to defend this position to allow the others to get out of there, just keep on your toes. If they start swarming the area near the airlock set off the charges. With their combined field systems and barriers the others should be fine, even in close proximity."

Bringing his forearm weapons to bear he began to broadcast through his helmet speakers.

"Stand down and identify yourselves! We don't want to be forced to fight you." It was likely a useless gesture but star army regulations demanded that as the senior officer he atleast try to resolve the conflict without too much bloodshed.

~~PA BAY~~

Rolling her eyes, Tony groaned. "Pull up your big girl panties, We're going to save the day or die trying." She winked at Mitsuko as she knelt in the damage and started hunting for targets. "You got the heavy fire power here, get to the upper hull and try to get around them, I'll keep them busy from here. then we will divide them up and finish the slaughter you wanted."

Tony sighted and let out a sigh, squeezing the trigger smoothly as she reached halfway through the sigh. The DAISY armor padded the kick a bit, but she felt the back pressure just the same. She quickly pulled back and moved to another jagged chunk of metal, aiming again and firing. She kept this up hoping the AP rounds she was spitting out were going to be doing something to keep their attention on her and not on the Stock girl.

Crashed Vessel Airlock

Upon entering the small enclosed space, the red lynx felt the cold sensation of claustrophobia slowly creep over her. The sudden exposure of heat and humidity inside of the dirt-stained passageway gassed up half of the Daisy's camera lenses at once, obscuring her range of vision and making Tsuguka uncomfortably re-aware of the cumbersome metal cladding that hung millimeters before her eyes. Attempting to fly on instruments wasn't any better, with every EM band and sensor readings giving off a hodge podge of conflicting results due to the massive lump of radiation-plated metal they were standing inside.

"Don't take your helmet off." She spoke to Taharial, shortwave. It didn't take a genius to figure out that between the Elysian's huge metal wings and the neko's own massive shield, they were probably both feeling the same way. But any environmentally sealed area was also a potential death trap in terms of ambushes, stray CFS fields, air concussion from explosions, shrapnel, and of course lethal gases.

Rixxikor... Given the uncouth tone of the voice on the other end, Toyoe did not bother responding, and instead tried to think back to her alien biology lessons at the academy. Being cut off from the Pantheon system and the Eucharis' own database was a real annoyance. She hoped that she did the right thing by attempting to go inside.

"How knowledgeable are you about this species, Santo Hei Taharial?" She asked back, rough her eyes were firmly set forwards, rifle raised. "I can remember that they are insectoid and breed quickly. What they look like. That's about it... Never met one."

Slowly and quietly, as if to avoid waking someone up, the soldier turned the handle that presumably opened the inner airlock. Immediately afterwards, her hand snapped back to the pistol grip of her aether sabre-rifle.

Shield up, shoulder arced, prepared to stab forward with a counterattack... "We are coming inside to investigate. Please refrain from any hostile movements."

Crashed Vessel Airlock

Taharial felt like she was being crushed, the wing armour in the small area was worrying her, plus her vision had gone a bit "I know a little about them, the same as you really and what they look like on the inside but never accounted them face to face" she felt a little stupid "I specialised in Nekos, Humans and Minkans, I did do other species but Rixxikor wasn't one they really told me about, I am sorry about that."

Taharial looked at Tsuguka "it seems like a tight fit around here" she looked back the way they came and then back "I will keep a look out behind us, in case of anything coming from behing, I would hate to see you injured again."

Eucharis

A wave of about 20 Rixxikor in patchy makeshift spacesuits and primitive jetpacks jumped up from the crowd and into the doorway of the power armor bay.

"Which of you shot my brother?!" the group's leader demanded to know, angrily looking back and forth between Mitsuko and Tony.

Meanwhile the other bugmen were either lowering ropes for their buddies, looking for a way deeper into the ship, or just taking seats and waiting to leave the planet.

Bridge

"Sigurd, can you get their radio frequency? Could you please find it and tell them to settle down or we will leave them on the planet?" Hanako asked. "Also let them know we need to be able to safely retrieve Darkfire. Natsumi, be prepared to lift off and start using our AA guns if we have to." Hanako sat down in her seat at the center of the bridge.

Surface - Outside Derelict

The shooting stopped, and a chorus of "Give us a ride!" shouts started coming from the Rixxikor in the area.

"We need to go places. Take us with you," more of them said. "The beer is almost out."

Alien Ship

The ship's interior was made of a spongy off-white organic mass that filled the entire interior except for where it had been chewed through. It was dim with poor lighting provided by small devices attached the the ragged, shit-stained walls of food-material. Like an ant colony there were twisty little passages in various directions and little holes carved into the walls where foot-long larva slowly gyrated. A steamy fog hung in the air. At least twenty insectoid aliens stopped what they were doing to stare at the intruders in the airlock. Finally one of them looked at the others and asked, "...the fuck?"

~~PA BAY~~

With a look of horror in her eyes Tony pointed back at Mitsuko. She had never been this close to an enemy, nor did she ever think she would. She started running through the gambit of ideas on how to deal with this situation. First thing was first she clicked open the channel to the brigade. "Ma'am the ship is heavy with almost two dozen hostiles. The PA Bay is breeched. No outward hostility at this moment though. They are calling out for who killed the first through the door..."[/i]

PA Bay

Mitsuko didn't respond to Stark, although she did lower her weapon as the Daisy began moving around near the open door, firing down onto the planet's surface. There was no way she was leaving the ship during this, even if the door and everything associated with it seemed to have been rendered useless by one lone rocket. She would have to make a note of this and speak to one of the technicians about the apparently defective devices. It would be very troubling if such an advanced piece of technology as the Eucharis could be so easily infiltrated, so she would have to ensure both doors and their related mechanisms were thoroughly inspected and sufficiently repaired and reinforced.

The Nepleslian's attempts to dissuade any more aliens from entering the Bay did not seem to pan out, as a small swarm of Rixxikor jetted in to join them. Then Stark helpfully pointed them towards her. Mitsuko let out a grunt of disapproval that her helmet silenced. Camo flickering on, she moved swiftly to change position, lifting off the ground so she could use her abilities to silently maneuver without disturbing any debris on the ground. Her current companion seemed strangely unwilling to attack the invaders, leaving the normally quiet Neko in the uncomfortable position of aggressor. The Mindy's six drones rapidly deployed and zipped away from the hidden Neko, firing heavy stun shots at the aliens. First at the easy targets that were still seated, and then the others. Murakami hurried towards the open door, her nerves and the suit's shields and sensors wary of a probable attack from the aliens, even if they had almost no chance of detecting her. Her first priority was removing those lines the aliens were lowering, whether that meant using her Mindy's strength to rip the ropes out of their hands or something more violent.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Aye, ma'am!", Sigurd acknowledged and stood up to take over the communications console. Although he wasn't a communications specialist he was, of cause, basicly trained to use them, so he saw no difficulties with the first part of his order. It was the second part that worried him a little, for he wasn't the communicative person that ever lived.

As he figured, it did not take him long to find the correct frequency. The com chatter was overwhelming.
"...Rixxikor we are..."
"...beer..."
"...of the planet..."
"...give us food..."
"...want a ride..."
Sigurd collected himself then turned his mikrophone online. Just as he wanted to speak, the thought crossed his mind to try to talk to them in the slang they spoke.

"Yo, bros!...", he began and felt stupid about it. Speaking slang, or trying to, did not come easy to him. "Ya needa ride? You'll have it. Just keep cool, bros, and give us some minutes to prepare stuff. Wouldn't wanna drink the beer warm, would ya?"
Sigurd creased his face the second he said the last sentence. Intelligent, Sigurd. Just attract them with booze...
"We'll also need that dude back, you got in your midst, or my boss'll get real pissy."

Bridge

"Roger that" Natsumi said, prepping the ships systems for takeoff. She also set up the anti-armor guns for taking out ground targets. She programmed the sensor lock on Darkfire as an avoidance marker, to ensure the guns would keep their fire far enough away from the downed soldier.

"Ready to lift off at your command"

Rixxikor Hive/Vessel Interior

Tsuguka just stood there for a minute, rifle raised, slightly baffled at the complete lack of response. One look at the feces-strewn termite mound-esk interior, however, and it became pretty clear that these bugmen decidedly did not have a completely integrated radio system. Heck, she'd be surprised if they had a proper hierarchy, even.

Slowly, her gun and shield lowered, and her mind quickly ran out of confidence in the idea that this could be a particularly clever ambush. Her helmet stayed on, but that was mostly because the red neko didn't really fancy having a suit full of bug poo gas.

"Sorry for the intrusion. We did try calling over the radio." A welcoming tone, but with the far too dull and plastic-sounding nature of Tsuguka's usual acting talents. An accompanying, now rifle-free, hand made a suitably awkward wave, rotating ten degrees either way instead of swaying back and forth. "How long have you fine fellows been on this rock? How did this ship crash?..."

No point in mentioning that these 'weird armored giants' had a ship of their own just yet. Hopefully the roaches didn't have enough operating sensors, or a decent enough system of scouts in place, to tell it was there.

Beneath the Eucharis
Sam laid upon the ground thinking. A situation like this never occurred in training camp, so he didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do. The worthless power junk wouldn't move worth a damn. He could try removing the armor and move on his own two feet. However, there were still hostiles nearby and he didn't have brains enough to bring along weapons that were usable without power junk. He also kinda rushed out of the ship without checking whether or not the air was breathable, so that was another reason to keep the power junk on.

Rixxikor Hive/Vessel Interior

Taharial looked around at the ship thinking about how disgusting the place looked she looked at the Rixxikor in front of them and was shocked by how many there were. She knew that if she took off her helmet she would puke, she could see the clouds of what she assumed was concentrated shit and would be worse then anything she had smelt before.

As Taharial looked at Tsuguka and the Rixxikor she followed Tsuguka's lead and lowered her weapons letting Tsuguka lead for she was the solider and Taharial was the support for her.

Outside Derelict

Kale sighed in resignation. These critters (given their coarse language and insectoid appearance he refused to call them otherwise) had to be the most irritating extraterestrials he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Seeing that the aliens had finall stopped taking pot shots at him and Akashiro he lowered his weapons though he kept them charged, just in case of course.

The shouts for both beer and a lift off planet were both loud and obnoxious. Seriously though who were these guys anyway.

"Akashiro, stand down aswell, if they try shooting again fire a warning shot but do not kill any of them." he transmitted over squad comms.

To the aliens he stated, "Any decision on these matters would have to be made by my superiors. I can initiate a dialogue between your leader and them if they agree however. Is this acceptable?" he asked. He just hoped that Shosho Hanako would be open to negotiations with these beings.

Power Armor Bay

Through their spacesuit visors Mitsuko and Tony could see the had big insectoid eyes, blotchy purple skin, and tiny arms on their chins. There was a moment of tension as the Rixxikor invaders considered revenge against Mitsuko, but she lowered her weapon and most of them lowered theirs too."You owe us a ride for killing him," one of them told her, and was quickly echoed by a chorus of ride-seeking bugmen. Then Mitsuko started shooting them with stun blasts, causing complete chaos in the power armor bay as the aliens responded individually in every possible way, with some fleeing, some shooting, and others grabbing onto Antonia and trying to use her as cover. Sparks flew as electronics in the bay were hit by scalar electrogravity waves.

Meanwhile Antonia got a reply form the bridge. "Keep things peaceful and tell them we are working on getting them a ride but they need to cooperate with our instructions or we will leave them behind." Hanako ordered. "Our first demand is that they do not commit any more acts of violence against our crew."

The Rixxikor seemed to be extremely disorganized, with no particular one being in charge. A random one would come up with an idea and the others would go along with it. As a result of another idea, underneath the Eucharis, Samael had now been grabbed by a group of Rixxikor, who hauled him up into the power armor bay, essentially creating a wave of reinforcements for the first group that had entered and was now halfway knocked out and laying all over the bay. "We will trade this one for a ride!" the group of Rixxikor offered. At least now that Sam was inside the atmosphere containment forcefield, he was no longer in danger of running out of air in his shot-up suit of armor.

Bridge

Sigurd got a number of overlapping responses, mostly positive, from the Rixxikor. As a result of the offer of a ride off the planet, there were now over two thousand Rixxikor gathered around the base of the Eucharis. Unfortunately things were quickly developing in a sort of riot because the Rixxikor were fighting each other over their order in line...a line which they were doing an extremely poor job of forming, and looked more like a Black Friday mob than a queue. If these were the ones with spacesuits, how many of them were there without one?

Alien Ship

There was a long, awkward pause. "It has been more than 2 local solar cycles," one of the insectoids finally answered Tsuguka. "The ship crashed because the pilots lost control."

"Why are you here?" another asked. "Are you exterminators?"

"I think it was sabotage," another chimed in.

"Some other ship attacked us!" another objected.

"No, there was a human, but he died. Then the ship lost order," still another suggested.

"Do these people have food?" another asked.