RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 22] Echoes of the Past

--Open Subspace Transmission--

"Santo Hei Tankyusha... Santo Hei Dirjon... Eucharis.... If anyone is receiving this, please request the medical personnel to get to the objective point as fast as possible." Tsuguka's voice was immensely uneasy, but still rigidly stuck to the correct pronunciation of each and every word. "Akiashiro-Hei is unconscious. She fell down the shaft, some kind of power armor malfunction. Maybe an effect of the local electromagnetic waves... I'm... I'm not really sure what is happening. Currently securing the area. I don't think it was enemy action."

She dearly hoped that Akiashiro had backed up her memories before leaving. But with that habit of independence and fleeting emotions... Tsuguka just couldn't be sure. Would they come back out as the same person, even if they did? Could the new Akiashiro forgive her for letting the old one die?...

Volcano Shaft Bottom

Aikiko felt pain all the way to her toes. Eyes blinked open, looking up at the distant opening. She fired her laser rangefinder through her Spine Interface, nothing happened except tingling of a bad connection. Eyes closed again, her head turned to the right, easing the pain there. She wiggled her toes and that hurt in the area of her SPINE Interface connection. ~~Great SPINE interface connection busted, back? I can wiggle my toes~~ Her brainwaves activity increased for serveral seconds, before dropping back down and settling.

She blacked out again as her body stepped up the internal healing process. Her head was turned to the right showing matted hair that glistened in the LED lights of her helmet.

P.A. Bay

Taharial sighs and looked at him "it is Taharial, Tah-ar-ial that is how you would pronounce it", she was worried about the readings from before "your going to carry me there, aren't you Dirjon". She was prepared to helped but needed to get their, she stood in that one spot waiting to be picked up "we might want to hurry, one of our crew mates seems to be injured" she checked the sensors again and frowned "take me there now" she screamed there was a lot of worry in her voice. Taharial sighed and looks down she wanted to make sure the two crew members who signs had just stopped where okay, as she looked back at Dirjon who had come to help her "if Taharial is too hard for you all me butcher" she giggled and winked at him.

Splorfin 14, Volcano Shaft

The android descended slowly, dialing back the various ways he observed the world. He was down to barely more than audio and visual by the time his headache went away. Even though he could see, he'd never felt so blind before. As someone made to collect and process data, this was quickly approaching his nightmare scenario.

Well, he thought dejectedly, you wanted adventure. No one said it would be easy.

His boots tapped down on the shaft's floor near the others. The area would be pitch black if not for the light coming from their suits - somehow the all of the light was absorbed by the time it made it this far. Of course, they were very far down. Tankyusha gave Aikiko's power armor an appreciative look over. He wouldn't have fared so well in a fall from that height. She was lucky, too - the few drones he'd sent out before were smashed into bits nearby, but she'd managed not to land on any of them.

Since she seemed stable for the moment, he decided to find out what caused the drones to crash. The last thing they needed was him trying to fix her. His particular brand of 'medicine' would likely end with her permanently fused to her suit. "Forgive me if I seem insensitive, but while we wait for support I will investigate the area."

The science officer knelt and held a hand over the nearest drone, panels of light flickering to life all around it. He winced as he brought his senses back to capacity for a moment, then cut the lights. "The drone looks to have been disabled by the same electromagnetic field that brought Aikiko-Hei down. There's evidence of some of the capacitors overloading and the onboard computer seems to be completely wiped."

His eyes flickered as flashes of schematics scrawled through his mind. The flickering stopped and his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, that's interesting. A few of the drone's parts are unaccounted for. Perhaps they were taken after it fell?"

Standing, he felt confident enough about one fact to bring it to the rest of the group. "I can safely say that this is neither a volcano nor a natural formation of any kind. The walls are too even, the bands of metal spaced too regularly, and that passage," he motioned, "was made by something intelligent. If you'll allow me to guess, I believe this island formed around this artifact - not the other way around."

Splorfin 14 Volcano Pit

Tsuguka put her hand to her brow habitually as she heard Tankyusha descending, trying to avoid blinding herself by looking directly up the shaft with her nightvision on. In the end, it was easier to just flip her outer visor up and look at the android with her own eyes.

"Tankyusha-Hei... Are you sure your radiation shielding is good enough to stand up to this?" Her face looked pure black in the low light, just a pair of neon green cat's eyes glinting out from within a transparent durandium shell. Swallowing her anxiety, the voice did little to add humanity. "I secured the area. There are a lot of foreign debris around, but... I don't know, even in structural terms, a giant cylindrical shaft like that serves no purpose..."

Looking around blankly for a minute, the angular-faced neko soon produced a trio of the Daisy's own military-grade drones from underneath her shield. They flew from her grip immediately, and split up into the tunnels. Not as long ranged or precise as the science model versions, but hopefully they would be a little more robust. Tankyusha was offered a direct link to their sensors, but in his current condition, Tsuguka wasn't exactly sure he even received the transmitted offer itself.

Slowly, a new holographic map was formed in her head, and overlayed with the data they had received before. Ever conscious of Aikiko's fluctuating vital signs in the corner of her mind, the nekovalkyrja occupied her emotions by intently searching for a bigger picture in their surroundings. It felt careless, but without any medical knowledge, she could do more harm than good. Securing the area against any potential threats was just more practical.

After a few silent moments, her eyes widened.

"....Wait, debris..." A quick glance to her composite comrade. "Santo Hei Tankyusha... The metal layers... Are they evenly spaced enough to be part of a bunker? What if the shaft is an impact from a large-scale beam weapon in orbit?"

Splorfin 14, YSS Eucharis P.A. Bay

BloodyScarlet said:

P.A. Bay

Taharial sighs and looked at him "it is Taharial, Tah-ar-ial that is how you would pronounce it", she was worried about the readings from before "your going to carry me there, aren't you Dirjon". She was prepared to helped but needed to get their, she stood in that one spot waiting to be picked up "we might want to hurry, one of our crew mates seems to be injured" she checked the sensors again and frowned "take me there now" she screamed there was a lot of worry in her voice. Taharial sighed and looks down she wanted to make sure the two crew members who signs had just stopped where okay, as she looked back at Dirjon who had come to help her "if Taharial is too hard for you all me butcher" she giggled and winked at him.

Click to expand...

The transition from urgency to playfulness was almost as disturbing to Dirjon as the nickname of the new medic. For a moment he looked confused but then shook his head chuckling, simply assuming it was a joke as he stopped the fueling at 98%. More than enough. With the helmet back on approached her from behind,"step on my feet."

He gently placed his right arm around her waist and his left just under her chest. He locked his arms in position with just enough pressure to hold her steady with the large shield rotated vertically to protect her from the wind.
He really didn't feel too awkward until the thrusters began spooling up but by then it was a little late. "Hang on," he instructed as he'd purposefully left her arms free to move.

The antigravity system moved them out of the bay where his thruster pack kicked in bringing them smoothly from 0 to 500km/h in two seconds but Dirjon had no intention of traveling that slowly.

••••••••••

Splorfin 14, Over Volcano

The Daisy never really stopped. Rather, it just fell as Dirjon killed engine power. They descended rapidly using friendly IFF tags at the bottom to gauge distance. As they approached the ground he kicked on his gravity unit gave the thruster pack 5% power, setting them gently on the ground despite the electronic distortion on Dirjon's HUD.

Safely on the ground he unlocked his arms and freed the medic.

P.A. bay

Taharial smirked as he grabbed her "carefully, it's normally the third date someone can touch me like that" she looked back at him with a slight smile, she stepped on his feet and held onto the arm around her waist and felt the suit rise "this feels different" she had always used her wings to fly so to her this way of flying was completely new feeling to her.

Taharial smiled as they left the ship then when the thrusters kicked in she tried to keep an eye on the environment but just saw a massive blur of colour.

Volcano

Taharial's electronic equipment went a bit haywire then slowly came back when she touched the bottom and saw the girl on the floor and gets down to check on her, she didn't notice the others as she slowly checked the girl's body "hmm, at least there is some good news", she looked up and saw the others down there "oh sorry for ignoring you, here is the news about are crew mate, she is injured, but it is healing itself, so as long as we can keep her safe and not move her it should be okay".

Volcano Bottom

Aikiko stirred a bit within the confines of her Mindy Armor. Her eyes open exposing her dark blue eyes, back felt like it was on fire and her head ached. She muttered "Mein Rücken brennt! Louie."
She wiggled in her heavy armor trying to free her arm. Face plate losing it transparency as two of her manipulator arms on one side extended flipping her over her over on her belly. Using her innate abilities to accomplish her tasks

“Ugh!” She muttered softly. Then she activated Mindy’s communications system. “Okay… that hurt! I need help here… I need to have someone reset my SPINE Interface. That means disconnecting the Manipulator arms set from my Mindy, and accessing my suit to get to the SPINE Interface connector and reseating it.”

Her back around the SPINE ports on her back is heavily bruised but showing rapid healing. SPINE Prongs had came loose and bent, jabbing into flesh instead of the proper port.

Volcano Pit

Tsuguka briskly moved back to Aikiko's downed form as soon as the other team members arrived, leaving Tankyusha to continue the task of scanning around.

"Brilliant, Dirjon-Hei. That was a flawless landing." She praised the Nepleslian's speed, grimly smiling face looking extra spooky in the dark with those reflective eyes. Her hand had intended to pat the man on the shoulder, but since he was a little too tall for that, it just ended up clunking against the center of his Daisy's chest plate. "I'm sorry, but we still don't know much about the area. Would you mind scouting it out a bit more with Tankyusha-Hei? It's more dangerous for him than any of us. I'll join you in a moment."

"Santo Hei Taharial, I presume?" There was a quick bow along with a hasty introduction, her mind on other things. Regardless of the situation, the soldier sounded immensely respectful. "Welcome to the team. Aikiko-Hei here has-"

Suddenly, the unconscious brown-haired woman began to stir, and caused Tsuguka to cut off her sentence completely. She quickly reclined down to her hands and knees, and put her transparent faceplate close to Akikio's.

"Aikikio, you're... You're okay! Does it hurt!?" The red neko closed her eyes into slits and arced her angular eyebrows inward, the face of someone suppressing a mountain of emotions they didn't understand. After a moment of listening to what the woman had to say, she chose her reply carefully. "I... I don't think I can do that without breaking the seal... You'll get carbon dioxide poisoning..."

Her hands popped the safety latch and freed the manipulator arm unit itself, just to make things a bit more comfortable, but that still left the SPINE hard point panel beneath it. As a solid, integral part of the suit's outer shell, it wasn't like she could just twist it around with her bare hands. "I'm turning the brain wave monitoring system on." The neko touched her on the shoulder lightly, and began accessing the suit's AI remotely. "It's what non-synthetics like Dirjon-Hei use to control their power armors. It will take a while to calibrate and you'll lack some functions, but you should be able to move in a few moments... Well, as long as it isn't damaged too."

Splorfin 14, Bottom of the Shaft

Tank winced at the sight of Aikiko's back. Well, he thought, at least her spine isn't broken. He gave a thoughtful nod to the new medic. He'd let her do her thing before getting in her way.

Tsuguka's map came to him in bits. This was certainly a facility, not just some random bit of tech. It was hard to tell if Tsuguka's bunker theory was right or not just yet. It looked like the nearby passage led to a series of concentric passageways around the central shaft. A handful of smaller vertical shafts broke the ceiling of each ring, leading to who knows where, and a few things that were definitely crystalline doors were found as well. They looked tall at around 3 meters each.

One of the drones had its attention caught by a small, vent-like opening on one of the rings' walls. It wasn't the first one, but a sound had drawn it in. Lights splayed into the darkness of the two foot wide opening and then scattered. Something behind the wall zipped by, too fast to get a good image. The drone, ever faithful, followed after it and went silent.

"Ah, I know we're all busy," the android remarked, looking at the group huddling around Aikiko, "but I'd like to mention that we just lost a drone to some form of hostile action."

"Just straighed the SPINE Interface prongs and reconnect them," Aikiko shut off life support to consreve what air she had, minus the air once the integrity of the Miny was broken. She held her breath as soon as the Mindy AI indicated breach when the accessed. She felt the the sting of the prongs being removed her back...



...When her Mindy signaled that the suit integrity has been restored, she purged the interior with fresh breathable air. She began SPINE Interface checks. When it was safe to breath again, she spoke, "Replace the Manipulator Arm set, please."

Switching to private coms to Tsuguka, "Thanks Tugs," Aikiko spoke with warmth in her tone. She stood up a bit slowly, having to adapt to the new peramiters. Switching to Squad Tactical freq. "Copy Tankyushi." All business like. She nodded to the newcomer to the group. "Update?"

Splorfin 14, Volcano

Primitive Polygon said:

Volcano Pit

Tsuguka briskly moved back to Aikiko's downed form as soon as the other team members arrived, leaving Tankyusha to continue the task of scanning around.

"Brilliant, Dirjon-Hei. That was a flawless landing." She praised the Nepleslian's speed, grimly smiling face looking extra spooky in the dark with those reflective eyes. Her hand had intended to pat the man on the shoulder, but since he was a little too tall for that, it just ended up clunking against the center of his Daisy's chest plate. "I'm sorry, but we still don't know much about the area. Would you mind scouting it out a bit more with Tankyusha-Hei? It's more dangerous for him than any of us. I'll join you in a moment."

"Santo Hei Taharial, I presume?" There was a quick bow along with a hasty introduction, her mind on other things. Regardless of the situation, the soldier sounded immensely respectful. "Welcome to the team. Aikiko-Hei here has-"

Suddenly, the unconscious brown-haired woman began to stir, and caused Tsuguka to cut off her sentence completely. She quickly reclined down to her hands and knees, and put her transparent faceplate close to Akikio's.

"Aikikio, you're... You're okay! Does it hurt!?" The red neko closed her eyes into slits and arced her angular eyebrows inward, the face of someone suppressing a mountain of emotions they didn't understand. After a moment of listening to what the woman had to say, she chose her reply carefully. "I... I don't think I can do that without breaking the seal... You'll get carbon dioxide poisoning..."

Her hands popped the safety latch and freed the manipulator arm unit itself, just to make things a bit more comfortable, but that still left the SPINE hard point panel beneath it. As a solid, integral part of the suit's outer shell, it wasn't like she could just twist it around with her bare hands. "I'm turning the brain wave monitoring system on." The neko touched her on the shoulder lightly, and began accessing the suit's AI remotely. "It's what non-synthetics like Dirjon-Hei use to control their power armors. It will take a while to calibrate and you'll lack some functions, but you should be able to move in a few moments... Well, as long as it isn't damaged too."

Click to expand...

"Thank you ma'am," he wasn't expecting a compliment as he hadn't broken someone. Seeing her concern for Aikiko made him wonder just how much her dossier didn't tell. She was in no way less intimidating to him but more comfortable to know that she too was a person.

Despite his own personal concern for Aikiko's well being he remained vigilant, ready to follow Tank's lead.

Ames said:

Splorfin 14, Bottom of the Shaft

Tank winced at the sight of Aikiko's back. Well, he thought, at least her spine isn't broken. He gave a thoughtful nod to the new medic. He'd let her do her thing before getting in her way.

Tsuguka's map came to him in bits. This was certainly a facility, not just some random bit of tech. It was hard to tell if Tsuguka's bunker theory was right or not just yet. It looked like the nearby passage led to a series of concentric passageways around the central shaft. A handful of smaller vertical shafts broke the ceiling of each ring, leading to who knows where, and a few things that were definitely crystalline doors were found as well. They looked tall at around 3 meters each.

One of the drones had its attention caught by a small, vent-like opening on one of the rings' walls. It wasn't the first one, but a sound had drawn it in. Lights splayed into the darkness of the two foot wide opening and then scattered. Something behind the wall zipped by, too fast to get a good image. The drone, ever faithful, followed after it and went silent.

"Ah, I know we're all busy," the android remarked, looking at the group huddling around Aikiko, "but I'd like to mention that we just lost a drone to some form of hostile action."

Click to expand...

"Copy that, I'll give it a warning," Dirjon said as he switched his HUD into combat mode. He rose into the air with his strobe lights flashing and rifle at the ready. His three drones took to flight to monitor every corner while floating directly above him ready to alert him the moment the enemy showed itself.

His exterior speakers cracked. "This is your only warning! Identify yourself now or-" he never was very good at sounding official, "I swear I will send you crying to your mother!"

Volcano

Taharail looked at the Neko and smiled "well with that fix your back should heal back to normal in no time, but I think you should sit down till your fully healed, I don't want you to suddenly take a turn, you may go unconscious again and I don't want you to fall to the floor again", she had a bit of worry in her voice and looked over at Tsuguka "you seem to be close to Aikiko here, do you think you could stay here until the cute miss Aikiko and me while i keep an eye on her functions". Taharial smirked at the two people and winced again and looked down "stupid suit" she looked back up "sorry my wings are so uncomfortable in this", she smiled then turned to tank "you know what that means, there is going to be some fun soon".

YSS Eucharis Starboard Wing Crawlspace

Blissfully unaware of the ongoing drama outside Kale found himself wedged into a small maintainance duct in the starboard wing. It was relatively cramped and uncomfortably hot. Dragging himself around a corner he came to a small ish panel in the wall marked Engine B Connection Terminal. Tapping in his security code this panel slid aside allowing access to a universal dataport and systems console.

Kale brought the system into maintainance mode, preventing the starboard engine from firing if something went wrong, and then attached his Computer pad to the terminal.


Kale ran his hand through his hair as he contemplated the screen for a second.

'They really needed to put air conditoning in here'


The cursor sat there blinking at him. Nothing was ever simple. Kale sighed, he figured he better message the captain about this before proceeding to perform the requested inspection.

Message sent. Two minutes later found the beleagured engineer once again crawling further into the depths of the starboard wing.

Volcano

Aikiko focused on the job at hand, "hai!" acknowledging the newcomer. She stood there momentary running checks, feeling the pain in her back fade away into that irratating healing itch that you can't reach to relieve, making her irritatable. She felt the intergration of her Manupilator Arm system kick in and fade. She ran through the test to make sure the impact didn't ruin them. She extended each one to the fullest extent and moved them through a bunch of maneuvers.

She listened to the conversation between the others of her group. Going through all the information that's been gathered and currently being collected if allowed.

Volcano Pit

After helping Aikiko finish re-attaching her manipulator arm system and right herself, Tsuguka leaned inwards to better make full eye contact. Her face was a little agitated, fighting off the continually escalating situation in her ear, but the effort she put into making sure Akiashiro was in one piece couldn't be doubted. Satisfied, she immediately hoisted up Aikiko's rifle into a ready status within the Santo Hei's arms.

"...Akiashiro-Hei... Defend the medic, Taharial, and secure the rear, please." Maybe it was harsh, but they were both soldiers, and they were evidently under attack. Feelings of guilt aside, putting one person above all of the rest was reckless. "Don't... Just don't push yourself too hard, okay?..."

"Taharial-Hei, keep an eye on her, please." The sombre voice didn't seem very interested in sitting around and cooing the other soldier back into health. "Sorry, but I'm the team leader. Our Shosho is trusting me to handle this as I was trained. I would not betray my oaths even if it was me who was injured."

Making a few dozen paces away first to avoid spraying them with hot plasma and gravel, Tsuguka then activated her thrusters and skidded down the tunnel after Dirjon and Tankyusha.

"Team, concentrate on identifying the enemy." The oni growled, straining as her body was forced through a tight corner. She had been continuously caught off guard all day, and the practice was making her more than a little vindictive now. "You have permission to open fire on any hostile action, just fight defensively, and don't bring down the tunnel on top of yourself. I want complete scans for anything that even resembles a power signature down here. I'm on my way personally as I speak."

Volcano

Aikiko looked back at Tugs crunching her face, then gave a soft smile that didn't reach her eyes. She took her weapon back when handed to her. She nodded to Tsuguka. And listened to her orders. "Aye aye Tugs Nito." The looking over at Talarial.

"After you, Medic," Aikiko spoke in her usual soft manner. Abit cold with respect, "Oh wait.. you can't moves as fast as the rest of us in that suit." She used her Manupilaror arms to pick up Talarial and tucking her in close to her front with Talarial facing forward and with the longer reach of her Mindy, still could hold her assault weapon at ready. "If you are uncomfortable, let me know and I'll find a way to carry you better, Medic."

She took off after Tsuguka, moving quickly, using her inate ability and Mindy's, gave chase after Tsuguka. Once again losing ground at the bend in the corridor. Having to carefully navigate the bend. If the two in front slowed down, maybe Aikiko with Talarial could catch up. It didn't help matters when she had to keep an eyes on the route they just took to prevent any unwanted from sneaking up on them.

Splorfin 14, Artifact Passageway

Dirjon arrived first - pieces of the drone were slowly falling out of a vent in the wall, clearly being shoved from within. The bits, spilling to the ground with a sharp ringing noise that echoed through the passage, were being collected by a handful of small, three legged things that seemed to be made of the same stuff as the walls. They let out a shrill noise like glass dragging across glass when the light hit them and quickly disappeared from view.

Tankyusha trotted up a moment later, pistol in hand as though the heavily armed and armored man needed his backup. "Dirjon-Hei, is everything alright? I heard a strange noise."

***

Meanwhile, Tsuguka found a new passageway entrance that wasn't on the map as she hurried toward the others. It looked like it had been there all along, but the map was clear - this was a new opening. It was also the first one to have some form of its own light, however dim.

Those things made the passage worthy of note; the steady tap tap tap ... tap tap tap ... of something that sounded considerably larger than the two males had encountered thus far? That made it interesting.

Volcano

Taharial looked at Aikiko quickly "No, this is perfectly fine", she looked back to the front and kept an eye out for anything that could be considered dangerous "sorry of holding you up, it seems I have been more a burden to the team than a help," she sighed a bit but smiled. "At least I can try and help." Taharial heard a slight tapping that seemed to come from all around the two "that is worrying" she tried to pin point which way the sound was coming from but the echo was making it too hard to try, she looked straight ahead and gulped "can you still fight with me here?" she wanted her crew mates to be able to protect themselves above her protection.

Volcano

"It's what I've been trained to do and we'll find out, Medic." Aikiko spoke matter of factly as she began to catch up with Tsuguka. Taking into account of Taharial, Aikiko would simply drop Taharial to ground which would be a two -three feet drop and manuever around her. "If I need to drop you. You move to the right, cause I'll be moving to the left to get by you."

The tapping sounds were beginning to annoy her abit. They definitely wasn't coming from behind her as she checked again to make sure.