RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 3] Expanding Horizons II (YE 39)

Dungeon

Junko waited for Masumi to finish up with the console. In the meantime, she looked over the initial Eucharis data on the planetoid. Started by the docks and looked for a breach in the hull. Somewhere, anywhere, the Hierophant could enter.

Once the door was open and the rest of the armor team could try and link up, she'd turn back to the Rixxikor trod path. Turned from solid to silhouette to glassy mirage. "Keep back at least 30 meters at all times. Looser we are, harder to spot we are."

Well, that, and if she suddenly blew up, she didn't want to take the other two down with her. But that wasn't something she figured people would appreciate on their minds.

She began to move, making sure to double check what she was seeing before moving. And when she did move, it was careful and deliberate. Photonics didn't do anything for masking sound. Made sure to avoid anything soft or wet, like Rixx droppings, so she didn't give herself away or leave a trail.

She was expecting traps of some sort when she stopped and checked every corner. Either from the Rixx, or the planetoids enigmatic builders. Definitely didn't seem to be Kuvexian anymore. So far they'd just run into automatic systems on their last legs, but she didn't want to get complacent.

Metal Planet

The outer airlock doorway jerkily opened in front of Masumi to reveal open space above, with the underside of the Eucharis looming overhead in the "sky" above the barren surface. It was very quiet and she mainly heard the sounds her own breathing and her armor suit softly running.

Saiga could see a little poof of mist come out from the airlock as it was successfully opened, followed by a volumetric arrow that appeared over it.

Eucharis

Tan Ann Pan arrived in a flash justoutside the Eucharis armor bay. The armor doored door that made side of the bay was open, so she was easily able to cross the air forcefield. Victory's body was badly mangled by the explosion in the shuttle and the subsequent exposure to vaccuum, but might be salvageable.

Dungeon

There was no sign of a larger opening for the Hierophant mecha yet, but surely there were cargo-size entrances around here. The Eucharis could probably find the exterior ones better than she could. As she neared the hatch into the next section, she could see that there was Rixxikor poop on that door handle too, and a remote sensor array, including a camera, set up on a tripod near the door.

Surface

"Good work, Masumi-Hei" Natsumi said as the airlock slid open. She started forward, crossing the threshold into the airlock, where the others were, taking visual inventory of the wrecked robot and everything else in there. "We're going to need to find a bigger entrance for that machine" she indicated the Hierophant. Shewas also glad her Mindy armor prevented her from smelling the rixxicore droppings that were all over the place. Could they not go anywhere without defiling the place?

"Yamashiro to Eucharis. Any larger airlocks or portals on sensors that thee Hierophant could fit through?" she asked, pausing in her advance into the airlock. "Mr. Bronzi, Mr. Wazu, until we can find another entrance for you, you guys are going to have to play door guard. Everyone else, let's begin exploring inside" she said and walked over to where Tsuguka was.

"Everyone here alright?" she asked the red neko.

Surface -> Airlock

Freyja released Victory's body to Pan and waited for orders. When none came she said, "This is Yuuki-hei, I am going to take a look at one of these robots unless you have any further orders, Taii." She reactivated her CFS and flew over to one of the silent sentinels of the synthetic planetoid that was mostly intact. She got the feeling that they were watching and waiting for her to let her guard down.

Shaking off the eerie feeling, she examined the robot, starting at the feet and working her way up. Freyja looked for any signs of what had caused the robot to stop functioning. She checked for any signs of what civilization had made the colossi.

She sent all of the video back to the Eucharis for Jackson to review. "Eucharis, sending you visual data on these robots. I would like to request Jackson-heisho take a look and let us know if he can tell us anything about them."

Natsumi's response to the airlock opening drew her attention. She got back to the airlock quickly, following the XO in. Her stomach turned at the sight of Rixxikor excrement all over the place. "Disgusting creatures," Freyja muttered. She saw that Junko was fine, but she still felt horrible for not going after her.

Dungeon

Tsuguka kept pace with Junko, about fifteen meters back, but was ever mindful about retaining a line of sight which lead all the way back to Masumi, and thus the airlock. Getting lost was no good, and having enemies cut them off would be even worse. Her gun was raised, ready to pummel anything that came down on their scout, but her brain was still annoyingly full of network information, interfering with her concentration.

"No casualties to report, Taii." A response to Natsumi. "But there are enemy sensors. I suggest full team camouflage, with infantry specialists making a combined push. That includes you too, Nito Hei Yuuki."

"Mister Wazu..." Another radio link. "Is there a specific part that we should be retrieving from these robots, for data storage purposes? I would not suggest getting out of that... Erm, leg tank as the situation is, but... Well, it would be nice to know what actually did all this damage."

That damn trail of crap. Such an obvious, linear path. It was easy to believe that these creatures were useless idiots, but some of them also seemed to count on aliens thinking that, in her experience... This was no time for acting on impulse.

"Junko-Hei... Don't get in too far... I've seen Suites-Heisho get his foot sniped off by these creeps, even in cloak." An extremely cautious tone. "Use Masumi-Hei's Support Bits... And poke, not slash, please. I can't cover you in melee, not with grenades..."

Entrance to Dungeon

"Good to see you all again," Masumi said in relief and bent her head to get a view of Candon's own power armored form. Then she looked at Natsumi-Taii with a face of concern that could not be seen beneath her helmet and Masumi said, "My NSB's are leading the way for Tsuguka-heisho and Junko-hei. I hope you are all receiving the feed from them?"

- - -

Candon nodded back at Masumi succinctly before he walked forward as per the Taii's orders and looked one way inside of the metal dungeon and then another at the feces-produced graffiti. He was getting feed from Masumi's NSB's as well as Tsuguka's report and could tell what they were about to face could be helped by using his LSP. He centered his head, camouflaged himself, and plunged forward into the metal dungeon until he could make out Tug's form in front of him. When close enough to Junko's position but still hanging back a bit, he began remote scans through his LSP utilizing the Transmetaphasic Quantum Particle/wave Remote Detection Device on level 10 to detect any mass larger than 20 kg or 44 pounds beyond the hatch.

Dungeon

Looked like the Rixxikor were smart enough to watch their backs. Or someone had the sense to tell them to do it. Either case, good chance someone was watching the feed from both. Destroying either would put them on alert.

She'd have to avoid detection and spoof them, rig up a loop showing no activity as usual. Used her AIES to verify both equipments capabilities and sensory spectrums before choosing the best way to approach. Assuming the atmosphere was as non-existent as other places, and it wouldn't alert the sensors otherwise, she could just teleport into their blind spot. Find a path around, through the derelict interior under stealth mode, perhaps.

And, on Tsuguka's advice, expect that one of them may have put mines or something to welcome her.

Either way, she had to clear a path for the rest of the armor team, and herself, to continue.

"Your breaking my balls, ma'am." Junko mock-groused back at Tsuguka. She'd brought these swords for a reason, damnit!

"See anything on the other side?" She asked Candon. Knew she'd have to open it eventually, because of course she would. Some heads up would be appreciated though. Speaking of heads up, she sent a comm up to the CO while she waited for him to finish.

"Natsumi-Taii. Recommend we send all map data up to the Eucharis. Charisma can parse and collate the information and send it back to us in regular updates." That'd give them a backup for the nav data, and the rest of the team wouldn't need to rediscover old territory. At least now she was getting some use out of the bits.

YSS Eucharis, to the Medical Center

Tan Ann Pan hurried inside the Eucharis, landing on her feet briefly before hovering toward the exit from the power armour bay. Since so little time had passed, she felt she could afford to bow to procedure and set down her patient with care and tarry long enough to remove her helmet, leave her Mindy back on the racks, pull out a stretcher, lay Victory down, and haul her on through the decontamination area without disturbing her further.

With her patient in such a state, CPR was no use. There was little else to do but bring her to the medical center, keeping her head and spine stable and the rest of her body more or less intact, to speed up repairs. Damage beyond the vitals was relatively superficial, at this state of injury. Broken bones, blood loss; even ruptured organs, severed nerves and torn arteries made little difference, all macrometabolic processes were essentially shut down. Any injuries that didn't interfere with restoring brain function, or the regeneration process would make no difference to Victory.

There was some practical value in making sure she stayed in one piece, but that wasn't so difficult in this case. None of the injuries she'd suffered had significantly damaged her muscle layers, save where broken bone had torn through them, or the burn had been 'fourth-degree'. She had yet to diagnose either at a glance, but she hadn't had a chance to clean Victory's wounds yet. She had confirmed broken bones just by handling her, and the blood stains were obvious, though.

Though Tan Ann Pan was not in a rush, waiting for a full decontamination procedure was pushing it. She gave herself and her patient a quick fifteen second scrub, mostly to disinfect, and then, once she'd moved Victory into the laboratory on her stretcher and sealed the room once more, she stripped the pilot down, performed a quick scan to see where her bones were out of place, hastily removed a few small and particularly dangerous fragments with a scalpel and forceps, and sprayed on some instant bandages.

Confident that her patient's risk of organ failure wasn't going to get any lower from fussing over her broken bones, and that her spinal column wasn't going to shift suddenly while transporting her again, Tan Ann Pan gently raised Victory into the corner Hemosynth Reconstruction Tube, and activated it, with instructions to first restore and restart her patient's cardiovascular system, then to scan and mend her bones, and only last to regrow her soft tissues, all before she would have to awake again, to confirm that she hadn't suffered any serious brain damage that might require some degree of restoration from backup.

Tan Ann Pan stayed to monitor the process, though as soon as the first step of the reconstruction was well in progress, she elected to report. It had been a minute and a half since the shuttle had begun its last flight with Victory at the helm. "The patient, Victory-Heisho, is undergoing reconstruction. I can return to the battle if necessary or stay to improve her odds somewhat more, here."

Her tone was cold, but not emotionless. Deep down, she certainly felt she could have avoided this, though rather than feel guilt or anger, there was more of an emptiness borne of the belief that her mistake was inevitable, as was the confusion that led up to it. Not knowing if such a pattern was bound to continue, she would keep a grim outlook until it begun to break, though she made the decision unconsciously.

Bronzi took Saiga's posturing as the sign that he was indeed misjudging the situation. The mission whole less than organized or stable was still moving forward. So Bronzi had to give the Yamatians credit for that. They did not shy away in the face of mistakes. Truth be told the RRF, and the mercenary troupes he had been with likely would have aborted the operation as a result of this much trouble. The SOFT team may not have given the best first impression, but they didn't quit. Admitting folly however did need to happen if improvements were to be made.

The mission was still on, and its success depended on everybody doing what they were told by the CO.

"Aye Taii-Sama. We can move about out here. Maybeh figger out wuddup with all them dead bots." With that Bronzi advanced over to the nearest cluster of robot bodies. He knew a battle when he saw one and it appeared that besides being dead of course-- the machines were on the defensive. So the question of the moment was if it was Rixxihor that had defeated this army or something else. Wazu had access to the scanners on the Heirophant, yet Bronzi could see with the direct cameras. He zoomed in on the down machines. "Graveyards always made meh uneasy." He snorted

Dungeon Delving

Saiga followed Natsumi in, moving through the AIES-generated volumetric arrow that let the team know the entry point was now open. It disappeared from his view once he'd cleared the "checkpoint" just like in a VCE game or training program. He advanced into the alien station with his shield forward and aimed his Aether/Scalar SMG from a ready position with its rifle butt pressed up against his right shoulder, prepared to acquire and track enemy contacts at a moment's notice.

Back Seat

"I was hoping to get my hands on one and find out," Wazu said in response to Tugs' question about what part to take from the crippled robot. "I do not know what the interior components look like, but there should be one that covers data storage and control. It will likely be a small box with ample shock absorption and electrical isolation around it. And would also have small control wires leading from it to the rest of the bot. Thicker wires probably means that it is a power distribution device rather than a computer."

He would recall the small drone he sent out to the crashed shuttle, and leave the other hanging overhead to keep watch for anything coming inward,

"Are we sure it is dead?" He asked Bronzi, "It may make more sense to just turn off these robots when their work is finished rather than take them to some storage area.

... We should try and dismantle it. I brought tape so we can stick the parts we want to take to the Hierophant. Though obviously we should not take the entire robot.

How good are you with the Hierophant's hands?"

"I reckon if if they weren't dead, a few of em'd be walkin up to us by now. Usually there's a dud lurkin ready ta hit da on switch, ya know?"

Bronzi manipulated the hands of the
by well, moving his own fingers. The machine was slaved to his movements. "Ya. About as good with em as I am muh own." The gartagen responded with his rather uncouth accent.

He moved the heirophant over to a corpse saw near by and grabbed it unceremoniously by the leg and picked it up. "Sura is the bot expert tho." He said to wazu.

"Might be able to get her on the horn." He said as he pulled the chest plate of the robot off and discarded it."

Back Seat

"Sure, feed her the video we've got so far." Wazu said, watching as Bronzi worked on tearing apart the robot.

There were entirely too few wires and devices in the robot.

"Look at the grain on the casing, no wielding marks either. It looks 3d printed. Just start tearing parts off it slowly and we can start getting an idea of what is inside."

Bridge

Sura was silently trying to get off the bridge. The mission below as best she could figure was turning out to be a rather rough one. But she did not want to annoy the Captian so having delivered her package, she decided it was time to go. Until the moment her data jockey on her wrist flickered indicating she was getting a message. From none other than her father. She heard his heavy grinding voice in her head "Ay. Kid. Answer her shit already!"

Sura taking care. It to be in anybody's way on the relatively small bridge ducked off and flicked open her data jockey. It began projecting a three dimensional holographic image above her for arm. Sura inhaled sharply at what she was seeing. Robots were her specialty. Her passion. She enjoyed the coding. The engineering. Actually building them. They were pure. The AI were innocent.

This dead robot was something she had only read about. And he ones that did exist we're never made in such numbers. Sura spoke in a hushed tone. " That's not a robot."

"That is a whole bunch of tiny robots. Nanites judging by the lack of wiring and circuitry. No central processor. Now how would they be powered? Forming up and working in synchronized form....."

Would pause as she spoke more to Wazu at this point. "Remote power field. Uh....those machines may not be dead. They may just be powered down. If so....if the power field is deactivated that army is going to wake back up....."

Wardroom

The lift doors slid open, and Jax walked into the wardroom, holding Fumiko on his hip while the other hand held his data pad, complete with live-feed of the dead "not robot".

"Alright, munchkin, I gotta work," he told the baby neko as he set her down. "I need you to do me a favor and stay in your room with an AMES. If anything happens, I want you to put it on and lock the door and don't open it unless one of the crew comes to get you."

Through Freyja's video feed, he could see Wazu and- Bronzi? Yeah, Bronzi.- Tearing apart the machine for analysis. The best bet would be to consolidate their efforts. Jax patched himself through to their channel. After listening to a few lines, he quirked an eyebrow. There was another child on the ship. But this one wasn't as young as Fumiko, and she seemed highly knowledgeable about machinery.

Awesome! Another like-minded fellow!

"Yo, Wazu. Gimme your feed as well. Uh, Sura? This is Jax, the local tech-guy. Could you meet me down in Fabrication? We'd be better equipped to deal with this in there."

And so, he sent the younger gartagen a map of the ship with a flashing, red dot to signify the location of his "home away from home". Down there, he had a whole arsenal of goodies with which to run experiments and such. Not to mention, a much larger display which would be more comfortable than squinting at a data pad.

Jax turned on his heel, nose still buried in the screen, his tail absent-mindedly swishing with fascination.

Fabrication

The lift doors hissed open, and Jax stepped into the large space. He opened the comms to speak with the rest of the away team.

"Okay, so... I have a theory. Based on this thing's design, I'd bet good money that the armor is weakest on the underside. Mines and other pre-placed explosives would work best. Lure it over the trap, and boom! The hard-points where the legs meet up with the main shell would also be good places to concentrate fire, but you'd still have to deal with the cannons up top."

As he spoke, he compiled his feeds onto two large viewscreens at his workstation. On the screen beside those, he began constructing a 3-D schematic of the "crab-bot".

"Note: Make up better name than 'crab-bot'." He told his FAR over his shoulder. It muttered a small "affirmative" and added it to Jax's to-do list.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Yamashiro to Eucharis. Any larger airlocks or portals on sensors that the Hierophant could fit through?"

Click to expand...

"Yes, we can see some. I am sending the coordinates to you and the rest of the team now," Hanako said.

After she replied, she asked the bridge crew "could someone take over communications with the away team? I need to test a theory."

Metal Planet - Dungeon

Although many of the interior spaces were cramped in this area, the planet itself was large and there were an endless amount of nooks and crannies to explore. The away team could go in any direction, including down, to find more and more technological gizmos and cabling. It was like being an ant wandering around inside of an air craft carrier's engine space. It was also basically spelunking. There were few straight corridors and bizarre, disorienting "caves" between the mechanical wiring and circuity. Additionally, almost nothing was labeled on the inside except for what previous explorers had marked with stickers and spraypaint in a dozen alien scripts. The more they explored, the more they found the remains of previous explorers. There were skeletons in space suits, more defeated robots, and more dead Rixxikor.

Menawhile Candon's scan said there were almost certainly some Rixxikor on the other side of the hatch.

Metal Planet - Surface

Freya could see the robots were pock marked with holes from some sort of high powered energy weapons or plasma weapons. There were scorch marks on them and parts where their armor had melted. Additionally the robots seemed to come in a variety of form factors. There were direct-fire warrior robots and also some artillery ones and even some matching stationary structures in the distance.

A small drone of some sort zipped by in the "sky" over the away team, circling once and then continuing on its way.

Fabrication

Sura walked into the fabrication area having followed the map Jax provided. She had noted the damage to the robots, but the thing was robots didn't feel pain and typically didn't go down as easily as flesh. More so, that force looked rather specialized indicating this place was clearly designed for a fight.

Sura cautiously approached jack but saw he was already hard at work. The young Gartagen woman spoke softly. "Uh....that's a cute crabby-bot."

Surface

Bronzi continued to work when the scanner went off indicating something was incoming. He held the robot with the heirophants left hand, and made his right hand free. He gave the small scanner a swift hard punch with his fist. "Damn thing is on da fritz." He snorted a star he got back to work. The pinging stopped.


"Ay, these bots are distinct. Looks liek dey all had jobs like a real armeh."

Dungeon

"Thank you, Shosho" Natsumi replied as the word of other entrances came, along with the sensor data from the ship orbiting high above.

"Mr. Bronzi, Mr. Wazu, sensor data with the location of alternate entrances coming your way" she said to the two in the large Gartagan armor outside, making sure the information was downloaded to them as well. She looked about the space they were now in, examining the details her eyes saw and what her sensors told her.

"Everyone stick together, now is not the time to all go running off on our own" she said to the people gathered inside with her. "We don't know what is hiding in this place, or how many tunnels there are and where they go" She frownd. "I think we can be assured that there are more of these guard robots along with the Rixxicore crawling around... Junko, Masumi, as we advance into this place, I'd like your nodal bits to be the advanced scouts, send them ahead of the team, hopefully if there is anything waiting ahead they will find out for us so it's not a surprise" she said and walked over to where Candon was examining the inner hatch.

"What have you got?" she asked him.

Metal Dungeon

Masumi nodded and followed behind the Taii. Candon found an ideal position in the metal dungeon they found themselves in and then both Candon and Masumi looked to one another. Masumi sidled up behind the SAINT agent and then Candon spoke in an even tone.

"There are definitely life signs of the Rixxikor inside. I'm not getting much else."

Metal Dungeon

Suddenly the metal hatch hissed open, revealing a large, slimy Rixxikor. "SUP BITCHES!" it loudly greeted, waving its razor-sharp arms over its head in an attention-getting way. "FRIXXAQZ IS HERE!" The alien creature was wearing a beat up leather jacket and had a utility belt with a huge number of scanners, devices, and of course a gun. Additional Rixxikor soon began to poke their heads out in curiosity to see what Frixxaqz found.