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RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 4] The Sleeping Giant (YE 39)

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #28

Junko's scans did not reveal anything more of interest in the room with the remains of the acid-shooting fire beetles.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #60
"Shosho, this is Eucharis actual, ten enemy vessels have just entered the system. I am going to evade them as long as I can, but I suggest the away mission be scrubbed and that all hands return to the ship asap"
Click to expand...
Hanako briefly looked around the empty room before returning to the bulk of the away team by way of the moldy passageway. "Away team, this is the captain. It looks like there are enemy ships arriving in the system and they probably are looking for a fight. If we do fight them, the Eucharis will need all hands to fight them, so we should return to the ship immediately." She paused a little. "Optionally, we could leave a very small team behind to keep exploring, but if the Eucharis has to leave the system to survive it means you could be here for months, maybe even a year, in this very hostile environment, before we can come back and get you," she added.
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth
Outside Rooms 28 and 81

Freyja dashed into the corridor behind Noriko. When she saw the bodies she relaxed a little. She moved a few steps closer to get a better look at the bodies. "They appear to be staked to the wall with... tent spikes," she noted. "It's possible the bodies are meant to be a warning. We should be extra vigilant from here on."

Hanako's voice in her ears relieved her. The news she had was disappointing though. She really didn't want to leave right now. This place had sent them packing twice now. It was beginning to feel personal. "I would like to volunteer to stay, Shosho. I am aware of the risks, but I feel that I owe it to the crew to see this through after my failure with the Rixxikor." Freyja said. "My only request is that you get Fumiko safely back to Yamatai if possible."

She bristled at being ordered by Masumi. It felt insulting to be told how to do her job, especially by someone of similar rank in a different specialty. Freyja advanced to the doorway as she likely would have done anyway. She readied her weapon and tried the door.
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth, Room 81

The newest Neko looked every bit a statue in her power armor as the Hanako spoke.

"If enemy reinforcements have arrived Shôshô, it is prudent that we withdraw from this place immediately," Noriko began, her words plain and level. "Ideally, after we have retrieved all members of our team," the cool headed Neko quickly added. Checking over her Mindy's systems, Noriko attempted to triangulate Candon's location as she looked over to the science officer, Masumi, who hopefully had better sensors. "Nitô Hei, have you managed to triangulate his transmission origin? If not, I will begin a random breach of the two doors here."
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth
Room 81

"No other signals besides radio communications work and his LSP is encrypted with mine; ours would be the most likely to be able to communicate fully." Masumi's reply was elongated as she followed behind Freyja into the next room, saying to the snow-haired and frosty Neko, "Breach the other door. Continue on both of you —Yontô Hei and Santo Hei— until further orders to cease action come from the Shôshô."

Then, over what she hoped was a private line to Feyja and the captain only, she said, "I know, because of what the captain said, that you, Yontô Hei, that you are still everyone's personal servant so I want you to find Candon-heisho! This is your job if you stay on this metal planet. It is what the Shôshô ordered of you last night and what you will do as my personal servant! Understood?!"
 
Machine Planet, Bird watching zone

Wazu was already breathing hard, lugging around the space suit while running after the red one and trying to setup some bird watching equipment was taxing for a baseline human.

"I wonder how many ships are up there..." Wazu said, more to himself than to Bronzi. He really wanted to finish studying these birds... he certainly could leave some gear behind... he was already connecting some of his datapads to the floating flash lights to use as makeshift drones... he'd stuff his modem somewhere too so that he could maintain connection, but there wasn't exactly a lot of places he could hide a bag full of computer parts. Wazu would sit down where he was, placing his back against the wall, and frown as he assembled his drones.

... it would be so much easier to just defeat the Kuvexian ships...

Wazu frowned, there was no easy way to do that without possibly killing someone. But maybe taking a slow approach would allow the Kuvexians to leave without too much bloodshed.

He opened a channel to Natsumi.

"Hey, I'm sending you a combat script. The spread mode on your main weapon outrages conventional weapons by a lot. Usually you can not hit anything out side of 3 light seconds and I remember the ASC having a better range than that. If you stay at near maximum distance they will not be able to hit you, but you will be able to land shock cannon hits on their ships. So long as you stay out of conventional weapon range the Eucharis will not be in danger." Wazu send the script he had written to automate an ASC equipped ship fighting and kiting.

Of course this all hinged on the Kuvexians not having an ASC of their own... but if it came to that Wazu already had a fall back plan.

and speaking of fallback plans, Wazu would open a channel to Tugs,

"Bronzi and I do not have teleport packs, and our ride is stuck in the tunnel entrance. Would you mind helping us get back to the ship if we have to leave in a hurry?"
 
Bronzi trudged through the tunnels with Wazu. He seemed intent on studying these birds, so he pushed on after the birds. As they ran Bronzi fiddled with his rifle trying to get it to have a very low power setting. He rerouted a wire, and then paused taking aim.

PZAAAAAP!!!!!

A small underpowered bolt raced out and struck one of the birds, but the red one was safe. The poor defenseless animal dropped down and squawked weakly. It was still alive. “Uhhhh. Well I got yer bird. Wanna try an get a boy so Dey can boink an make lil bird babbys?”
 
"Bronzi!" Wazu looked up from what he was doing for a moment, then looked over at the bird. "I... hm... I do not think I really have the facilities to study the bird, even if we got both of them... though... how long does that stun setting last? Which is a stupid question for me to ask because you have no way of knowing how effective a stun setting would be on a creature you just met...." He would shuffle over to the doorway, and peek around the corner, taking a look at the status of the bird.

It would be a lot easier to study like this.
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth
Room 81

Though the Mindy-clad Nekovalkyrja stared at Masumi with her faceless helm, she didn't utter a word as Masumi detailed her connection with Candon. "Understood," Noriko coolly replied to the scientist. Turning about with a crisp, precise step, the Neko immediately began getting to work on the next door. If checking the systems and trying to open it normally didn't work, a more brute-force method was necessary. Volumetric tools first, and if not, the aether saber would do.
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth
Hangin' Around Hanako

The exploration of this metal moon hadn't been particularly eventful for Saiga-chusa — at least insofar as as away missions where weapons fire occurred was uneventful — and he stayed near the Shosho and others assigned to her command squad. Fighting alongside a leader with Hanako's experience and skill left little for the Geshrin SAINT to do than shoot his gun where she told him to when she told him to do it.

News from the Eucharis made things a little more interesting, though. For Saiga, the most prudent plan seemed to be the one that involved staying behind while their famous gunship fled away to safety. Not even the mighty Eucharis fared well against the odds she'd been given, if intelligence reports about the capability of Kuvexian ships were anything to heed. Even the away team's return would shave off precious moments that Hanako's ship would need to survive the impending assault.

But Saiga had spent months and years behind enemy lines before, and wasn't in the mood for an extended camping trip now. So Hanako's estimation for rescue certainly gave him pause. Surely the First Expeditionary would be able to mount a swift rescue attempt for Yui's favored apprentice, sending 20 Plumeria-class gunships where the Kuvexians sent ten of their own design. Plus, the away team hadn't even scratched the surface when it came to the labyrinth-world's secrets — and shot anything else interesting they'd come across.

"I'd recommend we stay so that the Eucharis can survive," the Chusa's voice came over comms with the telltale gravelly tone someone gets when they haven't spoken in a while. "Needing to wait for our exfil will needlessly jeopardize the ship's safety and we'll be nigh-impossible for the Kuvies to track wherever we go on this station. There's no reason to believe they would simply destroy this place, either, so we should be safe if we play it safe. Maybe there's still something hiding here that can help us attain victory, too.

"However, if you'd prefer to fly out and give them a last stand alongside your ship, I will gladly support you in the endeavor, Shosho," Saiga admitted, idly going through the motions to guarantee his Aether/Scalar SMG was still good-to-go. "The important thing with that choice is to ensure the 'last' part doesn't happen."
 

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room 63

As their conversation about autographs was interrupted, the two Rixxikor hobos turned around, staring at Tsuguka's illusionary form. "What," the one of the left looked on with suspicion, "...in Grixxloy's name is this motherfucker," he asked out of the side of this mouth while maintaining eye contact with the newcomer.

"Sheeeit, just act cool," the one on the right replied in a hushed undertone. "Sheeeit, I got this." He stepped forward holding both hands up in the air with peace signs. "Ahoy fellow traveller, we do indeed find that flying creature edible. Sheeeeeit."

"This motherfucker glows a little, you know he's probably volumetric right?" the Rixxkor in the back astutely observed, gripping some sort of weapon uneasily.

"Sheeeeeeeit." The closer Rixxikor glanced back for a moment. "What help you need?"
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room 63

From listening to the calm and collected field reports of Noriko, to the odd slang of the Rixxikor, to the uneasy questioning of Wazu, to reports of their impending demise at the hands of an entire fleet of enemy ships... Tsuguka ended up just grunting out loud, brooding over how complex the situation had gotten so quickly.

"Well you're a smart one." The fake bug-person answered, now using Tsuguka's actual voice. "No harm meant, through, compadre... You know anything about this place? Who built it? Who... Erm, jazzed it up so bad?... How long has it been all rusty round' da edges like?..."

That was how you talk cool, isn't it? Jax said to take it more easy and all...

Out of anything, she had her digital ears open listening if Masumi's group had found Candon. That would be the real deciding factor over wherever Tsuguka stayed or not. Even Hanako could technically be rebooted from a back up, in the worst case scenario, but not if the entire ship was destroyed... So her overall instinct was, admittedly, just to have the ship immediately flee.

"Shosho, this is Tsuguka-Heisho. I agree with our Chusa." A tense pause, through their voice was traditionally cold as always. "If anyone doesn't feel psychologically ready for this, I would suggest teleporting back to the ship immediately. But, personally, I still feel like there is a foothold to be gained here."

That feeling of grit seeping in. Staring down the concept of several long months without creature comforts... But it was exactly what the Kuvexians wouldn't expect, abandoning one of their own teams in the dirt.

Another pace. She had acknowledged Wazu and Bronzi's predicament too, she just wasn't sure what to do about it.

They were also uniquely aware of still being a giant tall bug-pastiche-thing, standing there in total silence, looming above two random stranger aliens with probably more than a little motive to start tossing grenades at her.

"Have you got the bird?" Was the eventual reply communicated into the Nepleslian's ear, abrupt and without time for sounding sympathetic. This could be her own death, too. "I need to give it to these Rix. It was a deal..."

"As for getting out of here... Jax-Heisho... Yes, he can help you. Important for repairing the ship on the way out, too. In case of possible altercations."

A sudden second level of awareness. And then a third. Looking beneath the volumetrics, beneath the arcane metal shell, at at the crimson facsimile of a flesh and blood soldier underneath. Angular thing with eyes and nails and nice hair and boobs, done up with cute little face triangles like go-faster stripes on a car...

Still just another level. There to make the nekovalkyrja look nice for humans.

What was this feeling?

...Was it possible to feel sorry for someone, for expecting you to have a soul?...
 
Just Down the Hall From Room 63...

Jax felt his body go cold at the recent developments. Ten god damned ships? The fuck was Hanako thinking? Did she honestly think they could take on ten Kuvexian ships with just a fucking Plumeria?! And they were considering leaving people behind?! They would have no extra ammo, no food, no water, not shit! There would be no escape. The Kuvexians and Rixxikor alike would just wait them out, then swarm with everything they had. They would accomplish fuck-all by staying. They didn't have any equipment to even study this shit! So far they were just going room to room and being attacked. When they died, their new copies wouldn't even remember A SINGLE FUCKING THING THEY DISCOVERED HERE! He... he was baffled! It went against every form of logic and common sense that he could think of!

But... at a time like this... it was only natural that basic survival instincts begin kicking in.

He felt so horribly ashamed, he almost threw up right there in his armor. These were his friends...! His... family!

But he wanted to live. He knew the truth: "soul transfer" was a lie. It was a copy. It's purpose was to refill the role left empty without having to retrain a new recruit. It helped your friends and family cope by pretending it was actually you. But it wasn't you. You were already dead.

Slowly, he began to creep away. He felt so cowardly... but fuck it. He didn't care any more. He was done. If he managed to survive the next few hours, he was packing his things and getting right the fuck off this ship. Every single mission he'd been a part of had been an absolute shit-show, and he'd only been able to ignore that because, even though he was angry, he still loved every person aboard like they were his own blood-kin. And the thought of leaving them in this hellhole while he ran made him want to go into a murderous rage and kill every last Kuvexian, Rixxikor, and whatever the hell else was here.

Looking back to Tsuguka, he sent her one last message:

<Tsuguka, I...> he managed to get out before pausing. He wanted to tell her everything he'd just thought. Tell her to come with him so that they could all just get the hell out of this place. Maybe even try to rekindle that spark they'd had a few months ago. Just not do this incredibly stupid thing that they were being told to do. Shoot the damn bugs and leave them to rot.

But this was Tsuguka. The thought almost made him laugh. She would feel betrayed and mortified by the very idea. It would hurt her worse than actually leaving her here.

<...Good luck.>

Then, he began his solemn journey back to the ship, each step taking immense effort not to turn back. He did have an idea though.

If the Star Army wouldn't get off its ass and come save the poor idiots who decided to stay behind, well, he was rich. It was a matter of money. There had to be at least one mercenary who would help him come rescue them for the right price. He could build something capable of slipping past the Kuvexians, recover the away team, then jet before anyone was the wiser. That thought gave him just a little more hope as he crept back to the entrance, where he would teleport back to the ship, and begin preparing for a suicidal fight to the death.
 
Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #60

Hanako weighed her options, replying to her First Officer. "Natsumi, you called for reinforcements so we know there will be a space battle at some point in the near future, and the Eucharis will have to be part of that battle. If we can hit all their ships or most of them at once, that would help. Frixxaqz said that there were also weapons on this planet and that some of the Rixxikor were working on activating them. Maybe we could use that to our advantage, but we would have to have a team on the planet to do that. I am the expert on computers, so it might be better for me to stay, although personally I feel my place is on the bridge. Right now with the ship in hiding and the enemies out of range we have a window to move personnel and and supplies back and forth between the ship and the planet. But once the fighting begins we will have to have raise shields."

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #63

"Sheeeeit," the Rixxikor responded to Tsuguka. "This planet is way old. Old as sheeeeit. It's claimed by the war robots now. We're just salvagers. The robots come because they want to reactivate the big weapon. We saw them building parts for it earlier this month. Sheeeit. THE CROWN offering Rixxikor big money, big food, if we can bring this weapon back to Kuvexia. Mad money. Sheeeit."

"Look motherfucker," the second Rixxikor said. "Only way to get this motherfuckin' weapon functioning' is to start the emergency repair sequence. Motherfuckin' rooms in this section numbered by sequence number. A motherfucker's gotta start with room one and then activate these motherfuckers in sequence. You can tell by the dots on the doors this room is number 63, motherfucker. But we ain't motherfuckin' found motherfuckin' room one yet, motherfucker."

"Yeah. Sheeeit," the other one added.
 
Machine Planet, Room 58

Candon struggled to keep up with the team communications but it was staticy and hard to follow. Best he could figure Masumi was panicked, the teams trigger control was improving, and the Rixxicor we're finally proving useful.

From the center of the room he looked up into the narrow shaft. The odds of him getting through the reinforced blast door without a cutting instrument were much smaller then the shaft. Returning the SMG to his back and engaging his gravity drive he floated into the shaft as far as possible to see where it led.
 
YSS Eucharis - Bridge


Natsumi leaned forward in the command chair, listening to Hanako speak over the comm line, the ever growing frown creasing her face.

"Alright" she said. She did not like the idea of the Shosho, or the rest of the away team, staying down there, but there was a job for them to do and they were already there. "If we can gain an advantage over the enemy by finding and utilizing the weapons on that planet, then it's worth the risk to gain any advantage we can. We will hold the fort up here and keep out of sight until reinforcements arrive. I will be standing by for any signal from you to assist as soon as you need us" she said into the mic on her handset.

"Stay safe down there and good luck, Shosho" Natsumi said, then turned her attention to Takao; "The landing party has a mission to do down there. Keep your eyes on the sensors, in case we get any unwelcome visitors. Till then we hunker down and wait for our fleet" she said and focused her attention to the sensors as well, two pairs of eyes being better than one.
 
Room 81

Had Oshiro Masumi made a choice to let love hurt this much, she wondered as her shoulders slumped a noticeable degree as she heard of the situation over comms. Clearing rooms was over. Looking for him was over. The search for Candon Howard Suites ended here and she knew it. Her head shook a short moment before she looked down and away from the door she so badly wanted to break through. She held Kokū Ken in her free hand and held the other at the ready with her ABSR, awaiting the Shôshô's commanding orders.

She couldn't see the shaft of light or the visuals Candon was getting at all. The only form of communication she had was radio. She knew that he had fared well without her before and would continue to. But could she —on her own— she now asked herself. She gritted her teeth and knew she would have to persevere. Forget the past faults of her own and those around her. It was time to make sure mission success was achieved, even in her own small way.

"Ready to backtrack to your position, Ketsurui Shôshō," Masumi said tersely over comms. Then, scanning the area, she immediately saw Noriko and Freyja and Masumi said, "Santô Hei and Yonto Hei, be ready to proceed on the CO's mark."
 
YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Takao nodded and went to work looking through his SPINE and his eyes for any sort of sensor artifacts that were not normal. Part of him eyed the approaching Kuvexian fleet heavily. It was tempting to lock them up right here and now and start trying to Aether them out of existence but even his more gung-ho side knew that secured a quick death for everyone onboard and a very angry Shosho.

It felt like this was going to be an interesting few hours if the fleet ended up late or the Kuvexians suddenly ended up in their face. He didn't want to think too much about an attack from the planet itself, but he never ruled out anything.
 
Room #63

"Shit, Motherfucker." Tsuguka answered back in kind, though the reserved tone made it sound offbeat. "Sounds like the 'bots have been fighting the Kuvies for a long ass time..."

A pace. The bug-apparition looked directly through the walls for a minute, a side-effect of the soldier looking at Jax's FOF cursor. It wasn't rocket science to hear the disappointment in his voice. A human heart might be an alien thing to her, but putting it through the ringer for the sake of the mission was something she seemed to find herself doing almost constantly.

Times really were simpler, when she could just follow Candon's relentless advance, and call that a relationship.

-"I have some new information, everyone. This planet is indeed a super weapon of some kind, and the Kuvexians are interested in salvaging it. Doesn't sound like the robots are original either, but they want it too."- An analytical statement of facts, making their way to every crew member as well as the bridge crew. -"As long as the ship is disguised in one of the wrecked sections, they may not have to run away... Those enemy vessels, they should be wary about getting too close."-

-"Room number one. You can tell by the dots."- Had to let that sink in. They knew the gravity of what they were suggesting. -"That's the key to reactivating all this."-

Only then, a shifting of gears, allowing the teeth to bite and finding a way of responding to their blonde engineer properly.

-"I'm sorry, Jax. But this is the calmest conversation I've ever had with these bugs. I have to try. For all our sakes."-

Great. Now the heart was awake, and Tsuguka could feel the mountain of weight from those she had killed over the years. All for nothing. All just putting her further and further away from a cozy life in the catboy's arms, like that one single night on the beach had suggested...

Eyes shut for a moment, and a slow breath. Refocused on the two miscreants before her.

Yes. I am qualified to be doll weapon. Candon would understand. Tsuguka told herself. Personal concerns are best left to those constructed for such tasks.
 
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Machine Planet - Shaft

At the top of the shaft Candon found the best thing ever. It was small circular maintenance room, in which he found a control panel with a diagram of doors opening on it, which had a big obvious button underneath it. The walls of the room were all covered in racks of small repair robots, too. There was also a button with a diagram of these robots fixing doors.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #60

Hanako continued her conversation with Natsumi. "It seems to me that whatever weapons this planet possesses, they will probably not be able to hit the Eucharis if the Eucharis is landed on the planet or very close. If the planet turns to target something with a big gun, we would just turn with it. But the Kuvexians are still far out and if it can see them it can probably hit them. They have a numerical advantage but we have a positional advantage of sorts. I think I will stay down here for now and try to see what we can do with this old planet's mechanisms. Try not to got noticed by the Kuvexians if possible. We need to buy time."

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #63

"You better watch yourself, mofo, cause those mo'fuckin' robots are everywhere," one of the Rixxikor warned Tsuguka. "Motherfuckers be creepin. Lucky this section be pretty safe except for the fire-beetle-things."
 
YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Natasumi nodded as she listened to Hanako on the comm channel. Her eyes constantly watching her copies of the sensor displays floating around her in volumetric windows.

"Understood" She replied. "Be careful, we'll stay hunkered down and off the sensors and ready to receive your signal to come get you at a moments notice"

With that complete, she turned her attention to Takao, "Set us down on the surface and keep all signal emissions to a bare minimum, put us to standbye. I want us lost in the ground clutter and no more than a part of the surface of this planet, but ready to power up and lift off in an instant" she said to the operator.
 
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