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

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Takao turned his head to face the XO to the point that his eyes could meet hers. It carried a certain emotion, worry. Despite his look, his words were confident and swift, "Hai, beginning touchdown." He turned back to his console and swallowed his fear. His mind went to work plotting directions while his hands moved the controls to the ship itself. He found a low spot which contained enough area to make a level touchdown and a little bit to maneuver, perfect.

He let his mind take absolute control over the Eucharis while his hands then went to managing power and emissions. At a certain altitude, his hands tapped the landing gear toggle before going back to the readouts. The ship made soft contact with the planet below and with a silent thought and order, put the engines in idle. He drew the throttles back to their absolute minimum while his eyes remained glued to the emissions readout. He drew power out from everything non essential and let everything run in standby. He wanted the ship to stay hidden just as much as Natsumi and the Shosho.

When the readouts began to get lower and lower he gave a quiet report, "Ma'am, ship rigged for silent running. Engines are at low power at standby. We should be hidden."

Machine Planet - Shaft

Candon stared at the two buttons, debating whether it was worth daring to- Candon pressed the button that for the doors.

"Hey guys, how's it going?"

Machine Planet Dungeon

Every door that wasn't jammed shut (and a great many were still jammed) unlocked and opened throughout the area, creating a cacaphony of clicking and grinding and hissing for a few seconds.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room 63

"Oh sheeeeit," the Rixxikor said as doors nearby him opened up without anyone touching them. He looked back at this companion with concern."

"Arm yo' selves, motherfuckers," the other one advised them, retrieving a bazooka from nearby, and pointed it at the doorway that had opened, waiting to see if something was coming.

Back with those bird things

Wazu had just finished setting up his observation station, tucking his duffle bag away as best he could so that the quantum modem inside could continue to relay back data from his datapads... which were now all glued to the floating SAoY flashlights... which he then sent out to go explore the area. A few drones going down each hallway, while two more stayed behind to watch the birds they were trying to study.

And that Bronzi stunned.

It was as good a time as any to start examining the creature, trying to find out what he could about the mosquito-bird-thing.

"Looks like we're going to be here a while,"

Room 81

Masumi heard the squeeling sound from throughout the metal dungeon and her arm protectively flew up and she backed up. Her forearm touched someone's Mindy-clad collarbone as Oshiro Masumi acted like a mom protecting her kid in the car.

"Fall back to Shôshô's position!!" she called out mercilessly over comms for the two by her to hear.

She dropped her arm so as to not push Junko backwards without looking away from the possible entrances they faced on the other end of the room. She then turned and ran back through the hallway in the South of the room that connected to the room where she had been to the room between that and the room with the box. Her running feet stopped when her eyes laid upon the box in the next room, though. She stood, pausing to look at the open, crystalline filled box in the center of the room that Candon had been teleported by.

"Candon!" she called as she slowly passed the box once more. "Do you read?"

Room 60

"Ketsurui Shôshô," Masumi said when she had gotten to Hanako's position. "Awaiting your oders!" Masumi said with a salute.

Room #60

Saiga shrugged his left shoulder as the machine planet's doors lurched open and the Type 30 forearm shield attached to his Mindy's vambrace shifted on its servos to a three-quarters fighting position. In the absence of any immediate direction, he stuck to training and sauntered over to a wall that had a good angle from which he could protect Hanako — and the others, of course — from the free reign now afforded to any strobe-crazed murderbot or confused Rixxikor partisan that decided to walk up on the team. By the time the last clink had clanked and echoed through the moon-sized construct, Saiga was on a knee in his chosen spot and ready to cover his teammates.

Up a Shaft

Masumi's transmission came through just enough to understand and much better than before.
"I found something," he responded, "I think it's a control room. There's a bunch of robotic devices here too, I think they're for repairing the facility. I think we can get this station running. Shôshô, I can activate them now. Shall I?"

Room 60

Over comms, she simply said, "Candon... Oh, Candon!" Oshiro Masumi put a hand up and touched her helmeted face as she breathed out and her armor-clad fingertips touched the Mindy's Zesu plating. The Nekovalkyrja opened her mouth to speak once more, "Suites-heisho... I mean."

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Good work" Natsumi replied to Takao, leaning back in the command chair, her red eyes flicking from one volumetric information display to the next in a never ending cycle of watching sensors, ships status and any other relevant display that might show if the enemy had picked up on them.

"Now we wait. Keep out eyes peeled and watch for the enemy, or our fleet, to arrive" she said and took a deep breath. The ship seemed quieter than usual, as if it was holding it's breath for the next thing to happen. Nervous anticipation clawed at Natsumi's stomach as she waited for it too, forcing herself to project a calm and steady manner for Takao, rather than the discomfort and uncertainty she felt deep inside.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room 63

"Well darn me." The towering bug muttered to itself, unveiling a slightly cartoony handcannon from within it's robes, then pointing it up in the air in a seeming vote of support. Tsuguka would certainly protect these Rixx with their real guns for the time being, but found herself in the odd situation of not wanting to meet up with her actual team in the meantime. That really would be too hard to explain. "You think one of ya bros around did this?..."

The inner self, of course, knew the truth, and was busy calculating the possible ramifications of this situation. Not putting a collar on the dogs of war before you let them loose was a little irresponsible, but did they have a choice at this point?...

-"Suites-Heisho... Is there any way of knowing how these repairs are going to be done?"- A cautious tone over the jittery, static-eaten com line. -"If these robots aren't part of the original system, doesn't that mean reactivating other security measures will put an outright war in our lap?... I'm not sure about this..."-

-"Mister Wazu. A footnote for your observation."- A second line. Hurt the oni's brain doing networking like this, but if she died, the intelligence would be lost. -"The Rixxikor said they can see a 'glow' around my volumetrics... I'm wondering if we gave their technology too much credit, and it's simply a quality of their eyes. This is probably why our active camouflage doesn't work with them... Maybe they are able to see a wider light spectrum?"-

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #81

Junko seemed to calm down for a few minutes as Masumi frantically sought out Suites-Heisho's location. Before long, she had cleared the corridor, connecting the next room, seeming unfazed by the desiccated corpses in the corridor.

"Belay that order, Yukimura-Hei and Yuuki-Hei.", she spoke after Masumi called for a fallback. "Yukimura-Hei, breach the North door to the left, Yuuki-Hei, breach the right door.", she ordered calmly. Just as she spoke, the doors in the dungeon seemed to open of their own volition in a cacophony of clicking, hissing, and grinding.

"Assume defensive postures now! Cover both sides!"

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #81

"Understood," the snowy haired Neko promptly replied, cold. Swiftly, silently moving, the faceless Mindy quickly stacked up on the door. As Noriko brought her weapon to the ready as she prepared to storm the room and clear her sector, she quickly reached out with her telepathy. "Tsuguka-Heisho, we are proceeding forward with another door breech Now."

As the doors opened, the power armored Neko stormed in, gun raised.

SOFT Team Communications Channel

"I'm monitoring your progress." The red Neko's voice responded to Noriko, glancing back to the Mindy feed, voice monotone as ever. "Adherence to protocol is satisfactory."

...Well... They didn't feel the need to baby them and put on a super nice demeanour, so that was a good thing, wasn't it?...

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #60

"Suites, this is Hanako. If we have an issue with the repair robots I am sure the infantry crew members would enjoy having a chance to kill something else," Hanako smirked. "Go ahead and trigger the repair sequence. The doors have been the biggest obstacle for us so far so we will be able to get around a lot faster when they are no longer stuck in our way. Everyone else proceed with exploration. Do not go alone, stay together in groups of at least two or three."

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #81/35

"Zakenna yo, it's two separate rooms...", Junko muttered under her breath as she followed Noriko into the room with her weapon held at the ready. "Yuuki-hei, follow Yukimura-hei into the left room with me, instead. We can't explore alone.", she said in a frustrated sounding tone.

"Initiate abbreviated scans," Junko spoke as she lowered her rifle to her chest, once the room seemed clear. "...and stay close."

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room #81/35

Freyja brought up the rear, keeping her ABSR ready. The doorways to the next rooms stood wide open. Someone had managed to get all of the doors open. She was simultaneously grateful and frightened by this development. Her armored tail swung back and forth slowly. "Copy that Junko-chan. I will always have your back." She said, a little too quickly.

It was hard to keep from saying more, even harder not to think about the precarious situation the Eucharis, and her daughter, were in right now. She loved serving on the Eucharis with Hanako as her Captain, but she was starting to want more from her life than fighting. The guilt she felt for what she had put Natsumi through weighed heavily on her.

Her determination to see this mission through for Natsumi and Fumiko were the only things keeping her from leaving this technological terror. Thoughts of Wazu came to her unbidden. That one night had been amazing. I am worried about his safety too, she realized. Does he care about me though, beyond just a piece of Neko tail to brag about?

The way Masumi was right now was not something Freyja would ever let herself be again. After Junko left, she had fallen apart. Somewhere in the depths of this planet she had learned something about her own nature. She was the type of person to learn from her mistakes and come out better for it.

Machine Planet Labyrinth - Room 81/35

Once again, Noriko stacked up near the doorway.

"Unless we come across it by chance or find a map, it is unlikely that we will find the control center," the new Neko observed. Keeping her weapon tight and at the ready, she continued to speak despite aiming down the sights, voice cool, "I assume that no data access point or the like was found during the previous excursion?" Noriko knew that even with a head start, without any tangible progress, the oncoming Kuvexians would stand the better chance of finding the control center due to their sheer numbers.

Staying behind wouldn't do much good - they had to either find it soon, or flee.

Back with Wazu and the Birbs

Bronzi held the stunned bird up side down by its feet high so Wazu could take a good look and examine it. He frowned from under his re-breather thinking that this was all very useless. But Wazu was the smart one, Bronzi just broke stuff when it needed to be Broken. "Ay, I don't guess you'd want two of em? Maybe take em back with us, make a buncha baby birbs? Things that can live hea on dis thing gotta be good at livin on otha things right?"

Brib is the word

"I will feel bad if I drag it away from here. There are enough cameras and computer stuff around that we can continue observation while we are away."

Wazu had two flashlights left, and a small amount of explosive. He'd use his toolkit to open up the floating flashlights so he could stuff the tips with explosive. Enough for a makeshift floating grenade that would not miss his target if he threw it.

So, at least he wasn't entirely unarmed.

"Lets leave that here and move up."

Don't you know about birb?

Bronzi set the bird down. "Ight. Coulda had a pet birb and started a fast food chain. But yer already rich."

The burly Gartagen stepped back, and re-set his rifle to full power. He then advanced ahead of Wazu, sweeping and moving swiftly.