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

Machine Planet Dungeon - Room #60 and other rooms

Hanako continued to explore, gathering up the command squad (The Shosho, Chusa Nicholas Saiga, Shoi Higashi Takumi, Santo Hei Tan Ann Pan) and moving them through the now-opened doorway to Room #54 and then through a twisting series of narrow passageways to room #67, a 3x3 meter 4-way junction. There was a deep pit in the northwest corner of the room that was full of acid and had a basket hanging over it, and a series of environmental masks hung form another wall. From the intersection they could see into Room #27 where there was a swarm of bat-like creatures and a stack of water-filled barrels stood against the north wall. A sundered spacesuit helmet lay in the north-west corner of that room, too. As they edged around the corner of the opening to room #71, they encountered four more of the acid-spitting fire beetles, which attacked. The squad returned fire.

Room #35

A fountain of water sat against the south wall. Several pieces of broken glass are scattered throughout the room. In the corner Noriko, Junko, and Freyja discovered a fat, greasy Graxlat armed with an energy shield and an aether saber of alien design, both of which he activated when they came in. "I'll sell your parts and your armor's parts!" he said, using his bulk to push Noriko backwards towards the door she came in.

Room #63

Little robots from the machine planet busily went around fixing doors and opening them, making it easy to get around, however, this also cleared the way for enemies to get around easily. The Rixxikor duo began firing on a small combat robot that had just entered the room, but it cut both of them down in a hail of blue plasma bolts and then began firing on Tsuguka. "Sheeeit!" one of the injured Rixxikor hissed.

Surface

A large column of enemy robots began to advance on the Eucharis, firing at the ship's turrets. Simulatenously, long-range plasma artillery began to rain down on the ship's dorsal surface, causing moderate but manageable damage. The ship was under attack!

YSS Eucharis
Bridge

Takao did not automatically bring the guns to bear. He locked them on passive sensor and turned his head to face the XO. "Natsumi-Taii, we are currently under fire from robots off the port bow at medium range, secondary long-range fire coming in from unknown position impacting on dorsal section and causing damage. Advise on response."

He knew there were about to start playing a very dangerous game if they fired, as then they would light up on sensors due to the Aether fire as well as the emissions given off by the ship. At any rate, he was ready to follow his orders by the letter. The starship operator's eyes locked quietly and calmly with the XO's, waiting for word of response.

Room 35

"Contact."

One with the Mindy, Noriko darted back and away from the fat, repulsive alien, her electronic 'eyes' watching not just the hostile in front, but everything behind her as she deftly leaped back. Making use of her propulsion system, what looked like a small hop turned into a great leap. Simultaneously bringing her gun to bear, the snowy haired Neko squeezed the trigger and unleashed a stream of automatic fire from the LASR.

Room #63

Tsuguka just grimaced within her armour at the sight of her two temporary wards being shot up so easily. Reflexively, they dropped a smoke grenade between them, and then dove back into the corridor from which they had came, A/S SMG firing from the hip mid-stride.

Bright blue-white Scalar waves, lethal setting. She wanted to bypass the armour of the enemy, and leave a little for Wazu to examine.

Of course, this was still a large bugman visually accomplishing this, making the mechanical revolver in their hand look very weird indeed.

Without waiting to confirm effectiveness, they then completed the calculated rout around the corner, and waited for additional enemies to follow them, mini-missiles ready.

"Mister Wazu. Mister Bronzi. Our two potential guides have been injured by a drone. I'm sorry, it's too late for the deal. Not unless you think you can heal them..." A systematic review of the situation, sour in tone. "Hanako said to work in threes, at any rate. Could you move up and come with me, please?... It's a breach of protocol, otherwise."

Near room #63

"Sure, lets move up,"

Wazu would take his toolkit and a few datapads with him, leaving the rest of his gear behind... with the exception of the floating flashlight-bombs he'd put together.

He was otherwise unarmed... but that's why Bronzi was there.

"I can see what I can do for the *GHHGUHD*"

Wazu's slammed face first into the floor as a torso-sized creature with a bunch of long spindly legs dropped down on him, the slick black body pressing down against the back of his shoulder, tearing at his pressure suit to try and get at the meaty blood-bag underneith. The creature's friends skittering down from an opening in the ceiling and rushing towards the injured Rixxikor... and that bird that Bronzi had stunned earlier.

There were apparently plenty of hungry mouths to feed.

Room #35

Bringing up the rear, Freyja wasn't in the best position to respond to the threat. She tried to get a clear shot at the creature. Thankfully Junko cleared her field of fire. The young Neko had never seen one of these disgusting things before but she knew that it was a Graxlat. It had made a clear threat against all of them and attacked Noriko. She was allowed to retaliate.

Freyja fired a beam at the thing's ugly chest where she thought its heart would be. She felt better now than she had in months. To her surprise, she realized she was smiling. I really do love this, she said to herself. Is that normal? In her heart, it felt wrong somehow. She remembered how Natsumi had been scared of her after she accidentally shot her. Most of her had been horrified but there was a small part of her that felt smugly satisfied.

Near room #63

Bronzi's movement patterns had been what many in the grunt game would call "cautious". The burly Gartagen would advance, sweep, wait for Wazu, then advance once more. The creature that dropped down on to Wazu had done so while Bronzi was waiting. More had dropped down and were closing in which prompted Bronzi's next response.

SLAP!

A bolt of blue energy hit the center of the slick black torso sized creature. If it was hardened against basic infantry weapons such as an Impailer rifle the heat it generated would certainly create enough of a force to send the little beast flipping off of Wazu. "Move Move!" Bronzi called out. "Got a buncha critters wantin yer sweet buns!"

Near room #63

Wazu would scurry forward, on all fours just long enough to stumble into a somewhat standing position, a soft hiss of air escaping his pressure suit as he made his way past Bronzi.

There would be time to fix the suit later.

Maybe.

As Wazu passed by, he'd tap Bronzi on the shoulder to let him know that they were ready to move, making their way towards room #63.

A swarm of the small creatures were behind them, and the two Armed rixxikor were now up in front!

Near room #63

Bronzi held his position and fired into the small creatures that would trail Wazu. When Wazu tapped Bronzi, the man would hear the whine of a grenade being primed. Bronzi tossed it and followed Wazu. As they drew near the sounds of a distant battle grew louder. Wazu would suddenly be jerked down low as Bronzi pulled him into cover and hopefully out of sight of the distracted Rixxicor. The hissing of his space suit did not go unnoticed, and The Gartagen responded by reaching into his pouch and pulling out a strip of space-aged duct tape. The strip was slapped on to the offending area and the burly Gartagen peeked up to view the Rixxicor.

Speaking over the radio. "Ay. Tha little baddies probableh only got slowed down by dat flash bang I tossed. I reckon we could run em into these buggers..."

Room #35

The Graxlat man blocked Noriko's shots with its energy shield, basically standing in the doorway of room 35 so that Junko wasn't able to flank it and all of the incoming fire hit his shield. However the volume of the attacks was too much for the energy shield and it fizzled out, resulting in several LASR rounds to the chest and the Graxlat guy stumbled backwards and fell down, dropping his aether saber.

Moving past him, the team was now able to reach room #23 and #41, both of which were 3x3 meter empty rooms. Room 41 had an exit that led to a narrow corridor that split in two directions.

Room #67

After killing the Fire Beetles, Hanako and her team moved North through room #68 and ended up in Room #26. Some more of the flying bloodsuckers followed her from room #22 but they were just a nuisance.

YSS Eucharis - Engineering

"Galley, this is Cherry. Let's suit up," the pink-haired technician said over the room to room intercom, "The enemy is shooting at our guns. I have to get out there to fix them and if the turrets are having trouble we will become the ship's turrets."

"Got it," Lime responded. "See you in the armor bay in one minute."

"Becker, you hold down the fort here," Cherry said, floating off and leaving him alone in engineering.

Room #35/23/41

Even as the monstrous Graxlat fell to the floor, Junko's aether rifle continued to discharge into the creature's chest until it's body was a thoroughly unrecognizable and burnt crisp. With that done, Junko lowered her rifle and scanned ahead into the series of rooms. According to her sensors, both of the rooms ahead appeared to be empty, although it never hurt to be judicious in her movement. With both Noriko and Freyja under her charge, Junko felt obligated to temper her impulses in order to keep her comrades out of danger, regardless of the precarious status of her relationships with them, Freyja in particular. By virtue of experience, she knew that it only took one badly-timed and rash decision to compromise an entire mission. She had no intention of replicating past conclusions, if she could help it.

Junko gestured towards the entrance to the next room as she turned her head back towards Freyja and Noriko. "I'm taking point." She stated. "Noriko, follow after me and cover the left. Freyja, you'll cover the right. Watch your steps and stay close."

With that, Junko raised her aether SMG and entered the next two rooms, taking brief scans as she went through them. As she approached the exit to the second room, the corridor came into view, which appeared to split in two directions.

"Hold position." Junko transmitted silently to Freyja and Noriko. "Executing proximity scans..."

Room #35/23/41

"We are short on time and need to hurry," Noriko remarked, stepping over the smoldering, not-bacon corpse. "We should begin speed-breaching through the area. As soon as you enter, Freya and I will immediately follow up to cover you each time," she countered. "Meanwhile, the scientist with us can focus on scanning the environment and search for the control center," the Neko pointed out. "Unless we do so and gain command of its defenses, the Kuvexian forces will capture this world instead."

"Suites-hei is irrelevant."

Exit out of Room #41 towards the Two-Way Corridor

"Noriko-hei, I am not going to carry you out of here when you lose your legs after stepping on an IED. We are going to execute the mission with due speed, but there will be no more haste. Is that clear?" Junko stated calmly, but with a markedly decisive tone. Her line of thinking was certainly a drastic departure from the aggression that she showed earlier in the mission. Although Junko's motives for her methodology were not purely altruistic. Quite simply, with power, came responsibility. She had to answer for any casualties that occurred under her command. After the events that had transpired in the last mission, Junko was reluctant to face her officers, especially regarding a potential outcome of equal calamity to the events of the last mission.

Exit out of Room #41 towards the Two-Way Corridor

"Of course you will not carry me Hasegawa-Hei," the new-girl replied politely began, her voice cool and level. "I would simply levitate and continue to cover your flank," Noriko corrected Junko, her words all-business as she stayed close in support of the fragger. Without the benefit of a glance at her face, it was impossible to tell exactly what the white haired Neko meant, but, she sounded like she meant every single word of it.

Exit out of Room #41 towards the Two-Way Corridor

Freyja hopped over the Graxlat body and continued on silently. She wasn't quite sure what to make of Junko's current attitude. In a way, it turned her on, though she didn't have time to acknowledge that feeling at the moment. The new girl was right though. They couldn't keep taking their time while the ship was under fire.

Despite her belief that they needed to hurry, she obeyed Junko and stopped at the split. Instead of simply waiting, she launched an NSB down each path. "Scouting ahead with my NSBs." She said quietly.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge


Natsumi grumbled something unintelligible as the report of the attacking robots came in. It was now a choice from a few options, of which none sat overly well with the snowy haired neko. She could order the shields up, which would protect the ship from the attackers fire, but very likely light them up like a Christmas tree on the enemy fleet's sensors, she could order them to return fire, defending the ship, but again lighting them up on enemy sensors. She frowned and bit her lip.

"Time to relocate, Mr. Takao" she said. "Lift off and get us moving clear of the enemy fire as quickly as possible without engaging the main drives, just maneuvering engines. Keep us as low as possible to the surface, we need to keep hidden in the ground clutter"

as she issued these orders, she noted the indicator that crew were accessing the armor bay.

"Hold on disembarking from the ship" she sent to Cherry and her growing party. "We are moving the ship"

Next she transmitted a quick message to Hanako, "Ship under attack by hostile robotic forces, taking evasive" she kept it short as possible.

"Go, Takao!"

OOC: @HAMnJAM @Wes

Space

The rest of the Eucharis' squadron was the first of the Star Army of Yamatai reinforcements to answer Eucharis's distress call. The YSS Vesper, YSS Nadeshiko, YSS Aurora, arrived out of hyperspace at the edge of the unnamed star system where the machine planet slumbered. Almost immediately, the Kuvexian ships pounced on them with and a battle started.

Room #64

Hanako found a Rixxikor seated on the floor in the room, one who was holding survey equipment and a data pad and was badly burned by acid.

"AAAAY," the bugman weakly greeted her, pointing his weapon at her. "No hurt me, AAYY!"

By now Hanako had some experience in dealing with these aliens. She grabbed one of her survival rations out of her butt pack and tossed it to the Rixxikor. "I brought you some food to help you heal," she told it, pulling out a medical kit and spraying him with anti-acids, burn creams, and painkillers. "We have been fighting the fire beetles and robot invaders. Let me see your map for a moment."

"OkAAAAAY" the Rixxikor said, sounding relieved. He held up a data pad with a cracked screen but it had a clear map on it. Hanako zoomed in on the picture and sent the map photo to the rest of the away team, which had a complete map of the area.

Bridge

Takao locked the emissions console to keep it at it's quiet level and smashed the maneuvering thrusters with his mind. They'd be slow without the primary engines, but they would be moving. He began running the ship erratically, making rapid course and pitch corrections and stressing the inertial dampeners to dodge fire. In the back of his mind, the sensors rapidly updated as his IFF was forced as well.

"Three incoming FTL signals! IFF signal coming back, they are Star Army. MEGAMI reports YSS Vesper, Nadeshiko, and Aurora. Plotting indicated they are being engaging by Kuvexian vessels."

His mind went back to course corrections, the ship's forward facing sensors acting as the Kohosei's eyes to find somewhere to exit to and throw of their pursuers. Takao's hands made the minute changes, while his mind was almost entirely devoted to the ship's functions. The damage readouts were being whispered in his mind as a small bead of stress sweat began to form on the Minkan's forehead. He was earning his pay today.

Exit out of Room #41 towards the Two-Way Corridor/Room #26/64/13/1

Junko took a few moments to silently evaluate the map that had been transmitted from the Shôshô. Initially, she was unsure what to make of it, but the rooms in the entire underground complex were enumerated, at least. The arrangement of the rooms did not seem to be placed in a pattern, and the numerical designations of the rooms appeared to be assigned at random. She decided that the numerical designations would serve as the best clues. If the away team was to find anything important, then they would find it in room one. Failing that, she anticipated that whatever they found in there would at least direct the team to further clues in the maze.

"Good impulse, Yuuki-hei." She commented in response to Freyja's idea to scout ahead with the NSBs. "Those should be sufficient to warn us of any threats. Let's move forward and execute. I've set a course towards our destination."

With a two-fingered gesture, Junko indicated that the team was going to take the left route in the two-way corridor. Noriko and Freyja would see the course that she had plotted in the corners of their HUDs, which was intended to take the team to room one. Taking the time to evaluate the NSB scans of each room before entering, Junko led her three-woman team through room twenty-six, sixty-four, thirteen, and finally, room one...

Spoiler: Route to Room One