RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 28: Akuma

The assault drone ceased its attack, spinning in the air with half of its power depleted. It reattached itself to the specialized wing-rack on Morgana's back, initiating a recharge cycle. She couldn’t manage a continuous beam long enough to punch through the Mishhuvurthyar armor and regeneration until it hit its core without risking hitting one in her allies.

As the drone secured itself and her mechanical wings compactly folded away, Morgana advanced into the fray. From her thigh holster, a swarm of smaller NSP drones deployed with a directive to destroy as many of the encroaching wave of bugs skittering across the walls. She didn’t imagine it would buy much time, but better than nothing.

She had a better view of what was transpiring on the other side, watching Molli get engulfed by a dozen tendrils. Morgana kicked her flight system up and hovered a few feet in the air for a better angle as the three assault drones still fully charged detached from her Mindy’s wings. They screeched as they revved up, charging their beams and fired independently upon the Mishhuvurthyar’s tendrils. Although their firepower was insufficient to reach the core of the squid without endangering her team, Morgana hoped the drones could at least clear the tendrils faster than they could regenerate, aiding Molli's struggle.

“Arro!” Morgana said, seeing the creature’s maw open wide to engulf the Nepalisian “Shove your shotgun in its mouth and blow the backside of its head out!”

Deep within the calamity's tentacles, Byrne-hei could feel the basket she was being carried in loosen. William's glowing orange spear hacked at some of the tentacles holding her, but there were so many pressing her deeper into itself and even more uncut to take up the job that she stayed in her hammock of tendrils securely while he slashed.

What was more, the Enhanced-type Mishhurythar that held her was now sliding its maw ever wider (which would likely have been obscured to the away team by her body and the fleshy tubers that held her). Gripping her torso tightly between its beak, something outside of the Mishhu made it shift its grip slightly to only be holding the Mindy's arm. But with her secured and Morgana's attack drones scorching tentacles along with William's Nepleslian spear slashing at it, it took what it could get from a quick snack for the time being. It quickly snapped down once and then twice in quick succession, trying to crack it like a parrot would a nut. When it felt the satisfying snap of zesuaium it pushed its fleshy inner mouth against the fruits of its labor: the armor's contents.

To its disdain, the Mishhuvurthyar tasted the alloys and fine ridges of metal of her cybernetic arm. Having punched through her Mindy only to be met with more armor, its half a dozen tentacles now holding her furled her out of its fleshy mass of tentacles and threw her down. She landed in the brackish pool at the bottom of the zero gravity passageway it had been ascending. There was a silty pinkish substance that had fallen from its wounds there with her, along with the liquid hemosynth it was quickly dissolving into.

Along the far wall that Ketsurui-chusa, Ichidou-shoi, Faelan-shoi, and Shigefumi-hei were scorching bugs at, a squad of four NMX Type 31's in heavy duty flak vests and holding Impaler particle rifles marched into the hall from the opposite side the away team had come from. With grim but determined faces, they began firing on the Kirie and Mindy. The contrast in opponents to the ones they just faced was huge, but this was only the most rapid response team and there were likely more to come.

By this time Muyomi, had rushed to the group at the entrance to the room. She could hear the people still alive in the other vats pleading to be saved from being eaten, but she tried to keep her focus on Hildr.

"This should help," Muyomi said to the wounded combatant as she knelt down and pulled a local pain reliever for Nekovalkyrja out of her Type 31 medical kit. Applying it to the crack in Hildr's shin armor, she added, "Funnily enough, this med kit was designed during the last Mishhuvurthyar war. Good to keep fighting?"

The decision to try and spare the NMX captives from potential collateral was precisely the level of heroics that Molli's drill instructor wanted her to avoid. In the heat of the moment, with lives at risk, Molli went against her training and dove straight into danger, sword in hand, aether burning brightly behind her. It was a bold, heroic stunt--a good idea--until the squid had wrenched Molli's blade free and wrapped her tightly in a writhing mass of tentacles. The enormity of her mistake sank in as she sank deeper into its maw and felt herself rising away from the squad.

"Shit. Shit! Shitshitshit-!" Molli's free hand grasped at the heavy pistol magnetically fastened to her suit's thigh, even as the tendrils tightened and forced the air out of her lungs. Pressing the barrel against its flesh, Molli frantically pulled the trigger repeatedly and felt her ears ring from the reverberating retort of an aether-shot that sunk into the squid's flesh harmlessly. Panic welled within the Nepleslian when the next trigger pulls produced empty clicks. The Kalamari arms were being pressed against her body, and could not find any purchase on the Mishu's flesh.

Thoughts of impending death danced around Molli's mind, but the young recruit chased them away with a defiant yell. She thrashed against the Mishu's grip, tried to beat it with the butt of her pistol, anything that could conceivably free her from this terrible creature's death grip. Muffled voices and a violent shuddering gave Molli the impression that others were trying just as hard, which renewed her efforts.

A sudden pressure built in Molli's torso, making her blood run cold. "Gerroff me!" she shouted, spewing expletives at the top of her lungs as she thrashed with the manic energy of a trapped animal. The pressure shifted off her torso before clamping down on an arm -- the chrome one. The significance didn't become apparent until an excruciating pain shot through her shoulder, causing the Nepleslian to scream out in anguish. The nerve endings that connected to Molli's cyber-arm and allowed it to feel were being severed, and the Mishu's second bite was the one that did the job. Black spots danced across Molli's eyes as diagnostic warnings blared in her mechanical retinas, with a person-sized diagram helpfully informing her that she'd just lost a limb -- it took all of her willpower to stay conscious.

The squid must have been satisfied with its torment because its crushing tentacles released Molli, who was forced to watch her severed cyber-arm, still enveloped in its tendrils, fly away with her adversary. She stared at the stump in wide-eyed shock as hemosynth from the Mindy bubbled over the exposed wire and metal shards. Her suit was airtight again in just a few seconds, leaving Molli with echoes of body-wracking agony. She landed at the bottom of the passage with a dull thud, and the battle against pain shock seemed to have ended in her favor, as the rookie still felt in control of her faculties.

"Gnnngh- Shit- Got m'frackin' arm!" Molli angrily hissed into the radio in between heavy breaths, "C-Chrome arm. Ain't bleedin' out..." she stared up at William and Morgana, and if they were to look down, they'd see a flash of red through Molli's visor as she nodded at them. "M'good...M'good t'go. I kin still...fight!" The Nepleslian's voice intoned a mixture of naked fear, fury, and determination.

This would take some time to adjust to, but nothing taught you faster than a life-or-death situation. Molli retrieved her fallen blade and pistol, then activated her aether burners to fly up the zero-G passage and rejoin the squad. The sounds of gunfire bounced down, prompting Molli to draw her heavy aether pistol in preparation for another scrap. William and Morgana were in better shape to call the shots, so she'd support their plans however she could.

Zelphon had a bad feeling about this and her feeling was not disappointed. Zel blasted away but the tentacles just kept coming. She could not wrap her mind around what was going on in the slightly. It was like someone asked the question, do Mishhu have tentacles and the director was like, ALL OF THEM. This was some next level terror and they had the pleasure of finding it. She watched as Molli did her best to fight this beast. Even with the combined fire of everyone around them, it just seemed to enjoy it.

Despite her best efforts, crew had been taking damage. She watched as this thing tossed her crew like she was nothing more than a rag doll. Her cybernetic arm still held within its tentacle. She could almost feel like it was taunting them by holding onto this arm. This made Zel angry though she did not break down into a fit of rage. She had taken the plan the princess had shared and was working to get this monster baited near the firepit she had made just moments ago.

Morgana intently observed the Mishhuvurthyar's tendrils being severed by the drones, their flesh cauterizing under the intense beams. Despite the drones' diligent efforts, new tentacles sprang from the burnt remains, their growth relentless. Although their power was reduced, Morgana's comrade remained trapped.

A calculation went through Morgana's mind at that moment, wondering how much energy it had to continue that rate of regeneration. Would the capacitors in her drones deplete before the Mishhuvurthyar's energy stores? Ordinarily a tangent she'd welcome, but in this situation it was intrusive. The devouring swarm would consume them before the capacitors depleted reguardless.

With the tendrils thinned and distracted by Arro, there was the opportunity to hit its flank. She repositioned as her drones continued to slice away the regenerating appendages as though they were stuborn weeds. Morgana recalled the weaknesses in the armor of Mishhuvurthyar that protected its critcal organs. There wern't many, though there were some perfortations for arteries and nerves.

She swung around in its blind spot. Her suit's Fire Control System, syncing with her intentions, highlighting the target. She swiftly exchanged her Aether SMG for the blade at her hip. The SMG, secured by a strap, dangled from her suit's chest as the system calculated her trajectory. With the blade extended before her, became a missile, her aim set on piercing one of the creature's eyes and the optic nerve leading to its brain.

Hildr grit her teeth as she sprayed SMG fire at the bugs crawling, the pain in her ankle a dull throb as she focused on her extermination efforts. Her mind was still reeling from coming so close to the Mishhu, the shock of being attacked by it, of being grasped in its tendrils, it was enough that the neko had frozen up, unable to fight the creature. The hold it had on her, both literal and figuratively, had been broken by the combined firepower of the team, but the terror still lingered in her mind, like so many groping tendrils in her psyche...

Shaking her head to clear it, Hildr reasserted her attention on the bugs, spraying anti-personnel shot into the swarm, while Muyomi moved up and attended her wounded leg. Almost instantly she felt relief flow along her ankle, and she nodded. "Thanks. Ready as I'll ever be," she said with a humorless laugh.

Then as the NMX response team rounded the hallway and began to fire at them, Hildr called out a warning to the other two with her and tried to drop into whatever cover was available. Cursing, she popped up and fired off a spray of suppressive fire from her SMG, augmented by a salvo from her shoulder missile pod that whooshed down the hallway toward the newcomers.

The bugs had been coming like rivers and thick oceans across the walls, but when the Star Army soldiers at the back and Hildr started firing at them, their skittering slowed and halted. Their bodies made clattering waterfalls as they descended towards the soupy ground. For now, the halls at their backs were quiet and barren save for the dancing fog. Where once it laid still, all of the weapons fire had left it riddled with holes and almost charged up by the salvos and plasma.

Further down the room, the Mishhu had been ascending the tubular zero gravity passage. Aratani had approached Molli like a medic would, but was instead pulling out repair tools and poking them at the exposed circuitry of Molli's broken cybernetic arm, muttering "Woah!" as she did. Floating with its tentacles towards the bottom of the shaft where Molli had momentarily laid, Morgana was only able to get purchase on its eye by flying from the backlines, into the room, then into what was essentially an elevator shaft and coming up alongside it. At which point it had already extended several of its tentacles and slowed her progress, but she did get a good look at it when she approached.

Unlike the Advanced Mishhuvurthyar they had just fought, this one had a deep wine red carapace speckled with a grey dappled pattern that had inky black circles that looked a lot like older Ningyo Heiki series hemosynth ports. And where its tentacles had been lopped off, granules fell in some areas and coagulated in others, being remade in real time. It was also encapsulated more of its under carriage than the Advanced they had just fought. Not only that, the entire creature took up most of the wide passageway that its fleshy red tendrils floated in and out of. It was huge and it was actively phasing into the wall of the slick, tubular passageway.

Morgana and those in the passageway below would see it slowly slide away from them and into the concave, fleshy wall. Its deep black eyes were set back in their protected terrace behind spikes of chitin, but Morgana could see the red prick of that beast's pupil, small like a pin, looking at her.

Then all at once, it had disappeared into the wall and out of sight from all.

William cursed as Molli was released and sent falling to the bottom of the passageway. As the others began tending to the injured soldier, the ID-SOL turned his attention back to the Mishu who had begun phasing into the wall. As it did, he unleashed a fusilade from his railguns to send it on its way.

The situation didn't give the Captain a good feeling, ditching Molli and leaving when it could have easily dragged her off. Watching the passage, he began to call out orders. "Medic, grab Arro and fall back to the XO's position. Anchor, on me. Bounding overwatch. We get back to the XO and regroup." He ordered waving the bunch back towards the area they had all just come from.

Flipping back to the command channel he called to Aiko. "Got your recruit, on our way back. The Mishu just up and let her go. That strike you as odd?" He asked as he watched for any movement from the passage way. As soon as he did, he'd light them up with all four of weapons.

Zelphon tried to say to herself that the Mishhu ran. That the team with their overwhelming firepower had scared it into hiding. Yet there was one thing she knew as complete facts in life and that was Mishhu never flee from pray. This was a calculated move and was only buying time. They were in the jaws of the beast and it had all the cards. At the moment they were filling the walls with enough bullets but for how much longer. When would someone blink and in that moment become the next victim of the Mishhu. The only thing Zel knew was that she was still not ready for kids and had no plans of letting that Mishhu get ahold of her.

Zel fell back when she got the call from William to do so. "Roger, moving to your position." She called out over comms.

Morgana’s eyes went wide as she locked on to those of the Mishhuvurthyar. She was committed however and continued to drive the blade forward. There was no resistance as it passed through, much to science officer’s surprise. In less than a blink of an eye the entire blade was engulfed, then the handle along with her hand. Finally, she fell through. She only fell resistance as her blade hit the bulkhead, deflecting off it, causing her to crash into it stomach first. The creatures body engulfed her for a moment, sinking away around her as it made its escape.

She lay there stunned for a moment as she attempted to process what happened. She recalled reports from her time in the SARA brain trust about the “Next Generation” Advanced type, in which one of its abilities was phasing. The group had been tasked with developing counters to its abilities, but by the time she left they had only made the recommendation to come up with a more succinct reporting name.

The science officer picked herself up and sheathed her blade, secretly relived the thing had decided to retreat, she was no close combatant. The Assault drones gracefully flew back to the wing kit on her back and attached with a click, and Morgana looked around to gain her bearings, her hands reaching for the Aether SMG dangling from her chest. She then kicked off the ground to rejoin the main group.

The cybernetic arm that Molli's former race manager had installed, which was now lost with the Mishu that ripped it off, was a custom fit to preserve the feeling of having a limb of flesh. That was to say, she could feel whatever it touched if she wanted to. Now that the shock of her injury had worn off, Molli had the good sense to switch off the agonizing feedback that unhelpfully reminded the Nepleslian of what she'd lost, which helped the soldier stay still during Aratani's repairs. "'Preciated," Molli said, inspecting hemosynth that gradually re-covered the stump, "Hope m'suit's airtight on th'way back..."

Shame and humiliation festered within Molli, who never could stand to lose at anything. Not only had that squid bested her, it'd taken something precious and scuttled off, probably to bin it in a recycler. Molli's heart yearned to pursue that loathsome creature, but common sense was reigning that desire back with a reminder of how lucky she'd been to escape in (mostly) one piece. There was also the matter of the mission; Molli would be lucky if she didn't hold the team back -- they didn't need to add 'revenge quest' to their objectives. It pissed Molli off to no end, but she had to cut her losses for the sake of the mission.

Molli clicked her comms on as she flew up to rejoin the others, "On m'way," she said, trying to keep her voice even to mask the dread welling up inside. As she maneuvered up the zero-g passage back to the room with the prisoners, Molli occasionally gazed at her arm as if expecting to find it had miraculously grown since. Rejoining the XO through the room with the prisoners, the Nepleslian had difficulty looking anyone in the eyes, even with the helmets obscuring their faces.

"What's th'plan?" she asked, eyes narrowing at the corpses of the heavily armored NMX the rearguard had taken out. "What're we gonna do if w'see that thing again?" Molli's voice was even, but there was a hint of anxiety, fear, and a little anger creeping in.

Compared to but a few moments before, the Mishhuvurthyar warship's halls were so quiet now, silent all but for the clambering of Mindy-clad soldiers across the deck and the sizzle of superheated aether cannon barrels that sent up swaying ribbons of smoke from Aiko's Kirie Thought Armor.

The away team's convergence — during that still moment after Molli was wrested from the Enhanced Type's grasp while the tide of smaller Mishhu bioforms — hadn't taken long at all. Aiko's steady backward march in her mini mecha only took a one or two more steps by the time the others fighting up front met her those several meters in between.

"Enhanced Mishhu do not simply leave," the princess said decidedly. "It is still here with us, watching and waiting for its moment to strike once more of its kin arrive to overwhelm us. Then it will try and feast on us again. That must not happen."

From what Aiko could see based on a quick mental glance at the squad vitals monitoring subroutine within her Thought Armor's Immersion System, everyone was still good to fight. Even with the removal of Molli's bionic arm and the injury to Hildr's leg, Aiko considered the team under her in tip-top shape considering the circumstances. In fact, they'd fared extremely well for such an encounter. Aiko planned to keep it that way.

"We will proceed forward and disable this ship," the Nekovalkyrja warrior ordered. "If Muyomi-heisho deems any injuries severe enough for evac — or if any of you who have been hurt feel unable to continue the fight — then the Heisho together with those casualties will immediately teleport to the deep space rendezvous point set up for his mission and wait for pickup from Kaiyō shuttle.

"Enemy kill squads will be on our position soon and that is when the Enhanced will likely return," Aiko continued, already moving her big armor toward where they needed to go. "Without delay, move up through the zero-G passageway. It should lead directly to engineering."

"There's no way we're going to see the same Enhanced type again." Morgana said in disbelief as her feet touched down on the organic deck, "The sheer amount of biomass we cut from the creature must have depleted its reserves. You couldn't replenish it in short order using biological processes, you'd have to be using nanites and using excessive amounts of energy to brute force catalysing it into biological energy stores." The science officer said, bewildered by the implications.

"Let's get moving on Chusa's orders." Aratani said with a nod to the Nepleslian and Minkan near her, "Molli, you're taking point with me. Morgana be ready to move forward on our clear."

"Imagine a Nekovalkyrja gets hurt on her ship like that Mishhu did. First place she's going is wherever there's hemosynth to heal up." Aratani said to Morgana, then pointed to the floor underneath them that Molli was ascending from and glided a finger on the sticky walls around them and spoke again. "There's hemo everywhere here except engineering. Engineering has to be the the driest place of hemo on the ship. This vessel may look organic but that aesthetic ends when you get to their hyperspace fold engines and tunneling cannons that need traditional circuitry just like our armors."

As she was talking, Aratani had already begun to move up the cylinder and when at the top, she swung her body into a rigid position as her shield cloaks popped out from her Mindy's legs. She swiveled her head and shoulders to check the passageway to either side of the intersection at the top of the zero G passageway. There were tons of hollow alcoves that led to other passages, a junction meant to be navigated by Mishhuvurthyar through their levitation. A hulking figure was already coming down one such passage and at the other far end a small group of of NMX Neko were shooting next to another Advanced Type that held five machine guns in some of its tentacles.

With Molli on the other side of the hallway, she would be able to fire on the lone Advanced-type as Aratani took shots at the Advanced flanked by Neko. The Neko could also see that the room just across from them had a huge central spire in which long tentacle-like masses protruded. It was a twisted interpretation of Yamataia's own aether generators that bloomed open in a lotus shape and Aratani recognized it as engineering immediately. Aratani saw they could create a tunnel between their positions for the rest of the away team to get into engineering, but not without help.

"William-san, we need you! Molli and I are shooting at enemies in the passages. Hold them off with us! The rest of you! Like Chusa said, without delay, come up the zero-G passageway and pass straight through this junction up here. Go between us and we'll lay down suppressive fire—just get into engineering!" Aratani called into team comms.

From the room below, Muyomi asked, "The alert called this the organic materials holding bay... Do you think that means they eat them?" Peio Muyomi had a quiet, shaky voice as she stood from next to Hildr. She had followed when the Star Army soldier had popped behind the hallway and into cover and was thankful for it, but her attention had been drawn to those less lucky. She looked down at all of the people in barred holding tanks and scanned for survivors in the one the incendiary grenade had fallen into. Her attention fell on the eyes of a greenish-haired humanoid like herself. She moved quickly to the passageway and up it, though, ready to use Aratani, Molli, and William as a human tunnel.

At Aratani's call, William moved to take up position alongside the Yamataians. As he approached he powered up his forearm shield and took up a phalanx position, blocking the incoming fire from the ship's defenders. With the massive shield shield in place, the Captain began sending round after round down range as he tried to hold back the tide.

"Move your asses people, I have better things to do today!" He ordered as he fired at the onslaught headed their way. His chain guns were almost constantly firing. If he wasn't careful, the barrel could melt. "And XO," he added this time directly to Aiko. "...if you don't hurry I will have the highest kill count by the time you take engineering if y'all don't get a move on."

Now that everyone had regrouped, a renewed sense of security eased Molli's frayed nerves, helped in no small part by Aiko's nerves of steel. At the princess's unspoken question about leaving the mission, two of Molli's working Kalamari arms folded backward to draw the heavy aether shotgun and hold it close to her chest at rest. Affirming that she was still fit to fight felt unnecessary; Molli could still stand on her own, the suit could still help her shoot straight, and though the Nepleslian wanted badly to flee, she was more afraid of letting everyone else down. Trailing behind the princess's mini-mech, Molli's eyes and ears were ready to pick up any sign of enemy activity.

Accompanying Aratani up the Zero-G passageway, Molli's comms crackled from the annoyed huff she let out. "We see th'mumper again, we make pieces wiv our pieces," she said sharply, "Retire it, or make it WISH it was." Flanking her squad mate at the top of the passageway, Molli's anger at the Mishhu was ready to boil over, so a part of her welcomed the sight of newly arrived targets with a twisted sense of glee. All of the soldier's arms, natural and synthetic alike, leveled their firearms at the encroaching Mishhu, before the flash of muzzles sent blinding hot plasma sailing down the hall and into the creature's chitinous shell.

Occasionally, Molli would duck behind the closest hunk of metal for cover whenever fire returned her way to preserve the integrity of her armor and its shields. So it was, then, that William's hulking frame and accompanying shield became a welcome sight. The Nepleslian ducked behind her comrade, occasionally peeking out to fire off rounds with her pistol while extending the Kalamari arms above him to fire a blinding cone of aether buckshot downrange. "Losin' to a one-armed woman," Molli cackled darkly over the roar of gunfire, "That'd make m'day!"

Ametheliana said:

"Let's get moving on Chusa's orders." Aratani said with a nod to the Nepleslian and Minkan near her, "Molli, you're taking point with me. Morgana be ready to move forward on our clear."

Click to expand...

"Roger, waiting on your go." Morgana replied.

Ametheliana said:

"Imagine a Nekovalkyrja gets hurt on her ship like that Mishhu did. First place she's going is wherever there's hemosynth to heal up." Aratani said to Morgana, then pointed to the floor underneath them that Molli was ascending from and glided a finger on the sticky walls around them and spoke again. "There's hemo everywhere here except engineering. Engineering has to be the the driest place of hemo on the ship. This vessel may look organic but that aesthetic ends when you get to their hyperspace fold engines and tunneling cannons that need traditional circuitry just like our armors."

Click to expand...

"It takes 12 minutes to create a Nekovalkyja from scratch in a dedicated pod, and Mishhuvuthar are significantly more massive." Morgana replied, before taking a breath. "The faster we get through this the less likely we are to find out."

She kept her SMG trained down the hallway, kneeling as the other cleared the Zero G passageway behind her. The reverberation of gunfire came down the passageway, causing the science officer to flex her grip on her weapon.

When the command came to go she rolled around the threshold into weightlessness and looked towards the fighting, seeing tracers from the fighting going back and forth. The 4 drones on her wings had their engine's flare and propelled her down the corridor quickly, pushing her through the junction like at break neck speeds. The thrusters then flicked in revers, slowing her down until she was at a safe speed again. As she approached the engineering door the drones and NSP's detached again, floating around the threshold to engineering and scanning it for targets.

With Aratani, William, and Molli holding back the Mishhu defenders on the engineering deck, Aiko motivated her Kirie armor to hover swiftly through the zero-g passageway and followed the path to their objective that Aratani had trail-blazed moments before. The whole trip didn’t take long at all owing to the Kirie’s speed, but in each moment Aiko made uncounted calculations and considerations in her digital brain while the scenery abruptly changed in front of her eyes.

From the Thought Armor’s left forearm weapon, the Ketsurui first officer activated its energy shield as she maneuvered the big machine with a surprising agility considering its size. Similarly, she ignited the left arm’s emitter in sword mode. Both implements glowed a bright and semi-transparent teal color in the dim and swampy Mishhuvurthyar halls, illuminating the ship’s drab bio-architectural surfaces with their turquoise fire.

Soon, Aiko was in the engineering bay itself. Past Morgana and her drones on overwatch in the hatchway, the princess halted her Kirie’s speedy, twisting flight from the previous deck and landed both of the armor’s feet on the ground. Now taking up a defensive stance, the shield she’d only just activated covered her leading left shoulder while the beam sword above her suit’s right hand hung low and poised to strike should there be any threats waiting for them. The two cannons mounted on the Kirie’s back, too, were locked forward and ready to acquire any targets ahead.

“Once the room is clear, Faelan-shoi, begin work to bring their main power offline,” Aiko said preemptively, glad Morgana was at hand for the task. Starship engineering wasn’t exactly the same thing as astrophysics, but the science officer’s skillset was close enough for the moment. “The rest of you: continue to hold our path back out. It should not be long now!”

YSS Kaiyō II

Bridge

Counter to what the away team was experiencing, Taiyou Hoshi looked almost serene as she sat in her captain's chair and talked to the stateswoman from the planet she was trying to protect. Her name was Lumiv of House Aros and she was perturbed, but she was not putting her full faith in Hoshi after the Yamataian captain had told her about the Mishhuvurthyar threat. At least not outwardly.

"We'll send our people to Nebel," Lumiv said. "And we'll prove to you Yamataians that our terraforming project is solely under our control."
"You don't have to convince me," Hoshi shrugged. "I'm looking at five Mishhuvurthyar vessels orbiting your planet. And I will repeat: they are extremely dangerous to your people. If you're lying to me and allied with them—"

"I'd no sooner lie to an outside military than I would ally with them," Lumiv said decisively, speaking both of her involvement with the Mishhu and the Yamataians. "I'm sending my people to the surface regardless and will meet you on the ground to put this to rest. After which I expect you and your military to leave."

The transmission was cut, but Hoshi looked less than wounded. "She's more worried than I am. Good."

Ghullfrashirv Escort
Engineering

Swirling trunks bloomed from the central aether generator, under which pulsating lights idly glowed. The slow, drawling shift in glow from them was juxtaposed with the rapid takedown of the unarmored technicians that worked at nearby panels. Aiko had been ready for them with blade and cannons alike and they hadn't stood a chance. For the moment, it was just the four dead in the room along with the living scientist and princess. The panels the NMX had been working at lay flickering; they had been rerouting a lot of power to weapons. The Kaiyō must have already been engaging the five ships.

Serendipitously, Hoshi comm'd in to Aiko, "Made contact with the government. They're not allied with the Mishhuvurthyar but they're also not on our side. They're sending their people to Nebel to prove us wrong, so be aware of their forces during the next phase there. I'll join up with you—" the voice of Asuka in the background of the bridge asserting that the NMX vessel had hit them could be heard over comms and Hoshi cut the transmission to her XO with a snappy, "Over and out."

Hallway

In the hallway, Aratani lamented, "I wish that were me." She was pained by her position outside of engineering and not in it, where she would be having the most fun messing with the enemy's technology. She was jealous of Morgana even as she shot her shoulder frag gun at the hordes in front of her. Even with her leg-mounted shields, she was no match for the squad of NMX and Advanced with its five guns. Her AIES was showing her chest plate and both arms had been hit enough to warrant a decrease in their condition reports down to yellow and light green.

"Need backup at my position," Aratani called out to Hildr and Isuke. "Else I'll need Muyomi carting me out stat!"

"Wha-?" Muyomi asked breathlessly, having followed behind Isuke and Hildr and was almost to the hallway where the Star Army crew held off the Mishhuvurthyar and NMX Nekovalkryja.

At Aratani's back, Molli and William were working like old Nepleslian war friends despite their near-stranger status to one another. His chain gun spiked out rounds above her as she fired at the enemy. William's wish to rack up a kill count wouldn't be granted in this fight, though. He was firing at a sole Advanced as it advanced on them. With a snapping bang, Molli's aether pistol shot above his shield and into the Advanced's chitin, making a little pitted hole and scorch marks in the same area that William continued to fire into.

It had faltered, but whether it had succumbed to their assault was hard to tell as dozens of Crab-type Mishhuvurthyar filled the hallway behind it, then had swarmed around it, keeping the Mishhu buoyed on their backs as it continued to shoot with its own tentacle-held armaments. The slowest of the crabs also held guns in their front manipulators and shot out at Molli and William while the rest stampeded up the walls towards them.

The Assault Drones and NSBs swiftly maneuvered into the Engineering sector, closely tailing Aiko before passing the princess. As they meticulously scanned the vicinity, delving into every void and crevice for potential threats, Morgana trailed behind. Steering clear of the distant echoes of combat along the corridor, she made a beeline for the control panels. The science officer secured her SMG to her back before pulling one of the downed technicians off one of the consoles. She wiped the screen of blood before her fingers deftly navigated the interface, probing the system's vulnerabilities and limitations. Simultaneously, her drones diligently established a defensive perimeter, ensuring the phasing Enhanced Type didn’t catch her off guard.

Thanks to Aiko's swift and violent slaughter of the technicians, they hadn't the opportunity to lock down system access. The Science Officer had unhindered entry not only to the Power Core but also to other critical systems like the Reaction Control and Main Propulsion. Her access was limited to monitoring and diagnostics, lacking the GUI of a navigator's interface, yet it was sufficient for her purposes. Digging deeper, Morgana accessed the external inspection cameras and spotted a smaller ship in the formation, positioned almost directly ahead with a slight deviation.

Morgana pivoted slightly, her gaze shifting from the console's glowing screen to glance over her shoulder at Aiko. "Chusa, I have additional options," she began, before turning back to the console, her fingers lightly tapping on the interface as she spoke. "There's another enemy ship ahead of this one. I can set the main sub-light drive to exceed maximum thrust," she gestured with her free hand, illustrating the ship's potential trajectory as she spoke, "and have this ship ram it from the back while crippling propulsion of this ship. I can also over-voltage the coolant pumps, effectively disabling them." She tapped a sequence on the console, simulating the action. "This would initiate a cascade reaction, starting with the overheating of their weapons." she traced a line on the screen, indicating the flow of the reaction. Finally, Morgana straightened up, her hand resting on the console's edge. " Culminating in the explosive detonation of the core. In case you desire a more permanent solution, ma'am."