Nestled within the Kirie's pilot pod, Aiko's body fast asleep while her digital brain dreamed of the war waged by her mechanical form, the princess' jaw clenched so tightly that she could hear the high-pitched whine of tinnitus overwhelm her
Immersion System's connection. Peio Muyomi had been aboard the vessels named Kaiyō just as long Aiko herself, assigned in that initial batch of crewmembers to the original Plumeria-class launched in YE 38. To witness the medic's first death stung Aiko deeply, and she could further feel her shoulders—already curled in the fetal position required to pilot a Thought Armor—tuck inward toward the sucking emptiness beneath her sternum when she saw her longtime comrade's life signs turn black on the command monitoring display.
Aiko's red-and-white Kirie was immediately a crimson bolt thundering down from the sky as she diverted its course from her position highest above the others. Had only the rest of the team been able to respond to Hoshi's orders more quickly then maybe Muyomi would still breathe alongside them now. But that ability to phase and endure in combat was the danger these new Enhanced Mishhuvurthyar posed even beyond the hazards posed by their Advanced-Type predecessors. That its psionic voice could pierce their PSCs, too, was a perilous threat. At least it lacked the psychic fortitude to affect them in those horrifying ways a Nightmare Type Mishhu might.
Through the Enhanced's haunted pleading directly into the armor team's minds, Aiko kept on track her bloody charge back to attack the monster. She had no patience for such cowardice, nor the desire to reason out what it was saying in that moment. Like William before her, Aiko was consumed with an urge to mangle the beast directly with her forearm weapon's sword and her fists themselves. Rip into its flesh with her teeth if a Kirie had them. All the princess knew then was that the Enhanced had sucked Muyomi out from inside her own Mindy.
But Hoshi's cool-headed order halted Aiko immediately. The princess swung her Kirie's legs out from where they trailed behind it in her lightning strike dash to follow her Mishhuvurthyar prey. There she stopped, allowing Molli to take point and the others to chase it while keeping her CIES' weapon sights trained down to where the Enhanced had slipped off to again. Had Aiko been in a Mindy or unarmored, the rest of the crew there might have heard a rare "
tch" click in annoyance from the princess' fair lips, but such undignified utterances were otherwise muffled by the insulation her Kirie provided.
"Lumiv of House Aros," Aiko growled, addressing the Aingelian leader again with more throatiness to her elegant voice than usual. She had to think quickly, now, for it would be quite a mouthful to explain the situation. "My Empire's property is being held by our foes."
Which was entirely true. All Nekovalkyrja created by the NMX belonged to Yamatai, and the unlucky NH-29 thralls were often repatriated to the Star Empire after the Second Mishhu War.
"The Mishhuvurthyar fiends have realized their folly in pursuing their struggle in the face of your mighty Mobilized Aid Division, and have agreed to cease fire if your ships do as well," Aiko explained. Her digitally projected voice had mellowed to its typically husky allure by then, though she still felt the pang of Muyomi's loss in her core. "As before, we are at your mercy. And so it seems is our mutual enemy. These are lifesign patterns that match a biological weapon used by my military, the Star Army," Aiko continued, explaining Nekovalkyrja existence as she sent Lumiv's command ship data on how to biologically identify NH-29s with common sensors. "We will remove these million-odd soldiers without bloodshed once the fighting ends."
The princess remained thirsty for the lives of her foes, even those NMX Neko she was negotiating for now, and was eager for the moment in which the Enhanced's devious ploy fell apart as the lie Aiko craved it would be. Until then, however, she carried out Hoshi's command and fulfilled her duties as a scion of the Yamatai Star Empire's ruling clan. Anything else would be failure.
