RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3, Aftermath

Hyperspace, en route to the Kikyô Star System
YSS Miharu NJ-X1-00

The ship sped through hyperspace, shadowed by Sekkou. Connections between Hoshi and Miharu were secured. Access was restored between the two vessels, once again joined as one.

Kotori, feeling like she had just forcefully pried Miharu from the jaws of defeat, reclined heavily on her seat with a deep sigh. She closed her eyes in relief. "All decks, stand down from battlestations."

Amber eyes cracked open to lazily look Yukari's way. "I'm presently immensely grateful for all the hard hours Tom pulled working on Miharu's engines. If you don't hurry and go kiss him, I will."

Tom had been desperately trying to restore total functionality to the CFS when, just like that, the battle was over.

They had escaped.

There was a moment, a single silent moment where Tom turned back to his engineering crew. Then,

"YES! YES YES YES! YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Tom yelled, pumping his hands above his head. "WE DID IT! WE DID IT!"

He leapt, one great leap in place, his armor making a loud clank against the ground.

"Rin! Nimura! I love you!" Before they knew it, he had hugged both his engineering friends.

Nimura's reaction was somewhat hard to gauge seeing she still had her helmet on and no video link with Tom, though she didn't seem to enthusiastically respond to Tom's grappling with her, rather than let herself be jostled about while the Raltean's voice jubilantly competed with the noisy machinery.

Rin smiled, seeing Tom so happy especially after that brief episode of crying earlier, before she squeaked at the sudden hug. She blinked and blushed. Obviously, she was quite relieved as well now that they were out of that horrifying situation. But this hug was still... strange or at the very least quite unexpected.

"Ano... I... love you too?" An awkward moment for Rin warranted an awkward response. She had no idea what else to do.

At least they were home free, assuming that nothing breaks in-transit. The sprite hoped that wouldn't 'jinx' anything.

Tom laughed at Rin's response.

"I'd kiss you if Yukari wouldn't have my head," Tom said, cheerfully laughing. "Nimura! You still haven't told me what you want for dinner! You too, Rin! What's your favorite food? I must make it to show my gratitude!"

He looked over the two sprites.

"Anyway, why don't we meet up with the others? We must go over our mission, get a debriefing as well. These repairs will take a long time, it seems. We need to get our energy back before diving in."

"H- hai..." Rin responded, only blushing more. She kept her helmet on, if only to hide her embarrassment from Tom's comments.

"Etto, shouldn't we... etto... get out of our armor first?" she asked. "Since... Freeman-Juni's armor is still covered with... something." If they were going to be getting a debrief or anything similiar, she'd prefer to look more presentable rather than in the generic, beat up armors. Not to mention it would be a bit weird to be in a meeting, fully armed.

Besides the armor dilemna, she was also trying to think of a favorite food. She didn't really have on in her reasonably short existance.

Yukari kept her gaze forward. Her eyes were masked by the visor, and her fingers and hand continued to work with the Miharu. "Iiya, Taisa," she quietly replied. "I will see him soon, I am sure. You should go and address your crew. I shall get us to port."

"Please go too, Heisho-san," Yukari asked of Miyoko.

"We're all going," Kotori smirked as she patted Yukari on the forearm. "Restore life support first, and then we can both go relieve Claymere-Taii at the usual bridge."

Kotori vaulted over the chair she had occupied and after she settled down gave Miyoko a smile. "Good work, Heisho. You have the rest of the day free."

Nyton looked back at everyone and nodded. "Congratulations everyone. It would appear we have all returned safely." he announced to the people on the bridge.

"Freeman, I don't know what you did down there or if was just good karma on your part, but good job." he then comm'd down to the engineer.

"Medical team, stand by to transfer any casualties who require further treatment to the Miharu's medical facility. Sekkou personnel, thank you for your patience." Nyton then communicated to the Hoshi's medical center.

"Hinoto-san, if you wish you may attend other matters. I will stand by here and await the Taisa's return to the bridge. Heram Wazu, you may stay if you like or Hinoto may escort you to a more comfortable room where you may refresh yourself and wait." For the first time in what seemed like forever, Nyton breathed his first sigh of relief.

"Unless requested otherwise, I will stay with you until our relief, Taii. Thank you." Hinoto turned to Nyton and offered a little smile. "Besides, I believe Mister Wazu was most interested in meeting the Taisa."

* * *

As soon as Nimura could, she pried herself off Tom and turned on her heels to leave Hoshi's cramped engine room, headed back to the power armor bays.

Yukari nodded, distracted. "Yes Taisa ... life support is restored to nominal levels. Miharu is now taking us to South Gate." The visor disappeared from her eyes, which gleamed with wetness. She kept her head low as she got up from the station in the Monitor Room, leaving her headset on.

Kotori lead the way down the main passageway until they reached the main deck. There was a noticeable chill in the air that Miharu's life support systems hadn't yet been able to do away with, making their breathing mist slightly in front of her face.

The Taisa shot her XO a look in concern and then the shadow of a smile came to her lips. "Everything is going to be alright now, Yukari." Kotori knew Yukari was easily touched, easily compelled to being sentimental... but she figured some reassurance, some convincing that they really had gotten out of the mission whole, would help Yukari regain some composure.

The cold air was welcomed by Yukari; she drew in deep lungfuls of it and exhaled only when she had stolen all of the chill it contained. Her blood — though it had not changed temperature — still felt like ice clawing through her insides. But her head was burning, as were her eyes.

"Yes Taisa," Yukari said, stone-faced, keeping her eyes straight forward.

Adrenaline was leaving her system, and the image of Eve masked her vision. She gathered herself and kept following.

The hardening visage Yukari offered seemed to puzzle Kotori. They touched down the floor leading to the Hoshi section of the ship, but the black-haired nekovalkyrja stopped, her hair slightly billowing from the weak gravity.

"Wait, Yukari, something is wrong. What is it?" Kotori asked. Though she had shown surprise back when Eve had been revealed on their volumetric displays, she definitely did not seem as shocked by the event.

Yukari knew Miyoko was following with them, and it made her hesitate. "Bad memories, Taisa. I am sorry for my behavior. They will pass." Once she saw Tom, they had to pass. They had to.

Kotori gave Yukari a searching look for a few seconds longer before giving a nod and then walking ahead. She tip toed around the extra cabling in the corridor that had powered the added medical equipment Hoshi had been outfitted with to handle the increased number of wounded they'd have to service during the ground mission and finally made it to the bridge.

Upon Kotori's entry Hinoto stood and bowed in her direction. Kotori's amber eyes went from the sprite, to the unexplained presence of Wazu and then finally to Nyton, to whom she smiled. Her eyes were more expressive than usual and showed a mix of complicity, relief and appreciation. "I relieve you from command, Taii. Thank you for bringing Hoshi back to me whole."

Nyton appreciated Hinoto's hard work and nodded in response to her offer to stay. Unless Wazu said otherwise, he also had no issues with him remaining on the bridge to await Kotori. When Kotori, Yukari, and Miyoko arrived he stood to face them and went to attention. After Hinoto bowed and Kotori walked before him he felt a slight excitement at seeing her again.

"I relieve you from command, Taii. Thank you for bringing Hoshi back to me whole."

Click to expand...

Nyton bowed respectfully to Kotori. "It is an honor to serve." he said humbly and with a bit of a smile. "May I introduce you to our guest who was recovered among the prisoners on Bowhordia. Heram J. Wazu, of the Democratic Imperium of Nepleslia. He has expressed a desire to confer with you, your highness."

As soon as she was in the Multifunction Bay, Masako has relaxed completely. She probably would have removed her helmet to relax further, if not for the minimal life support at the moment. Her AIES registered it returning to normal parameters, but Masako chose to wait for it before doing something stupid. "Let's get out of these," she suggested through the loudspeaker to her team as she started moving towards the Power Armor Bay. Of course, the young woman and her team would have to enter the Hoshi's Multifunction Bays to get to the Power Armor Bays and then two of her team had to go to the other side of the Hoshi to strip from their armor, but Masako was too tired to complain about trivial annoyances of design.

Upon entering the Armor Bay forward of the Multifunction Bay they had teleported into, Masako checked the atmosphere once again. It seemed a bit better than before...if not a bit on the light side. Grasping her helmet, she pulled it off and closed her eyes to take a deep breath. I made it out alive again, she thought to herself as she began to strip the Mindy II of its accessories. She placed them upon the deck of the Bay for the moment, but quite honestly...she just wanted to get out of the armor. The other two seemed to follow suit, which gave her pause. "Just get out of your armors and head to Decon," she told the two, who moved a lot more like Sprites than they did Asher. He must have gone to the other Power Armor Bay.

"I'll deal with the Armory work," she explained as she moved towards the Armory side of the Bay. Pulling out a Dolley, she began to place all of the accessories and weaponry into neat stacks as her charges hooked up to the racks and began to exit their respective armors. She didn't bother keeping track after that as she entered the armory with the dolley of equipment. The standard hand-held weapons were simple to return. Removing the magazines and power cells, Masako placed all the hand-held weaponry into their respective racks while power cells were placed into their charging stations. Magazines and Modules were a different story since they had to be reloaded before storage. Luckily, there was a little machine to do the job safely for her. A few minutes later and those too would be placed into their respective storage chambers, leaving Masako to leave the Armory and return to a now empty Armor Bay.

Returning the Dolley to its storage area, the young, raven-haired neko backed up into a free rack. Sending a command through her SPINE interface, the Mindy's chest opened up with a clank and a wet, fleshy sound as the interior insert opened up to free her. With a groan of effort, the small Neko slid out of her armor before closing it back up again to replace the helmet back where it belonged. The cool air in the Armor Bay upon her damp skin caused the Warrant Officer to shiver as her bare feet padded into the Decontamination Showers. That too was empty as her pitch-black eyes surveyed the room. Standing underneath a nozzle, she activated the chemical shower and stood underneath it as the slimy sensation began to disappear.

Honestly, she wanted to hurry to see how everyone was doing, but she also wanted to be thorough when it came to the Decon Showers. A few moments under the chemical shower was all she needed though as she turned it off, dried off, and proceeded to put on her Type 30B Uniform. Moments later, she was headed towards the Medical Lab, which as just down the hall. Pausing to take a deep breath, she walked into a rather crowded Medical Lab with a rather surprised expression on her face.

The medical lab, regardless of the ship's safe position, was still fairly active. Discharged Sekkou personnel either stayed to help or were now just chatting amongst themselves or the patients. They really didn't have anywhere to go yet and their command structure was still in shambles. The highest identifiable rank currently awake was a Shoi and she was still resting on a bed. Her standing order to the crew had been 'help out where you can' and not much else.

Kai, Sumaru, and Ichigo were still in the hemosynth chambers, floating about. Kai's injuries were healing quickly and would require maybe another forty minutes. He could just as easily stir at any moment. The same could be said for Sumaru who was apparently subject to a strange dream given his agitated motions. Ichigo on the other hand would require much more time to recover. Already her torso had begun to seal up and skin was regrowing where it had been seared off. Fresh limbs would still not be ready to grow yet since the very base was still under repair. Mara was still laying on her bed, chatting with several nekos. Her legs were still visibly missing but the tingling sensation by her knees indicated they were busily regrowing. Some of the nekos regarded Mara with a bit of admiration for being one of their rescuers and lightly flirted with her a bit.

There still totalled five former prisoners who were still receiving hemosynth IV treatment. Those had been the prior critical casualties, now safely stabilized and able to be monitored via rounds by the nurses.

Sanjuro meanwhile had finished interring Aoiko. The dead nekovalkyrja had been removed from her Armor earlier. The wrecked suit lay off in a corner. When Aoiko had been exposed her head had been completely disintegrated along with portions of her chest. A large scorching gash could be seen on her chest and all organs around the injury had been blackened or burned away. The rest of her had remained intact and untouched. Sanjuro covered her body up with a blanket and ordered several lingerers to take the pieces of Armor down to the Armor Bay for repair. Seeing Masako walking up Sanjuro then looked over to her and addressed the neko.

"Yes can we be of some assistance? Are you or any of your team injured? If not then I must ask you to please clear the area. We are planning on moving some patients over to the Miharu's medical center for further treatment." Sanjuro said, his cool voice displaying neither annoyance or warmth.

Kotori turned to greet Wazu. "Welcome aboard the Miharu, Mister Wazu. I am the ship's captain, Kotori Ketsurui."