RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

"... hai." Miyoko leaned back in her chair, looking almost reluctant to do so--to be seen relaxing while most of the rest of the crew was still in action struck her as a bit shameless... not that she particularly regretted her situation. It would take somebody rather more empathetic or brave than the sensor specialist to wish that she were in their position.

Rin looked back as the Chusa she was carrying asked who she was. The way it sounded, it saddened the sprite. Maybe later. But then it would seem perhaps disrespectful to be wanting glory and praise by going up to the officer and telling her later. Then again, it would also be disrespectful to not tell the officer who asked for one's identity.

Her mind still pondering this line of thinking, she turned back to Tom. Rin quickly flinched, seeing Tom spin around and nearly point his gun at her. Her nerves were already bad enough from having to go into combat, and seeing her comrades injured, and seeing prisoners in the condition they were. But, seeing the officer nearly shoot her almost caused a nervous break down. Rin hyperventilated for a few moments, before she was able to catch herself and try to calm down.

"H- h-... hai."

From there, Rin headed to gather some ammo for the assault team. She could feel her hands trembling as she picked out magazines, nearly dropping a few of them, and cradled them in her arms. She had had plenty of extra ammo before, so she could probably give some of that away as well.

“I’ll live,” Wazu replied, though as he thought about it they were both stuck in this place for the time being, the entrance was being watched by other power armors… he thought… and he had no good reason to postpone medical attention that he was going to need anyways when he returned to the ship.

“My head hurts, but aside from that I have too much adrenalin going to feel what else might be damaged.”

Although the only damage to his exterior was the large gash on the right side of his head his insides were far more messed up. A few electronic implants in his head had been damaged, some were knocked loose while others had been burnt out entirely. Below that there was plenty of old scaring in his windpipe and his lungs were patched together using various bits of cybernetics. There were fractures in his skull, arms, and ribs but they were fairly small. Below that there was also the mess of cybernetics that was his right leg where nerve endings and synthetic muscles had been put in, poorly. Nerve endings didn’t fit quite right into the machinery as those parts weren’t made exactly for his physiology. Of course there were also other small defects in his body that came from being home grown rather than genetically engineered such as knots of tissue here and there. His body also didn’t exactly match Nepleslian physiology either. Though how much of this was picked up by the scan depended on the scanner itself.

The firepower the assault team were sending down the shaft finished off the last of this wave of fake-nekos. A haze of smoke rose from hundreds of meters down below, obscuring the bottom of the shaft where the collected debris of their opponents had probably fallen to litter in a macabre mound of junk.

Nimura rose from her crouch, her armored shoulders visibly betraying panting, before she somersaulted into the entrance for the level that lead to that power systems for that section of the base.

* * *

Kotori gave a slight smile to the shadow of reluctance in Miyoko - much of their operation so far had been a mix of hurry-up-and-wait situations so far - she could understand how the yamataian woman by her side would be reluctant to lower her guard to relax, if just a bit.

The Taisa ordered Sigurd and the Black Knight Mindy team to offload the torpedoes manually and distribute them at the coordinates decided before for their makeshift minefield before Yukari's audio call came in. The Shosa's news had Kotori give a visible wince.

"We are currently on stand-by," Kotori informed her second-in-command. "You may return to the bridge at your discretion."

"Yes sir," Takuma said, clipping the long bazooka to his back and standing next to Nimura. He gave his arms a quick stretch before taking off his LASR. He quickly inspected it, making sure it had full ammunition in it and was still in one piece.

Nyton said:

"Takuma stand next to Nimura and protect her since you have the most barrier at the moment."

Click to expand...

A smile crossed his face as he thought of this line. He couldn't help but interpret it as "You haven't been shot yet, so it's your turn." The truth's the truth, he thought, laughing slightly.

"Yes Sir" Kai responded, standing just a little closer to the opening, pointing his LASR down the Gravity Elevator. He opened his forearm Weapons and took the sudden lull to check his main rifle, making sure it was in working order and that both the magazine and the SLAG were full or near full. last thing he wanted was to run out of ammo if something more dangerous came.

"Yes Taisa," Yukari replied to Kotori, as she stood before the decontamination shower room. She wrinkled her nose; because of the situation with the ship having holes in it, she had to unseal the pressure door before she could go inside.

Yukari did so, and resealed the door behind her. With her helmet on, she trudged toward the room with the showerheads her suit desperately required. But as she did, she found herself walking over disheveled, bloody parts of another AMES. When she was nearly at the foot of the shower stalls, she saw a tearful Yuzuki on the tiled floor in a quivering lump. She was clutching her dirty uniform and the helmet of the AMES.

Yuzuki did not seem to notice her. The Shosa took a moment to remove her own helmet. Her suit had a smear of blood on it, and was dotted with more of it, but she was not in the same shape Yuzuki had been in. She stripped off the suit anyway, leaving her in her uniform.

"Yuzuki-san," she quietly said to the sprite. "Why are you crying?"

"Gomen nasai, Shosa-san."

Yuzuki came quickly to her feet, still holding her uniform, and bowed. Her hair, a light blond turned darker by the water, clung almost randomly to her face. She was still struggling to hold back tears and not quite managing it. The apology had come out as more of a whimper.

Gradually, head bowed, she composed herself in front of the Shosa.

It felt to Yuzuki as if she had been crying only for a few minutes, even if she had been curled up here for more. The ground was cold, and the air was cold, but as she had gotten used to the temperature it had became less of a nuisance. She was still hot from her grief. Now, standing in front of someone, she felt the extent of how pathetic this had to look. And she had something she needed to be doing, somewhere, that she wasn't doing. So she was a disappointment. So she was doing something wrong.

"Gomen nasai," she repeated more steadily.

She struggled to find something else to say, but couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, no confessions were forming. Like a child, she just wanted to cling to somebody, but the Shosa was the Shosa and that was not something that was done. Although she had never before been this afraid of anything, something in the back of her mind told her that fear was weakness, and weakness was death. Yuzuki stared at the Shosa's feet helplessly.

"Please forgive me."

"Yuzuki-san," Yukari said, looking at the sprite with her green eyes. Yuzuki looked like shit. She knew this because Tom had relayed that view of Yukari one morning after a good night. He had smiled when he said it, but there was nothing to smile about in regards to Yuzuki.

The cold, wet, miserable-looking sprite before her would get nothing done. Her condition made her another casualty the vessel could not afford.

Yukari released a breath in a small sigh, then said for Yuzuki to hear, "Miharu, give us three minutes of no monitoring, please."

The computer acknowledged the request.

At that moment, Yukari took up the sprite's naked hands in her own, and squeezed them tight. Yuzuki's uniform fell to the floor. "Yuzuki-san," she said again, more firmly. "Do not be sorry. Your reactions are natural." Her face softened. "Junko-san would not wish you to cry. But I am sure she would understand."

Yoroko slid into position next to Kai, once there the Yamataian looked down at her rifle to check it's ammo. Well, I've got a decent amount left. Yoroko thought, But if we charge again I'll need all I got. Yoroko clipped her rifle onto the racks on her back and pulled out her plasma rifle in its place. Yoroko could do nothing but stare at her recharging shields and forearm capacitors as she waited. Nimura... Yoroko didn't know Nimura that well. Even though the sprite had eaten dinner with Yoroko less than a day ago Yoroko didn't know her that well.

Yuzuki looked from Yukari's feet to her hands, and from her hands to her eyes. There, Yuzuki found some measure of peace, and began to gradually grow quieter. After a little while she stopped crying completely, but instead of standing off and seperating her hands from the Shosa's, she chose to lower her head and rest it on Yukari's shoulder. It wasn't a hug or an embrace. It was a child leaning on an adult.

"It's not that," she started, quietly, "It's just, I'm scared, Shosa-san. It was just a leak, nobody could have seen it. I didn't even know. She died without knowing. I know, you said it isn't my fault, but if we had just... sealed it off, not run it quite that way..."

The sprite trailed off, closing her eyes. She was shivering. Her hands, arms, and at least one portion of her leg had scald marks; red, raised streaks from where she had brushed against hot piping. They weren't big - the AMES had absorbed most of the heat - but they were there. Unconsciously, Yuzuki was clasping her hands over the marks on her arms. Although she was a little taller than the Shosa, it hardly showed. She was clearly feeling small and wretched.

"I don't want to die," she finally whispered, "I'm being stupid. Gomenasai, Shosa-san."

Yukari had a natural reaction to Yuzuki's action.

Her arms came up and around the girl's back, and brought her into an embrace.

"Death awaits us all. We still fear it. It is far from stupid." Her voice had honey in it, but was not sweet. "It is a gift from humanity to fear death."

Her tone became blended with some wistfulness. "You do not have enough years to know how special it is, to fear death. Our ancestors did not. They had no concern for their future ... only the Empire. Some still feel this way."

The scalded skin would get in the way of Yuzuki's work. The Shosa reasoned such carelessness was expected of a young-but-determined worker. "You are too young to not fear death, Yuzuki-san. But it cannot consume you. The moment it does is when you will die."

Yukari was not sure of that. Junko had died due to an accident. But Junko was even younger than Yuzuki; she had not had enough time to recognize what fear was. However, if the crew and the vessel were to survive, Yuzuki had to believe death would touch her shoulder if she turned to face it.

She brought Yuzuki back from the hug to face her eyes again. "Wait here."

Yukari went to the lockers, and opened one that had a small first-aid kit in it. She took out the burn cream she found there, and went back to Yuzuki. She brought up one of the Neko's arms and began to apply the cool cream to the scalded skin there.

"You will not be able to focus if you are damaged," she said calmly.

The sprite held still for Yukari, watching her apply the salve quietly, keeping to her own thoughts. The salve, and perhaps the comfort the sprite received from the sound of another voice, took the pain away little by little. The marks from the burns would likely linger for a while, but that was not as important to Yuzuki.

Silent, Yuzuki mulled over the Shosa's words carefully, reflecting on them to the best of her limited ability. The concepts of fear, of death and mortality, and the dangers of her job had never occurred to her; she had never even thought to think of them, before. It was just something she ignored - something that happened to other people. There had never been a reason to know before. Somewhere deep within her, for no reason she could place, Yuzuki knew positively that as a sprite she had been created for a certain purpose, to fulfill a certain aspect. But what was she supposed to do in a situation like this?

Worse than the terrifying experience of having to drag one of her sisters out of a mechanical grave was the realization that she had no way to rationalize it, and no way to relate it. She had no way to cope with the fear, the sorrow, and the guilt that assailed her, now. No way but the person in front of her.

"Why?" she asked suddenly, lifting her head and searching Yukari's expression carefully, "Why is it so special?"

Another volumetric window opened over Nyton's HUD, revealing a bust-view of Hinoto.

"Taii," the pale, silvery eyed and haired sprite began, "I am fairly certain the latest level the assault team has reached includes power systems for the upper section of this complex. Since this base was in the process of being dismantled, I am unsure of how much use we can derive from that."

"I also thought you'd like to know that contact with Miharu was lost. They were setting up their ambush as planned, last I heard," the sprite frowned and then, as if it just occurred to her, asked: "Why didn't we use the medical facilities right across the detention center to treat the critically injured? I bet those are far better than our own."

Gallant said:

"Why?" she asked suddenly, lifting her head and searching Yukari's expression carefully, "Why is it so special?"

Click to expand...

Yukari did not pause to consider the answer, preferring instead to roll her opinion on her tongue as she finished applying the cream to the areas that needed it above the sprite's waist. Her eyes dipped below the range of Yuzuki's as her legs folded and she started rubbing the cream onto Yuzuki's thigh.

" ... I wish to phrase this in a proper manner, so first allow me to complete this task." Yukari's smooth, cream-cooled hands were nearly done applying the cream. Not much was needed to do the job; the AMES had performed its job well.

When Yukari was done, she took out a 20-centimeter-long baggie with a tube inside it. Wrapped around the tube was a glossy red substance. She took it from the baggie and held it in one hand. It was Nekovalkyrja blood, but sealed inside razor-thin film that seemed sticky on one side. The blood itself was translucent, as if one were peering through red-stained glass. The "wrap" was as thick as folded paper. Yukari pulled the end of it out with a now-gloved hand, and then sheared off a strip with a small pair of scissors.

The strip was stuck to Yuzuki's burned thigh.

"This, with the burn cream, is more efficient bandage for energy burns than pure Nekovalkyrja blood," Yukari said. "Ketsurui-Shoi displayed this to me while we journeyed to Bowhordia. The film is two layers of Nekovalkryja skin, with Nekovalkyrja blood between. Both will be absorbed by your body within two hours. The burn cream will eat the burned cells faster than your body can repair them, then perish; and the bandage will eat the expired cells of the cream to feed its fusion process with your body."

Yukari stood upright again and went about cutting strips for Yuzuki's arms. "To the Star Army of Yamatai, and its Yamataian citizenry, Nekovalkyrja such as you and I used to be no different than burn cream. We had but one purpose, one set of code that governed our ambitions — protect. That meant absorbing the onslaughts of our enemies during the wars of years past. We had no personality. We had no abstract thoughts. What were they good for? We were designed to dissolve in war."

She paused, then cut another strip. "Now we are citizens. Nekovalkyrja, sprites or no, are legal equals in the Empire. Though we are not always treated that way ... it is a long ways from being burn cream, for it means we are allowed to have a future." Yukari wrapped the strip around one of Yuzuki's fingers. She did the same for another digit on the sprite's other hand. Squares were stuck to Yuzuki's palms.

The Shosa brought her eyes to Yuzuki's. "Before, if Nekovalkyrja feared death, they were defective and could suffer being recycled. Fearing death now means you are a living being with a soul, no different than any other citizen of the Empire. You have a future, and you fear your demise would end that future.

"To fear death is to value life, Yuzuki-san. There can be nothing more special for Nekovalkyrja."

The soothing hands of the Shosa took the pain away.

There was something distinctly comforting about it. Coupled with the talking, it made the world around her seem a little more real, a little more bearable, and took away her fear and grief, bit by bit. As awkward as it was standing naked in the middle of an empty decontamination room receiving treatment from someone so far above her in station that they could probably have never met each other on a larger ship, it was somehow all right for at least the moment. Unconcerned, the sprite held still, listening, rapt, to the Shosa.

Yuzuki had never seen this sort of medipack used before. When the Shosa took it out and started using it, placing the strips over her injuries, she felt a little strange. Something in the back of her mind told her that a hemostat chamber would have done the trick just fine. But she kept quiet, knowing that she knew nothing about this sort of thing, and wanting to learn.

It was incredibly interesting to her. But gradually, as she listened, it made her a little sad.

Yuzuki had never questioned the meaning of her existance before. Not even when she was facing down death did she think to ask after the meaning of her life. There had been no point to asking meaning. She had just assumed it was engineering. That was what she was. She was a technician. A sprite technician aboard a ship that needed a sprite technician. Yuzuki actually liked her job. Mechanics, pnumatics, hydrolics - they were her friends, in a way. They kept her mind occupied; they kept her company when the days and nights grew quiet. She could listen to the ship hum. She could listen to the crankshafts whirring away, powering the engines that turned the generators that energized the capacitors that powered the ship. Thinking about them made her feel like she had a purpose, since they all fit together so perfectly. That had been all it took. The heat from the engines, the telltale roar of the high-powered blower turbines through their thick silencers - those were things she knew. Those were things she didn't want to be taken away. Those were things she'd enjoyed.

She had never thought of herself as a tool, before.

Inside, she gradually realized it was true, though. Yuzuki watched the Shosa, wondering just how long it would have taken her to realize it on her own. Yuzuki was very young, but Yukari was older. The sprite did not know how many years difference there were between them, but from the way the Shosa talked, it seemed to Yuzu as if she were speaking directly from experiance.

Yuzuki flexed her hand a little bit, finding that the strips were working nearly perfectly already. She could hardly tell where her skin ended, and the new skin began. There were thin lines - those were all.

How many Yuzuki's could the Empire produce? She thought of all the sprites that had been created on the spot, for combat. She knew it was procedure. But they were just made to be disposed of. They would go away, when the mission was over with. They would just soak back into the synthetic material, like the stuff that was on her hands and legs now.

What was the point of citizenship in an empire like that? Yuzuki didn't even understand citizenship; it was just a word to her. It didn't hold any meaning. Like oceans and forests and stars, it was something that other people were allowed to do. So far as she knew, there were no citizens on-board the Miharu. Was it a tool, or a person, or a thing? No.

Quietly, all to herself, Yuzuki decided that if the Shosa were a citizen, she would become a citizen, too. Maybe it was what made the Shosa so calming, so serene, even though she had carried that fearsome body out too, and seen the same things. It had to be worth at least something. No matter what she was, who created her, or why, if she was allowed to have a future she'd take that and figure out later exactly what it meant.

To value life...

When she met the Shosa's eyes, Miharu Yuzuki was tearing up again, but not from pain or sorrow. And when she bowed, she bowed low. It was sincere.

"Thank you so very much!" she said from her position of respect, "Thank you so very much, Yukari-sempai!"

Camellia was still down at the detention level, having been let go by Tom, as per her request. Though she was weak from both sustained injury, loss of bodily fluids and partial starvation, Camellia had mustered the energy to traverse the hall and get near enough the medical area to prop herself up against the wall.

Sensors were quiet for some time while the Support Team readied for their next incursion. The base defenders had finally given them some breathing room apparently. Nyton monitored the chatter going on and decided to start moving things along.

"Freeman, Assault Team is in position on the fourth level. I'll send you a map with our location to drop off the extra ammo and suit. Hurry up and extract Sanjuro and the remaining prisoners. We can't afford to give the enemy a chance to counter attack." Nyton radio'd on the shared team frequency. He sent a map detailing their placement in the next floor beneath to Tom.

At that moment the message from Hinoto arrived.

"Taii," the pale, silvery eyed and haired sprite began, "I am fairly certain the latest level the assault team has reached includes power systems for the upper section of this complex. Since this base was in the process of being dismantled, I am unsure of how much use we can derive from that."

"I also thought you'd like to know that contact with Miharu was lost. They were setting up their ambush as planned, last I heard," the sprite frowned and then, as if it just occurred to her, asked: "Why didn't we use the medical facilities right across the detention center to treat the critically injured? I bet those are far better than our own."

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Nyton thought for a second about the possible uses of the fourth level against the enemy. If this was the power level for the upper floors then what powered the lower levels? There might be a secondary system located elsewhere. "Run analysis on the power systems here. Maybe there's a way we can cut off power to the enemy or use the conduit path to access the lower floors and take them by surprise. I really doubt that's possible though but do it anyway." he replied. "As for not using their medical facilities I did not want to leave injured people behind where the enemy might overrun them. I felt urgency was a priority." Nyton continued. "Funny how those things didn't quite work out." he added with a slight grin of dismay.

The grin didn't last long though for Nyton immediately returned to his usual combat glare. "Keep me updated to the Miharu's status. And what were the results for the analysis of the psionic grenades? I need to know if we can counter it somehow. We cannot afford to lose anymore personnel to those things." he said, checking over the built in PSC device within his body. Maybe by itself it couldn't stop the grenades but combined with the suit's possibly?

Hinoto shook her head is dismay. "The aetheric canceling prevents me from gleaning much more on the fourth basement, Taii. As for the psionic grenades, they deliver a short range brute-force psionic attack. Ketsurui-Shoi is too busy to attend the issue, so I am cobbling up adjustments to be made for each of your AIES."

Aoiko finally made it to Hoshi and layed down Yuri's armor supine on the floor before asking Nyton. "Orders, Taii?"

"C'mon Rin!" Mara encouraged, carrying a half-empty mini-missile pack container that she had filled up with spare LASR and SLAG ammo, and started down the vertical shaft swiftly. The sandy-haired sprite floated in, going slightly beyond the assault team members present to set her case down.

"Freeman-Juni," Mara sent Tom and Ichigo, the signal having an annoyingly scratchy background noise due to the interference. "The way to the fourth basement is clear for now.

Ichigo readied LASR and shield, turned to give Tom an helmeted nod, and took point like he'd asked, making her way down to the Assault team first.

Nimura, for her part, emerged from her savaged M6 Daisy. The torso clunked open at the side of the breastplate, swiveling to each sides to expose the sprite's shoulders. Hands slid out from the armor's arms and grabbed on to the side of the helmet before easing it up and off Nimura's head. With a disdainful toss, she got rid of the helmet and pushed out of her suit to land stark-naked by Takuma's side.

The neko's usually white skin was painted a light red, with gooey blood clots still clinging to her skin. She had obvious puncture wounds in her ribcage and the blood tricking from the corner of her mouth hinted that she had vomited some out in her helmet earlier... but the sprite showed no pain, simply contenting herself in patting Takuma's armored arm to get his attention and then pointing him to a nearby computer terminal.

Takuma stood lazily for a short time, waiting for the next set of orders to come through. He drifted idly from side to side, swaying to the beat of a song echoing in his head. A crashing helmet next to him interrupted the song, focusing his attention first to the helmet, then to the thrower. After seeing Nimura beginning to emerge from her armor, he turned away again to give her privacy.

Tap. Or not, Takuma thought. As his eyes grasped the image of the sprite, he could not help but feel his spirits drop. It was not just the punctured body or dripping blood, but the emotionless expression on her face that put a sick feeling in his stomach. Her indifferent expression just made her feel foreign or fake, like a doll. After a moment, the technician slowly nodded his head and walked slowly over to the console.

"I'll see what I can find here..." he said quietly, partially to himself but also to the rest of the team.

"I may be able to find some basic blueprints for the area or something. They probably don't have anything else more detailed in their computers than that." His fingers slowed down as he was searching, his mind drifting to Nimura's vacant face. He could feel a pair of empty eyes, probably exaggerated by his mind, staring at him and piercing his composure. Suddenly, he shook his head and focused back on the terminal. She was just hiding her emotions, it's not that they do not exist.