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RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

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"H- hai!" Rin, with various ammunition cradled in her arms, followed after Mara and Ichigo down to the Assault Team. There, she carefully set the ammo down onto the floor as Mara had done with the case. She took a step back and waited beside the open shaft, her hands fidgeting nervously. "Oh!" she exclaimed to herself before retrieving her LASR from her back. Now to wait for orders to go help more prisoners back to Hoshi.
 

Yukari's smile was small, but sincere, and she bent down to start packing away the medical kit, where her head was close to Yuzuki's.

"Shosa," she said quietly. "Or Suzuka-san, neh? I should not be reminded about our age difference; it is hardly of any importance." She winked at the sprite as she finished packing the kit.

When Yuzuki had risen from her bow, Yukari leaned in and spoke softly. "You understand that to have a future, we must repair this ship to its top-most possible condition. If I am to show you my beach house someday, and we are to bask in the sun atop the black sand of Ash Bay, I must have combat-level engine thrust and maneuverability. Please deliver that to me, Yuzuki-san. I want to see your future."
 
A mental image formed in the sprite's head. In the baths and showers, there was a mural painted on the wall of Ash Bay. Black sand, stretching forever. A large body of water, uncaged by pipes and cooling canals. Just out there, by itself. Yuzuki had thought, up until then, that it was just a picture or someone's painting. She had looked at it without giving it much thought. But, people could actually go there. It was real.

She nodded.

"Hai," she said earnestly. "That, I can do."

Yuzuki picked up her clothing, putting it on quickly. It did not take her long, even though the clothing was now damp. She pulled the sullied orange panels down over the jumpsuit and adjusted them for comfort before grabbing another AMES off of the rack. Her mind lingered on where she might be, soon, and what it would be like to leave the ship. For now, this was where she stood, but some day in the future she would stand somewhere else. Maybe there would be a higher ceiling.

"I am ready." The sprite adjusted her helmet beneath her arm, figiting with it slightly. Then, somewhat suddenly, she blurted, "I have a request, Suzuka-san. When this is all over, let them stay. It isn't fair to just... make people..."

Yuzuki had difficulty forming the words. It showed on her face, in the slight twitch of her lip, in the way her nostrils flared slightly with the act of breathing. It wasn't death. It was just information being reclaimed. Particals reworked themselves. When sprites were put back into the ship, they just stopped existing and thinking and feeling. There wasn't a word for it. Oblivion, maybe.

There, but for a few steps...

"I swear we can use them," she promised, "Just don't send them back again, please."
 
The computer Takuma was accessing was an inventory log. The majority of the files were records of machines, power systems, and support equipment. When slicing through the computer further there were a couple files inside it which gave out flags of interest. One of them was marked Sub-level Layout, another Android Support Units, while a third one was named Musical Playlist.

Meanwhile Nyton was busy with multiple conversations.


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

Taking each conversation in stride he time delayed his vocal responses so they wouldn't cross. "Good job Hinoto-san. Keep me updated on your progress." he said quickly before shifting over to Aoiko's comm line. "Link up with the Support Team and assist them with the final extraction. I'll let Freeman know your status in a second." he replied again, composing a text message to Tom as he spoke.

Murasaki has been assigned to the Support Team for the time being to assist with prisonder extraction while the supplies are being delivered.
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Nyton then rerouted Aoiko's roster standing via AIES to be in the Support Team. About this time he noticed that Nimura was outside of her Armor and directing Takuma to a computer. He reviewed the last data he had regarding her Daisy and found that the power had zeroed out and forced her to discard it. His eyes narrowed at her from within his helmet. Despite the injuries he scanned she continued to function as though nothing happened. She would be okay for now but a new suit would be needed immediately. His attention was drawn to Sumaru who had remained by the elevator shaft to cover Sanjuro. He was Tom's responsibility though and the final extraction would be his job to complete. So far nothing seemed to require Nyton's intervention.

Finally there was Kai and Yoroko. He checked their systems and went over a few things in his head before opening up communications to them directly. "Each of you are holding up pretty good for their first real battle. Keep up the good work you two. At this rate we'll have this battle won so don't let up." he said. Yoroko received a private texted message along with the communication.


The scene at Hoshi was still fairly hectic but slowly coming under control. Sora coordinated traffic effectively enough to start routing the wounded personnel towards the medical center. "You five!" Sora shouted at the ones who were the least injured. "You're nurses now! Grab some stretchers and help me get these casualties to the med bay!" she commanded while she worked to staunch the bleeding of the the neko who had lost her hand. The weaker wounded were being supported so that the crowd was making it's way out of the Armor bay. After Sora was done working she stood up and waved over the five conscripted nurses. "Put these on stretchers." she said while pointing to the most seriously injured. As they worked, Sora then supported the neko she had just treated and helped her to stand. "Alright lets go!" she said and began to move. Those who had passed out like Sayuri were being carried while Sora gave commands to the Hoshi for more in depth medbay perparation. The three unconcious Samurai were also being moved to the medbay after having been removed from their Armors.

This made things a lot clearer for the Support Team that had been preparing for departure. With ammunition collected and a spare Armor in tow things were set. All the team members reported in to Tom and established their readiness. Aoiko walked up and joined the Support Team as well, projecting her preparation as well.
 
"Thank you, Taii" Kai responded, finished chacking his ammunition and switching the contents of the mostly empty ones together to make a fuller Magazine. His shields were almost fully recharged, and he seemed to be undamaged. Telepathically, he sent to Yoroko "It's like playing stainball, with a stainproof suit, Ne?", chuckling to himself. Everything seemed allright, and his tunnel vision had gone away. part of his mind told him that he had gotten off easy so far, and he hoped is adrenaline reserves had enough left in case something big happened.
 
Yoroko remained focused on her sensors like a hawk. Tension in her back had been building up and despite the valiant efforts of her DAISY to massage out the knots they would come back just as quickly and worse. Yoroko hadn't noticed the pain until they had stopped surging forward. Keeping her helmet and rifle facing forward Yoroko tried to lean in a way to relax her back.

Nyton said:
"Each of you are holding up pretty good for their first real battle. Keep up the good work you two. At this rate we'll have this battle won so don't let up."
Click to expand...

Yoroko guiltily stood back up, preparing herself for the next push that would inevitably come.

Kai said:
"It's like playing stainball, with a stainproof suit, Ne?"
Click to expand...

Yoroko shuddered at Kai's analogy. "Unn...just like it. Except I've never seen a stainproof suit in my life." Yoroko remembered her former masters, they used to love to play stainball. Of course life for them was one of luxury and they had the staff that would clean their stuff after they were done. "It's not easy getting the stain out...Did you ever play?" Yoroko asked.
 
Yukari's eyes stuck to the words of the sprite, as if they coated Yuzuki. Yukari was never a sprite, and had no idea what it was like to be one. She wondered if all sprites had that kind of feeling, or if Yuzuki was already awakening as an individual, separate from the Miharu.

It did not matter at that moment. Yukari's body tipped forward in a slight bow. "They will be given bunk space, and soul back-ups, when we have time to provide them. They will not be absorbed back into the Miharu.

"I swear this to you."
 
Tom took the support team down to the floor where the equipment was meant to be deposited for pick up by the assault team.

"Ok, let's drop it all off here and get back to evacuating prisoners," he said. "We're almost done."

He texted to Nyton that the supplies had been delivered and took a deep breath. One more step to go.

"Everyone, follow me. Let's get these last prisoners to safety."

With that, he flew up to the torture room and looked to Sanjuro.

"Doctor, we are here to extract the remaining prisoners. Everyone is stabilized enough to survive this trip, correct?"
 
When Yukari straightened, so did Yuzuki. She looked at the Shosa, contemplating just what to say for a few moments, before bowing again quickly. There was no need to say anything. Rank was there again. It had snuck into the compartment, facilitated by bows, uniform insignia and panel color. The moment of closeness had passed. Now, on to the ship. Now, on to duty.

"I should resume my post, Shosa-san. Thank you again. For everything."

Yuzuki gave the Shosa a sort of grateful smile. Then she fitted the helmet onto her head, adjusting it so that it properly connected with her AMES. She went to the door of the compartment and stopped there for a few moments, as if she had forgotten something. It seemed to her suddenly that leaving this space would mean the end of something important. She wondered, briefly, what it was that she had lost there.

The moment passed. Yuzuki stepped through the portal and began a light jog, ducking to avoid an overhead piping run and weaving through the cramped passages in the lower deck. The engineer in her was back in its element, a proud eagle spreading its wings - not fearless, but brave.

Behind her, the sprite watched this ascent and smiled.

Then it shut the metaphorical door, and turned away.
 
"They're all ready to move," Sanjuro answered, glad to finally have some sense of security return to the room. "Not all of them are in the best of conditions, but once they're on the ship I'll be able to give them some more substantial treatment."
 
Cool, cool. Now we won't be completely blind, Takuma thought, extracting a copy of the Sub-Level map and sending a copy to the nearby armors. The map came with a small note he wrote saying "It's a basic floor plan, don't rely on it."

Takuma glanced into the file related to their small robotic cannon-fodder friends. The file seemed to refer to them as nekomachina. The technician sent a copy of the file to Nyton, while continuing to glance through it. And that's when he remembered the folder labeled as a "Musical Playlist." Curiously, Takuma opened it up in another window on his screen and let it start playing the first song on the list as he looked over the file on the robots.

His first reaction to the music consisted of trying to block his ears with his hands, but his helmet blocked his path. He fumbled with the controls, trying to halt the source of the harsh guitar cords that sounded like a machine gun being fired rapidly inside his ear drum, mixed with a nearly ridiculous amount of obscenities. At last, he succeed in his struggle to stop the atrocious sounds. After that, everything sounded empty. The world around him was completely quiet. Or he was temporarily deaf, it was hard to tell.

He probably looked a little strange to his teammates, but the only thing he could think of saying was a simple "Ow."
 
Rin gave a tiny bow to the assault team, as a means of saying 'good luck' or something along those lines, before she followed Tom back up. As she floated behind, she was wary of startling Tom again, for she might not have a chance to make up for it after....
 
As the Support Team members delivered the supplies Nyton sent a quick text of thanks to each of them. After that though he quickly began to move everyone to action. With the newly acquired map he updated and cleared up any areas the scanners couldn't verify. The nekomachina file he sent to Hoshi for further analysis along with updating AIES data. Targets were given designations NM along with an alphanumeric count such as NM1A, NM2A, etc up to NM9A where it would then start over at NM1B, NM2B, for further numbering. "Nimura, don your suit quickly." he said on the loudspeaker before returning to the Assault Team's comm line. "Mara, cover the elevator shaft. Mizuno, Kai, start replenishing your ammo. Pass a couple to Takuma and Nimura. Be quick, we're moving in three minutes. Takuma good job on the computer. If you haven't gone deaf can you access the main server or is this one also limited?" Nyton asked him while he maintained a defensive position facing down the hallway further down from where Takuma and Nimura had been examining the computer.

While Nyton was issuing commands he sent a brief text regarding his situation to Tom.

Three minutes until we move further in. Finish extraction and get those ships operational.
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The torture room for the most part was quiet in contrast to the action earlier. The critical patients seemed to be calm even if having to be under sedation of a sort. The neko that Wazu had treated coughed a bit but managed to let out a weak 'thank you' irregardless of the distance since she was still too disoriented to know what was going on around her. Camellia was starting to feel better after having received treatment by Sanjuro. Although the fatigue had taken quite a toll on her body the relief brought about by real medical care had gone far. Already it appeared that everyone would soon move out now that the Armor team had returned.

Sumaru from his point was still covering the elevator and watched the Support Team's return. He continued to feed Tom with a live data feed so that he knew it was still clear. "Will you require my assistance to move the casualties or shall I continue to watch from here?" Sumaru asked Tom.
 
“You should avoid taking for the time being,” Wazu told the neko who’s head was still tilted up on his leg. He was wondering how long this was going to take, clearly based on the time it took for people to leave and get back the facility he was in had considerable size. There was also a lack of sound coming from above so they weren’t in an open area either. Perhaps a space station, underground facility, or large fortress like complex. Either way that was one question he would have to get answered sooner or later.
 
Tired. That was all she really felt now. Pure exhaustion, the pain from her injuries was long forgotten. Yamataian medical technology having seen to that. Looking up from where she sat after she moved to accommodate more injured people, Camellia let out a breath in a deep yawn.

"When I get home, I'm retiring again." She muttered sleepily, "I've had enough of dying and nearly dying."
 
Aioko made her way back down to join Tom's team in helping the the remaining former-prisoners (hopefully) out and up back to the hangar.

* * *

Ichigo, for her part, lagged a bit behind Tom, looking at her bloodied 'twin' sister. After a moment, she decided against immediately following Tom, instead grabbing on the fresh Daisy power armor to drag it next to Nimura.

Removing her helmet to have it hang from one of her empty shoulder racks, Ichigo gave Nimura a silent, but anguished look and bent forward to have her forehead and the tip of her nose touch that of her sister's. Nimura briefly closed her eyes, as if accepting her sister's silent comfort, before Mara warned: "Ichigo, Freeman-Juni is waiting on you."

Ichigo gave a reluctant nod and opened up the empty Daisy power armor for Nimura to board. Nimura floated up to insert herself feet first into the upright power armor, but before she inserted her arms in the power armor she pointed to her previous suit, looked to Ichigo and pointed up.

Ichigo gave a nod as Nimura finished suiting up and placed her helmet back on. "Freeman-Juni, I'll be taking Nimura's previous Daisy armor back to Hoshi for post-mission repairs," she transmitted to Tom as she moved toward Nimura's former armor in stomping steps to pick it up.

Nimura, her new Daisy power armor primed back to combat readiness, turned her helmeted head toward Nyton, rewarding his patience with a nod to signify her combat readiness.

* * *

Nyton, meanwhile, had been busy talking with Hinoto.

"Taii, I'm uploading the quick-fix to your teams AIES to upgrade the performance of your PSC systems," the white-haired sprite supplied. "As long as the AIES can identify an incoming grenade, it should be able to have the PSC unit 'brace' for impact. I'm not sure how much it is going to be effective, but I'm hoping that anyone hit will be either stunned or briefly knocked out instead of comatose for an extended length of time like our samurai are."

She glanced away, frowning in concentration, before her silver-grey eyes met his again. "I've tagged the 'nekomachina' accordingly in your operating systems. I haven't had much time to really look at more than their specs, but they seem to be a nekovalkyrja type that boasts the strength of a power armor and a resilience close to bodyarmor. They are entirely synthetic, and I don't think they are sentient. Small arms is going to be mildly effective and anti-mecha weaponry can probably mow them down rather easily - as we've previously proved."

"Be careful," the pale sprite amended, "Like any power armor, nothing stops them from using handheld equipment. My guess would be that they are probably lurking below you, some two-hundred meters down, in what the deckplan shows as an armory. If that's where they plan to make their stand, they'll probably have access to a lot of anti-mecha equipment - maybe going so far as some Black Mindy armament."
 
"Did I ever?" Kai responded, grinning in his helmet. "I was captain of a championship Stainball team on Tami, We almost made it to the internationals, but weren't allowed because our team was too young." He said, turning to look at her. When the extra ammo arrived, Kai grabbed a few magazines to replace his own expended ones, and made sure to reload his SLAG as well. "Let's just hope they don't find anything big" the tall Yamataian commented, finally.
 
Tom looked at the rounded up prisoners, evaluating the numbers needed to assist him and the others in the extraction. It turned out to be rather unnecessary, in the engineer's mind, for the combat-skilled soldier to be sitting with the support team at this critical junction.

"Ok," he said to Sumaru, "After we've extracted the rest of the prisoners, I'd like for you to transfer to the assault team, Hasegawa-Juni. Considering team numbers, they need your skills more than I do."

He sent a communication over to Nyton.
Permission to transfer Hasegawa-Juni to assault team. The support team should be able to handle itself now that the immediate threats are contained and I would like to have your numbers patched up, sir.
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His AIES had told him of Ichigo's departure from the team, but Tom was too distracted, and he trusted the sprite's capabilities. He acknowledged her message.

Stepping around Sanjuro carefully, his armor picked up one of the severely-injured sprites. As he cradled her in his arms, he nodded at the doctor.

"Ok, Sanjuro, we're out of here. Everyone needs your help at the Hoshii."

He moved to the elevator and took one, final, precautionary glance at the elevator shaft before he gave the order to finish the extraction.

"Move out. We've got lives to save."
 
Rin followed instructions and carefully helped an injured prisoner into the arms of the Daisy. She looked over the others left and shuddered at how awful some of them looked. In her innocent sprite mind, she wondered how anyone could do this, and how some of them were still alive.

"Hai, Freeman-Juni." With the command, Rin took off for Hoshi, though moving slower this time than the previous trip since now she wasn't being fired at and this prisoner would probably be quite a bit more sensitive to movements.
 
Sumaru glanced back inside with his head turned, his sharp curved visor eyed the survivors, he surveyed the general outlook of their health. He was glad to see that they were all starting to look okay, giving his prayers to the Ketsurui ancestors he praised the turnout internally. His NSDs continued to watch both sides of the entrance diligently, their feeds directly part of his consciousness-- he wasn't about to be caught off guard by a surprise wave of attackers.

When Tom answered his question, Sumaru responded with a simple; "understood." The Samurai took the moment to call up all his machines' internal details. He did a quick survey of Wish's current conditions, and what resources he had remaining. Even though he came in prepared to return to the ship and resupply, the experienced armor pilot found that he had only expended a little less then a quarter of his ammunition-- mostly because of the lack of action in his area. This meant that when he'd join up with the assault team, he'd be able to contribute directly. He allowed the detailed lists to return to their normal small sized displays, freeing up his visor's vision. "Good my old friend, it looks like we're about to see more combat soon-- you better be prepared. The same as always, you continue to diligently watch over me, and I will watch over you," he said in the confines of his helmet, his thoughts being projected to his armor with a nostalgic smile. The Mindy he had been riding into battle since his very first day responded in its own way, as Sumaru gripped his right fist tightly he imagined the presence of his machine's spirit doing the same too.
 
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