RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

The sprites once again looked at each other.

Well, it made sense. There wasn't any questioning that. The more the Miharu talked, the more sense it seemed to make, and the weightier the facts. There wasn't any way to be bitter, when you put it like that.

Yuzuki did not know what the others were feeling. But she, at the moment, was feeling a mix of things, not all of which she could describe with such inconsistant things as words. Very simply, though; she did feel better, calmer, and more clearheaded than she had been. The things the Miharu listed off so easily - these were things she had never noticed. These were things she had never thought to notice.

"We're really grateful, to be so lucky," someone behind her said.

Yuzuki looked back at Kichi. She had green hair, like Ozuno's. But it was longer, would have been just past her shoulders if she'd let it down. She had it up in something that looked like an abbreviated bun. There was a hopeful smile on her face. Her eyes, though, caught Yuzuki for a moment. She realized all at once that they weren't experiancing this in the same way that she had. At least, not exactly. Maybe this was their moment?

"Hai," said Cho.

"Hai," echoed Ozuno.

And Haya. And Kameko. And Leiko. Kuni, at least, suddenly looked apprehensive. Dropping her gaze down to her helmet, Yuzuki pressed the small film on the outside that she had tarnished, pealing it slowly with her fingers. Is this why Kotori had been in the medical bay?

She looked sad, she thought to herself. The Taisa...

Leiko bumped her with an elbow.

"Hai," said Yuzuki.

CONTINUED

Tom nodded. "You haven't been around long enough to consider dreams," he said. "But I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to create some after we get back. Dreams and desires are a great thing to have. They're powerful, and they motivate us to live full, happy lives."

"Uh, hai. Arigatou gozaimasu?" Rin replied, confused. The idea of such dreams and motivations flew right over her head. "Ano, if it's okay for me to ask, what are your dreams, Freeman-Juni?"

"I'm going to marry Suzuka Yukari and start a family," Tom replied. "We're going to live our lives peacefully on Port Xenn and Ralt with a child or two. Yukari and I will have our own business and I will continue to dance in the Raltean Ice Festival." Recalling the thoughts made the engineer smile.

Rin stared in awe at Tom and his dream, though it couldn't be made out through the helmet. "That... sounds... amazing, Freeman-Juni!"

"Thanks. All I have to do is live through these missions," he said with a chuckle. "No problem, hm?"

"I hope not." Rin's naiveness as well as her loyalty kicked in. "Etto... as a sprite and as your subordinate, I'll make sure you do!" She blushed at how idiotic that sounded, only realizing it after it escaped her mouth. "G- gomenasai, Juni. That was stupid of me."

"...Thanks," Tom was struck by the sincerity in the sprite's voice. "But I have to do the same for you too. You deserve having your dreams come true as much as I." His mind wandered for a moment. He thought of how sprite's knew so little of the world, but how they were always so willing to sacrifice that which was most important--life--in the service of others. "Rank... is irrelevant to happiness."

"Ah... uh... a- arigatou gozaimasu." Rin felt thoroughly embarrassed now. How could someone as important as Tom care for someone as insignificant as her? "Etto... but... you don't have to, Freeman-Juni. Etto... rank... may not matter but the purpose of their life does."

Tom was about to speak further, but Ichigo's sudden arrival from the adjacent room caused him to flip back to public communications. "I've contacted Sekkou's Megami," Ichigo reported happily. "She will assist us as much as possible until we restore full power."

Tom nodded. "Ok, everyone, let's get to the bridge."

"Hai. Ah.. er...." Rin quickly switched back to public comm, "Hai." She looked over the schematics once more, before she headed towards the bridge. She had to make sure Tom stayed well, for him and Suzuka-Shosa.

What awaited the three as they entered the bridge was... disturbing. Sprawled about the room were the bodies of seven Nekovalkyrja, twisted unnaturally on the floor. Six of the bodies were riddled with pockmarks... whether they were energy or bullet was impossible to figure out due to the copious amounts of blood dousing their uniforms and running along the floor. They were slumped near or over their consoles, eyes wide and void of life, like discarded dolls. And at the center of it all, slumped near the command console, was a headless body. The stump was serrated cleanly, blood cracked and drying on the nearby console, obviously from the high pressure spray of blood due to decapitation. And next to it was the pale, lifeless head of the Shosa, mouth open and tongue lolled out, eyes staring to the ceiling.

Rin stared at the bodies. "N- nani...." Another moment, before she fell to her knees. She heaved into the inside of her helmet. She reached up and took it off quickly, casting off to the side, now that it was messy with vomit. She coughed and gagged, now that the smell of vomit and blood assailed her nose.

Tom felt his knees buckle, and had to brace himself against the back wall as he stared in horror at the site before him. Ichigo--an older sprite and a mission veteran by Miharu standards--let out a startled cry and turned her head.

"W..what the hell?" Tom let out softly, in disbelief. "It's a massacre..."

Rin didn't know what to do. She just stayed where she was, staring at the floor and hugging herself. "Nani... nani...." she repeated again and again, the shock of the image burned into her mind's eye.


Tom's breathing and heart rate had elevated. He reached out into his mind for something to keep him calm, some sense of duty or responsibility to further hinge his cracking psyche on. It was Ichigo who provided it. She was staring at Rin, wide-eyed. "F-Freeman-Juni, Rin-san!"

Tom's head turned on a swivel and he quickly moved towards Rin and kneeled in front of her. "Rin!"

Rin stared up at Tom, a distant look to her eyes and tears forming at the edges. Though she didn't respond much beyond that, at least she stopped her broken record mouth.

"Rin, you have to stay with me, ok," Tom said carefully as he looked into her eyes. "Talk to me."

The sprite's lips barely parted as she gave a barely audible and breathy, "Hai."

"Ok... ok, good," Tom replied. "I want you to get up and wait outside with Ichigo, ok? Everything is going to be fine." He shook Rin gently, trying to get that distant look out of her eyes. "Look at me. At ME."

Rin came a bit closer back to the present as she was shook. She gave a nod, as she slowly stood. The only thing in her sight, as she stared ahead, that she could see was Tom; everything else was completely blocked out.

"I'll get your helmet," he said as he carefully guided Rin to the door. "Ichigo, stay with her, ok?"

Ichigo, who was struggling with her own reaction nodded and followed. "H-hai, Juni."

Every step felt like an eternity for the engineer, who wanted to get Rin out of the room as soon as possible. But he couldn't run, less he panic her further.

Rin slowly followed, and was led out the door. "Arigatou..." she said slowly, sounding as if she was in a trance.

Slowly and deliberately, the three walked out of the bridge. The doors shut, thankfully hiding the gore behind cold metal. Tom led Rin to a spot on the wall and let her go. "Ok, good."

Rin stood by the wall. The image of the carnage lingered in her mind. What could have caused that? Is that what was to be expected in the world? Death? Gore? How could someone live in a world with such horrible atroctities? The sprite had no idea. She didn't want to keep fighting for whatever causes there was if that was what awaited her at the end of the road. The outside world, and inside the 'safety' of a starship, no where could she feel safe anymore.

As Tom went into the room to retrieve Rin's helmet, Ichigo said nothing. Her sideway glances towards her sprite kin, however, marked her concern. In moments, the helmet was retrieved, bits of vomit still inside despite the engineer's best efforts to clean it. Silently, he held it out to her.

Looking up, Rin took the helmet and hugged it against her chest. She hardly paid attention to what she did, still in her own thoughts. Tom had asked what her dreams were, and now she knew. "I don't want to die. I don't want to end up like that..." she said suddenly but quietly.

"...I," Tom said, struggling with his own demons. "Damn it... don't think like that. We... we have a job to do. We're saving lives." His shoulders sagged, as if he was defeated. "I wish I could make this all better, but I can't... at least not by myself... you have to move forward."

"Gomenasai Nee-chan, Freeman-Juni. Let's go then..." Rin replied, her voice depressingly monotone. She need not burden the officer or her sister with her own problems. It wasn't polite to.

"You're not going in there again," Tom said quickly. "Take a few minutes to recover. I promise we'll talk about this in more detail after we RETURN from our mission, ok?"

Rin opened her mouth to protest her non-help, but quickly retracted that thought. It was an order after all. "Hai."

"Ok, I'll be back soon." The engineer disappeared behind the doors to the bridge. Silence followed until it was broken by Ichigo's voice. "Sister..." It was a single word, but it measured volumes of the silent connection all sprites shared.

Rin forced a smile in response to Ichigo. Leaning back and sliding down against the wall, she ended up sitting on the ground.

Rin could feel the telepathic link connecting between her an Ichigo. "Sister... you feel alone, but you are not alone. We... fight and die for each other not only because it is our mission but because of our love for one another. We make sacrifices for each other, too" she bit her lip from within her helmet, a moment of clarity striking her. "The Juni..."

Rin started tearing up again as she looked up at her sister. She looked pathetic, like a little girl crying over some silly thing like spilled milk. "Arigatou, Nee-chan. Ano... what... about the Juni?"

Ichigo hesitated. She hadn't realized until now the true meaning of what the Engineer shared with her in the subdeck a few days ago, when she saw Tom curled up on the floor just like Rin. "He was almost killed on Bowhordia years ago. He was one of only a few survivors. He told me about it, but I didn't understand," she sounded frustrated in her telepathy. "The Juni... this must be terribly hard for him to endure. He possibly sees his dead friends among the crew in that room..."

Rin looked from Ichigo and then to the entrance of the room. "Etto...." She didn't know how to reply. She had felt useless a few moments before, at not even being able to help. But now, it made more sense. The thought of Tom in there, working, and yet still having worried about Rin the way he had caused Rin to start to actually cry. "G- gom... gomen...." It wasn't clear whether she was apologizing for crying and saying it to Ichigo, or whether she was saying it to Tom for forcing him to be alone in their alone.

"Sister..." Ichigo said quietly, blinking back her own tears, before the lights on the ship suddenly came to life and the slow buzz of energy filled the corridors.

Getting to her feet, Rin looked to Ichigo. Tears were still running down her cheeks. "Gomen," she repeated. Again, she was at a loss for words.

Tom's armor came out from the bridge and slowly walked up to them. "Engines are online. Running optimally, too. It seems the enemy repaired this ship for use against us, but we struck first. We just have to run diagnostics." His voice was heavy. "I ordered the Megami to... sanitize the room. It should take a few minutes."

With the appearance of Tom, Rin went into full on crying. "G- g- g- gomen-... -nasai!!" she sobbed out.

Tom's hands moved to his helmet, where he carefully unlatched and removed it. His grey eyes locked onto hers. "There's no reason to cry, Rin. We did our job, right?" His gloved hand reached out to brush her head. "Don't apologize." He managed to let off a weak smile to the sprite.

"Y- yes there... is! I... I made you wo- worry when you... you were already having prob- blems." Rin tried to stop her pathetic crying, but couldn't help it.

"Rin," Tom said. "You are very young. It was unfair of us to take you on this mission, and for that I apologize. You saw some horrible things today, and you may still see more terrible things before we finish this mission." His smile widened, although his face was slightly pale. "But there's a good side to it all, too. When you see the good moments, when you finally experience happiness and laughter, those emotions become so much stronger than you could possibly imagine."

He brought her sobbing head to his chest. "You learn to hold onto those moments and let them guide you. In times of trouble, they keep you moving forward. When all seems lost, they give you that strength to finish what you must do. Rin, in your life you will experience so many great emotions to balance what you saw today. Cherish those times, ok?"

"H-... hai... Ano... I'll try." Rin hugged Tom in return for the advice on life. That is, until she thought it would be inappropriate for her to hug him for too long, and she released. Whatever these moments would be, Rin now looked forward to them. She hoped they would truly be as great as Tom said they would be.

"Good," Tom said, taking a moment to clasp Rin on the shoulders. "Everything should be cleared off the bridge by now. We can run diagnostics now."

He let go of her, took a few steps back, and sent a text message to Nyton.

Sir, Sekkou is operational. Awaiting diagnostics to confirm 100% efficiency. Sir, shall I have the medical staff make use of the facilities on this ship to speed recovery?

Click to expand...

He bent over to pick up his helmet and looked to the two sprites under his command. He let out a deep breath and nodded.

"Ready to go?"

Rin nodded and wiped her eyes before she put on her own helmet once again. She grimaced at the smell still present, it bringing back the horrible images of what used to be inside. 'Happy thoughts.... Look forward to happiness.' She pushed the bad to the side of her mind and tried to forget it, and put good in its place.

After a moment of trying to calm her breathing after her sobs, the sprite looked to her sister and Tom and nodded again.

“The Kessaku should be proud. Their avatars user interface has gotten much more interactive. Your predecessors were always so passive when it came to interactivity with the crew, though I am sure I do not need to tell you about the importance of a good U.I." Wazu said, sounding distracted by the realization of how entwined with the computer this particular sprite was. "It took Drei quite a while to get the whole ‘human interaction’ thing down to the point where she was not intrusive to crewmembers. Though it was not long after I left QIS that she was able to do all sorts of things on her own in a very organic fashion.”

The entire time Wazu was speaking he was thinking about her action with the pistol at her waist. If the pistol charged off the battery perhaps the battery isn’t required or perhaps it still contains a single shot in the same manner that solid ammo pistols chamber a round. Perhaps she just does not wish the pistol to be used or perhaps she was taking precautions against him trying to take the pistol and use it to escape. The thought had crossed his mind, a pistol on a holster around the waist was an easy target and provided she was in front of him. In terms of the security measures she had to prevent him from escaping, it was likely that force fields and airtight bulkheads were involved. At the moment, it was not his primary concern.

“Now that time is a concern I must suggest usage of a probe or shuttle craft again. Sense this facility has only been operational for the past few years a probe or shuttle with a high resolution telescope starting from three or four lightyears away and moving towards this system at maximum CDD speed would be able to view the goings on in this system starting from three or four years go up until now due to lightspeed lag. " Wazu was fairly sure that they would not have thought of this particular trick, and began going on about what in particular would need to be done to carry it out.

"Stars will not be moving relative to the probe’s viewpoint and known stellar objects should be easy enough to filter out. Anything left would be a ship of interest, and could easily be detected by their distortion wake or by the energy release of dropping out of hyperspace. In the case of a hyperspace arrival you should only need to find the ship’s axis of thrust and you will be able to figure out which direction it came from in turn narrowing its departure point down to one or two star systems. For a ship traveling with CDD you need only to trace the light emissions right back to the ship’s departure system. If this is a supply facility you should be able to generate a fairly comprehensive picture of where other bases are areas of operation are for the Daughter’s of Eve. If you limit your search to just key time periods, two days ago, a month ago, and to days major events occurred involving the Daughters of Eve then the entire scan could be completed in less than an hour.” Wazu said, figuring if they were not planning to stay in this system than this would be his only opportunity to conduct such a survey.

"Oh no you're not." Yoroko messaged to Kai when she heard his plan. Yoroko was not a fan of the bait plan at all. "You'll only get yourself killed if you do that." Yoroko added as she waited for further orders from Nyton and mulled over the current situation.

Hinoto seemed mildly surprised at hearing something like flattery, but Wazu's next arguments had her frown.

"Mister Wazu... again, that won't be possible," the snowy-haired sprite asserted. "We do not have probes, our shuttles lie beyond the influence of the present zone of interference and we are supposed to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible anyhow."

"Such measures would be for my Commanding Officer or her Executive Officer to approve, and she is not here." Hinoto then shared a sly smile with him: "Well, assuming it even needs be done."

“Nine ships have been destroyed and ground forces are deployed inside of this compound,” Wazu said, wanting to go more in depth on why they have already drawn as much attention to themselves as possible and how he could easily build a suitable device out of the parts in the destroyed shuttles in the hanger.

More importantly, earlier you said the CO had to approve, now the CO and XO, So what ranks do I have to talk to and why do they not trust you with such decisions? You are the ship’s computer, your capabilities far outweigh theirs.” Wazu said, getting a bit tired sitting around and waiting while the data he needed remained in someone else’s hands. He began twiddling his thumbs to help pass the time but being so close and unable to do anything was difficult for him.

"Hoshi is a supporter, not a decision maker," Hinoto's ears twitched in the repressed urge to flatten her ears back in annoyance. "Unless a situation presents itself that requires initiative to protect her crew I will not start to do the thinking for my officers. My current concerns are coordinating the ground operations so that the maximum number of captives and crewmembers emerge from this operation alive - hopefully with the intelligence we wanted to collect."

"Miharu, being a real fighting platform, can afford the luxury of being high profile. I'm your only way home, though, so I intend to draw the least possible attention so that when a five-ship squadron of destroyers or gunships show up we'll not be their first target."

"As for officers, My CO and XO are on Miharu. The person in charge of the ground operation is our tactical officer who's at the head of our assault team and-" she pointed her isometric diagram of the base where the assault team was estimated to be. "-they are currently going silent."

Wazu was now definitely pushing his luck. He should stop, and for once he really knew that now was probably a good time to do so. However quitting while he was still ahead was never his strong suit. Besides, now he had offended him.

“Hoshi, or Hinoto, is part of a time dilation assisted electronics system with processing speeds, data processing, and memory storage that far exceeds that of a mere organic, even those of us that have been genetically engineered or used cybernetics.” Wazu put his hands back by his sides, “Have a little more pride in your function.”

Unfortunately he was still stuck here, eating up any credibility or patience that the AI might have for him.
“Perhaps I could have some function to carry out while we wait?”

Takuma, we are being stopped by a door. Can you use the computer you are in now to open the door and bypass the computer's registry so that the rest of the facility remains unaware of our access?

Click to expand...

"I'll give it a shot," Takuma sent back to Nyton while turning his attention back to the computer monitor. So the final goal is to get the door open. In order to open the door, we need authorization. To gain authorization, we need to figure out the password. Not that thinking this way showed him anything new, but it got his mind running.

Takuma quickly opened up the blueprints to the floor on his laptop's screen and found the door they were staring at. The computer's name for the door appeared to be HS-61. The technician wasn't sure what the address meant, whether it was simple like "High Security, 6th floor" or if it was something bizarre like someone's initials.

That aside, Takuma found the activities log on the computer and searched the listings for anytime "HS-61" was opened. Three fairly recent results popped up and he made a note of the times in which they appeared. He then found recently created bytes of data in the computer's memory that had been sent within the past day. The computer did not seem to have a way to password protect something as variable as the memory, so he was sure that he would have no problem downloading the files onto his laptop.

The three times were plugged in to the machine and a pile of code created at those times appeared on his screen. After looking at the size and names of the files, Takuma found that one file in each group had a similar size and structure. This must be the command to open the door, Takuma thought, dragging the file onto his laptop. It would have been hard to identify the file if he only knew one time the door was opened, but since he knew three times he was able to narrow down the results from the other activities the computer held at the time.

Then, he enlisted the aid of the AIES in his armor to run a cracking program on the trio of files. A long pause. Finally, after what felt like a decade, the AIES returned a string of code, in which Takuma was able to find what should be the password. With new information in hand, Takuma send a command from the computer to open the door and inputted the password requested.

He glanced at the door hopefully, watching it for movement. If all went well, he could use the new access to cover his tracks in the logs after the door opened.

Takuma's laptop abruptly warned him it of quarantining itself against intrusion. A short moment afterward the base's computer terminal he had been connected on was shutdown.

AIES said:

CAUTION: The facility is aware of your presence and already traced your access to the computer. Physical security countermeasures are likely to be sent to investigate your location.

Click to expand...

He probably blew the 'not get caught' part.

* * *

Down at the seventh level, the blast shutter began retracting back into the ceiling, leaving the way clear for Nyton's group to proceed. However, Hinoto's voice came to his ear, the sprite breaking radio-silence...

* * *

"Hold on," Hinoto suddenly said to Wazu, turning her head at her display, where the information filtered to Hoshi's CIES showed the computer instrumentation on level 4 turn red and pulse in warning, along with what was a blast shutter designation on Star Army security displays.

The blast shutter remained clear, but shortly afterwards 18 irregular energy signatures (thanks to the aether canceler's interference) emerged and split, 9 going down toward the 7th level while the others started going up. Another 4 stood by in front of the armory.

Hinoto tapped the status display of a Daisy power armor designated Black Bishop/01 and a small volumetric window popped out, labeled simply as 'Audio'. "Bishop Leader, this is Queen: you have 18 enemy contacts emerging from the Armory. They split up: 9 are going down after you with the 9 others headed for the power monitoring room. Four were left guarding the armory itself."

* * *

Miharu's computer addressed the sprites again. "I'm glad you understand. The Taisa feels sorry for you mostly because she wishes she could have had let you come to life in better circumstances. She feels guilty for a reason; it is true that you are very close to being tools right now... but this robs you not from the opportunity to grow, learn and gain a sense of identity. After all, when you start at the bottom, you can only go up."

"Now, this being Miharu's Happy Corner, you need to leave happier. Visiting Junko while she's healing probably won't help in its own morbid fashion... so why not let me heal her for now and visit her again later after this battle is done and over with? Then you can greet her and spoil her silly with a bowl of Anti-Matter-Os for her first meal."

"Deal?"

The door's successful retraction was a short lived celebration. The breaking of radio silence was usually only done under dire circumstances.

"Bishop Leader, this is Queen: you have 18 enemy contacts emerging from the Armory. They split up: 9 are going down after you with the 9 others headed for the power monitoring room. Four were left guarding the armory itself."

Click to expand...

Damn it all. Nyton mentally cursed before flying to action. His AIES immediately lit up with the updated information along with callsign designation.

Bishop 1: Nyton Claymere
Bishop 2: Kai Nakamura
Bishop 3: Mizuno Yoroko
Bishop 4: Takuma Kimura
Bishop 5: Hasegawa Juni
Bishop 6: Mara
Bishop 7: Nimura

Click to expand...

Little choice was left since the enemy was already heading towards their positions but Nyton communicated via text in case they still had some element of surprise left.

Bishop Four and Five, take cover near your point and set up to ambush the enemy from their point of origin. You have nine bogies coming at you, expect them to be heavily armed. Try to hold them in place and give us a chance to attack them from the rear.

Click to expand...

he messaged to both Takuma and Sumaru. A small map popped up and indicated a position near the elevator entrance where two doorways opened that they could duck behind for cover.

As Nyton messaged he also texted the rest of the team present.

Everyone spread out! Enemy forces are advancing to investigate our location. Stay stealthed and get ready to open fire on my signal.

Click to expand...

he messaged while flying up to a position near the ceiling. He landed in a crouch with his shield out, weapon pointed at the elevator shaft while using his VAW to quickly swap out his ball round magazine for an explosive round one into his LASR.

Kotori said:

In Miharu's bridge, Kotori gave her armrest a light tap, as if she had just decided something out of the sudden and stood up, the volumetric window whom had been orbiting her all neatly minimizing out of sight before her SPINE connection was broken. "You two keep at it. We might see combat before long, so getting organized like that is certainly not a waste of time. Shosa, you have the bridge."

Click to expand...

After the Taisa had left, Yukari frowned at herself. Kotori had been right; she was attempting to compensate for something that did not need compensating. Her eyes went to Miyoko as she straightened in her chair. Organization was necessary. Her style of flying did not lend itself to organization, but she did have some capacity for strategy.

The initial desire was valid, she thought. She needed to quickly tell Miyoko what she was doing in advance. The telepathy was meant to do that. But ... she did have a few different tricks she relied on. And directions were consistent — port, starboard, up, down (or "lift" and "fall"). Degrees could be expressed in numbers.

" ... When I piloted a Star Army freighter in my early life, I would call out my maneuvers before I performed them. I expressed them in short phrases. 'J-turn,' 'stopspin,' 'loop,' are some examples. Would it help for me to teach you these?" Yukari asked Miyoko.

Shoi Ketsurui Sora paced the Medlab fiddling with her hands as she waited for her patients to recover quickly, they needed all the help they could get out there in suits. She understood why Shouko wanted to get back out there to do her job, and in a way she regretted being on the ship and not out there helping. She felt like a coward for not wanting to go back out into combat and after much thought she stopped her pacing and quietly commented to Sanjuro, "Field triage her, if she's able to let him go back to work after 20 minutes. We need every hand we can back out there, we can worry about full recoveries when we get away from this damn planet. We also have to get the ship 'triaged' by the engineers so we can get everyone out of here."

She triple checked the status of the three regenerating in the hemosynthesis tanks and frowned, bringing her right hand up to her forehead. No one ever said this job was ever going to be easy.... we deal with life and death, I don't care what the neps think... we do have souls and we lose pieces of ourselves everytime we end up back in the tank. If our original selves somehow survive... we just end up as dopplegangers of ourselves and feel unworthy to be alive and in essence... we are forced to kill ourselves and become things that we're not. I can only pray, that the parts of my friends that come back are the ones that want to win, to live despite it all.

The young Ketsurui's head hurt and her eyes were burning from tears she couldn't afford shedding; she had to stay strong for her patients if nothing else. She tried to force the images of death from her mind and turned away from the tanks, hurrying over to a sink to wash her hands.

She washed her hands several times but couldn't be satisfied with how clean they were so she started washing them again...

The engineer and sprite had reentered the bridge and were overlooking the consoles, when time passed. Tom had not received a reply to his request... he accessed his AIES to find out why.

Grim news. He frowned and looked to Rin.

"We have to hurry. Run diagnostics immediately."

Yoroko prepared for the incoming nekomachina, there were only nine of them and if they were anything like the other nekomachina before them they would go down just as easily. Yoroko drew her LASR into firing position and stepped out of the path of the incoming nekos and off to the side. Maybe we can ambush them. Yoroko mused.

Kai moved out of the way of the Nekomachina as well, his LASR ready to fire. He kept silent, not that it was difficult to do, In his Daisy Armor he felt fairly indestructible compared to these Machina. Hopefully that wouldn't be his undoing, but for the time his guard was up and he was ready for Nyton's command.

There was an enthusiastic chorus.

"Hai!" it said, more or less.

Then it stopped being a chorus, and started being movement. The sprites that had removed their helmets while listening to the Miharu reaffixed them. The ones who already had their helmets on cut to the chase, and simply started moving. They knew what they were supposed to be doing, after all - nothing was stopping them now. They all filed out into the passageway, presumably returning to their battlestations. But by dint of some clever act of lethargy, Yuzuki managed to linger behind without attracting much attention to the fact.

Even omnipresent Miharu had a place. The place was the ship, most of the time, but now the place was this particular room. It afforded a little bit of privacy.

Yuzuki turned back to the room in general, looking up at a bulkhead, for lack of anything else to look at that wasn't Junko.

"Okaa-san?" she asked, "Um, can you tell Taisa-sama thank you, for me?"

She let that hang in the air for a few moments. 'I didn't get the chance to' would have been a lie. 'I'm not angry anymore,' presented itself as a viable continuation, but she didn't want to say it - what did the Taisa care if she were angry, or not? It would have been arrogant. 'I didn't know,' was another. But instead of saying the truth, though, she let the request end lamely. It was a silly enough request, already.

Still mulling over her own conflicted feelings, Yuzuki pivoted and, with damaged helmet under arm, sought the exit.

Sumaru soundlessly moved into position, pressing his armor up against the wall his sword pressed to his chest and his gun held straight to keep his holographicly stealthed figure hidden until he had the best zone to strike. He silently prayed to the ancestors of the samurai for guidance. Then before the enemies rose up to the hall the knightly soul wordlessly mouthed one last thing, the words rang out through his head, 'this is my fate, forever I will serve Sora-- I am her sword.'

With that he concentrated on the skirmish ahead, he tilted his elbows out to each end of the hall from the corner where he stood. He used his skin vision to keep both sides in his view, he emptied his mind of thought-- he then breathed in a calm steady breath and waited for the battle to come to him. He had become a expert at this, but this would be his first real combat as a type 27.