RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

Nyton could barely contain his joy at seeing their opponent die. The ecstasy of combat was something he had relished for most of his life and seeing an especially powerful opponent be vanquished made victory all the sweeter. Vanquished. Defeated. Conquered. Just fancy words for what we just did. We killed Eve. We murdered one of the most notorious murdering psychopaths who ever lived. he thought. He wanted to celebrate but he could not. Everything in his mind told him that their victory was incomplete. Not so much that there was still more to the mission ahead but rather he did not truly believe who they just killed had been Eve.

Enough introspection. It's time to press on. Nyton thought, refocusing his mind on the task at hand. "Good job everyone and especially to Hasegawa. You certainly made your princess proud with that kill. You should keep that weapon as a souvenir after we scan it. It wouldn't do to mount it somewhere just to have it blow up because it had a bomb hidden in it." he said, walking up to put his hand on the Samurai's shoulder. "We still have an aether signal ahead of us and for all we know it's not friendly. Only a little bit further everyone." he said, retracting his hand to reload his SLAG after having used up all his rounds.

Nyton brought up a map. They were now on the outer threshold of the command center. Certainly much closer to the computer they were seeking to plunder. Then again, there really wasn't much of a team left now. They had all been fighting so hard and taken several injuries along with a dead soldier. Hopefully they could pull it off and make it back with something of value. "Everyone form up. Half on one side of the hall, half on the other. Mizuno, take point with me. Nimura, you take point on the other side with Freeman. Rin, you fall in behind Freeman. Hasegawa, I want you to hang back and take Nakamura's position. Nakamura begin moving once Hasegawa has reached you. Point men send out your drones and scout ahead of us. It's not over yet so move out!"

"Sir, I would like you to belay your order moving Rin," Tom said to Nyton. "It involves the aether canceller. Sure, it is simple enough to plug it in, but that is not sufficient for proper operation of the device. The presence of a technician is required to configure the canceller. Otherwise, you end up with a useless hunk of metal on standby."

As he was speaking, he took position where he was ordered.

"Of the group remaining, only Rin, Nimura and I are trained in the operation of this device. It is prudent to have Rin stay behind. I state this with absolute knowledge and confidence on this matter."

"I concur with Freeman-Juni," Nimura added in turn as she walked into position and released her drones to go ahead into the command center. "The unit will have to be booted up once power is restored, as well as configured for activation. To these ends, I would recommend that Hagesawa-Juni return to Hoshi, leaving Rin and Nakamura-Hei take position there to operate and guard the-"

Nimura cut herself off, her back stiffening. Her drones had wandered up close to where the primary instrumentation of the underground outpost was, and one volumetric screen grabbed attention. She fed it to the team's Pantheon network:

AUTO-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED

Click to expand...

GEOTHERMAL REACTOR OVERLOAD IN PROGRESS: 8 minutes 17 seconds remaining
(Alarm silenced, evacuation protocols disabled)

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Nyton looked at the alert and rushed over to Tom, grabbing the bazooka from him. "Freeman, you and Nimura go stealth and head down there. Avoid enemy contact and try to prevent the reactor from going critical!" he said before turning to face down the hall. "Rin, go back to Nakamura's position and get set up. If things take too long then you two get out of here. Sumaru, given your condition you need to start heading back to Hoshi now! Hinoto get the ship ready for immediate evacuation. Calculate the minimum safe distance and travel time. Get out of here the second the timer hits that mark regardless of whether we're back or not! Mizuno, you're with me! Let's GO!"

With all the data Nyton had gotten of the scans of the command center he was ready for whatever was ahead of them. Hoisting the bazooka he then used the VAW's tentacles to wrap it around his VAW arm while holding his LASR in his shield hand. Floating up and to the right side of the hallway he then took off at high speed towards the control room.

Yoroko breathed a small sigh of relief when Eve went down. Though it wasn't an easy fight she had expected something more. Is that really it? Yoroko wondered as she slid into the point position awaiting further orders. Even so, wasn't eve supposed to be with her fleet? Yoroko popped out her SLAG magazine in order to count the remaining rounds, 0. That meant there was 1 loaded in the launcher. Yoroko quickly inventoried her ammo for her LASR before clicking the empty SLAG magazine back into place. "Ready." Yoroko said as she fell in line with Nyton.

It was only about then that Yoroko noticed the self destruct timer that had been fed to her IES. Not much time, we'd better be fast.

Rin just stood by, quite confused as she was told to do this and that. But, it was settled when the timer flashed up on her HUD, and Nyton ordered her back to the Aether Canceler. The sprite just took off for her new position, skidding to a halt once she was there.

Back at the Canceler once more, she lowered her power consumption yet again, readying herself to activate it.

To herself, Rin grumbled a bit at having been paired with such a 'lowly' enlisted such as Kai. But, there were more important things to worry about, such as a slightly important and iminent explosion.

Sumaru refocused his mind and brought his body back up straight by levitating his form with Wish's reconnected flight drives. He took a tally of his condition and agreed with Nyton. He had done more then enough, he had to let them take care of the rest, the Samurai turned to face Kotori's retainer and nodded firmly to him. "I leave the rest to you," Sumaru said with confidence in his tone. With that, he twisted his machine to face back towards the exit, in the turn the bright lights above reflected across his visor's surface, causing a shimmer of majesty to the samurai. Even covered in the scars and burns of conflict, Wish still glimmered with a battle-worn glory.

The Mindy II lifted off and zipped through the damaged and hanging catwalks, Sumaru was still in one piece-- and as long as he breathed, he could pilot. In a burst of speed, he exited the chamber and navigated his way through the maze of halls and corridors. He just needed to make it to the Hoshi now; he would let his wounds catch up with him when he got there... Sora had once promised him that whenever he got hurt, she would be there to fix him. As long as he got to her, then he could allow his body to rest in her care-- but not before. So he concentrated hard, and used the rest of his energy to make his way to her and keep Wish's flight drives powered.

After a brief moment of confusion due to conflicting orders, Kai settled on Nyton's most recent as the correct course of action, and stayed where he was, making sure he was okay, checking over everything inside his suit, making sure it worked fine; which it did, everything but the shoulder and cloak shield were practically undamaged. So he waited.

With a flash, Sumaru in his white Mindy II flew by, and Kai waved amicably, although he was invisible, and the Samurai would never see it. He checked his surroundings, doing a quick scan to make sure nothing was amiss, then turned to Rin "So, how long you been around?"

Tom would've gone stir crazy, had he TIME to, instead, he found his fatigue being replaced with frustrated rage...

...all directed at Nyton Claymere.

"WAIT!"

Right as the Taii had finished giving his order, Tom's armored hand shot out, grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. Actually, Nyton, in that moment had just blasted out, so the engineer was forced to use his own thrusters to guide him down, hard, to the floor. In the process, his armor had been scorched on the front, carbonizing the blood on his suit black and shredding whatever paint laid beneath it. The two armors landed unceremoniously in a pile before the engineer starting yelling.

"Wait a goddamn minute and think! There is a FUCKING LARGE AETHER SIGNATURE IN THERE. You yourself labeled it as hostile. HOW ARE TWO DAISYS GOING TO HANDLE THAT ALONE? Nyton, you're a goddamn tactical genius... USE your brain here... argh!"

He wanted to curse at him, yell insults, but he bit his tongue because it would waste too much time. Instead, he yelled over the comm freq to Rin.

"Rin, plug in the canceller and boot it up! We don't have Sumaru's tactical advantage any more, so there's NO REASON TO HAVE IT NOT OPERATIONAL."

He got up quickly.

"Sir, Aether is ship-grade weaponry. Two daisy's don't stand a chance. Let the canceller do it's business, then have EVERYONE available engage the enemy! 4 or 6 against that thing is much better than TWO!"

He looked at Nimura, and started running.

"Nimura and I will take care of our business. WE will find a way to buy YOU time. But PLEASE wait for the canceller to begin!"

With that, he was off. There was no more time to argue.

In Hoshi's bridge, Hinoto frowned in worry as she heard Tom argue with Nyton. She slid in with her telepathy. "I've identified the unit waiting in the operation room, thanks to some of the downloaded maps factory specs and the files Takuma collected earlier. Here is a summary of what I could collect:"

Ke-J4-1A Mishhumachina
(Experimental SARA project. Dropped in YE 29)

Dimensions:
Main body - 4m long, 4m wide, 2m tall.
Tentacle weapons (36) - 10m long, 20cm diameter

Systems of note:
Large Aether Generator (stronger output to the M9 Tasha, nearly starship-grade)
Extensive battery reserves.
AIES control unit, with sensor augmentations around eyes and the ear fins.

Mobility:
~ Locomotion with tentacles. Estimated 60 KPH, with heightened climbing capabilities.
~ Anti-Gravity Control, permitting to hover in any direction at speeds up to 100kph.

Defenses:
~ Heavily Armored (Yamataium with thick Zesuaium panels and stealth coating)
~ Conformal Gravimetric-EM Barrier Shielding
~ Scalar Protection
~ Thermo-optic Stealth Camouflage

Weapons:
Main Body:
~ 4x GRASER Eyebeam ball mounts
~ 2x 105mm Rotary mounted Gauss Cannons
~ 4x Micro-missile pods (20 Multi-purpose Shield and Armor Piercing warheads) / Possibly replaced by 80 Nodal Support Drones
~ The 'Mouth' is essentially some sort of elaborate vibroblade-grinding weapon with a powerful plasma torch with a 50m effective range.
Tentacle weapons (each, to a total of 36 tentacles):
~ 1x Aether Pincer-Cannon

• Aether-limned claw, 3m aether cutting 'spike' and projected beam functions

~ 4x Phased-Pulse Weapons

• similar to NSP, with normal, stun and heavy area burst settings

Combat Analysis:
Combines the melee prowess of a Mishhuvurthyar with the deadly effectiveness of Aether-based weaponry. Comparatively slow to any spacy-unit, but in closed confines it matters a lot less. Its tentacles provides it with a great deal of control and coverage, each being everybit as deadly as a Mindy II's forearm weapon, with superior ability to grapple and provide covering fire with the secondary phased-pulse weapons. The plasma flamer beneath it removes the mouth as a possible blind-spot, with dorsal gauss cannon mounts and missile launchers at the flanks and top insuring expansive firing arcs on top of the repositionable tentacle weapons.

The camouflage cloak is quite powerful, enabling it to fight very effectively while visually concealed, though its power plant prevents it from being truly undetectable (this is mostly a direct fire/homing weapon accuracy concern). The barrier shield it has is on the level of NDI mobile frames and nothing but the heaviest anti-mecha weapons will likely get through - and even then will need to contend its thick armor.

For ground combat, in close-quarters, the J4 Mishhumachina's threat level exceeds that of the M9 Tasha and the NH-28 NIWS.

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The display had a slowly revolving three-dimensional model of a Mishhuvurthyar, bearing the metallic plating and exposed variable-geometry exoskeleton (it's musculature) similar in design to the nekomachina, with pincer claws mounted at the end of the 36 drooping tentacles it extended out in clusters of 12 at three locations: the main body's rear along with its right and left flanks.

"Taii, Hoshi and Sekkou will have to leave before the Aether Canceller Device is activated." hinoto added. "Based on its previous settings, that will require us to withdraw at least one-hundred kilometers away. You'll be on your own."

* * *

Nimura silently spun and doggedly followed after Tom, back to the chamber they had fought 'Eve' and then up the catwalk.

Ominously, the contact with her drone was abruptly lost, but the crew's AIES network kept up with the announcements...

AUTO-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED

Click to expand...

GEOTHERMAL REACTOR OVERLOAD IN PROGRESS: 7 minutes 32 seconds remaining
(Alarm silenced, evacuation protocols disabled)

Click to expand...

Tom and Nimura soon reached the stairs that ran along the wall and down towards the geothermal plant.

Down, a long, long way.

"400 meters," Tom exclaimed. "We don't have that kind of time."

It looked like they would have to take the quickest way down. Tom's Daisy jumped down the shaft, his thrusters firing to slow his fall enough so that his landing wouldn't harm him. He sent his drones down ahead to scan as he descended.

"Nimura," he said, "considering we'll be locked out of any of the consoles present when we reach the plant, what do you believe our options are regarding manual delay of the explosion? I was thinking we could manually force open cooling mechanisms and deposit any emergency coolant supplies they have into the reactor. Or we could try to reroute that coolant into the mechanisms that are forcing the reactor to overheat, thus delaying the inevitable."

Nyton had sat up after being plowed into the floor by Tom's tackle. As he listened to the other man's verbal assault he could only watch and stare. Then came Hinoto's information regarding the mishhumachina and the amount of fire power the monstrosity possessed. Before Nyton realized it his shoulders began to shake as he looked down at the floor briefly before throwing his head back in laughter.

Nyton's laughter rang out within his helmet although it could be heard leaking out from the slit where Eve's weapon had sliced through. Nyton then stood up, still chuckling all the while. Well Tom it looks like you grew a set of balls and beat the box. I'll be sure to congratulate you once we get back, Nepleslian style. he thought. Once he was sure he had regained his composure Nyton then began to message out.

"We will stand by and await your return. Hopefully everything should be set and ready by then." Nyton said on the shared team channel. "Rin, once you have it up and running try and see if you can find a way to reconfigure the field so that it no longer encompasses the hangar level."

Then Nyton began to communicate to Hinoto directly. "Hinoto, Rin is attempting to reactivate the device while possibly redirecting the field so that you will not be affected. Check your downloaded files to see if they came with any instructions on how to do that and pass that information along to her. Begin departure preparations and be ready to jet out of here the moment Hasegawa arrives." he said, hoping that at least the brave Samurai would be able to reach the ship before time grew crucial.

With that said Nyton then withdrew further back down the hall. No sense in staying too close to the chamber of the beast. For a moment he thought he could see a hooded figure lurking in the shadows. Perhaps this was what his grandfather had meant by sitting in a waiting room with Death. Very well then old shade, but don't expect me to blink if that is what you are waiting for.

The male Nekovalkyrja made his final turn into the large bay housing the Hoshi. The Yamataian starship was a welcome sight for Sumaru's exhausted eyes, he paused a moment to glance back down the shaft he came from. He could hear the communication chatter, the sounds fading out with his damaged systems-- but he did hear what they expected on the other side of that door. Something inside tried to tug his overtaxed frame back down to assist them, but even he knew his limits, there was no way he could fight at his best when he already pushed his body way past it's limit.

"No-- now it's their time to prove their worth," the samurai said to himself as he now removed himself completely from the battle, hoping that the others would make their climb for glory. He turned back around and skimmed along the dusty surface of the bay's messy grounds. The once pristine white Mindy II was now battle worn and covered in blood and scorch marks, but still held its head high with dignity. The warrior past through a hatch leading into the armor bay, and his feet touched down on the metallic surface. "Just a little more my friend," Sumaru said inside the confines of his helmet, his voice was projected to the spirit of his faithful armor. The equipment left on the armor unlocked from the mounts and clattered onto the floor, until only his sword remained.

He slowly made his way to the medical bay, pulling the Mindy's helmet from his head. His bangs dripped with condensation from his breath, the illusion of sweat appeared on his forehead marking a characteristic of his faded humanity returned to his features. He had been depending on his internal stamina for far too long now, his mind was starting to slip as it was trying to rest and regain its energy. But before he succumbed to the exhaustion, the only thing he wanted-- was to see Sora. Sluggishly he walked over to his Princess, and he let his knees fall beneath him, landing knelled before the red haired Ketsurui. "It is done, I have completed your tasks Sor---" he didn't get to finish, the fatigue had finally caught up with him and caused the loyal knight to collapse right there. That was it for the Samurai now, the rest was up to the crew.

“Can your soldiers handle disarming the powerplant?” Wazu asked Hinoto.

Yoroko cringed a little as she looked at the readout. Privately the former neko breathed a huge sigh of relief that it wasn't going to be 2 on Death and that the thing would be drastically reduced in combat effectiveness. We probably couldn't hurt it even if we wanted to if it had aetheric power. Yoroko stared at her weapon as she imagined what the combat would have been like. 1 SLAG round probably won't be too useful. Unlike what we've encountered so far this guy can't dodge half as well. Yoroko thought before sliding her Plasma Rifle off of her back and connecting it to her DAISY, replacing her LASR-SLAG in it's place. Let's hope "razor teeth" doesn't get excited and come out before we're ready, or destroy the data center. "Well Kai, imagine the stories when this is over. It'll certainly be something to brag about." Yoroko mused over the team channel.

Rin squeaked at the yelling. That... was seemingly uncharacteristic of Tom, then again she had only been around for a little while. It was truly frightening, hearing someone she had, earlier, been given a kind talk from, one of looking forward to a happy future. Now he was yelling and seemed ready to just punch someone... well someone that wasn't meant to be punched by him.

By the time Nyton confirmed the order, the sprite was already moving to plug it in.

The young Ketsurui was still feeling very overwhelmed by the gravity of the casualty assessment, even as most of her work was shared between herself, Sanjuro and the sprites. She was grateful when many of the patients recovered enough to return to duty and exit the medbay under their own power.

She had been given a very short respite from her tasks when she heard the thud of mechanized footsteps against the deck. Sora had turned to look at the power armored newcomer, unsure of what to really expect. Her eyes widened as she took in the whole picture of who the footsteps belonged to and she was filled with a sense of relief.

Sumaru said:

Sluggishly he walked over to his Princess, and he let his knees fall beneath him, landing knelled before the red haired Ketsurui. "It is done, I have completed your tasks Sor---" he didn't get to finish, the fatigue had finally caught up with him and caused the loyal knight to collapse right there. That was it for the Samurai now, the rest was up to the crew.

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She felt her heart tighten as the sense of relief she felt was ripped from her as her closest friend collapsed at her feet. Her face flushed a light red as she began to triage Sumaru. "SANJURO, I NEED YOUR HELP OVER HERE!" She screamed uncharacteristically with a heavy edge of panic rising in her voice.

Mother, please let him still be alive! Sora inwardly prayed as she checked Sumaru's vitals, and blanking out for the moment on how to externally open the samurai's power armor.

Setting her weapons aside, Rin hunched down and grabbed one of the three large power cables snaking out from the aether canceler device. Hefting it up, she plugged it into one of the wall outlets with a satisfying 'clump' sound.

The sprite technician followed up with the two others. The machine didn't turn on - she probably would have to flick the On/Off switch for it manually... but where was it?

Fortunately, her search for it was brief: it was just below the devices operating console, handily identifiable thanks to black-and-yellow hatched markings with a 'POWER' written over it.

* * *

"Hai," Hinoto said for Nyton's benefit and then conveyed a text message to the Sekkou in order to have it prepare for launch.

"The Chief Engineer and one of his technician assistants are the ones whom were sent down," Hinoto answered Wazu, preoccupied with two volumetric windows in particular. One was pre-launch preparations and the other was a file directory retrieved from the data Takuma had retrieved, where she made a search to find anything that would help Rin operate the Aether Canceler Device. "So hopefully, yes."

* * *

Tom and Nimura dropped into the hollow amidst the rectangular flight of stairs down, with stairs rushing by their sides while they feathered their thrusters.

"I am uncertain," Nimura admitted in answer to Tom's query. "Geothermal power is usually safe. An 'overload' sounds like this would have more to do with heat exchangers being disabled, leading to catastrophic pressure changes that could result in steam explosions. Steam explosions would destroy sizeable portions of the power plant, but would hardly be enough to destroy the whole complex unless this installation tapped in the magma beneath a dormant volcano. Perhaps steam explosions could create a chain reaction which would compromise the capstone in use to keep this volcano in check, resulting in the volcano becoming active again."

They touched down and both went at a run only to come to a branching point - one which lead to the drone factory and the other to the power plant control room. In the way were half-a-dozen incomplete nekomachina trudging in a zombie-like fashion toward them... with hundreds more coming from beyond.

AUTO-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED

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GEOTHERMAL REACTOR OVERLOAD IN PROGRESS: 6 minutes 37 seconds remaining
(Alarm silenced, evacuation protocols disabled)

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Time froze as Tom was confronted with the grim situation.

There were no options. Their weaponry was insufficient to create a blockade of debris--Tom cursed the absence of his bazooka--and the path was too wide to hold them off without being swarmed.

Wait. There was one option, a desperate option...

He looked to Nimura, the sprite, a silent, vigilant friend who saved several lives already this mission. The one who called herself expendable.

Expendable.

His head nodded solemnly. His next words spilled out of mouth, a stream of water...

"Nimura, do what you can..."

An image of Nyton flashed in his mind, his words... Consider yourself not expendable.

A cup shot out, catching the liquid before it splattered on the floor.

"BELAY that! We're locking ourselves in the reactor room to complete the objective! Go go go go go go!"

He ran for the room, forearm cannons clearing a path.

As Rin completely ignored Kai and then got busy with the Canceler device, Kai mused 'guess i'm not here then...' to himself, before being contacted by Yoroko, to whom he was all too glad to answer to.

"Well, your story's gonna be better than mine, I never actually got to shoot at Eve. what's left in here for us to kill?" The Yamataian asked, shifting around and flexing his lower right arm but stopping with a cringe of pain shooting through the still fried upper arm. It appeared he needed a bit longer to heal.