RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

Sora's pulse was racing as the Hoshi failed to impact the ground. She had never been so grateful for her belief in the power of prayer. She wasn't sure where to really go now that they were 600 meters from the ground except forward or back up again. All she could think to do was simply maintain going forward and try not to hit anything on the ground.

"Keep it up Sora, you're doing fine. Just keep our bearing towards the base and maintain the best speed possible." Nyton encouraged as he could not help but notice just how tense the princess had become. "Hinoto, how much farther to the base? What is our ETA at this pace?" he then asked quickly. "Aoiko, keep that weapon pod fire steady. Knock out those missles and keep those drones out of our way." he quickly ordered as another missle warning came in.

When the transmission from Miharu came in he looked over to Hinoto. "Hinoto, run some scans on the base and the surrounding area. Report anything odd, I don't care how insignificant. And see if you can find us a good access port to insert our Armor teams in."

With the action becoming more intense Nyton began to wonder if he and Aoiko would be able to launch with the Support Team. They may have to be late while they hold the fort on Hoshi. If it came to that he would have to put someone else in charge of the team.

"55 seconds away at present speed," Hinoto replied to Nyton while Aoiko's expression turned into a determined grimace. With a Ketsueki shadowing them, Sora too panicked to pull much in the way of evasive maneuvers, and the forces arrayed against them... at that rate Hoshi was going to be overwhelmed.

The purple-haired nekovalkyrja manning Hoshi's weapons used the defensive portion of the CFS, whom was mostly inoperative from the short skirmish they'd had with the Ketsueki corvettes, and had in generate projected energy beams to complement the weapon pod fire.

Beams of light fanned out toward the hostile targets in sight. Some eliminated missiles and drones as Nyton commanded, others struck at the Ketsueki whom was in close pursuit.

At first, it seemed the corvette would ride out the damage... but a second tongue of white-hot energy struck it from above, lingered and bore straight through it. Nu 4 tumbled down to the ground in two uneven halves.

At that point, Masako's Mindy team swooped in to catch up with Hoshi, the Black Knights concentrating on the drones and missiles that Hoshi's weapon pods missed of simply prove sufficient in number to take out in time.

Weapon pod fire from the Miharu began raining down from orbit to supplement Hoshi's, doing wonders in keeping at bay the increasingly large tide of drones. The Ryusei fighter, Black 1 and Black 2 - for their part - made atmospheric entry and struck at the fixed weapon mounts that had popped out of cover in the mountain range, destroying the orbital energy projection so it would not prove a threat to Miharu and then taking out the missile launchers.

Hinoto breathed out a sigh in relief as the situation seemed to get more under control and returned her attention to what the sensors had revealed to her a moment before. "Taii, the outpost's hangar bay is open, but I don't see the Sekkou."

"I certainly doubt they were opening up to welcome us in. Relay to Miharu that the hangar is open but the Sekkou's location is unknown. Continue scanning around the base and monitor the activities inside the hangar. If they're not using it then we will." Nyton ordered to Hinoto.

"Sora, make for the hangar. Aoiko, keep our path clear. Once we're in recall half of the weapon pods and reconfigure them for regenerative repairs. The others will cover the Armor teams during egress into the bay." then said to the rest of the bridge crew.

"All Armor Teams get ready to launch in less than two minutes." he announced in the bay.

"Yes, Taii," Sora replied taking a deep breath to try to slow her heart rate. She knew she had to calm down, they were going to be okay so long as she kept her head... but this was hard for the Shoi. Her focus on her training had been navigating blood streams, chasing down theoretical viruses.. so this whole starship operation thing was stressful to her...she was out of her element and comfort zone.

She took a few deep breaths and directed the Hoshi towards the hangar, trying to vary the ship's path of travel to make the auxiliary ship a little bit of a harder target.

Rin gripped her gun tighter. It was almost time. Nearly her first chance to get off the ship and her first time to have gone into combat. She had found herself starting to breathe faster, and she was slightly queasy from nervousness. Those stupid little butterflies in her belly! They were liable to distract her enough to get them all killed.

'Slow down. Calm down. I... won't mess this up.' No matter how many deep breaths she took, she could still feel her heart pounding away. Ba-dump, Ba-dump. It was her duty to help in the accomplishment of the mission, so why was she nervous? It was why she was alive in the first place. To serve.

Yoroko was also undergoing her own little trial. It was only the second time she would have been in real combat, and the first was more of an ambush than anything. There was no chance to be prepared. I can do this. Yoroko said as slowed her breathing, I have to do this. Yoroko glanced over at Kai, and in an effort to alleviate the mood spoke. "Kai, this is kinda like the race to the hill section of Fort Ready, except the instructors aren't really our instructors, ne?" Yoroko asked.

"Nor are they in Daisy armors any more" Kai quipped back. "And our guns fire real shots, as well." now that he realized they were indeed under fire, Kai calmed down a little. An odd thing for a person going to his first actual combat to do, but, for some reason, this Nito hei's nerves seemed hard wired in reverse. It was merely the calm before the storm, and, depending on the Yamataian's first sight out of the Hoshi's armor bay, the storm would either hit the soldier or his enemies. Kai was sincerely hoping it would be the latter.

"Keep your eyes open, Sora. Be ready to abort entry if you see anything funny." Nyton cautioned as he watched the distance count down while Hoshi closed in on the base. "Same to you Hinoto, be sure to scan the area around that hangar. If we have to make another entrance then we make one." he added, fighting off the anticipation to their next engagement.

"Yes, Taii... I think my eyes will pop out if I open my eyes any wider, but I will stay vigilant. I wouldn't want to hit anything at this speed," Sora replied in a slightly tense tone of voice as she kept her eyes moving between her displays for problems.

Hinoto had communicated her findings back to Miharu's MEGAMI-IES for the extra processing power and sensors. She observed a faint graviton-spike which was out of place, but that could've been just grav-plating. However, Nyton was insisting.

She frowned. She did coincidentally agree with Kotori that the hangar doors being opened made no sense, but sensors weren't giving her anything concrete.

Unless...

"40 seconds away," Hinoto reported and switched her sensors to the visual light spectrum, magnified to get a good view of hangar doors, which was lit by weapon's fire against the base's air-to-air defensive drones. That's where she noted the disembodied shadow slowly edging out of the hangar, its distinctively tappered 'prow' apparently pointed their way.

The silver-haired sprite gasped in the realization, but she lost no time in marking where she estimated the silent running Yui-class scout destroyer was for both Nyton's tactical display and transmitted the same to Yukari. "Sekkou, hostile!"

"Hostile?!" Aoiko glared Hinoto's way, apparently not liking the sprite leaping to conclusions.

Rather than arguing back to the Chui, Hinoto whirled around to look at Nyton, her eyes looking more like steel than silver. "No IFF signal, AS-7 torpedo complement and we are shieldless." The sprite didn't have time to argue - so, she focused on giving Nyton the tools he needed to make a decision.

Nyton cooly nodded as he finished through on his deliberation. Just as I had suspected. he thought.

"Chui, send tactical data to Hasegawa's Mindy. Give him jump data for the Sekkou's bridge as well as personnel data for the ship's original crew. Hinoto, as soon as you have confirmed Sumaru is aboard lock our two graviton beams, one to the bow, the other to the port side engine nacelle. I want you to push the ship back inside the hangar while using the beam attached to the engine to pull and pivot the ship. Send notice to the Miharu that the Sekkou is moving and possibly hostile." Nyton quickly ordered.

Opening a direct communication line to Sumaru, Nyton quickly sent him the mission brief. "Hasegawa, I need you to make an immediate teleportation jump aboard the Sekkou's bridge. Once there you have one second to determine whether the crew piloting the ship is friendly or foe. If they are the enemy eliminate them immediately. GO!"

No sooner had Nyton's command been given then data for the Sekkou began to arrive providing him with jump coordinates and the faces of the original crew for IFF recognition.

The tactical data reached the machine, and was simultaneously apart of Sumaru's consciousness. Without even questioning anything, he already knew what he had to do. "Santô Juni, Hasegawa. Orders received, disembarking." The pilot responded to the orders vocally in the local communications. Then suddenly the white armor rose up to it feet and lit up with a pulse of white energy, arching and filling the small area around his unit. Using the forwarded targeting data the samurai transported himself with his Atmospheric Plasma Rifle leveled out in one hand, and his Semi-Transparent blue Zesuaium Katana gripped rightly in the other.

On the bridge of the Sekkou, the Mindy exited with a mighty blast of unstable atmosphere and transpheric emissions. There was a reason that the manuals and AIES usually warned about teleporting into a room, the highly experimental unit was still under testing and was still quite raw in form. Sumaru exited hoping that his targets were unarmored, that way he could avoid a huge unnecessary skirmish after his explosive entrance. But still, his sharp frost blue eyes gazing through his armor's visual sensors and its metallic skin searched the area and quickly assessed the situation.

The Sekkou's appearance was from outside the realm of the unexpected. A desperate last move, or a calculated portion of the defense? Yukari pushed that information off to Kotori, as well as Nyton's ordered actions. "Sublight engine repairs still ongoing; awaiting orders, Taisa."

Kotori inched forward to the new volumetric window pop up, taking in a sharp breath at first. A moment later, she relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. "It's Hoshi's victory there. We're fine."

* * *

With a snap, both armored shutters closing off the Hoshi's launchbays opened. A graviton-beam projector turret deplyed from the ceiling of each, turning toward the ground outpost's bared hangar.

Aioko caught Sekkou on the starboard-side of the nose and pushed with the graviton beam as ordered, forcing the shieldess Yui destroyer to back away some into the hangar as it was forced into a sharp turn. She then kicked in the second graviton projector, catching it on the starboard engine pod and then using both beams to shove the destroyer back hard against the far wall of the hangar, the Sekkou's sharp prow scything through two shuttlecraft in the process before hammering with a clamor against the far wall.

* * *

Seven nekovalkyrjas were sprawled around the Sekkou's bridge, six as close to their respective stations as the knockback of Sumaru's appearance would have allowed, while another was slumped senseless in the pilot's pit. The ship being knocked into a wall didn't help, though Sumaru was easily able to retain his own balance with a little anti-gravity control.

Wish deployed its nodal support drones, the W2903 units sliding off their hangers from each of the Mindy's hip, all six hovering up to have firing solutions on the stunned bridge crew.

Scans revealed they were all NH-27 nekovalkyrja. All of them were identified as SAINT personnel as well, including Sonomiya Misaki-Shosa whom was sprawled next to her chair, sluggishly trying to regain her bearings and get up - too slowly to really make sense from a professional soldier.

Biological internal scans showed why: all seven had Type 4 Mishhuvurthyar parasite organisms in their bodies.

As the Sekkou was slammed into the wall of the hangar Nyton let a satisfied smile of appear on his face briefly. "Excellent work Chui. No need to further push them, just hold them in place and keep them off balance. Follow through with my previous orders for the weapon pods." he said.

"Now Shoi, take us in there. Park us next to the Sekkou fast and get us in as close as you can." Nyton continued as he studied the AIES readings from Sumaru's Mindy.

"Hinoto, determine if those infected crew members are still alive." came his first order. Nyton hoped for the best because otherwise the rescue aspect of their mission would be lost. The next order would be pretty obvious if the nekovalkyrjas were not.

"Hai," Sora replied quickly as she guided the Hoshi into the hanger, being mindful of her collision proximity warnings as she reduced their speed so the stop wouldn't be completely jarring. She kept her eyes moving to make sure that they were still clear to get that close.

The scan results imprinted the data directly into Sumaru's thoughts, the Neko turned zombies were already infected and from what he now knew, once they were infected it was highly improbable that they could be restored. 'May your souls be released so you may rest in peace,' Sumaru prayed in his head as he mentally commanded all of his NSD units to fire and stepped forward with a wide swinging arm motion, his razor sharp zesuaium katana used on the captain to finish her painlessly, and to honor her essence by swiftly bringing her a more glorious death then one of having her body desecrated by such foul creatures.

"All of the crew on the bridge is lost, they've become infected, I am neutralizing the targets now," he reported back to Nyton. The Samurai turned in his place and pointed his plasma rifle forward and locked the point of his weapon on the next unfortunate living dead. He moved percipience and fast, the objective was clear and he had no problem helping release the souls of his tainted comrades. Never off guard, and ever alert, his eyes all seeing through the vision granted to him though his skin.

As Hoshi lined up with the hangar bay entrance of the ground outpost, Aoiko recalled 5 of their 10 remaining weapon pod launchers for reconfiguration as Nyton requested, as well as the generation of two new pods. The five weapon pods still defending the auxiliary vessel swiveled to the back to keep defending against the drones still outside.

"Yes, Taii," Hinoto acknowledged, patching in Wish's AIES to get readings on the crew to run a scan over the biological readings of the infected bridgecrew to appraise their condition as well as ascertain how well the mishhu had bonded with the NH-27s - only to be jolted by Sumaru's announcement. Before Hinoto could say anything, two out of seven were already dead and by the time she had even parted her lips Sumaru was already done with the grisly deed.

The silvery-haired sprite stared at her displays in livid disbelief before her face twisted into a snarling mask of anger, her ears flattening back - Nyton had never quite seen the soft-spoken and gentle Hinoto look so terrible. "No survivors, Taii," she said in a strained voice. "Hagesawa-Juni killed them all before I could determine if they might have been saved or not."

As the Hoshi neared it's objective Nyton began to anticipate launching the Armor teams. However as the news that the Sekkou's crew was now dead reached him he could not help but feel a bit of a cold pit in his stomach. The look on Hinoto's normally serene face was not one he would forget soon. Maybe they could have been saved, maybe not. Most of the data he had read regarding type four parasites determined that the subject had to be dead in order to take control of the host. But if there had been a possibility of helping them then he did not want to jump the gun and repeat an incident like he had with Mara. For half a second he was back on the Mikomi when the little girl Haley had to be treated for type four parasites.

"Hasegawa-Juni, sweep the ship quickly and ensure that it is secured." Nyton ordered, letting out a breath softly. What's done is done. Focus on the rest of the mission now. If the ship's ST system is intact then we can restore the lost crew to some extent. he thought to himself. "Hinoto, see if you can patch into the Sekkou and take control. I don't want the enemy remote slaving it now that the crew is dead. Soon as it is landed we'll shut off our graviton beams and conserve energy. Scan the hangar for enemy presence and use the drones to provide some cover fire for the Armor teams. When we've secured Hoshi's position we will be joining the Support Team."