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RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

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We're moving the line soon. Yoroko steeled herself for what would probably be an uphill fight. "Understood." Yoroko responded. "Are you out of ammo?" Yoroko sent to Kai before firing more with her own plasma rifle. Yoroko was happy for the redundant sensors, which were a result of a modification of the Daisy's systems, not that Yoroko knew much about that. Soon we advance.
 
"Y-yes sir, Claymere Taii." Sanjuro said, rather shaky as the violence erupting all around him had him unsettled. If he had been nervous before then this was really beginning to frazzle him. Fortunately the position he was being given was mainly suited for standing back and not participating too much in the action so he was relieved for that much.

"Hai, Freeman-Juni!" responded Ichigo and she began to take careful aim at the androids crawling on the walls. Firing careful bursts she managed to pick off several of them while the others were caught by the front lines defensive fire. She quietly rejoiced at having succeeded in her objective of the moment and tried not to be too obvious although the excited little hopping she started to do gave it away.

Tom's advance went unimpeded, the fire from the androids hiding within the shuttle wreckage doing little to stall him. With both forearms blazing his energy cloak absorbed the shots with no difficulty. Unfortunately the explosions that suddenly rocked the destroyed shuttle knocked him off his feet. The warning from his AIES about the incoming friendly fire gave his system the time to automatically put forth more power which helped to absorb most of the damage. By the time Tom landed his cloak was down, used up in soaking the damage, and his forearms were slightly scorched from the heat of the blast. Other than that though he was uninjured and had landed on his back a few meters in front of Nyton, Aoiko, and Sanjuro's position. The cusion of the DAISY's insides prevented any of the kinetic energy to harm it's occupant. AIES began warning him that the cloak was down and immediately working on restoring itself while the armor integrity was still intact.

The SLAG round managed to destroy the walkway and most of the occupants on it. Their destroyed chunks was strewn about in a rain of shards and fragments. One android's upper torso fell down and landed limply on top of Rin, completely shut down but still even in death apparently, trying to hinder her from reloading fast enough.

Aboard the Sekkou Sumaru was satisfied with the answer and made a note of it, relaying the information of the ST pod back to the Hoshi. With his mission done within the ship he hurried to exit and join the battle but found the effects of the Interdiction Field slowed down his egress. His preparations in expectation of it made his suit capable of continuing to function however now that the Sekkou had very little power to run off of. Forced to find and use one of the emergency manual controls to open one of the hatches he slowly opened doorways until he could reach a hatch that led him outside and to the battle.

Upon seeing Tom get flung across the hangar floor Nyton immediately checked his AIES to ensure the pilot was unhurt. Seeing that he was and that his suit was also undamaged but unshielded he messaged over to Aoiko.
"Murasaki, cover Freeman! Give his suit time to recover!"
Click to expand...

With that command Aoiko replied with a quick "Yes sir!" and ran over to shield Tom with her body, confident after the lack of damage the androids had done so far. Using both handheld shield and her energy cloak to absorb any stray shots she kept him more or less protected in from a slight hover over and to the side of him closest to the front line.

Satisfied that Tom would be covered Nyton decided not to give the enemy a chance to take advantage of this moment even if the armor plating did hold. "Front line begin the advance! PUSH!" he shouted over the comm and directed them to advance forward towards the main entrance that had up till not been the major source for the enemy's arrival. Along with the command was a followup order to switch to forearm guns if their LASR ran out of ammunition. Reloading would wait until they had finally gained ground.
 
"Eep!" Clang! Rin stumbled a bit after having a body-half land on top of her as well as an explosion in the hangar, and she lost grip on the magazine that was about to be shoved into her LASR. "Ah! F- Freeman-Juni!" She hoped that Tom was alright as she tossed the robotic body off of her, shivering slightly at the fact that it looked like a dead neko just with a lack of blood. It could've been her or one of her sisters.

The sprite scrambled and picked up the LASR magazine and loaded it into the gun, bringing it up to back-up the advancing frontline.
 
"I'm ok!"

Tom barked the response even though his head was swimming from the force and surprise of the explosion. He was not expecting that at all.

Shaking his head and quickly checking his armor readings, the engineer realized the dangerous situation he was in until his shielding recovered. He scrambled to a kneeling position behind Aoiko, trying to compress his size to maximize the cover provided by his teammate.

"Thanks. What hit me...?"
 
Noting that he himself was on the front line, Kai pushed forward, by now using both forearm weapons instead of just one. He saw Tom get blown over, but the engineer seemed okay, so Kai didn't worry about it. Kai slowly but steadily moved forward, guns blazing, mowing down anything that came into his path. However, concentrated as he was on his path, the Hei started getting mild tunnel-vision, his periphery being less of an issue to his mind. Hopefully his comrades would make up for this lack of thought.
 
Back on Miharu, Kotori nodded to Miyoko's report. "We shouldn't have sufficient time to manually reload the launcher via extra-vehicular work - so we'll just have to manage with what we've left."

As if on cue, Yukari received a damage report:

Sigurd lost no time in telling Yukari: "Shosa, the damage was limited to the Multi-function Bay. The content of both cargo holds were spared damage, so, those torpedoes are all still available."
 
The Assault Team's charge was successful in driving back the remaining enemy. The androids were either cut down or forced to retreat only to be destroyed a few seconds later. What was not destroyed during the rush was picked off by the Support Team's fire. The hangar was quiet as the action had ceased. The only sounds were of burning wreckage, sparking androids, their feet clanging against the floor, and the storm still raging outside.

Aoiko kept her LASR up at the ready in case of some other danger. "I don't know, Freeman-Juni. It all happened so fast." Aoiko replied. In answer to Tom's question though, his AIES began to replay the events that occurred. He had charged towards the entrenched enemy position as ordered when Kosuka fired her bazooka twice. The blasts destroyed the enemy but the explosion caused by it had enough force that he was in proximity to be blown back.

Nyton was satisfied with their gains so far and quickly analyzed their situation. He simultaneously began to relay out messages to convey his orders. One message was sent to Hinoto.


The other message to the Assault Team.

A small map of the scanned base showed their current position and intended route of entry towards the prisoners in the medical level. A private message to Yuri appeared under the first message indicating that Nyton had noticed her struggle to hit enemies just as Yoroko had with her plasma rifle.

Rearm for fast moving targets. If you don't have a LASR per the standard loadout put out earlier then the forearm guns are fairly effective against the androids. Save the plasma rifle if we encounter something more solid.
Click to expand...

The message to the Support Team was also put out at same as the Assault Team's.

A small map, much like the one the Assault Team received appeared along with a private message for Yoroko the same as Yuri's.

Rearm for fast moving targets. If you don't have a LASR per the standard loadout put out earlier then the forearm guns are fairly effective against the androids. Save the plasma rifle if we encounter something more solid.
Click to expand...

Nyton paused for a few seconds to let the orders sink in and give everyone a chance to reload or change weapons. As he did this though his AIES was working with the C scanners to pass on multitudes of data as fast as Nyton thought of it.

Scanners analyzed which of the enemy's weapons were still functional and had at least half full magazines. It highlighted these along with possible means to carry the weapons: a tarp blown off a damaged shuttle, a crate for storing small parts, cargo straps, and other such items that did not require a lot of imagination to use in this task.

The enemy's movements deeper inside could not be detected but the lack of their presence could at least give them some indication to their movements. No enemy was detected down the hallway or the elevator and the information was sent to the Assault Team, constantly updating the map he had sent them with the orders.

Life signs of the prisoners were being analyzed to try and determine a more accurate number of how many were present along with their conditions. This data was sent to Sanjuro so that he could better begin to estimate a diagnosis.

Taking a deep breath Nyton then counted down five more seconds since the orders and data were given. Upon marking zero he then transmitted audibly to everyone, "Move out!!" followed by his flying charge for the hallway's entrance to cover the Assault Team's advance.
 
The panels around Yuzuki glowed an eery, electronic blue against the red trouble lights of the engineering space. Around her, electronic equipment crackled. None of the wiring had blown out, yet, but the strain on the system from the lost links in the chain was audible. Thankfully it was nothing serious and did not compromise the ship's main power supply or auxiliary systems.

In one ear she was listening to music (she shouldn't have been, of course - it just helped her think), but in the other she was listening to the sound of a half a dozen engineering systems running at full tilt. The engineering space was heating up due to the 'nick' the gravimetric drive took. It would run, of course, but that didn't mean it would run without overheating. She had her eye on the temperature. This wasn't damage control central, but she was making due with what she could. Making due was just about all she could do.

Across the board, the Miharu was running. The engines were still running under a standard power load, even though probably they shouldn't have been. Nothing was broken beyond repair - yet. However, in the back of her mind, Yuzuki knew that the strain of disregarding the safety perameters would eventually become a problem and the powerful Aether and gravimetric riggings could destabalize, but for now it was operational. It might be slightly damaged but it worked.

There were other sprites moving around in the engineering space, but she did not know them incredibly well beyond the fact they were new. Was she senior? The question lingered in her mind. It hadn't occurred to her before. She was on this ship, in an engineering space, with no immediate superior to direct her. Freeman was out with the armor teams. So were her senior sprites. How had this happened? She probed a little deeper into that line of thought. Senior enlisted. It had a certain ring.

She bit her lip, thinking hard for a few moments. Did she dare?

Then, with a little rush, she thought - hell yes, I dare.

 
Yoroko was pleased with how successful the push had been and happily stowed her Plasma Rifle on her back to get her LASR out. By the time Nyton gave the go command Yoroko was a tightened spring. The second the word left his mouth she started off, trying to go at a reasonable pace so that she wouldn't be the only person charging. As she moved the Heisho kept her eyes open for new targets.
 
Tom glanced at the Sekkou anxiously while hearing Nyton's assignment to pick up weapons. He felt it was a waste of time given the situation, considering his skillset.

He sent his analysis via text-message to Nyton.

 
Takuma glanced at his ammo indicator, noting that he only fired about half a clip in his conservative state. He quickly swapped out the magazine and slammed in a fresh one.

Well, it seems the magazine was half-full. Wonder how the others would see it... He noted that since Nyton had been issuing orders, he was relatively free from leading the two teammates under him. Time may come for that, he thought while advancing with his team towards the prisoners.
 
The charge down the hall went unimpeded. In stark contrast to the earlier action, it would seem the enemy had given up all ground for the time being. The destroyed androids littered the hallway to a certain point. The wreckage lasted until the junction with the sealed door where they turned down the hall that led directly to the elevator. Once there, it was all clear.

As the Assault Team cleared the hall, the Support Team stopped to cover them at the exit to the hangar. Mara quickly took a spot on the middle right side of the exit, hoving in mid-air. Sumaru, catching up in time to move out, assumed a position below Mara on the same side. Nyton took a position on the upper left corner, using the gravity manipulation to hold himself. Sanjuro flew as quickly as possible, mostly motivated by fear, and nearly crashed into Nyton. He gave no indication of apology, simply thinking that Nyton had told him to stay close. There was no need for concern since Nyton was busier watching the Assault Team's advance via his remote monitors. As he did this he received the message from Tom.


Nyton quickly analyzed Rin and Ichigo's status on the many subscreens around him and quickly messaged back.


Aoiko was busily working to collect the weapons as ordered, unaware of the discussion going on between the other officers. Picking through the marked weapons she checked their ammo loads and sifted about for more magazines as well.

The members of the Assault Team, guided by Kosuka, quickly took positions around the elevator. When an all clear signal was given Nyton then signalled for the rest of the Support Team to move in. A message from Hinoto soon went out to Nyton.

"Taii, the weapon pods cannot secure the hallway. Our system in it's current state is unable to extend far enough to position at that distance." reported Hinoto.

Just secure the entrance then. Don't worry about the hallway.
Click to expand...
Nyton replied back quickly as he rushed to the Assault Team's position. When the team reached their destination Nyton quickly patched the scanned map he had of the base to the Assault Team and laid out the plan.


With the orders passed on he quickly coordinated to the Support Team.


The plan was laid out with diagrams and maps showing their projected movements. With that Nyton gave the go signal to Kosuka.

"Do it!" Nyton remarked simply to Kosuka and awaited as the advance continued.
 
Acknowledged. Please note my formal disagreement with this decision.
Click to expand...
He sent that to Nyton.

After that, Tom silently went about picking up the weapons and checking ammo conditions of the weapons.

His movements were agitated and his shoulders sagged, silent indicators of his extreme disappointed at Nyton's response. It didn't make sense to him, priorities or not. Would subtracting the three engineers from the team in order to do what they were best at prove detrimental to the mission? Wasn't that the point? To best utilize the abilities of everyone?

Engineers weren't meat shields. They knew how to pilot armors, but the actual specialist pilots were the ones who knew how to best handle combat scenarios such as this. He quickly thought of Rin, who was already shaky enough being once again exposed to enemy fire. It was quite possible she could become a liability to the team, rather than a benefit, if she happened to crack under pressure.

It wasn't arrogance that made him think this, but experience. He remembered how often he felt like cracking when he first started out... here, on Bowhordia, where he almost died.
 
No time was wasted as the Assault Team leapt down the gravity elevator. Using their gravity manipulators they flew down unimpeded at full speed. The first basement level passed by, living quarters for lower ranks, with no signs of activity. The second level was the same. Nyton kept a close eye on the scanners, making note of everything the other DAISY Armors were seeing with theirs. He also received Tom's response and simply noted his protest. He found no sense in discussing it further.

Once on the third level the Assault Team formed up to create another perimeter around the elevator entrance. Once fully in place and reading no sign of enemy activity, Nyton gave the signal for his team to go. "Let's go!" he commanded, jumping in ahead of everyone, his weapon pointed downward. Following him was Sanjuro, Mara, Sumaru, Ichigo, and Rin. Upon landing they quickly formed up as directed by the diagram Nyton showed earlier. Once Nyton, Mara, and Sumaru had formed the rear vanguard, Ichigo and Rin fell further back along with Sanjuro. Kosuka's team advanced to counter any threats that might be waiting on the way to the prisoners but there was nothing at all. It was as though they were left completely undefended.

"Its looking good so far. Alright switch out, Takuma with us, Sanjuro, time to earn your pay." Nyton said in cool observation. He hated it when the enemy made things too easy though. That always triggered the feeling of walking into an ambush. Regardless though they had to keep advancing. Scans showed nothing except the prisoners just ahead and Nyton was pushing the scanners to their limit of analysis.

With the Assault Team securing the hallway and facing down the East hallway their drones were deployed to watch the elevator for anything approaching from that passage. The Support Team advanced quickly towards the confinement cell area in flight rather then foot. They passed by a monitoring room which controlled the holding cells as well as kept the prisoners under watch. "Takuma, take the monitor room. Use the computer there to try and hack in. Open up those doors and confinment fields while you're at it." Nyton said as they continued to the actual cells area. Upon opening the door to the cell block the team could now visually see the rooms where prisoners were being kept. It was a long dimly lit gray metal hallway with rooms lining both sides. Each room had a small monitor on the outside to allow a guard to look in on the prisoner and a doorway next to the actual cell itself. The doors were yamataium reinforced steel that opened vertically. On the DAISY loudspeaker Nyton quickly called out to the prisoners. "This is Claymere-Taii of the Star Army of Yamatai! We are here to rescue you!"

No sooner had they begun to set foot inside the cell block then blips began to appear on the scanner. They were still far out and not within clear range of detection though so no one could quite tell which direction they were coming from yet. Shit, we better hurry. Nyton thought to himself as the alert was passed on to everyone else. "Takuma, open all the doors marked with life signs, now. Freeman, Murasaki, just hurry up with what you have and get down here. The rest of you assist Sanjuro and get ready to get these prisoners out of here. Move it!"
 
Kai continued feeling uneasy once again at the lack of any kind of opposition or resistance. those machines didn't count as anything more than distraction, and that worried him because if his enemies had the resources to waste those failed excuses for war machines, then they obviously had the resources for something much larger and more deadly. Kai voiced his opinion over the speakers "I'm really not liking this whole thing, guys" he muttered, looking about nervously, waiting for the doors to open in case he needed to carry someone. When blips began appearing on the sensors, he noted that, as well "Shit guys, we got something coming for us. I hope we can get the prisoners to safety before they get to us"
 
Rin kept taking deep breaths to try and calm her serious nerves. She kept her LASR pointed back the way the Support Team had come as she waited for the doors of the cells to be opened up. Whatever was coming she hoped would be as easy as those androids they'd fought already. Or, better yet, not come this way at all so that way the prisoners wouldn't be endangered. But, somehow, she doubted if this was going to be quite as easy as it had been.
 
During the travel to the holding cells, Sanjuro struggled to overcome his own overwhelming nervousness while analyzing the information passed to him about the possible prisoner signals received earlier. The medical officer had a difficult time concentrating on his task; even though he felt safest in his 'work environment', taking in and making sense of all the data while constantly watching his own back for further signs of the enemy were taking a toll on his efforts to concentrate. Given the natural interference of the area and the somewhat unreliable nature of these life-sign signatures he was receiving, Sanjuro concluded that he couldn't make any set diagnosis without first seeing the prisoners and their conditions first-hand. He didn't entrust lives to data perceived from metal; he would much prefer to draw from his own knowledge and instinct, and it had not yet failed him.

Nyton said:
"Its looking good so far. Alright switch out, Takuma with us, Sanjuro, time to earn your pay."
Click to expand...

Sanjuro looked up from his data...and there they were. Live people, trapped and possibly in dire need of help. For all of his (let's face it; cowardice), the medical officer suddenly changed from his formerly disheveled actions into a much more concentrated state. It was time to earn his keep...it surely wouldn't be paid with his combat expertise.

"Takuma," Sanjuro said as he quickly jogged over to the nearest cell, placing his open palms against the doors and searching the surrounding area for physical evidence of what might be in the cells...name plates, data panels, anything. "...once you get into their computer network, I need you to open these cells as quickly as possible. Search their systems for information about these prisoners as well...recorded medical histories, conditions, anything. I want it all sent to me. The rest of you," Sanjuro stated, turning around and motioning to the rest of the squad under his temporary command. His voice was back to its old, flat tone, but with a clear tinge of determination and focus emanating from each spoken word, as though he was absolutely certain he had the entire situation under complete control.

"I need an area cleared out to accommodate any prisoners in critical condition. I cannot work in these small cells. I am going to analyze every prisoner myself. Those whom I deem fit enough to make the trip back to a safe zone should be taken there immediately while I work on the injured or unfit. Return as quickly as possible once you drop off a prisoner. But first, I need these doors opened!"
 
With a nod, Takuma quickly cleared the distance across the room to the computer. He unhooked the laptop he carried from his armor and plugged it into the terminal. "I don't know what they'll have in terms of medical histories," Takuma replied to Sanjuro. "Since they were prisoners. I'll see what I can do, though."

A flurry of key types opened a series of windows on the laptop's screen. Numbers and strings of code flew up the screen. Despite using only a hand-held computer, the AIES's computing power was at his disposal and was doing most of the work. The keyboard and screen served mainly as a medium between the two powerful computer systems.

Takuma set the AIES's computational power to cracking open the doors, while he used the laptop to try and retrieve any information of the prisoners. After a few seconds of streaming, the numbers on one window skidded to a halt. The doors came alive and climbed into ceiling.

"Doors open, let loose!" Takuma sent a batch of files to Sanjuro's armor. The folder seemed promising, containing a list of names that only appeared in that section of files, which probably meant they were not part of the crew. The technician figured he'd let the medical officer search through there and see what was necessary. For the meantime, he'd take his hand at the system and see what else he could reach.
 
Pain,

Throbbing, head-bursting pain,

Not something that was pleasant to wake up to, though it was most assuredly a good thing to wake up again given the circumstances. This was naturally followed by a series of questions, Where am I? Who is on the other side of the door? Why can’t I move my hands? Of course none of those were spoken aloud at the moment. Waking up in a weird place required careful consideration.

What hurts? He thought to himself.

Head, arms, back… The back pain could be explained from laying crumpled up in a heap for an extended period of time. The arms, something was binding his hands behind his back, pulling them at an uncomfortable angle. Head? Well… that still hurt like hell and there was something slick running down the side of his face. If it was his blood, there was very little he could do about it at the moment.

Where am I? He continued to think.

There was only one way in or out of this room, and the bindings on his hands made it clear what the purpose of the room was. He looked around for other people, after all the room was large enough that more than one could fit inside even if it was hard to make out the dimensions with blurry eyesight and a dazed head. The door was open, and that led nicely to the next question he thought to ask himself.

Who are they?

The people standing outside looked metallic and feminine, but didn’t look quite like the metallic, feminine shapes that brought him here. The colors did look familiar though it took some time for him to remember what they meant again. Dammit… Yamis…. He thought to himself before realizing they were probably telepathic too. Dammit… I’ve been thinking out loud… He thought to himself before realizing he was still doing it… dammit.

He decided to quickly take stock of what he had on him, green tank top, tan pants, socks, loafers, hair tie, data pad... sorta. It was nice not having his brown hair down in his face, but the data pad sounded different, he could feel small plastic chips below him probably from the broken piece of electronics. That could be repaired later though, right now the more important job of communicating with those on the outside of the cell needed to be carried out and a message would need to be generated that was appropriate. He would twist his head up enough to get a better look at the cell door, and aim his voice in the proper direction.

“Hello?” Wazu said in the Yamataian language.
 
Tom heard the alerts and quickly scrambled what was in the pile into his arms.

"Ok, we gotta move quickly. Let's go."

With that, he hurried down to where the others were located, taking as little time as possible, but not dropping any of the weapons he was charged with delivering.

There wasn't much... just some salvaged equipment from the enemy machines. They'd probably do damage to them, but anything bigger would suffer questionable amounts of harm.

"Sir, weapons delivery as ordered."
 
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