RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 30: Sugoi Dekai

Though Molli would have asserted that she had the situation with that confrontational tech uncontrol control, the Nepleslian felt much better knowing that Sif was there to back her up. In the junior Neko's brief tenure on the Kaiyo, she'd backed Molli up a lot, earning her a slight smile with an aside glance. Once the offender walked away, Molli poked Sif with her elbow. "Thanks," she whispered before the distant battle through the dome caught Molli's eye.

Now that she had time to appreciate the mecha's design, its battle with the sandworm transfixed Molli. Unlike the princess, Molli thought the mech looked beautiful in its design, and its precise movements made her long to sit in the pilot's seat. That reminded the Nepleslian of her failure to pass muster for a mecha unit--a bitter moment at the time, but it led to her joining the Kaiyo, so maybe it was for the best.

Her observation ended with the arrival of more NMX and their associates, and just like that, their tenuous cover got blown. At Hoshi's command, Molli was right behind Sif--well behind, considering her comrade had just taken out her fellow human. The Delsaurian, despite its short stature, was brave enough to make a move on Sif when she turned her back, but all that earned him was a solid punch to the side of his head from Molli's metal arm. It wasn't as graceful as Sif had done, but it was enough to floor him, and a second punch kept him down.

"How'd taffs like them keep this on the kipper?!" Molli shouted to the team, hot on Sif's heels. "Ent twigged more gullybull sorts'n ah long while!"

"Gomen nasai, Rob-san," Aiko said, apologizing in her more delicate Yamataigo intonation that she was most accustomed to speaking. In truth, the princess wasn't that sorry for what she was about to do—Robert Englebert was creating weapons of war for the Star Empire's most mortal enemy, so he was himself a guilty man—but nonetheless felt some pity for needing to take care of someone so soft as him. "I cannot have you raising any alarms."

Her preemptive apology given, Aiko's right arm lashed out with a precise knifehand strike that bashed across Rob's neck and caused him to crumple over the control console he was standing beside. It was a measured blow, just enough to interrupt blood flow to his brain and knock the man out. And with that done, Aiko turned to follow Hoshi's orders and move out. It appeared her comrades had taken care of the other enemies who'd barged in on them, but the princess nonetheless kept her eyes sharp and her body poised for a fight while she dashed and darted through felled bodies on the way out.

"If you see weapons, now is the time to claim them," Aiko said, already aware one or two of the Kaiyō's away team had armed themselves after the previous fight. "Shall we take the same route out, Taisa?"

That punch William threw might cause the other man to reel from shock, but still be in the fight—if William were human. The ID-SOL packed a punch, though, and the technician was laying cold on the ground. Rob gave Aiko a look with his wet eyes, one of understanding and acceptance. When he didn’t see a gun but the jab of her pointed hand coming towards him, Aiko even saw a glimpse of gratefulness flash across his face as she knocked him out. He fell against his dials and past him, in the desert, the mecha continued fighting the core worm just as a new and bigger battle against it began in this control room. Sif’s precise attack and boot to the head ensured the man tumbled down as did Molli's swift double punch setup. The two fell, heaping up against the Nekovalkyrja in a new pile that William and Aiko had to vault over to get to the stairs. The downed NMX Neko had one of the Type 45’s that Hoshi was carrying, if anyone were attentive to Aiko’s guidance to grab a gun.

“Let’s go, go, go,” Hoshi called. To William, she nodded, “Good going, man.” Understanding Molli took Hoshi a moment and as the Nepleslian woman passed her, Hoshi’s eyes went wide in bewilderment. “Uh huh!” Then everyone was through the door and she said, “Back the way we came.” Which would have been easy in practice if there weren’t a group of security like the Delsaurian from earlier taking measured steps right towards them down the hall to their left. It wasn’t the way they needed to go, but the large wall-like Mutant, brick-built human man, and the much smaller Delsaurian next to them were all pulling at their sidearms. These men didn’t have coveralls with their names but black vests full of pockets and straps, likely offering them some protection against weapons-fire.

Molli was close to the front of the group, her lithe frame allowing her to slip past the mammothian William and Aiko's tall, imposing frame. Three targets, and not enough time. Reflex took over as Molli brandished her sidearm with one hand and fired off a small burst that impacted the Mutant's vest, causing him to flinch, but only for a second. Fortunately, a second was all Molli needed; rather, it was all her cybernetic arm needed.

The gun was just a distraction, a means to give her mechanical limb time to detach and shoot to the Mutant's holster, where it deftly lifted the man's sidearm and aimed up at its shocked owner. An explosion of light followed, and the ceiling was decorated with blood and chunks of brain matter as the Mutant collapsed in a heap.

Being one of the people in front, Sif had steeled herself to be the first line of contact if they ever run into anybody else. And that was exactly what happened. A shot rang out and the biggest of the three was taken down in a shower of scarlet, with Molli's flying arm being in front, guilty of the execution. The neko's eyes locked onto the next biggest target, the human.

With the delsaurian there, she'd have to put herself in danger of an attack from behind if her plan even worked out and she wasn't shot before she closed the distance. She needed to buy herself every nanosecond she could. And she prayed that what she was about to attempt was going to buy her enough time. As she charged, her mind raced with calculations. A few steps away from her intended target, Sif tossed her pipe at him. Even if it hit, there was no real force behind the throw as it was only meant to distract or make him flinch for even a fraction of a second, just enough for her to close the distance.

She'd ram her shoulder right under his ribs to evict the air in the human's lungs while also adding an upward angle as she secured him with her arms so she could carry him three strides' length away. Sif wanted to create distance between her and the delsaurian that she elected to have the others handle and she could only manage three steps before the weight imbalance tripped her up. If the initial tackle didn't fully vacate his lungs, the slam onto his back should have taken care of the rest. But not wanting to give him a chance to catch his breath, Sif quickly propped her body up with her left arm while she wound back her right before sending an elbow to the side of the head.

For her, it felt like everything was in slow motion. But perhaps the others would see a more comical view as the gun the human had raised when he got tackled had just enough upward momentum when he let go that it seemed to forget that gravity existed for a split second before clattering to the floor.

She had already felt some pain on her shoulder from that wide swing she had done before, but the tackle brought on more stress on it, and when she sent that elbow, it didn't land right. A sharp, lingering pain had shot up from her shoulder joint, which stopped her from getting up right away.

Joining the others, he threw a thumbs up to Hoshi as he passed. "I aim to please." He said as he moved to lead the way. He had all the plans for the mech in his head and it needed to get back to Yamataian and Nepleslian high command. It was too important to leave to chance. "I don't plan on biting it down here, but of I do grab my brain spider and run. The plans will be in there." He ordered the group, matter of factly. Hoshi and Aiko would know that the brain spider was an implant in Nepleslian soldiers' brains which backed up their minds. It was similar to a Yamataian ST, but slower.

As the away team came across the next group of guards, Molli and Sif took the Mutant and human. This left the delsaurian. The ID-SOL grinned wickedly as he began picking up speed. He was 300lbs of pure muscle, moving with the force of a runaway train.

As William neared the delsaurian, he cocked his arm back to throw a punch only to leap forward the last few feet. His goal was to drive his rising knee into overgrown lizard's jaw.

On her way out of the control room, Aiko swiped up the knocked-out NMX Neko's pistol. As much as hand-to-hand combat was enjoyable for the princess, the Kaiyo's crew had been made and were henceforth on their way out of this hidden research complex they'd infiltrated. Fisticuffs made for great stealth but the time for that had passed. So Aiko figured that arming up with the hefty Type 45 would make their exit easier should too many enemy guards descend upon them.

Thus far, that hadn't happened.

William, Sif, and Molli made quick work of the first unlucky batch of mooks who stood in their way, fighting the guards at hallway junction where they'd appeared and intercepted the Star Army team. For now, William's reminder to get his brain spider seemed unlikely even combined with his determination to stay alive as he and the two girls slammed through their opposition with ease.

Initially at the back of the column, Aiko passed behind her friends' scuffle in a hurry and was again at the head of the pack on the path back to Urtullan's market streets outside.

"This way is still clear," she said, jogging forward with the NMX pistol held tightly and pointed to the floor in poised arms ahead of her charge. "Their force appears slow to react, but may come at us with increased urgency should more and more of their number not check in. We may need to alternate our route before the end, but let us proceed this way for the time being."

Hoshi was last out and bringing up the rear for a reason which presented itself immediately after Sif took on the Delsaurian.

"Hey, now," the little captain said as she went to Sif's good side. She pulled the other Neko up by the elbow and then put her hand under Sif's red jacket, on her waist. "You doing alright?" No AIES readouts or Mindy HUD to tell Hoshi what was going on with Sif felt unnatural after so many armored missions, but the challenge presenting itself made her light blue brows push down in a look of determination as she used her strength and gravity manipulation to keep Sif close to her as she barreled behind the group.

Having taken out the trio, the team had clear sights on the way they had come. Though, up ahead was the equipment box they had stowed the Delsaurian from much earlier and as Aiko approached the lid rose ajar only slightly.

William followed quickly behind Aiko. "You're right. We need to get the lead out." He replied, waving everyone forward. Turning back to the Princess, he smirked. "How you want to play this? Like the arena platform fight or like the flight through Kyoto?" He asked as they ran ahead, checking the passageways for more defenders as the pair moved ahead.

With the pain in her shoulder not seeming to go away, Sif began pushing herself up off the ground, avoiding the use of the injured arm as support, not that putting any kind of weight on it would provide any benefit to her efforts. She felt a pull on her elbow and then by her waist accompanied by Hoshi's voice, though Sif's response was delayed by the alarmingly strange feeling of semi weightlessness, which made her tail fluff up slightly.

"I-I'm fine. Just had a bad impact. Shoulder's dislocated," she finally managed to respond, though she couldn't stop herself from wincing. The pain was just nagging her nerves accompanied by waves of sharp pangs that seemed to just dissipate just as fast. She made sure to keep the arm as still as a statue, but the nerves in her shoulder just kept screaming.

"I think-- I can pop it back in, once we have a moment for a breather." She's only seen it get demonstrated once when one of her batch took a bad fall in training. It looked painful, but the pain apparently went away once the joint was reset. It looked simple enough, so how hard could it be?

Once all three of the squad's assailants were gunned down or incapacitated, Molli's cyber arm floated back to its owner, who fit it back into its socket. The Nepleslian wiped a small trickle of blood from her nose as she rushed to Sif's side once Hoshi helped her up. The ugly lump on Sif's asymmetrical shoulders made the young soldier wince, and she gently grabbed at her comrade's wrist to stop her. "Wait," Molli's concern was writ plain in her voice and worried expression, "Lemme prop yer wing." The soldier removed her colorful ponco, which she fastened into a makeshift sling. If given permission, Molli would gently prop the arm from Sif's bad shoulder inside it--after getting her to drop the pipe.

"Ent no use playin' tough," Molli scolded gently, "Yeh got us t'help fer a reason."

The NMX Service Pistol gripped in both of Aiko's hands pointed up instantly as soon as she saw the equipment crate where they'd hidden that first Guard who stood in the Kaiyō team's path. Her first instinct was to blast through one of the box's sides and neutralize the Delsaurian within before he could become a problem; the Mishhuvurthyar were Yamatai's gravest foe, and this facility was producing Mishhuvurthyar war machines. But that guard, like Rob back in the control room, wasn't a Mishhuvurthyar. Nor was he a particular threat, clearly stirring for the first time since Sif put him in a sleeper hold on their first encounter.

So Aiko aimed just above the crate to the concrete wall above and fired a shot, and then another about eight inches to the side, and then a third hole to complete the triangle pattern above it. Each blast from the heavy Mishhu pistol echoed through the confined corridors with its distinct ka-chunk report. Finally, she put one last round straight in the middle, and then in the time it'd have taken for the princess to shoot again, three heavy sections of concrete tumbled down atop the equipment box's lid.

Aiko hoped it would be enough to keep the groggy Delsaurian out of the game until she and her squad were long gone.

"Third choice," she replied to William, her body's trajectory refusing to pause for even a second. Not lowering her pilfered pistol, Aiko released her left hand's hold on it and wiped some sweat from her brow as she went. "We lack my samurai to scare off these thugs like in Kyoto, and have no Kuvexian audience to humiliate with our prowess. It will have to be some new memory added to our arsenal of experience today, together with these new friends who have joined the crew."

"Bad impact? Your femtomachines should start working on repairing that. Huh, we got to get you training with Aiko's samurai if you're hurting yourself," Hoshi responded to Sif.

At the mention of the Ketsurui royalty, Hoshi's attention went to Aiko as she took out the concrete above the crate in the distance. At the back, Hoshi hadn't seen the Delsaurian peeking through its confines, but she had no doubt there was good reason for the princess' chosen place of impact. Going back the way they had come, the pipes that traveled along the tunnel's pale grey walls and ceiling and the sporadic door were the fleeing crew's only outside companions. Modern and strangely unlike the ancient sandstone walls of the bazaar, this portion was much more like the tawdry storefronts outside of the shuttle bay that they needed to find their way back to. There were several newer sections of the colony on Urtullan and Hoshi wandered if they were just as banal and unwelcoming as this one. Mind elsewhere only for that moment, she snapped back when they reached the door to the bazaar she had only just been thinking of.

"It should be unlocked from this side," Hoshi said, having had to force their way into that door earlier from the old city. She took her eyes off of the front of the group to look at something her peripherals had caught. "Definitely time to make a break for it, no last standing here!"

"Gonna have to get that fighting spirit back," Hoshi said to Sif as she let the fuzzy eared Neko down to stand on her own two feet. "Molli, use the guard's gun you got!"

Behind them were, again, three guards that looked like they had been running after them for awhile, finally caught up now that the crew were at this last door out of this facility's sub-section. From their position about thirty feet down the hall, they began taking shots immediately. Hoshi had to hop up and float in the air to avoid the first few enemy rounds that dug into the plastic flooring. Her blue and white hair splayed out around her from the sudden movement as she took aim with the new-to-her Type 45 and and hit the arm off one of the guards, stopping them from firing altogether.

Putting Molli's make-shift sling on sent a surge of pain as adjustments had to be made with the arm's position, but Sif just had to grit her teeth. There was relief as the sling cradled her "wing" as Molli would put it, though by this point, she started to feel numbness in her lower arm, particularly the fingers. She wasn't afraid of losing an arm to this as the femtomachines would work its magic so long as the limb stayed intact, but the way she was now, she wouldn't be effective in fighting off security. Especially with her trusty pipe left behind. "Thank you, Molli-sama," she'd say with a nod, the closest thing to a bow she could do in the situation.

When they neared the exit, the captain let her down from the gravity field. As for how she understood 'getting that fighting spirit back', she took that as getting herself back into fighting condition. She recalled that one-off demonstration from training, and a shiver went down her spine. It was made clear that such things should be done by people with the proper training, but that option was not always available. But they were nekovalkyrja. What's a bad set compared to a hailstorm of bullets.

She went to the front ahead of everyone towards the door as she was unarmed, and dropping to a crouch, Sif slid her arm out of the sling and put her hand palm-up and flat on the ground and pressed the heel of the opposite foot down on it to keep it in place. She breathed in and rapidly repeated a simple mantra to herself: "Relax." As she did so, she pulled her upper body backwards, her other hand on her dislocated shoulder helping to guide the joint back to its socket. There was a loud pop followed by a crying whine and a gasp. Warmth rushed down her limb, feeling like electric prickles when the rush went to her finger tips. The relief was instant, though a few nerves were still stinging.

Sif got back to her feet and dashed towards the exit, throwing it wide open. As she dashed out, she looked to her left, then as she came to a rest on the opposite wall, and slightly to the right with a gentle thud, she looked towards the opposite end of the alley, looking for any other threats to their safety.

Sif's gratitude earned a small nod from Molli, who secretly felt warm and fuzzy from helping her subordinate. She kept to the rear, occasionally turning around to check if they were being followed. Once they reached a familiar door, Hoshi's command made Molli double take from the hallway to her captain, "Whaddya think ah've been-" Molli started with an annoyed huff, but paused to compose herself, "Y'got it..."

As a fresh wave of pursuers pushed down the hall, puncturing the walls with gunfire, Molli ducked low and returned fire, which pushed the men back out of fear of being shot. A sickening sound, as well as Sif's cry of pain, drew a wide-eyed Molli's gaze toward her comrade. "Are y'hi-" A bullet punched a hole in the wall inches from Molli's head, raining rock and dust down over her. With her adrenaline pumping from that close brush with death, Molli's next shot perforated through the leg of one of the guards, dropping him instantly.

When the sun her her back, Molli was the second out, but she took cover by the open door and put more shots downrange to cover the rest of the squad.

Sif would see them first—a stocky ID-SOL and four other men on the other side of the door. They didn't wear the same uniform as the sub-section guards, but had on the type worn by the security detail near the shuttle bay, instead. Whatever species the others were almost felt like an afterthought when shadowed by the stocky Nepleslian above them, outfitted with a Zen Arms .45 and an eye for movement. He tracked Sif, who was a bit more aware of the area and had a leg up then Molli, whose focus was still down the hallway. The man she had shot in the leg was taking wild potshots down towards them and her cover was warranted, but she was completely exposed to the security on the other side of the door. The ID-SOL in the alley fired immediately and at this close distance, the copper coated round stabbed into Molli's shoulder and lodged there. While he was doing this, one of the others took a sweeping motion towards Sif with a semi-automatic rifle and a third struck out at William and Aiko with his fists.

Feeling the pressure from down the hall, Hoshi took a quick series of shots to make sure they didn't keep bothering them and the wild shooting from that end stopped, but more could come. She tried her best to sidle in front of Molli, but Hoshi was small and not much in the way of a body block and Molli could still shoot past Hoshi with uninjured side.

"Focus one of them," Hoshi ordered. "Take out the one with the AR first, then the SOL!"

In mere moments, their extraction turned into a all out firefight. And William didn't have a gun. With a mental command, his eyes began to glow as his 'god's eye' system activated. "Fine, option three it is!" William replied launching at the guard who was trying to pin Aiko and himself.

As he grappled the guard, he mental messaged Aiko "Take the guy with the AR. I've got this one!" Using the god's eye, his mindware began predicting what his opponent was going to do. It wasn't perfect, but it gave him a general sense of what was coming next. Using that he began trying to block the incoming blows, his strikes flowing like water. At the same time he attempted to drive his shin into his opponent's knee. If he could disable this guy and use him as a shield, William may be able to get closer to the other gun men.

Molli's haste, fueled by a desire to have Sif's back, cost her dearly. She hadn't fully registered the enemy squad on the other side of the door in her haste to put gunfire down the hallway, and by the time she'd spun around to face them, it was too late. The .45 slammed into Molli's flesh shoulder with the bite of a war hound and the impact of a semi, blasting a chunk of flesh clean off on its way into her shoulder bone, and painting the door red with her blood. The Nepleslian woman, punched by the impact, slammed into the door and slid to the floor with an anguished howl. There wasn't any cyberware Molli could turn off to dull the symphony of pain that roared throughout her body; the best she could do was try and avoid staring at what was likely a very grisly wound.

The shock of the wound, combined with blood loss, had Molli on the verge of passing out. Dimly aware of Hoshi's order, Molli limply raised her stolen pistol and mustered all the energy she could to fire two ill-aimed shots in the general direction of the man holding a rifle.

Indecisiveness was a killer.

Upon seeing the uniforms that had greeted them at the shuttle bay, Sif's body locked up as she stared down the barrel of a gun. Words got stuck in her throat. She was going to be shot for sure if she moved, she thought. At that distance, that would be a guarantee. Though in her head, they might not have been there for them. Maybe they heard the gunshots and just wanted to check it out?

In a flash, the gun fired, but not at her. A howl of pain from behind broke the locks on Sif's body and sent a cold shiver down her spine and to her tail which puffed up in alarm. She didn't know who screamed. She didn't see Molli come out right after her. But Sif knew it was one of the crew. She dropped to a crouch, and with a forward step to close the distance, she aimed to kick a shin out of the one nearest to the wall like she'd done in that tussle with Tanner, while simultaneously reaching with her good arm to grab at something on his person so she could pull him down on her so she'd be protected from the rifle swiveling towards her. It wasn't ideal since she'd be in a horrible spot even if this worked since she'd more or less get pinned by security, but she reasoned that having one of five down struggling with her was already tilting the scales back to their favor. And even with her weakened arm, she felt that if she could just grab a hold of this security's neck, she could crush the windpipe no problem if the need arises.

Combat for Aiko became increasingly automatic as incoming fire surrounded her and the squad from all sides. In these confined corridors there was less time to think than there was to simply fight by muscle memory and experience, so the princess ducked low and scampered past William when he began wrestling with the man who'd charged at them both.

First, she pointed her own NMX pistol at the rifle-carrying guard just before Molli's stupefied shots barked out in his direction. Sif, too, was in the process of lunging at another enemy nearby right as Aiko had begun dropping to her left knee to shoot the gunner. She'd already seen the heavy firepower these Type 45 Mishhu pistols could unleash, so the Ketsurui warrior steeled her aim and squeezed the trigger to send her shot whizzing into the trunk of her priority target. Thereafter, Aiko sprung up from her poised position in a crouch and swiveled on the ball of her right foot. With that charged leverage behind it, she kicked her free leg hard into the rifleman's kidneys and forced him abruptly forward, trusting that the hail of return fire and body blow would be enough to at least make him fumble his gun.

Aiko followed her kick through fluidly, completing a full spin. Her eyes always lead where her body moved next, followed by the NMX service pistol in her right hand. Even before her toes departed the rifle guard's torso, the princess had swept the room around her and taken a pot shot at the fourth guard—who until then hadn't made many moves—intending to drop him in quick order.

But when her kicking leg met the ground again, Aiko charged a few steps to engage the ID-SOL. He was their secondary target following the rifleman per Hoshi's orders. On the move, the princess leveled her pistol at him. More precisely, she aimed at his pistol and the meaty mitt that held it and then fired without hesitation. The best way to disarm an ID-SOL, after all, was to remove the arm that gripped his weapon, and Aiko needed to take care of that Zen .45 first before it could claim another in her company.