RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 32: Uchū Kaubōi

[Megabirb]

Caldera Base, Level 15
Elevator

Sahty took back every complaint she had ever had about how the rest of the base smelled. The combined smell of the level and up close mishhu was easily the most vile stench she had ever had the misfortune to have smelled. Sahty wished she had pulled her mask back up after earlier in the armory. There was little time to be truly reviled or don her mask however as Aiko gave her telepathic orders.

As the one directly behind the princess in the door stack, Sahty was the second closest to the mishhu who had suddenly found itself under assault. That made her impaler the closest weapon its flailing tentacles could grab, something she became distinctly aware of as one of the mishhu's remaining tentacles wrapped around the barrel of her rifle and attempted to yank it from her grasp. Instead of trying to control her muzzle and wrestle her rifle back away from the mishhu, Sahty held it tight with her offhand and drew her radiant pistol.

Where Sahty might have hesitated to harm her NMX sisters but there was no such hesitation against their terrible overlords. In front of her was the real reason for Lija's and her squad's death. Sahty's earlier rage returned in full force. With a furious, inarticulate roar she thumbed the pistol to plasma mode and begun sending bolt after bolt of searing hot plasma into the frozen tissue of the disgusting creature's underbelly.

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Sahty was raised off the ground even as she bellowed out her warrior's cry. The Mishhuvurthyar was stronger, bigger, and in all respects more formidable than the Nekovalkyrja who had only been alive long enough to be ranked up once. But this Neko was not alone. Its eyes blinked intermittently while a small stream of blood blocked its vision even as its other tentacles wrapped around Sahty's torso. They moved to her face like independent creatures with minds of their own whose suckers pulled at the place where he mask would have protected her while Molli shot into its line of vision. The elevator doors closed on its hulking form then bounced open again when they sensed it in the elevator's doorway.

A good portion of its tentacles had been frozen solid, making the trailing loping left side of the creature a burden it couldn't shake. The crimson droplets from the rest of that side's lopped off extremities dripped and beaded, trailing lazily on the still-attached but frosted tentacles surrounding them. Because the Taihō had been designed to target for Enhanced's specific regenerative bio-functions, it affected the Advanced movement more than its life. It had been considerably slowed, only able to move Sahty in front of it and between the Kaiyō fighters. Despite that, its meat shield was shooting searingly hot orange plasma at its temporarily frozen tissue.

Alone, either round may not have worked to take down the creature. Together, this was not so. The brittle, contracted hemosynth would have been fine if allowed to warm normally, but as it was with the radiant pistol brilliant orange plumes set into its tentacles and underbelly, the unwieldy beast slumped to its left side and Sahty was dropped as its right side of tentacles converged on itself. It was holding its wounds and fallen to the ground. The doors to the elevator tried to close again, thumping indelicately against the unbroken chitin of the collapsed but living Mishhuvurthyar.

Level 1

Because this unfinished expansion wasn't yet mapped out, Sif would need to rely on her sense of direction and two-week knowledge of this base to guide him to the starport. Which was made only more difficult by the unrelenting shrill scream that began only as the pair and their horses took their first few steps in the dripping wet hallway.

 

[raz]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Aiko pushed backward into what little space the elevator's confines afforded her, staying low and crouched as she slid to avoid the wounded Advanced Type whose disabled body settled on the deck and kept the lift's door bouncing open. The hail of gunfire coming from the undercover Star Army squad with her had done its job (if only just) and kept them all from becoming irrecoverably intertwined with the enemy monster's long, thick tentacles. Rio's close call avoided, it didn't mean they were out of danger yet, though, and so the princess pounced to try and still their Mishhu obstacle without delay.

Hopping up from her squat, Aiko drew her plasma revolver with her free hand mid-leap and soon landed atop the writhing Advanced Type. Her sword plunged deep into the soft parts just below its grotesque face—perhaps into what could be called its throat if its vile species had a humanoid form—while the plasma pistol in her left grip fired several plasma bolts directly at its bulbous, leathery belly. She twisted her katana as she shot, getting the Mishhu's flesh securely tangled around it, and then dropped her pistol after a few seconds of unrelenting fire.

By then, the Advanced Type was bucking beneath Aiko. Using her freshly emptied fingers, the Ketsurui princess steadied herself by grasping between the Mishhu's big front fangs that were fixed to the front edge of its bony upper shell. A secure stance achieved, she began pushing its exoskeletal helmet up and away from its muscled torso while using her embedded sword for leverage.

With her Valkyrja strength put up against the Mishhu's damaged body, the beast's face began to part from its bulk even as a few of its weakened tentacles tried in vain to reach up Aiko's calves and pull her away. Crackling, halting smacks echoed inside the elevator as the Advanced Type's sinew and bone were drawn past their biological tolerances, and its putrid blood spattered out at first in dots and then as a spray over Aiko's pilfered NMX camouflage outfit. Its maw finally widened as the Mishhu's shell flapped around half-detached, Aiko reached into the Mishhu's exposed innards and found its brain.

She squeezed and it stopped thrashing.

Aiko rose to her feet in a wide stance still standing upon the defeated foe. Her shoulders and chest heaved under heavy, ragged breaths while she looked down into the Mishhu's dead eyes for a few long moments through the darkened lenses of her helmet's mask. Then, she peered out down the hallway then back to the squad of Kaiyō crewmen behind her. Grabbing her bloodied helmet by its chin, she lifted it off and tossed it aside to reveal her spotless visage. Even for a Nekovalkyrja it was getting stuffy in there as Level 15's heat soaked the atmosphere around them.

"Superb execution, we have drilled well for this," Aiko commended her friends, still breathing hard through her grinning mouth. She removed her sword from the dead enemy's body and wiped it clean of gore for the second time, and then sheathed it before quickly retrieving her pistol. "With any luck we will not encounter another in such close quarters."

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Dropping down from the hatch at the top of the elevator, Hoshi floated over the cracked open, flayed Mishhuvurthyar. The small captain sidled to the side to avoid Aiko even if there was room enough for the both of them in a show of reverence for the clean-faced but otherwise bloodied Ketsurui after she had finished the Mishhu off after the team had worked so well together to allow for its end in the first place.

“That’s getting too easy,” Hoshi said succinctly. She hadn’t fired a shot and letting her team take care of Yamatai’s worst foe had only solidified her faith in her crewmen, new and old.

“Good to have you back, Morgana-shoi.” Her eyes looked out of the elevator then back in to linger on where Morgana’s mass driver was hidden by her SOFS volumetrics.

“Now, which way?” she then asked. But this wasn’t just her confidence in her people; all of them save for herself and Aiko had been on this base for weeks. To her, that was long enough to direct their way forward now and she deferred to their judgement.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

The unease was not settling as Cynea looked down the dark hallway, an abyss in her mind and senses. Turning back was not an option since security may have already gathered and blockaded the path and likely on their way. And she didn't want to come face to face with anyone from the base right now. The only option was to move forward, but the herd had stopped and they didn't have a source of light. Should something be waiting for them, she would have rather had the cattle out front, but that wasn't going to be her choice after that stampede.

"All right, I suppose I'll take point. I can't see anything from back here," she told William, hopping off the horse with a dull thump upon landing. Hands upon her rifle, she moved ahead, her footing having long adjusted to such flesh-like terrain. The bugs crawling on the walls and ceiling she largely ignored out of habit.

Then she heard an infernal scream that made her ears fold down and her blood run cold. Her heartrate spiked as she reached for her holstered cattle prod, turning its power to the maximum before readying her rifle. Her now fluffed tail wrapped tightly around her waist, her only form of comfort in this situation.

"That screaming is not stopping... and we shouldn't either." Moving at jogging speed, she kept her eyes and ears open as she ventured into the darkness. She had twenty shots and three spare batteries. It wasn't enough to fight through the base if they had caught up with them. Whatever was down this hallway surely needed less than her inventory, otherwise she'd have heard something in her two weeks of being here, right? Another chill ran down her spine as her eyes scanned the walls for any doorways or utility panels she could check. Crates maybe? She'd even take a dead body or the like. Despite how unnerving that was in her imagination, at least she'd get an answer to the urban legend she had been fed with.

 

[Megabirb]

Caldera Base, Level 15

It felt like Mishhuvurthyar's powerful tentacles had done their best to squeeze the life out of Sahty. It had certainly squeezed the breath out of her. All she knew was that she had to keep fighting, even going so far as to bite as hard as she could into a tentacle that covered her mouth. Then she was unceremoniously dropped to the floor by the collapsing Mishhuvurthyar, her pistol falling from her hand as she hit the floor.

Landing flat on her back it took Sahty a moment to recover. When she finally sat up, it was in time to see the princess as she finished off their foe. It took her another moment still to realize she had taken a souvenir from the mishhu and to register it's wholly horrific taste. If the smell had been terrible, then the taste was on an entirely different level. An unholy taste of the foulest rotten fish combined with a bitter chemical taste mixed with what Sahty could only assume was the taste of death itself. With a retch she spat out the offensive chunk of mishhu tentacle.

Still seated on the floor of the elevator Sahty reholstered her dropped pistol before she grabbed her canteen and begun to wash her mouth out. "I don't know if any of us have been down this far ma'am. I know I haven't but it should be close by. This is one of the main elevators banks." Sahty answered Hoshi's question between mouthfuls of water.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

William groaned as they started down the dark hallway, his eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. He shook his head at Sif's initial protest. "We need to keep moving. We have to get to the starport." He explained, guiding his steed through the dark hallway. " I have augmented eyes, so I don't carry flashlights." He explained, tapping his temple.

As she slid off his horse's back, William reloaded his revolvers with more explosive rounds. "Alright, lead the way. I have you covered." The captain said, following behind. It was at that moment that he heard the scream. Holding tight to the reins, the ID-SOL spurred his steed onward into the dark. "Next time I have to infiltrate an NMX ship or secret underground base, I'm bringing a damn flame thrower. And napalm. And enough ordinance to crack a planet." He angrily muttered. If it were up to William, he would have requested Battlegroup Havoc drop kinetic munitions on this place until cartographers had to come and redraw the planet's map.

 

[Gles]

Caldera Base, Level 15
Elevator

Even after witnessing Aiko wrestle the heavily wounded Advanced to the ground, peeled its chitin apart, and crushed its brain, Myga kept her weapon trained on it with an unblinking stare that was like a window into a soul scarred by the trauma of her first encounter. It was the princess's compliment that brought the neko back to her senses, making her head snap to her superior. Lowering her rifle at last, Myga placed a hand over her chest as though it could ease the pounding heart beneath, and took a deep a breath. They'd killed it, they were safe -- relative to the past ten seconds.

Myga floated above the Advanced's corpse on her way out of the elevator, "Straight ahead," she pointed down the grotesque fleshy hallway that seemed to stretch on forever. "Everything important is deeper on this level, and it'll be guarded." Everything had its posted guards, even with the response teams scrambling to answer the chaos they'd created -- standard protocol. Myga took a deep breath, loaded her rifle, and started walking. "Let's go." She wanted to be out of this fetid floor as soon as nekovalkyrjaly possible.

 

[Sunny D]

Caldera Base, Level 15
Elevator

Morgana said little in response to Hoshi’s comment, though the faint flush on her cheeks betrayed her otherwise composed exterior.

“One moment.” The Science Officer interjected as she began to reload her rifle, the spend magazine hitting the deck with a clatter “That route is the fastest,” she said, her voice calm but measured as she slid the new magazine into place, the catch locking it into place with a satisfying click, “but as Molli says, it’s a high traffic area.” Her gaze then drifted toward another door and she pointed to it with a gesture of her rifle “A network duct runs to the primary server room. It’s narrow, not exactly comfortable, but it links directly to the command center, and I’ve already breached the access controls on that route. We’re unlikely to encounter much resistance that way. That would be my recommendation, unless you enjoy the prospect of fighting more Advanced Types in close quarters without power armour. I certainly don’t.” She commented dryly.

 

[Sunny D]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Main Thoroughfare outside the Holding Pen

Kasa’s gaze lingered on the retreating forms of William and the NMX infiltrator, disappearing down a hallway carved into the far side of the cavern. The hard patter of boots behind her brought her focus snapping back. She glanced down at the still-writhing bodies strewn across the floor. With clinical efficiency, she kicked one over, then another, until she found what she was looking for: a belt of grenades.

The sound of boots crescendoed into the space as the NMX Nekos rounded the corner. Without hesitation, Kasa hurled two grenades at the squad. Her suit’s projection still cast her in the guise of their ally, and the deception held for one precious second. It was enough. Some froze, raising their rifles with uncertainty; others threw themselves toward cover, instincts overriding confusion. Others reacted more viscerally, diving for cover. The grenades clattered once, twice, before detonating with a thunderous roar.

The projection fizzled out in a shimmer of light as the first burst of suppressive fire splashed against her shields. Kasa hoisted the limp body of one of the fallen as an improvised shield, crouching low as the grenades detonated. The blast rocked the hall, hurling debris and bodies alike in a cacophony of screams and ruptured metal. Her shields flared, but she endured, the concussive wave slamming her back into the wall.

She discarded the body-shield in a clinical motion, and activated her ICS. She darted across the blood-slick floor, a streak of motion too quick for the surviving Nekos to react. She reached the vent shaft she had entered through, her ICS propelling her upward in a single, graceful leap.

Below, the squad leader recovered first, snapping her rifle to her shoulder and unleashing a stream of fire into the vents. The remaining soldiers followed suit, their concentrated barrage tearing bright, jagged holes in the thin metal. Kasa surged forward through the shaft, her ICS driving her faster than their targeting algorithms could adjust. Behind her, the vent lit up with flashes of gunfire and the acrid tang of scorched metal.

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway
5 minutes later

It didn’t take long to track down William and the NMX he’d dragged along with him. The path led her into a section of the facility she lamented traversing—where the cold metal gave way to the grotesque, organic pulsations of living walls. She grimaced as the humid air clung to her skin, and no matter how carefully she floated, the foul-smelling, slimy excretions managed to coat her boots, her hands, her hair.

She heard them through the fleshy wall—a male baritone voice. Kasa pulled a combat knife from her satchel. She drove it into the pulsing organic material, the surface splitting open with a wet, visceral hiss as dark fluid oozed from the wound. The tunnel walls shuddered in response, as if in protest.

“Friendly, don’t shoot!” she called out, forcing her way through the organic barrier.

Her unlike her previous graceful exit from the vents this emergence was anything but. She burst through the ragged hole like a horror-film monster erupting from a cocoon, slime and viscera clinging to her in stringy strands. The passage tried to hold her, its gelatinous texture resisting her movements, but she tore herself free with sheer, determined strength. She spilled out into the hall in an ungainly sprawl. Her ICS righted her before she hit the floor, and she landed on her feet dripping with the foul-smelling fluids and viscera.

“Agent Kasasagi, SAINT” she announced, voice rough, her breath coming in hard, measured pulls. She gave her arms and legs a sharp shake, flinging some of the clinging muck away—though not nearly enough. “Hoshi-Taisa sent me to back you up.”

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 15

"That way it is," Hoshi said, happy Morgana had made the decision easy. The open egresses further off from the nearest bulkhead led to a strange walkway that turned upside down halfway through the open room it was in. They had to float to stay on the path and for the first time this mission, Hoshi was happy that Molli was not Nepleslian and was instead Myga, able to float along the path in her Neko body. They continued on only a short distance before Morgana tapped them and had them funnel into a network duct. The team had to go on their hands and knees and the heat of this lower level permeated the cramped space but did not leave it. Hoshi jimmied the handkerchief tucked under her vest so that it rested on her forehead and kept the sweat from dripping from her brow and onto her eyelashes.

Level 1

The wailing was uninterrupted, but a secondary sound could barely be heard over the distant scream. It was the sound of gears locking into place as something mechanical was being rolled up within some close proximity to them. A cow jumped excitedly nearby, fretting about movement it had seen as another door was opened. This one was like the last in basic appearance, but it seemed to have less electical components to it. There was a pulley system operating it from the other side that was being turned in order to open it.

 

[Megabirb]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Sahty sighed as she paused her crawling to pull her facemask up enough to wipe her brow. It was miserable down in the ducts. It was hot, cramped, filthy, and her rifle was uncomfortably jammed against her chest. Sahty was glad she still had it though. That she had managed to hold on to it during her struggle with the Mishhu was a blessing, but now the long rifle was getting in the way in the narrow confines of she now found herself in.

As Sahty silently crawled along, her thoughts drifted inwards. She was still upset over the elevator incident. What could have been done differently? Should she have guided the group to a different elevator? Could they have convinced Lija's squad to join them in fighting the mishhu? The longer Sahty crawled, the more such questions filled her head. An endless string of 'what if's' that always circled back around to the same singular, dominant question. Could she actually kill another neko? Murder one of the sisters that she desperately wanted to save? Aiko had already called out her hesitancy once.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

At Agent Kasasagi's unexpected entrance, William had raised a revolver to the opening in the wall. He narrowly avoided a blue-on-blue incident as he quickly pointed the barrel towards the ceiling when Kasasagi identified herself. Sitting back in the saddle, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Today was too stressful. "NSMC, Captain William Sanders, commanding officer of Berserker Company. What can you..."

Before he was able to finish the thought, the grinding of gears could be heard. William didn't know what it was, but the cattle and the horses were not pleased. So neither was he. "Never mind, we need to go. I don't want to find out what's on the otherside of that door. Either get on the horse or start running!" He called, offering Sif and Kasasagi a chance to climb on before he spurred his steed onwards into the dark.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

Movement on the ceiling brought Cynea's finger on the trigger and the barrel towards the writhing mass. Had they not announced themselves when they did, she would for sure open fired. Agent Kasasagi? SAINT? A familiar face flashed in her mind, a memory in her soul. The skin she was inside of in the memory was not the one she wore, and while the face that looked at her in her memory meant nothing to this vessel, she felt the warmth and familiarity of the smile as the other neko sipped a cold drink through a straw. This soul's friend spoke about a dream of joining a certain agency. Like one from a book she had read. SAINT... was it SAINT...?

The flash of her previous life, as if it were simply a guiding hand to stop her from shooting this self-proclaimed agent of SAINT, lowered Cynea's gun and pulled her finger away from the trigger. But Cynea eyed the new face with suspicion until William responded to her in a way that erased the doubt in her mind. Before she could introduce herself, the sound of an unknown mechanism from one of the walls interrupted everything.

Not to spurn William's offer, but between her and Kasasagi, Cynea knew for sure that she could run on fleshy terrain. "You get on the horse, I'll cover you. I know how to run on this ground." she said rushing forward and pointing her rifle towards the sound to provide some coverage for the SAINT agent as she hopped on. The three of them are not likely to fit on the back of the horse, and between herself and the agent who knows the way to the objective, she knew which was more valuable to keep alive.

Once they take off, Cynea would dash right after them. Not likely to be able to keep up if they went to a full gallop, but again, it seemed like the agent knew her way around this part of the facility.

 

[raz]

Caldera Base, Level 15

"I will be the last one through," Aiko said, standing beside the ductway's entrance into the server room. She kept watch as her fellows scrambled into this improvised junction, staring back toward the hallway where she'd felled the Advanced Type. "Keep what speed you can so we make it to the command center before they discover the casualties."

In retrospect, it seemed like a waste to have stowed away the dead Nekovalkyrja squad now that the beastly Mishhuvurthyar remained dead between the elevator doors. But that did not worry Aiko as much as more terrifying possibilities. After all, the Advanced Type's corpse was keeping that particular lift in place and thus denied the enemy some mobility through their own facility. If anything it was a boon for the time being. There would be plenty more death dealt out in the name of Yamatai today, so it mattered not if the Mishhu forces here found some breadcrumb of the Kaiyō team's presence. They would know soon enough.

The Princess' mind dwelled on Kessica, though. That campaign alongside the Uesureyans had been Aiko's first taste of combat against Mishhuvurthyar who were on full war footing, and she'd been one of the first to encounter Enhanced Type Mishhu. She no longer feared them—for Ketsurui Aiko feared little once she'd encountered it—but remembered the brief terror of its phased ambush and quick consumption of the power armored Rikugun soldiers she led into battle on that day. The Kaiyō squad's path now reminded her too much of that past duel.

Morgana had proposed that fighting more Advanced Types without power armor was an undesirable fate. Aiko would rather tangle with Advanced Types all day than trudge through some vent without knowing when an Enhanced may strike. At the very least, neither Morgana nor the operative Kasa had mentioned any of the regenerative new Mishhu bioforms, and so Aiko pushed the concern from her thoughts.

"Have those cryo rounds ready, Faelan-shoi," the princess said knowingly, still staring back through the threshold into the corridor. "We may rely on them and your ability to combat reload soon enough."

Once all the others were loaded up into the duct and on their way, Aiko would follow them in as rearguard, remaining on overwatch should a Mishhu appear amid their column.

 

[Sunny D]

Caldera Base, Level 15
Network Ducts

“We’d have to be exceptionally unlucky to be detected by an Enhanced Type, even if one did pass through the vents,” Morgana said as though psychic, her voice calm, clinical, yet carrying the weight of someone who had been living with that precise thought gnawing at the edges of her mind for weeks. Aiko’s comment about the cryo ammunition had resonated with the calculus of survival she had been refining during their infiltration.

“They rely on sight,” she continued, with a tone of didactic precision. “If they’re moving from the brighter environment of the hallways into the low-light conditions of the ducts, there’s a delay. Their eyes need time to adjust. During that window, they’re functionally blind, at least for a second or two.” Her gaze flicked briefly toward Aiko. “For them to spot us, they’d have to be looking directly in our direction at the exact moment their line of sight crosses the duct’s aperture. Statistically speaking, it’s improbable.”

Her words were delivered with the detached assurance of someone who had spent far too much time in dim, constricted spaces contemplating worst-case scenarios. Yet beneath that veneer of confidence was a sharp awareness of just how fine the margins of survival were if they came across one.

Morgana moved fluidly toward the head of the group, slinging her rifle over one shoulder. Her attention shifted to the holographic watch projected onto her wrist, its interface glowing faintly in the dim light. The projection shimmered faintly as she manipulated it, her fingers ghosting across controls. Data cascaded in precise lines as she accessed the system, a network of backdoor exploits she had meticulously seeded in her earlier passes through the network ducts.

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

"No need for either," Kasa said, her tone clipped, her gaze narrowing as her ICS engaged with a faint hum. Her feet lifted effortlessly from the ground.

She floated to the head of the pack, her mass driver pointed in the direction of the noise.

 

[Gles]

Caldera Base, Level 15
Network Ducts
Passing through the egress, Myga kept her rifle trained at various shifting angles as the group advanced down the twisting hallway. She'd grown used to her natural ability to float in this body, which felt as natural as breathing or blinking by now. As she let her rifle rest on its sling and knelt down to crawl into the duct, the oppressive heat assaulted Myga like a harsh desert storm, giving her brief pause. "I'm fine," she muttered through a cough, in case Aiko had questions about why she'd stopped. Sure enough, she started to crawl again; each inch feeling like a battle as she dragged herself on her arms and knees.

The talk of getting attacked was something to focus on, at least. Myga didn't have much to say beyond how straight up combat with more than one Mishhu would probably be disastrous in any environment. "We should run if they find us," Myga intoned telepathically, her mental voice strained from the stress of their environment and the events so far. Most wouldn't have questioned the wisdom in avoiding a fight against a Mishhu you were disadvantaged against, so Myga that the real reason she'd run -- cowardice -- wasn't apparent.

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 1

From behind the opened door appeared a lone figure with a glowering countenance none of the trio could see. With their escape already made, she balled her fists and her body shimmered with a spiteful resolve as she spoke out to Cynea's mind.

"I need to speak with you," Overseer Charbon said to her digital mind. And then she said something nobody—not even her— could be sure was true, "Your mission is my mission."

Meanwhile, the cattle had taken whatever initiative they were shown to keep fleeing. Frenzied all the more by the terrible place they were in and the even more terrible past few minutes they had undergone, the loudest steer bellowed fruitfully and the rest followed. They moved in an excited but fatiguing gallop that took them down the tunnel away from the risen gate and into a new long one whose walls widened out, making the screams of their most vociferous almost echo off of the slimy, wet ooze that dripped from the high, rounded ceilings. For now whatever screaming echoing had minimized to a garbled intruder alert that sounded more coherent the more distantly muffled it was.

Level 15

A bug the size of Hoshi's palm ran into the access tunnel, running along the flooring and right up next to her hands. It stayed long enough to twitch its antennae at her knee before moving on, but so did Hoshi. She didn't respond nor agree with Myga. Like Aiko, Hoshi had experience enough to know why to fear the Mishhuvurthyar. But to run away would not only put their mission in peril, it was not something Hoshi considered even necessary. As much difficulty as being shouldered with enlisted with split allegiances had become, Hoshi still believed in those crewmen questioning their own abilities and couldn't imagine them failing—even against Yamatai's greatest foe.

She crawled towards the access grate where the bug had come from and peered through for a long moment. Looking back at her team she lifted fingers, indicating two nonfriendlies. Her fingers splayed downwards and wiggled. Mishhuvurthyar. She pointed to the two team members directly behind her, then herself as she lifted a finger. Then to the two behind them she pointed and extended the second finger. With limited telepathic communication with the two NMX Neko, the old hand signals got across that she and those behind her would take on one mishhu while the other two took on the other.

Hoshi managed her body to be able to kick into the meaty grate once, then twice. It fell but not to the ground as she dove into the room after it. In the server room there were cylindrical computer nodules with their wires perfectly in order that were kept up by scurrying insects that paid the infiltrators no mind. With blinking lights of orange and fuchsia smattered on them, the rows of cylinders bulged from the tendon-like flooring in ten rows that were as many deep. The two Mishhuvurthyar were disparate, one being further from this back area as they moved behind a server tower. The other one was closer, but with its back turned as it worked on noting some server status on a volumetric datapad that it held between careful tendrils.

After those behind her had dropped down, too, Hoshi extending her arm and raised her pink palm up to indicate she was ready to them.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

Cynea got the message beamed to her head from none other than the Overseer that had split them up in the first place. Without her deviating the rifle's aim from the lone figure, Cynea balled up her fist and raised it to her side, giving the signal to halt despite her being the lowest ranking person there on either side of the conflict, and as such she wasn't likely going to get much out of the Overseer before people started shooting.

"My mission, is it?" she replied out loud for Kasasagi and William to hear. "And what is my mission? Why should we trust that you, an Overseer, would want to help us?"

While she kept her weapon trained on Charbon, she kept her eyes open for movement around her, trying to gleam if there were some hidden guns drawing a bead on her and the others, or worse, if there was some kind of monster just waiting behind her, ready to pounce on a signal. Was she just buying time for the guards to arrive and surround them?

 

[Gles]

It was uncanny how accustomed to crawling in a cramped vent Myga had become; her struggle to advance an inch had graduated to deft clambering through the aid of mild floatation. Granted, her pace was still somewhat glacial given that a hand was planted on her rifle to prevent it from banging around on its sling, but Myga was more than ready to spill out of her crawl space after Hoshi. Even with the knowledge that more of their dreaded enemy awaited her on the other side. Even sensing that with every second of hesitation, she was giving everyone more reason to distrust her.

As she floated to the ground, Myga clasped her rifle in both hands, toggled its safety, and tread beside the pink captain. Her body language, crouched and battle-ready, was tensing for the release of action that would happen in seconds. Red eyes flitted between both mishhu, settling on the one farthest from its companion. Myga pat Hoshi on the shoulder, then pointed to it, before sticking her thumb sideways and tilting it up or down -- her way of asking for permission to take that particular target.