RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 32: Uchū Kaubōi

[Gunhand4171]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

William boxed in the bellowing steer and sent the cattle onwards. At Sif verbal reply, the ID-SOL turned towards the opened door. He gave a wolfish grin as he realized the Overseer was there. "Oh ho! The Overseer who is enthralled by my raw masculine musk." The Captain spun and lofted his massive revolver. "Too bad thralls aren't my type. See you in hell!" He yelled as he unleashed a salvo of explosive rounds back towards the open door. Once he had emptied the first revolver he spurred his steed onwards. The stallion whinnied, rearing up before chasing after the cattle. His destination, the starport.

 

[Megabirb]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Peering past Myga in the vent Sahty couldn't help but grin. The information Hoshi relayed back to the rest of the group was pleasing to her. No nekos to worry about. She had no qualms about firing on Mishhuvurthyar, especially after her close encounter in the elevator. She would be sure to be mindful of her distance this time however. Being swung around by mishhu tentacles once was enough.

Exiting the venting with a slow spin to orientate herself, Sahty took a position above Hoshi and Myga. Using her inertial controls she propelled herself slightly forward of Hoshi and Myga, finding a perch roughly near the top one of the server cylinders. With her inertials holding her in place, Sahty looked backwards and below towards Myga and Hoshi. Silently she watched their interaction, waiting for a signal as to which of the two mishhu to engage.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

Cynea wanted to hear the Overseer out. Rough as the current situation was, there was a chance that she was genuine, but William was not entertaining the idea and shot until his gun was empty. If Charbon wasn't hostile before, then she sure as hell was now, if she didn't die in that barrage.

"That could have been our out," Cynea cursed under her breath before taking off in William's direction. If Charbon wasn't alone in that room, then whoever was inside with her would surely return fire, and she had to run before they did. "We're going to have to go back if this way is a dead end." The infiltrator looked to the SAINT agent, remembering that she's supposed to lead them to the starport. "This isn't leading to a dead end, right?"

 

[raz]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Aiko quickly thumbed a couple of plasma shells into her revolver after Hoshi signaled there were enemies ahead, replacing a couple of the six-shooter's rounds with fresh ones from her leather ammo belt. She'd originally loaded all six chambers with light ammo, but now chose to slot in two standard rounds into the pistol's cylinder. It'd give her four hefty shots at the waiting Mishhuvurthyar, and would hopefully be enough to crack its shell. That'd be far preferable to peppering her mark and hope that a hail of less powerful gunfire did the trick.

Had Aiko given the orders, she'd have told the squad to concentrate on a single Advanced Type first to bring it down before moving on to the other. But the princess understood her task as the last one to drop into the server bay, and would make the most of the situation by occupying the secondary Mishhu beast's attention while the bulk of her group concentrated on the first. In any case, there was precious little time to adjust the plan in motion.

So Aiko hovered silently out from the ventilation duct on the heels of her friends, touched down onto the deck with her cowboy boots and began walking a line toward where the farther-off Mishhvurthyar was about to reemerge into view after slipping behind the server tower that briefly obscured it.

Her revolver already in-hand at her right hip with her left hand poised close above to fan its hammer, Aiko fired that old single action pistol as soon as she had the shot. Hoshi didn't say to wait, she'd only commanded them to clear the obstacles. Two bluish-white fireballs barked out from her gun's muzzle in rapid succession and then paused for a breath while the princess adjusted the revolver's cylinder back two advancements so that the powerful standard rounds could shoot again. Which she did, emptying another pair of shots as her heavy boot heels clunked across the hard organic floor.

Two seconds was all it took for Aiko to fire four times. After that, she took a moment to slide into cover, coolly rolling her back around one of the grotesque server nodules that seemingly grew up and out directly from the ground. As she went, Aiko ejected the two spent plasma shells and let them swirl smoking to the deck. She then slotted in their replacements and pressed the revolver's cylinder shut, pulling her fingers across it so it spun clicking in the gun's frame.

 

[Sunny D]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

Kasa’s gaze flicked between Cynea and William. She was coiled to strike, but clearly missing some context was unwilling to make the first move. The bark of William’s weapon shattered the brief, crackling silence and gave her the answer.

Kasa joined in without hesitation now that William had made the call. Her rail gun roared to life in response, a staccato rhythm of plasma bolts cutting through the air. She continued to drift backward on her ICS, as she continued to fire.

As Cynea asked her question, Kasa didn’t stop firing. Her answer came through with a calm certainty. “I was following you guys." She said with a smile before adding with a more serious inflection. "There’s an Equipment locker that’s a thoroughfare into the hangar. Bit of a detour but it should be ahead.” She rounded a corner. "This way."

Caldera Base, Level 15

Morgana watched Hoshi’s precise hand signals with an intense expression, her eyes then darting around the room. It was the sound of Aiko’s boots hitting the floor that spurred her to action.

She dropped into the server room, her knees bending dramatically to absorb the impact. With no operative to catch her this time, she slipped on the slick floor and fell on her backside, though the science officer was quick to recover, quickly scrambling behind a pillar while the princess took the heat.

She braced her weapon against the column, made sure no friendlies were in her line of fire and pulled the trigger on Aiko’s target. Blue tracers ripped through the air once more towards the Advanced Type.

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 1

“Your missio—ugh!“ Charbon couldn’t continue as the explosive rounds of William’s revolver found their way towards the easy mark. Diving back behind the door, the Overseer was out of sight by her own movements as much as the Kaiyo’s as they raced away from her and down the wet hallway whose walls were closing in.

“This is the only place to speak freely!” Charbon seethed in Cynea’s mental ear. “I’ve already helped you.”

All of the rushed, jerky movements meant the already injured cattle were being pushed past their limits. One tumbled over, a spinning heap of mass that was braying wildly as it knocked over the two behind it. The three stayed topped, wildly kicking their legs but unable to get up or too hurt to even try. Each of the cattle were carrying important loads and had been carefully sequestered into the base through weeks of embedded planning but were now falling and left behind as if less useful than a Mishhuvurthyar’s next meal.

Level 15

Having hoped to not have to still be positioning, Hoshi crossed her fingers in a “no” repeated the the old hand signals she had given to Molli while betraying no emotion on her facial features. Those immediately behind her were to take on the immediate Mishhu while those further back took on the one more towards the server room’s exit. She looked to Sahty, making sure the young Neko also understood. These two were with her and to take down the target closest to them with its attention on its volumetric data pad.

Both had to be dealt with swiftly and before any alarm could be signaled and, so, when four of Aiko plasma shots rung out followed by Morgana’s mass driver punching the heat out of the Mishhu, she swung the Type 45 pistol out of its holster. The Mishhuvurthyar looked towards Aiko and Morgana’s shots—and away from Hoshi, Molli, and Rio, giving them the perfect opening. Conviction in the other two’s abilities unshaken, Hoshi relied on that faith as she acted uncharacteristically by taking on the enemy’s attention and becoming its sole attacker. Her NMX M3 unloaded heavy shots with a noise like an old car engine stalling out, it unloaded into the fleshy place where the Mishhu’s tentacles met its belly before the beast got wise and ducked its carapace down, shielding itself. In the same moment, it surged forward, knocking Hoshi and Molli down and taking the latter into the sinew of the wall behind them.

Aiko and Morgana’s target was slowed, unmoving as if in a crystal cage. Part of its carapace was broken apart by the older duty revolver's rounds and was almost sliding off their mounting like a blanket haphazardly cast onto a bed. But frozen now, the chitin stayed in place. Whatever internal damage done was hard to note in this fixed state it found itself in. The other wounds where Aiko had hit would normally be spewing red Mishhu blood, but the cryo rounds had worked like a coagulant and stopped the bleeding. As Aiko reloaded it looked frozen in time, but the moment the cylinder shut, the Mishhu’s black eyes darted towards the eyelids of its earthy carapace. Its eyes were following where Aiko had dove into cover and the spiked tip of one of its tentacles was idly moving like a the twitch of a perturbed cat’s tail.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

For a moment there she thought the SAINT agent was just as lost as she was, but there was relief when that wasn't the case. "Equipment closet you say? Let's take a browse while we're at it. Might be something we can use." Her thoughts went back to Nari and wondered if she knew about this closet, or was it kept from her? Because if she knew, then she did a good job not letting anyone know considering how neurotic she could get.

Though her thoughts were intruded upon by Charbon. A partial relief that a plausible ally was still alive, but a sense of dread of the possibility that she had returned to being an enemy. Perhaps she shouldn't let the other two know for now as she could get some good information from the Overseer. Though she'd have preferred to speak to her face to face where she could at least study her features. The lack of that simple thing would make the sincerity of her words all the harder to glean.

"I'll hear you out," Cynea responded through the mental link, "but make it quick. And call off the security. The fewer that get shot, the better for all of us."

 

[Gles]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Chalking up her hesitation as a lapse in memory for what hand signals the Star Army used, Myga tried to make up for it by sighting down her target -- the Mishhu closest to her -- and the one that princess Aiko wasn't currently lighting up with ear-piercingly loud revolver cartridges. Unfortunately, hesitation had given her target time to react, and the impact of its charge winded the soldier, who sailed through the air like a ragdoll. What would've been a bone-crushing impact into a metal wall was softened, somewhat, by the disgusting fleshy sinew that covered it. Myga was entangled in the viscous, fleshy membrane, where she struggled to catch air in her lungs. Something was probably broken, judging by the sharp pain in her chest, but Myga didn't want to dwell on that.

Before the operation had thoroughly rattled her, Myga had the presence of mind to have stocked up on a variety of magazines that could serve their purpose. More specifically, the magazine she'd slammed into her rifle, which she was now in the process of unloading in short, controlled bursts, was filled with munitions that could punch through several inches of solid metal. It had been intended to offer token resistance against the feared Mindy power suits, but now served to crack open the infamously durable shells of the Mishhu. Myga shot from the hip, hoping to dissuade the mishhu from making another charge that would finish her off.

 

[Megabirb]

Caldera Base, Level 15

With Aiko's roaring revolver as the go signal, Sahty had only enough time to nod her understanding to Hoshi before her Captain engaged the enemy. From her perch high against the server, Sahty had an excellent vantage to fire upon closest Mishhu with little fear of her comrades being in the line of fire. But she had little time to fire, only twice before it had charged Hoshi and Myga.

Sahty cursed when the mishhu knocked Hoshi and Myga over. She had to be careful not to hit them. Steadying herself as she took aim at the Mishhu's eyes, Sahty knew she needed to buy time. Her impaler had no subtlety. When Sahty pulled the heavy trigger, the blue particle beams that reached out from her position towards her target easily gave her away. But that was the point, to either blind the mishhu or make it look her way.

 

[raz]

Caldera Base, Level 15

The Mishhu couldn't see Aiko where she'd stepped into obscurity, and neither could she see it, but the princess knew it hadn't been eliminated just yet. Even though her shots had been good, the venerable Advanced Type bioform still persisted as the Sfrarabla Mishhuvurthyar Nougpift's standard species for over twenty years for a reason, and so Aiko wouldn't let her guard down absent hearing its mighty bulk crash sloppily onto the deck.

For a few moments she listened with an intense concentration from her spot, peering from side-to-side as if following the unseen Mishhu's movement with her deep scarlet eyes as it slithered and stalked even beyond her vision. Through the cacophonous firefight, Aiko did her best to clear her mind of all the gunshots and scuffle to filter out the Mishhuvurthyar's meaty, involuntary tentacle movement.

"Do not fire too many cryo shots, this one is not Enhanced!" Aiko called to Morgana, who she could see firing at their common target from Aiko's shielded position. It let the princess know more about where her foe was, too, and doubly informed her that its inaction toward Morgana meant its attention was poised in Aiko's direction. "Switch mags and fire again when I strike!" she added. The Ketsurui warrior's voice carried a sense of urgency that could only be imbued by combat, but remained otherwise collected.

With that, Aiko took a heavy and determined two steps back the way she had come into cover. She trusted the Mishhu was waiting for her, even in the face of Morgana's volley, and made sure to kick the tip of her boot out to where she knew the monstrous soldier would see it. But then instead of proceeding, she leapt backward and propelled herself as fast as her Nekovalkyrja inertia control would let her for a couple meters in the opposite direction.

Silent off her feet, Aiko appeared from a blur between a different pair of bio-organic server racks and cracked off another two hefty plasma bolts into the Mishhu's shell. With any luck, the princess would keep the enemy's attention and give Morgana time to exchange her ammo and fire again, intending to slam the Advanced Type from two angles.

There hadn't been time for Aiko to reset her revolver's cylinder and double-shoot like there was after her initial barrage a few seconds earlier, instead landing out of sight as she readied her gun's cycle to the selected shells while keeping on the move. If the beast wasn't yet dead, Aiko expected—even wanted—it to follow her, so jogged and leapt between whatever obstacles she could to create distance with the Mishhu fighter.

"You are weak, Mishhuvurthyar!" Aiko taunted for good measure, knowing the temperament of these foul creatures was grounded in a sense of supremacy and didn't allow them to easily accept insult from beings so frail (in their estimation) as Neko. "So please excuse me! I have no intention of hanging around your inferior ilk!"

 

[Gunhand4171]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

William didn't look back at Sif, but his eyes almost looked glazed over. As if he was a million miles away. "Mishu lie. They perform unspeakable horrors on the galaxy. If it were up to me, they and the Kuvexians would be erased from the galaxy." After his tirade, he stayed silent. He rounded up the cattle and halted their progress. Then he slowed his pace, then dismounted and walked back to the exhausted and wounded cattle.

"Easy. Easy." He soothed, examining each. The ones who were merely exhausted, the ID-SOL used his immense strength to push them back upright. "Go check out the equipment locker. I'm going to give the animals a break and stay here." He replied to Kasa and Sif. The cattle were important for the plan. The more he lost, the lower their chance for success got. William rubbed his temple. He pushed the cattle too hard. If he didn't get it together, the plan would go to hell.

His stallion plodded over and pushed William with its head. Letting out an amused chuckle, the ID-SOL scratched the animal's nose. "Yes yes. You did a good job too. I'm sorry I pushed you so hard." He then turned and checked on Hoshi and Aiko's horses, making sure they had made it through the onslaught.

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Brandishing its tentacles out towards Myga, the Mishhuvurthyar struck out, cutting into the fleshy walls as it struck out towards where its victim had been thrown. There was a moment just after Myga shot that she saw the knife-tipped tentacle pulsing through the air at her exploded, hit by her heavy round coming from just below. The path had been cleared for the next one and it its heavy-hitting munition, cracking at the shell and spinning the Mishhu around with the kinetic blow, too.

The moving target was not too difficult for Sahty from her superior angle as she shot into the soft spots between its carapace where its eyes lay embedded. Hit out of the socket, one set of beady eyes broke away as the blue beam shot into their moorings. The enemy beast seemed torn between Myga, staring with its good rows of eyes up at Sahty, and following its first aggressor, Hoshi. Half of its tentacles pushed forward torwards Sahty's high position while the rest kept on track with seeking out Myga.

Having flung herself out from the charge moments earlier, Hoshi was readying to position herself away from another battery. There was little room for ranged support like she preferred in the close confines of server racks and the hulking Mishhu, so the lithe captain had to make the choice to once more make a choice out of her forte. Rather than abscond like she was planning, when she saw Molli's shots hit the chitin and break into it, she pounced towards the Mishhuvurthyar, grabbing onto its obtrusive stubs to angle the muzzle of the M3 into the grisly open wound where Molli had shot. She gritted her teeth and loosed the capacitor into the Mishhuvurthyar's innards.

One ropey tentacle found Sahty quickly, bringing its whole self around her neck with a quick embrace that meant to choke. But as the life left the Mishhuvurthyar, the grip immediately loosened, unable to do any real harm. The wet appendage slid down even as the Mishhuvurthyar itself lost gravity manipulation and slumped slowly into a trashy heap of broken carapace. Its shot off nub of a tentacle had flopped inelegantly over its own broken eyes.

Aiko, too, had shot into her own enemy. Passing by the only doorway in the server room, one with a small slotted window in the center of the tightly closed orifice and a simple keypad embedded next to it, the creature was thawing gradually. Its wound had clotted with the cryo round and once it had regained mobility it gave chase into her hiding spot with earnest excitement. Slow at first while the warmth came back to it, it moved with an impassioned fluidity when it spotted that kicked out boot's toe. But she was far from where it would have placed her, pushing the Mishhuvurthyar to flail forward, after her. Her plasma rounds didn't need to be aimed carefully; its bulk took up the most of Aiko's vision as it flung itself towards her hungrily. The thing fell, defiantly loosening its tentacles towards Aiko as it did. With its carapace broken and the brain and organs within failing, its last hope effort to succeed in killing off this Nekovalkyrja came down to the mass of tentacles below it. Writhing with a broiling fervor in the immediate moments, they soon thumped slowly against the sinew floor, twitching with impotence.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

"A dangerous way of thinking," Cynea responded without hesitation. "Ever heard of the saying 'He who fights monsters need take care not to become one'? Anyway, I'm more concerned for the Nekovalkyria under their thrall. This planet holds souls once loyal to the Mishhuvurthyar, no? 'Loyalty maintained by ignorance of something better, tempered by fear and enforced by dogma.' A line from a book I read before coming here. They can't all be saved, but we can at least give them a candle, a chance to guide themselves out of the dark..."

Cynea's voice trailed off as her mind flashed back to the squad's odd one out. She wasn't given the chance. Neither were the multitudes of others bunked in this rancid bunker, Charbon included. But perhaps if she was true to her word, she might find herself out of the Mishhuvurthyar's grasp and free the others with her. One could only hope, but also steel her heart for a tragedy.

Once they reached the equipment lockers, Cynea wasted no time rifling through them, looking for whatever they could use. Considering the state of this place, she was not hoping for much. If there was gear stowed away, she only hoped it didn't degrade to the point of uselessness, or get engulfed in fleshy growths. Though she feared that without Nari's supervision, the gear in these lockers would be sub par.

 

[Ametheliana]

Caldera Base, Level 1


Abandoned Hallway

"Call off security? You're half as dense as your captain, really," Charbon shared over their mental link in a tense, strained way. But she said nothing else for a long time, leaving the line dead while Sif went about finding the equipment lockers.

With Sif's words ringing in his ears, William could see over one of the cattle's backs, a lone and ashy haired NMX darting into the hallway with her inertial control propelling her forward at an incredible speed. When she saw the mass of cows, though, her feet whipped out in front of her and her boots hit the floor as she stopped moving and raised her arms up and over her head all in one movement.

"I've kept my actions above board up until now and I'm not compromising that by talking over wireless any longer when we can speak face to face. Hmpph, Cynea's gone, is she? Well, hear me out, will you? There are no internal sensors in these back halls and I'm not sure what NUCLEON will be able to upload before whatever comes to pass with this," Charbon said, waving a hand about in front of the cattle as if referring to them with her last word. "Why do you think I led you to these very halls, devoid of life as they are, especially of Mishhuvurthyar? Why do you think I didn't report your captain as in infiltrator when I first laid eyes on her but instead led and sequestered her and her comrades away to do as they please? At great expense, mind you. She gallavants around and about this base at my willful doing, though it would not look as such on NUCLEON sensors. Do you think I did such because that helped my Mishhuvurthyar Overlords?"

Her voice had grown noxious, presumably made bitter by some hatred for who she spoke to or what she spoke about. Further inspection of the ragged jacket she wore would show the most underlying cause. Her shoulder was in the middle of healing itself even as she kept her arms raised up. Though she had jumped out of the way of William's explosive shots, not all of the cascading effects had been able to be avoided. The slick, exposed muscle looked like that of the walls and flooring in this wet back hallway.

Equipment Lockers

The lockers were attached to the hangar and mostly housed spare parts for the star faring ships therein. There would come a time this mission for dismantling, so the larger items like plasma torches and starship-grade bolt cutters meant for such shone out to Cynea as useful.

Somewhere in the lockers underneath a dozen layers of tarp and obviously sequestered away to avoid any eyes nor suspicion was an aether rifle lance combo. It was meant for an elite unit of the Reaper Power Armor, not something that could be utilized as a handheld by someone out of it without great cost, though. There was also a Yamataian NSP in someone's personal locker with an engraving on it that said:

For Kikyo
If you ever fancy killing me again...
Love, Kohana

 

[Gunhand4171]

Caldera Base, Level 1


Abandoned Hallway

At Sif's reply, the ID-SOL couldn't help but letting out a sigh. On a fundamental level he felt that she was right, but on a practical one? William had seen too many horrible things done by NMX and Mishhuvurthyar to ever fully accept that way of thinking.

William caught Charbon's movment and moved to raise his revolver before he was stopped by her upturned hands. He slowly lowered the hand cannon to a ready position. At least it wasn't aimed at Charbon's face like it had been a second before. He returned her gaze with a similar amount of vitriol. "I wouldn't know. I'm not you. I'm also not psychic. So just tell me." He replied evenly, his eyes never wavering from her hands. If they so much as twitched towards a weapon, he'd have no hesitation to blow them off.

 

[Gles]

Caldera Base, Level 15

The explosion of lights and sounds from their gunfire, which drowned out the screams and screeches from both sides had felt like an eternity to Myga, who'd been firing her rifle like a machine. It was only when the ringing in her ears lessened that the nekovalkyrja heard the steady clacking of empty trigger pulls and realized that they'd taken care of their adversaries in a suitably violent manner. Granted, 'they' was a bit misleading; Myga had to once again admit in silent bitterness that she'd played her typical role as the token contributor. An injured one, to be precise, if the painful stabbing sensation in her chest was any indication.

Biting her bottom lip, Myga further clawed her way out of the resin wall she'd been entangled in and collapsed on the floor as the exertion took its toll. "Bloody hell," she hissed, staring down at the floor to high her grimacing, "That's going to sting in the morning." It was a hollow statement made with a sense of twisted irony, considering there was no chance she could return to her normal life after today. Molli was the only one waking up in a comfortable bed without a broken rib and working with her comrades.

That sobering thought was enough to get Myga to push past her pain and stand on wobbling legs, before regaining a measure of decorum. She ejected her spent magazine and loaded a fresh one into her rifle with a satisfying clunking sound. "Are you alright, Sahty?" Myga's concern was unconcealed after seeing the way her comrade had been throttled -- it was a miracle her neck wasn't broken.

 

[Megabirb]

Caldera Base, Level 15

While she had been elated to see that her marksmanship had paid off, Sahty's tune quickly changed when she was once again grabbed by Mishhuvurthyar tentacles. Even as the tentacle had wrapped around her neck, she had once again begun to reach for her Radiant pistol. Thankfully her second encounter with them came to a close even quicker than the first thanks to Hoshi finishing the creature. Her pistol hadn't even cleared its holster. As soon as the tentacle's grip loosened Sahty reached up and yanked it from around her neck in disgust.

With her neck free of its tentacle scarf and the enemy before them clearly defeated, Sahty quickly glanced towards Aiko and Morgana's position. She was pleased to see their own target was down. With both targets down she could leave her perch on the server cylinder.

As she dropped from her perch back to the ground beside Myga, Sahty slow her fall with her inertial control. "I-I'm ok Myga. Just a little sore." she answered as she slowly rubbed her neck. Circular track marks of bruises left by the tentacle suckers ringed Sahty's neck and even trailed across her face from the earlier fight. "What about you two?" Sahty asked as she looked between Hoshi and Myga with her own concerned expression. Her gaze lingered far longer on Myga than it did Hoshi. Even from farther away her impact with the wall had looked pretty rough.

 

[Sunny D]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway

“I hate to break it to you,” Kasa said in a conversational inflection, as she swept the barrel of her weapon over the dimly lit corridor ahead, “but we’re artificially designed bioweapons.” Her ICS lowered her down gently and she continued on foot. The shoes of her Operative Suit made no sound against the cold metal decking.

Her tone became sardonic, and the faintest smirk tugging at her lips. “We’re created for War and security. Tailored limbic systems, optimised for violence.” She turned her gaze forward again, scanning the shadows for movement. “You ever get that itch? That urge to tear a Mishhuvurthyar apart with your bare hands? Most of the 33 series I’ve met feel it. That visceral disgust, baked in at the genetic level. Or maybe it’s just the way they stink. Ever notice that? Could be olfactory programming; could be they’re just genuinely revolting. Either way, you must wonder—did they start smelling like that, or was it our Ketsurui engineers getting cute with sensory aversion?”

She paused by a bank of lockers, her eyes flicking between potential exits and the vents, her fingers tapping idly on her weapon’s stock. “Anyway, worrying about the Nekovalkyrja here is pointless.” Her voice hardened slightly. “We’re not in a position to save any of them. Even this Charbon who claims to be sympathetic. We can’t trust her. If we drag her along one of us is going to have to keep an eye on her, which is one less set of eyes keeping an eye on our surroundings.”

She pulled open a locker and quickly scanned it before her eyes returned to ingress points. “And let’s be honest,” she added, her tone sliding back into a casual drawl, “people like her, situations like this? They’re a coin toss. You will take your eyes off her at some point, at which point she’ll ether turn out to be the sort who does something heroically stupid at exactly the right moment to slide a knife in your back.”

She moved to the next locker, her movements unhurried but methodical. “If she’s serious about defecting, she can meet us at extraction. Until then, let’s keep our variables to a minimum.” Another locker, another glance at the vents. Despite her conversational infection she was still focused on maintaining security.

The one exception was when her eyes lingered on the Aether Lance for a moment before she continued.

“If you see any explosives let me know.” She added.

Caldera Base, Level 15

It took a moment for Mogana to change modes, which she did rolling her eyes slightly at Aiko’s comment. The lights on the railgun changed and the hum of the electronics changed to a higher pitch.

As it chased after Aiko so too did Morgana chase it, committed to supporting the princess. She slammed herself into the wall to steady herself, and lifted her railgun to fire on the creature. The projectiles this time were a deep blue rather than the cyan of the Cryo round’s tracers, as small bolts of plasma were launched at relativistic speeds into the flesh Mishhuvurthyar.

 

[Nameless]

Caldera Base, Level 1
Abandoned Hallway, Equipment Lockers

"Weapons we may be, but we're weapons with a spirit," Cynea responded, somewhat distantly as she picked through the lockers, trying to be as efficient and quick as she could be knowing that Charbon was still alive and likely not amused. "And spirits, no matter how strong, are corruptible. Go back to what I said to William. If we let ourselves fall to the same bloodlust, the same depravity, the same ethos as the Mishu display, then our enemy has made us into their reflection. At that point, it doesn't matter if they go extinct. The mantle has been passed on, and we become the bearer of their legacy. Falling to our base instincts, is the start of that process. That... that corruption. And I don't know about you, but I'm not going to end up eating a live cow ass first."

The infiltrator took a pair of bolt cutters and stashed it on the side of her vest, slipping each handle through a loop before she moved to inspect the plasma torch, weighing in her mind if it was worth bringing it along. It was going to be heavy, but if they needed to break -- or break into -- something, this was definitely going to be useful. So she strapped it onto her back. It wasn't too heavy, though this will likely slow her down just a little, but it beats having to hoof it back to the lockers when they needed it.

"Oh trust me, I know the risks. If that Overseer is who I think she is, she has all the reasons to screw us over. So why let the 'ranchers' through? Not like they were heavily disguised."

As she made her way to the next locker bank, she noticed the tarps. Not one to leave a stone unturned, she tore off the covering, hoping to find more equipment, and did she ever. Cynea let out a low whistle as she picked up the aether rifle lying under all that cover. "Haven't found any explosives, but I wish I found some power armor for this thing." She set it down for now and continued to look through the lockers. Maybe something more practical would turn up, though she was keeping her fingers crossed that the next door held a suit of power armor.

"Still no explosives... but I found this thing," Cynea said, holding out the Yamataian NSP by its barrel. "It's got a message engraved on it. What do you think? Looted spoils? Another agent we don't know about?" The wording strange, considering who was just talking in her head a moment ago. Theories swirled in her mind,, but none of it was for a stranger's ears, especially one she had no rapport with.

"Either way, I'll keep it tucked away if you don't want it. I'm not going to just leave this here." Her gaze momentarily drifted to the aether rifle again. "Or that to be honest... Could probably rig that to blow."

 

[raz]

Caldera Base, Level 15

Morgana and Aiko's combined firepower had made quick enough work of the Advanced Type they'd targeted. The princess stood disobediently—her stance refusing to give way to the onslaught that reached out toward—amid the dead beast's tentacles splayed out around her where they'd fallen limp a moment before. Had her and the scientist's efforts been any less, the sprawl of meaty appendages now ringing Aiko's feet would have wrapped her body and limbs in an instant to create an inescapable tomb of flesh around her. Again fortunate to have the drop on a Mishhuvurthyar, Aiko stepped over to the twitching hulk she'd just felled.

"Feel honored, you are my second today," the princess told the thing's body as its writhing calmed with each passing second. She stared at its mass more than any recognizable features left where its face should be, examining the damage it took to bring it down. "Your kin will need to try harder," Aiko added while she watched it fall still for the last time.

The princess turned her gaze to Morgana and then the rest of the quiet room, peering sidelong up from the dead. That second Mishhu looked dead, too, so she continued to savor a few more seconds of calm.

"Excellent shooting, Faelan-shoi," Aiko said. "And the rest of you as well. It is not often we can take Advanced Mishhu by surprise, much less three in succession. Take a moment to check for injury and steel yourselves for what is still to come."

On her own advice, Aiko did the same. She reloaded her revolver's spent rounds and holstered the gun again, and then patted herself down to make sure some needle-tipped Mishhuvurthyar tentacle hadn't pierced into her anywhere unnoticed. The process only took a few moments, after which the princess moved over toward the server room's doorway. She'd noticed it during the fight in passing and kept it in the back of her mind until then, and slid up beside it to peek through the little eye-level window inlaid upon it.

"Command center is just on the other side," Aiko reported, slipping back away from the viewport after taking a quick mental snapshot of what she saw. She then glanced at the keypad below, quickly seeing their next obstacle. "The door is locked. Molli, Rio: do either of you recall a Mishhu passcode that may work here?"