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!"