RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 4.0] - A Quest into the Dark

Yoshiro organized the prisoners and civillians so that they could move quickly. "Everyone follow me and be quick. Zeta, please make sure that you help the old ones to move." Yoshiro ordered and moved in front of the group. He started to move as he recalled his drones and beckoned the rest of them to follow.

Takamori watched as the non-combatants hurriedly fled. And cursed as he watched all of their fire swatted aside like a mere annoyance by the Render's shields. He looked back at the explosives-lined walls.

"We need to kill that mecha. Even if I brought the walls down, it could easily get through! Tsubei-heisho, what's your plan?" Takamori said over the squad radio.

He fired a 50mm gauss round and a stream of aether at the large NMX mecha.

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Makoto took aim at the Render's midriff and fired a trio of plasma bolts at it. Go down, you ugly brute! he willed.

Saki was breathing heavily. Her heart was bumping like crazy. She shake her head to get hold of herself. She was so scared as heavy ammunition fired by render flew around. She could not miss the starship grade cannon on beasts back and should that be pointed in their direction...

Saki did not even wanted to think about that. She raised on her knees and peeked out from her cover. She saw Render moving forward. Her heart was still racing but she was starting to think more clear. I am soldier of the Empire. I wowed to put my life for the Empire. I must do something. Was what Saki thought.

She checked her surrounding trying to find a way for her. She had new plan now. After noticing that Renders shield were taking fire put up by her comrades, she knew what to do.

"I am going to circle the mecha around." She said to others so they won't shoot her. "Empress be with us all," she added as she crouched and started moving forward along the way she noticed before. She activated armours stealth systems and walked. She would use her boosters but that would make the monster aware from her. She ran to one of the pillars and hid behind it.

Monster was moving forward so she just waited for it to get closer and started firing at barricade again. While its attention was on something else she ran to another pillar and then another. This way she wanted to circle around it and get in its back. She then raised her Aether Beam Saber Rifle. It was time to show the beast why it has saber in its name.

Saki ran forward her saber ready. When she got close enough she jumped, trying to get on monsters back, right above its propulsion system. Big box on its back right under the star-cannon could held its power. Whatever it was, Saki wanted to get on it and stab her aether blade in it up to the hilt.

"Banzaiii!" Saki shouted and jumped.

The Render unleashed its weaponry targeting the columns at a height twice that of the soldiers, blasting massive chunks of the columns out to fall upon the soldiers near them.

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Kenshin took up a position at the door, and fired both his weapons at full power at the unfamiliar mecha.

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Zeta was ensuring that the civilians moved ahead of her sisters, when she got the order to assist the elderly. She moved forward, grabbing each around the waist and using her engineered strength to help them move faster. She was in the corridor and moving forward when she felt something sharp strike her in the lower back.

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The Render launched a volley of missiles at Saki as she rushed its rear flank. The slammed into her armors shields and the armors plating. But her momentum carried her forward even as the HUD registered the damage.

Using her forward momentum she plunged the aether blade in to its hilt.

Saki's shields sparkled as they were hit hard by the missiles, but it did not stop her. She jumped onto mecha's back and pushed the sabre in. She held tight as she turned the blade in the wound and started cutting to the side. EIther the mecha will die or she will, but to make it harder for the Render she was careful about mecha's large clawed arms. She was not sure if it was able to reach its back, but better be safe then sorry.

Yoshiro was working on moving the bits of rubble in the way when out of the corner of his eye he saw Zeta fall. "Zeta!" He shouted and ran over to help her. "What happened? Did you get hurt?" Yoshiro said and started to examine her body for any sign of wounds. The civillians had stopped and looked fearfully at Yoshiro and Zeta.

The Render moved to try and scrape Saki from its back by moving so that a column would force the soldier off. Saki's effort to impale it seriously was impeded by the size of the mecha. Even with her blade driven in as far as she could it was obviously not hitting the pilot. But she had pretty much destroyed the Aether cannon on the back.

As it was about to scrape Saki off, it was slammed in the chest by Takamori's gauss cannon barrage. Its shields collapsing, and it lost its balance briefly when Makoto's plasma bolts hit it as well. It was falling backwards.

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Zeta released the two civilians she had been assisting, and they moved to join the other refugees. She sagged to her knees as she reached around to her back and found the hilt of a knife protruding. Zeta pulled the knife out and fought back the urge to scream. Screaming would not serve any purpose. Once she had the knife out she dropped it to the floor, and looked at the two elderly people she was assisting. Looking to see which of them had blood on their hands.

"Let's see those hands right now! I will not tolerate an assault on someone who was trying to help." He said and started to inspect the hands of the elderly people that Zeta was helping. "If I find out who did this they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. However if whoever did this come forward and tells me why they did it, I may be a bit more lenient." The rescue was delayed and he was angry. Whoever attacked the Neko had slowed things down and he was frustrated.

Makoto was the first to pick up, distantly, the commotion that Yoshiro was raising. "Do we have wounded? I'm trained in battlefield first-aid. What's going on?" He sent a Nodal Support Drone to check out what was the matter.

A few moments later, he saw what was getting Yoshiro so riled up. "I'll be there in a minute." Makoto saw the Render stagger and snapped off another burst of two plasma bolts before activating his armor's thrusters and heading towards Zeta and Yoshiro. He swiftly moved between Zeta and all others to isolate her.

The average Nekovalkyrja's hemosynth capabilities were excellent and a knife wound would, generally, not be enough to kill one. However, vital organs may have been punctured or arteries cut and internal bleeding occurring. And these were NMX Nekos so he was uncertain if their capabilities were always up to scratch with the Star Army's. "Can you breathe easily? Look at me," he said calmly to Zeta, helping to support her with one hand as the other wrenched off his helmet. "Look at me, not them. Come on, Zeta. Talk to me." Makoto looked ripped Zeta's sleeve off and used it to staunch the bleeding from one side.

Makoto was glad that Takamori, thankfully for all involved, remained unaware of Zeta's injuries. Otherwise, the hot-headed fool would have come back looking for blood. Makoto knew that his young friend's blood was easily brought to boiling point and he was bound to act rashly.

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"We've got it! Arai-hei, fall back!" Takamori exclaimed jubilantly. He fired another two gauss rounds at the Render and a stream of pulsed aether at the unshielded Render.

"Come, ye foul-faced braggart! Ye arrogant demon of netherworlds! Suffer the white-hot contempt of your would-be victims!"

As Render started felling backwards, Saki activated thrusters in her armour and shot up. She flew meter abover the Render and looked down. She knew it was falling backwards and when it will be down, she will be before its guns.

"Be careful nto to hit me! I am going for its face!" She shouted to other and activated forearm energy blade on her left hand. As as soon as Render fell, she charged against him full power ready to stab him right between the eyes with both her saber and her forearm blade.

The blue haired elderly woman glared at Yoshiro, "I did it Yammie. And I am glad I did. Finally gave the NMX a bit of their own for my Jonni and Mardi who died in the squid attack. What do you care? She's one of them, best to kill her and be done with it." She gave Yoshiro a look that pretty much said, "What are you going to do about it."

Makoto's observation of the wound made it clear it was not minor, Zeta was losing blood fast a clear sign that a major blood vessel was damaged. Looking at the blade and the length of the blade, it was pretty safe to say that there were other internal injuries.

"It hurts to breath, and I'm a bit dizzy. You need to get the others to safety. I'm not important." Zeta replied.

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The Render bounced off the column it was trying to use to scrap Saki off with from the impact of the gauss rounds. I fell to the floor landing on its side.

"Arai-hei, get off of that thing!" Kyoka barked, pulsing streams of aether into the Ripper as fast as they could come. When it landed on its side, she began strafing around it, but moving forward just a bit with each motion so the neko could reach Saki.

"You have no right to decide what is right and wrong here. She was a prisoner of war and MY responsbility. If she dies, you will answer to your authorities." Yoshiro said with so much venom, the Power armor seemed to tighten up. He pointed his finger at the person who stabbed Zeta. "I have had friends that died in this war too but you just seem to want revenge for revenge's sake. I am not going to let you do that. Instead of this stupid vigilante act, why don't you just live on for their sake? It would be so much better than being bitter and angry all the time."

"As for you Zeta, You are important. We didn't go through all this trouble to save you just so you could die here. What about your sisters, are you going to abandon them? Leave them in a cold cruel world by themselves? If not I suggest you fight as long as you can!" He said "Giving up is the last thing to do and if you die here I will never forgive you at all."

So what do we do now? If Zeta dies, I'll never forgive myself. He said as he tied the elderly woman's hands together with some metal that he found, making sure that it was tight enough to keep her hand from moving but not to cut off her circulation.

After a few moments he decided to move the group. "As much as I would like to stay here and chat with the enemy who seems to want to kill us, I suggest we move again." Yoshiro said and moved the group. He noticed that most of the group glared disapprovingly at the elderly lady and decided that he would escort the elderly lady himself. "Makoto, we need to get her out of here. We'll need to get her medical attention. Let's get going." The group started to move with Yoshiro at the head.

"I am the medical attention! The only way we're getting her to anyone more qualified than me is when we blast off this rock on that ship! Stop lecturing us all and get those civilians and prisoners separated while I deal with Zeta! And hand me your pressure dressing from your survival kit!" The ex-Forest Ranger snapped at Yoshiro.

Makoto cursed under his breath. "Okay, okay, take it easy. I'm right here, if you need anything, let me know. You're not going to die. You've fought for so long and you can hang on just a little longer." Makoto spoke softly and calmly to Zeta.

He pulled out his own survival kit from his armor's butt pack with his right hand, supporting Zeta with his left. Soon, he was rifling through the pack and tossing out everything he didn't need right then. Then he found what he was looking for. The towel was perfect for applying pressure. Makoto applied it to the entry wound on Zeta's , which was bleeding profusely. "It's going to hurt but bear with it," he said softly to her.

Makoto switched hands quickly so that he could grab his helmet and radioed to the squad, "I need a medical kit! Does anyone have a medical kit? Star Army or UOC? Anything! One of the POWs is in bad shape. We either leave now or I get a medical kit to stabilize her!"

He pulled out the space blanket and tried clumsily with one hand to wrap it around Zeta. "You, make sure the craft is ready to leave! No bombs, no tricks, no bloody knives!"

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Takamori's ears perked up. Wounded prisoner? So that was where Makoto had disappeared to. But who? If it was Zeta... Takamori pushed the thought, he was torn between going back or staying at his defensive post. He had the detonator, if the NMX broke through, he had to be there to collapse the tunnel. But he needed to help back there.

He made his choice. He had sworn to protect Zeta and her sisters. He would see that through. Plus, Arai-hei was making it impossible to shoot the Render. "Falling back to secure the wounded!"

And before Tsubei-heisho could protest, Takamori had flown back to where Makoto was treating Zeta. For a moment, he was silent, trying to absorb the shock of seeing Zeta so bloodied. Then his shock turned to anger. He activated both of his forearm aether blades and strode vengefully over to the UOC civilians.

"You like to knife unarmed prisoners? You've just made yourself a combatant! Obviously you have the weapons! Get out there," he ordered angrily at the UOC civilians, "and defend your own homes! She worked to help you and this is the gratitude you traitors have. Traitors to the Empire, traitors for life!" Takamori spoke with such venom and wondered what was restraining him from cutting them down.

When it was clear none of them were moving towards the combat, he spoke again. "If you cowards aren't going to fight, then don't you dare touch those who have the courage to! Drop whatever weapons you have hidden and follow Tanaka! If any other prisoners are hurt or if she dies, you're going to have to hope someone will stop me from sending you onwards!"

He deactivated the aether blades and pointed to the Nekos. "Leave those traitors. Those honorless scum are unworthy of any aid. Help Makoto comfort Zeta. If you have medical training or supplies, help him."

To make sure the prisoners and civilians separated, Takamori started shoving the civilians, wounded or no, forwards. It took the greatest restraint to hold himself back from decking the woman with bloodied hands.

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Makoto kept quiet as he tried to decide what else he could do. Takamori was Takamori. He would explode and he would shout and threaten but in the end, he probably would not actually kill unarmed civilians. "Zeta, you can't die. You've got a knight in shining armor doing everything he can to protect you and your sisters," he said to her with a smile.

The elderly couple turned away from the ranting soldiers, the women's expression completely unrepentant. They moved forward to join the other civilians.

Zeta looked at the two soldiers who were so vehement with her attacker. She found it surprising to have them taking a stand for her.

"I will do my best to stay with you...." she said her voice then turning into a hiss of pain as Makoto applied more pressure to stanch the blood loss. When the initial pain passed her eyes were more focused as she used the pain to help her stay conscious.

The Render was being hammered by some many weapons that it made feeble attempts to retaliate as its systems failed on by one. Finally it exploded in a pyrotechnic wave as its remaining missiles detonated.

The Peacekeeper who opened the door, rushed down into the corridor and entered the bay that the Zenpyou was sitting in.

Kyoka was nearly knocked off her feet by the wave of the explosion, but thankfully she managed to stay upright thanks to her gravity control. She immediately dashed over to its remains to check on her comrade.

"Arai-hei, are you alright?!" She barked, frantically rushing to the debris.

Amidst all this, she sent a message to her other teammates, reading,

Few moments after one of the Peacekeeper ran through the doors, message came to Yamataian soldiers.

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Saki stabbed and stabbed, but when Kyoka gave order, she listened. Not very happy about it, but she grinded her teeth and followed. She put her boosted on full power and flew away. The rest of the team then hammered the Render with so much firepower that it exploded shortly after.

Saki's armour was banged up and her shields were down, she just flew over the barricade and tried to land. Unsuccesfully. She hit the floor and rolled few meter, before she came to halt.

"Owie," she said as she started getting up slowly. She was breathing heavily, but she was alive. "I am fine. My armour is just little bang up. Well we should better get a move on." She started moving towars exit, though not really fast.

We are all good, Tsubei-heisho. We had an attempted murder by an elderly civillian on one of the prisoners. She is bound and I am going to escort her personally to make sure that she doesn't do it again.

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He handed Makoto the pressure dressing. "I apologize Makoto-hei. I just want to save her. She is a living being, prisoner or not and I don't want her to die." he said as he sent the message. He turned to the civillians and seperate the prisoners. "Takamori-hei can you take the prisoners and make sure that they are okay? I want them to be safe." He then looked at the elderly woman and sighed.

He started to move out with the civillians and he kept a close eye on the elderly woman. She seems so angry and I really don't blame her but is it right to take a life in revenge for someone that died. The lady wasn't even a soldier but she decided to attack Zeta. Is that even right? Yoshiro thought to himself. What would I have done? What would I try to avenge someone that I loved that an enemy killed? "Keep moving please. Head toward the opening and please be careful of debris." He said and escorted the others to get them to a ship. "Takamori-hei, you all right?"

"Aeon crew, fall back to the corridor to the ship, once the last of the civilians get aboard whatever ship we are taking we are all moving towards the ship. Once the UOC get into the corridor and close the door, blow the explosives which will deter any NMX who show up from trying to pursue us." Kim sent to the team.

She positioned herself by the door and watched for any more NMX activity.

"Enough of your philosophizing!" Makoto said, taking the pressure dressing and ripping it open. Swiftly, he tore open the back of Zeta's uniform to reveal her back. It was a bloody mess but Makoto continued without pause. He wiped away blood with the blood-stained towel he had been using and pressed the dressing over her wound. Why wasn't the hemosynth kicking in?

"Honda-hei to Aeon, one critically wounded NMX prisoner. NH-29 series, stab wound to back."

He put his helmet back on and looked at his charge. "Gonna move you. Sorry if it hurts." Makoto lifted Zeta up in both arms, carrying her past the open door and towards the Zenpyou.

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Takamori brushed past Yoshiro. What a horrible mission this was.

"She dies, I'll kill you!"

He took off back towards the final barricade. "Saito-hei, ready to trigger the explosives." Takamori pulled the detonator out from his butt-pack. The explosives were armed, all he needed to do was push the trigger.