RP: YSS Heartbreaker [Mission 4] The Word And Deed Go Hand In Hand

Vekimen Station Shuttle Bay

Fortunately, the infected Vekimen did not seem to possess the tools or composure to handle the reinforced position the I'ee had set up. The first wave was shredded by the guns, chewed to pieces, bodies littering the area in front of the corridor entrance. Their tendrils were still weakly twitching and blindly grasping as the next group leapt over their corpses, directly into melee range of the insectoids. Some were winged by bullets before being pounced on by the I'ee, stabbed en masse by gangs of the small soldiers. By the time the Taii had managed to move the footage Sally and Yui were receiving from the I'ee troops onto the main screen, the whole thing was over. The I'ee were left to finish off the last few twitching Vekimen, wary of the still somewhat dangerous tentacles.

"Please, Ambassadors...calm yourselves. And your fellows, if possible." Tsukisaki watched the I'ee shuttle fly past the one the away team had landed in earlier to hurry back to rejoin the fleet. "And reassure them that we have the situation well in hand. As long as they remain calm and hold their positions to alert us, we will not let any threat emerge from the station." The Captain watched the pair, trying to reassure them as best she could, with a show of composure and strength, as compassion was not exactly her specialty.


Laderen Corridor, Chudan

The Vekimen medic attempting to examine Alexis had no way of knowing that she would be fine, as long as she was left to rest and let her body (and armor) repair itself. There didn't seem to be any obvious way to remove the armor, and it seemed well beyond anything the Vekimen could safely cut open or otherwise adjust to get to her wounds. Every time it prodded at her, or her armor, Alexis could feel jolts of pain, unless she properly focused on telling her artificial body to ignore it.

Outside of the nearby airlock, Gedan had arrived. Veronika pressed her Mindy up against the door, working to use her armor to relay communications between Chudan and the Heartbreaker. "Masahiga-Hei, we are nearby, if assistance is required." Skade could hear the message sent by Veronika, as the audio and visuals the Bridge was receiving noticeably improved.

"You heard him, remove the armor!" The big gun was still trained on the android, even as it settled on the ground and tried to speak to them. "We'll let the Sraralumee decide about that." The leader moved close enough to carefully observe Skade as she removed her armor, curious about what was under that metal. This one was shaped similarly to the injured one, but very different from the extremely hot armor that was drawing the attention of most of the group.


Main Corridor, Jodan

Ingrid seemed to freeze up, even as Sara tried to organize a defense with the other Minkan. Hasewega moved to cover Edtoto, as the Vekimen split further away from the group to wade into the attacking infected. Limbs and bodies went flying, usually in separate directions, as the armored alien torn into her infected kin. Tendrils grasped at her, trying to slow her down, bladed tips uselessly clattering at the armor, acid splattering and hissing but doing no real damage. Sara found a distinct lack of clear targets in this direction, as the alien buzz saw churned through the unarmored attackers.

Glancing back, Sara saw Ingrid still staring in shock as Yuko and Kiko were pulled in the opposite direction from Edtoto's charge. The Cook's weapon went flying just as her own had moments earlier, tendril's starting to wind and constrict around the lighter protection at Kiko's throat. Yuko was flailing wildly, unable to get a clear shot with her weapon, but at least her death grip on it kept it away from the creatures attacking her. Tentacles were clamping onto her arms, trying to pull them in opposite directions with impressive strength. Vekimen uselessly clawed at the armor of both downed Mindys, only their parasite tendrils capable of doing any real damage to the armored soldiers.

YSS Heartbreaker, Bridge

"Yes, Taii. We will be calm." Yui responded, though she and Sally still looked far from it. The warrior I'ee hugged her nervously hopping sister, who whined and stilled her movements, trying to calm down. For a while, the two chattered and squeaked quietly to one another, brushing their antennae together. After a minute or so of this, the two seemed composed enough to speak with the rest of the I'ee fleet: For this, Yui and Sally spoke in Yamataian, which was a first so far. It seemed the alien language more easily caught the attention of the flighty Ee'ith, the fleet of whom could be seen gradually returning to position around the station.

Shuttle Bay, Jodan

When the dust had settled, not a single I'ee seemed to have been harmed by the Misshu assault. The I'ee's heavy caliber weapons, while effective, had caused a lot of damage to the kill-zone in front of the corridor entrance. Each of the I'ee looked exhausted, probably more from nerves than physical exertion; some had curled up behind the barricades, clinging to each other in silence. Those with better composure were milling around the gore-strewn floor, kicking spent shells out of the way and stomping on the occasional squirming Misshu tentacle, still moving after being torn from their bodies.

Kiko was caught totally off-guard by the grasping tentacles. Her weapon was grasped and she was pulled to the floor. It was either time to panic and hope for the rest, or figure her way out of this one!- and Kiko wasn't one to panic! Her mind raised at different ways to get herself free, or at least get the mass to weaken enough for her to wretch herself away from the tentacles. She remembered that she had a lovely little cache of NSB's attached to her leg that may be rather handy right about now. She activates them with intent to have them attack the tentacles, having them open fire on the tentacles grasping at her at an angle that will minimize her getting shot herself. As the drones fire off she relies on her Mindy's strength to resist against the tentacles in an attempt to get her arms free.
The whole 'I wont panic!' state of mind was becoming an awfully hard one to maintain given the fact she was being choked by a tentacle, clawed at, all while being dragged towards a terrifying mass of infected Vekimen.

Yuko, who was absolutely terrified continued to squirm around while the tentacles held onto her. She had never felt more uncomfortable and scared in her life. Nothing she had ever experienced in her life had ever felt this strange and horrible. She felt as if her arms were going to get ripped off, and this only made her more horrified. Yuko had read about people without arms, and the thought of being like that terrified her to no end. Her left arm trembled as she slowly reached up to try and grab one of the tentacles, but her left arm was forced back down due to it being quite weak. Maybe...I can force my gun up....and hit one of them....Yuko thought to herself before attempting it. She lifted her arm a bit and fired around 2 bursts...then her tiny arm slamed back down, her grip getting a bit looser on her gun. Whether or not her shots hit was unknown to her, but she was hoping to get lucky.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

Skade nodded to the lizard, then opened the Mindy’s back like a clamshell, letting her get out of her armor. I guess I should be glad I’m not naked like Rin-shoi likes to be, she thought, shaking her head to get rid of the helmet hair, then lowered herself to the ground, putting her hands on her head as she laid down. Course, she thought, looking at the Vekimen in the corner of her eye, somehow I don’t think they mind.

“Thank you, Veronika-hei,” the Neko commed back, sighing at the situation. “Your assistance shouldn’t be necessary. The only way that we could get out of this now is killing all the Vekimen and I think that’d be a little counterproductive. Let’s ride it out, hope that we can salvage the situation.”

“Umm,” the technician said aloud, “about the armor. That one,” she said, pointing at Takeshi, “Is a robot, so he isn’t in armor. And that one,” she continued, gesturing at Alexis, “Is partially healing her injuries right now, so if you could wait a few minutes to turn her over, that’d be great.”

After a coughing fit, uggh how does Edtoto do this?, the Itto Hei looked up at the soldier and said, “If they don’t follow your instructions, you can go ahead and kill us.” We’ve screwed our mission over, so let’s hope we come out of this with something to show for it.

Main Corridor, Jodan

The amount viscera and gore seemed give Hasewega a moment of pause as some blood splattered across her armor. Her stomach felt like it was doing somersaults as she watched Edtoto tear into the mass of what was once the Vekimen. The Minkan simple closed her eyes, breathed in, counted to four, and breathed out. Finally opening her eyes, she spotted her rifle among the mess of bodies and blood. "I-I see you have this handled..." she quietly muttered as she wretched her rifle from the mess.

Turning back, she saw Ingrid paralyzed in fear with Yuko and Kiko still being dragged away. The anxiety seemed to leave her mind for a moment as she let out small "tsk" before slowly walking back toward them, bringing up her rifle to aim and shoot around both Ingrid and the restrained couple towards the Vekimen at the rear of the group, leaving Edtoto to her business for now.

Main Corridor, Jodan

As the infested Vekimen began crawling and writhing their way forward, Ingrid's mind analyzed what she saw. She could see where the Mishhu had designed and what they had wanted from each ligament, tissue and organ. She could see where their pragmatism ended and their cruelty began. And she found herself thinking the squids to be fools. She wanted to improve the design of the infested Vekimen. They could be so much more! The Mishhu reveled in their sadism and it was keeping them from seeing the innate ferocity of the Vekimen. She could unleash that ferocity and perfect—

Ingrid started as rounds from Hasewega's rifle whizzed past her. She snapped back to reality and saw her crewmates in trouble. She brought her LASR up and tried to trace the lines of the tentacles that were wrapping around Yuko and Kiko back to their sources and let loose a burst of fire to try and give the two others a little space.

Laderen Corridor, Chudan

The android nodded in response to Skade's explanation. "I am unable to comply for the reason Skade-hei explained. It would be like asking you to remove your scales." Takeshi commented. Surrendering so easily was irritating to a being designed solely to kill. He felt a strong desire to get away from these Vekimen to fulfill his purpose. The Mishuuvurthyar could be killing their people right now and they couldn't do anything about it. He tried to shoot Alexis a glare. Maybe if she hadn't knocked two of them unconscious they would have been willing to talk. It wasn't very likely, yet for some reason, the thought lingered.

Takeshi attempted to emit a synthesized sigh from his mouth speaker. It sounded more like a recording of two pieces of meat being slapped together. "That was nothing like the noise I intended. It's quite difficult to sigh if you don't have lungs." He mused to Skade in Yamataigo. "I was not made to polish the floor with my body. This is very demeaning."

Laderen Corridor

"Robot? AI? The AI listens to you? We can accept this. Your friend, we need out of armour... Now. We will fix her as best we can, no armour though. Now!" The Officer ordered, seemingly going from calm to angry, jamming the barrel of his rifle into the Neko to get her moving. The Neko, with no small amount of reluctance, walked over to Alexis and disabled her armour. The Vekime Medic pulled her out of the device now that he could, ran bandages around her round, and piggybacked the girl. Skade was also picked up, but the Robot was expected to keep up on its own. This cut down the trip right to the core of the station to mere minutes, instead of the long while it was going to take for them to get there conventionally.

As they went deeper, they would notice that the defense gradually got heavier and heavier. They were brought down much larger tunnels, alternatives unused for whatever reason. Hurt and or dead Vekimen being tended to appropriately, and those who even appeared infected were swiftly executed. All of this noticed before they entered what was obviously the control room Edtoto had originally spoke about. The distinct lack of gravity from the outside making the whole thing disorienting, but the Vekime quickly tied the ground down to the floor.

They could see the Control Centre was quite active, with one Vekimen bouncing from station to station. The golden horn putting to shame the mere rings the rest of the Vekimen had around their horns. Another thing was clear, was that from those who knew Edtoto well enough, this female vekimen was stressed and clearly short tempered be how she snapped at the Vekimen who brought back.

Still, she didn't ignore the group, moving from what she was doing to approach them. She looked at Skade, then the hurt Alexis, and finally at Saba. "So you understand our language. You speak it as well, and yet you attack my people" The woman growled. "On our land, while we are already under attack no less. Then you surrender. What is your game..." She asked, focusing on Skade.

Main Corridor

Edtoto continued her fight, easing up the load on the rest of the team. One after the other, infected Vekimen died, until soon there was nothing left for her to kill. The onslaught ending suddenly as it seemed they had dealt with the current issue. So she stood, but the team could see Edtoto's vitals were highly elevated. Heart rate was through the roof, she was shaking a little, and her breathe was short and rapid. She absentmindedly rubbed at her chest as f she were trying to soothe something under the armour, but she was back to business fast enough.

"Get up... Both of you" The Alien growled, her voice nothing like it's usual cool, confused demeanor. She walked over to the rest of the group, looking what Hasewega and Ingrid were cleaning up to free the tag along cook and bridge officer. "We need to get closer to the core... Quickly. The closer we get, the more likely we are to run into VDTF, rather than be stuck in the outskirts tearing apart these... things" She added, kicking one of the bodies. The worst part of her voice was that it was almost a mix between Vekimen and trade. The harsh tones of Edtoto natural language, with the words of Trade.

Laderen Corridor

Skade hadn't been too happy with following the Vekimen's orders, but what was she supposed to do? If she didn't do it, then they'd probably shoot Alexis, so no help on that front. They might even shoot her and Takeshi, and while there are memory backups, Star Army would have some issues dealing with the Vekimen if the first official contact ended in the deaths of two Star Army personnel. And you know, I don't really like dying, so... she did as she was told, unlocking Alexis' armor and submitting to being carried through the rest of the Laderen's tunnels.

The masses of Vekimen that they passed made the technician realize the scale of what had happened to this station. This isn't just about a couple of aliens, this is an entire species going through some really nasty situations. She sighed as she thought about where they were headed. Let's hope we can salvage something from this situation.

Control Center

Skade took a deep breath, partly to calm herself and to prepare her throat to take the beating it was sure to take. "Well, first off, our mission was to make contact with the VDTF because of a distress signal we received 2 weeks ago. When we arrived and found the severity of the threat and weren't able to make contact again, we decided to get into the base in a section that didn't seem infected, ready to fight hostile targets but to be able to contact with, well, you guys. When we made contact with a pair of civilians, there was an, umm, incident that resulted in us getting here," she said, coughing before she continued, "that was something that should have been avoided and I completely understand if you're angry with us."

Khelena listened, but Skade could see there was a layer of disgust on her face as she spoke. "Your speech is awful... Our children speak better than you do..." She growled, looking the two Neko's and the Android over. "As for being angry, you do not give the emotion enough force. I am beyond angry" She continued. "Before we get into that, I should inform you who I am. I am Khelena Het'Laderen, Sraralumee of the VDTF and current ruler of the remaining Vekimen. Now... Who was it that assaulted my people?" She asked.

"Umm," the technician said, a little stunned at getting this close to the leader. Wish it was better circumstances, but oh well, before she continued, pointing at the SAINT, "Morrowind-hei did, ma'am."

Khelena looked too the wounded girl, and growled. Snapping an order at two Vekimen, they picked her unconscious form up and held it up next to Skade. "So this one is Morrowind-hei, so you are?" She asked.

"She's unconscious, ma'am," Skade said after a few tense moments, putting a loose hair behind her ear. "Blood loss and all that."

Khelena snarled at Skade when she spoke. "I did not ask you what was wrong with her, I asked for your name!" She screeched, the vekimen natural appearance making her look ferocious.

The Neko reverted back to her 99er days, standing at attention and replying, "Masashiga-hei, ma'am. Sorry for not hearing you correctly, ma'am." Stupid translating software. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Masashiga-hei... You are of the same clan then?" She asked, seeming to relax. "So if I am to understand you correctly, you are here to help us. Yet you attacked us the second you saw our people. Why?"

Well, more like same minute, but details... "Same rank, ma'am. As for attacking the civilians, Morrowind-hei was more worried about possible infected than making contact, ma'am, as we heard the main group was dealing with a large number of infected near the main docks."

"So your kind shoots first asks questions later? Those two Vekimen are currently receiving medical treatment, and one is not doing very well. If he is lucky, he won't be able to move his body. I an a way, I pray he dies. You however... Do not"

Skade sighed, then looked at the Vekimen, "I know you won't believe me, but we try to avoid that as much as possible."

"I have seen the video while you were brought up here. It did not look like you tried to avoid anything..." Khelena growled with a warning. "Do not lie to me Masashiga... You would not like what happens if you lie to me" She added.

"Sorry, Sraralumee Khelena," the Itto-Hei replied, looking in the Vekimen's eye. "I was going to contact the two civilians when Morowind-hei decided to knock them out. I am sorry for the pain and possible death that caused. What can I do to make up for that? If you decide to kill or torture us, then I'd submit to whatever punishment you require of us." She then turned and gave another coughing fit. "Like killing my throat, ma'am."

"Torture is such a crass thing... However your friends life is still on the chopping block. Matyre is not an admirable quality either" Khelena commented, when another Vekimen approached and started speaking to her. The conversation was difficult for the translator to decipher, given they weren't speaking what Edtoto trained the translator for, or hadn't inputted the contexts.

When it was done, Khelena turned back to Skade. "You can do one thing for me.

The Neko perked up at that. "Yes, ma'am?" she asked. Here's for hoping its a massage...

"Inform your Ship that I will retain this one..." She said, pointing at Alexis "... Until further decision has been made on her life, and what her crimes are. You... If you are telling the truth, may don your armour once again. I had my soldiers bring it up here while you were being taken here. It will be outside the Zero G zone, waiting for you" She explained coolly.

Doesn't sound like a massage... "I can do that, ma'am, though I don't have a good connection to my ship. I'll send that message along once I get a good signal." Tilting her head, Skade asked, "Is there more to what you want me to do?"

"You will be followed, and you may bring the android. If you do anything against us, this ones life is forfeit" Khelena stated, waving a hand in dismissal. "I have work to do"

"Of course," the Neko replied. Wondering what 'against us' all entails, but its probably best not to ask...

YSS Heartbreaker, Bridge

As Chudan moved further away from the airlock, armor abandoned, the signal from the android faded until it cut out entirely. With Jodan already deep enough to be unreachable, the data they were receiving was limited to their outside view, the feed from their own shuttle and what the I'ee were sharing with them. Veronika stayed at her post as Bettie returned to the other airlock they had originally been stationed at, while Kayoko began circling the station on patrol in her fighter.

Tsukisaki was obviously annoyed by the lack of information. The Captain looked over what she had already received while they waited, also keeping one eye on the I'ee as they communicated with their fellows. The Thoot had been so mindlessly aggressive, willing to die in waves crashing against the Heartbreaker, while this group seemed uneasy with any thought of combat. The I'ee in the station seemed shellshocked after their encounter with the enemy, although she noted a few stand outs still soldiering on, less affected than the others. A curious sort of ally. But, with how eager they were to befriend the Star Army and how they reacted to the Mishhuvurthyar, they would clearly be allies and not a threat. It was up to her superiors to find a significant use for them, she decided, but at least she could worry less about this particular group of aliens.


Control Center, Chudan

Alexis felt the pain overwhelming her as she was forced out of her armor, the suit complaining loudly until it had noone left to complain to. The Neko blacked out, even as the Medic bandaged her up, looking pale and breathing shallowly, the noxious environment doing her no favors. She didn't seem to be bleeding through the wrapping onto the Vekimen carrying her, at least, but it didn't seem like she'd be waking up any time soon.

Skade and her android had their options, now. With Alexis held as half prisoner, half leverage, they were 'free' to float out of the weightless Control Center and return to their original entry point, under guard. It seemed to be quite a chore to walk through the station just to hand off messages from one side to the other, though. Skade remembered the original distress call they'd received...although the quality hadn't been very good, it had made it off the station, so there must be some way to send messages out from the station. Her armor likely had better quality communications equipment than the less advanced Vekimen technology on display here, but perhaps together...

That thought had to wait, however, as the pair could hear some sort of commotion nearby. Their escorts and the other guards nearby seemed to be upset about something...


Main Corridor, Jodan

Kiko's drones deployed, first firing stun blasts before automatically shifting to stronger shots, although that wouldn't last long before their short charge ran out. The tendril around her neck loosened, then went slack, as the body connected to it collapsed in a heap. Yuko felt a weight on her chest as another infected pressed down on top of her, clawing at her helmet, before she awkwardly lifted her rifle and blindly fired. The creature slumped over with several large holes in its chest, before Sara and Ingrid joined the fight.

The Vekimen began to fall steadily until the concentrated fire of the pair, a few stray Vekimen skittering off and disappearing around corners in a hurry. Yuko and Kiko felt rather sore from the way their limbs had been twisted, their armor and weapons were covered in sizzling, acidic goop and gore, but they were all in one piece. Edtoto's armor began blaring obnoxious alarms in her helmet, red warnings flashing as her vitals spiked. First the extra strength supplied to her began to dial down, then her limbs slowly stiffened and seized up, slowing her pace to a crawl as she walked over to rejoin the four Star Army soldiers. The more benign layer of safety measures had kicked in, limiting her movement to attempt to protect the others, while it waited for her heart rate to slow and breathing to normalize.

While the alien fumed inside of her temporarily frozen armor, the others had a few moments to gather themselves (and one stray LASR) and recover from the shock of the sudden attack. The respite was rather brief, as the group suddenly heard gunfire, followed by one of the infected that had fled reappearing from around that corner. It only made it a few steps before collapsing, riddled with bullet holes...followed close behind by a small group of armored Vekimen.


As they began shouting at the new group of intruders, the wave of confusion passed all the way back to the Control Center...

Shuttle Bay, Jodan

Bit by bit, the I'ee defensive formation in the shuttle bay slowly regained its composure. Every piece of still-moving Misshu material had been cut and crushed with obsessive determination until reduced to an immobile state. The gore and corpses, along with other debris, was shifted off to one side of the entrance. Now, each of the suited I'ee crouched behind the barricades, checking the air tanks strapped on the front of their thoraxes. A replacement sphere for the one that had fled in a panic was carefully landing in the bay as well, soon disgorging a pair of I'ee delivering replacement tanks of air to their siblings, along with ammunition for the 30mm guns.

YSS Heartbreaker, Bridge

On the bridge, the two ambassadors had similarly calmed themselves. Yui stood at the comms console in silence, listening and watching as well as casting the occasional glance around the room. Sally on the other hand sat on the floor with her legs tucked close to her body, 'lying' almost like a cat might. Judging by the closed-eye, neutral expression currently displayed on her LED mask, the ambassador was sleeping. Presumably, the I'ee took frequent naps instead of extended sleeping periods; the excitement had worn poor Sally out.

Main Corridor, Jodan

Even as the drones return to their proper places to recharge, Kiko was glad she had them. The purple neko tore the limp tentacle from her neck and took a few celebratory deep breaths. She may of been gross and embarrassed to of been pulled into that situation in the first place, but she was alive thanks to a bit of luck, quick thinking, and a good amount of outside help. She groaned as she moved to her feet, taking a moment to 'admire' the mess before she moved to recover her LASR, she'd definitely need that later.

Jodan

Edtoto hated how the armour locked up. She fought against it, but eventually the entire system locked out. She was stuck, left staring at the wall to stew. If anything it bothered her even more. There was nothing she could do about it, so she waited. Probably wasn't a good thing as she could hear something approaching. She heard the shouting, unable to turn around and face them.

The Other Vekimen who entered the tunnel looked significantly different from the ones they just turned to mulch. Wearing armour the crew would recognize as the same stuff Edtoto wore before she got the MCAS. They pointed rifles at the group, shouting at them in Vekimen. Those with translators in their armour would be able to understand what was being said.

"Surrender! Any hostile actions to the VDTF will be met with lethal force!" One of them shouted. It was clear to see the single gold band around his horn as the rest prepped a rather simple firing line. Their weapons looked way to weak to do anything to the groups armour, but they had the sheer level of tenacity to back them up.

Chudan

Skade and Takeshi would notice the Vekimen around them talking quickly, rushing down a set of tunnels. The team could easily follow them without much fuss, given their escort was freaking out about more "Armoured invader" on the station. After the hell they went through dealing with three of them, they were ordering Vekimen, trying to get heavy weapons ready to deal with the issue. The Escort pointed at Alexis, then pointed down the hallway everyone was going down, almost as if saying "Go that way"

Control Center, Chudan

Skade breathed in relief as her Mindy closed up, systems coming back online. Thought for a few moments that I wasn’t going to wear this set again, she thought, absent-mindedly flexing the joints.

The technician’s thoughts were interrupted by a number of Vekimen soldiers passing them, saying something about ‘armored intruders,’ which got their escort excited enough to forget about her and Saba, heading in the same direction as their fellows. Oh, come on.

“Hey!” the Neko said, following in their erstwhile escorts’ trail. “Don’t fire at my crewmates. They’re here to help.” Fuming slightly at being ignored, she commed Takeshi, “Let’s go after them.”

Skade felt two emotions when she got close enough that Jodan’s IFF signals popped into existence. Relief at everyone’s apparent survival and annoyance with the Vekimen soldiers that were treating them. Acting before she could think up a saner solution, she picked up speed as she approached the firing line. Picking her spot as a few feet behind the VDTF officer, she crouched, then jumped backwards over the lizards, manipulating her gravity system to both ease her vault and keep her from hitting the ceiling. Twisting in the air, she landed on her feet, immediately sticking her arms out in a futile attempt to cover her comrades.

“Hey, listen up,” the Itto Hei yelled in Vekimenese. “These are my crewmates and they mean you no harm, so I’d appreciate it if you stopped pointing weapons at them!” Turning off her speakers to deal with another coughing fit, stupid, painful language that I sound idiotic in, she waited for their response. After all, if worse comes to worst, I trust our chances a lot more than I did earlier.

Yuko's eyes widened in absolute fear and suprise. "I...killed it...?" she quietly asked herself, pushing the infected Vekimen off of her own small body. She quickly noticed the new approaching Vekimen and moved on her side a little, pointing her gun in their general direction. She was so very confused. Who are these people? What were we just fighting? Zombie-Vekimen? Did I actually kill that thing....? I...well....erm....you can never be too sure.... Yuko thought before lowering her gun and aiming at the dead infected Vekimen. She then thought hard about it for a moment and decided not to. I don't wanna wake it up if its asleep....and I do respect the dead...since these were probably once people...like those other Vekimen....and like Edtoto. "Um...VDTF...?" she very quietly asked herself once more. Where have I heard that name before...? I believe they are some form of Defence group...but....I can't quite remember. Yuko thought quiet, her eyes shifting from the dead infected Vekimen, to the living breathing VDTF soldiers, to Edtoto and the rest of the squad.

Main Corridor, Jodan

The short pause after the last of the hostiles were violently put down gave Hasewega a moment to breath and look around at the others. Kiko and Yuko were safe, Ingrid seemed to snap back to action, and Edtoto was knee deep in the dead. She could feel some sweat building up on her brow from all the intensity in such a short time span. She closed her eyes for moment and tried to regain her composure.

Then the minkan could hear the trudging the footsteps against the deck. Lots of footsteps in a hurry. Not again. She crouched down to one knee and brought her rifle up to aim. There was shouting in some foreign tongue, quickly followed by the sounds of a familiar. Wait, that sounds like... Hasewega opened her eyes to see the familiar figure of a Mindy standing between them and the VTDF.

She could barely understand what Skade was saying but the voice seemed sound almost pleading. Not wanting to taking any chances on agitating the situation Hasewega stood behind the neko and lowered her rifle, hoping Edtoto would speak up help defuse this before things got worse.

Main Corridor, Jodan

Ingrid took in the gore around her. With this swarm slaughtered, the infected Vekimen had been beaten back for now. She leaned down and examined one of the bodies, forcing it open and examining the tissue connections and cursing the loadout of missiles in her pack. She wanted to take a sample of this stuff. Vekimen physiology had proven to hold surprise after surprise and there could be a way to immunize them from infection. At the very least, there was a lot of data regarding the interaction of Vekimen biology and hemosynthetic biology here. She could take one of the bodies and return it to the hangar, but Edtoto wanted the team to push further into the station. Mission first, she decided; the Misshu weren't going to clean up this mess anytime soon.

About then, the first of the Vekimen with guns showed up and began yelling. Ingrid stood up from the body she was examining and calmly, steadily reached for her scanner. The lifeform analyzer was still inserted.

Skade suddenly arrived and interposed herself. Clearly she'd been interacting with the VDTF some. Ingrid let her handle negotiations and turned on the scanner.

"Jodan," she radioed her team, "stand down, but be ready. I'm scanning the VDTF for signs of hemosynth." She held her breath as she lifted the device and pointed it at the team before her.

Main Corridor

The line of weapons all snapped towards Skade as she moved in front of the Vekimen, drawing their attention. A few further back in the corridor seemed to be getting anxious, especially at the sight (and smell) of so many dead Vekimen nearby, no matter their infected status. Edtoto's armor finally unlocked, warning lights switching from red to green as it returned control to her. One soldier's firearm swung towards Ingrid as she raised the unknown device towards them, before Skade heard a now familiar voice barking orders.

"Stand down, stand down! The Sraralumee has made her orders clear in regards to these ones." The officer Skade had been dealing with had caught up to the group, looking over the bloody scene and the newest alien intruders. "What is this one, another AI?" The officer gestured towards the armored Vekimen, again noting how different that suit looked compared to the Mindys. The defenders slowly lowered their weapons, but looked just as wary as Sara. Thankfully Ingrid's scanner wasn't finding any traces of hemosynth or anything else out of the ordinary for Vekimen, at least as far as she understood their physiology.

Main Corridor

Ingrid let out a sigh of relief as her scans came back clean. "We're clear," she radioed. "No infection detected." She lowered the scanner, but kept it handy. It was a good sign that this response team was uninfected, but there were a lot more Vekimen around. If she could clear a big enough portion of the population, it'd be safe to begin equipping them.