RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 1: Amaya's Gate

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The deflected shots were a mystery to Miyoko... but, unfortunately, one that needed to be solved about five minutes ago. Not to mention that psionics weren't exactly her area of expertise. She painted the Dominion with electromagnetic, scalar field, and aetheric sensors, trying to find some hint to the source of the interference or a weakness in the field, but that was all that she could come up with while dealing with other concerns.

Primarily, the fact that the Dominion had a death grip on the Miharu. She added the gravimetric sensors to the list of ones pointed at the ship, trying to pinpoint the source of its graviton beams. "Trying to get a firing solution on its projectors, Taii," she promised Nyton uncertainly. In the meantime, she turned Miharu's own graviton beams on the Vale, essentially getting into a gravitational tug-of-war with it to try countering the turn it was forcing on them.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari felt the need to do something. Something. They were going to die if they sat they sat there taking damage!

Her controls did not respond. She could not use the sublight engines without potentially harming Miharu. No weapons, no thrifty tactics. She was waiting for others, but she was going to be ready. Her fingers itched at the sticks; she leaned forward a little, eager to pounce one way or another.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The combined positron attacks coming from Watcher, Murmuglu and Phramplemulrp and the neutron discharges from Dominion smaller turrets hammered into Miharu hard. Energy surges from the particle bolts crackling against the hull swept through the ship, causing many malfunctions through some of the more delicate electronic systems. The impact of the attacks themselves forced the crewmembers working to keep the ship in one piece to brace themselves against the walls, or duck in the presence of sparking consoles or pressure leaks from the many conduits running across the ship.

Instruments became more and more unreliable as they intermitently showed static, and fizzles ran through even volumetric projections - however amidst the chaos the Murmuglu's label had turned gray. The Phramplemulrp had apparently survived and gone into overdrive to make a J-turn and face Miharu's port side and also seize her in a graviton beam. The Watcher had sustained damage to one of its sublight engine, but kept going, even adding a graviton beam to the effort of keeping Miharu still. To Miyoko's dismay, the graviton beam she had wanted to use against Dominion weren't even firing in the right direction, and her sensor readings had turned into a chaotic mess.

Much of the paint over Miharu's hull had been carbonized, merest traces of gray-blue and an half-burned Hinomaru were the only things left showing it as a Yamataian imperial vessel. There were no hull breaches yet, but in the misting haze of flushed coolant that surrounded it, small patches of the hull had started glowing a lurid cherry-red from the rising heat.

* * *

The subdeck was at the most chaotic that Tom had ever seen it. Tom had to admit that he had outdone himself with the energized armor - the work they had done had been very much worth the bother - had they not added Asamoya's defensive feature, he'd be already swimming in alarmed reports of widespread hull breaches.

While he had sent his technicians to check on the nonfunctional Combined Field system units, he had found out that the power connections between Hoshi and Miharu had been severed. He wasn't sure how that happened, but the energy feedback of the power disconnection while the four CFS units had been working in unison and then suddenly been forced to the three-and-one ratio had caused the sort of harm he had predicted back when he had diagnosed the wear and tear the units had suffered in the Bowhordia battle.

Effectively, the CFS engines had choked. It was only thanks to the extra precaution of reinforcing the redundant safety systems he had first devised in Tsuyosa in answer to the Mishhu flagship Anti-FTL field that the CFS units had not blown up.

He would have perhaps granted himself a mental congratulatory pat on the back had in not been of the ship's present predicament. With all the hits raining on Miharu, the energized armor was just about depleted, and Tom had been forced to pour everything he had to spare to keep it going. Capacitor power had been up to 80% but he had been forced to have to go back down to 40% to keep up. He had needed even more power to keep up with the increasingly large demand, so, he was even forced to reroute juice from the starboard and port aether generators to the armor, diminishing the energy output of the particle cannons by half.

The grim reality was that Miharu was 'turtling': putting almost all it had into defense, but lacking the power to do much of anything else. If something did not change, Tom would run dry on resources and...

...well, he wouldn't be around to care about what would come next.

* * *

Yuzuki found out what she was looking for. A breaker switch had gone up. For whatever reason, there had been a power surge, and the switch had flipped up to stop it and protect the CFS unit from sustaining damage.

Nao found out about the same information from the error logs of the monitoring system of the Combined Field System she was inspecting.

As for Rin, the capacitors had checked out and she would have already checked out her assigned CFS unit if a conduit had not spontaneously had a pressure leak which pushed her into the not-so-welcoming embrace of one of the capacitor's support frames.

She wasn't badly hurt. Just mildly shocked about being tossed around. The ship rocking like a mad saltshaker didn't help either!

* * *

With the roar of a sonic boom, a Black Mindy teleported over the upper section of the bridge.

Of course, teleporting in the unstable region of space was bad. there were about half-and-half odds that the power armor would not survive the attempt. This particular black Mindy had taken the risk and the gamble had payed off.

Its appearance sent a concussive shockwave that jostled the bridge crew around. Nyton, his seat back to the armor, was the least affected and all he was forced to so was grab tightly to his console to support himself. Yukari had her head unceremoniously shoved against her console but had managed to cushion the impact with her forearms, badly bruising one of her wrists. Kotori and Miyoko, more to the side, saw themselves shoved to the side with their armrests holding them in their seat by jamming very unpleasantly into their ribcage.

The invading power armor set its armored feet on the deck at it took in its surroundings and bent into a battle ready crouch. The zesuaium blade in its right hand mechanically split into a forked instrument around which a scalar field started crackling - an older aetheric saber-rifle.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari's wrist flared with pain and her head spun. The concussive blast could only have been from one thing, and Miharu told her what it was before forcefully losing SPINE contact: A power armor.

The knowledge was at the tip of Yukari's eyes. She could not see the armor — no skin vision — and could not guess what it intended to do to them.

All Yukari could think about was how easily they had been beaten. And how she would not be beaten.

It was a suicide move, but perhaps it would buy Kotori, or Nyton, or someone, a moment's time. Her wrist screamed at her to stop, but she ignored it as she used her anti-gravity to help her up from the chair and spin at the same time.

She drew her plasma revolver, cocked it, and fired as soon as the front sight covered the armor's upper back.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Wrong, so wrong. Everything was falling apart, and the hits that rocked the Miharu were starting to shake his resolve. Had he made a mistake? Had he doomed them all?

No. There was still time. As long as they were breathing, there was time to make things right.

But then a Mindy appeared on the bridge! Tom saw through his volumetric window the deadly intent of the foe.

"Security, get in there!" He yelled, almost panicking at the thought of Yukari being slain.

Think. Think. He knew the problem, but now the electronics were stuttering and he needed to get them operational again. Surely the technicians at the CFS units had found the problem too and were ready to repair it. And then Miharu could get going again.

He flushed more coolant into the red-hot armor of Miharu and went about trying to flush out the positrons that were wreaking havoc on the ship's electronics. The armor... she was charged, so, perhaps reversing the polarity of it would assist in that process. It was easy to enter that command since, thankfully, his console was still operational.

He flipped a handle, manually beginning that process. Meanwhile, he had the system on standby ready to start the restoration of Miharu's CFS as soon as he could. He drew as much power as he could from all non-critical ship parts, including the galley, the medical bay and anything he could glean from the hoshii.

"Come ON Miharu, don't fail on me!"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

So this is how it felt to that crew during that maneuver. was the thought that crossed Nyton's mind, unwittingly reminding him of Bowhordia. The blast and noise rocked Nyton but he managed to keep his wits about him. Unfortunately his wits and instincts were telling him that things had gotten very bad. Even worse, his 360 vision told him exactly what was now accompanying them on the bridge. One other thing it tracked was a certain detail that he had been puzzling over all day and his mind now reminded him to observe: Kotori had removed her gloves.

Miharu keep firing on those two ships! Raise barriers on that Mindy and get the auxiliary bridge ready! Nyton messaged via his Fast Time link. It would be the last message he would send before popping the connection off. He had to get Kotori out of here. There was just no other option but to abandon the bridge. NOW!

With a silent apology to the others Nyton knew what his duty was. Hopefully the others could escape on their own. Pushing against the armrests with his hands he side hopped his body out of the chair towards his right. Watching out not to get in the way of Yukari's maneuver, he would use one quick motion and twisted his body around to spring himself towards Kotori's console and grab it with his left arm. He would use it to pull himself up while pushing with his legs to get enough momentum to leap onto the console. With any luck Miharu's barrier would give him enough time to pull Kotori out of her chair and into his arms. From there he would leap towards the door to the bridge and get them out as fast as he could.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yuzuki found the breaker, relieved to be correct. Without putting the panel back on, the Heisho stood bolt upright and made as many preliminary checks as she could under the time constraints. The capacitors registered - there was enough voltage...

Grasping the handle firmly, she yanked at the main breaker, and was rewarded with a click, and then the whine of the CFS system rising in crescendo, and returning to life.

"I have it!" she barked over her shoulder, the sound amplifier on her helmet making her voice a loud rasp against the booming background noise. Yuzuki braced herself on the edge of the panel against more turbulence. "There was a surge - re-align it!"

Mentally, she sent to the rest of them; "It's the breakers! Reset the breakers!"

But she could not see the chaos on the bridge.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

A groan came from Rin's lips. "Ow." She carefully re-oriented herself with her situation before continuing on to the CFS unit. As she proceeded, she attempted to use her gravity manipulation to, hopefully, dampen the effects of being rattled around. Being tossed around wasn't exactly fun, especially when some pain was involved.

"Hai," Rin responded to Yuzuki. Any incidents aside, all the sprite had to do now was to find the breaker and flip, right?

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

If you fall apart on me... Miyoko mentally scolded the Miharu, though it was hard to put much force into it with the way she was being thrown around by the vessel's bombardment. Her sensor displays were turning into nonsense, and that was on the occasions when they even worked. In the few moments she could sit up straight, Miyoko started halting feeds from the failing sensors, reserving their power for more productive systems. Things were not looking good. ... and that was before she was tossed aside by the Mindy's appearance.

The aftermath of it left Miyoko dazed, and it took her a moment to realize that what she'd felt wasn't just a particularly hard jostle from the Miharu's now-constant rocking. Fortunately, the black power armor standing on the bridge was hard to miss.

Her first thought was to draw her pistol, and dismissing that as futile took her just a moment--but it was enough time for her to lose a vital second of reaction time, long enough to see Nyton and Yukari spring into action. Her second thought--Run. NOW.--seemed more appropriate. With the resourcefulness of a professional coward, Miyoko spun her chair, then kicked off of its base while triggering her anti-gravity, literally flying toward the door. The leap was perhaps a little awkward thanks to her recently-bruised side being a little inflexible, but it wasn't like she was being graded on form.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Hovering up, Yukari had freed herself from one liability: the rocking of the ship. White flame blossomed over the Black Mindy's back, but the heat-resistant cloak was in the way and did much to mitigate her attack - the enemy was not unscathed, but it wasn't really hurt either. As it was, the Black Mindy seemed to pay much less attention to her attack, and much more to Nyton's mad scramble for Kotori.

As Nyton pried away a surprised Kotori from her station (the Taisa had apparently decided that drawing both pistols had been a better alternative to panicking or gawking), the Black Mindy meant to rush forward but the internal forcefield barriers fizzled to life, blocking its path.

At about the same time, the door Nyton was dragging Kotori toward was thrown open, with one of the two M6 Daisies Tom had set on guard looking in cautiously, shield at the ready.

White-incandescent energy took shape inbetween the forks of the Black Mindy's weapon and with a backhanded slash the invader shredded the barrier before her into nothingness. Instead of rushing through, however, it instead tucked its legs up and with a banshee roar, plumes of smoke billowed away from the enemy armor as it released the payload from its offensive augmentation pods: 20 mini-missiles.

Miharu once boasted to Kôsuka that it could generate forcefields faster than she thought, and it proved no idle boast as other rectangular energy screens formed in an attempt to intercept the guided projectiles. Still, the virtual walls were only 2-dimensional: when a warhead struck one, it not only slightly overwhelmed the protective potential of each screen, but the warhead's explosion still spread full force from its impact point.

And so, ear-shattering explosions sounded across the closed confines of Hoshi's bridge. Some of the mini-missiles got through and collided into the sprite-operated Daisy: the shield protected the upper torso but some of the mini-missiles struck over its waist and legs, eventually knocking the M6 back in a shower of armor shards and hemosynthetic blood.

A mini-missile nearly struck Nyton and Kotori, only to have them saved by one of the forcefields. Still, the explosion flung the two of them painfully hard against the floor. Another warhead streaked above them to explode against the wall, sending tongues of flames and debris flying. A cry tore out of Nyton's throat unbidden, as a two-foot long piece of sheet durandium sliced deeply into his back in proximity of his left kidney.

Miyoko, close to the same explosion as she was headed for the same door, was flung away spreadeagled by the concussive force of the explosion before falling in a dazed heap over the console of her station.

Yukari was knocked from her airborne position into the main viewscreen, which went 'crack' on her impact and splintered in the telltale spider-web pattern of laminated glass (which had been but static and now darkened with a spray of sparks). Gravity then reclaimed the Shosa and threatened to have her crumple unceremoniously over the bridge's lower instrumentation... but Yukari fortunately still had a shred of her wits about her and was able to cushion the impact thanks to her inertia control.

It seemed like forever before the mini-missile volley was over. At its end, they were all still alive, though each had a collection of minor cuts and bruises - with Miyoko's head ringing and Nyton being the most wounded.

The bridge was filled with a haze of smoke that badly filtered what was left of the bridge's uneven lighting. With some of the ceiling's paneling gone wires had tumbled down and swung lazily as they sparked. One of the ventilation ducts that was part of the bridge's life support had been cracked open and now an inert ventilation fan hanged balanced on thin, twisted durandium supports and wires. Minute debris and shards of metal littered about, making a mess of the digital touch consoles. A few volumetric displays did remain defiantly active and Kotori's own command console had been strangely untouched by the whole incident, as if it had been left safe by being in the eye of the storm.

"Nyton!" Kotori's voice could be dimly heard over the ringing in their ears as she got up to a crouch and saw the jagged shard of metal that had stabbed into his back. She was singed and sooty, with her shares of cuts and purpling bruises and her black hair lank and in disarray.

She extended one hand toward Nyton-

...and then the Black Mindy parted the smoke as it landed next to her and smoothly impaled her through the abdomen with the twin forked blades of its weapon with the practiced ease of a butcher. A piercing yowl of pain sounded. Slick red blood slid down the lower blade as Kotori futilely pawed that the blades transfixing her and raised wide eyes at the Black Mindy's helmet: all the Black Mindy had to do was ignite its aether weapon and she would be disintegrated.

"Taisa!" the second Daisy made its appearance from the opposite side of the bridge and raised its plasma rifle to aim at the Black Mindy. The Black Mindy hefted Kotori up for display, like a pinned butterfly with its wings fluttering weakly, now consigned to be a trophy that would join some macabre collection.

The allied armor hesitated: the sprite was both taken aback, and fearful that even should she attack, the plasma discharge - even in striking the opponent - might also kill the Taisa in the process.

* * *

With the breakers reset, Yuzuki and Rin restored function to their Combined Field Systems. Tom saw this much - only two left.

The ship kept rocking from attacks. Capacitor power was at 10% and nearly gone. He had been forced to reroute even more power, shutting down the ship's weapons and even taking advantage of a blessedly-timed slack in sensor power usage.

With a small measure of triumph, Tom saw that reversing the polarity of the energized armor had payed off... and temporarily the displays and consoles seemed able to function correctly. The engineer quickly took note of the added damage to the ship - still no breach amazingly enough, but both the bridge and Hoshi's CIES had sustained damage; there was little detail on the bridge, but there was a notice from Miharu that the CIES was rebooting in 'safe' mode.

As for his Daisy's HUD, he tracked the coming and goings of the two Daisy armor he had assigned to guarding the bridge. the first sprite to go it had her unit take a tremendous amount of damage very quickly which had most of her armor diagram turn shades of red around the lower body - the sprite was unconscious. There still was another sprite defending the bridge - her Daisy was undamaged so far.

Tom attempted to reconnect Miharu and Hoshi's power coupling so to get rid of the symptom that had initiated their chances going downhill for them, but to his frustration only the Miharu-side of the heavy duty connectors and their hydraulics responded to his input. If the connection couldn't be restored, it wouldn't matter if the 4 CFS units were put back into working order - the whole thing would just happen all over again!

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miyoko's attempt to flee ended... not quite how she had expected. She was supposed to either be dead or home free by now. Concussed, well, that was an option she hadn't considered. She pushed herself up weakly, her body now a mass of bruises and making it unpleasant to move any more than necessary. Conveniently, as her vision focused again, she saw the Mindy still standing and froze.

Miyoko was dimly aware that the arm she was supporting herself with was shivering from an adrenaline rush, and the sounds in the room around her were muffled from the shock to her ears, with Kotori's screech of pain only barely audible. Those were, for the moment, secondary to Kotori's condition. Miyoko stared at the impaled neko, mind racing fuzzily as she struggled to think of some way to break the standoff without giving the Mindy a chance to fry her.

Trip it... no, that would just make things worse.
Pull the helmet--no, they're sealed, dammit.
Cancel the gravity... it'd just kill her.
Shoot the sword out of her hand... maybe?
Miyoko glanced to Yukari without moving her head, checking how close to having a clean shot the Shosa was. Unfortunately, it looked like the answer was 'not very,' thanks to the spill she'd taken.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Just as she finished looking over the error reports, Nao started to rip off the breaker box's cover to get at that damnable little switch. Yuzuki's voice yelled at her across her mind's ears, yelling that it was the breakers. 'Stay calm, stay calm.' the sprite thought to herself; here eyes danced across the array of breakers until she found the little culprits she needed to switched over. Her fingers lanced out an set them right. 'Damn, I should have gone after this box first thing off the bat!' she scolded herself. She'd taken too long already, and if her delay cost them the battle...no. Nao refused to think about loosing.

"Yuzuki, the starboard CFS should be back online. What next?" Nao gulped to herself.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari's visual sensors reported poor visuals to her OS' processing center; aural sensors were also malfunctioning due to so many missile blasts, and her right wrist was signaling it was in enough pain to cause her voicebox to produce a very loud scream.

No such scream came. Her breathing capacity was marred by the blasts, and her intake of oxygen was slow to reach nominal levels. Her wrist signaled it could not sustain the weight put on it as Yukari hoisted herself up from laying flat on the console into which she had been hurled. Her back also signaled plenty of pain.

A scream registered through her ears. Yukari's mind knew it wasn't her own; it checked with her throat to make sure. She brought her eyes over to what she thought was the source.

Kotori.

The Neko Taisa was impaled on the aether rifle. She dangled in the air as dying bait would on a hook. The featureless helm of the Black Mindy armor, combined with the heat-absorbing cape, betrayed no sense of purpose or potential action.

Kotori!

The sprite in her Daisy armor hesitated, rifle aimed at the thing's back. Her powerful rifle would surely kill Kotori if she fired right then, while likely not killing the armor.

KOTORI!

Whatever remaining energy Yukari had left inside of her was put toward aiming her revolver. Gravity control propped her up as both hands blurred inside her vision, reaching out to grasp the handle and cock the hammer.

Her eyes were synchronized with the rest of her body. Her lips peeled back in a universal symbol of intent. She saw Amaya, Eve, various sisters she had killed out of necessity. Self-defense. Yukari was not defending herself, but a loved one. That made it all the more crucial.

She thrust the weapon in front of her, the sights right on the exposed, merely mesh-covered inner-elbow joint of the armor's extended right arm, which held Kotori's body up. Her weapon was not as powerful as the Daisy's rifle, and she believed it would not greatly harm Kotori.

She was a machine at that moment. The calculations were instant. Yukari fired.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom forced himself to separate how he felt and how he acted into two compartments, something he learned on Bowhordia. His feelings for Kotori, Miyoko, Nyton and Yukari... if he allowed himself to succumb to them, then all would be lost.

At 10% capacitor power, the utter desperation of the moment, the now-or-never implications, they hardened him, elicited the cold steel that hid within the proud Raltean people, icicle daggers that came out only when they were pushed to the brink by the unrelenting forces of nature.

"Eiko," Tom said very calmly. "I need you to hook those connectors. I'm sending Cho in to help."

Tom turned his attention to the console. He held the power of the armor as long as he could before compromising operation of the ship. It was time to make a final gambit, to make sure the Miharu had the power to remain operational, and the capabilities to draw energy when those connectors came together.

The energized armor shut down.

"Prepare for severe impact, damage control team."

In the few seconds remaining, he had little time to contemplate his lot in life. He attempted to contact the Kotori hidden within the storage room.

"Kotori, we are in trouble. We need your help or else everything ends here."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Kotori-!" Nyton gasped before clutching at his side. His ears were ringing and his body had been tossed around from the concussion of mini-missiles. It was hard to hear right now and he could not pull the metal out yet, that would open up the wound and cause him to bleed to death. With a pained look that required every bit of resilience he could manage the Nepleslian forced himself to roll over and look at Kotori.

All manner of emotions ran through Nyton now and it was hard to keep himself together. Kotori was being killed right before him. It was all Nyton could do to stay focused now. The pain from the shaft of metal running through him was as sharp as the pain he was feeling at what he saw. For a moment he felt as though time stopped. There was an enemy Mindy standing before him now and it was holding up the dying body of Kotori Ketsurui. His eyes traced and recorded everything they saw: the blood that flowed from the wound and down her legs to begin creating a pool on the floor beneath her, the frantic defiant efforts that had grown less and less over time, the groans from her mouth which had practically stilled, the life that was leaving her hands and turning into the death rattle that twitched in her fingers...

"Do you see my hand? Do you see the fingers I have, that of a Signaler nekovalkyrja? It is one of the very subtle differences between a NH-29 nekovalkyrja and any other nekovalkyrja that preceded them. Today, this little detail will be important."

Click to expand...

"Reserve power to armor!" Kotori barked, furiously yanking her gloves off. "Tom! I need those shields back, now!"

Click to expand...

"Nyton!" Kotori's voice could be dimly heard over the ringing in their ears as she got up to a crouch and saw the jagged shard of metal that had stabbed into his back. She was singed and sooty, with her shares of cuts and purpling bruises and her black hair lank and in disarray.

She extended one hand toward Nyton-

Click to expand...

Then the Mindy turned away as time began to catch up with Nyton again. Before it resumed it's perilous breakneck speed though he thought he could hear his grandfather's voice.

CHECK HER FINGERS BOY!

Nyton quickly ran through his recorded memories of Kotori's hands to compare them to those from the present. As he did so he was finally able to gather himself enough to form some kind of plan. Fighting through a screaming haze of pain even with his Memory Protocols trying to compensate, he reached over and grabbed Kotori's dropped pistols laying next to him. Quickly sliding his hands behind to obscure the view of the pistols from the Mindy, he was then using his legs to push himself away from the Mindy. Nyton began trying to put enough distance away from them so that he could use the NSPs on Heavy mode but not get caught in the blast. With any luck the combined blasts from both NSPs would cause the Mindy to stumble and open it to an attack from the Daisy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The alert was being put out that the enemy had infiltrated the ship. The defensive team was being scrambled towards the bridge as fast as they could move. Already one sprite was down and the Taisa was dying or dead. With that bit of news the team had all the more reason to hurry.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari fired, struck home, and the enemy armor flinched from the attack, the saber-rifle dipping down momentarily.

But before the friendly Daisy could have a clear shot, before Nyton could get to the doorway to have the space he felt he needed to use the NSPs on the heavy setting, and before other reinforcements could get to the scene, the Black Mindy used its other free arm to gather Kotori...

...and with a 'FWOOP', teleported.

One of the drooping cables sparked. A small fire crackled and smoked from a burnt-out circuit board that was on one side of the hanging life support ventilator fan. A shower of flying sparks jetted out of the ruined viewscreen.

Two other Daisy armor came in, one kneeling next to her wounded, unconscious sister sprite and the other stopping next to Nyton to take in the mess the bridge had become. "Anyone hurt?" she asked through her loudspeakers before noticing Nyton's condition. "Taii!" The M6 kneeled next to him, inspecting his wounds.

The second Daisy, the one that had faced off with the Black Mindy, slumped her shoulders and her hands hanged. "I... I couldn't shoot her! The Taisa's gone and it's all my fault!" she sobbed.

As Nyton's mind tried to make sense of what had happened, of how Kotori had been stolen from them - from him! - he realized that in the brief time Kotori had removed her gloves, he had not had any good line of sight to her hands. Either they had been hidden by the console, or not obvious while she had been gripping her pistols... and the moment he thought of it, the Black Mindy had hidden her mostly from him with its bulk and cape as she clutched at the blades impaling her.

But no, there was one time he saw her hand! He feverishly remembered: the moment she had reached out to him! A girlish three fingered hand with an opposable thumb, its porcelain tint marred by light burns and soot and... yes, he had seen fingernails at the end of those fingers.

Miyoko, in her awkward position over her workstation, noticed how one of the volumetric displays showed how the Dominion facing them, its shields having recovered shortly after Kotori's disappearance, and both main cannons were aiming toward Miharu, ready to fire. Miharu's last protection, the energized armor, was down and the hull temperature levels were critically high.

Miyoko knew that if Dominion fired both its turreted beam cannons at Miharu that the heat impacts would be too much, and that large swaths of yamataium armor would explosively turn from a solid state to a gaseous state. This was quite clearly not conductive to long life.

In addition, reinforcements - the 5 Nozomi-class scoutships - would reach their location and defold within the next 20 seconds.

As for Yukari, she noticed a new volumetric window opening. It lacked resolution in the haze of smoke that forced the occasional cough out from her, but she still could read the text message.

SS Dominion said:

If you stand down and disarm, we are willing to discuss terms of surrender.

Click to expand...

* * *

The energized armor was down. Tom braced for the rain of ruinous hits he had been expecting, only to find that none came. The NH-23 Kotori had no reply for him.

Tom saw some of his technician sprites look around, confused at why the attacks had suddenly stopped. He noticed how Nao had restored a third CFS unit - meaning that Hoshi's CFS was the last one remaining.

* * *

Eiko ran over to where Miharu and Hoshi connected and entered one of the gravimetric engine maintenance rooms. She forged in and grabbed one panel, straining before she could tear it off and to look inside at the mechanism that had the connectors and hydraulics. After a moment examining it she communicated to Tom: "Juni, automation is down so we can only do it on manual. I need two Daisies over here ASAP."

When Cho came in, Eiko directed her to prepare things up on the other side.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Stay there while it powers up," Yuzuki replied to Nao, "Report any irregularities in operation. Make sure the Aether Generator in that space is operating in perameter, and watch it for irregularities, too."

There was violence; bam, bam, against the hull. Then, the shields dropped. Mentally she clenched, bracing for death or pain or both, and instinctively stopped listening to her nervous system. There was immediate, unfeeling silence in her private world. No sound. No feeling - nothing. But dead silence was worse than the continuous noise and the jarring of impacts along the hull. Eventually she turned from the CFS panel.

"Juni," Yuzuki said, not even hearing her own voice, "If we can use the capacitor power to jump-start..."

Her eyes caught the screen.

The abrupt, tragic end of the drama through the video link finally had her attention. She stared at the destruction, the carnage, and the damage that the miniature missiles had caused. The first word in her mind as it unclenched and she began to hear and feel again was 'irrepairable'. None of it could be fixed in combat. But that wasn't as bad as what came next.

Taisa...

For some reason she couldn't exactly explain, Yuzuki felt the tears in her eyes.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom looked to his sprites who were standing about, confused. Confused as to why the Miharu wasn't being riddled with attacks, why they weren't blasted into pieces...

...why they weren't dead.

"Stop. Stop standing around..." Tom said, his halting, razor-edged voice finding a chill that he had never loosed at his subordinates before. "Get. To. Work."

It took just moments to upload all the damage reports to each sprite's memory, a stamp that was quite firm in their minds.

He heard Yuzuki's halted response.

"Heisho, take the console and oversee ship restoration. I will get this connector problem solved... Do not fail."

The lack of a response from the NH-23 Kotori wasn't unexpected, but it still stung him like a open wound on an injured animal...

...but what tore at him more, dug into him like fingernails all over his flesh, was his wounded pride. He had loved Miharu like a child, had seen her grow through these 4 years, morph from one form to another. He loved her sprites, every one of them, with the steady, nurturing affection of a grandfather and he disciplined them when necessary, and only when it meant a lesson learned.

And now... this? A freak disconnection of the power connectors between Hoshi and Miharu? That would be their doom? Something so simple?

Unacceptable. It gnawed at him. UNACCEPTABLE! He had to know the truth.

"I am coming." Tom said to Eiko, before looking at Etsu and Hisa who were guarding the subdeck with Daisies. "Etsu, Hisa, with me."

He ran as fast as he could, summoning Ichigo as well.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miyoko cursed under her breath as the power armor teleported away, but she couldn't help but feel relieved, too. Whatever might have happened to Kotori, the immediate threat to her own well-being was gone for the moment... a very brief moment, she realized as she looked to her display again.

"The Dominion," she barely managed to gasp out between the pain in her chest and the smoke filling the air. "Dominion is preparing to fire." She turned herself to face her console again, leaning on her relatively unbattered side and restoring sensor feeds hurriedly and putting the WARMS to work predicting the attack. "And the Nozomis will be appearing soon."

Miyoko paused, glancing to the wounded Nyton. Under any other circumstances, she'd probably be trying to stem his bleeding... but if the ship exploded, no amount of first aid would help him. "I can control Tactical if you need, Taii."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

With a cough Nyton grit his teeth while blood began to flow out of his mouth. The Daisy sprite was inspecting his wound to which he offered no resistance. "I don't think it hit-!" he started before he coughed a little blood, "any organs!" he grimaced. With that said though he tried thinking about something other than his injuries.

Nyton's mind was racing over what had happened. He had seen the difference in the hands. How many times had he held those hands and noted their shape and feel? He had to maintain appearances for whatever reason she gave him this clue it had to be for a reason that she did not share it. Right now though they were in a serious disadvantage. There was no power left, their shields were down, and the ship was trapped. But they had to move forward!

"Shosa-!" Nyton gasped as he fought to speak. He needed another second to get his breathing under control and focus himself. His memory loops for Pain Control were running as hard as possible but this was one of the worst injuries he'd had since that time his arm was blown off. "Shosa! Kotori is gone, you're in command now! What are your orders?"

"I can control Tactical if you need, Taii."

Click to expand...

"I don't think we will be in any position to fight any time soon-!" Nyton gasped out before returning to his thoughts.

Why would they take 'Kotori' alive? If she is a threat then why not just kill her and destroy us? Unless.... unless Eve needs her alive. And if she needs Kotori alive then she needs us alive to force her to do something. Could Eve intend to use her against Melisson? That would make sense.... he thought to himself.