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

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nyton said:

"Shosa-!" Nyton gasped as he fought to speak. "Shosa! Kotori is gone, you're in command now! What are your orders?

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Yukari holstered her pistol and got to a point where she could stand on the deck of the bridge. She was dirty and bruised, her back was cut up and a bit bloody, and she had failed to protect the Taisa.

She did not dwell on it. They were likely to soon die at the hands of Amaya and her Dominion, and it would not do to have a sour attitude about it.

The Shosa was expected to give orders, so she did, after she was sure she could resist coughing them up. "Hei-san," she said to the sprite handling Nyton, "take the Taii to the infirmary." She looked at the other Daisy-clad sprite, the one with the plasma rifle. "Hei-san, conduct a patrol of the ship, please. Do not worry — you fulfilled your duty as best you could."

She took a step, sucked in a slightly smoky breath through her teeth, then kept walking, arms naturally following each movement. The pain was ignored.

"Heisho, confirm the Uriko bombers remain undetected. We cannot control them, as the Taisa was the only one with the passcode. Retract all particle turrets and unload the torpedo tubes." She did not look at Miyoko as she spoke. Her next order was to Tom. "Continue repairs. Do not bring the ship online until I order it so."

The window kept floating next to her, its resolution and consistency still poor. As the armored sprite took point, Yukari responded with text:

Yukari said:

A crewmember is working to disarm us. I am seeing to my crew's injuries and assessing the remaining systems of my vessel. Please stand by.

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Yukari stood in the center of the bridge instead of sitting in Kotori's seat.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari's text reply was nearly immediate.

SS Dominion said:

You have ten seconds to disarm and respond to our hail visually, Suzuka-Shosa.

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Others cleared the bridge except the Daisy-armored sprite that Yukari had entrusted with caring for Nyton. The sprite seemed to hesitate a moment before removing her helmet and setting it aside.

Suzume blinked to have her eyes adjust to the dimmer luminosity of the room and then, seemingly in no hurry to obey Yukari's order, she pressed tightly around Nyton's larger wound with her left gauntleted hand to force him prone and keep him from moving.

She then warned "This will hurt," before she used the power armor's other gauntleted hand to wrench out the piece of metal in his back.

With her left hand still pressing him down, she deliberatingly used two of her fingers to widen the bloody slit left behind (an experience which was alarmingly excruciating) while she bit deeply in her hemosynthetic insert's collar and then bent above Nyton as she used her right hand to squeeze the damaged insert, wringing out copious amounts of hemosynthetic blood into the open wound.

Nyton began something akin to hundreds of minuscule needlepoints start to stitch the flesh inside the wound. Suzume had the armored index and thumb she had used to widen the wound close back together and then apologetically said: "Daisy blood heals even better than Samurai blood. This should allow you to keep working."

Suzume's 'medical care' for Nyton likely made Miyoko grit her teeth, but where the sprite lacked bedside manners, she at least made up for sheer efficiency. To find the Urikos, she'd need to run a checkup of their last location, which should be 500 light seconds away where they had previously defolded.

* * *

While Nyton was being quite vocal about Suzume's ministrations (something that carried out from the bridge's still open door) Tom, Etsu, Hisa and Ichigo reached the entrance of Hoshi's gravimetric engine maintenance rooms where Eiko and Cho waited.

Farther back, Tom noticed two Daisy armors bringing the Daisy armor which had been disabled by the Black Mindy's missile volley into the medlab to be tended.

Eiko blinked in puzzlement. "Juni, we only needed two Daisies, not three." She shrugged and then said: "I know that we can use their strength to force the hydraulics in the right position. What do you want us to do?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari remained steely faced as she read the message. She disarmed the ship herself, instead of waiting for the injured Miyoko to do it. She then pulled up a volumetric display, showing her face Amaya, onboard the Dominion. As stoic as she tried to appear, somewhere in her mind she was sure she looked worse.

"We are disarmed. What are your terms?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"...when we get this ready, I need someone to fly the ship." Tom replied to his lover.

"Not before I see what's going on," Tom said briskly. "Hisa, Etsu, take position at each end of the connectors but wait for my order."

The engineer spent the precious moments they had examining the area, first using his armor to scan, but then walking closer to the connector points, looking for the precious something that ruined their day. He looked at Ichigo.

"Ichigo, look in the Hoshi, please."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari's volumetric window showed CONNECTING briefly before it filled with light and color.

Amaya was before her, shown from the waist up and dressed in an helmetless AMES suit, with a slugthrower belted to her waist. The nepleslian woman was in a spartan room, the bulkheads a gunmetal gray, and she seemed to be standing in front of a console that Yukari could barely make out at the bottom edge of the window.

"Miss Suzuka," Amaya began, her voice a rich alto. "Your ship is depleted. I have you cornered and I have reinforcements coming in-"

The five Nozomi-class scouts defolded 6 light seconds away and began closing in a V-formation.

"Speak of the devil," Amaya continued. "I have the Signaler, and if I kill her, you'll be at the mercy of my crew's ship-amplified psionics. Your mission is over - either way - but your lives do not necessarily have to be."

She arched a blonde eyebrow. "So, am I wasting my breath, or are you one of the Imperials whom have more to live for aside from duty bequeathed to a corrupt system?"

Strangely, the woman did not seem as cold as she had been on the picture Yukari had seen in her profile. Her eyes were still an arresting blue, but her demeanor seemed more business-like than frosty.

* * *

While Hisa and Etsu took position, Ichigo nodded and scanned through the operation logs while Tom did his own visual inspection.

To Tom's eyes, nothing had been forced mechanically as far as he could tell. Ichigo then soon answered: "The mechanism was over-ridden to be locked out, Juni. As far as I can tell, the override command came from the bridge."

A chill went down Tom's back. That could mean four things:
1) They had been hacked into, something the NH-23 was supposed to prevent.
2) Yukari had done the override from her console - which was the one that the separation sequence was triggered from.
3) Kotori had over-ridden from her own console, as her station could be reconfigured to handle about any task.
4) The NH-23 herself had over-ridden the system.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari did not flinch as the severed end of a cable loudly sparked behind her. Her hearing was not quite back to normal.

"We are at your mercy whether the Taisa lives or dies, Ashigari-san." The Shosa saw the console, but not well enough to understand what it was. The fact Amaya wore an AMES suit perhaps meant something, but with the helmet off, she could only guess as to what.

"Even if you were to spare us, Eve would not. She would hunt us down upon whatever planetoid you left to us. It would only take one of the ships she will get from the lost fleet."

She winced; her back was throbbing. "What are your terms?" she repeated.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"I want you to give me the access codes of your ship's MEGAMI and CIES computers," the blonde woman frankly returned. "I will then take control of your ship, and then what follows is mostly up to you."

As the Nozomi scouts closed in, spreading in a five-pointed circle with Miharu at its center, Yukari overheard one of Amaya's bridge operator in the background say: "Connection with Huli Jing squadron established. Coordinating targeting data."

Amaya gave an absent nod to the speaker then looked back to Yukari. "You can surrender your ship to me and I will have your crew transferred to the hold of one of my scoutships. I will then maroon your people on an habitable planet where you will live out the rest of your lifespan with nothing more than pre-industrial technological means at your disposal. There would be only your crew, and you'd be blissfully distant from all the bloodshed and strife your empire has been swimming into; able to begin your lives anew."

"Or... if for some reason you feel that your ship contains secrets that I somehow don't already know about and that you are determined to keep it that way, I can arrange for it to be destroyed and have you stranded on an habitable world like I said before. Obviously, if you would allow me to capture Miharu, I would make sure you ended up on a particularly nice planet."

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Excruciatingly delicious was the term.

Why would pain be a welcome sensation?

"Because pain is just your body telling ya something's fucked up. Otherwise pain won't kill ya, what's causing the pain will. So learn to tough it out and see through the haze. Deal with the problem itself not the symptom."

These were some of the many words Thomas Claymere had imparted his grandson in training him to deal with pain. This became easier once the memory unit was installed because it could record painful moments even more vividly than his natural brain would. And then replay them. The crowning achievement had been the loss of his arm. That had been 'excruciatingly delicious' when a good piece of his body was reduced into so many tiny ribbons of meat.

Nyton's memory recorder had every sensation recorded with such accuracy he could relive the moment on demand. This was key to such pain resilience training. It made pain easier to deal with the more he felt it. It was like the time Thomas used Nyton's face as a punching bag to train his durability in taking a punch. After a while such distractions like pain became manageable enough to almost completely dismiss. Almost.

This was another level completely. It was all Nyton could do to remain conscious as he screamed in agony at the removal of the sheet of metal along with the very rough but effective first aid. Somewhere between the shouts he could hear Suzume's apology/explanation to which he replied a very terse "Just do what's necessary!"

And so lay Nyton, allowing the pain to wash over him while the hemosynthetic blood repaired the damage done to his body. For the most part he merely tried to endure it as best as he could. Shouts still escaped him but other times he just gritted his teeth and grunted. It was certainly a spectacle and he wondered just what their enemy must be thinking of the screaming man just out of sight. He tried to listen to what Yukari and Amaya said but it was difficult to focus. All he knew was that the fight was not lost yet. If they had to play along for a moment then so be it. But to just what extent was it necessary to play to he was not sure yet.

Until then Nyton just gathered his strength and planned.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Miharu is the only method my crew has to return home, Ashigari-san," Yukari replied, silently. "I do not plan to have my crew removed from their families and livelihoods to satisfy your code of honor. Besides, you are able to simply take what you want from us without our consent."

The Shosa thought she heard a sniffle in the background over Nyton's pain-dazed shouting. Perhaps it was just the sparking wires.

"Therefore, I refuse. My crew and I are not Imperials. You know SAINT — " Yukari stopped, putting a hand to her back as she grunted in pain. Her uniform felt a little wet; blood likely stained her fingers. "SAINT would not allow us to live long enough to get this far. We had to learn too much to arrive here.

"We only want our homes to be safe, and that is all. Nothing more. If we are to never see our homes again, w-we are alrhh — s-shimatta." Yukari stopped talking, her face twisting into a grimace, and she bent over a little, giving Amaya a better view of the damaged bridge.

Amaya then was provided a view of Yukari's back, as the Shosa slowly walked to Kotori's console. A bloody vertical gash was near her spine, just above her waist, but was not too deep. The Nepleslian again saw Yukari's face as the Shosa sat down, eyes narrow slits and her lower lip stuck between her teeth. She breathed a little before talking again.

"Sumimasen," she said, apologizing for her rudeness. "Was I clear?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nyton saw Yukari's face looking at him and given his angle he supposed he was out of sight. At that moment he took his chance to try and relay a message as quickly and focused as possible through the immediate pain that was wracking his body. He looked at her directly but just that motion seemed to send needles through his body.

"We haven't lost yet-stall for time-we still have a card to play!" he whispered through his teeth before pain overwhelmed him again.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Clear, yes, but you are not looking at the big picture," Amaya smoothly replied.

"First of all, I find that you weight the lives of your crew hastily. Wars are tragedies and families can be lost, but new ones can be built as well. You wear a loveband and your mate is onboard. Will you consign him to death and abandon any chance to live your life with him?"

The nepleslian woman had one of her hands idly rest over her handgun as she continued. "Also, if Miharu fails here, within the month, SAINT will be no more. Whatever knowledge your crew hold will be forgotten in the same fashion will will be."

Amaya's expression became more stern. "My job, Suzuka, is to make sure that your crew not hinder our goals. I'm not even asking you to turn traitor and I'm even offering you to arrange having whatever evidence you've found destroyed to have it remain a secret from us - I think that's fair. If you can gracefully lose, I will arrange for you to have new homes."

"You came far. You are my enemy, you destroyed two of my ships, and nearly put yourselves in a position to stop us. I should be angry, but I end up admiring your pluck. This is why I am extending you an olive branch, but if you do not grasp it, I will destroy you," Amaya assured her, before giving a sigh and adding: "Alright, a show of good faith: how about I show you that your Taisa is still alive, and guarantee that she will be treated the same as you will?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari swallowed her anger. She had the proverbial gun at her head, and that made arguing irrelevant. She did not see Nyton, or hear his whisper.

"Go ahead," she said to Amaya.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

It could be referred to as selective hearing but Nyton's senses were on high alert as best as they could through the fog of pain. He tried to ignore certain noises while keeping his instincts alerted to others. One of those notions was anything relating to Kotori. If he was going to know anything about when to do what, whatever what may be, he needed to catch any detail involving her.

"Alright, a show of good faith: how about I show you that your Taisa is still alive, and guarantee that she will be treated the same as you will?"

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Nyton wanted to sit up and watch the screen but the hemosynthetic blood had not finished it's job hindering his movement. He needed to see the feed but he did not want to be seen seeing it.

"Miharu, please, open a one way window into the comm feed. Let me see her show Kotori." Nyton whispered towards Suzume's Daisy in the hopes that even if the bridge's sensors were disrupted, the MEGAMI would be able to hear him via the Armor present.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miharu complied, opening a second window for Nyton's eyes only.

* * *

Amaya glanced down to one side of her console and pressed something before saying: "Bring her in, Sayaka."

Part of the walls behind Amaya receded slightly and then slid to the sides, revealing a corridor in which the same Black Mindy that had invaded Miharu stood, holding Kotori by the upper arms. The Taisa's face looked ashen from bloodloss and her lower body was streaked red starting up at her wounds, but she was still alive and the wounds seemed in the process of clotting.

In a swish of the cape and with the muted clamor of zesuaium-booted feet, 'Sayaka' stepped into Amaya's command center, dragging Kotori along in front of her with a vice-like grip. Helpless, Kotori bent her head, her fringe of hair hiding her eyes.

"See?" Amaya gestured toward Kotori. "She is safe. Now, do we have an-"

Kotori's lips twisted in a feral snarl as her head came up to spit a furious glare on Yukari. "I get abducted, and it takes you only two or three minutes to start haggling over me as if I was canned goods?! I will claw your face off if you surrender Miharu!"

Amaya, with a bored expression, just shrugged Kotori's outburst away and then said: "Useless bravado aside, Suzuka, I've done my part. Now, do we have an agreement?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari's eyes stung from Kotori's words. She kept her jaw locked in place, though, and let the tears bead at the corners.

"My Taisa appears to have made the decision for me, Ashigari-san, even if her reasons are not mine. I apologize for the unpleasantness to which you must succumb yourself." A wistful smile crossed her face, and she pushed a tear away from one of her eyes.

"Thank you for the offer. Also, thank you for recognizing my loveband. It is a beautiful thing, is it not?"

"Where are we on repairs?" Yukari sent to Tom.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Doshii Jun said:

"Heisho, confirm the Uriko bombers remain undetected. We cannot control them, as the Taisa was the only one with the passcode. Retract all particle turrets and unload the torpedo tubes." She did not look at Miyoko as she spoke.

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"Hai..." Miyoko said weakly in response to the order. The mere thought of laying down their weapons in front of the enemy cruiser made a cold, leaden feeling in her stomach, but she could see no way out of this. She'd just have to hope Yukari had a plan. As best she could with her still-shaking hands, Miyoko claimed control of the weapon systems and deactivated them as ordered, then began searching for the Urikos along their last known trajectory.

The search was slowed down by the fact that she was stuck with unidirectional sensors--while she got the feeling that Yukari was stalling for time, and she wanted to use the sensors to get as much information on the enemy as possible for when the moment came... she didn't dare risk antagonizing them by using active sensors in their direction. Just in case they were watching that intently, she set all of the sensors she was using to fluctuate in power and angle slightly as if malfunctioning, doing her best to mask her true intentions.

... and watched on as the Shosa negotiated with Amaya. The woman's surety that they were defeated made her queasy, made her want to run as deep into the ship's heart as she could and cry her eyes out, but she managed to keep calm for the moment, aided by the familiar task of operating the sensors. If Yukari had a plan, Miyoko was damn sure going to do her best to help her with it.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nyton heard Kotori's words and finally had an idea of what to do. If he was reading the clues right that is. With much painful effort he forced himself to turn his body over and sit up, eliciting another quick grunt of pain. It was time to put things together as best as he could.

Two, Three, Canned Goods, Claw. Alright grandfather, if our ancestors were indeed clever warriors then please let me have inherited some of that as well. the injured man thought to himself.

"Shosa, I'm afraid I have to intercede here." Nyton then announced before picking up the NSP that had been laying on the floor next to him. In a quick motion he pointed it right at Yukari and opened his communication window to be seen by Amaya. "Ashigari-san, I believe your offer is quite generous considering the situation and for the sake of our crew I am relinquishing our codes to you. Please get ready for transmission. Once you are ready I will send them to you." he said while keeping Yukari covered to prevent anyone from acting against him.

Kotori, your plan had better work. You promised! he thought as he stared hard at both Yukari and Amaya.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari's looked at Nyton for only a second or two. Her eyes did not go back to Amaya, however, but Miyoko.

Then, she looked at Nyton again. "Miharu, is the Taii allowed to withdraw my command of you?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Gallant said:

"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."

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Nao stood by and watched as the Aether Generator powered up; several screens she pulled up showed the numerous statistics and numbers concerning it's reawakening. Like a good worker, she toiled on, oblibious to the world around her as she sweat from the exertion. Until she couldn't stand it anymore. The constant tremors and shakes as the Miharu's hull was pummeled. And even worse, the relative silence that followed. 'Everything's fine in my little nook, so it's ok if I take a peek outside, right?' she reasoned with herself. She pulled up another display and looked about.

What she finally settled on and saw made her recoil in horror. She looked away for a moment, and looked back. Averted her eyes again, and finally set her sight on the view.

'No. That. That can't be right. No. The power's back on, and we're going to be...' Nao slammed her fist into the console before her as she silently watched everything unfold. Tears rolled down her eyes as she watched the impaled Kotori simply vanish, only to reappear moments later on the bridge's display as captive; she was a deep, brilliant red from the waist down. The Taisa screamed at them, and again Nao winced, swallowing hard as she forced that pit in her chest to simply go away. Nao worked up the courage to speak, her voice calm and strong.

"Yuzuki, the starboard Aether Generator is up. Your orders?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom feverishly dissected the options laid before him, his pulse racing so fast it made his vision fuzzy. Hacking... impossible. They'd have been dead already. There were more direct ways to kill a ship than simply removing connectors. Yukari? Out of the question. Same with Kotori.

That meant...

The chill on his back evaporated. Now it was fresh lava that flowed over his body, consuming him with anger.

"No!" The sudden eruption from his armor shocked the sprites around him.

"NO!" Again, but now crude, animalistic, guttural.

"You two," he said jamming his armored finger in the direction of Hisa and Etsu "Plug these fucking connectors in now. ICHIGO!"

As he ran to where canned Kotori was kept, Ichigo not far behind, Tom's rage grew into outright hatred for the monster that killed them all, that crushed their dreams this day. They should have killed her when they had the chance, spaced her beaten and lifeless body into a sun.

I'm going to kill you, you canned freak. I'm going to jam this gun down your throat and I'm going to splatter you all over the insides of that fucking canister. I'll make you pay if it's the last thing I do.

He heard words discussing the surrender of the Miharu. It made things worse... made the rage palatable.

Finally, they got to the canister, it couldn've have taken more than a few moment... but it felt like years. He grabbed the end of one of the secured handles, to the confusion of Ichigo.

"Juni," she said. "What ar-"

"OPEN IT."

Ichigo complied.

He felt his joints straining to open the canister, despite the fact that two Daisies had more than enough power to handle the task. He would've clawed it open if his gauntleted hands had zesuaium nails. He heard more of the discussion; the mention of his love ribbon painfully reminded him of the future they would soon no longer have.

It was loosened. Finally.

Tom took his position as Ichigo pulled, pointing his LASR at the window that was about to be revealed, about to show him his prey.

A wave of cold mist poured out then...

...nothing. Nothing but red fluid.

"What?"

Tom couldn't believe his eyes. He rubbed a hand over the window, scraping frost off. He looked again.

Nothing.

Tom took a step back silently and hung his head down. He felt tears forming at the corners of his eyes. Ichigo, for her part, remained silent, but stared at her CO in the uncomfortable silence that followed.

I failed, even at this. I can't even avenge our deaths...

"I get abducted, and it takes you only two or three minutes to start haggling over me as if I was canned goods?! I will claw your face off if you surrender Miharu!"

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Canned... goods? 2 or 3 minutes?

The words buzzed in his head. Canned goods... 2 or 3 minutes... canned goods. For some reason, the words just kept floating through his despaired head.

He took another look at the canister...

...his rifle dropped to the floor.

"Where are we on repairs?" Yukari sent to Tom.

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"Shosa, I'm afraid I have to intercede here." Nyton then announced before picking up the NSP that had been laying on the floor next to him. In a quick motion he pointed it right at Yukari and opened his communication window to be seen by Amaya. "Ashigari-san, I believe your offer is quite generous considering the situation and for the sake of our crew I am relinquishing our codes to you. Please get ready for transmission. Once you are ready I will send them to you." he said while keeping Yukari covered to prevent anyone from acting against him.

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"Miharu, is the Taii allowed to withdraw my command of you?"

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"Shosa," Tom interrupted through his window, keeping his head down... the despair obvious in his slumped posture. "I support the Taii's decision. As a senior officer of the Miharu, I support his decision to surrender."