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RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 2: The Fight For The Lost

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Nimura gave no immediate reply. A moment, they heard something very much like amused laughter... though it wasn't heard so much as perceived in their minds.

"Nyton, you should have a peek in her mind and how she thinks this idea was so very wasteful," Melisson said in their minds, sounding delighted. "A shot from her rifle could've killed Kotori and instead I brought her here to lure you away so the both of you could duel."

"The nekovalkyrja against the human. Your humanity against the bio-engineered weapon. You live for these kinds of challenges, don't you?" She giggled in their minds. "Freedom to the one that killed first seemed like high enough stakes."

"No matter. Nimura, kill him. If the others interfere, I'll see about evening the odds for you," Melisson ordered, and Nimura leapt into action, deploying her two drones, loosing a pair of mini-missiles and then running sideways as she opened up with a blue-white bolt of her plasma rifle at Nyton.

Yukari's observation of Nimura revealed the sprite added an SAS pack to her Daisy A. In fact, closer scrutinery revealed Nimura's pack was active and actually the source of the communication jamming that cut them off from Hoshi.
 
More games.

Nimura's appearance was nonsensical at best, but Yukari was ready to chastise Nyton for being so suggestive about who Nimura was. But the laughter in her mind, and the voice, dripping such sweet venom ... she was furious and disgusted.

Even here. Even after all they had overcome, all they had done, Melisson still was playing her games with Miharu and her crew. It could have been over so long ago. Kotori, killed in her sleep. That was that. But for years it had been this, instead; a neverending struggle that produced only what Melisson declared permissible. Even the ramming of her own ship.

Was this a game, too? This desperate struggle? Thousands of Mishhu inhabited the ship, but they had barely encountered any resistance. Hoshi was about to be rushed by monsters, but that could be purely for Melisson's amusement.

There was an aggressive temptation to order the Knights to slaughter Nimura en masse, so they quickly could continue on with their mission. However, she paused. So far, they had won each of Melisson's little games, or at least survived it. They had played along, knowingly or not.

This one would be no different, then.

"She is a shell, Taii-san, not a Nekovalkyrja. Dispatch her and let us continue."

For Nyton's benefit, though, she highlighted the backpack on Nimura's Daisy A, so he was aware she had a SAS unit.
 
"Nyton gets a one on one duel? Thass' some bullshit!" growled Asher aloud, the Malifarian settled back down a respectful distance from the two armors that were about to engage one another. The fact that Nyton got to do the fighting put him in a state of discontent. It simply wasn't fair! This meant Nyton would get a step-ahead of the rest of them. He threw his hands up in their air and then threw the back down, then sighed. At the very least he could be supportive of his superior.

"Waste her icy-ass, Clay-boss!" yelled Asher at the fight over the comms. "Nimura was a bitch, anyway!"
 
The moment that the voice intruded into her head, the wrong feeling she had caught onto just briefly before returned with a cup of coffee and a plateful of waffly vengance. Of course it had been an ambush - it had been too easy to take the area by surprise. Digging in her secondary memory, Yuzuki found that exact dire warning on a list of things to be wary of; #23 in the basic rules of Combat Survival, actually. If it is too good to be true, it usually is.

Nimura was her older sister. At this point, Nimura was the older sister of a large percentage of the crew, and Yuzuki did not want to shoot her. But the more rational hindbrain pushed those sororital feelings aside; even injured, Nimura was the best armor pilot the ship had to offer, bar none. Even if she was being controlled by someone else, Nimura was the Ace.  Claymere-Taii was an officer, and a Yamataian.  Statistically speaking his chances were worse than grim, and it should have been obvious to some of the other non-sprite crew, too. Yuzuki knew they were in some serious trouble. 

Over the engineering band, Yuzuki barked, "Elevator has priority. Open the doors, Rin!"

Yuzuki trained her rifle on Nimura, drawing a bead and painting her target areas - but only in her own HUD. Through a range of conflicting emotions, Yuzuki began to steel herself, preparing to fire on her own sister, anger nipping at the heel of her mind like an impatient shephard dog as she waited for the order she knew would eventually come. If it had been a Mishhu, it would have been easier. But Nimura? How. Dare. They.

Sorry, sis.
 
What? Nimura too?

It was another slap in the face. Melisson knew where they were, what they were doing and maybe even the details of their mission.

Nimura was another piece of Melisson's puzzle, everything the sprite did had been permitted by the tyrant. A friend in appearance, leashed like a dog by her master.

Maybe there was a way to cure her. Maybe they could stop this terrible charade from destroying more lives.

He braced himself slightly as the missiles flew.

No. Ichigo would soon be without a sister, or Kotori without her loyal champion.

Damn it!

He focused on what he could control. Interfering with the battle would only anger the captain of this ship, drawing more attention to them. Maybe they could escape when this elevator was opened.

That was all they had to go on now.
 
At Melisson's declaration Nyton could not help but smile just a bit. Deep down inside he had been looking forward to this match. Nimura's prowess surprised him since the earliest days of it's appearance. A fiercely competitive inkling inside of him had desired this match for a long time and he knew he would savor it. But first things first!

Code:
Engineers, focus on the door! Everyone else take cover and don't interfere but stay alert! Protect the engineers from stray rounds or treachery!

With that message sent to the others the match was thus ordered to begin.


Nyton reacted instinctively and flew opposite away from Nimura's dash to avoid the plasma. Using AIES to help him track, he fired a precise spray with his ready LASR to eliminate the missiles charging at him. Arethusa! The ASP! he mentally commanded, sending a tendril of hemosynthetic to grip the pistol and provide him support fire. The suit tucked the pistol close and out of the way of Nyton's LASR at the ready to target Nimura's drones which he remained alert and tracked to react to.

Nyton knew they did not have time to waste and that was exactly what this match was. This was of course typical Melisson now. She forced them into a difficult situation with either outcome coming out in her favor: Kill Nimura and exhaust himself and his resources or lose and have one less soldier for the fight ahead. Regardless of the outcome, they would have to pay for it in some way.

"She is a shell, Taii-san, not a Nekovalkyrja. Dispatch her and let us continue."

You're wrong, Yukari. Nimura is a true warrior, I've felt it. I won't give Melisson what she wants. Not this time! Nyton thought to himself before sending a quick telepathic message to Yukari.

"Shosa, I'm linking my AIES up with your suit to give me better accuracy and ranging. I am going to knock out the blackout suite on Nimura's suit. The moment the suite goes down I need you to immediately link Hoshi to override and take over Nimura's suit."

Now Nyton's strategy was set. He would play defense and hide his intent by wearing down Nimura's barrier until he found his opening to disable the SAS. Arethusa's nodal weapons should be able to pierce the barrier if that was what it took. With his LASR up and ready, AIES boosted by Yukari's SAS, and his target's combat ability already fairly well documented by his memory recorder, the man steeled himself for the fight.
 
@black Knights:

The twin mini-missiles, once destroyed, made no explosion so much as an electronic fizzle; marking them as SDMs. Nimura's opening shot whizzed by Nyton, a near-miss that was head level. The beams from the drones were less easy to avoid as they raked over his position, but Arethusa's barrier held them off - in fact, the barrier nearly instantly recharged to full. In response, Nyton shot both drones down.

Nimura's own lateral movements made her a hard target for the Arethusa-wielded ASP and she was unscathed thus far. Stomping armored feet churned the pale curdled surface of the floor as she slowed down and...

KWOOSH KWOOSH! The RGL on the plasma rifle's under-carriage spat out two incendiary grenades that exploded in midair, tossing out roaring sheets of napalm over his vicinity. Some of the burning fluids hit Nyton's power armor only to be repelled by the M8's gravimetric barrier which was turned to full strength, the energy drain turning from mild to more severe.

Most KFY power armors were heat-resistant, but Arethusa didn't possess that trait in great abundance - direct attack from a flamethrower would find her as vulnerable as the NH-18s they had encountered before had been. Even worse, live ammunition was carried over the nodal power armor - if even one grenade or ammunition package cooked off while worn, the damage could prove disastrous.

Nimura, for her part, waded into the high-rising curtains of flames with impugnity. Instead of firing with her plasma rifle, she kept it at the ready and instead attacked around Nyton's position with her armor's forearm turrets in heavy area burst mode.

@Miyoko:

"Yes. Internal sensors show that the Taisa's body temperature presently averages at 343 Kelvins." Hoshi answered the science officer.

@Defense Line:

Mara absently nodded to Hinoto's warning and barked additional orders to those assembled to make ready. Preparations still did not prepare her for what came.

From each passage suddenly billowed swarms of the Type 1 Mishhuvurthyar, rushing en-masse so densely that their assembled number almost seemed like a living cloud of glittering green shades. It was as they closed in that each individual became more distinct in the horde, eyes flaring with anticipation, tentacles flailing behind them - each mishhu soldier being so close to others that the appendages occasionally slapped against a comrade - as their green shells propelled themselves at such speed as to have wind roar in the elongated backswept ears.

"Shields!" Mara ordered just a moment shy of the enemies in the lead loosed railgun fire. The forcefields held under the assault and shortly collapsed after the second weapon volley.

By then, the squirming horde was nearly upon them, slapping others away, darting and squeezing in in their haste to be amongst the first through the bottleneck that was the main hull's wreck.

"The traps! Trigger the traps!" Mara hollered and shortly afterwards, the Mishhuvurthyar were upon them.

The defenders only had the time to fire a united opening volley of railgun and plasma fire before the first enemy grunts slammed into their position... and it nearby ended that way, with their position swarmed over and the many mishhu piecing apart the numerically disadvantaged defenders.

Mara found herself rammed into by a mishhuvurthyar that had ridden out the plasma bolt she had fired in its ugly four-eyed front. She shrugged the ropy corpse away only to find two other Mishhu screeching overhead, their powerful rubbery tentacles coming down upon her. Slapped repeatedly, knocked off balance and barely able to remain standing, Miharu's avatar winced as her barrier died from one too many railgun needle. She cried out when a score of railgun hits traced over her armored chest and left shoulder. She yeowled when one blade-tipped tentacle managed a shallow stab through her abdomen.

Lips bared in a snarl she fought back, her forearm weapons blasting around in heavy area burst mode heedlessly of her surroundings - everything seemed saturated in the nightmarish tentacles monsters! - struggling and scrabbling for mobility through the slaps of the many tentacle coils...

Which was then that the front of the fortifications blossomed into powerful mushroom explosions from the explosives Takuma and other sprites had set. The explosions flash-roared the wave behind the one the defenders were struggling against, suddenly affording them some much valued breathing room - any opponent they defeated would not be immediately replaced.

One of the defenders - Tsuya? - next loosed a spray of widely spaced incendiary grenades that sent the mishhu in their immediate vicinity writhing in pain. With a yell, Mara managed to disengaged herself from suddenly loose coils and stuffed her rifle in a quivering round ventral maw before squeezing the trigger, splattering roasted mishhuvurthyar all around. A shieldslam smacked another in the front and had it veer off enough so that she could manage a plasma bolt that downed it; a fellow sprite ensuing attack ensured the beast was down for good.

Stomping back toward the edge of the makeshift cover that served as their fortification, Mara yelled as she fired one of her own grenades in the third incoming wave, the furnace-hot explosion blunting their charge. Others rallied and joined in, firing off more grenades and mini-missiles to crush those that came next before they could even have the chance to get good railgun shots in.

Mara spared a glance behind her, at the two artillery mount that supported modified weapon pods. Given enough time, both would be warmed up and sufficiently charged to bring in the kind of firepower that could smelt off a warship's durandium armor. They only had to hold long enough for them to charge, wait for the moment when their artillery beams would prove the most effective and let loose.
 
Rin kept at the elevator controls, trying desperately to ignore the battle going on as well as Nimura's... choice of allegiance. Still, it hurt her to think that, after all this, her older sister, who was one of the best fighters and engineers on-board if not the best, would turn on them in favor of fighting for the horrible woman that had made their lives miserable.

Her hands trembled slightly as she worked. To cope, she tried to think that it wasn't Nimura fighting. No, it had to be some... thing... a nekomachina? Just something that wasn't a fellow Miharu sprite.
 
Code:
Sir, be cautious around heat sources. My heat diffusion is not as refined as the Ke-M6-1A's is. Your ammunition will be at risk too.
the Arethusa warned.

Hmph, it's not like I prefer to go firewalking. Nyton thought as he tucked his legs in and curled into a ball to reduce the area he occupied. He began flying in zigzagging evasive actions in a wide arc around Nimura's right flank. During his evasive maneuvers the Arethusa's ASP opened direct fire on Nimura now that she was more stationary. While Arethusa attacked so did Nyton by firing his LASR into Nimura's general area targeting both the sprite and any spilled ordinance in her vicinity. The previously wiped out Mishhu's weapons and containers were still littered about the floor, along with all manner of explosives. Nyton remained cautious not to allow himself to get caught in the general vicinity of these almost unseen hazards. AIES had the locations of these objects recorded from earlier along with any updated status.

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

The beleaguered defenders of the Hoshi struggled against the carnage before them. Uncertain of their combat skill Shizuka and Akiko had held back to focus on resupplying defenders. Instead the massive crash of enemies forced them instead to focus just on keeping others from being pulled in by the mass of tentacles threatening to engulf them. Shizuka narrowly avoided getting her head slashed by a tendril blade while Akiko's barrier collapsed under a spray of railgun fire. Then the masses of explosions hit and the wave was pushed back a bit. Then a little more. Now everywhere, everyone was firing back. They too fired back.

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The reports from the front were giving Ayumu a feeling of dread. The medical center was not very far from the entrance and the possibility of a large Mishhu storming in was very likely. There would be no chance of defending her patients like this. With a sigh, Ayumu went over the records of the ones still living and reviewed their injuries.

"Every patient here needs to understand something. Right now the enemy is storming the defensive line not too far from here. If you stay here and the line breaks then you are most certainly doomed. However, if you go out and fight, you have no guarantee of survival but you may contribute to the chance for everyone's survival." Ayumu announced.

"Recognizing this I am releasing any patient willing to go to the front line with the exception of the ones still in critical." the nurse then finished while walking over to Ichigo's tank. Except her jaw almost dropped when she looked inside.

Ichigo was gone. How had she missed that? When had she left?
 
Tom drew his forearm shield and protected his flank while facing the panel.
The engineer grit his teeth as anger built within him.
Code:
Get that panel open! I don't have time to wait for this disgusting circus act to finish!
 
Masako had stopped by the Armory once more to grab a couple more magazines of LASR ammunition and an Elliptoid Shield for good measure. She also decided to drag a crate of Bazooka ammunition with her. But by the time she got to the Defensive Line, things were already looking bad. Grimacing hard, the Warrant Officer set her shield in front of the crate to protect it before moving forward to kneel on a knee.

Checking her 50mm magazine, she methodically raised the Bazooka to her shoulder. "Fire in the Hole! she transmitted to the Defenders before walking her Bazooka across the horde of Mishhu. Instead of aiming directly at them though, she aimed above them. The reasons for that move soon became clear as six Frangible rounds detonated above the Horde to distract her opponents.

With her face hard under her helmet, the Veteran ejected her Magazine and began to load a Thermite Round from the crate next to her. It had been a long while since she'd faced against these 'squids', but she could still remember the stories her Instructors spoke of and her first encounter with the monsters. Her face became even more grim at the memory of that one girl she had been unable to save as she closed the chamber of her Bazooka and readied herself again.
 
@black Knights:

Through a laborious effort due to the added caution of trying to get the panel off without risking to damage the instrumentation underneath, Rin finally managed to pry off the panels.

The insides were a little more juicy than the techs were used to dealing with, but there was a recognizable of wiring and power cabling. The computing node for the console stood out amidst the tangle of alien technology (which was very mishhu and not at all like the strange crystal-like 'circuit board' on Amaya's Gate).

* * *

Nyton's Arethusa managed to get one hit on Nimura's Daisy before the Taii's opponent shifted her stance to expose her left flank to him instead. LASR rounds sprayed around her next, but her forearm shield intercepted the worst of the volley, the rest whizzing ineffectually by her.

None of the struck mishhuvurthyar weapons proved to have a very harmful effect upon being damaged - most were railguns and involved little in the way of explosives.

Nimura started closing the distance between them with even paces over the steaming floor while changing weapons - her plasma rifle went on a shoulder rack and in her hand was now an LASR. Her shield was at the ready and she was on the defensive. Sensor readings revealed Nimura's barrier was at three-quarter strength.
 
Yukari stood between the engineers huddled before the elevator panel and the bizarre battle between Nyton and Nimura. Her barrier was up and she held her shield in a defensive position, making sure to keep debris or stray rounds from disturbing Tom, Rin and Yuzuki.

Her CIES unit had very little to offer Nyton in terms of targeting data, but she gave what she could. Most of the unit was processing data for Tom and his crew.

Taking over an armor, even with a CIES unit vs. an AIES, was not going to be an easy task. Brute hacking was unlikely, but possible. But she would be ready, if she could.
 
Good shot, Arethusa! Follow my lead now! Nyton expressed to the AI while gearing for the next move. Nimura was closing but Nyton attempted to maintain that distance for a little longer by moving back and away. While he flew back, still in ball shape, he fired off a quick spray towards Nimura's upper half, expecting her to absorb the blasts with her shield. Arethusa's nodal arm, meanwhile, traveled behind Nyton's back and paused just above his waist. While flying back and firing he kicked his legs out into the slime and performed a roll flip, creating an upwards splash in front of him. His fire paused only at the moment of roll when he was no longer facing Nimura, after his legs had come out of the slime to tuck back in, and he was reorienting himself to face her.

At the moment of the splash Arethusa's nodal arm holding the ASP traveled down from it's ready point and emerged underneath him, between his legs. Arethusa would then fire the ASP at a lower angle from the one that Nyton was using with his LASR to try and catch her beneath the shield. The fire from the ASP would continue, as Nyton rolled, to keep Nimura occupied or counter anymore SDM missiles while he completed his roll maneuver. Upon completion of the move he would make a quick wide arc dash in the direction of Nimura's left flank to not be so much directly in the line of fire from her LASR.
 
@black Knights:

The first LASR attack was shield intercepted as Nyton had anticipated, but he could not mistake Nimura's plodding movements for sluggishness as she hopped out of the way of the ASP's shots. She didn't manage any counter-attacks until he made the wide dash to her left flank.

Her LASR was pointed up in his general direction and two grenades launched out, arcing over to where his momentum was presently directing him. Smoke plumes spread out of her missile packs as two of the miniature guided projectiles jetted out and made an arc to turn around heading for his back. Nimura's shield arm, instead of remaining in protective posture, rose up horizontally to allow the forearm pulse cannon beneath it the angle it needed to fire its heavy area burst shots toward him.

That left Nyton sandwiched between incoming grenades, or mini-missiles, or the left flank Nimura had exposed to fire the pulse cannon.
 
Miyoko cursed under her breath, thanks to both the Hoshi's news about Kotori's temperature and the attack. The former... either couldn't be right, or was drastically bad if it was, and the latter was just plain bad.

Yukari's final order to her had been to protect Kotori. If the defensive line broke, there was no way she could hold back an assault alone... but if any ghost-type Mishhuvurthyar phased past the line and through the wall into the bridge, or if Melisson was able to teleport armors to the bridge with the same pinpoint accuracy Eve did, Hinoto and the Taisa wouldn't stand a chance. And she had, of course, left Kotori on the elevated part of the bridge, between the two doors and about as hard to guard as she could get.

To Masako, Miyoko sent a rather terse message, since she expected the neko had more pressing things to think about: "Am I needed on the front lines? I'm afraid to leave the bridge unguarded after what happened earlier."

Ayumu, though, got a voice transmission... after that temperature readout, Miyoko wasn't allowing any more time to go to waste. "Ayumu, please send a medic to the bridge. The Taisa's in bad shape, and she's the only thing keeping Melisson out of our heads."
 
Kai didn't like this situation at all. not only was it obvious that the enemy knew they were here, but one of their own was attacking them, apparently taken over by Melisson herself. The Yamataian wanted so very badly to join the fight, but the warning had been projected into his brain as well, and he knew better. However, from his vantage point near the entrance to one of the passages leading off of this compartment, he watched for signs of enemies coming to attack them while they were distracted.
 
From her viewpoint nearby Rin, Yuzuki examined the inside of the panel using the Daisy's unique 360 degree perspective. What she saw was a complex jumble of wiring that only resembled a conventional control panel. The rest of it might as well have been an open view of someone's spinal cord, with sickeningly purple neural pathways and mucuslike things that pulsed with some sort of fluid which Yuzuki didn't really want to pay much attention to. It was disorienting, and confusing, for someone who had only ever seen one type of technology, but Yuzuki recognized the common ground almost immediately.

Using the targeting AIES of her Daisy, and never removing her rifle's bead from Nimura, the Heisho began to paint the inside of the control box, transmitting the glowing instructions to Rin. What Yuzuki saw was a simple control panel - there were only a few things it could do - open the doors, close them, and call the elevator. Although there was one thick, juicy, glowing feed into the computing node, there were a half a dozen smaller feeds that came out of it, and an unenergized ground that shot straight downwards. Some of the live exiting feeds were together, side-by-side, and others branched off in several directions. Yuzuki painted the most likely three.

"Alright," she sent to Rin, "Get a low-resistance jumper cable from the toolkit. Attach one end to the dark vein here, about halfway before it reaches the computer, and sever the rest of it away from the terminal. Attach the other end to the power feed, and be ready to let go. That should de-energize the console so we won't get killed. We're going to do some surgery."
 
Barrier full power! Arethusa, focus on the missiles! Nyton mentally commanded while swerving towards the spray of pulse fire. Arethusa used the ASP to fire on the missiles to ensure they did not follow. With the barrier pushing everything it had towards defense, Nyton flew towards Nimura while opening fire with his LASR into her own LASR to attempt to destroy it.

At the same time he steeled himself for what Nimura next move might be. He figured she would either evade or engage in close quarters combat. If she decided to engage him then he might have a chance to use his nodal weapon to strike at the SAS in her back. All he had to do was destroy it!
 
The battle was getting exciting, to an extent where Asher was forgetting the fact that it wasn't him out there fighting. Never before had he had the chance to sit back and watch a duel to the death. He had heard of ancient cultures that used to do this kind of thing every day, and now, he felt he could understand what excitement they could derive from that. He raised his armored hands up and shook them up and down. "Clay-boss! Clay-boss! Clay-boss!" chanted Asher, before something pulled inside of him. There was something he was forgetting.

Hey, jerkass.

Huh? Asher stopped shaking his arms.

Rememba' when Clay-boss tol' you t'secure tha' perimeter?

Yeah... but... After he had dropped his arms, he looked back towards the entrances to the rooms.

Get to it, we ain't here to party like this.

Thass' right! Tha' tits n'asses of liberty lovin' women everywhere, rides on this! With that, the soldier in him overrode the child and the Malifarian zoomed off to continue his security patrol.
 
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