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

[Fred]

@black Knights:

The NH-18 did indeed try to dart away, but her attempt to arrow away and get to Kyou was thwarted by Asher's frangible round, which pelted her so hard she lost all momentum, her recoil slamming the scorched Daisy so its armored feet struck back against the floor.

Further firepower found her, Nyton's LASR firing full auto, and sawed across the weakened yama-dura alloy, finally sundering the torso armor to reveal Ichigo's mostly consumed remains and the silvery construct that occupied its insides.

Kyou's plasma bolt found that tender spot, practically blowing up the top half of the Daisy as well as singing the NH-18 directly. Nimura added to that with her own plasma rifle boring a deep charred hole in the nanomachine slime, the impact spreading it and sending what was left of the power armor to the ground.

Kai stopped his erratic flight and joined in with more precise fire from his plasma weapon, and Asher - though the flame thrower might have been more effective - soon followed cue with the more easily accessible plasma weapon as well.

The NH-18 blackened, fountained out in protest, and was forced back down by the ruthless, repeated application of plasma attacks. It blackened, writhed more helplessly to the ground, and they kept firing. They kept firing until there was nothing left but a small mound of unmoving carbonized matter.

The team heard Hinoto's voice soon after the fight was over. "Black Knights," she took a deep breath. "The way ahead up the ramp is clear. There should be no obstruction left between you and the observation deck."

Of course, they still had to deal with Rin's plight. The sprite was still being assimilated from inside out where she had been speared through by the NH-18 tentacles. Not even the NH-18's destruction had stopped the process. Silvery-tinted tendrils - reminiscent of plant roots spreading out within damp earth - reached ever deeper into Rin's flesh, consuming all flesh it found to be more akin to itself.

Curiously for Rin, the pain was no longer as pronounced as it was. She did feel invaded and violated by the foreign body spreading into her, but the hurt was being slowly replaced by tingling, numbness, and an inability to quite control the movements of the leg and abdomen. Breathing was becoming more difficult. So was thinking; everything in her head felt... sluggish.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari's CIES brought up a deep scan of Rin's body from the Neko's armor, and the Shosa wanted to scream. The hemosynth insert appeared to be doing nothing to stop the enemy nanomachine invasion, which was reaching farther into Rin's small frame.

"Hinoto-san, Rin-san is infected with NH-18 nanomachines," she said over the public channel. There was no use hiding it, but Yukari forced herself to be calm, to be cold, to be in control. She would not lose someone to this, anything but this. She wanted to take Rin out of her armor, to touch her somehow, to reassure her. "We require medical advice. What will immunize her?"

She kept the armored Neko against her, her shield still held in front of her.

 

[Kokuten]

"Fuck!" said Asher aloud as he unloaded the clip of his Gauss Launcher onto the floor and replacing it with another. "How many times are we gunna' kill dat' arma'?" The Malifarian took a few steps towards the charred Kotori-C, before shaking his head and turning back in the other direction. He was going to trust a millennia of plasma weapon use, and assume that the charred corpse meant it was dead.

"Iss' that gunna' be a problem?" asked Asher aloud, pointing at Rin's writhing body.

 

[Kyoki]

Rin's body finally relaxed, even if it was only a tiny bit. Over the sound of her own ragged breathing in her ears, she heard something. Tom?

"Ah... haaaii... Juni."

With the pain easing, she was finally able to start noticing that things were... off. It was hard just thinking of the words to say, despite them being so very simple and something she's said so many times before. She also realized that she was in someone's lap. Looking through the HUD of the Daisy did not tell the sprite who it was either (since Yukari had disconnected from the others' links to it earlier). Instead of worrying about it, Rin curled up again, the pain and odd feeling of foreign nanomachines within her body making her feel sick.

 

[Fred]

"The process has progressed too far for Claymere-Taii's Arethusa to be able to reverse it," Hinoto answered, clearly anxious. Ichigo had inexplicably died earlier - probably permanently - and she didn't want one of her little sister to agonizingly follow the same fate. So many of her sisters had died, and more still were in the line of fire even then. "A Daisy's self-destruct sequence would destroy them, but-" The Shoi moaned in dismay.

Nimura stepped through the hole in the shutter and approached Rin. "Create a blade with the Taii's unit and cut through her, just under her ribcage," the sprite soberly suggested. "The Daisy can go into stasis mode and preserve her life until we return to the ship and have her tended to."

"You-" Hinoto's voice broke in again. "You could ask Melisson to help her."

Nimura stiffened, obviously bristling under her power armor. Hinoto continued: "If there was any credibility in this Ume's words, you might be able to ask Melisson a boon. We've been playing Melisson's twisted games for a long time; if playing along a little longer saves Rin's life, it might be worth it."

"There's no telling how long we'll last down here," Hinoto added urgently. "That reprieve Ume-san offered, we also could really use it, Shosa."

 

[Kokuten]

"Yeah heh heh heh!" went Asher, making a double-gun expression as he walked. The Malifarian nodded his head as if finding a point he could agree on. "'Cause she's gunna' supah'-receptive of us since we threw that shit back in her face in tha' first place. Seriously, are we gunna consida' that? Whaddya' think she's gunna' ask for in return, huh? Leave her alone? Give'r someone? Kill someone else? She ain't gunna do tha' f'free. I mean, c'mon!" The man was starting to feel belligerent inside again. Still, he tried to maintain his soldiering focus. Even Asher could tell when he was speaking out of turn. The decision was Yukari's, not his. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he rubbed the crown of his helmet, before his arm fell to his side.

"I'd take a fuckin' bullet between tha' eyes 'fore I took a helpin' hand from that god-complex bitch." were the man's growling words, his free hand tightening into a fist.

 

[Nyton]

Nyton felt satisfaction as they proceeded to gun down and finish off the Kotori-C. Another victory but again there had been a price. While they had been busy fighting the source, the nanomachinery in Rin had gone beyond the abilities he had accurately theorized possible from Arethusa.

"Of course there is credibility to Ume's words. Melisson would find much twisted pleasure in us capitulating to her. After all that we have fought and lost it would be one of the best ways for her to spit in our faces." Nyton replied, his words emotionless but with a hard edge to them implicating his displeasure at the notion of negotiating with the Infection Queen.

There was still a mission to do and Nyton's mind was flying as he read over status load outs while trying to think of a solution. He was willing to go along with Nimura's idea of slicing Rin in half. That would at least give her a chance to survive. But if they were going to do it then they had to move fast before the infection got any further.

"What if I assimilated a sample of the Kotori-C's remains? There could still be some kind of data left in the chunk of carbonized matter. Perhaps with that Arethusa can better eliminated the infection." he quickly asked while approaching Rin. Already he had let go of his LASR to let it hang by the sling. A large blade was coalescing and taking shape at his left hand.

"It is your call, Shosa. Regardless of the option though, you may want to move out of the way."

 

[Gallant]

Asher could babble all he wanted - Yuzuki was actually growing used to the constant chatter over the comm. - but the Taii's tone of voice struck her as incorrect. Something about it, coupled with his advance on the Shosa, put her on edge, made her antsy. And the weapon forming in his hand, even if she could guess what it was for, set a few alarm bells to twanging.

Yuzuki rotated mid-air to face the two of them, unsure precisely of how to go about fixing the situation, and attempting to determine whether it needed fixed in the first place. The Juni had told her to protect the Shosa and Rin, and from the way the comm was sounding, it seemed as if something were about to happen outside the Shosa's control. Yuzuki drifted closer, then, deciding, she snapped her armor's inertal drive into full-tilt and jerked to a stop a milisecond later between the Taii, the rest of the armor team, and the pair of vulnerable power armors.

"Shosa-san," Yuzuki sent, using laser-communication. "I don't like the way they are talking. Please forgive me if I am wrong."

Then, using the same method, she said to the Taii; "Please stay away from Shosa-san and Rin-san until the Shosa decides what to do."

That was the only verbal explination she gave; for the rest of the armor team, the fact she was now physically blocking off the two vulnerable armors would be enough to show her intention.

 

[Nyton]

Nyton raised an eyebrow as Yuzuki placed herself as an obstacle before Rin and Yukari. He quickly stopped short as her explanation was broadcast. Though brief it caused him not to find any fault with the soldier's actions. She had after all been ordered to protect the vulnerable two.

"Yuzuki, were you not listening to Nimura's suggestion or my open inquiry? There is little we can do to save Rin. Unless the Shosa decides to negotiate with Melisson for help then we have no time to waste. The nanomachines are eating Rin beyond what even amputation may prevent. If the Shosa does not move away from Rin then she may be consumed as well."

he text messaged to the sprite.

"Shosa, please get back on the AIES link." he telepathically messaged.

 

[Tom]

Tom listened silently to the discussion over what to do with Rin. He had his own opinions to share, but he didn't divulge them. He didn't order Yuzuki away from her defensive position, but neither did he encourage her course of action. It was simply a static moment, one that would hang until the Shosa made a decision.

To get his mind of of Rin's plight, he thought about Yukari and why she gad disconnected from the group. Was she losing confidence? Was she afraid of the responsibility? Of the weight of thedead and dying piling around them all?

His eyes narrowed. Yukari had seemed so willing to battle Melisson while he had his reservations. He had wanted to go home after the deadly mission that ended in the destruction of Eve. Perhaps it was a moment of logical cowardice... But, statistically speaking, the odds of them even making it this far were astronomical.

They had lost so much more getting here, lives lost or irrevocably damaged for one purpose: stopping Melisson. They couldn't give up now, they couldn't allow themselves to be weak.

Their roles had been reversed now. With a dying sprite in her arms, where was all of that former bloodlust? The devotion to the team andthe mission? What if the NH-18 was too much to handle? Would she have left them behind?

Would she have let him die?

Tom clenched his fist. No. Yukari and he shared a unbreakable bond. If something was even close to rending it...

Yukari must be emotionally buckling from the stress. A moment of panic, that was all. Next time, he would be there to shoulder the load.

Yukari. You can do this. Come on.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari reconnected with the Black Knights.

She slipped up the wall and righted Rin and herself, then gave Rin's armor the order to stand as she slipped out from behind her. She looked to Nyton, then nodded. "Cut her."

 

[Tom]

Tom motioned for Yuzuki to come towards him.

"Yuzuki, to me."

 

[Gallant]

Yuzuki drifted towards Tom, giving no reply to either officer - simply moving out of the way to let the order take its course.

 

[Nyton]

Even before Nyton asked Yukari what her decision would be, he already knew. Given her reaction to Ume's earlier negotiation offer he believed there would be no reason for Yukari to accept the notion of asking Melisson for help. Rather than arguing and making a huge case he simply delegated it. With Yukari back on the shared AIES net her word finalized it. Just as he planned.

Nyton walked up to Rin as Yukari and Yuzuki moved aside. "This may hurt a bit, Rin-san. My apologies but it is the only way." Nyton telepathically messaged the sprite.

The blade he generated in his left hand moved into position above the nodal infection while his right arm reached out to hold Rin steady from under her left armpit. Once assured there was enough clearance so that the spreading nanomachines had not surged up any further the blade began to vibrate as tiny serrated teeth rotated on the edge, like a nodal chainsaw. He cut off any audio from Rin's suit but kept her vital signs in front of him so that he could monitor the progress as the chainsaw started to cut through the Armor and into Rin. It was unfortunate he did not have an answer to the inquiry he voiced out loud but it was just a theory. One that he could not risk testing out at the cost of Rin's life. Given the experimental nature of the suit and the NH-18's uncertain physiology he could not be certain it would even work as well as he hoped.

While Nyton was cutting with the left arm he generated nodal tendrils from the right arm to spear at the initial points of attack on Rin's body. While the infection may be at a too far advanced stage to purge it, he still attacked it with nodal warfare. His goal was to gain data from the nanomachinery as well as prevent it from lashing out and attempting to take control of the lower half. Kotori-C had claimed to have regenerated from just her head. It was likely she could do so again from here.

Monsters were so typical in their endeavors to survive.

Westwood, bring your flamethrower and stand by. The nodal infection may attempt to gain control and escape. We would be fighting this clone all over again if it does that. Shosa, be careful not to let any nanomachines jump on you and be ready to catch Rin. Everyone else, secure the perimeter.

Nyton ordered.

 

[Kokuten]

"Got ya back, Clay-boss." said Asher as he stepped up and raised his flamethrower towards Rin.

 

[Kyoki]

Rin was confused as she, somehow, stood up. She couldn't particularly feel her legs, but she was pretty sure she didn't tell herself to stand. During this time, she had heard some words... something regarding her. What was going to hurt?

Then the poor sprite let out a horrendous shriek as she was sawed in half. It was a good thing her suit had prevented her from moving, lest the scene become grislier. She could just make out who it was in front of her before, once again, nothing existed in her world but the pain being inflicted upon her body.

 

[Tom]

The blood in Tom's body ran cold at what he was witnessing. Rin, the innocent, dedicated technician, was being sawed in half before his eyes. He knew her armor's speakers had been muted, but his sensor suite made it all too clear how much agony the sprite was going through.

Her vital signs were spiking all over the place, her armor indicators turning black from torso to toe.

All that pain. And it was her friends, the people she trusted most, inflicting it upon her.

First Ichigo, and now Rin. His helmet turned away to face Yuzuki, then Nimura. They were among the few technicians left. All those expectant faces he had spoken to before the mission, with promises of dreams and a future... did they die with those words lingering in their minds, empty promises taunting them as they entered oblivion?

Miharu was dead. Her family was dying too, like leaves wilting on a rotting bole.

Tom slung his plasma rifle back and reloaded his LASR, fishing into his knapsack with a free hand, then rotating the thing back to his rear. With a grip that would have crushed a skull did he hold the rifle.

They had to finish this quickly, or there would be nothing left to fight for.

 

[Kai]

Kai, for his part, did not watch. he did not want to see, did not want to know. He knew Nekovalkyrja could survive horrific injuries, but that did not make them any less Horrific. The Yamataian kept vigilance in his watch of their position, and sent a message to Yuzuki.

"She will live. And we will live to bring her back."

 

[Gallant]

Yuzuki looked away, closed her com, and did not watch or listen. When her imagination provided what her auditory and visual would not, she forced her mind into blankness. In no way, shape, or form did she wish to remember this day. Never again did she wish to see a pair of Daisy armors cradled against each other in such a way, or listen to the panting and whining of a sister so close to giving up her last breath.

But the silence that followed was almost worse, because although she could not view the act, she knew what was happening very well. Behind her, Rin was being hacked in half by the Taii.

Kai's message dropped a rock into her peaceful cavern, but no echo stirred within her.

Soon it would be over. Or at least, Yuzuki hoped so.

 

[Doshii Jun]

Yukari kept her comm on. She needed to hear it.

She went back for her revolver. It had suffered no damage, but she looked at her hands before picking it up. What had been grotesque before was now merely ugly — dark red flesh with a leathery texture. At least it would make for a good grip on her weapon. She took up her revolver and came back to the group. Listening.