Re: [Mission 7.1] Universe at War - Battle of Nataria
On the Irim-Class Ship...
Hamada nodded to Jalen-hei, acknowledging his success silently. The passage had to be clear, or he would have never poked his head in there - at least, that is what she assumed. Perhaps she was too trusting. The Taii signaled the rest of the team into the passage after the first.
She took a look back at the mighty blast doors, while waiting for the rest of them to file in. She cast around, looking for cameras with her suit's outstanding visual sensors. The ship would have them under surveilance. There was no question, there; the lingering thoughts in the back of her mind were mostly concerned with whether anyone was actually watching or not. It dictated their next course of action. Or, rather, it didn't - there wasn't any way to change what they had to do.
The bridge had to be reached, one way or another, but the Taii wasn't stupid enough to just hope it would be a walk in the park under a sunny sky. When a ship locked itself down, that meant there was something going wrong. Something WAS wrong, but nothing was happening. It was impossibly quiet. Shisu even heard the faint creak of her own power armor as she turned her helmet to scan again the barriers that had closed over the huge shuttle bay entrance.
They were closed for a reason. Were they the reason? Had the ship detected them, and shut down? It was beyond her knowledge or speculation. Codes she could break. If there were enemies on this ship, she had studied their tactics, and could effectively do battle with them. But without knowing why, there was little she could do, except find out. For that, she needed resources.
Reaching out almost on gut impulse, Hamada put her hand on the Black armor's shoulder.
"Forgive my memory, soldier - What was your specialty, before you came onto the Eucharis?"
--
Further up the vertical passage...
...Jalen-Hei would find that all of the blast doors were sealed shut. There were also, in fact, several rather large hatches that had closed across the logical path of ascention, seperating the decks one from another. This was, presumably, for damage control. It also provided a rather effective blocade.
Above and below, the dangerous colors of yellow and black barred the group's passage.
There was something sitting out on one of the hatches leading upward. It looked like a very small pillbug. It was going about fiddling with what appeared to be a crumb, but stopped under the scrutiny of the invaiders and began to crawl across the door towards some crack in the electric stuffing, somewhere, where it could hide.
It abandoned the crumb, which now floated idly by, drifting about in zero gravity like a bit of lint.
Very organic looking lint.
--
Out in space, somewhere...
It opened Its eyes.
Mellison.
This time, Its inquiry was quiet, Its attention elsewhere. Several of Its bridge crew shifted uneasily under the mental stress, however. One of them idly squeezed the disembodied head of a nekovalkyrja, which had, prior to its use as a stress reliever, been employed along with its body in painting. The bridge was now a nice lovely red color.
One of them had drawn Pictographs. Very lewd ones. It didn't care.
Who?
But even as It asked, It knew that It did not matter.
It had found something. It had smelled out a mind and, although there were no longer any connections - although this mind was no longer open to the wonderful networking system that the Empire of Yamatai had so kindly deemed fit to impliment in all Star Army Vessels - it could smell it, yet.
Mentally, It sniffed. Yes. It knew. Not precisely, of course - no one being or entity could pinpoint a single mind under such adverse conditions - but a general area was good enough. The rest could be done, mechanically.
THERE, It concluded, once it was certain, FIRE.
---
The first explosion was an Ayame-class that had been floating idly nearby the Eucharis. It blew apart with a thunderclap, hit directly and heavily by the broadsides of the two NMX vessels. Several of the shots carried straight through the ship, going on to hit and destroy numerous other unlucky vessels who had been parked in-line with the Ayame. They, too, exploded.
The small novas sent debris flying here and there, pinging off of the unshielded hulls of several unactivated ships. One shot after another, it seemed as if they were narrowing their search in a very controlled manner, rather than firing randomly.
Then, after only a few seconds of barrage, it all stopped.
The black NMX, like vultures, passed slowly through these rows, observing the chaos they had caused. As they moved, their shields parted the accumulated debris field and scattered the smoldering hunks of metal behind them like the wake of a ship.
---
In the Portside Maintenance Tunnel...
The heat was gradually increasing.
Blueberry's voice came over the communications link-up.
"Junko-hei, Engineering. Portside shield array is showing increasing inefficiency due to heat stress. The loss of coolant pressure is now well below indicated operating limits. I have run remote checks, and the problem seems to be a failed flow-regulating solonoid, somewhere in your area."
--
And in the Main Engineering...
Blueberry's eyes were drawn to a small pillbug-like thing that had somehow found its way onto the control panel. She put a finger on its back, holding it there. It writhed a little bit. Then, it balled up.
She picked the pillbug up between her fingers, rolling it around, curiously.
"Bridge, engineering," Blueberry reported while examining the little thing, "All systems running normal, with the exemption of the previously noted damages. We think it's a solonoid, somewhere, that's blown out. Junko-Hei is currently engaged in damage control, and is maintaining communications."
Blueberry sat the thing down on the console.
"May I also request a medic report with a sample bottle, or something? There's a bug down here, and I'm not sure what it is, or how it got in."
