RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission Eight: Hangeki

[Burgmond45]

Komorebi
Picket Line

The engineer remained silent, and his heart raced, and... Yeah, he's pretty angry, but he managed to bottle that. He already said everything that he could say; anything else would be just repeating the details. It's not like this sack of paranoia would listen to a word he said, anyway.

He quickly sends Chlorate a text message: "I am so sorry, you need to hold on for a little longer. One of the Nekos is being very unhelpful right now; turn everything off except what you need to keep conscious, and the communications link. Just please, hold on."

"... That is right, but I disagree with that kind of thinking." Stated Walter, as he established a link between him and the bridge of the Kaiyo II. "I may have interpreted the mission wrong, however to be certain, I will contact the Chusa."

After a link has been patched, "Chusa Hoshi, I hate to distract you, but I have a serious issue. The Na-FA4 body that the AI is in is under-maintained and the electrical components are in critical condition; she is going to die, she made itself clear that she's scared right now, and I can't do anything to save her without putting her in Barlow-hai's tankette; it can be stripped of the rest of it's missiles and it's communication array, and the tank is already not in a shape to fight, being that it is lacking a turret and its armor is compromised. However Hannah-hai has been arguing that it's safer to let the drone die than to let it take over, and then build a new AI to compensate for the loss."

The Minkan paused, and lead that up with, "Her name is Chlorate, and I can promise you my title of Santo-Hei that she has a great degree of sentience and innocence. I can understand if you decline my plea; I trust in your judgement."

Walter remained silent after that, but kept the channel open. Even though he really wanted to just make Hannah look like the bad guy right know, he is smart enough to know that won't help his case if he inserted bias. An honest soldier is the best soldier you can have in an army, after all.

Speaking of honesty, he is honestly really hating this whole fight right now, and really wished he just stayed on the Kaiyo II right now!

 

[Noodlewerfer]

Komorebi
Clearing
The drone sat in the clearing, listening to Walter. "U-u-nderst-st-stood..." She sounded like she was starting to glitch. She turned off everything in the drone that Walter told her to. She waited, fearing she might not make it to a new body in time- but all she could really do was wait in the darkness (As she had also turned off most of her sensors, so she could not see) for someone to talk again.

 

[Ametheliana]

Komorebi
Above Picket Line

"Thank you for securing the prisoner! Bring them to the cabin and secure them there sans any weaponry!" Eden called out to Abart as she loomed over the cabin, watching everyone spread out from a hundred meters in the air. She went further up to watch as Kikyō began settling into a comfort level with killing.

Regardless, Eden knew what she would want to do about having her on the ship. She sighed heavily and mentally scolded herself for taking the time of battle to think about personal matters. Or was transferring her off a matter of professional reasoning? The young Neko needed more training, to specialize. Her memories from Saki's time in basic were not enough to keep her from faltering on the field.

As Meissa took Kikyō's left, the Elysian made one L'Kor spin in the air to avoid being hit by the aetheric blasts. He avoided several, but the scorch marks on his armor that were being made by Meissa made it appear his armor was stronger, more like the armors that they had to fight in the cabin. He rose in the air while shooting from his forearm and went further and further up until he had popped into a cloud and was gone.

Forest

The job of killing off those that were about to end their lives was not one that uplifted the spirits. The L'Kor that were just hanging on to life like the one Sora shot were barely with life. The Archangel had no reason to think there were any contacts in the trees and forest beyond in the area that she was patrolling, just dead. Iemochi-juni and Janna-hei were taing down the enemy they faced separate from Sora's position and were doing it effortlessly.

Iemochi's enemy called out in Trade to him before Iemochi's blade sliced through his unarmored neck, "I'm a pilot!" The L'Kor's neck then spurted once before gushing out a load of hot liquid all over Iemochi's face and torso.

The opponent Hanna had taken on was in power armor and was knocked a bit off their guard by the blast from the SiZi but it wasn't close enough to completely down their shields, which hadn't been damaged yet by battle. They grabbed the forearms of the cyan Neko before she could jam them into the L'Kor's neck.

Atmosphere East of the Cabin

William would notice nothing, but the presence of the shuttles and the gunship squaring off with the Kaiyō II from this direction was enough reason to keep following the scent even if nothing immediately appeared amiss.

Atmosphere West of the Cabin

There was something in the largest trees around her that would have given Ume pause as she looked around. There were tree forts in them that connected downwards, into the rest of the trees. If she went into the dense forest she would be able to see that there were large installations in the top of the trees made of wood and what upon first glance seemed wholly deserted.

Clearing

The team on the ground with the drone were told by Hoshi, "Transfer the AI to something innocuous so it does not die."

 

[META_mahn]

Komorebi - Above Picket Line

That was interesting. Meissa was fine with letting one or two L'Kor pass by with tougher armor, thinking that it was just faulty equipment. Now seeing multiple? Maybe this was something...interesting.

"Command, I think that we've got a few elite L'Kor troopers on the field today." Meissa told Hoshi and Eden. "There's too many armors that have taken multiple impacts that I think we can safely say some of these armors are a bit special."

"Kikyo, we need to capture that one." Meissa said, highlighting one of the tough armors. "Kill the other one, and then move in close for a melee range beat-down. SAINT will love us forever if those guys are elite troopers."

 

[Burgmond45]

Komorebi
Clearing

"O-oh... My apologies, I shall do so post-haste!" Walter chimed, and turned to his fellow Elysian engineer. "I am so sorry for taking up your time, Barlow-hei. That was a inefficient use of your time." He did a quick bow, and summoned his FARS from his inventory. He directed the adorable assistant to open up a channel to the significantly larger drone beside him; it made a cute 'beep' noise, confirming that it has a stable wireless connection.

"I'm sorry it took this long to get a new body for you; upload yourself utilizing the new channel, quick!" Walter texted to his companion in distress, with an equal amount of urgency.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Atmosphere East of the Cabin

William continued to fly east scanning as he went. The forest was quite beautiful to be honest. If it were a different time and in a different life, he would have liked to explore and play in those woods.

He shook his head. He wasn't a child. He couldn't think like that. He was a warrior, and he would never be a child again.

He flared his thrusters and flew faster. "There has to be something out here..." He said to himself.

 

[BRindustries]

Komorebi surface
Picket line

"Haihai."
The snake maintained the tight grip on his captive, turning on the CFS device to let him hover a few inches off the ground. With a little pulse from this suit's thrusters, the prisoner express took off towards the cabin at a decent walking speed. "One L'kor burrito coming up." Seeing the roll of Separa float about with that ever so casual remark was comical, to say the least.....

Komorebi surface
Cabin

"Hmmmm......"
Once inside, Abart'huse glanced around at the traces of the battle inside. What was he going to do now? There wasn't much to restrain the birdlike captive with, aside from his tail, and the DIY rope one would find in cabins such as these wouldn't offer much resistance against a power armor.

Sure the L'kor armors weren't as capable or sturdy as the Mindy's, but nevertheless potent armors that would prove handy in pinches like this.

He saw no other option but to continue to stand guard over the prisoner..... or around him, rather.

"Captive is inside the cabin, will continue to supervise."

 

[Syaoran]

Atmosphere West of the Cabin

The sight of the installation caused Ume to smile. Her hunch was right, but now she needed to investigate it, so she sent back a message to give the location to Eden. Afterwards, she activated her photonic camouflage and lowered her altitude, her armor was running with as small a power signature as she could get, even going as far as to finish the approach on foot so her thrusters weren't active.

 

[Noodlewerfer]

Komorebi
Clearing
"Thank you, Walter," Chlorate spoke, relieved. She quickly uploaded herself to the much, much smaller drone, examining all the features. One feature in particular peaked her interest as she finished uploading herself to the drone. "Walter, this drone seems to have a hologram projector... would you like me to take a holographic form?" As she said this she tried projecting the emoticons, wondering what they were for, floating next to Walter.

 

[Immortal Cyan]

Komorebi
Forest

Although the L'Kor had grabbed onto Janna's forearms, her aetheric projections were still active and her arm had not stopped moving forward. Utilizing the forward momentum generated by her arms, Janna thrusted her left blade at the L'Kor's neck, while her revolver fired five point blank shots at it's head.

Komorebi
Clearing/Cabin

Hanna Madsen stood aside to let Walter upload the AI to the FARS drone. Once he was done, Hanna turned from the group and walked towards the cabin.

Once she was near the cabin, Hanna walked to the flagpole where she had previously placed the head of her kill. After taking it off the pole, Hanna entered the cabin and tossed the head of the dead L'Kor directly in front of the captive without speaking a word.

 

[Speeder01]

Komorebi
Clearing

Yoshida stood tall- as tall as she could any way with how rather short she was- as she watched the group perform its duties. The tank was a bust, the AI was now in a FARS drone and quite vulnerable to enemy fire... And Hanna was was conduscting herself rather poorly by the looks of things.

"Hanna." She started with a private comms channel to the Infantry neko. "Don't threaten the prisoners. No matter what they did, we have standards!" After a pause, she spoke again. "If you wanted to be doing that, you shouldn't have captured it."

Then, it was time to talk to Anastasia. "So the Turret is busted but, can the tank still move? We can use it as cover to make sure the captive and... The drone don't get hurt. And us too, if we hide behind the tank!" She grinned as she came up with this idea- it wasn't often you would get the chance to pull off tactics like this. Mobile cover, hah! That went out of style a long time ago.

 

[Soban]

Komorebi
Atmosphere North of the Cabin

On Eden's orders, Sacre watched as they spread out. Ensuring that both of her teleporters were ready, she flew up to a few hundred meters above the planet's surface. This gave her long sightlines for scouting. She activated the thermal scanners and radar, even if she was not able to see them directly, their heat signatures or radar signature might give them away. Then she rocketed away, heading northwards at two hundred kilometers an hour.

 

[Ethereal]

Komorebi
Downed Shuttle

His honed blade cut through the L'Kor's feathered neck like butter, angled down and in one stroke buried up to Seinosuke's knuckles in flesh. A soft hissing, spraying sound was released as the Juni's blade was slid free from the corpse, body crumpling like a house of cards as he did so. Blood fountained first in a heavy spray which coated Mochi's armor in a blanket of crimson, the flow becoming less and less violent with each passing second as the heart beat its last. Finally, the casualty hit the floor with a hard, wet thump, a scarlet river streaming across the smooth metal and coating it with a hellish hue.

His Xiphos dripped rhythmically, blood flowing steadily to the sword's leading edge, gathering at the tip before falling silently. "Shuttle cleared, two tangos down. Zero collateral damage. Janna-hei and myself will resume search." The drenched phoenix concluded his message to the squad, then readied a notification to Hoshi-chusa. It read simply "L'Kor Shuttle, captured, marked position. Iemochi."

 

[Burgmond45]

Komorebi
Clearing

Walter observed Chlorate cycle through more emotions than a soap opera in double the time, with a growing smile on his face. If he were to be honest with himself, it is cute to see the clueless drone muddle around with its software add-ons.

Is that hologram system advanced enough to assume a form, however?, the engineer thought to himself. I mean, it never specified the resolution limits of the projector, but still... Eh, I suppose I can let Chlorate try. If this works, then it would be a nice ice-breaker for introductions.

"You are free to do so, Chlorate. Just.... You know, please don't make it a L'Kor." Walter answered, gesturing to Hannah as the Neko left the scene. Deep down, Walter Hyde felt that he should give Hannah a apology as well; he doesn't like to be a bother to anyone, and she looked very bothered to him.

 

[Noodlewerfer]

Komorebi
Clearing
"Please wait while I load this... Scaling to fit on hologram projection..." Truth be told, the little drone was actually shy to reveal how she would actually appear on screens and holograms... but... No... She was a robot, surely this was incorrect. She could not be shy- or so she thought. Her form slowly began to appear, scaled down to fit on the hologram. It was surprisingly human, but the projection of her simulated black metal covered by white plastic- the metal less visible, but still present under a few seams in the plastic, on the joints, on the soles of her feet, the insides of her hands, and in a few other areas. Her head, however, looked like a human head with pale skin and long, white, straight hair. She opened her eyes, revealing yellow irises that glowed and lit up. She shyly rotated her legs so that her feet and knees faced each other, as she really hadn't used this form before, and had no way of knowing what anyone thought about it. She waved, but she was still just a hologram, even though her form was designed to appear to use real materials it was intangible. "Are you satisfied with this hologram of me?" she asked, unsure.

 

[Burgmond45]

Komorebi
Clearing

The first thing Walter did was conclude that the hologram looks rather pleasing to the eye, despite being constricted to a twelve inch by twelve inch display. Although this did remind him that she might request a form that is more appropriate for her tastes... One step at a time, as they always say.

The thinking man also decided to test the waters with Chlorate's 'emotional limit', to see how genuine an AI can express itself. Although in all honesty, he'd go for any excuse to justify his honesty. "You look absolutely great, Chlorate; do not think otherwise." He complimented the looks of his new friend, with a gentle grin and a jovial tone.

Walter cut back to being more serious once more. "You should be much safer now, but... Well, I don't believe I could leave you alone in the clearing, or even take you with me to beyond it. We will have to stay here and help the others where we can." said the armor-clad Minkan, making eye contact with the hologram... Much to his annoyance, he did occasionally glance at the FARS unit, and not the hologram itself. He's glad Chlorate can't see his expressions, at least.

 

[Noodlewerfer]

Komorebi
Clearing
Chlorate rotated her legs back to a normal position, and seemed to look over her holographic body for a few minutes. "Thank you," she replied. She took another few moments to look at her metal hands and feet. Unfortunately, she wasn't expressing herself very much other than looking over her holographic body. "Do you require me to do anything?" she asked. "I do not know how to assist the others here."

 

[Pancakei]

Komorebi
No Smoking Tankette

Anastasia looked over at the armored Yoshida as they spoke, smiling a bit. It sometimes felt like they had been growing distant, but it was nice to see someone more familiar. "Well, it can move. The armor has taken a significant amount of damage, but if we were to turn its side around, it should be able to shield more."

The technicians voice trailed off, looking out over the current situation. She watched the interactions between Walter and Chlorate, taking mental notes on the AI and their strange behaviors. The FARS drone wouldn't be able to do much harm other than annoy, so she felt sure of the decision for now. "For now, I'm waiting for an order. I may not be very useful without armor."

It wasn't until know that Anastasia started noticing that their Gunship was still sending reactor alerts. It had been several minutes with no contact or updates. "Barlow-Hei to Arbitrated, what's going on with the power up there?" The technician spoke out to the distant pink albatross, somewhat worried about using weapons with a power leak.

 

[Arbitrated]

YSS Kaiyo II
Bridge

"Iemochi-Hei to Barlow-Hei, I'm unsure the cause of the delay. Many of the weapons will not function with the reactor in... Whatever state it is in." The forced-to-be-nervously-idle Elysian turned in her seat to face the small neko captain. "Iemochi-Hei to Engineering, what is the status of the reactor?" Drawing her attention to Hoshi herself, the candyfloss woman asked, "Chusa, it seems the weapons are not attempting to draw from stored emergency power-We're defenseless to the enemy vessel if the team in engineering is unable to reactivate our generators." Her eyes shuddered slightly-to say she was scared would be an understatement. Sure she would survive thanks to the incredible technology of Soul Transfer, but if she fell... The children would not be coming back with her.

Komorebi
Seinosuke's Team

"It seems that almost all of their forces have been expended. It's possible a few more are retreating or abandoning the battle." Sora's voice was unusually cool as she moved towards the shuttlecraft, taking a look inside. "Iemochi-Juni, you made a mess! Try to not let Arbitrated see you like that, unless you want her to panic." Even then, the amethyst-endowed birb jumped to the top of the shuttle's fuselage, taking a brief look around, gatling gun idle in both hands.

 

[BRindustries]

Komorebi surface
Cabin interior

The thud heard when the dismembered L'kor head fell to the floor, made Abart look over in surprise. Once he realized what his emerald eyes were seeing, he couldn't help but jump up in surprise, startled by the rather macabre sight.

Clearly he hadn't noticed the spiked head before, so suddenly being confronted by it lile this was most unsettling, to say the least.

"Whuaah! Wh-.... the heck is that for Hanna!? geez......"
The very tip of the armor-clad tail reavhed out and gently slid the unfortunate head off to the side, somewhat out of sight, but not out of mind. Separa'shan as a whole had a very firm sense of what was right and wrong from an early age, and as such were quite clear in how certain things should be done.....
This clearly wasn't right, to him at least.

Some of his mother's stories about her clan's history hundreds of years ago had this kind of gruesome bloodshed to it. Not that she'd go into all the details, but from how she told them, it was easy to figure out. He himself had no intention of becoming part of such a tale himself.....

"If you want to get all barbaric here you might as well become their buddy..... besides, this fellow here is still unconscious anyways."

His tailtip lightly pokes at the beaked helmet poking out from the Separa's tight coils, making soft metallic ticking sounds.