RP: NSV Furi'ken [NSV-Furi'ken] Prologue - Into Darkness We Go!

Cargo Bay

"C'Baruce Olffa Muohe Klo'den! Ship security!" The stocky headhunter fox completed the name with a few stern barks, but knew better than to salute an officer on the battlefield. Still habitually stood to attention, though, averting their eyes upwards and raising their pinkish nose, like one might respect a village elder. "What C'Baruce Di'Aldio told you is accurate... However, we also caught three prisoners after defeating the armoured vehicle. Would you like to interrogate them, Sere'ta'kon Chi'ka Jukiso'me'sane?"

Not exactly a perfect memory for names; They still had that list of personnel hung around their neck, and the slightly shorter woman's facial scar made her identity obvious.

A paw pointed accusingly towards the three restrained bodies, not too far behind them, in the cover of some crates. Fierce agitation in their body language carried over even as they examined Micalio for injuries, perhaps giving them a pat on the shoulder a little too hard.

Cargo Bay

Chi'ka growled under her throat, the lose of communications was still quite worrisome to her since base-wise, there were two forms of communications, wired and wired; with the wired used during normal operations and wired during cases such as this - yet not had both not worked, but the system didn't auto-switch to the wired connection. The girl stood there for a moment, her eyes turning toward the three that had been captured. "Good work, Ay'indri, your up; get what you can from them."

She then turned her attention toward the distant hole. "I want all of you to form up behind the barricades," as she said this, the sound of distant tank engines grew ever louder, as did the foot-falls of soldiers.

Cargo Bay

Ay'indri spared these new foxes a cursory glance. Where there had been three, now there were four. Perhaps their odds of survival just went up a few points. Her eyes had locked on to the three prisoners by then. Chi'ka's orders had been clear. By any means. She moved with all the grace of a predator on the hunt. By then she'd holstered her gun, securing the latch and strap. Olffa was almost non-existent as her gaze rested on the three prisoners.

She twirled the knife betwixt nimble fingers. As she looked at them, they stared at her in defiance. It was almost as if there was electricity in the air between an agent of the Kingdom and terrorist. A moment more and the small fox had made her choice. Going right down the middle, she grabbed the Laibe by the front of their coveralls and hauled them off with a 'You don't want to see this.' warning to the others. Shoving the bound Laibe toward the other side of the smoking hulk of the tank, Ay'indri swept its feet out from under it to a heavy *thud!* on the scoured concrete.

It afforded them some privacy and isolated them from their brothers/sisters in arms. A rumbling growl escaped the Laibe at the rough treatment. If this was meant to intimidate, Ay'indri showed nothing of the desired effect it may have been intended to elicit from her.

She paced a little, her knife twirling deftly in her hand while watching them. The Laibe stared back hatefully. The blade slapped against her palm, tossed skyward, and caught it by the handle. Spittle graced one of her boots, fresh from the source. They received a left hook to the muzzle that snapped their head around. An audible, wordless grunt followed with a brief spat of spitting out part of a fang.

The Laibe began to chuckle, a steely gleam to their eyes. She offered him another one of her patented punches, this time a right hook much to the same effect. This time, however, he spat a whole fang. Crouching in front of him, Ay'indri stared him in the eyes. They stared back with a bloodied sneer. The knife's tip tapped the concrete a scant moment before she slammed it down and into one of his feet.

The howl of immediate pain was loud enough to carry to the others. It tapered off to a mewling sound before hissed obscenities escaped between gritted teeth. It was the standard fare, her's was an inferior sub-species meant for extermination. And ever the favorite: death threats against her, her family and those comrades nestled on the other side of the tank.

Ay'indri merely drank it all in.

And then she twisted the blade to the sounds of much more howling and cursing. The sound of snapped bone, the soft tissue being ripped in ways it was not meant to be would've been sickening to those not used to it.

"Now," her voice as soft as silk, "Te-" cut off, "You little bitch! I'll ri-Rrrraaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuugggghhhh!" it was their turn to be cut off as the knife now being twisted the other way to more of the same sounds as the first time. Blood had already welled up from the wound and began to trickle to the slate-grey floor. Cocking her head to the left, her eyes never left theirs.

"Now," her voice was very much the same as before. "I will ask you a series of questions. . ." and she began to interrogate in earnest. The questions were simple at first. Their name. What day it was, the time. These the Laibe answered freely punctuated with false machismo and further mentions of doom and gloom. When they got off course, the black-haired fox made them scream again. And afterward, they were back on track. Question after question was asked, and answer after answer was ripped from the Laibe's maw with more butchering incentives if she thought them lies.

Blessedly the tank's hull obscured what was happening all save the sounds. To see was another story. Bloody spittle from the muzzle, a foot with a gaping hole also now missing three out of four of its claws along with the skin flayed away to show the muscle and connective tissue. It was butchers work. By this point, the Laibe was in a daze of pain, fear and hatred. It made him stupid. But she'd finally asserted her dominance over the so-called 'Superior' being.

Cargo Bay

Barbanov re-sheathed his sword and accepted a needle pistol one of the other soldiers thrust into his hands, the fox-boy was checking the newly acquired weapon over when he noticed the other healer's hesitation and slight nervousness - the golden brown fox tried to ignore the screams in the background, he was ready to patch up the prisoner they were torturing but... there wasn't much point in pre-emptively doing that if the Laibe was going to be pushed beyond what he could handle.

No, instead Barbanov limped over to some cover near the other healer and readied his needle-pistol toward the entrance - he had been right about the noises earlier being the cavalry but there was no way he could get that lucky two times in a row, it wasn't how things worked.

"Do you mind if I call you Shu, miss?" the fox-boy started up, trying to get the attention of his fellow healer with an adorably floppy ear. "We're going to be okay, just keep your head down and your medkit ready, alright?" he continued, offering a smile on his small face to try and instill some sense of hope in her.

He for instance was really hoping that he was telling her the truth.

Aiu'tarou crouched back behind cover again and waited, catching sight of one of the terrorists being dragged away by a very scary fox. She flinched at the first blood curdling scream and had to force herself not to run over and start treating the victim. She squeezed her arm tight with her left hand, the right pointing the needle gun vaguely towards the hole. Just then she noticed a fluffy golden head and beaming golden eyes appear next to her and jumped a little. She took a deep breath and smiled, glad to have a brief distraction.

"Ah, Shu works, but my friends call me Aiu. I'm not so worried about dying, I just don't want anyone else to get hurt. This world already has enough sadness, I don't want to add to it." Another screeching scream, another flinch. It took her a few moments to recover.

"I've... never shot... at anymore," she stammered finally, looking towards the ground. "I don't think I could take the guilt of it. Of hitting someone. I can give cover fire at least, but I'm just scared we'll be pushed to desperation and I'll have no choice..."

"Also," she said, smiling and trying to lighten the mood. "The second we have a calm moment, I'm putting cream on that burnt hand and bandaging it, got it?"

Cargo Bay

Barbanov returned the smile as the lady healer-fox spoke, she seemed like a better fit to the job than he was - not that he was willing to admit it to himself but the cream-blonde lass was making him a little jealous he couldn't be more like her.

"Apologies Aiu, I'll have to remember that..." Barbanov trailed off, earlier events had caused him to forget about the very faint injury to his paw, it was almost sweet that she wanted to heal even the most superficial of wounds - even if it wasn't concerning him in the smallest way. The screams from the other side of the tank... they kept on coming alright, orchestrated by sounds grotesque enough to make most folks lose their lunch so his fellow healer's grimace was rather understandable - even if he didn't seem too affected by it.

"Oh uh, thanks, it's just a bit of red skin at the moment and all the epinephrine made it kinda drift away," Barbanov tried convincing his fellow medic, keeping the injured paw pressed against his pistol and taking a moment to breathe before continuing. "We can give each other covering fire then - try not to beat yourself up too much, imagine it as just giving somebody a jab from an auto injector... a little prick of pain and then things hopefully improve from there," Barbanov tried offering as some consultation so that she wouldn't feel too bad if a few of her shots ended up hitting the enemy combatants.

Cargo Bay

Micalio stood by trying not to listen to the screams too much, instead she was focused on the sounds coming from the outside of the ship, especially that number of armoured vehicles. It seemed like it could easily be 3 maybe even more than that but she couldn't be sure with so much background noise, either way if it was 1 or 100 they had no efficient ways of dealing with enemy armours at the current time.

"Not to dash anyone's hopes but, is there heavy munitions around here, explosives or launchers or anything? I'm afraid that if it's even 1 more tank like this one then we don't have any effective methods of eliminating them." The engineer trailed off, of course she knew the weak points of any vehicle like that, but getting to them without being shredded or blown up would be next to impossible, the driver wouldn't be dumb enough to move into a confined area where enemies could be hiding behind cover.

Cargo Bay

Chi'ka's head bobbed from side to side as she thought about the next course of action, her mind had completely filtered out the screams from the prisoners. When she heard what Micalio had said, she glanced upward and pondered whether or not he had noticed what was presently above them. "C'bar? Look above you," she remarked and pointed upward.

Above them was a very small section of the Furi'ken that was protruding through the environmental barrier that kept the water back, and along this section of hull were two light turrets.

Cargo Bay

Micalio turned her head skyward to see what Chi'ka was pointing to, only to see the two turrets, her face breaking out into a wide grin for a moment before another thought crossed her mind. "But, not to say you are wrong or anything. How do we contact the gunners or bridge at all if no one has been able to communicate aside from short range transmissions? They must have some sort of jammer or somehow got in, or had an inside member, who dismantled our communication networks." Micalio said, the second half of the sentence more her just wondering aloud.

"We could also try and get up there manually, or send someone to man them." She mused, it didn't look like anyone here was a starship operator though so she doubted sending someone would do much good but they might be able to scavenge some munitions from within? Maybe their captain knew something she didn't and the turrets would be able to protect them, but if that was the case why were they not active when the first tank entered, no there must be a problem that was preventing them from being used, maybe...

"You have a strange way of cheering people up," Aiu said with a small giggle. "I suppose this gun does shoot needles after all, like an injection. Maybe an enemy would be better off being shot in a limb by me instead of someone more violent. Just like a patient that really doesn't want a shot, I'll poke them with a needle and make sure they feel better afterwards. That's better than them getting really sick later, or fatally shot in this case, I think... The metaphor might have gotten lost somewhere." She looked a lot more calm and cheery as she talked, her left hand no longer gripping her arm and instead helping to aim the pistol.

"Okay, I'll shoot near them to deter their advance and if I must, I'll aim for their legs to make them fall over. And after this, if I find you have blisters on your burns, I'm going to be upset, got it?"

Cargo Bay

"Is there any way that they can be fired manually, Engineer Micalio?" Olffa had been rather silent since the disconcertingly pale skinned officer had dragged the prisoner away. It made the swordmaster grit their teeth, but not because of the violence... Rather, the very same honour-bound personality traits that stopped her from thinking such things were right and decent, also stopped her from speaking out against that five-stroked F'Bantau badge... So, all there really was left was to focus on the mission at hand. "Sere'ta'kon? If we could use your authorisation to... Well, Micalio, you can like... Talk to the ship? Through the wires? Can't you?... Or perhaps we could check some kind of electric list, to tell us what useful weapons could be in these boxes?..."

The hunter really did know nothing about technology. They could act like they were preoccupied by squinting down the ramp and keeping their energy bow raised, but their dark eyes betrayed a bit of helplessness over the situation. If only they had something active that they could go and do, that would make them feel much better.

"At the very least, that dead tank should buy us some time... Makes us look like we are a lot better equipped than we really are..."

Cargo Bay

"Legs and arms, yes yes yes, that's the way to go," Barbanov shot back with an enthusiastic nod, chosing to move past the fact she had been talking about shooting patients...

"Oh gosh I wouldn't want to go making you upset so soon after meeting you, miss - I promise it's no worse than a red mark and a bit of missing skin, DePolanskaya's honor!" the golden-brown healer tried to assure her, crossing the uninjured hand over his chest as the fox-boy swore on his family's vowel-filled surname. "Now likewise if I find out you're hiding and injury well..." Barbanov paused for a moment, his puffed-out chest deflating a little.

"Well uh, I guess I'll just have to fix that injury then, won't I?" he finished, a smile across his boyish, clean shaven, slightly soiled features.

Cargo Bay

Micalio smiled at the forest fox and gave her a small pat on the head to reassure her, "I can't speak to wires or any magic like that, but there might be a way yes. If the systems are still functioning and the engineering systems haven't been sabotaged then they should still be working, I don't think I can operate it from anywhere but, maybe if there was some sort of terminal we could wire up. Otherwise I have to go to the bridge." The red haired fox said thoughtfully.

She looked at the captain as though waiting for an order or permission, then glanced over at the two healers who seemed to be good friends already, kinda creepy that both came from within a pile of bodies. Although maybe now he wouldn't try calling her cute again if he had someone else to try and sway with, what charm he may be hiding.

Cargo Bay

"J-Just give the word, and I'll clear a path!" Olffa responded energetically, fuzzy ears bobbing up and down in time with Micalio's soft hand. They still weren't taking their eyes off of the warzone ahead, but the fact that they weren't fighting it... That must mean they were okay with the Engineer's proximity, right? "I don't think we can hold them off with needles and swords, so anything has gotta be better than this..."

Bearing fangs a little, now, actually...

...Did that count as a smile?...

Cargo Bay

While others made plans, Ay'indri pried information from the now delirious Laibe. It was enough for her to stop; place a thumbnail between her lips and ponder. If what the traitorous scum had confided was true (and she believed it was) then trying to get anything else out of the other two may yield the same results. Squatting beside her quarry, the agent looked into eyes glazed over in pain. That was when she sank the knife into the ailing Laibe's chest. There was the momentary grunting gurgle of resistance. . . and then nothing.

Pulling the blade free, Ay'indri spared a moment to wipe it clean on her trusty handkerchief.

It was only a short walk to the Sere'ta'kon. She even glanced at the remaining prisoners. Never enough time.

"The prisoner confirmed some of my suspicions. They are here to take out multiple targets. And there are more of them. According to him, a lot more." it wasn't much, but it was more than they had a little while ago.

Cargo Bay

Micalio noticed the little smile from her shorter companion and made one of her own, she had just given the small er fox a pat to try and reassure her but she seemed to kind of like it too, and the engineer still had her hand attached to her body so that was a good sign as well. "Well if I can get to an access point or even up to the bridge I'd be able to plug into those guns, I'm not sure how good a shot I'd be but general area should work with that kind of firepower."

The red haired fox stopped patting the forest fox for a moment and let her hand sit on top of her head while she turned and faced their captain, waiting for them to give the orders for a plan they were surely formulating.

Cargo Bay

Chi'ka nodded her head and was about to give the order when an explosion caught her attention, her ears flattened and she looked toward the hole; after a few seconds weapon's fire poured through it and splashed across the side of the ship. This was followed by additional explosions and the corpse of a Laibe flying through the hole and landing on the ground with a sickening 'thump'

The group that came through were obviously enemies, but they seemed distracted - there were twenty of them, but half of them were firing in the direction they'd come from while the other half - who were running toward the ship, came to a sudden halt when they noticed them near the ramp.

"Open fire!" Chi'ka bellowed and crouched behind a nearby piece of the ceiling, she upholstered her sidearm, took aim, and fired. These enemies were completely out in the open.

The bubble in Aiu's mind burst with a roar as the sound of chaos flooded the room. Her gun felt like lead in her hand. Her muscles shook trying to hold it steady. She could see enemies coming to them, but all she saw was people. People who hated them, but people with friends. People with family, futures, places they belong. If she killed one, she'd remove an entire section of that social web. If she wounded one, it would spread hate across those connections.

Aiu couldn't find a way to win.

She wanted to heal those connections, make people smile again. The gun in her hands stood counter to those views.

She breathed heavily, her heart racing, her finger stiffening, her mind trying to force her to do her job as a soldier.

In the end, she couldn't fire.

Cargo Bay

Well it seemed like they wouldn't get a chance to try and use the turrets, not with all these enemies pouring in. Micalio also noticed how some seemed to be shooting behind themselves, hopefully that meant backup was behind them, she didn't really want to think about any other scenarios but knowing how their day had already turned out she didn't put it past fate to deal them such a cruel hand.

The engineer immediately dove behind the nearest cover and hoped the others were doing the same although she didn't have time to check up on them, the red haired daur did however notice the shaking healer near her own position who seemed unable to fire their weapon, given their profession she could understand why. Well that's why people like her and the ship mistress, and Olffa and the agent were around. They were the unlucky ones who had to do the dirty work and bear the responsibility, although when the choice is between killing some terrorists or watching those same terrorists kill civilians or even your own family it was much easier to make.

Micalio opened fire with what composure she could quickly scratch together after the sudden appearance of hostiles had thrown her into slight disarray, aiming mainly for upper torsos and heads she squeezed the trigger of her own needle pistol more times that she cared to count.

Cargo Bay

It was quite a nice conversation Barbanov had been having with this new floppy-eared healer when everything so quickly went to shit, the meaty thunk of a laibe corpse jolted him into action - causing the golden-brown fox to drop to one knee and squeeze one golden eye shut as it looked down the sights of his needler.

Pistols were something the boy had a knack for, maybe it was because they were so easy to move around with or maybe it was something genetic from his father's skill with seemingly every kind of gun available but Barbanov was a good shot with them, he slowly breathed out and gave the trigger a few good squeezes to fire off rounds at the enemy's limbs if he had a clear shot.

Then he noticed Aiu's gun wasn't firing off next to him, causing Barbanov to briefly flick his head to the side and re-assuringly press down on the top of her gun as he gestured for her to lower it before the healer went back to shooting at any enemy limbs he could see.