The inner airlock door shut behind the Sakura crew, and Hanako followed after Leiko, moving up behind her where the pulsing, wart-covered anus-like doorway was slowly spreading, its sticky, slimy residue hanging in strings from one end to the other, oozing as an iris-like opening appeared within. A wet spray and gusts of air spurted into the tube, getting on Leiko and Hanako's visors.
"Ick" Leiko mumbled as she moved onward, wondering what surprises the ship had in store for them. She suddenly found herself glad to be wearing the Ames suit, though she'd not relish the act of taking it off and having to touch the outside of it at all.
Yosef quickly muttered a prayer before stepping in. He also thanked the old gunner (rest his soul) for engraving his Model 79 with a "blessing." He'd forgotten to paint his helmet.
Miles was then very fascinated by the entire process, making sure that his cybernetic recording devices were on so he would not miss a moment of important data. Miles then spoke in a fascinated tone "Quite interesting... I think I’m going to enjoy this field trip"
Jo's hand went right to her sword grip, her other hand gripping her sheath as she stepped up close behind Hanako. Glaring at Miles, she wasn't really in the mood for him at the moment.
The iris door swung open from inside the icky covering, a pinpoint of pink light appearing within the center the door and expanding until the door was open. There was an airlock inside, its floor covered with sharp, barnacle-like outcroppings, while the walls were covered with bulges of mucus-covered material that looked similar to elephant skin. A Nekovalkyrja skull hung over the inner doorway, it spinal column dangling down on a brown string.
"Not much for making guests feel welcome," Leiko said, eyeing the Skull as she moved forward.
With a raised brow Miles continued onwards. After examining the surroundings Miles spoke up. "Ma'am, requesting permission to take point, I do believe that I’d be able to spot any built in traps, after all, this place does seem to be a giant organic structure..."
Yosef took in the surroundings. Thoughts of flamethrowers came to mind, but he shook them away upon seeing the skull. "God give rest to her soul," he murmured.
"If you think it is best," Hanako nodded to Miles, entering the airlock room. She waited for Midori to join them, so they could move on.
Miles moved himself and his Kylie to the front of the group as he commanded the NIWS unit to move to the group. As Miles moved up he couldn’t resist the urge to poke at one of the mucus-covered walls. "Oh...what’s this?"
The iris door suddenly closed and the sphincter covering concealed it, blending it into the walls Miles was now touching. As Miles examined the wall, he could see numerous tiny worm-like creatures swimming around in the mucus.
Miles grumbled in a rather annoyed manner then spoke up. "Ma'am, I suggest no one breeches these membranes, I got a feeling we'd be dealing with problems if we do".
Glancing his way, Leiko smirked, "You mean aside from pissing off the creatures who's ship we're currently aboard?"
"Why is that?" Hanako asked, taking a look back toward where the entrance had been. Behind her, the door to the ship's insides slowly opened until it became a dark maw.
A snort came over the comm from Yosef as he mulled over Miles's statement. He kept his comment to himself.
Miles laughed as he shook his head inside of the helmet of the armor. "They wouldn’t care about such a small breech, it would heal faster than if some one were to prick me with a needle... but these things inside, I think they're meant to keep infections out, sort of like giant white blood cells... least what I can figure"
"You wouldn't care if I stabbed you with a needle?" Leiko asked, quirking a brow at him. As far as she was concerned, damage doesn't have to be critical to raise someone’s ire, it merely has to be noticeable. Glancing around again, Leiko noticed the new opening behind the Taisa, and felt her hand grip her weapon tighter.
The maw behind Hanako slowly extended several large suction-cup-covered tentacles toward the Taisa, as a groaning noise emanated from within the darkness. The airlock room also appeared to be shrinking as the walls closed in around the crewmembers.
"Ma'am, behind you," Leiko said, loudly, not wanting to alarm the Captain, but not willing to let the grasping appendages continue without Hanako's notice. As slow as they were moving, Leiko stepped forward and tried to see past them, into the darkness beyond.
Miles then let out an annoyed grunt. "Everyone, get moving inside, the hole is clenching shut to keep things out... Taisa behind me ma'am" Miles moved between the tentacles and Hanako and then he began to walk towards them and push them out of the way while he batted at the ones getting in the way of his point of view.
Yosef flicked the safety off his SMG. "What was that?" He looked to his right and saw the disgusting wall coming closer. " . . . " He brought the gun to ready as he watched the Samurai and Miles run off. He suddenly felt torn between running and awaiting orders.
Miles used the Kylie's 360 range of view to look back at Yosef. "Keep up, and don't go shooting, you're going to get us killed by any automatic defenses like that"
The tentacles ensnared Miles as he touched them, dragging and sucking him into the maw. Leiko was next, then the Taisa, who had little choice as the room she was in slowly squeezed shut around her. "Miles!" she squeaked as he disappeared into the well-lubricated passageway. The Mishhuvurthyar ship pumped the explorers through the narrow passage. For a moment, all they could see was black as the muscles moved them along to their destination...wherever that was.
Miles spoke rather calmly considering their situation. "Ma'am, this appears to be a gullet of sorts, we're kind of being swallowed... its most likely moving us to a pre-determined "greeting" area of sorts, be on the ready, I'll have the NIWS track our movement..." Miles began to feed commands to the NIWS to keep track of them as they moved through the vessel.
Yosef looked to the walls, then to the maw, then back to the walls. "See the world," they said. He dashed to the maw and was then pumped after them.
After a few moments of being massaged through the ship's bowels, the crew was dropped one by one onto a large, soft pad that sat in the middle of a small round room with a round doorway on one side. There were slimy leech-like creatures sparsely scattered around the floor in the room, and the walls were composed of green bulges with glowing pink outcroppings.
Jo let the rest go ahead of her, knowing that it would do best for her to stick in the back. Ambushes always came from behind, so that’s where she would stay, making sure she was the first thing anything that got to brace would meet. As she watched Yosef go into the maw, she sighed and shook her head, muttering something along the lines of "Why did I wake up this morning," before she moved into the maw.
Swallowed. That's how it had felt, Leiko thought, climbing to her feet and checking to make sure her weapon was still with her. Luckily, it still was. Unfortunately, it was coated in slime.
Miles landed upon the pad with ease as he then inspected the room they were in, upon looking at the leech creatures he took a series of still images of the creatures and he also took pictures of them at various levels of magnification using his Kylie's sensors. "Looks like they are rather clean in here... those little buggers keep out any unwanted pests and grime, I think..."
With a sigh, she did her best to fling the majority of it away, before wiping as much of the rest away with her gloved hands. At this rate, she decided, she'd have to change in an airlock and void the suit, for absolution, if nothing else.
Jo landed on her feet, her eyes surveying the surrounding area immediately as her hand constantly rested on the grip of her sword. "Where are we?" was all she asked.
Yosef didn’t land gracefully. After picking himself off the ground, he wiped the slime from his visor. He ignored his SMG. "My weapon!" he shouted, seeing his gun covered. "Damn demonic stomach…fuck up my gun..."
Miles looked to Jo using the view from his Kylie "We're in a room designed to serve as an arrival area of sorts, also meant to sort out any unwanted guests, I suggest we move out of here."
"Move where?" Yosef said, irritation seeping into his voice. "Where can we go?"
Hanako crawled out of the people of slime-coated Star Army soldiers on her knees, her gloves hands wiping at her visor repeatedly, trying to get some of the goop from the tube out of her view. "Is everyone in good condition?" she asked softly.
"I'm fine Taisa." Jo was still scanning the area, her sword hand itching to draw the blade, as she made sure no threats presented themselves.
"I am unharmed," Leiko said, still trying to shake some of the clinging slime from her weapon.
"No injuries, Taisa," Yosef reported.
"Miles?" Hanako prompted.
Miles spoke up after the Taisa asked her question "yes, I’m fine, but as for the question of where to go, we should try to find a "door"... well more like an orifice" Miles seemed to distracted by the sights around him to really be concerned with his own well-being.
Yosef stripped his pistol as he spoke, flicking globs of slime from around the firing pin. "Why won't they just come out and greet us?"
"Would you really want to greet those that just sent a war machine to reek havoc on your ship?" Jo shot a glance at Yosef, wondering the engineer’s response that what she had just said.
The Taisa stood up, still brushing herself off. "The slime seems to be thickening," she observed, her muscles having to strain a little just to move normally. "It is difficult to see as well. Can anyone see a doorway?" Around them, the lights seemed to dim gradually.
"Hmm, because that would be the decent thing to do?" Leiko muttered, slinging her weapon. With that, she began looking around the room for an exit or even some sign that they weren't going to be digested soon.
Miles got a slightly worried expression underneath his helmet as he quickly spoke up "Everyone, get the slime off, now. It’s a form of immune response. if it keeps hardening it will choke you to death by constricting on you, just like a white blood cell would." he still sounded calm though as he went about removing the gunk from the key parts of his Kylie.
Yosef grunted as he pulled a piece of the slime from the slide of his pistol; it felt more solid than the stuff he'd brushed from his helmet. "W-what?" Yosef quickly holstered his pistol, looking down at the slime still on his suit. He could feel it tightening around his legs.
With a grunt of annoyance, Jo went about doing her best to get the gunk from her body, grumbling something about sleeping in again as she made sure to shut off her comm system so no one else could hear her.
Miles sighed as he began to check his Kylie's sensors to make sure they were operating properly, the sheer fact that they only allowed him to see around him was frustrating to say the least. After he completed his checks he moved to one of the leech like creatures and went about an experiment, he held out a chunk of slime in front of the creature to see it is response.
The leech-like creature bit the Kylie's glove numerous times (To no effect) but ignored the slime.
Hanako fished around on the nasty floor for some sort of path leading to a door, using her suit's spotlight pushing aside hundreds of crawling insects and the leech-like Mishhuvurthyar creatures. What she found was a human skeleton, the remaining flesh on it festering with rot. A fog spilled into the slowly-shrinking room, quickly concealing the corpse. All of the room's lights had now faded out. Hanako screamed, stumbling back into Yosef.
"Well this is certainly a pleasant welcome," Leiko mumbled, as she flicked her own light on and continued scraping the congealing slime from her suit.
Swiping briefly at his neck, Yosef finished wiping most of the stuff off of him. He looked to -- "Guh," he said, knocked off balance with Hanako. He instinctively caught her and held her above the fog. He gulped as he saw the hundreds of creatures across his vision; he quickly righted them both.
Miles let out an annoyed sigh as he switched on his Kylie's spotlights and at the same time he began to look through the NIWS' eyes and he began directing it to move to their location and start to show signs of having it is weapons ready. "Everyone, remain calm, and don't do anything too rash"
"Taisa!" Jo looked around the room, finally turning on her light as she grumbled. She had always hated the rule of needing to draw blood before putting away her sword, but she had to live by it. With a small growl, she moved closer to Hanako, her nerves set on edge from the environment.
Yosef was about to strangle Miles, Kylie or no. He began to regret "blessing" only Miles's armor and not the others. His turned his suit light on and made sure Han -- the Taisa was all right. He then quietly asked MEGAMI to transmit the short profiles of the types of Mishhu to his spectacles; he organized them into quick-view tabs along the top of his vision. The action made him feel a bit more prepared.
NIWS seemed to be ignoring Miles. In fact, communications seemed to be jammed from one section of the ship to another, keeping them from talking to one another from anywhere but in the same room. Hanako slowly stood to her feet once more, the stiffening goo on her body making things take twice as long. Suddenly, she screamed again. Miles couldn't tell at first, but the Kylie seemed to be crawling with bugs. They practically coated his armor, making him look like shiny black mass. Meanwhile, inside the suit, Mile received the first of numerous warning messages about system malfunctions due to energy fluctuations.
Miles let out a very annoyed growl as he called out to the others loudly "Auto-immune response! Everyone focus fire ahead of me, we need to cut out of here, cease fire or not!" Miles then quickly raised the arms of the Kylie to aim at the nearest wall that he could figure would not chuck them out into the depths of space, he then prepared his Kylie's wrist mounted aether beams. "Permission to fire?!"
"Please not yet," Hanako begged Miles, desperately searching for a way out.
Miles sounded anxious as he spoke up. "Yes Ma'am, but I would like to warn you that my armor's systems are currently beginning to fail due to energy surges." Miles went about quickly configuring his aether beams to make a narrow cutting beam, but he still held his fire waiting for the order.
Yosef swore under his breath; the tabs along his vision were empty. He couldn't contact MEGAMI. Hanako's scream drew his attention to the Kylie, covered in God only knew what. He couldn't fire without Hanako's permission. He felt stuck.
Without the Kylie around her, Leiko lifted off the ground, denying the creatures a surface upon which to crawl and quickly plucking them from her before moving forward to help clear the Taisa of the little things.
A rotting humanoid hand reached up from the ground and grabbed at Leiko's leg out of the fog as she rose.
Jo watched Leiko lift off and move towards the Taisa, but more importantly saw the hand that reached out for Leiko. With a surge of annoyance that turned to anger at the ship they were in, Jo finally drew her sword. The metallic ringing sounded in the room as Jo dashed at the hand, "Don't you dare touch her!"
Leiko gasped audibly as she felt the grip on her leg, the slight give of the decaying flesh not enough to simply pull free. Turning at Jo's cry, Leiko signed in relief, knowing the hand would be removed, if not from her leg, then from the arm, soon enough.
The leech-like creatures began to amass and crawl towards Midori in unison, forming a shrinking circle around the samurai.
Jo turned her sword tip downwards, dragging the tip on the ground as she continued her dash towards Leiko. Dependent on the surface she was on, the sword would either tear into the floor, or skim along it with the possibility of creating sparks.
Miles decided to go for the bluff as he then began to shout loudly. "Attention Mishhuvurthyar, your actions are currently being viewed as a threat, we are prepared to deal out many times more damage than the "Rampaging Android" that we unleashed earlier, Greet us peacefully or prepare to deal with renewed hostility!"
Just then, a pinpoint of green-tinted light appeared in one of the room's walls, slowly growing in size, as another orifice-door finally began to open. As the bright light spilled into the dark, foggy room, the Sakura crew could see the silhouette of a Mishhuvurthyar floating in the doorway. "GOOD EVENING," a powerful bellow rang in their minds. Hanako froze in place looking up at the massive beast and its array of flowing tentacles that protruded from beneath its beefy pod-like body.
Miles raised his brow as he looked at the creature, his warning alarms now put aside for the moment as he studied the beast before him, and he awaited his Taisa's reaction to the greeting.
Leiko paused, staring at the Star Army's enemy and feeling a ripple of disgust and fear travel up her spine. A threat to all, she had to fight down the urge to open fire, as they were supposedly on a peaceful mission. Glancing at the rotting hand still holding onto her, Leiko mused that the peacefulness was relatively subjective.
Jo continued her attack, caring more about the safety of her crew more then the Mishhu in front of them. Growling, she brought her sword upwards in an arc, cutting through anything in the path of the sword's arc.
Yosef turned to the light. He really wished he had remembered the types of Mishhu. This one looked like a standard Type 1 . . . but he couldn't be sure. His head rang from the telepathic "hello;" he stood slightly in front of the Taisa to protect her.
Miles let out a low curse as he looked to Jo and sighed deeply. "Absurd... simply absurd" he thought to himself.
The Mishhu's tentacles began to cautiously encircle Hanako and Yosef around the waist to lift them up, while the mass of bugs in the room had converged on Midori, biting at her legs over and over again and surging over her faceplate so that she could see nothing, including where she was swinging her sword.
Miles quickly reached over to Jo's blade and he caught it in his Kylie's hand. "Jo, Stop, you're being reckless!"
Alarmed by the sudden attack, she growled and fumbled with her sword. Knowing that Miles was right, she tried to take the sword back, but had to keep it out now. She had yet to draw blood, or maybe she had. She wasn't sure if she had gotten the arm or not, the flesh might have been to rotted to really know. Grumbling she swung at the creatures on her face with one hand. "Help me get them off!"
"G-gahhshit!" Yosef said as he saw the tentacle snake around Hanako and him. He fought every urge in his being to reach for his pistol. "Taisa, what do we do?"
Miles slouched over as he went to go and help Jo pick off the leeches, he then spoke to Hanako "Taisa, ma'am, I suggest you return the greeting to our host" Miles then went about picking off the leeches one by one.
Miles' movements seemed to placate the insectoid mass, which began to slowly disperse, leaving bloody spots on Jo's legs where the suit had been pierced by prolonged, repeated biting. A few of the roach-like bugs skittered around inside Midori's suit. One stopped right in the middle of her faceplate's inside, starting at her eyes with its twitching little antennae.
Miles blinked a few times as he saw the mass of creatures move away. "Wow... wonder what I did..."
"EARG!" Jo swatted at the bug in her face plate, and growled still as she frantically tried to get it off. "Damn bugs...damn ship...Damn it all!" Her legs were stinging from the bites as she muttered something about her bed.
Hanako nodded as she was easily hefted into the air. "Hello, sir," she greeted the large alien. "We have come to negotiate your surrender," she told it. It didn't appear to be pleased, however; the word surrender was followed by a painful squeak as the Mishhuvurthyar squeezed her in anger. The Taisa didn't give in though. "Please take us to your commanding officer," she requested.
Miles was on edge, waiting for Jo's reaction to the Mishhu’s grasp upon the Taisa. "Jo, remain calm, the Taisa can handle herself"
Jo's entire body jerked, wanting to help Hanako. But she knew Miles was right, and resigned herself to grumble more as she pondered what a Mishhu would sound like in pain.
Try as she would, Jo couldn't get rid of the roach-like insect in her helmet; in its current location, she couldn't touch it. It just kept watching her, inches away from her lips...her eyes...her nostrils... The thing reeked of fat and garbage.
Yosef kept his mouth shut, not betraying anything. Hanako was handling everything; he made no sound as Hanako was squeezed. He didn't feel anything, but he didn't like being picked up, either. His hold-out still theoretically worked, but the slime might have jammed it. He kept looking at the Mishhu.
Miles flicked Jo's helmet with the Kylie's finger and he decided to try something. "Hey little bugger, out of the helmet, you wouldn’t want the Samurai angry." he kept lightly tapping underneath the bug's legs as he kept a relaxed stance.
As the smell hit Midori’s nose, she started to shake her head, keeping back the gagging noises she wanted to make as she tried even harder to get it out. "Go away you stupid bug!"
The tapping apparently scared the bug, and it jumped onto Jo's forehead.
Miles started to laugh at Jo's situation but he decided to keep it subdued a little as he tapped Jo's helmet. "Hey, head butt, you should get rid of it"
The Mishhu began to float into the light, revealing a long corridor, a flat, slimy, catwalk without rails, about a meter and a half wide, bathed in greenish light. Below on either side rested a row of round pits. Hanako looked around in awe and horror, realizing that these were where Nekovalkyrja and humans were held prisoner as slaves. "WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?" the giant Mishhu asked, apparently apt to make conversation.
Jo slammed her head forward as well as she could, treeing to squash the bug into her faceplate. "Damn thing Die!"
A fatty, acidic pulp exploded all over Midori's visor and face as the annoying insect met its doom.
Miles sighed deeply as he looked outside and down at the pits, he realized they were open so he simply reached over to Jo and removed her helmet to keep the acidic pulp from causing her any more problems. "Remain calm, and if you keep on freaking out, you're just going to bring about more problems. Just remain calm and collected, that’s a good way for a warrior to act. At least that’s what I read in novels..." Miles kept an eye on the Mishhu though, to make sure that Hanako was safe.
Following behind then, Leiko looked around with trepidation at the pits she'd heard about, and were the source of innumerable rumors, threats, and lessons. Only the fact that she wasn't (so far) going to be thrown into one kept her calm enough not to jump when the Mish spoke, but only barely.
Jo muttered curses under her breath in various languages, her fist in a tight ball as her eyes were shut, both her eyebrows and fist was trembling. She turned to follow the others, wondering where the beast was leading them, and wondering when she would get to try and kill it.
The stench that hit Midori was something like a cross between a toilet after a major rock concert and a Chinese restaurant's dumpster after three days in the sun. Hanako, still in her suit, however, was oblivious thus far. Moaning and crying came from some of the pits below as the Mishhu sailed through the foul air over the catwalk, presumably to the Mishhu Hanako had requested an audience with.
Yosef, not hearing a response from Hanako, piped up. "The Lord God," he answered the Mishhu, hoping he wouldn't speak again. His head already began to hurt. He didn't want to look down the pits; he mentally whispered prayers for them, hoping the surrender would free them.
The stench stopped Jo dead in her tracks, as her eyes nearly bugged out of her head, her hand moved over her mouth to not only try to cover it from the stench, but to hold back anything that was going to come up soon.
Miles handed Jo the helmet and began to follow the Mishhu and his comrades. "As for me, it would be knowledge" he spoke up to the Mishhu as he caught up to the beast. he then looked over to Hanako and Yosef. "If I may inquire, why are you carrying them around when they could be walking?"
At that point, the Mishhu floated into a corridor that apparently went straight up. As it left, the remaining crew could see NIWS standing down at the other end of the slave container corridor, her Gatling guns still on each arm.
While the others boarded the disabled Mishhuvurthyar ship, Kiyoko explored the Sakura’s pilot interface and familiarized herself with the differences between it and the ones she had been trained on. While most of the systems were familiar, if a little different, there were one or two connections she had not recognized and had carefully ignored during the quick firefight, when the distraction they would have caused could have been fatal. Now she mentally poked these systems, looking them over in her mind while downloading their manuals from the Sakura’s database.
Miles smiled when he saw the NIWS and he gave it orders to help Jo and Leiko up the straight up passage. "I'll go ahead, the NIWS will help you up" Miles then used his Kylie suit's thrusters to follow the Mishhu with ease.
With her ability to negate and influence gravity no longer hindered by the rotten hand, Leiko easily drifted up the corridor.
With a hand still over her mouth, Jo followed Leiko's lead, and drifted up, as she tried to smudge away the disgusting smell in her helmet so she could put it back on.
Finally, the Mishhu set Hanako down in a room at the top of the shaft they'd risen through. Hanako gasped audibly. Before them stood a Nekovalkyrja with Mishhuvurthyar tentacles sprouting from a few inches below her belly button. Her skin was pink, and she had bright green eyes. "Well, well, well," the half-woman, half-Mishhu sneered. "If it isn't Taisa Hanako, Yui's favorite little play toy..."
Leiko faltered in midair for a moment upon seeing their host, the drop of a few feet almost crashing her into Jo before she regained control and managed to set down behind Hanako.
Jo touched down a few minutes later, taking the smell of the dead bug to the smell of the ship any day as she stood behind Hanako now. She never saw Leiko's almost crash into her as she watched the.....creature in front of her.
" . . . " Yosef could barely feel the tentacle now. His mouth was slightly agape. He hadn't known Mishhu could breed with Nekovalkyrja . . . "Demon," he whispered.
Miles looked to Hanako when he heard her gasp, he then saw the modified Neko and he raised his brow in interest. "Ma'am...erm...some one you know?" Miles then began to quickly take still shots and video footage of the modified neko, his eyes unblinking as he attempted to get as much data as possible about their surroundings and the interesting host.
Hanako shook her head. "I have never before seen this woman, but it does appear she knows of me..." she said, worry in her voice.
Jo put a second hand on her blade, moving it parallel to her side as she dipped her closest shoulder to the woman, as she moved up beside Hanako. She just stared at the woman, ready to move if she did.
Miles nodded and he made sure to re-adjust his aether beams to have a wider burst than when he set them to cut. "Interesting... simply interesting."
Leiko stared, thinking about the ramifications such a mix could mean to the Star Army, and galaxy in general. The Mish were a known threat, but was this a new form of Mish, or something…else? "What motivates you?" she muttered, repeating the question asked earlier by one of their multi-limbed hosts. What would motivate something comprised of two totally different cultures? Whatever she learned, she knew there'd be massive reports to be written up in the future, for Intelligence, the scientific community, and more.
The Mishhu woman floated over to the Taisa. "Well, darling," she said, bumping a tentacle off Hanako's chest, just enough to unbalance the girl for a second. "Your starship is quite impressive, I must say," she commented. "I would like to fly it some time. Thanks to you, my ship is in rather unsatisfactory condition. So what is it that you've left me alive for?"
"You stay away from the Taisa...." Jo's sword had been moved into a position so it pointed straight at the creature, her elbow out at the side and the back side of the blade running just above her eye.
Miles resisted the urge to blurt out what he was thinking. Dissection, vivisection, experimentation, interrogation, research in general. He kept on looking around as he kept the NIWS at the ready.
The freshly downloaded knowledge slammed into Kiyoko’s secondary memory, as always accompanied with the feeling that she had already knew what the newly arrived data taught her. Tweaking her mental connections to the new systems, she pushed them around and integrated them with the other systems in the way that suited her best. Running through a set of tests and simulations, the Neko was soon happy with the way her mind now interfaced with the Sakura. With her interface now optimized the way she liked it, flying would be easier than with the standard setup.
Hanako bowed to the hybrid Mishhu, and then politely offered, "Please come to my vessel, as our guest. There is much to discuss, and I promise you will not be harmed if you peacefully cooperate."
Miles grumbled to himself as he noticed the NIWS being stubborn, he then began to test out the communications link to find any problems with it. "Annoying machines... if I would have put it together, it would be much better..."
The communications link was apparently fine. That meant it was the android itself that didn't feel like listening.
Miles then began to conduct a conversation with the NIWS "Excuse me, sorry to be so rude" he began to think in a focused manner to the NIWS "I'd like it if you were to listen to a majority of the commands I’m giving, they'd aid you in your function of being a front line weapon, I’ll give you much thanks when we return to the Sakura to make it more worth your while"
With the Sakura not going anywhere, it wasn’t necessary for Kiyoko to be in the pilot’s pit anymore. As she disconnected the SLICS interface, a series of holographic status displays snapped into existence hovering in front of the Neko’s head, a side effect of forgetting to switch to a telepathic link with the Sakura before disconnecting. Sitting up and mumbling a curse, Kiyoko banished the holographs with a mental command before setting up a telepathic link so that she could monitor the Sakura while moving around.
"Unfortunately, it seems I have little choice," the hybrid scowled.
"I WILL PILOT THE SHUTTLE BACK TO THE SHIP," the Nodal Integrated Weapons System suddenly declared in a very loud, frigid voice. "FOLLOW ME," it ordered, leading the way back through its path of destruction it had created. Hanako, looking a little frightened, followed along obediently, as did the half Mishhu. "Let us leave this horrid place," Hanako whispered to the other crewmembers.
Rubbing at her face with a hand Kiyoko turned around and looked up to the command bride, spotting Rufus there. Rubbing at her face a bit harder to try and get rid of the zombie-like expression and blank eyes she undoubtedly had, another side effect of immersing herself in a ship’s SLICS connection, she climbed out of the pilot’s pit and managed a bow. “If it’s acceptable with you Taisa, I’d like to shower and get dressed.”
Miles kept his mouth shut as he followed but he kept thinking to himself. "Well, looks like we're leaving without samples, hope I get some decent ones soon, otherwise this whole hassle will be a bust...bleah" Miles griped to himself as he navigated his Kylie to move with the group.
Yosef followed behind everyone else, not wanting to be anywhere near the hybrid demon. His left eye felt sore looking at it. "Heretic," he whispered to himself.
Rufus nodded to Kiyoko. "Be ready to get back here at a moment's notice. The other Mishhuvurthyar ships are going to come back for the one we got sometime, I think." The captain seemed distant, distracted by monitoring for signs of the away team. Suddenly, the jamming stopped and the signal from NIWS was back. Sydney breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the crew was all right. What the hell was that thing with them, though?
With a sigh, Jo saw no blood on her blade. With another annoyed grumble, she held out her forearm before she drew the blade over it, cutting into her suit and her skin. With a wince, she seemed satisfied with the blood, and used that blood from the cut to patch up the cut in the suit before she finally slid her sword home in it is sheath.
Miles followed along as he still kept taking footage of everything he passed by along the way to the shuttle, but he still remained troubled by the sheer fact that he was returning to the ship without a single sample except for the goo on his Kylie and the gunk in Jo's helmet.
Nodding, Kiyoko exited the bridge and headed for the showers. Once there she stripped out of her underwear and turned the water on, stepping under the flow and quickly washed, concentrating on her hair, which was rather fragrant from the bottle of something she’d managed to pour over it. Drying off, she then went to her quarters and changed into a clean uniform, although she couldn’t find her pistol until remembering it was still somewhere in the lounge.
The android led the crew back into the decompressed shuttlebay and sat in the cockpit, brushing window shards off of the controls as it powered up the craft. The half-Mishhu hurriedly got into the passenger compartment. Hanako followed, motioning for Jo, Leiko, Miles, and Josef to join them quickly so she could shut the shuttle door and repressurized the passenger section. Over the helmet radio, she asked, "Would anyone volunteer to check the prisoner bays for friendlies?"
Leiko raised her hand. "I shall, ma'am."
"I will ma'am as well." Jo responded, leaping out of the shuttle before Leiko.
Miles grumbled due to his chance at more samples being taken as he said "I'll go with you Taisa, there are enough people wanting to examine the prisoner section" he sighed as he found a spot to stand in the shuttle.
Leiko moved out, heading back to the Prisoner bays with Jo, her weapon still in her hands.
Hanako nodded. "Very well. Good luck Leiko and Midori. Report back to the ship promptly if you see any hostile action."
"Understood Taisa." Jo drew her fire-arm, not feeling like having to cut herself again as she moved out, taking the lead in front of Leiko as she led the two back to the prisoner area.
Yosef stood toward the rear of the shuttle, figuring he wasn't needed. He took the time to examine his hold-out; it was hopelessly mucked with contracting slime. He sighed and looked toward the cockpit.
Miles silently fumed in his Kylie, if some one could see his face he would be showing off a quite obvious scowl as he resisted the urge to kick something, he was quite irritated by his lack of useful loot from the vessel and even the lack of action, if there were combat he would have at least got blood and guts on his suit so he could examine it.
The shuttle quietly and uneventfully returned to the Sakura, landing in the small shuttlebay at the gunship's aft most section. The fit was tight, with the rear door opening facing the shuttlebay door, and the shuttle's nose snugly aligned between the Sakura's other two shuttles, which faced the opposite direction.
A search around the lounge revealed her service pistol had managed to get behind one of the couches. Picking it up, Kiyoko slid a battery magazine she had brought with her into the back of the weapon before holstering it. Pulling a handful of hair clips from a pouch on her belt, Kiyoko set about pinning her hair back as she moved out of the lounge and into the passageway beyond.
When they arrived Miles moved his Kylie out of the shuttle and he bowed to the Taisa "Ma'am, I’m going to the powered armor bay to put away my armor, I believe Yosef will help you if things go wrong, and so will the NIWS... but yes, I shall be on my way if you don't mind?"
"I believe we should all go to the decontamination room to shed these suits," Hanako suggested.
Miles looked slightly worried as he expressed his concern "Ma'am, I need to take samples from the suits, otherwise valuable data may be lost...unfortunately I don't have any sample containers on me"
Moving through the dark, dank corridors, Leiko turned to look back at Jo and offered her a little smile before moving forward, searching the pits for captives to be rescued.
Jo did the same, offering a weak smile to Leiko as she looked in the other pits, wondering who or what they would find
Yosef nodded quickly, then looked to Miles. "Here," he said, shedding his AMES, his uniform a bit ruffled underneath. "You can have this one. I'm going to the showers with the Taisa."
The disgusting-smelling prisoner bay held dozens and dozens of freshly killed humans and Nekovalkyrja inside, all fatally shot execution-style with what appeared to have been some sort of high-powered energy weapon.
Miles thought of the proper course of action. "Yosef, can you decontaminate really quick and run me a sample container from the medbay? Meanwhile I’ll keep watch over our... guest."
"Bastards," she mumbled, moving through the pile of bodies, checking and hoping that maybe one person had been missed.
" . . . " Yosef looked to the Taisa for instruction. There was still a chain of command, after all, and he wasn't here to take orders from a scientist.
Jo jumped back in a bit of disgust, looking at the nekos and the others, as she fought back the need to vomit. Looking away, she had already been disturbed and disgusted enough today, and this was really pushing her. "How much more must I suffer today?" She said to herself, after switching off her comm channel so Leiko wouldn't hear her.
Kiyoko floated along the passageway slowly with hairclips hanging between her lips, both her hands and her mind occupied with trying to get a particularly troublesome lock of hair to stay back out of her face. Her link to the Sakura had informed her that a shuttle had returned from the Mishhuvurthyar ship, so the boarding had obviously been some sort of success, although she wondered just what had gone on in there.
Hanako looked to Yosef, "Go ahead." She there turned to the hybrid. "Please follow me, ma'am," she said, heading towards the decontamination room behind the bridge.
Miles watched as the Taisa went ahead, but he kept a mindful eye upon the hybrid. He began to review data from the Mishhu ship in one eye, while in the other he saw what was around him.
Only a few prisoners had been spared from the slaughter. One was a black-haired Nekovalkyrja that twitched oddly in her cell, and another was a human woman in a torn Star Army red-paneled skirt uniform.
Yosef nodded, running to the decontamination room ahead of the demon and Hanako. He showered quickly, leaving before they arrived. He went down to the medbay, grabbed a container, and then went through the armor bay to return to the shuttle and Miles. He handed him the container.
"Find anyone?" Jo asked as she helped the Human woman into a sitting stance. She was gentle with her, making sure not to move her to quickly. "Ma'am...Ma'am are you alright?"
"I c...can...oh my..." the woman whimpered, tears streaming down her face.
Pulling the survivor from her pits, Leiko quickly checked them over for injuries. It was a cursory examination, but considering their location, a thorough examination would have to wait until they were back aboard the Sakura. "Can you walk?" she asked, helping the Neko to her feet.
Miles nodded to Yosef but through the Kylie it looked more like a bow as he took the container "Thanks Yosef, you'll be needing another container for yourself, you still have to clean the Kylie, I want you to scrape off all the goo and store it for me please, meanwhile, keep an eye on our guest" Miles then quickly scraped off as much as he could from the suit he was handed and then he leapt his Kylie out of the shuttle bay and he went around the outside route to the armor bay.
The Nekovalkyrja Leiko had found curled up into a ball and continued to moan and spasm.
"Can you stand Ma'am?" Jo tried to gently help the woman up into a standing position, knowing it would help the woman more if she got out quicker.
"Hmm..." Leiko mumbled, before scooping the Neko up and moving down the row to check the rest of the pins.
"P...please...help me..." the human soldier begged Jo. That appeared to be all that was left of the prisoners. All the rest had been murdered minutes before.
Jo nodded, as she scooped her up in her arms and moved on, trying to find any more. As she saw these were the only two, Jo looked to Leiko and sighed. Opening a secured telepathic link with Leiko, she spoke to her "How do we get them back?"
"With our feet, it would seem," Leiko sent back, as she carried the Neko towards the exit. Turning to look at Jo, she smirked, "We'll need to call for a shuttle, or another docking tube, since we're somewhat short of functional AMES suits.
Finally getting her hair sorted out to her approval, Kiyoko pinged a command to the Sakura to find out where everyone was before she decided on where to go next.
With a nod, she tried to do access the MEGAMI system from here, not knowing if it would work or not, and sent a request to the ship for a recovery ship to be sent.
When Miles arrived in the powered armor bay he quickly went about exiting the armored suit, he made sure not to touch any of the goo as he went about going to the decontamination chamber. As he was decontaminating he connected to the MEGAMI as he thought of something. He spoke through the communications system in the ship and he spoke to Hanako. "Ma'am Taisa, I request that you instruct the search and rescue team to also bring back corpses if they find any, I would like to examine the bodies to make sure we don't miss anything."
Rufus' voice suddenly blared over the intercom. "Crap, here they come! Secure that Mishhu and get to battle stations!"
