RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 2

"Of course." Still smiling, the green haired neko positioned the arm bearing the reader part of the device over Masako's forehead and then tapped a few things on its console before it began emiting a hum and soft blue shone in the young neko's eyes.

An unbearable level of drowsiness suddenly washed over the Juni. Before she even knew it, Masako's eyes had closed and she slipped off into unconsciousness.

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Masako slowly woke up, laying on one of the examination beds the nurse had been inspecting before. Her new, still slightly damp NH-29 body was covered with a blanket and her shoulder-length hair (along with the fur on her ears) were still heavy with moisture. The experience seemed somewhat unremarkable: it wasn't like she was reborn so much as waking up from a good night's sleep.

As she slowly regained her bearings, the nurse came back and ran a scan on her with some handheld device. "Hello again. How do you feel?"

Masako's pitch black eyes opened slowly as she came out of her sleep to see the green-haired nurse over her with a handheld device. Blinking a bit at the lights above, the young neko frowned slightly. "I can't believe I was so nervous over that," the young woman said out of embarassment. Slowly sitting up on the bed, the oblivious neko allowed the sheet over her to fall off her torso as she raised her arms above her head and stretched her slender body.

"I don't feel any different at all...all though I do believe I won't be sleepy any time soon," she commented as a sudden chill went across her bare skin. "Ano...there wouldn't happen to be a bath or shower facility any where near here, would there?" she asked calmly as she looked down at her new body, noticing her bar code wasn't on her breast anymore. She actually began to look all around her body until she found it on her left backside. "Hmmm..." she hummed as she mentally took note of that.

James quickly took cover as the machine gun bursts started tearing holes in the ground around him. He wasn't sure just how much damage a round would do to his armor and really didn't want to find out.

As his cover was slowly shot to pieces, the Geshrin peeked around the corner. He'd have one chance before the Epsilon would draw a bead on him. Loading a fresh AP clip, he pivoted around the corner and fired, hoping to at least disable the armor.

The nurse brought Masako's folded uniform to her along with the new rank pin. "There should be communal facilities where you've been assigned quarters." She replied.

The changes in Masako's new body weren't just limited to longer hair and her genetic tattoo being on another part of her body: she had no fingernails and toenails anymore, she only have two pairs of incisor teeth in her mouth between her canines instead of the usual four and her skin had a darker colored streaking over her spinal column area.

However, slightly more startling was the way her 'head' worked... there seemed to be a total lack of tactical operating system or of any operating interface in the first place. Though the digital mind of the NH-29 was much more intuitive and had its primary and secondary memory merged into one package. It was somewhat wierd.

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The Epsilon ran around the corner before James could manage to bring his rifle to bear and opened fire against. The ordonance from the Setsuna armor's machinegun rattled James' Daisy like hail.

OoC: James did not need to change his ammo clip; he had certainly not used all 100 shots he'd had at his disposal. As for Masako, she's working right; he digital mind integrated her primary and secondary memory, so, it'll take some getting used to.

James grunted as the rounds impacted on the armor. He brought his left arm up, using the mounted shield to absorb some of the impacts as he tried to put some cover inbetween the two.

"Blast. AIES, is the damage bad?"

The Epsilon dodgely stalked after James' retreating Daisy, its continuous fire forcing the latter to angle his shield up and down to try blocking most of the hits. In one bound, the Setsuna armor sent its more-than-400 pounds mass crashing against the Daisy with a hydraulic-assisted dropkick that sent the former fly away and crash through a flimsy brick wall.

As the dust cleared, James heard the suit's AIES respond over the ringing in his ears. "Scratches over my paintjob, Sir."

"Wakarimasita," Masako replied as she swung her legs so that they dangled off the bed. Taking the uniform from the nurse's grasp gently, the young neko smiled and nodded, "Arigatou gozaimasu." It was then she realized that there was more different about her, for one, lack of fingernails and toenails. Her canines also felt a bit closer together than they had been before, with two incisors missing. She also realized her mind wasn't what it once was. No longer did she have a secondary memory, in fact, many things she had stored in her secondary memory was now included into the only memory she had. The lack of tactical OS also made one of her eyebrows arch. "Ok...this is weird," she mumbled before she began to slide her skirted uniform over her nude form.

"I seem to have a lot more changes than I realized," she said in surprise before looking up at the nurse. "Ano...is there anything you can advise me on before I leave? Any critical difference between the NH-17 and the NH-29 that could affect my combat skills?"

The nurse laughed. "You are hardly the first to ask me that." She chuckled some more before she composed herself and continued: "Instead of relying on a tactical operating system, most of the functions were integrated in your survival functions. You might feel a little bit less aggressive and this might encourage you to be more cautious in combat, but other than that, you should be able to process data even faster than you could before and your affinity in operating power armor should in fact increase."

The nurse came to sit besides Masako and tapped the new NH-29 neko's forehead lightly with her index finger. "You still have an assisting operating system, but it's in the background of your mental perception and is certainly a lot less cluttered than the NH-17R interface. The only times it should become more obvious to do would be when it is in diagnostic mode, when you access and transfer files or when you interface with a SPINE-equipped power armor."

"S...sou ka," Masako replied as her cheeks flushed with embarassment at the nurse's laugh. Her cheeks darkened even more as her own forehead was tapped lightly. Sure, she was only a year old...but that didn't mean she had to be treated like a youngling. The young neko pushed such thoughts aside, that was wrong of her...the nurse was nice enough to be explaining things to her. Now wasn't the time to allow insecurities to surface.

"That does create less clutter," she agreed but then scratched her ear in wonder. "I've heard these NH-29 body's have limited superhuman strength compared to the NH-17....what exactly does that mean anyway?"

"You're about as strong as a very strong human." The green-haired nurse replied.

James crawled to his feet and shook the dust off of his armor.

"Good to hear. I don't like him very much."

Holstering the rifle, the Geshrin ran as silently as he could manage, trying to circle around and get in a position to surprise the Epsilon.

"Ah," Masako said as she pulled her boots on and slipped off the bed, her petite body only causing her boots to make a barely audible thud upon the deck. "Domo arigatou gozaimasu," the young neko thanked the nurse with a bow. "I really appreciate you patience in answering my questions," she said with a small smile. "May you have a pleasant day," the young Kurohoshi said as she turned and headed towards the communal baths.

Even if the body was brand new...the residue of fluids still clung to her body, making her feel slightly icky. Besides...a hot, relaxing bath or shower seemed to be a nice idea before meeting her other crewmates.

Unfortunately, unless James did something to forcefully withdraw from combat, getting the jump again on the Epsilon was unlikely. His opponent leapt over broken bricks and pelted at his Daisy again with that annoying machinegun.

One of the sabbot rounds made a nasty smack behind James' shoulder before it trailed smoke from the small indentation that the shot left in it, causign the Geshrin to nearly lose his balance before his armor's intertial control system could help him recover.

A light green damage indicator appreared on his HUD's master system display. "Right shoulder armor compromised." The AIES warned.

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A trip back up on the elevators returned Masako to the quarter area that the Miharu's crew had apparently been assigned to. There was a dining hall with an attached kitchen, a set of suites including her commander's, a small lounge that seemed mainly dominated by potted plants, a laundry room and the communal baths and showers, which were a lot roomier than the ones on the Mikomi.

James staggered back and bit back some select words.

"That's it. Time to be direct."

Holding the shield in front of him, he rushed the Epsilon armor, juking and weaving to give the other pilot as hard a time getting a bead on him as possible.

There was a cacophony of ringing sounds echoing in the ruined building James' was in as the Epsilon's machinegun spat its ordonance at him, with empty shell casing flying out to bounce off the floor. There was only so much the geshrin could do to get close of such incessant fire and he was being driven back defensively.

Until the firing stopped. "Target weaponless!" The AIES almost shouted as the surviving enemy flung its useless weapon toward James and jumped for the hole the Daisy had previously crashed through.

James dove under the flying machinegun and clambered back to his feet, giving chase to the Epsilon.

"Oh no, you're not getting away from me after all that!"

He flexed his fingers in anticipation.

The Epsilon raced out in the street, made a sharp turn that left black marks over the pavement and made a prodigious leap to stomp hard besides the Delta Yukari had finished off earlier. One of its hands snaked out to claim the carbine that had been the downed armor main weapon.

Finally entering her room, the young neko sighed as she stripped her uniform off from her body. A quick change into her yukata and her bikini bottoms, Masako gathered her toiletries and dirty uniform as she headed towards the communal bath and showers. "Let's see...a quick shower, a nice soak, that should do nicely for now," she mumbled as she stopped by the laundry room to stick her skirted uniform into the wash.

From there, the bath area was the next destination. Though, Masako didn't really expect anyone to be in the bathing area at the moment. Most of her crewmates were probably training at the moment, leaving her to relax before meeting them. "Maybe I should ask KAMI for material on the new armors and systems so I can read something while I soak," she pondered outloud.

"Do you require information on an holographic window, or would you rather the synthesis of a written manual?" Scorpio Base's KAMI returned as Masako entered the changing room.

I suppose this is why it's a simulator. In a real situation that misfire may have commanded a high price out of any one of us. Morita looked on at the heaps that were destroyed and watched as the one that was different - Epsilon? The names didn't really mean much to him - rounded a corner and disappeared, trailing gunfire.

AIES was kind enough to update Morita that there was a friendly under attack. Which is all well and good, but what would - or should - he do about it? The answer, of course, is to act on impulse. Morita began to close in, trying to let his reflexes do the job instead of actively imagining what the power armor was supposed to do. Close in, and take that Epsilon on its blind side - kick it, tackle it, grab it, whatever it took to get that thing off of that friendly. Whatever close combat options this suit had, Morita was determined to find out - the hard way.