YE 45.4
YSS Resurgence - Bridge
Gabriela's fingers danced over the controls of the helm. The Resurgence's main engines began to power up, the slight vibrations barely perceptible in the deck beneath their feet. On the main viewer, the unknown star system began to grow larger as the ship moved forward. The greenish-blue hues of a nebula were faintly visible, creating a stunning backdrop for their exploration.
"Activating turbo aether drive now," she announced as the starship moved forward, sending the Resurgence heading deeper into the system. The crew waited in anticipation as they moved closer to the source of the mysterious signal, each second bringing them closer to potentially dangerous territory.
All the while, the Resurgence's sensors continued to scan the surroundings, feeding information to the bridge crew. The tension on the bridge was palpable as they waited for a signal confirmation, the crew silently performing their tasks with a heightened sense of alertness.
"Approaching the source of the signal," Gabriela announced, her voice steady despite the growing tension. "Prepare for possible contact."
"Why would the Mishhuvurthyar be all the way up here?" Kalena pondered aloud.
Captain Aoba's gaze stayed fixed on the main viewer. "It. could be anything from exploration to expansion, or even a lost ship.They're unpredictable," he replied.
"But it's something we should be prepared for," he continued, standing from his chair. "All hands, battle stations. Shields up, weapons ready but hold fire until we have a confirmed target. Let's hope this is a misunderstanding or a false alarm, but be ready for anything."
The quiet beeping and humming of the ship's systems became the backdrop to the organized chaos that followed, as crew members rushed to their posts, and the Resurgence braced for a possible encounter with one of the Star Army's most formidable enemies.
Koyama had only ever heard stories of the SMX, and their more modern incarnation, the NMX. Some from her sibling, more from veterans and the ample databases crammed with all manner of horrors one may wish to learn of the Mishhuvurthyar. It all made her more than a little nervous to face something that had terrified the entire sector for years and still loomed like a boogeyman even after the last war.
Arriving at the starboard doors of the bridge, Mineko was putting on her a Type 37 field jacket as they opened for her. She flung her arm through a sleeve as she bowed curtly and found her console. She hadn't been able to uncover much more than Kalena had from her room, so she was quick to heed the call to battle stations and take up a place amongst the bridge crew.
"Welcome, Mineko," Aoba nodded a greeting to his trusty intelligence specialist.
The interference of the spatial anomalies made it difficult to see what they were dealing with until they got much closer. Finally, they were able to recognize two NMX Scout Ships approaching them.
"Enemy contact confirmed. Two NMX scout vessels incoming," Kalena announced. "Looks like they spotted us, too. They're heading straight towards us."
Silently, Mineko set about pulling up any details she could find on the NMX ship, noting its harassment-focused weaponry and hefty battlepod bay. With her shining red and blue eyes, the analyst looked from her console to the captain.
"Understood," Aoba responded. "Communications, send a broadcast message to the NMX vessels. Let them know we are a peaceful mission from the Star Army of Yamatai and ask them to state their intentions."
"Mishhuvurthyar vessel," Gabriela transmitted, "This is the Star Army of Yamatai gunship YSS Resurgence, NG-S1-575, we are conducting a peaceful rescue mission, please state your intentions."
"Status on their weapons?" Koyama asked, looking toward Kalena.
"They're already firing," Kalena grimaced.
"RESURGENCE, HUHUHUHU," a booming voice returned, audible to the entire crew, "WE WILL SUCK THE MEAT FROM YOUR BONES WHEN WE ARE DONE USING YOU AS HOSTS FOR OUR EGGS. ENJOY YOUR LAST MINUTES OF FREEDOM AND FIGHT IF YOU MUST, BUT KNOW THAT YOUR FATE IS SEALED BY COMING TO THIS PLACE."
There wasn't much Mineko could say in these moments that wouldn't infringe on the coming words of the officers around her, so she stayed quiet as she worked. Two scout ships stood little chance against a gunship, so where the Mishhuvurthyar's sense of confidence came from was her main concern. Mineko started bringing different sensors back online, focusing her sights on what aether wavelengths the Ks-MIES-E3010 had detected. The analyst scoured for more dusty orange aether signals from other NMX ships in the area.
"Sir, the armor bay has enemy combatants within it," Mineko said, the words came as a shock even to the analyst, like someone else was speaking around her while she kept her digital mind on the sensor readouts within it.
"They bypassed the shields?" Koyama asked aloud and to no one in particular.
Aoba grunted. "Kuso! Koyama, see if you can get to engineering and work with Pidole to reconfigure the shield harmonics to prevent them from phasing more attack units though our shields. Mineko do you want to get down there and help the armor team? If your gut says go I'm not stopping you," he offered.
Koyama rose smoothly to her feet, keeping her connection to her station active while making for the bridge's exit as quickly as she could. "Pidole, I'm on my way to engineering. We've hostiles aboard that somehow phased through our shields. Mishhuvurthyar hostiles." dropping the name for added weight. The Star Army had long since developed countermeasures to older Mishhu phasing capabilities. And they seemed to no longer be up to snuff.
Aoba’s question was so sincere that it brought Mineko out of her reverie with the sensors momentarily. It felt like what anyone would do- run to where the metaphorical fire was in order to stamp it out. But what her heart was telling her was to keep looking for the cause of the fire. Why two lone scout ships had the confidence of a full group of harassers continued to hold her attention.
“I’d like to figure out what I can about this attack from here, sir,” Mineko said with a pained expression as she weighed the consequences. If there was nothing new to discover about the NMX presence from the bridge, one less fighting body down in the armor bay could make a big difference. But, even as she said her words, she was looking back to her console, eager to keep at the MEGAMI’s sensors.
Medical Lab
Poppy heard the alert and immediately pulled off her uniform and started putting on her AMES spacesuit. "Zanven," she said, "You should probably check with the XO to see where your battle station is. I'm not sure if we have a starfighter onboard at the moment."
Armor Bay
Yoshiro had just finished polishing his armor when he heard the alert and got into his armor. "Alright, infantry, get in to your power armor and get ready for deployment." Yoshiro said as he made sure that his armor was fully functional. "Make sure that your armor is ready."
"Roger that," Cassie replied, and quickly got to her armor and suited up. "They, uh, sound hostile. Norita, give me all guns and missiles I can carry."
"Hostility is to be expected from the NMX." Yoshiro said with a grimace. "Missiles and guns for me as well, Norita."
When the armor bay doors opened to let the power armor team out into space, somehow the Mishhuvurthyar were already waiting outside and several of them poured into the armor bay!
"Oh, shit!" Cassie shouted as these huge, reddish-pink monsters pushed into the bay. They were as tall as the entire deck and were about the size of a van, with a dozen or so tentacles and a gaping maw on their underside and a crab-like head on the top with more multiple sets of glowing green eyes. They appeared to be protected with armor-scale force-fields that protected them against weapons like the LASR, because when Cassie started shooting, they didn't go down immediately. Any time they looked at one of the Resurgence crew, that crew member got a ringing headache and heard the sounds of people screaming.
"Tanaka to bridge, we have boarders in the armor bay. Moving to engage and repel." Yoshiro said.
Cassie screamed as one of the Mishhuvurthyar focused on her, "WHAT THE HELL?" she shouted, "Fuck I can't fire missiles in here," she added. "Maybe not aether either," she said. "Fuck it," she said, grabbing Pidole's aether saber off the technician's armor storage rack and unleashing the beam into one of the invaders, which blew out the light abvoe her from the shockwave.
Yoshiro heard Cassie scream and moved to engage the Mishhuvurthyar. "Cass, you ok?" He asked with concern as he stabbed one with his aether saber rifle.
"Yeah," Cassie panted, taking cover behind Pidole's Mindy.
Sanda had been in the Armory when the alert came. She got suited in in record time. As the Mishhuvurthyar came pouring into the ship, Sanda went to meet them head on. Armed with a plasma rifle with her Aether bayonet attached, she sliced into the first one she met.
As Sanda closed with the Mishhuvurthyar and sliced at it, it inverted the gravity around her and sent her slamming into the ceiling, and then dropped her and then did it again as it backed away, leaving a trail of neon pink blood that turned into insects as it separated from the creature.
Sanda had not been expecting the sudden gravity change although she should have remembered it from simulations she had fought. She had never even seen a real Mishhu before. The blow knocked the breath out of her. But she recovered quickly. "Así que les gusta jugar rudo, ¿eh?"
"I'LL EAT YOU ONE INCH AT A TIME," one of the Mishhuvurthyar threatened Cassie, smashing through rows of unoccupied power armors and carts of mini-missiles to get to her. Cassie hit it with a glancing aether blow to its personal shields, giving it a smoking gouge in its skull but not killing it. Pink sparkles appeared as nanomachines began self-repair on the affected area.
"You will have to get past me first monster!" Yoshiro said and slammed his aether blade and twisted in the face of the Mishhuvurthyar attacking Cassie.
As Yoshiro stabbed at the Mishhuvurthyar it caught him with its shield and then shoved him back with a gravity manipulation field. "GET REKT" it taunted, pulling out an aetheric minigun. Orange aether spewed out all over the place as it sprayed the area Yoshiro had gotten launched from, but it wasn't super accurate fire so he wasn't get hit too many times.
"I count four of them total," Cassie helpfully commented. "I'm marking them as Alpha through Delta on the targeting scanners and I'm thinking we target them as a team," she suggested.
Sanda suddenly appeared behind the Mishhu with the minigun. She had done a micro teleport behind it and slashed at the weapons energy pad before jumping away again. Leaving behind a flashing present on the other side of the monsters head.
"NANI?" the Mishhu said, trying to turn around but it was too late, her blade struck true and the Mishhu was caught off guard by Sanda's attack.
"We have fought and defeated you in combat before, monster!" Yoshiro said with fire in his voice
(OOC: Continue in Armor Bay section below)
Passageway
With the call to battle stations, Okimi had quickly dashed to her quarters, secured her knitting basket into a locker and made her way towards her assigned damage control station, pulling on her AMES suit as she went. After arriving, she performed a quick visual check of the station's contents to confirm that everything was present and matched the inventory. That done, the caretaker prepared to hurry up and wait.
"Huh, because THAT isn't disturbing in the least." Okimi muttered nervously in response to the booming threat, trying to ignore the deep-seated discomfort that was taking root somewhere around her stomach. Oh wait, she recognized that sensation. Fear. Dread. Horror. Mostly just artificial datum to date, Okimi realized that now she could properly label those feelings and wasn't sure whether that could be considered a good thing or not. For now though, she did her best to push the feelings down until there was a safer time to process the new sensations.
"Okimi, this is the captain, report to the armor bay to fight intruders!" the caretaker was ordered.
"Aye, Captain!" Okimi replied, all the drills in basic training coming back to her as she smoothly drew her service pistol from its holster, without really thinking about it. Deciding speed was probably a virtue, the caretaker utilized her inertial control systems to float a couple of inches off the ground and began making her way to the power armor bay as quickly as she could.
Armor Bay
Trowa had been on his way to the Armor bay when the attack came. The one eyed Nep was a veteran of the Second Mishhu War. He was in his Daisy and began to lay down precision fire with duel 50mm gauges cannons.
Yoshiro's aether blade glowed with deadly intensity as he taunted the Mishhuvurthyar.
As Yoshiro approached the Mishhuvurthyar "Beta", it collapsed into a puddle, went under him, and reformed behind him, grabbing his body and his arm that held the aether blade and then tried to brute force him into hitting his own head with the blade.
Cassie very carefully aimed an aether saber shot at the Mishhu "Delta" as it stalked her across the bay and into the passageway between the armor bay and the shuttle bay. As soon as it rounded the corner she let it have it. "Someone hit Delta from the back while it's on me," she requested. "Center passage!" she added.
Okimi wasn't sure exactly what she was supposed to do, beyond the whole, go to where the fighting was and try not to hit her own side. Fortunately, when she came out of the vertical passageway, it was to the sight of what her training informed her to be Mishhuvurthyar, located just outside of the armour bay. The caretaker blinked before her training kicked in once more and, after stabilizing her position through inertial control, raised her service pistol, switched it to pulse mode, sighted down it and pulled the trigger, sending a trio of energy bolts down the corridor.
Yoshiro fought against ths Mishhu who was trying to force his head into his blade. He used his jets in his boots to push the Mishhu into the wall as hard as he could.
Trowa heard the request from Cassie and moved. He quickly saw Okimi and was glad someone else was on hand to aid Cassie. Together they came up behind Mishhu "Delta" and began to pour fire into it from the rear.
Trapped and taking heavy weapons fire from both sides, the Mishhuvurthyar "Delta" collapsed into a smoking pile of goop in the middle of the passageway, its body riddled with holes. Several chunks of it ran off in the form of rat-sized insects trying to escape.
"Are you alright Heisho?" Trowa asked Cassie. Then noticed the rat-sized forms trying to escape. "Don't let any of them escape!" Drawing his plasma pistol and making rapid yet precision shots thanks to years of practice and his cybernetics.
"Okimi, blast the leftovers!" Cassie pointed at the insect things.
Okimi blinked, wondering if she should be feeling something for having killed a living being, even if it was a monstrous enemy. Then Cassie's command registered and the caretaker shook off her introspection and began sighting in on the small motive lumps of alien flesh. To improve her accuracy, she depressed the trigger only to the halfway point, sending single bolts at each target.
So far, there were two of the four Mishhuvurthyar down, with Charlie and Delta gone this left Beta in the armor bay firing its minigun and Alpha seemed to have disappeared somehow.
Sanda did another micro teleport against Beta. Slashing at the tentacles that held Tanaka. Even in the middle of the fight, she realized that there was one target missing. "Anyone have eyes on the fourth Mishhu?"
Tanaka nodded in thanks and proceeded to kick it so hard he pierced it in the stomach, then activated the power armor's foot rockets, melting from the inside out. "It's on the bridge, Cassie, get there as fast as you can!" He shouted after he checked his sensors.
With the combined efforts of the team, target Beta was finally subdued and dispatched.
Bridge
The ship rumbled and rocked as volleys of aether fire glanced off its shields in the two-versus one battle. "Evasive maneuvers," Aoba ordered. "Gabriela, show them how nimble a Fuji can be!"
"Aye, captain!" the navigator anthro nodded, grabbing her joysticks. "Time for a little blink tactics."
The analyst had filtered out all of the tachyon signals. She felt they were the most probable cause for the Wakaba being jettisoned from known space in the Kikyo Sector to this strange, far-flung region, but they were extraneous information in the heat of battle with the NMX.
With the tachyon signals out of the equation, the readings needed to be pieced together and the gaps had to be filled in with the MEGAMI and Mineko’s own guesses. There were signals that pattern matched the Mishhuvurthyar technology, but being able to differentiate a scout from a whole city run on the dirty orange aether meant a bit of work on the their part. Mineko pulled her dark grey jacket off quicker than she had pulled it on and hung it over the back of her seat before her palm went up to push into her forehead.
“Captain, I think I found something!” Her bangs now disheveled, the analyst’s mouth hung open as it turned wide into a smile as she spoke, then a grimace that clouded her tone as her next words took on a serious realization.
"It looks like there are other Mishhuvurthyar ships in the system, but out of range for now. What is really concerning is that some of these signals indicate a planetary installation, possibly a base from which the scout ships port."
"It sounds like we should come back with a larger force," Aoba said. "Let's leave the system before we get outnumbered too badly. Perhaps, though, we can sneak in a stealth force like a small armor team, without attracting attention. Next, we'll..."
"SURPRISE" Mishhuvurthyar Alpha cackled as it burst into the bridge, immediately going for captain Aoba and choking him with a long, thin tentacle. It began shooting up the room with a stolen plasma rifle from the armor bay, blowing up Gabriela's console and sending her tumbling to the ground missing an arm. Another tentacle slammed into the middle of Kalena's body, impaling her and swinging her around like a ragdoll. Finally it dragged Aoba into its mouth and started eating him.
Mineko’s blue and red eyes went wide beneath her sruffy bangs as her left hand reached for her sidearm. She propped it up but Aoba was so caught up in the Mishhuvurthyar that Mineko couldn’t get a clear shot.
“Kalena!” Mineko shouted to the Taii in a bid to get the starship operator in on the action from another angle, but she was already impaled. "Gabriela!!" Mineko yelled, desperation leaking into every syllable of the pilot's name. Mineko strafed to the side, hovering a bit so that she had a height advantage. She aimed for the soft flesh just above where Aoba was —had been, now that it was dining on him— and she shot three bursts of her NSP's heaviest mode.
The Mishhuvurthyar dropped Aoba, or what as left of him, as it recoiled from the impact and lowered its thick, armored skull to block Mineko's shots, pulling back towards the bridge door, where it went back out into the ship's passageways.
Without pause, Mineko fell to the side of Aoba, checking his vitals as she looked on at the limp bodies before her.
It looked like Aoba had been partially dissolved by stomach acids. When Mineko touched his neck to check for a pulse it burned her hand. The captain was either dead or about to be. Perhaps Poppy could pull off one of her miracles, though.
Mineko was near Aoba's console and turned on comms to the ship, "Resurgence crew, there is a Mishhuvurthyar on deck three near the bridge, all hands..." She added, "Captain down, requesting medical aid to the bridge."
To the MEGAMI, Mineko, "Please engage blast shutters on the bridge, engineering, and MEGAMI room."
Poppy arrived at the bridge but was locked out by the blast shutters.
"MEGAMI, let Poppy in." Mineko said, she was checking on Gabriela at the moment, but stood to manually open the door for the medic.
Armor Bay
Trowa suddenly received an alert from the ship's MEGAMI. His eyes went wide. "Contact on the bridge!" Sanda heard the alert and cursed. "Thunder here. On it!" She said as she sprinted for the Bridge.
Yoshiro dashed after Trowa, ready to give him covering fire.
Trowa cursed as he heard that the Captain was down. Things were not looking good at all. Leaving the last Mishhu to Sanda, he headed for the bridge to see what needed to be done to get the ship back into action.
Okimi was worried about the crew that had been on the bridge, but knew there was nothing she could do for any of them at the moment. She also wasn't trained enough to help hunt down a mobile enemy and would likely just get in the way. What she could do however, was make a visual record of the Mishhu remains and residue, ensure it was all sufficiently deceased and then deploy all the chemicals she could find until the Resurgence's decks were unsullied once more.
Before anything else though, it occurred to Okimi to take a slow look around the power armor bay, just to make sure there weren't any injured crew in there in more dire need of her immediate attention.
Deck 3 Passageways
Beryl and Sakuko opened fire on the last Mishhuvurthyar as it exited the bridge. "There it is!" Sakuko shouted, "Armor team, Sakuko, we have it spotted in Deck 3 forward, on the port side, it's going for the airlock!"
Sanda rounded the corner at a dead run. Practically flying using her suits thrusters. As soon as she saw the Mishhu she opened fire, still flying at it.
Having grabbed a rifle with AP ammo, Yoshiro chased the remaining Mishhu. He saw it as Sanda fired at it and he fired into the Mishhu with AP rounds.
Airlock
Finally, the last Mishhuvurthyar went down, shot to bits as it tried to escape through the airlock but the airlock control panel wasn't accepting the commands to open from it.
The Mishhu lay dead, crushed under Yayoi's armored boot as she glanced over. There was a odd look on her face.
Yoshiro was exhausted and sat down, blood and gore from the enemy covering his armor. "Damn and I just had this armor cleaned." He said tiredly and promptly fell asleep.
Bridge
Poppy rushed into the bridge, stopping to look at Aoba's remains. "Fuck," she grunted. Next she checked on her friend Gabriela. "Tourniquet," she said, grabbing one out of her medical kit. She tossed it to Mineko, "Can you put it on her and get her to the medical lab?" Finally she went to Kalena who was bleeding out and get her on a stretcher and started giving her hemosynth. "I've got to get her in a healing tank," she explained and started moving her. "Aoba I'll have to respawn from a backup."
Trowa was right behind Poppy. He couldn't believe the damage on the bridge or to the bridge crew. It looked like Mineko was the only one still in one peice. Trowa moved over to the Command chair and began to do damage control. They needed to get the ship out of the system fast to regroup.
Happy to have living company amidst the bodies, Mineko was quick to speak, "Blunt force trauma to Gabriela. I-it ate Aoba, I don't know if he's alive or not. B-backup is probably best. Kalena, it impaled." She stopped looking at the Taii to look at the tourniquet she was working.
With a sharpened tone Mineko said, "You got it, Poppy-Heisho." She didn't want to think about what she had seen anymore and focusing on the work was more comforting than anything, even if it was on the pilot's unconscious body. With a hurried glance at the captain's dead body, Mineko left the bridge with Gabriela over both her arms. She saw Trowa at the controls, doing what Aoba would have done in this moment. She remembered that Aoba had anticipated an ambush and her face set in a resolute grimace as she left.
The bridge was filled with a haze of acrid smoke from being shot to pieces and the ship continued to shudder as it took hits from the Mishhuvurthyar ships.
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OOC: JP by Wes, Charaa, Cowboy, Ame, Yoshiro Tanaka, iaincarter
