RP: Terraforming Ake [Terraforming Ake] P1 - Dust Bowl Children

The world spun about her, literally, as Mako was batted away like a small flying bug, then slammed into something hard and skidded down to the brownie surface. The little neko scrambled to her feet, wobbling, disoriented from the blow she had taken.

"Yeah, yeah, gimmi a sec" Mako replied to Akemi, sounding a little sluggish as she fought off the after effects. She grabbed up her mini NSP and kicked off from the dirt, taking to the air again, angling for the Elijah and snapping off multiple aimed shots in heavy mode at the 'roid raging pirate who seemed to have lost interest in her once it had knocked her away.

Not having any special training as a pilot but being no stranger to AI as she herself was one, Akemi had an idea she thought just might work. "Sister Sara, Elijah and Joachim, I am Star Army of Yamatai soldier Ittô Heisho Koga Akemi. I am assigned to protect you and your crew as agreed upon by Origin Industries and the SAoY. Daziel and Niel have been badly injured by pirates that are attacking to kill us and steal you. They killed the last Origin team sent here. As your commander is incapacitated I order you to attack this ship with maximum force wherever it appears to be weakest. Ask Daziel if he can still speak for approval if you must. Ask all other crew members and Dawn Station if he can't. Ask PANTHEON. I also confiscate you as the highest military authority here in a crisis situation if you will not comply." If she could give orders to Yamataian military ship AI through her innate electronic communication ability maybe she could do the same with these.

Seiji looked down at Daziel with a confused expression. He had just dragged the man across a battlefield and now the guy wanted him to actually SHOOT at something? Well... Admittedly, if Seiji was going to shoot at something, having the ship shoot at it first seemed like a very good idea. He made his way to what he estimated would be the appropriate panel for committing homicide.

It was then that he realised again he was not a trained professional. But fortunately he was on a semi-sentient ship. “Ship! I... direct fire onto their ship? Or tell me how to? Ionic pulse cannons?” He was still rattled from his recent experiences and sat down in front of the controls as if that would offer him any more direction on how to deal with the situation.

Franklin kept a watchful eye over Alice and Niel, backing away from the ship with his guns held towards it as they made their way into cover. The ship, at this point had stopped expelling armed men, probably due to Sapphire and Akemi's generous cover fire. And so, with machine gun fire chattering over their heads, Franklin backed Alice and Niel into the open bay of the Elijah. This was happening around the same time that Yori converted her target to a pile of quivering meat lying on the ground and clutching at his armor panels.

Meanwhile, without Yori as a distraction, Jane was able to refocus on Mako-- turning to face the first scalar burst that raked her chest. Jane roared at the pain as if frightening it away and leveled her submachine gun at Mako before the next burst took her right in the fingers and fiercely cooked her flesh through the thick lamellar gloves she'd worn. The next blast glanced off of her armored thigh, eliciting an extended roar before Jane basically had enough. The fearsome junkie threw down both SMGs and dove straight off of the APS and into the open cargo ramp of the pirate ship.

Meanwhilier, Akemi's idea wasn't going so well. All three ships sent back the same pre-written message.

'This order conflicts with Power Management Profile: APS-1 as determined by D. Burton. Please modify power settings or change Power Management Profiles before attempting to use this much power, Officer Koga. New specified operational parameters require more power."

This would've been really bad for everyone if it weren't for the studious Seiji who had just the right amount of no idea what he was doing to approach a manual operations console. You see, while Akemi was asking all three ships to open fire with 'maximum force', Seiji was just telling Sister Sara to fire. He was giving the budding AI the freedom to make its own determination without trying to figure out exactly what he meant. This way, Elijah could power the APS, Joacim could power the volumetric field, and Sister Sara could shrug off enough of her extra load to turn turret and blast the offending skeletal vessel.

And so she did.

The Ionic Pulse Turret mounted just behind Sister Sara's cockpit angled quickly and noiselessly for less than a second to point right into the fuselage of the black ship hovering just above. Then, almost immediately, a pair of greenish-blue pips of light peppered the pirate vessel. It started as a vibration from somewhere inside the ship. Then, it picked up and became more of a shuddering noise. Black smoke belched from that poorly placed vent Sapphire had seen earlier and the entire craft began to list in the air before pulling off with sudden force for the horizon.

On the ground, all was quiet. A soft gust kicked up some of Ake's famous brownie dirt. There was a moaning pirate, one of two survivors holding onto his wound while Don the Donkey worked at gnawing upon the salty fabric that made up his sweaty collar. Even Sapphire's talkative machinegun had run out of ammo at some point and now sat hissing steam from its barrel.

Inside the Elijah, Franklin helped Alice roll Niel onto an infirmary bed. Here in the easy light of the medical bay, without the harsh Ake sun in her eyes, Doctor Mason could see his wounds clearly. Aside from the ear he'd had removed from the left side of his face, he was pretty soundly beaten. His entire face was a quilt of different wounds, one eye blackened, the opposite brow sliced open, both lips split, blood pouring out from a broken nose, and who knows how many dings and scuff beneath his hair. Niel was likely in shock due to the loss of his ear, possibly also concussed, and certainly lacking in any ability to know where he was.

"He ain't gonna die, but shit he ain't derrin' t' well." Franklin commented, dashing for the cabinet where the medical supplies were kept. He tore open the doors and looked back at Alice with his hands still on the handles. "What does he need, Doc?"

Elijah, Infirmary

"He is going to need a whole lot of me right now. But first, I need to do an X-ray, see if there are no internal wounds. Then I can start working properly. He is in a bloody shock, but I don't want to pump him full of adrenalin until I know how bad it is. Ruptured spleen can kill you too." Alice said as she magically summoned a tiny flashlight that every doctor worth their Head Mirror always had somewhere on them. Along with a scalpel. That is a known thruth, every doctor has those. "Well his pupils are dillatated as all fuck. Bad shock."

Alice moved a protable X-ray machine that this space infirmary from future obviously had and took a picture, watching a screen. "Looks like there is not internal bleeding. So I just need to get his old pump going, fix some broken ribs and bandage side of his head. Ya know, we should look for his ear when this all blows over."

"EAT SHIT SHIT EATERS!" Akemi yelled as the pirate ship made its hasty retreat.

"I hope the three of you enjoy going to ship prison," she hollered harshly at the Origin Mules behind her. "I hope they make you play an extremely shitty game that requires an infinitesimal amount of processing power and the only thing they let you process besides it is how bored you feel playing it. And I hope they make it so you can't shutdown or stop playing. You'll regret your disobedience. You could have just adjusted to whatever you thought was best. You've got your own judgment."

Finished trying to playfully scare them, Akemi went about seeking out fallen pirates and gave each besides the the two she had heavy blasted first a regular stun shot to the chest. Then she picked up the pained pirate Don the donkey was carefully guarding by grabbing his collar and held him face to face. "I own you now. You and your friends. You're gonna do everything I say and spill your beans or I'll spill your guts. Tell me about your crew, your ship, your life story and most importantly your treasure. That includes any info on valuables on this planet." Once the Neko was done talking she began to walk with the brigand in hand over to another which she would also grab and then toss in front of Sister Sara. "Someone help me stack these bodies dead and alive. We have booty to plunder."

Sapphire let go the of the machinegun and jumped from the vehicle's back onto the ground. Still shaking from the machineguns recoil, she stumbled and fell to the ground. Elated that she was still one piece, unharmed and full of bravado that she let out whoop of pleasure.

"YEAH! Run you cowards!" At the departing ship.

Forgetting that before she was the one that was trying to dig her way to the other side of the planet. Toting a mud encased weapon that was more harm to her than the enemy. Did that matter to her now? Oh hell no! She faced death right in the eyes and spat lead at it!

Sapphire had a bounce in her step as she strutted about, taking pictures, videos pieces as if she was the producer, director and camera woman all rolled into one. Her soft voice giving commentary of what had happened here as if she was an onsite News Reporter.

"Someone help me stack these bodies dead and alive. We have booty to plunder."

Sapphire looked over at Akemi, "Booty? All I see is...." Seeing the dead bodies, she began to shake as the after effects settled in after the major adrenaline rush of euphoria had faded away. A soft nausea settled in her stomach or was that the proverbial butterflies fluttered.

She moved to help Akemi. "Where is the sprite?" Referring to the Mini-Neko.

"I dunno, but if she's not dead she's probably alright given how small she is," Akemi answered. "I'll call her with my brain."

"You all right Mako?" the helpful guard said both telepathically and normally.

"Anyway, y'know, booty. Who knows what valuables they might have on them. You might think they'd keep all the good stuff on their ship, but there might be a pricey good luck charm or two. Plus there's info to get. They stole our peace, time and health, now it's time we took from them."

Akemi was loving this situation. It was such a great opportunity to talk tough and act like she was in a movie. She turned once more to the prisoner in her hand. "Welcome aboard. You're workin' for me and Origin now. You stole my time and Akemi time ain't cheap. Try not to get fired on your first day. It'd be a real shame."

Seiji sat there as time seemed to slow for him. He watched the impossible, watched how the greenish blue light flashed over and over, raking the appropriately painted black ship with the power of science. It was truly a horrible and awesome sight to behold.

He went slack in his chair. The pirates where retreating. He, Seiji Morimoto, had been part of that. Seiji took a very deep breath, slowly letting it out. Then pushed his glasses up his nose with his middle finger, and walked over to the com station. He pushed the button for an open com. “Daziel is over here. I think he needs medical attention.” He then turned off the com.

Ahh, panic. Shock was starting to catch up to him. At this point it was almost a welcome feeling in comparison to all the madness that had just come to an end. He walked by the injured Neko, his steps becoming swifter with each one he took. A last moment dash took him to the washroom and, as if it where the finish line in some great race, Seiji, the hero, threw up the contents of his lunch. Two dry pieces of toast.

Yori was panicking when she got to the controls for the Joacim, the screen was displaying a message requesting authorization to change the power distribution. Of course there was a standard override that any Origin Technician could put int to allocate the power themselves, but Yori couldn't remember how to do it with the stress of the situation. Fortunately it was not long before she heard the sound of one of the ship's cannons firing and with a quick look she discovered it was Sister Sara. The technician was not sure who managed to fire the canon or how, but that did not matter to her at the time, what mattered was that the canon fire had caused the raiders to retreat.

Joacim -> Elijah Infirmary

Once the pirates had fallen back though there was something more important on Yori's mind, Niel's condition. He was the only person she had really connected with yet, he was the last person she could picture dying right now. She quickly made her way out of Joacim and to Elijah's infirmary to check on Niel, seeing both Alice and Spencer there she spoke up somewhat timidly. "How is he?"

Sapphire wrinkled her face in disgust, but Akemi did have a point. These pirates did invade a peaceful endeavor and caused untold unnecessary stress, mayhem to the group's effort here to settle and terra-form a new planet.

Since they was in the bubble of good breathable air, by the way Don the Donkey was still alive ad moving about. She removed the facemask to cool off her flushed face. It was hot and plus she didn't need it. She attached it to her belt along with other assorted gear she had with her.

She took a cooling drink of water to sate her thirst and squirted a bit of water on her face to rapid cool it not caring if the water got her top wet.

Unaware of the telepathy that Akemi had and hearing her speak to empty air, looked puzzled at her. "Huh? Try using your radio or try yelling. She can't hear you when speak that softly." It was going to be hard to find the Mini-Neko amongst all clutter of the battleground. "

All she wanted right now was a good long hot shower to get the slime off of her as she gathered up weapons dropped and forgotten along with Daziel's Katana(s). They did look rather expensive. Maybe she could talk someone out of their rations of water for her extended bath.

"I'm a mewmew," Akemi responded happily with a wide toothy smile that accentuated her canines. "I've got telepathy. I can talk to machines and my fellow Neko with my mind. I can read the minds of lesser beings too. I can even read the thoughts they do not yet realize they subconsciously think or wish to hide from themselves. Observe!"

The soldier touched the fingertips of her empty hand to the top of the side of her head and shifted her body to face Sapphire dead-on. "You are very hot and thirsty," she said as she narrowed her eyes as if entering a state of intense concentration.

"You would like to take an extra long hot shower because you're all sweated up after what happened. You are unnecessarily afraid of water rationing despite there being a natural source of water nearby and have still liberally applied water to your body regardless of this concern because you are attempting to sexually entice me and you would like an excuse to share your extra long hot shower with me under the flimsy pretense of water rationing. You hope such a sexually charged event would doubtlessly lead to an even more intense climax by the end of the night."

Akemi sighed as if at her wit's end. "Truly, your non-Neko minds are so simple. I hope by now you and this captive realize the futility of trying to hide anything from me. And fret not, my answer is yes."

Sapphire face turned red at sharing a bath someone and even mentioning sex. Even though she had biology in high school and knew about things that she hadn't had a chance to experiment around with, except for few kisses. She wasn't as shy either as she had showered with other females. Of course they was her age and that subject was the farthest from their mind as they had more important things to discuss. Captain of the School League team and the Team; The upcoming dance of who was going with whom and what they was going to wear; Latest gossip of other girls that weren't part of that period's P.E. class.

Her eyes widen at the thought of having the older female, Akemi, sharing a shower with her. She stammered, "ye-yeah .. thanks," unsure of what she was thanking Akemi for, but at least willing to give some of her water ration to her comfort. Akemi had gotten the extra water rations and shower correct. She was willing to share, but contact? Well some to get to the hard to reach parts of her back.

She involuntary took a step back from Akemi's lustful leer at her. "Huh... ma-maybe-be we .. Yo-you ties these thugs up, while I go look for the Sprite." Gives a hopeful nod as that was the most brilliant thing she could come up with. It had unnerved her that Akemi could read her mind like that.

Eddie, the School Stoner, was always saying how purple and gold spotted tinfoil hats with antennae, more the better, could thwart the Yamatiain's Neko Mind Readers and Machines that they carried on their warships. She should try it to see if it worked or not against Akemi.

"You're very welcome. Can't blame you for being interested in me after all. No one can resist the Akemi charm. You just go make a list of all the crazy, nasty, demeaning stuff you want me to do to you. No need to be shy, I know all about how you normals are. I'm only three, but I'll do my best to satisfy your deviant cravings. I just hope I can keep up with your voracious sub-Neko appetite." As Akemi spoke she went about finishing piling up the buccaneer bodies, making sure to be careful with the two in white robes lest she accidentally trigger some trap or they try to make any sudden movements. Once they were all together she'd go about stripping them of all their armor and weapons and any clothing beyond their undergarments so she could find any dangerous concealed items or valuables. Any struggling from her captives meant another prompt stun shot.

When Akemi was done she'd have five distinct piles: regular clothes, weapons, armor, prisoners and swag.
Her new best buddies would also be making another friend, mister molecular tape.

After depositing an array of splints, bandages, and assorted chemicals on a cart, Franklin leaned against Niel's bed and replied to Yori while taking his knife to the bottom of his boot to get of some piece of detritus or another. "Whelp, he might be eatin' breakfast through a straw for a while, but he's alive. Got beat up pretty bad, probably gonna be a little bit uglier now. I hope y' weren't inne him fer his looks."

Franklin grunted and twisted around, turning his foot and boot up to see what this last stubborn piece was. As his ankle tilted, a stream of water from the lake gushed out and left a puddle on the floor. Franklin seemed not to notice, however; he was fixed on the offending thing on his boot. "And his ear got cut off, then stepped on a whole bunch."

Illustrating this, Spencer peeled off the very ear they'd been missing from the bottom of his boot between a thumb and forefinger. With a sigh, he produced a flask and poured some alcohol into a plastic bowl on the medical cart before plopping the ear in after it. The old man looked back over at Yori with saddened eyes having done this, as if he'd kicked some kid's favorite puppy.

This is when Daziel floated in. The man-turned-Neko had floated slowly out of Sister Sara once Seiji had disappeared, bumping into this or that and tumbling slowly through the air with his gravity manipulation powers. He was beaten much worse that Niel had been, had one of his newly revealed elven ears almost dangling from his head. Still, he was much better for the wear because of his Neko body. In fact, he wasn't truly injured as he was exhausted. His body was giving him the minimal possible output so it could struggle to turn his morning bangers and mash into hemosynth. Speaking of hemosynth, that's what he said when he floated in.

"Hemosynth. Just..." Daziel bumped into one of the beds as he floated in, clearly disorientated. He twisted about in the air and slumped against the side of the bed with a sigh and a moan. "Just one packet will do me, I should think."

Outside, Akemi's loot pile had grown sizably. What she now stared down was a pile of sweaty and ragged clothes, some covered with bloodstains; A pile of mix-matched Styrling Everyday armor vests, some with the words 'POLICE' poorly painted over, others plain; a pile of mostly naked corpses who would've been drawing flies on a planet that was forgiving enough to support the tiny insects; three living men in their boxers, two who were rudely bleeding all over her dirt and one who had just silently nodded along with all of her instructions while doing his best to angle his head away from the sun and nurse a donkey-kick wound to the head; and a moderately-sized pile of KS cards, poorly maintained firearms, and the occasional piece of jewelry. With this all laid out before her, the one guy who was conscious amongst the prisoners sputtered out a sad and bored sounding, "I know who you are. You're--" He winced and shook his head a little against the pain, "You're that singer girl. Hey, before you kill me, could you autograph something and send it to my kids?"

His face was perfectly straight, as if he were invoking some sort of ancient pirate code that she'd have to do him some kind of favor.

"They love your fucking music. I like to send them shit every now and then, mainly to rub it in my ex-wife's face. Why don't you help a guy out before you dust him? And how about a cigarette, sweety? I'm fuckin' dyin' over here."

"Well as long as you don't give me any more trouble and you give us some exposition I won't be dusting any of you. I'll autograph whatever you want, get you at least one cigarette and I'll have you all patched up. But try anything funny and you might get stunned so hard you end up so brain damaged that if your current self could see you, it'd wish the fucked up you had the mental capacity to beg for death."

With that said Akemi spoke into her radio, "We've got three live pirates that need aid and a bunch of loot to look at. How about coming here and giving them each a cigarette in exchange for some entertainment Franklin? One of them is going to tell us what's going on."

Then she continued to address the thug. "If your kids love me then I love them. How old are they and whatdya want signed?"

Elijah, Infirmary

As Alice worked she looked up at Daziel. "Sit on free bed, I will get to you when I am done here." She said with a bit of disinterest. "Niel here is a poor simple nepleslian, he is not very fit either. He kinda needs me right away. I don't want to sound like a bitch, but you can wait a bit." She explained and continued working on Niel. Liquid bandage there, sewing small cut here, bandaging his chest to tie it down so his ribs would not move. And of course a lots and lots of disinfectant poured all over the beaten nepleslian.

When she was done, Alice walked to fridge and took out a packet of hemosynth. "Yes, Hemo can never hurt for our kind," She said as she walked to Daziel. She grabbed an IV and skillfully fished out Daziel's vein, letting the life-giving juice flow into the man. "Well, I am still goin to take X-ray and all those funny things, just to be sure. Franklin be so kind and check on others, get anyone hurt here. Even badguys. Dead men cannot talk."

Sapphire rolled her eyes as Akemi sounded like one of those high school Casanovas that are so full of themselves that made them popular and sickening at the same time. But here, Sapphire really appreciated Akemi's Battle prowess and the Sprite's as she referred to the Mini-Neko. She got off a retort as Akemi spoke on the radio. "I bet you'd use Sprite as a toy if you could!"

Sapphire knelt near the piles of mixed matched armor and stuff. She began looking through the gathered 'loot', staying away from the worn clothing of the pirates, now captives. She was more interested in the KS cards. She began adding them up as she got their data off of them. A few odd pieces of jewelry that caught her fancy, she pocketed it as discreetly as possible.

She gave a soft whistle at the amount that was adding up. She wondered briefly as greed took hold of her, if she could transfer the amounts from these cards to hers. She would be one rich little girl and buy the ranch her daddy and her brothers always talked about after looking through several farm and ranch magazines they subscribed to.

Elijah Infirmary

Yori nervously listened to Spencer and watched him, but when he pulled the ear from under his show she visibly recoiled and gagged, trying not to throw up. She managed to hold back, at least until she saw Daziel staggering into the room with a barely attached ear. The gore was too much for the woman and she rushed out of the infirmary heading outside.

Outside

Yori rushed outside and to the border of the APS' clean zone, falling to her knees, expelling the contents of her stomach into the soil. She never had a strong stomach for gore and seeing it so often and so close recently was more than the technician bargained for. It took a full minute before Yori could even thinking of moving and whens he did, she pulled herself up and looked around at the scenery. A nearly dead planet with a bunch of naked guys laying on the ground and companions that might be crazy, she wasn't sure yet. The only thing there that made it pleasant for here was the three well engineered ships and the APS tower.

That's right the APS was in the middle of a fire fight, if anything went wrong with it they could be in for a rather painful experience. She moved over to the tower and synched her data pad to it and began running a diagnostic to make sure everything was okay.

"Using a mini as a toy," Akemi sighed shrugging her shoulders while raising and upturning her hands. "Clearly something only a depraved non-Neko would come up with. Are there any lows they won't stoop to?" She then watched the farm girl rifle through the goods she had finished sorting only a moment ago. "Ahem, who says you'll be getting any of that? I'm pretty sure Don the Donkey did more than you when it came to handling these bandits. He certainly didn't need any instructions or backup to get into the thick of things. I guess you're looking for a reason to become indebted to me so you can pay me back with sexual favors. So young yet already so little shame."