Western Wastes
YSS Hana
4日 6月 YE 39
1300 Hours
Deployed earlier that year, the YSS Hana had gone out on a long-range exploratory mission into what was now being termed the 'western wastes' that lay away from the familiarity of the Kikyo Sector. The Midori-class scout ship had been on its own for quite some time and had only just begun its journey home to Yamatai along a new course to be plotted and surveyed.
The power armor team of the Hana had been sent out to inspect further signals being picked up on an asteroid in the center or a barely navigable cluster. The Midori was only just small enough to get through the asteroid cluster on sublight engines with its sensor array stored to reduce the width of the girthy ship and, so, was flying in blind. The asteroids became too densely packed, though, and the away team was formed up from the bulk of the crew and they suited up while the Midori-class idled just out of the Mindy 4's teleportation range.
"We are to find out as much as we can about the signal coming from approxiately 4 AU from the ship's position. We are to teleport as close as we can and thrust the rest of the way," the XO of the YSS Hana said as she clapped her hands in front of her while she exited the airlock. After leaving the ship and thrusting away from it marginally, she twisted around and looked to the other six exiting in their Mindy 4 power armors and went on, "Let's get this over with, girls."
Probably one of the smaller power armored figures of the squad was the last out of the airlock and gingerly thrusted away from the safe haven. This was not Mist’s first time out in open space, but it always made her a bit uncomfortable at first. Forming up with the rest of the squad, she made sure to stick close to her good friend, Shelly.
Probably the only other buxom blonde in the group, they had known each other for years, even before being stationed together on the YSS Hana. They had met on the YSS Illustrious and become fast friends almost immediately. This friendship had practically become a sisterhood over time… even though the former sprite still had a hard time differentiating close friends and family. Shelly had always been the rock in their relationship, pushing Mist to do great things and open up from her imaginary shell.
Having her friend nearby eased some of the initial discomfort, and soon enough, the medic felt completely normal. Dust and small bits of debris brushed past her MINDY 4 power armor as she listened to the XO’s briefing. Mist half wondered what kind of signal could be out here in the middle of nowhere, but the thought of a ship in distress being ravaged by this asteroid field came to mind. A small shiver traveled down her spine at this, and her resolve to help in any way strengthened.
Mentally counting the number of personnel in her squad, the medic realized that most of their names eluded her. It was not simply because of how new she was to the ship, unfortunately… She had always felt a little out of place in new settings. Fortunately, Mist wasn’t entirely alone with Shelly here, and her suit’s AI was already feeding her the names, biographies, and medical records of the others. Making a promise to kick herself into gear about mingling with her fellow crew members, the medic stored the relevant data away for later and prepared to advance.
The power armor team assembled into a loose group and the XO chirped out, "Let's go." She teleported to the point 3 AU away from the YSS Hana, as did the rest of the away team right behind her.
Amongst them was Shinrin Yoku, a pale, red and white haired, and greenish eyed Neko that had been alive to see enough conflict to be able to sniff something wrong in the air. But, she wasn't in charge, the XO was. So she kept quiet and looked to the destination of the signal that the sensors on her suit were able to pick up.
They all used their combined field systems to move them through space towards the asteroid and made it nearly there before the XO raised a hand and the grouping of the away team behind her paused as she spoke out.
The XO said over comms, "Wait."
It was at that moment that the sensors of every Mindy armor lit up and showed that there was movement on the asteroid via their ultra-wide band radar. A ship suddenly appeared from the surface after having looked like a part of the terrain on their preliminary scans. Now that it was moving, though, the XO spoke out to their own ship and gave orders.
"YSS Hana actual, we have come upon a ship. We will form the first assault against them before they can make it to our vessel if they are an enemy! Away team, that means we hold them off if they engage!" she said.
The ship pulled forward and shot out an pinkish weapons pulse and Shinrin Yoku looked at her XO after she had given orders only to see pieces of her being torn from her as if in slow motion. Then all at once, she was gone along with four others of the away team. Shelly, Hasagawa, Aimi, Lilta, and the XO, all gone. Yoku turned her head to look at where the weapons pulse extended to and watched as it forced asteroid after asteroid to be decimated by its power before it ceased. She turned her head back to the ship and called out to the away team after realizing she was the highest ranking personnel present.
"Orders are orders! Hold position!" Shinrin Yoku shot out her own aether submachine gun as she glided backwards on turbo aether plasma engines and then pummeled forward through the space between her and the ship to antagonize it further.
Everything seemed to be going fine, and then all hell seemed to have broken loose. Mist wasn’t sure if the force that had pushed her away was a last minute shove from Shelly or the impact of her friend being obliterated right in front of her. All she saw was a blinding pink light before four of her six fellow squadmates’ life meters crashed to red lines on her display. Only her own life meter and those of Yoku and another girl remained in peak condition besides heightened heart rates for obvious reasons.
Besides a bit of shrapnel impacting harmlessly on her Mindy’s exterior, she seemed fine physically, but her best friend and the others had just perished in an energy hellstorm. She wanted to scream or cry or just something, but her training had taken over at this point. The blonde medic used her thrusters to dive behind some additional asteroids for cover as she heard Yoku’s command.
Readying her own aether submachine gun, Mist took in a deep breath before replying with a slight quiver in her voice, “U-understood!” Rounding out of her temporary cover, she attempted to provide her sole remaining squadmate some covering fire. Whether it was effective or not, she wasn’t sure… especially since their opponent was an entire warship.
The enemy ship was hit by the three-Neko team's weapons, but they did little but alert the ship to their presence and as the ship pushed past them and towards the YSS Hana, its turrets shot out, killing the Neko beside Mist and in front of Shinrin Yoku, who looked at Mist and spoke quickly.
"We need to teleport to their position." Shinrin said to their ship, "YSS Hana actual, this is Ittô Heisho Shinrin and we are coming to your position, along with the enemy vessel."
"We see the ship, Ittô Heisho. Stay where you are!" came the response.
"Bu—" Shinrin said but was cut off.
"Stay and we'll come back for you! We're going to evade the enemy."
"Hai!" Shinrin said in Yamataigo, then looked to Mist with a look of contained concern on her face, though Mist would have a hard time seeing it under her Mindy's helmet.
They are.. what? was the thought running through Mist’s head as she attempted to tend to their fallen compatriot. It was no use, however, as too much of her body had been destroyed by the blast. “See you when you wake up,” she whispered to herself, referring to when the fallen would be revived on a later date.
Turning to her the only surviving member of her squad while keeping an eye on the enemy ship, her suit AI provided Mist with a name to call out to, “What are your orders, Shinrin-Heisho?” Concern was apparent in her usually meek voice, as the thought of being left behind in hostile territory didn’t appeal to her sense of survival.
Not only was this hostile territory, but it was also deep space. Their suits would only have so much power or supplies for them to survive in the vacuum, and exhaustion might set in before that happens if they were forced to evade the enemy at every turn. All of these thoughts were rushing through her head as the Minkan waited for her superior to make a decision.
Shinrin had to think and had to get them to relative safety before their position was approached again. If she could do that, she did not know. So, she went with something she could do, get them information. Not taking a moment to feel the devastating pain of losing her comrades, Shinrin Yoku looked around them and formed a plan. She swept the area with her scanners and picked up marginal activity from the asteroid the ship had been on that hadn't been there before the enemy had come hurtling towards them.
"We need to get to where that ship came from!" Shinrin Yoku said to Mist. "We can either stay here and wait for the inevitable or go there and get some answers to take back home. What do you say?"
Mist dared to glance at the remains of her friends and swore that she saw Shelly’s cracked helmet facing her, as if her dead friend was trying to pass on strength even from beyond. Taking in a deep breath, the medic nodded more to herself than Yoku.
“Alright, let’s go!” she replied with newfound determination “…Shelly and the others wouldn’t want us to just sit around waiting to die, too.”
She turned to the source of the enemy vessel, priming her weapon. If the ship had truly been hiding near that asteroid, then there might be more enemies hiding there as well. Mist formed up near her superior but not close enough where a single barrage from the departing enemy warship could take them both out at once.
Not knowing exactly what Shelly and the others would want, but knowing what she thought was best might get them killed and doing what she thought was not a good option would get them killed just as much, Shinrin Yoku began moving herself towards the asteroid. Soon she and Mist were near it and could complete scans.
"There's something on the other side of it," Shinrin said evenly.
They made their way to just on the outskirts of the asteroid and Shinrin sent out her nodal support bits. In no time at all, she had gotten visual feed of what exactly was on the other side of the asteroid. There was a large metal structure drilled into the side of the asteroid which lay inside of the asteroid completely. The only thing that extended from it was a chrome ring big enough for a cruiser. Shinrin called back her NSB's soon thereafter.
"It looks to be an automated fueling station. What do you advise we do?" Shinrin both said and asked.
They had approached the asteroid without weapons fire raining down on them. So far, so good… Mist though to herself as Yoku put her bits to work and began thoroughly scanning the planetoid’s surface around them for any possible sensors that may have alerted the enemy to their presence. Nothing immediately popped up on her displays, but that did not mean that passive sensors weren’t out there.
The medic thought for the moment as she analyzed the data the NSB’s had recovered, but she was no tactician. Finally, she spoke her mind, “If it’s a refueling station, then the enemy ship has to come back at some point, right? It might chase the Hana for a while, though, so we should… I don’t know.. gather information? It might give us a clue as to why they openly attacked us in the first place.” The more she rambled, the less confident the blonde Minkan felt, but there was little else that she could think of doing right at this moment.
Shinrin Yoku nodded, "You're right. That's the least we can do. Let's go forward ourselves to gain intel." In the blink of an eye, she was pushing through space quickly and determinedly with Mist behind her and soon they were at the entrance to the asteroid's refueling station.
The massive chrome structure extended outwards almost as much as the circumference of the hole that a ship would enter through. Along the edge of it that touched the asteroid itself was what looked like a metal railing, but it was much to big to be such. At the center of it all was the hole in which ships could pass and Shinrin looked to Mist before moving even more forward at a low speed. In the distance of the hollowed out asteroid was a dim verdant light she had the urge to float towards and explore, but an airlock with a deep green control panel was what she saw before she could get very far into the station.
She spoke out to Mist, "Best close in on this together, Mist-hei." She thrusted towards the airlock close enough to see a bit of a window into it and sent out an NSB to look into it. "All clear," Shinrin said as she looked to the blonde in the Mindy armor near her and she spoke again. "We'll sidle up on either side of the airlock, you can have an NSB open it with the controls, then we'll head in together. Sound clear?" Shinrin was already moved into position as she asked her last question.
As the duo approached the asteroid’s opposite side, Mist couldn’t help but gape at the sheer magnitude of the station. It must’ve taken a while to carve into the rock and set everything up. She set this mental note aside for now as they had discovered the airlock. The lighting gave her a slight chill for some reason, but the medic dismissed this feeling as silly at this critical moment. Her brown eyes peered through her helmet’s visor, making sure that no one else was around as her superior examined the airlock.
“Hai!” Mist replied to her Yoku’s order and released two NSB’s from her suit before getting into position opposite of the other girl. One was programmed to cover their backs and detect anyone or anything approaching; while the other began to work the airlock controls so that they could enter the facility. If the enemy had anyone stationed inside, either they already knew the power armored figures were coming or would be in for a rude awakening in a few moments.
The airlock cycled open and the chamber inside was metallic and worse for wear. Dingey on the edges and corners, it was much less than the sterile type of Star Army airlock the girls were used to. They entered in and soon the airlock behind them hissed closed just before the one in front of them opened. They were inside now.
What greeted them was a sitting mostly sienna colored and bare-bodied antlered woman with a white belly. She had hooves for feet and hoof-like hands that splayed out as she held what looked like a datapad in them. She was slightly turned away from the two of the YSS Hana personnel and about ten meters away, and seemed to be lost in her own little world.
Shinrin Yoku was furthest away from the creature and said to Mist, "Engage as if hostile."
Mist wrinkled her nose in disgust at the state of the airlock, but it would be hard to tell with her helmet on. The sight of the alien creature was even more puzzling, but they had the element of surprise this time. She brought her submachinegun to bear against her unaware opponent. Although a little upset at striking unarmed enemies, the medic did not recognize the exact species and was unsure of how dangerous they were even unarmed.
Plus, the image of Shelly’s death flashed through her mind as her finger lightly tugged on the trigger, sending a single burst of aether energy through the back of the creature’s head. The antlered woman’s head was vaporized instantly with surviving bits of her antlers flailing in multiple directions and her body collapsing into a twitching heap on the floor.
Swiftly moving to secure the area around the corpse, Mist used her first NSB to scout around the nearby corners to survey the immediate area as well as see if the commotion had alerted anyone else. She waved her companion forward as her probe did its work.
`
Mist's NSB's showed no signs of life through the passageways just near the entrance from the airlock and Shinrin got the data back from them with her leader support pack she had equipped dorsally. Shinrin Yoku came forward and studied the body on the floor while she squatted down.
"Whatever this is, I'm guessing it either supplied the ship that attacked us or is of the same species that did so. It was necessary to take it out," Shinrin said to Mist. "Let's continue."
The two made their way through several hallways and passages before they encountered a main reactor room that had a catwalk around a central glowing green reactor core with a spindly metal encasement from which several siphons and tubes were hooked up, which led outwards to a docking bay for ships.
"Any ideas?" Shinrin Yoku asked.
Recalling the scouting NSB to her suit, the medic made a mental note to reacquaint herself with the medical oath on a later date… when their lives weren’t in sudden peril. She simply nodded in acknowledgement of Yoku’s reasoning before continuing onward. The massive reactor room seemed to be bathed in the light from the core itself, and without much hesitation this time, Mist pointed towards the network of piping connected to it.
“Maybe we can sabotage the core? I am not sure how this technology would react to damage, but hopefully there is another ship that we could escape on in that docking area.” She shrugged before voicing her final idea, “Or we could search for a command center of some sort to look for answers first.” It wasn’t much to go by, and the facility itself seemed massive. Searching everywhere would take time, and that was a precious commodity that neither of the girls had at this time.
Sabotage it is," Shinrin said coolly. She looked to Mist and said, "I'll search for a getaway ship while you find a way to damage the core without blowing us both up in the process." She took a moment to breathe in, then out and then said, "It's been really fun working with you on the Hana, but especially today. Being alone with only one person, well..." She bit her lip, then cut herself short and nodded before she turned towards the docking bay and began sprinting.
Fun? Mist cocked her head to the side slightly while trying to decide if Yoku was joking or if she just had a… different definition for ‘fun’. Either way, the other girl had sprinted off, so it was now down to the medic to figure out how to rig the core to go boom. She nagivated the catwalk carefully while also keeping an eye out for more of those aliens. The one she killed earlier couldn’t have been the only one in this facility, so it would pay to be cautious.
Once closer to the reactor itself, the Minkan examined the metal encasement as well as the tubes hooked up to it. Attempting to analyze the data, she realized that her demolition skills were a bit lacking, but scans of the tubes and siphons revealed that many were inputs for some sort of coolant that was keeping the core’s temperature steady. A theory began to form into her mind that would need to be put to practice. Striking them at the base of the metal encasement with the butt of her submachinegun, Mist managed to break some off and knock others loose with a hiss of escaping pressure and vapors. The scanner in her helmet then detected an anomaly within the core, whose heat signatures began to rise steadily.
Her suit’s AI needlessly mentioned to her that the vapors were in fact toxic and to keep her helmet secured for the moment. Rolling her eyes slightly, she mentally interrogated the AI to ensure that her efforts weren’t wasted. While the core was being analyzed by her suit’s sensors, the radiant green that smothered out all other colors in the immediate area slowly turned a shade of red. Mist started to worry a bit, but the analysis was soon completed, indicating that the reactor was slowly going into a meltdown. If killing one of their companions hadn’t startled the rest of the alien crew, then this definitely would!
Shintin had secured a vessel, a fighter, and found most of the operations to be in trade. She counted herself lucky as she worked the controls.
"Mist-hei," Shinrin began. "We have a fighter. Make your way through the corridors I have outlined in your HUD to it. I have sent my coordinates. See you soon!"
She began powering up the craft and heard a creaking of metal as a antlered creature entered the fighter, ducking into it and aiming a gun directly at Shinrin. They both shot, but Shinrin had the wherewithal to lean out of the way and the other creature's shot missed as Shinrin's got its mark directly in the center of the lightly furred creatures chest.
Shinrin stepped forward quickly before the creature could slump to the ground and caught her, then threw her out of the fighter, onto the metal walkway outside of it. She leaned out of the fighter and noticed three of the creatures passing through the hallway, towards her position. She aimed and fired, hitting one and had to duck out of the way of incoming fire. She hoped Mist would arrive soon and take them out from behind as she began unloading shots from her forearm pulse cannons.
Having received Yoku’s message and confident that her sabotage was complete, Mist made her way back down the catwalk towards the designated area on her HUD. Unfortunately, her progress was hampered by incoming fire from behind her. Turning her head to the side while remaining in motion, she saw a little less than half a dozen of the antlered females charging after her, guns ablazing.
The medic bobbed and weaved as best she could to dodge their shots. Luckily for her, they weren’t that great of shots, and their fire seemed to strike the catwalk itself rather than her. She managed to round the corner behind cover at last down the path that her companion had taken, but her pursuers were hot on her heels.
“Shinrin-sama! I am under fire and retreating to your position. The sabotage was completed before my position was compromised. I will be there in a few moments.” Her breathing was a little rushed but mostly from the adrenaline rather than exhaustion. Hopefully, Yoku will have the fighter ready before Mist got there.
Shinrin said, "Acknowledged! There are enemies at my location, but I'm taking them out!" The Neko lifted her rifle and shot it out with one hand while pulsing out the cannon on her other forearm. She stuck down one, but not the other, who hit her shoulder and Shinrin watched as her status report on her HUD went from green down to yellow. She winced and took another hit to her leg before downing the last opponent. Mist would have a lot of bodies to step over when she made her way to Shinrin, who was retreating back to the fighter.
Sounds of gunfire echoed towards her, and Mist doubled her effort towards Yoku’s position. She rounded another corner right as the flash of fire began to chase after her again and almost tripped over the other girl’s kills. Not allowing her momentum to falter, the blonde Minkan leapt over the bodies in a single motion. Immediately seeing her wounded companion and their escape route, Mist kept up the pace towards safety. Whether they would be exactly safe in the captured fighter was yet to be seen, though. “We’ve got more coming!” She called out, panting slightly from the exertion, but not wanting to let up for fear of being left behind, “Let’s get out of here!”
YSS Hana
4日 6月 YE 39
1300 Hours
Deployed earlier that year, the YSS Hana had gone out on a long-range exploratory mission into what was now being termed the 'western wastes' that lay away from the familiarity of the Kikyo Sector. The Midori-class scout ship had been on its own for quite some time and had only just begun its journey home to Yamatai along a new course to be plotted and surveyed.
The power armor team of the Hana had been sent out to inspect further signals being picked up on an asteroid in the center or a barely navigable cluster. The Midori was only just small enough to get through the asteroid cluster on sublight engines with its sensor array stored to reduce the width of the girthy ship and, so, was flying in blind. The asteroids became too densely packed, though, and the away team was formed up from the bulk of the crew and they suited up while the Midori-class idled just out of the Mindy 4's teleportation range.
"We are to find out as much as we can about the signal coming from approxiately 4 AU from the ship's position. We are to teleport as close as we can and thrust the rest of the way," the XO of the YSS Hana said as she clapped her hands in front of her while she exited the airlock. After leaving the ship and thrusting away from it marginally, she twisted around and looked to the other six exiting in their Mindy 4 power armors and went on, "Let's get this over with, girls."
Probably one of the smaller power armored figures of the squad was the last out of the airlock and gingerly thrusted away from the safe haven. This was not Mist’s first time out in open space, but it always made her a bit uncomfortable at first. Forming up with the rest of the squad, she made sure to stick close to her good friend, Shelly.
Probably the only other buxom blonde in the group, they had known each other for years, even before being stationed together on the YSS Hana. They had met on the YSS Illustrious and become fast friends almost immediately. This friendship had practically become a sisterhood over time… even though the former sprite still had a hard time differentiating close friends and family. Shelly had always been the rock in their relationship, pushing Mist to do great things and open up from her imaginary shell.
Having her friend nearby eased some of the initial discomfort, and soon enough, the medic felt completely normal. Dust and small bits of debris brushed past her MINDY 4 power armor as she listened to the XO’s briefing. Mist half wondered what kind of signal could be out here in the middle of nowhere, but the thought of a ship in distress being ravaged by this asteroid field came to mind. A small shiver traveled down her spine at this, and her resolve to help in any way strengthened.
Mentally counting the number of personnel in her squad, the medic realized that most of their names eluded her. It was not simply because of how new she was to the ship, unfortunately… She had always felt a little out of place in new settings. Fortunately, Mist wasn’t entirely alone with Shelly here, and her suit’s AI was already feeding her the names, biographies, and medical records of the others. Making a promise to kick herself into gear about mingling with her fellow crew members, the medic stored the relevant data away for later and prepared to advance.
The power armor team assembled into a loose group and the XO chirped out, "Let's go." She teleported to the point 3 AU away from the YSS Hana, as did the rest of the away team right behind her.
Amongst them was Shinrin Yoku, a pale, red and white haired, and greenish eyed Neko that had been alive to see enough conflict to be able to sniff something wrong in the air. But, she wasn't in charge, the XO was. So she kept quiet and looked to the destination of the signal that the sensors on her suit were able to pick up.
They all used their combined field systems to move them through space towards the asteroid and made it nearly there before the XO raised a hand and the grouping of the away team behind her paused as she spoke out.
The XO said over comms, "Wait."
It was at that moment that the sensors of every Mindy armor lit up and showed that there was movement on the asteroid via their ultra-wide band radar. A ship suddenly appeared from the surface after having looked like a part of the terrain on their preliminary scans. Now that it was moving, though, the XO spoke out to their own ship and gave orders.
"YSS Hana actual, we have come upon a ship. We will form the first assault against them before they can make it to our vessel if they are an enemy! Away team, that means we hold them off if they engage!" she said.
The ship pulled forward and shot out an pinkish weapons pulse and Shinrin Yoku looked at her XO after she had given orders only to see pieces of her being torn from her as if in slow motion. Then all at once, she was gone along with four others of the away team. Shelly, Hasagawa, Aimi, Lilta, and the XO, all gone. Yoku turned her head to look at where the weapons pulse extended to and watched as it forced asteroid after asteroid to be decimated by its power before it ceased. She turned her head back to the ship and called out to the away team after realizing she was the highest ranking personnel present.
"Orders are orders! Hold position!" Shinrin Yoku shot out her own aether submachine gun as she glided backwards on turbo aether plasma engines and then pummeled forward through the space between her and the ship to antagonize it further.
Everything seemed to be going fine, and then all hell seemed to have broken loose. Mist wasn’t sure if the force that had pushed her away was a last minute shove from Shelly or the impact of her friend being obliterated right in front of her. All she saw was a blinding pink light before four of her six fellow squadmates’ life meters crashed to red lines on her display. Only her own life meter and those of Yoku and another girl remained in peak condition besides heightened heart rates for obvious reasons.
Besides a bit of shrapnel impacting harmlessly on her Mindy’s exterior, she seemed fine physically, but her best friend and the others had just perished in an energy hellstorm. She wanted to scream or cry or just something, but her training had taken over at this point. The blonde medic used her thrusters to dive behind some additional asteroids for cover as she heard Yoku’s command.
Readying her own aether submachine gun, Mist took in a deep breath before replying with a slight quiver in her voice, “U-understood!” Rounding out of her temporary cover, she attempted to provide her sole remaining squadmate some covering fire. Whether it was effective or not, she wasn’t sure… especially since their opponent was an entire warship.
The enemy ship was hit by the three-Neko team's weapons, but they did little but alert the ship to their presence and as the ship pushed past them and towards the YSS Hana, its turrets shot out, killing the Neko beside Mist and in front of Shinrin Yoku, who looked at Mist and spoke quickly.
"We need to teleport to their position." Shinrin said to their ship, "YSS Hana actual, this is Ittô Heisho Shinrin and we are coming to your position, along with the enemy vessel."
"We see the ship, Ittô Heisho. Stay where you are!" came the response.
"Bu—" Shinrin said but was cut off.
"Stay and we'll come back for you! We're going to evade the enemy."
"Hai!" Shinrin said in Yamataigo, then looked to Mist with a look of contained concern on her face, though Mist would have a hard time seeing it under her Mindy's helmet.
They are.. what? was the thought running through Mist’s head as she attempted to tend to their fallen compatriot. It was no use, however, as too much of her body had been destroyed by the blast. “See you when you wake up,” she whispered to herself, referring to when the fallen would be revived on a later date.
Turning to her the only surviving member of her squad while keeping an eye on the enemy ship, her suit AI provided Mist with a name to call out to, “What are your orders, Shinrin-Heisho?” Concern was apparent in her usually meek voice, as the thought of being left behind in hostile territory didn’t appeal to her sense of survival.
Not only was this hostile territory, but it was also deep space. Their suits would only have so much power or supplies for them to survive in the vacuum, and exhaustion might set in before that happens if they were forced to evade the enemy at every turn. All of these thoughts were rushing through her head as the Minkan waited for her superior to make a decision.
Shinrin had to think and had to get them to relative safety before their position was approached again. If she could do that, she did not know. So, she went with something she could do, get them information. Not taking a moment to feel the devastating pain of losing her comrades, Shinrin Yoku looked around them and formed a plan. She swept the area with her scanners and picked up marginal activity from the asteroid the ship had been on that hadn't been there before the enemy had come hurtling towards them.
"We need to get to where that ship came from!" Shinrin Yoku said to Mist. "We can either stay here and wait for the inevitable or go there and get some answers to take back home. What do you say?"
Mist dared to glance at the remains of her friends and swore that she saw Shelly’s cracked helmet facing her, as if her dead friend was trying to pass on strength even from beyond. Taking in a deep breath, the medic nodded more to herself than Yoku.
“Alright, let’s go!” she replied with newfound determination “…Shelly and the others wouldn’t want us to just sit around waiting to die, too.”
She turned to the source of the enemy vessel, priming her weapon. If the ship had truly been hiding near that asteroid, then there might be more enemies hiding there as well. Mist formed up near her superior but not close enough where a single barrage from the departing enemy warship could take them both out at once.
Not knowing exactly what Shelly and the others would want, but knowing what she thought was best might get them killed and doing what she thought was not a good option would get them killed just as much, Shinrin Yoku began moving herself towards the asteroid. Soon she and Mist were near it and could complete scans.
"There's something on the other side of it," Shinrin said evenly.
They made their way to just on the outskirts of the asteroid and Shinrin sent out her nodal support bits. In no time at all, she had gotten visual feed of what exactly was on the other side of the asteroid. There was a large metal structure drilled into the side of the asteroid which lay inside of the asteroid completely. The only thing that extended from it was a chrome ring big enough for a cruiser. Shinrin called back her NSB's soon thereafter.
"It looks to be an automated fueling station. What do you advise we do?" Shinrin both said and asked.
They had approached the asteroid without weapons fire raining down on them. So far, so good… Mist though to herself as Yoku put her bits to work and began thoroughly scanning the planetoid’s surface around them for any possible sensors that may have alerted the enemy to their presence. Nothing immediately popped up on her displays, but that did not mean that passive sensors weren’t out there.
The medic thought for the moment as she analyzed the data the NSB’s had recovered, but she was no tactician. Finally, she spoke her mind, “If it’s a refueling station, then the enemy ship has to come back at some point, right? It might chase the Hana for a while, though, so we should… I don’t know.. gather information? It might give us a clue as to why they openly attacked us in the first place.” The more she rambled, the less confident the blonde Minkan felt, but there was little else that she could think of doing right at this moment.
Shinrin Yoku nodded, "You're right. That's the least we can do. Let's go forward ourselves to gain intel." In the blink of an eye, she was pushing through space quickly and determinedly with Mist behind her and soon they were at the entrance to the asteroid's refueling station.
The massive chrome structure extended outwards almost as much as the circumference of the hole that a ship would enter through. Along the edge of it that touched the asteroid itself was what looked like a metal railing, but it was much to big to be such. At the center of it all was the hole in which ships could pass and Shinrin looked to Mist before moving even more forward at a low speed. In the distance of the hollowed out asteroid was a dim verdant light she had the urge to float towards and explore, but an airlock with a deep green control panel was what she saw before she could get very far into the station.
She spoke out to Mist, "Best close in on this together, Mist-hei." She thrusted towards the airlock close enough to see a bit of a window into it and sent out an NSB to look into it. "All clear," Shinrin said as she looked to the blonde in the Mindy armor near her and she spoke again. "We'll sidle up on either side of the airlock, you can have an NSB open it with the controls, then we'll head in together. Sound clear?" Shinrin was already moved into position as she asked her last question.
As the duo approached the asteroid’s opposite side, Mist couldn’t help but gape at the sheer magnitude of the station. It must’ve taken a while to carve into the rock and set everything up. She set this mental note aside for now as they had discovered the airlock. The lighting gave her a slight chill for some reason, but the medic dismissed this feeling as silly at this critical moment. Her brown eyes peered through her helmet’s visor, making sure that no one else was around as her superior examined the airlock.
“Hai!” Mist replied to her Yoku’s order and released two NSB’s from her suit before getting into position opposite of the other girl. One was programmed to cover their backs and detect anyone or anything approaching; while the other began to work the airlock controls so that they could enter the facility. If the enemy had anyone stationed inside, either they already knew the power armored figures were coming or would be in for a rude awakening in a few moments.
The airlock cycled open and the chamber inside was metallic and worse for wear. Dingey on the edges and corners, it was much less than the sterile type of Star Army airlock the girls were used to. They entered in and soon the airlock behind them hissed closed just before the one in front of them opened. They were inside now.
What greeted them was a sitting mostly sienna colored and bare-bodied antlered woman with a white belly. She had hooves for feet and hoof-like hands that splayed out as she held what looked like a datapad in them. She was slightly turned away from the two of the YSS Hana personnel and about ten meters away, and seemed to be lost in her own little world.
Shinrin Yoku was furthest away from the creature and said to Mist, "Engage as if hostile."
Mist wrinkled her nose in disgust at the state of the airlock, but it would be hard to tell with her helmet on. The sight of the alien creature was even more puzzling, but they had the element of surprise this time. She brought her submachinegun to bear against her unaware opponent. Although a little upset at striking unarmed enemies, the medic did not recognize the exact species and was unsure of how dangerous they were even unarmed.
Plus, the image of Shelly’s death flashed through her mind as her finger lightly tugged on the trigger, sending a single burst of aether energy through the back of the creature’s head. The antlered woman’s head was vaporized instantly with surviving bits of her antlers flailing in multiple directions and her body collapsing into a twitching heap on the floor.
Swiftly moving to secure the area around the corpse, Mist used her first NSB to scout around the nearby corners to survey the immediate area as well as see if the commotion had alerted anyone else. She waved her companion forward as her probe did its work.
`
Mist's NSB's showed no signs of life through the passageways just near the entrance from the airlock and Shinrin got the data back from them with her leader support pack she had equipped dorsally. Shinrin Yoku came forward and studied the body on the floor while she squatted down.
"Whatever this is, I'm guessing it either supplied the ship that attacked us or is of the same species that did so. It was necessary to take it out," Shinrin said to Mist. "Let's continue."
The two made their way through several hallways and passages before they encountered a main reactor room that had a catwalk around a central glowing green reactor core with a spindly metal encasement from which several siphons and tubes were hooked up, which led outwards to a docking bay for ships.
"Any ideas?" Shinrin Yoku asked.
Recalling the scouting NSB to her suit, the medic made a mental note to reacquaint herself with the medical oath on a later date… when their lives weren’t in sudden peril. She simply nodded in acknowledgement of Yoku’s reasoning before continuing onward. The massive reactor room seemed to be bathed in the light from the core itself, and without much hesitation this time, Mist pointed towards the network of piping connected to it.
“Maybe we can sabotage the core? I am not sure how this technology would react to damage, but hopefully there is another ship that we could escape on in that docking area.” She shrugged before voicing her final idea, “Or we could search for a command center of some sort to look for answers first.” It wasn’t much to go by, and the facility itself seemed massive. Searching everywhere would take time, and that was a precious commodity that neither of the girls had at this time.
Sabotage it is," Shinrin said coolly. She looked to Mist and said, "I'll search for a getaway ship while you find a way to damage the core without blowing us both up in the process." She took a moment to breathe in, then out and then said, "It's been really fun working with you on the Hana, but especially today. Being alone with only one person, well..." She bit her lip, then cut herself short and nodded before she turned towards the docking bay and began sprinting.
Fun? Mist cocked her head to the side slightly while trying to decide if Yoku was joking or if she just had a… different definition for ‘fun’. Either way, the other girl had sprinted off, so it was now down to the medic to figure out how to rig the core to go boom. She nagivated the catwalk carefully while also keeping an eye out for more of those aliens. The one she killed earlier couldn’t have been the only one in this facility, so it would pay to be cautious.
Once closer to the reactor itself, the Minkan examined the metal encasement as well as the tubes hooked up to it. Attempting to analyze the data, she realized that her demolition skills were a bit lacking, but scans of the tubes and siphons revealed that many were inputs for some sort of coolant that was keeping the core’s temperature steady. A theory began to form into her mind that would need to be put to practice. Striking them at the base of the metal encasement with the butt of her submachinegun, Mist managed to break some off and knock others loose with a hiss of escaping pressure and vapors. The scanner in her helmet then detected an anomaly within the core, whose heat signatures began to rise steadily.
Her suit’s AI needlessly mentioned to her that the vapors were in fact toxic and to keep her helmet secured for the moment. Rolling her eyes slightly, she mentally interrogated the AI to ensure that her efforts weren’t wasted. While the core was being analyzed by her suit’s sensors, the radiant green that smothered out all other colors in the immediate area slowly turned a shade of red. Mist started to worry a bit, but the analysis was soon completed, indicating that the reactor was slowly going into a meltdown. If killing one of their companions hadn’t startled the rest of the alien crew, then this definitely would!
Shintin had secured a vessel, a fighter, and found most of the operations to be in trade. She counted herself lucky as she worked the controls.
"Mist-hei," Shinrin began. "We have a fighter. Make your way through the corridors I have outlined in your HUD to it. I have sent my coordinates. See you soon!"
She began powering up the craft and heard a creaking of metal as a antlered creature entered the fighter, ducking into it and aiming a gun directly at Shinrin. They both shot, but Shinrin had the wherewithal to lean out of the way and the other creature's shot missed as Shinrin's got its mark directly in the center of the lightly furred creatures chest.
Shinrin stepped forward quickly before the creature could slump to the ground and caught her, then threw her out of the fighter, onto the metal walkway outside of it. She leaned out of the fighter and noticed three of the creatures passing through the hallway, towards her position. She aimed and fired, hitting one and had to duck out of the way of incoming fire. She hoped Mist would arrive soon and take them out from behind as she began unloading shots from her forearm pulse cannons.
Having received Yoku’s message and confident that her sabotage was complete, Mist made her way back down the catwalk towards the designated area on her HUD. Unfortunately, her progress was hampered by incoming fire from behind her. Turning her head to the side while remaining in motion, she saw a little less than half a dozen of the antlered females charging after her, guns ablazing.
The medic bobbed and weaved as best she could to dodge their shots. Luckily for her, they weren’t that great of shots, and their fire seemed to strike the catwalk itself rather than her. She managed to round the corner behind cover at last down the path that her companion had taken, but her pursuers were hot on her heels.
“Shinrin-sama! I am under fire and retreating to your position. The sabotage was completed before my position was compromised. I will be there in a few moments.” Her breathing was a little rushed but mostly from the adrenaline rather than exhaustion. Hopefully, Yoku will have the fighter ready before Mist got there.
Shinrin said, "Acknowledged! There are enemies at my location, but I'm taking them out!" The Neko lifted her rifle and shot it out with one hand while pulsing out the cannon on her other forearm. She stuck down one, but not the other, who hit her shoulder and Shinrin watched as her status report on her HUD went from green down to yellow. She winced and took another hit to her leg before downing the last opponent. Mist would have a lot of bodies to step over when she made her way to Shinrin, who was retreating back to the fighter.
Sounds of gunfire echoed towards her, and Mist doubled her effort towards Yoku’s position. She rounded another corner right as the flash of fire began to chase after her again and almost tripped over the other girl’s kills. Not allowing her momentum to falter, the blonde Minkan leapt over the bodies in a single motion. Immediately seeing her wounded companion and their escape route, Mist kept up the pace towards safety. Whether they would be exactly safe in the captured fighter was yet to be seen, though. “We’ve got more coming!” She called out, panting slightly from the exertion, but not wanting to let up for fear of being left behind, “Let’s get out of here!”
