~~Soyokaze (Med bay and lower damaged areas)~~
Still fighting a bit, Misato looked around and then at the daemon sitting on the bed next to her. It didn't help matters. She panicked and fell of the bed before trying to get up on her feet. The lack of an arm kept causing her to miss balance and land on the stump, causing her to cry out.
Nenene jumped off her perch, crouching beside Misato and gently helping her back onto the bed. "Hey now, it's alright" the XO said, calmly. "Just relax, you're safe"
In and shear panic, Misato reached out with her remaining hand and tried to grip the XO's neck. though she was tired and weak, her hand slipped off and fell to the bed... "What is going on...?"
"We're still in the battle" Nenene reported. "But you and me are out of action for now. You till you're all patched up again, me, well I can probably go back to the bridge soon, though my template got messed up" she shrugged at the soldier.
"But..." Misato looked around again and sighed... "I was wounded again..." She frown and her shoulders drooped down as she shrunk into the bed. "Can I go back? The whole team is down there... with only Riko in charge..."
"Well, wounded isn't so bad" Nenene replied. "As for going back, you need to heal. Riko will do fine. You did your part. Now it's time to recover" she said reassuringly.
"I didn't do shit... Ma'am... I was barely there." She grumbled something about this being typical. She tried to cross her arms, but that failed and she awkwardly reached across and gripped her stump. "Is it really bad?"
"I think everything will pull through" Nenene said. She leaned back, planting her hands on the bed behind her to brace herself up. "Truthfully, I did not get to do much myself" she admitted. "Control console blew up in my face not five minutes after I set foot on the bridge. Took me out"
Misato started to chuckle nervously. "Guess you need to use a seatbelt, Ma'am... At least I know that my tools won't kill me..." she tried to smile but she only got half way before she looked back down at her arm.
Nenene smiled. "Well, seatbelt wouldn't have done me any good, but, I'll pass that along" she said and noted that Misato was fixating on her arm again. "Hey, plus side, that'll be regrown in a couple hours" she nodded to the stump.
"Maybe... I'm sure there are a lot more people that need to get medical attention before me..." She tried to seat up and to look brave. "As it is I'm sure I can go and help with the Damage Control." She rotated so her feet dropped off the side of the bed. "At least I can carry one thing at a time..."
"Well, I'll come help you then" Nenene said and slipped back onto her feet too. "Three arms are better than one...anyways, I can't lay down properly with this tail" she said and tugged at the new appendage that had been added to her new clone.
Misato leaned a bit to the side and took a look at the tail poking out of the hospital gown the XO was wearing. "Well I got a tail. Nothing wrong with them, boss." She smiled and stood up before her tail started to wiggle about behind her. "And I hear if they cut it off you'll lever reach Super neko level 4..."
"Super neko level 4?" Nenene asked, raising an eyebrow in some confusion.
"Never mind it's just a joke about a cartoon I saw when I was still in the barracks back on Yamatai." She smiled and started looking around for something other then the backless paper robe.
"Oh, well you'll have to show it to me some time" Nenene commented and went over to a cabinet, opening it and withdrawing a couple basic garments. "Here" she said and handed one over to Misato.
looking over Misato saw the garment, she nodded and took it from Nenene. She pulled the tie and pulled the gown off of her, but when it came to trying to put the clothes on she started having trouble.
"Let me help you" Nenene came over and started helping, ignoring her unclothed state. She had ditched the gown, but yet to pull the drab clothes on.
"No..." She continued to fight with the clothes, finally getting one of her legs into it's place. "I can do it." She said stubbornly.
Nenene stepped back, giving Misato her space and put her own clothes on, pants first. They fit loosely and had drawstrings at the top, which she cinched tight around her waist, though it did not sit quite right with that tail sticking out. Next the top, an equally unflattering t-shirt.
As misato continued to fight with the bottoms she looked over at Nenene... "Skirts or have one of the
Tailors in the clothing shop up on the shopping decks, make a slit for it to pop out. Until then use a blade and cut a hole." She spoke and pulled her own up, she simply reached back and tore a smallish hole for her own tail to push through.
"That works" Nenene shrugged and copied Misato's action, fitting her new tail through a hole she tore into the back of the pants. "I'll switch to a skirt later when I can get to my cabin"
With a shrug Misato started to fight with the shirt. She got it over her head and almost got her arm through when the whole thing shifted and got her tangled up.
Nenene sat on the edge of the bed and watched the soldier. "Need any help?"
the one armed solder didn't speak up but all of her attempts to get the shirt righted, just caused it to be more twisted and out of alignment. Finally she sighed and stopped fighting. "Fine..."
She stepped back over and helped Misato with the sleeve of the shirt, carefully setting it right.
With the shirt in place Misato stood up and slid her feet into the hospital slippers she had found. "Now what boss Lady?"
"Well, lets see what we can do to be useful" Nenene said, stretching her new limbs for the first time.
With a nod Misato lead the way out of the med bay and gave a sigh of relieve. "Where do we start boss?"
Nenene followed Misato out into the passageway "I think assisting damage control on the lower levels, the reports I've checked with the MEGAMI say the damage is pretty bad"
"Ok, I guess that works..." Misato looked around, "I'm not used to these larger ships. Can you lead the way, Ma'am?" She guestered to the ship around her with her stump.
Nenene nodded and took the lead, moving along to one of the vertical zero g tunnels. She paused at the edge, tested her gravity control, lifting off of her feet. Then she started down the shaft.
Stepping out after the XO the infantry neko drifted for a few a few moments before Msiato was able to get her balance and she started following Nenene down the shaft. "Ma'am I would be derelict in my duties not to insist that you don a AMES suit. It'll be dangerous down there, and I guess you don't want to die again, do you?"
"Good point" Nenene replied with a smile. "You will need one as well" she added and changed her direction a bit, aiming for one of the supply lockers that were scattered about the ship.
She opened it and withdrew a pair of suits. "Here" she said.
Misato caught it with her one good hand and started struggling into the suit. "Well Ma'am if I did though I'll at least wake up with two arms again." She grinned as she fought with the arms of her suit.
Nenene smiled. "Always think of the positive!" she said as she slipped into her own suit, sealing it up most of the way, but not putting the helmet on. "Need help?" she asked.
Blushing with a bit of frustration, Msiato nodded, "Yes Ma'am, if you would... Also can you secure the spare arm to the belt or something?" She wasn't please with the situation. She should have been able to adapted quicker to this situation.
Nenene quickly helped Misato with the suit, securing the empty sleeve to her so that it would not flap around. Then she secured the helmet over the soldiers head and made sure all the support systems were properly functioning and seals were tight.
"All set"
"thank you Ma'am..." She frowned for a second behind the helmet shield. She grabbed a cutter from the supply locker, and attached it to her belt before grabbing a flashlight.
"Ready here."
Nenene put on her own helmet, grabbed some tools and an NSP from the weapon locker. She also handed one to Misato. "Just in case" she commented.
Shifting the flashlight to under her arm. Misato awkwardly holstered the NSP. "If that's the case, I'm not sure what use I'll be... but yeah good idea."
"I'm sure if it comes to it, you will be plenty of use" the XO replied and kicked back off down the zero g passage. She traveled down till she reached an emergency bulkhead that had sealed off the bottom most deck.
"Must be decompressed below here" she said and frowned, going back up one level. "MEGAMI, what is the status on this level?"
Jayne spoke up in a dispassionate tone, "There is gashes along the hull for the next 83.26 meters. Fires are out through the next three bulkheads due to spacing." She brought up a few volumetric screens showing the damages along with a few floating bodies.
Misato looked at the images and frowned, a shiver ran down her spine at least she ran the risk of dieing seeing her enemy.
"Any sign of trapped crew in these sections?" Nenene asked.
"Yes Ma'am, five, three in a crew cabin that was sealed before the hull tears, the other two are crammed in a supply closet using a
single air tank." One of the screens changed to a map showing the two locations.
"Okay" she said, " Lets help those two in the locker first" Nenene said. "Are they Neko's?" she asked the computer
"Two of the ones in the cabin are, the other in the cabin is a Minkan, along with one in the closet. the final one is a Nepleaslian."
Misato sighed and clipped the flashlight to her helmet and pulled the metal cutter. "I'm ready Ma'am."
"Alright" Nenene said and frowned. "We need to get the two out of the locker first, but I'm not sure how. They are Minkan and Nepleslian." she bit her lower lip. "Can't just decompress them and let them change into AMES suits without killing at least the Nepleslian.... Jayne, what is the condition of the emergency forcefield generators in that section?" she asked.
The Ship's AI spoke up again. "Ma'am I can keep about 50% integrity in the corridor, about 25% atmosphere. But that is all."
"It'll just need to be for a couple minutes, long enough for them to get their AMES suits on and sealed up" Nenene replied and went back to the locker, pulling out two more suits.
Misato stood there anxiously as she waited to go through the sealed bulkhead door. she was anxious to get to doing anything useful. "Ma'am when you're ready." She reached forward to hit the lock override.
"Okay, lets get to the locker, then we'll bring up the forcefield bubble" Nenene said. "Lets go" she nodded for Misato to open the hatch.
With a punch of her id code the door opened and a strong breeze sucked by as the air in the area was sucked into the vacuum. As Misato started forward she looked around at the damage. "Ma'am seems the whole section was torn through." She spoke for both Nenene and for the record, so the damage control teams and repair crews who come later will have a good idea about the area.
"A long tear through the hull running about twenty meters along the right side of the corridor. the forcefields are spotty and intermediate. Power to the lights is live, though more then half the bulbs seems to be damaged." Misato continued forward scanning back and forth as they crossed the ten meters to the supply closet.
Nenene quickly followed Misato into the next section and sealed the emergency bulkhead behind herself, keeping any more valuable air from venting out into space. She kept pace a few steps behind the infantry neko, keeping out of her way. "We'll have to set the containment shields to a small perimeter around the locker, that should help improve the stability and integrity" she commented, looking out the ugly gash in the hull, she could see the black depths of space and the moon beyond.
As she moved forward, Msiato stepped around the debris, careful not to tear her AMES suit. As the approached the closet they found it blocked shut with a beam, bent in form the gash. "Looks like we'll have to cut it Ma'am..." Misato stepped over the beam and started with the lazer cutter. It would be slow going, with the one but she figured if they got half of it cut they could bend it back out of the way. It didn't take long for the beam to be cut and then bent, even with Misato's missing arm she was able to us her Neko strength to do it.
Nenene came up to the locker, examining the exterior door, making sure there was nothing there that could keep them from getting it open quickly. "Okay, Jayne, get ready to start up the containment forcefield, keep the bubble fairly small, we only need a few feet space to work with, so you can reinforce the field strength rather than containing the whole area"
Jayne prepped the emitters and readied to kick them on once the order was given.
Misato though frowned for a moment thinking. "Ma'am I think we are forgetting something..." she paused for a few moments before using her one arm to pound on the closet's door. It was rhythmic and in a long abnormal pattern.
Once she finished hitting the door she put her hand flush to it and waited.
Nenene paused, waiting to see the results of what Misato was doing.
After a few moments she looked over to the XO. "Ma'am they are ready, though they both have AMES suits, they only have one bottle between them. So they said thy would inflate their suits. Should give them time enough for use to open and get them a bottle."
"Okay" Nenene nodded and grabbed the bottles from the two AMES suits she had brought. "Engage forcefield, Jayne"
With the order the shields lit. An area arching three feet out from the doors shimmered. The shielding would only keep atmosphere from passing through. Anything else would puncture the shimmering array and continue in.
"Maintaining charge, estimated time left thirty seconds... counting."
Nenene didn't even wait for the MEGAMI to give notice of time left on the forcefield. She yanked open the locker door and stepped forward, thrusting the pair of air tanks at the two inside the small locker. Once they had them, she began inspecting their AMES suits, making sure they were undamaged and properly sealed up and functional.
The first was in fine shape, though the second's had pinprick holes on the backside from a rouge piece of hull that was hiding in the closet with them.
Misato sighed in relieve that the plan had worked, she didn't know that one was slowly leaking out and possibly wouldn't be breathing before long. She held her torch on the pair as Nenene worked on feeling them up.
Nenene scrutinized their AMES suits, examining every inch. The first was alright and she was about to pass the other suit as good too, when she spotted a small pinprick hole on the back of the AMES. "Shit" she mumbled. "This one's compromised. Misato, do you have any tape?" she asked, glancing back at the soldier and holding her hand out, there was little time.
The Heisho shook her head, but then pointed at a drawer in the closet. "I think there... that drawer should have some tape." she balanced the torch under her armpit and reached with her only hand to try to retrieve some. It was trying but she finally got the drawer open with out dropping the light. "Here you go Ma'am"
"Thanks" she said, taking the tape and pulling off a strip. She put it in place on the back of the AMES suit, making sure the tape was all secure"
The Nepleasian laughed at the XO's hands on his backside. He winked at her through his face visor before thanking her. "Is there anything we can do to help here..." He glanced back to the female minkan that was in the closet with him. They both blushed for a moment before looking back.
"There are several more people trapped in a compartment nearby" Nenene replied. She would have normally responded to the wink, but right now there was too much other stuff on the XO's mind. "We'll need help rescuing them"
"Yes Ma'am," he turned to the Minkan female, that he was necking with when the combat started and they took the first damage before they could get to their stations. "Grab that plasma cutter and the wench systems Jualy... um... Salo Hei." He caught himself before helping Jualy with the work.
Misato rolled her eyes and thought about sending up a formal report about the two. But she just bite down on her lower lip and looked to Nenene for the next orders.
Nenene nodded. "Okay, Jayne, you can drop the forcefield, then we can get the others"
With a tone of acknowledgment, Jayne dropped the shimmering field and sent a notification to the Bridge's damage control officer that two have been rescued from this section, along with three others in the process of being so.
Nenene brought out her science scanner and thumbed it to life, sweeping the area. "Okay, let's go get the others" she said and started back towards the hatch to the compartment with the others.
Misato found the buckled hatch that was sealing the three others in to a cabin. "Ma'am looks like we'll need to cut then pry it open..."
"Alright" Nenene nodded. "Lets get to it" she said.
Misato opened a private comm link with the XO, and carefully phrased her statement. "Ma'am The atmo will bleed out faster then we can cut and get AMES suits in there..."
Nenene frowned. "Yes. Suggestions?" she replied.
Misato shrugged. "I doubt the forcefield would last long enough.... Unless...." she grew quiet and walked off down the corridor to the next cabin. she opened the hatch and walked in sealing it behind her. The cabin wasn't pressurized but it might work for what she had in mind. "Ma'am in here... We can cut the bulkhead between the two cabins and then they would drop to 50% pressure but they still could breath while we suit them up.... But it would require getting them to a med bay quick and into a pressure chamber."
"Sounds like a good plan" Nenene said, having followed Misato into the cabin. "The air tight seals on the hatch should hold the pressure"
"They could, but if they go..." she didn't want to continue the sentence, knowing full well if they did go, the three behind the wall weren't going to make it. It was dangerous and risky, and above all the XO's call.
Nenene nodded. "It's a risk, but better chance for them than running out of air in a short time" she said.
"Yes Ma'am..." Misato grinned before tagging the controls on the door to seal tight and lock completely, before balancing the torch on a bunk, lighting up the area she was going to cut through. "The wall is almost an inch think.. so about two minutes for a man size hole." She spoke as she started the cut.
Alright. I will keep an eye on the door integrity once the atmosphere starts to bleed off into here" Nenene said, then thinking, she opened a channel to the other room. "This is the XO to everyone in the compartment. We are coming in to assist getting you out. We have to cut through the wall, which will bleed off 50% of the atmosphere into this one. Be prepared for low air pressure"
The torch of the cutter hit the metal of the wall causing sparks and a gas cloud to form around the area. Misato slowly worked the cutter back and forth until she saw the gas cloud get blown across the room from the pressure bleed. Moving quickly she started continuing the cut trying to avoid internal beams and supports. It was taking a bit longer then she first guessed. and the hole was going to be tight. the spacing between the beams here were tighter then she first anticipated.
Nenene checked the seal on the hatch, now that air was bleeding into the compartment.
the hatch was holding, though the room was starting to get foggy from the decompression. Science was causing the water vapor in the air to condense in to the cabin.
Misato continued to cut and slide the the flame around the bottom of the hole she was cutting. "Ma'am I'm going to need help here... I'd normally use my other arm to start pushing in the center to bend it out of the way." She looked back for a moment before going back to her cutting. She was nearing the three quarter point that would signal, that they could start trying to bend it out of the way an start pulling the others through. The three in the cabin where now laying on the floor and lower bunk trying to suck air as they grew dizzy from the very low O2 levels.
Nenene rushed over and started pushing on the center of the chunk Misato was cutting out. "Okay" she said, planting her feet firmly and using all of her neko strength to force the chunk to bend.
Nenene could feel the heat from the cutter even through the suit, as Misato continued to cut. Slowly every so slowly the scrap metal of the cut started to bend inwards, letting the XO see for the first time the crew members on the floor and bunk. The combat Neko continued to cut trying to get the opening wider.
Nenene frowned as she saw them. They did not have much time. The neko in there would be ok, but the others, not so much. She dug her feet in and shoved all of her weight against the metal chunk, pushing as hard as she could to bend it in fast.
As she did the center bent out and she slipped forward onto the red hot metal. The AMES protected her from the burning metal, but it did get singed.
Misato stood up and grabbed the three AMES. "Ma'am here toss these in and then I'll help you through. She looked down at her sleeve that was knotted and kept her from being the one to do it.
Nenene accepted the AMES and tossed them at the three crew inside. "Hurry and get suited up!" she ordered them. The air was thin and they needed to act fast.
The three crew members were slow to act as they tried to get up and retrieve the suits. they were moving around drunkenly as they worked to put them on.
Nenene cursed quietly as she saw how sluggish they were. The oxygen deprivation was already hitting them. She used her gravity manipulation to float herself carefully through, then rushed over to help them into their suits. "Come on!" she glanced back at Misato, then focused on the first non neko.
The one armed neko followed through trying to her best to keep from getting tangled up. she fought and got through only taking twice as long as the XO took, but she was through, and on the deck. Once she stood she raced to get a helmet on one of the three.she was trying to get them some air before trying to worry about the rest of the suit. The half pressure wouldn't kill them, but the low O2 would.
Nenene put the helmet on the one she was assisting and turned on the O2, it bleed air like mad, but gave the crewman something to breath, then she quickly started helping them into the AMES suit properly
Once the two were breathing they were able to slowly get their own suits on. They were a bit punch drunk about it, but they were managing. So Misato turned to the last one and started with the helmet. "Ma'am see if those two outside would be willing to cut the door open, I'll get this one suited and we can get them all up to the med bay."
"Right" Nenene replied, then switched her comm over to the two outside. "Get your torches out and cut your ways through the hatch" she ordered them as she finished sealing up her person's AMES suit.
There were a few bangs on the door, before it started glowing. Misato was helping the last to finish clasping the AMES shut. The other two were started to chat about as if they were drunk. "Thank you MA'amsss... It was a bit loud out there then quitesss... What is going on..."
"This section of the ship was blown open to space" Nenene replied. "You three and two others survived, we're getting you out and back to safety"
The door finally ripped open, once the jammed bit was melted though. All the Atmo in both rooms blasted out of the door and out the side of the ship. "WE got in." the Nep said as he stood there with the plasma cutter.
"Good" Nenene said and helped the person she was working with to their feet. "Grab a buddy and let's get back to more habitable parts of the ship"
Misato helped the one she had been suiting up, to get up and make their way to the door well. The first two rescuees came forth and helped the other two. They were all moving now. The going was slow as they were having to help the three over things and around debre, but they made decent time back to the pressured parts of the ship.
There was little rush at the moment, with the battle outside over or at least in a lull. So they could take their time and make sure everyone safely got to the pressurized sections of the ship.