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RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 32: Uchū Kaubōi

Caldera Base, Level 1

William rose to his feet with a groan as the message came through. "Got it. I'll finish here and meet you." He replied back. Walking back down the ramp, he looked around the hangar. The cattle were in place, and he made sure the doors were locked down.

Once that was done, he took the horses' reins and led them out of through the hangar doors. Stopping to lock the hangar, he mounted his horse once more. "Almost out of this. Just a little more." He cajoled, more for himself than the horse.

Drawing his revolver, he spurred the stallion into a gallop moving full speed to reach the rendezvous point.
 
Level 15
"Working on it" Morgana said with a flat tone, her eyes darting around her volumetric display.

The data in the registry turned from an assorted mess of symbols to understandable text. Documents and images materialized in floating windows around Morgana, which she quickly closed after confirming it was decrypted. She ignored most of them, honing in on files and projects associated with Elysia which she uploaded directly to her personal storage.

For the rest, she took the cable from Williams Data Jack and plugged it into one of the server ports, confirming it was doing the job and getting a rough eta. before turning off the holographic volumetric display and placing the bracelet back on her wrist. Once replaced, she reactivated it and a miniaturised version of the display she had moments ago, this one showing a steadily filling progress bar.

"Should only take a moment." She said, getting to her feet.

Mean while Kasa came up beside Aiko with a compact camera in one hand and a wide charismatic smile plastered across her face. "Hey Ketsurui-Chusa. Mind giving a peace sign for the analysists back at HQ?" She said, holding the device in front of her.
 
Level 15

Hihja was a woman who reveled in her strength, and constantly trained to keep her impressive physique. It served her well in the field, but unfortunately for a half-immolated Myga, it made her a horrifically cumbersome soldier to carry. "I'm fine," she replied to Sahty over wireless, where the strain in her voice wasn't apparent. "Let the others take the van. We're in no shape to fight." But Myga planned to if it was necessary; the hemo that salved her wounds made the prospect a little more bearable. With all of the injuries that she'd piled on and the guts and blood that coated her from head to toe, Myga wasn't keen to find a mirror any time soon.

Beyond her own physical condition, and beyond their mission, Myga's thoughts dwelled on Hihja and how she'd fare if they actually managed to extract her. As far as she was aware, Hihja hadn't given much thought to the Star Army beyond considering them an enemy she needed to fight. There was no fanatical hatred in the way she referred to them, no desire to throw herself onto the proverbial sword in a battle with them. Maybe that would change once she was a prisoner, but Myga rationalized that captivity was better than dying alone in this rancid base.

Level 15, upward

"Don't pass out, then. You're no use to us that way," Myga replied dryly to Cynea's comment, before trailing close behind Aiko on her ascent up the shoot. It was an awkward process to fit herself and Hihja in the narrow passageway, but after enough shifting, she was staring up at the princess from below -- and a sharp glance downward followed. There were some things you didn't stare at.
 
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Level 15 > Upward

Were they not in a combat zone, Ketsurui Aiko would have happily obliged the operative for a picture together. But as the situation stood now, the princess simply stared back into Kasa's golden eyes with the same grim visage she'd maintained during the mission prior. Being a party some citizen's celebrity selfie was something Aiko was certainly practiced at, able to flash a charming smile and quick victory as easily as she knew how to cut an enemy soldier down, but as the grotesque chute's terminus closed in before them she simply could not accept.

Only a few meters away now, her destination loomed closer by the moment. And in the bright threshold where the chute let out above, Aiko saw the decrepit tentacled silhouette of another Mishhuvurthyar. Likely the one Sif had warned her about. She snapped her head back forward to attention, forgetting Kasa's frivolity in battle while gripping her katana's hilt once again. A second later, she burst out into the chamber and drew the blade.

The target was doubtlessly a Mishhu. Aiko assessed and acquired it instantly with her onboard NH-33A IES system, but even as she stuck at an obvious weak point—some old open wound gouged out along its once mighty shell—she felt a measure of sorrow when more and more of its aged form resolved clearly in her vision. Not from any sense of personal shame, for all Mishhuvurthyar must die, but because it was boring. A kill less useful than practice against a stationary dummy. She crossed up above the blinded beast and drove her sword down into a soft place atop it, and the elder Advanced Type fell onto the deck with a crash that cracked through the air when its face-cage slammed down. There was no life left in its clouded eyes to fade, but Aiko knew immediately it was dead.

Kasa soon thereafter emerged herself from the chute's terminus and Aiko marched over to the imprudent operative, leaving her sword lodged between that crack in her latest foe's skull. The princess' nose was crinkled up and a carmine blush streaked across her nose and cheeks, looking as if she was about to spit out some reprimand. Aiko reached her right hand out toward Kasa and stepped right up next to the SAINT, then wrapped her arm around the silver haired girl's waist and tugged her close so that their hips squished together.

"This should prove an impressive angle, there is still blood oozing from its wound," Aiko said, her nose pointed at Kasa's cheek while peering sidelong toward where the operative would be holding her camera. "Quickly. One like this, and then one more so I may give you your peace sign."
 
Level 15 > Level 1 > Cauldron Lake

With the lava-bottomed CCC emptying out of her people, Hoshi took stock of the terrible place. The shells and charred inner bits of Mishhu littered the magma below and roping wires dangled haphazardly from the ceiling. Most of the terminals were beyond repair and the sphincter-like hole into the server room was shot at so many times it looked prolapsed. The only unscathed area was the landing into the chute and when Morgana had finished, Hoshi followed the scientist up and out through the intact intestine-like exit. It felt sickly visceral to push upwards into it and she put her hands forward in front of her face as if she were diving from a board into a pool so that the internal juices that lubricated the chute would no longer wetly splatter into her face.

Pulling her handkerchief off to wipe down her face at the top floor, the captain saw her team and a dead Mishhu. She trotted forward and led them back to the cargo elevator. Klaxons continued to blare while red lights pulsed throughout the base, creating a sense of unease and discontent. William's horse stamped impatiently, pulling at the tethers to Aiko's own dapple grey. They were amongst those on the lift, which was filled with NMX Nekovalkyrja packed shoulder to shoulder. Some of them had taken notice of him and held their guns steadily on him, shouting insults but not willing to make a move until they were evacuated. The kaiyo crewmen arrived just as the lift was going up, breathless and ready to be out of the base.

In the light of mid-day and backed by the caldera's flat, dry lake on one side and the guard tower and egress into the cargo lift on another, the NMX Neko began to filter out of the cargo lift towards a larger collection of them. Hihja stirred on Molli's shoulder and the Neko talked amongst themselves, relieved of the klaxon calls and strobe lights but with no Mishhuvurthyar in sight and no idea what was going on. Their confusion was evident even in the din of their conversations under the cloudless white sky. The birds from daybreak had settled out of the harsh high noon light from the increasingly bright blue sun overhead and between the caldera and the sky was a lone starship: the YSS Kaiyō II.

The captain leaned close to William, "You should get a safe distance from the caldera."

Hoshi looked to the lift, seeing it was not going down for more evacuees. Knowing the base was cleared of those escaping, she looked to Aiko, then Myga, Sahty, and Cynea. Adding poison into a political atmosphere already rife with toxins was dangerous. Aiko was the only one she truly trusted to provide the antidote, but part of her believed the NMX Nekovalkyrja needed to hear from those that had lived amongst them what was happening.

Or more so, what would happen.

"They need to have the situation explained to them. They need to be convinced to surrender."
 
Level 1 > Cauldron Lake

Reaching the lift, William could feel his mounts growing impatience. "Easy boy. Wait a minute. Almost done." He soothed as he waited. The lift was already filling up but at William's approach they began brandishing weapons at him and hurling their insults. He stared coldly back, as the the massive man and horse forced their way onto the lift. He didn't have the energy, nor the patience to deal with them. So he ignored them.

At the rest of the Kaiyo's team approached, his visage softened. "About time you got here. The natives are getting antsy." He remarked with the hint of a smirk. Then he turned to Aiko and Hoshi. "And your steeds are safe and sound. Though Gargantua and I have seen better days." He added, motioning to his and the stallion's war wounds.

Once they were under the open sky, William took in a deep breath and sighed, relaxing in the saddle. Leaning over as Hoshi's approach he nodded. "Good idea. I'll doubt the NMX like me all that much, and I doubt they'd be too willing to surrender with me around. I'll takes the horses back up the ridge." He replied. With a tap of his spurs Gargantua reared up, whinnying loudly before he took off at a gallop towards the ridgeline.
 
Level 15

"Understood." The single word was all Sahty had to say towards Myga's before following her upwards. She knew she was right. With everyone leaving, she made her way up the fleshy chute without a second glance. She didn't care to looks back at the rest of the CCC. She was already sure that it and the rest of this base would be forever seared into her nightmares.

Level 1 > Cauldron Lake

Sahty was thankful not have another battle waiting as she emerged from the fleshy chute, instead greeted with another dead Mishhuvurthyar. Her strength was beginning to wane and her pain was increasing as her adrenaline wore off. Still she made sure to give the Mishhu body a solid kick as she passed by it on the way towards the caldera lift. Somehow the flashing light and klaxons gave the hallways and even more nightmarish quality, one of urgency. Squeezing into the elevator lift packed with evacuating NMX Nekos, William and the horses hurt. Every jostle called forth a fresh wave of pain.

The trip to the surface entrance seemed faster this time. At least it did to Sahty once they where out of the base and once more under the open sky. The sight of the Kaiyō looming above them filled Sahty with comfort. For the NMX Nekovalkyrja she was sure that it must have looked like a harbinger of death.
 
Level 1 > Cauldron Lake
Myga tried to ignore the stench of death and the piles of bodies on her way to the cargo elevator for fear of catching a face she recognized among the enemy combatants. She hoped with all of her heart that Nari and Rem had managed to avoid the carnage, but with how desperate things had gotten in the base, it was likely that the Mishhu would have wanted all hands on deck to fight back the Kaiyo's incursion. By all accounts, Hihja was likely the only friend she could still save. That thought weighed on Myga to such a degree, even her neko body's immense strength felt as though it'd buckle from the weight of carrying her comrade.

Seeing NMX neko alive caused Myga's heart to pump faster with worried relief, until she was reminded that they were pointing their rifles at her and the comrades of her past life. With their newfound hostility and her own conflicting desires to protect those on both sides, Myga never felt quite so alone with her struggle. The azure sun burned down on the false neko like the judgmental gaze of a god, and a part of Myga wished she could burn up on the spot rather than watch more of her sisters in arms die; or worse, level a gun and pull the trigger herself. Molli's memories were impossible to ignore by this point, and she wouldn't allow any of the Kaiyo to die if she could help it.

With a veritable firing squad barring their path, the squad was stuck between a horde of scared, angry soldiers and a base that was moments from exploding, they needed to act quickly. Hihja's shifting body on her shoulders made Myga tense up, and she hurriedly set her comrade onto the ground. "No, no, no... you weren't supposed to wake up yet," she whispered fearfully, having wished to see Hihja behind the safety of a cell where an explanation could come safely. The once-stoic squad leader was now looking around at the senior members of the Kaiyo's crew for instructions and orders, as she always did in missions past, before the weight of what Hoshi had asked sank in. William knew he couldn't help them with this, and she had a feeling Aiko's solution involved a hail of gunfire from their beloved warship in the sky.

That just left the three traitors to end things without further bloodshed.

Two words emerged from the deepest pits of Myga's memory, or rather, Molli's. It was phrase that described the situation so aptly: "Gudgin' mucked," she whispered, her professional dialect briefly warping into a scratcher, uglier form to match the crude term for a jammy situation. As Hihja's eyes flitted open, Myga was already stepping forward with her arms raised. She must have looked like quite the terror, being as burned and covered in gore as she was.

"Sisters!" Myga shouted in a voice she typically reserved for barking orders to those beneath her in training exercises, "This base is going to explode soon, and the surrounding area will be inhabitable!" She slowly pointed to the skip bearing the Kaiyo's distinctive crest. "Your only hope is to surrender to these...Star Army operatives! I promise, they'll treat you- treat us, fairly!" Short, concise, and honest. Myga tried to convey only the most essential information, with the promise of safety being the only uncertainty to the soldiers that would hopefully trust one of their own.

"What're...you sayin'...?"

Myga glanced toward the weak voice of Hihja, who was staring at Myga in utter disbelief. "Hihja..." she whispered, "Don't over-exert yourself. You'll be treated on the ship-"

"A Star Army ship?" Fear-fueled adrenaline heightened Hihja's awareness, despite her injury. "Have you gone mad?" The blonde neko grunted as she began to sit up, "I saw one of them gun down so many, I...I lost track," Her green eyes flitted to Hoshi and Aiko and widened in shock, "They're Star Army...? How do you know that? Why didn't they kill you?"
 
Cauldron Lake

Aiko listened patiently to Molli's appeal, comforted somewhat by the Kaiyō's silhouette looming over them even as the base's destruction below closed in with each passing second. She kept on guard, of course, poised to fight her way through the enemies that remained. Neko enemies; artificial Valkyrie warriors who the princess understood in the very blood that coursed through her body. And as they began to murmur among themselves, forced to ponder what Molli had to tell them—and hearing Hihja question her erstwhile comrade "Myga" closest of all—Aiko peered from their great assembly and back over to Hoshi.

The captain had little more to tell Aiko or the rest of them, yet Aiko knew what her captain needed at a glance. What Yui would demand of the Kaiyō's crew or any Star Army soldier. Scratching her black fingernails across her scalp and through her raven-dark hair above her right ear, the princess conjured a set of volumetric Kikyo flowers where she normally wore them. One petal fell and then faded out of existence as it passed too far from her body to remain in resolution when she turned to face the evil Neko nearby.

"You must heed your sister," Aiko told them. "By your choice or by force, you will become our prisoners. Or perhaps instead I can deliver you the glorious deaths all Nekovalkyrja yearn for."

Her left hand squeezed tightly around the scabbard that held her katana, and her alabaster knuckles grew yet paler when her grip flexed. Aiko then lifted it above her head so that her foes could see it.

"I, Ketsurui Aiko, will use this blade to do it," the princess shouted with a mix of anger and joy coloring her words. "It has killed a half dozen of your Mishhuvurthyar overlords today with the help of my fellows here," she continued, sure to not point out which girls had helped her. "Officer Sword Type 40, lost to the enemy in some nameless battle. Glad will this weapon be to take more vengeance for the dishonor pressed upon it! For like you all, this katana was forged to defend the people of Yamatai. Not to serve the wretched beasts who would turn it against my Empire's citizens as a captive tool. Just as I have taken it back and restored its purpose, I will reclaim any Nekovalkyrja slaved to service of the Mishhuvurthyar!"

In an instant, Aiko drew the sword and put its tip a hair's breadth from Molli's throat. Her eyes stayed glued on the NMX Neko, though.

"She has already surrendered you all!" Aiko feigned about her crewmate's role. "The last warrior who stood beside your Mishhvurthyar commander when my comrades killed it in the fiery heart of this base, and likely the highest ranked soldier among your remnant."

The princess lowered her blade from Molli's neck and pointed it toward the NMX Neko before sheathing it again.

"Follow her wise lead in capitulation and I promise you will one day live free," Aiko concluded. "Whether that becomes a quiet existence in peace on some Yamataian world or a triumphant death in another battle far more glorious than the one you have already lost today, you may choose now to live. So lay down your arms and stand clear this doomed hill or come at me so that I may show you what it means to be a Nekovalkyrja!"
 
Cauldron Lake

What Myga had said was succinct and to the point: their best hope was surrender. The severity with which Aiko monologued only underlined Myga's plea and its breadth gave the NMX the opportunity to begin acting on whatever decision they had made.

As if serving as an epilogue to Aiko's speech, the earth began to rumble and a shout was raised as the ground shook beneath the Nekovalkyrja's feet. Somewhere deep underground, too far for the Kaiyo's own aether weaponry to penetrate, the bombs were beginning to go off. They gave a hastening need to choose their fate to those NMX yet undecided. Neko floated up and turned their faces away from the cracking earth beneath them and to the ship in the sky with its cargo bay doors open to them.

Hoshi looked through the crowd, scrutinizing the faces for one enemy she recognized all too well. Her pink face's expression turned aghast as she realized the ashy-haired NMX Overseer she had run into twice on Urtullan and seen earlier was not present. She jumped away from her fellows, blending into the crowd of NMX as her volumetrics swept over her hair and clothes, giving her some mousey ombre hair that matched her mustard yellow NMX coveralls.

"Where's Overseer Charbon?" she asked hurriedly, bumping shoulders as she repeated her question. Finally, she was stopped by a receptive but hallowed voice.

"We found her dead in the hallway off the cargo bay. One of them must have domed her."

Under the cover of volumetrics, Hoshi's deep blue eyes swept to where she could see Sif and the SAINT operative then to the far-off William above the sea of Nekovalkyrja. Surely, she thought, one of them had killed the enemy at some point while separated from the captain, fulfilling Yui's prophecy. There was a magnitude of misery that now filled the anxious curiosity with which she had sought Charbon's fate. It would only be later during debriefing when she would hear that those on her team had seen her last alive, but wounded and the mystery of the enemy's fate would even more boundlessly torment the Kaiyō captain's morbid concern.

Through this, more and more Neko moved up and away, absconding from what could have been their tomb if not evacuated. There was some understanding that they had been spared, but the defeat of being taken prisoner largely spoiled the glory of survival for them.

The NMX Neko that had informed Hoshi of Charbon took up hands alongside three others and they stoicly marched as the last Neko on land towards the guard gate. They stood in the center of the platform and looked up at their sisters and the saviors they chose to see as captors. As the muck of the dried lake splintered and opened, revealing hot red flecks between layers of earth, they raised their clasped hands together, succumbing to a death of their choosing. A moment later, lava began spewing from the broken masses of earth. The aether reactions deep below had enlivened something within that caldera, reigniting the volcano below into something of its former glory.
 
Cauldron Lake

Cynea couldn't find the words to to say to the NMX, or the situation in general. How was she going to play this? It was hard to stomach continuing the manipulation, but it was just as hard to come out with the truth, not that there was any wisdom in doing so when tension was so high. Hihja awoke and Myga continued with the act. She had stood beside her, ready to shield her from any hostility. Only natural to protect the squad leader after all. Though she was caught off guard when Aiko turned her blade against Myga; a show of force perhaps.

She turned towards Myga and Aiko, taking a step back. How far was she going to have to keep up appearances, she wondered. Cynea's gaze drifted towards the NMX Nekos and her eyes fell upon a familiar crimson head of hair, eyes with a seriousness she had never seen before.

"How do you feel about this?" came Nari's voice. Oddly serene. Perhaps there was a raging storm within, or perhaps she had come to a conclusion. She was behind a few bodies, but the unevenness of her shoulder told Cynea she had a weapon hidden.

"I believe its for the best," Cynea replied. "They almost got Hihja. Our so-called allies almost ate her. I thought you were just trying to scare me, but you knew, didn't you?"

"... So you're defecting then?"

"Either of us could have ended up cannibalized by them. Hell, we might have been eating our own now that I think about it."

"You're too much of a bleeding heart."

"Because I know there's something better than this. Not having to worry about eating your friends is the bare minimum. This could be a chance to find something better. Don't throw it away."

"They have you tempted with promises and lies. We'll just be prisoners, rotting away in a cell. Prisoners of war are not treated kindly."

"Would you rather be eaten by the overseers then? Or have the people you've worked with for so long disappear one after another, never knowing when it's your turn to be drugged and sent down to be a snack. Surely that's not something you want to live with for the rest of your life. Besides... we still have a lot to talk about."

"... Alright... You seem to have it all figured out, huh? Fine. I'm not looking to die on this thrice-damned planet. And I'll be grilled for sure for losing everything in the armory..."

Nari's gaze followed the Nekos who walked towards the caldera, prompting Cynea to follow them with her eyes as well. Better to die than be killed. It is a well-known trope in writing. Whether out of honor, pride, spite or despair, they decided to take their own lives. To think she would witness such a thing with her own two eyes.

As they fell, Cynea bowed her head and closed her eyes, offering a silent prayer for their souls to find peace.





This war has to end before we lose ourselves.​
 
Mirthless laughter escaped Hihja's bloodied lips, devolving into pained coughs that accentuated her expression of pain. "Swappin' one master for another," she muttered bitterly, her gaze fixed on Myga with an intensity the other woman had never seen before. Even as the rumbling of the planet signaled to all that the time for decisions had come, Hihja remained seated on the ground with a defiant stare. Myga was not among those fleeing the planet; she remained after assuring the others that she'd follow them shortly. She wasn't about to let someone else she knew die, no matter how much her Nekovalkyrja pride wanted it.

That, Myga realized, probably meant she would never have been a good Nekovalkyrja after all -- she was simply too Nepleslian.

Myga knelt by Hihja's side clutched her squadmate by the shoulders, "Hihja, you're coming with me -- that's an order!" she demanded in a forceful, authoritarian tone. But where Hihja would have once nodded, maybe with a snarky comment to uphold a veneer of independence, the muscular blonde simply stared Myga down defiantly.

"Sorry, but you can't pull rank anymore -- you're a prisoner now. I'm not going back, not after what they did to our sisters. I'll die a warrior, not a slave." Hihja jut her chin up in a stubborn gesture of pride, and refused to budge despite Myga's efforts to shift her. The rumbling beneath them grew, and the trio of NMX that remained watched the pair with passive, apathetic glances.

"We were always slaves! They were going to eat you! That's all we are to them -- food!"

"And you think fighting for them will be any different? We're made to fight and die by whoever controls us, the squids just don't pretend like we're anything more than what we are: tools of war."

"Sitting on a deathtrap isn't how a warrior dies, Hihja!"

"You're right," Hihja's eyes narrowed, and Myga's blood suddenly ran cold with anticipation and fear, "I've got to make up for getting shot in the back by your new friends." Hihja's injuries couldn't betray the speed at which she'd drawn a knife from her boot, and before Myga could blink, she felt a sharp, molten pain in her chest. She looked down to see a boot knife half-way embedded through her uniform, with her own gloved hands clasped over Hihja's -- one last reflexive save that this body had in store for her. Hihja was unperturbed, and with a stifled grunt, she attempted to force it further into Myga's flesh.

"Hihja, don't-!" Myga's cried out as the blade sank an inch deeper as a result of her lack of focus on the struggle. She had to act fast. With a bloodcurdling scream, she summoned all of her strength until, inch by inch, the blade started to slide out of her body inch by agonizing inch. Hihja was stronger, however, and it was clear that the surprise from her former squad leader's will to live was all that kept her from a renewed effort to push through her heart. That hesitation was Myga's chance, and a sharp twist brought an elbow to the side of the other soldier's head, causing her to stumble down to the side. A downward jab to the head, and Hihja crumpled into an unconscious heap.

Labored breaths followed the struggle as Myga slung Hihja's unconscious body over her shoulders once again. Taking off of the ground, the neko kept the Kaiyo's frame within her blurry vision to steel her resolve, even as the blood pouring from an open wound drained her strength with each passing second. When the pair landed within the cargo bay, Myga collapsed to the ground in a heap, a pool of crimson pooling around her and Hihja both. She stared into the face of her former friend, and wondered if she'd made the right choice.

Everything felt colder, now. She was starting to lose feeling in her limbs, and the darkness creeping around the edges of her vision worked to swallow the world entirely. Is this what it felt like to die? The nekovalkyrja smiled for what felt like the first time in a long time -- she'd saved someone, at least. She hoped there was honor to be found in that.
 
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