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RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 35: Kishi Kaisei

Forest Outpost

When the second Mishu arrived, Hoshi's orders came quickly. There was frustration that all that effort to simply disable the NMX Nekos was for naught, but they couldn't say that she didn't try. And that frustration was directed at the Mishu. If only the second one didn't show, then many of her sisters could have been saved from this life. Catching her spear as it returned to her hand, she directed a telepathic message to the NMX Nekos, knowing their chances of survival were close to none: 'Rest now. You are free,' she said before she activated her teleporter to rejoin the rest of the crew.

Coastline

There was a moment of dread when Sif didn't immediately see their new squadmates. With her short goodbye to the enemy Nekos, she thought she would have been the last one to arrive. Right in the middle of the fight, she had tunnel visioned on the Mishu, and she worried that Miori and Asuka had come to harm and she hadn't noticed. But when they arrived by flight, she was confused at first until she remembered a lecture from training outright saying that Daisies weren't outfitted with teleportation modules. In her defense, those first 90 days were so far back in her mind, these sorts of details were bound to slip. She was, however, glad to see them unharmed.

When the plans were drafted, Sif just listened, having no new ideas to put forward. Going through the guns to get to the underwater bunker was going to be a slog, and judging by the initial scans, the way forward through that approach was going to be sluggish, especially if the enemy made them fight for every inch of the tunnel.

So breaching and teleporting in seemed to be the chosen course of action. A sensible one at that.

"We'll have to be careful after we've breached. We saw two Mishus in the last outpost. No doubt there could be more."
 
Coastline > Underwater

William lept from the broken cannon and joined Aiko as everyone teleported in. He remained silent during his counterpart's report, not having much to add to their actions. When Hoshi gave her orders, he looked to her then to Asuka and nodded. "Sounds good. I'll take point on the way down." He said, turning and walking into the water. Sealing his armor once more, his armor slowly disappeared below the waves as he walked deeper into the cove.
 
Coastline

"Ryokai, Taisa," Aiko confirmed, ready to follow Hoshi's orders for the two stage assault. She'd already input the IFF signature for Hoshi's Mindy into her Heavy Lift Teleporter's vectoring program as the demolition dive team stepped off, locking the little pink captain's mecha as her destination wherever it went. The others, Molli, Sif, and Miori, were logged in the princess' system too, acquired as subjects for transit in the coming minutes.

Left in command topside with orders to hurry up and wait, as it were, Aiko soon activated the robust active camouflage system that her Kirie was equipped with. While the smaller Mindys and Daisy could volumetrically disappear just as easily as the bigger Thought Armor, Aiko's machine could do it more simply and with less optical distortion. Three whole meters from any point on the tall crimson Kirie simply disappeared from view at the command of the princess, leaving nothing but an image of the smoldering artillery casemate where the four Star Army soldiers stood under stealth.

Of course, if some Mishhuvurthyar or NMX thrall stumbled through the optical camouflage zone they'd find themselves face-to-face with a set of the Uchuugun's finest. But that was unlikely unless there was phased Enhanced-Type already lurking in wait.

"Excellent tactical synthesis, Byrne-hei," Aiko said, her delicately rich voice sounding whisper close across comms as it was digitally replicated by her Immersion System. She refused to use any new callsign for the girl, having only become accustomed to "Momo" after Molli's initial "Arro" had fallen out of fashion. "We will hit them hard upon arrival. However, if there are no targets waiting then raise your active camouflage individually so that we can maintain surprise for any enemies who come to meet us.

"I trust you are all ready?" the princess asked, double checking to see if anything else needed to be said beyond what the squad's vitals showed within her CIES' display.
 
Underwater

Asuka did her best not to wilt under so much scrutiny. It wasn't easy, as a rule getting this much attention meant she'd done something wrong, but perhaps it couldn't be helped. Or maybe it was just how they did things on a ship, who knew. In any event she'd been called on and certainly she had to answer. "Yes, ma'am," she acknowledged, reconfiguring her suit; to be fair she preferred gravimetric most of the time, but it wasn't always the best choice.

As for blowing a hole in things.... "I'll do my best. Didn't have time to get an ideal set of toys, but I can probably rig up something to break through... provided it's not too heavily armored." She couldn't believe they would have provided additional armor, water and seabed being enough protection most of the time, but who knew how the enemy thought? She was prepared to add more to lower expectations, but William was already going for a swim, so she turned to dash after him. She was chest deep in the water before she thought to seal her helmet once more. Absently she watched the yellow and red lines marking out recommended operating and test depth limits respectively, but she largely focused on a demolition plan. She didn't have all her toys, no, and not the toys a seasoned demolitions expert would have, but she did have a few grenades, four blocks of explosives, and a single shaped charge. That might be enough, though she was becoming less optimstic of its effectiveness. "Ah, do we have a notion of how much rock to get through?" she asked, as she worked to keep up with William.
 
Coastline

Uncertainty often plagued Molli's decisions, but when her tentative plan was adopted so readily, she felt a small semblance of pride at having contributed to the operation beyond firing her shotgun. It was the earnest praise, specifically from the princess, that truly tested Molli's capacity to keep her professional composure, however. "T-Thanks, y'highness, 'n Taisa..." Molli replied breathlessly, having suddenly found the ocean far more interesting to stare at than Aiko's statuesque Thought Armor, and struck with a feeling of remorse that her given callsign hadn't been uttered for once. Focus, Molli, focus.

"Ah'm ready," Molli affirmed, before tilting her head in momentary confusion at Asuka's warning. "Dunnae worry, we'll carry y'out if w'need to beat feet 'n ah jiff," she said, making a clicking noise with her mouth and winking. She was certain the Kalamari system could clasp onto any one of the squad and lift them off behind her, even if it was a less than dignified way of getting assistance.
 
"Well Taisa... I mayyyy have pushed mine above operational specs several times in order to keep up with the MINDYs," Miori said with a a bit of an embarrassed grimace while rubbing the back of her helmet sheepishly. "Uehara-Hei's fuel may be better off than mine because of that. I apologize ma'am if I've expended resources unwisely."

As the breaching crew left, Miori activated her active camoflage system and telepathically sent a private message to Uehara-Hei. "You got this, we survived the temple this is a cake walk." Included in the message was a chibi gif of Miori giving a thumbs up with a smile. Miori felt her comrade may be feeling the pressure, Miori understood that feeling well.

Turning her attention to those with her on the beach, "Aye, Chusa. I stand ready." Miori said then had a thought, "Chusa if I may, after this mission do you know if there will be time to upgrade from the DAISY? I feel like I am having to compensate a lot for it's differences between it and the MINDY. Either that or get modifications to my DAISY like Byrne-Hei and Ignemar-Hei have on their MINDYs to allow me to keep up."
 
"A Mindy 4 armor will be fitted to you in due course, Santô Hei," Aiko assured Miori. It'd only been a few hours since their fight at the Great Temple of Elysia Novus, after all, so there had been little opportunity to do more for the two Rikugun newcomers than give them bunks for a short reprieve. "The detachable arm mechanism Molli-kun employs is the only suit modification among our armor team. The rest simply utilize their preferred equipment loadouts, which I encourage you to do when you are better situated."

With Hoshi, William, and Asuka down in the depths but not yet calling for reinforcement, Aiko kept a close eye on their surroundings as she spoke. Not only visually — afforded the vantage of a spherical panorama that saw out from every inch of her Kirie's skin — but with direct sensors input that tapped into her consciousness as if she was born with an ability to reach out and detect spatial disturbances for kilometers around her.

There were no incoming enemy contacts yet, though the Mishhu surely knew by now they were under attack. And for that the princess was glad. For as much as she reveled in a fight, every moment of respite only enhanced the battle still to come.

"You must have made several modifications of your own if what you say about your thrusters is true," Aiko added with a touch of curiosity on her tongue. She maintained her own Kirie and was fond of recreationally wrenching away at an old car or two when she got the time, so her wonder was genuine. "To push the throttle of any LAMIA unit past its limit requires some engineering expertise. Perhaps you will share what you know with Koizumi-shoi and our armorers. I am sure they would enjoy hearing your methods sometime."
 
"Careful of any octopi, I hear they love pulling masks off of divers," Sif said, giving the dive team a small wave and hoping her lighthearted comment served to provide a tiny bit of levity. Although, considering the Mishu had a passing resemblance with their mass of tentacles, maybe that could have had the opposite effect... Either way, keeping an eye out for tentacled fiends wouldn't do them any harm.

When asked if they were ready, Sif gave Aiko a nod. "Ready as I'll ever be. Though I can't say I'm looking forward to fighting in flooded halls, especially if they happen to be thick with biomass. I know we'll be covered in viscera anyway, but mixed with saltwater, we'll be smelling like raw steaks gone bad when we return to the ship..." The armors would definitely need to be sterilized with the utmost prejudice after this mission, thoroughly.

Turning her attention to Miori, Sif said, "Oh, when you do get fitted with the Mindy, would you mind telling me how it feels compared to the Daisy? I never got much time in the Daisy armor, so I'm curious how differently it feels." She would ask to try it on, but they would probably have to do some refitting to make that possible.

After making her request, Sif activated her camouflage. Wouldn't do to get found out so quickly.
 
Underwater

Having responded to Molli and the new Rikugun girl next to her with a singular quick nod, Hoshi had absconded behind William and Asuka. The former with his bulking mono-eyed armor looked like he was outfitted in a deep sea diving dress of an ancient time as he submerged. Hoshi, behind Asuka, held up the rear as she oftentimes did as she entered the water with a seamless hover, slipping into it like it weren't there at all. Under, she gave a twirl to feel the strange sensation of swimming without having the water touching her.

"Let's get closer to be more sure," Hoshi said in response to Asuka asking about the amount of material she'd have to blow. And get closer they did. The sandy shore quickly dropped off into a deeper abyss. Below the cove's peaceful, calm topmost layers, there were pockets of life. A bed of sap-green seaweed led into a rocky outcropping of pink coral that gave refuge to a shoal of horned fish not usually seen on any Yamataian planets. Beyond, the signal Aiko had picked up was more intense. Heat signatures that could only be power banks stayed warm several meters below the colder seabed.

"I'd count it twenty feet down, at least." Hoshi reckoned over comms. "You got this, Uehara-hei?"
 
Underwater

"Hmm." Asuka said nothing more for a moment, making calculations leavened with a pinch of reasonable assumptions and a couple of wild ass guesses. It wasn't as if breaching an underwater fortress was a problem she'd spent a lot of time thinking about, either in exercises or her free time. But certain principles should always hold, right? Right. A school of fish swam by, but she ignored them. Her fingers clenched tightly for a moment, and for an even briefer moment she wished she'd kept her mouth shut. Then Miori sent her a mental thumbs up, and her shoulders relaxed ever so minutely. It was very good to know that despite the circumstances she'd been thrown into, there was at least one familiar face. "Damn right, we got this!" She flashed back a matching image of herself delivering a pair of finger guns.

"I thin... yes, ma'am, we can do this," she said with more confidence than before, as she drifted down to the bottom of the cove. There was an expected layer of silt and sand, but perhaps it could be used to allow for a bit of tamping. "Just a few minutes to set the charges and I can punch us in when you give the word... ah, but it'll take almost everything I have." The neko immediately set to work planting the explosives, falling back on the rote skills that didn't have to change that much just because she was underwater, in an environment with octopi and Mishhu and who knew what else.
 
Underwater

"You're coming in clutch already," Hoshi said to the red panel, but across all comms.

With them open, she added, "Sorry for chatter. Two minutes to breech and another minute for the enemy to respond, team. Coords for likely place to punch in being sent now."
 
Coastline-Camouflaged

Miori nodded along with the princesses' explanation of her crewmate's gear, smiling at the thought of her own MINDY and some ideas for its load out and possible modifications she'd run by the technicians once she had the chance. Though her sheepishness quickly returned when the princess mentioned her usage of the thrusters.

"Thank you for your praise ma'am; but honestly, it is just some software tricks my mother passed on to me via her memories. She learned many tricks helming starships to get more power out of thruster units than the engineers would allow. Fortunately it seems the DAISY's thruster pack system's software is similar enough that I was able to squeak out a few more G's in order to keep up with P- err Momo earlier. Downside was something my mother's memories never had to account for on Starships, fuel limitations. I'd be more than happy to share the code, though I doubt the technicians will like me breaking the engineering limits on their gear too much, Chusa." Miori said with a bit of a self depreciating chuckle at the end.

Then in reply to Ignemar-Hei, Miori smiled again and said, "Oh I definitely will Ignemar-Hei. I already have some opinions on the suit compared to you all's from this mission alone; however, I'll try to reserve my judgement til after I try out the MINDY."
 
Underwater

The physical act of planting the explosives was easy enough. Lots of digging, but she hadn't thought to bring a shovel. Something else to add to the list. Once she was done, she looked over her work. It should work. It would work.

"Ready," she said finally, propelling herself what she thought would be a safe distance away. That depended a bit on how much suction the desired breach would produce, but that would be even more guesswork. She was more confident, though, that it would work. The rock is just rock, after all. "Stand by for shock. Detonation in five, four, three, two, one--"

A fist hit her in the chest. Her vision was instantly clouded by bubbles and foam as the charges went off. Most of the energy, as intended, went into vaporizing and blasting the seabed, but the concussive blast easily propagated through the water, and despite being prepared for it, she was still buffeted as water, sand, and bits of coral roared past. Good thing subtlety wasn't part of the plan!

From above, the sea seemed to jump, and then froth bubbled up and out, spreading in concentric circles as a brief dome formed and just as quickly subsided. It took a few moments before dead fish began to float to the surface, rocked gently by the breakers which resumed soon after the ripples subsided.
 
Underwater

Those on the edge of the forest with the cove still in view would no doubt see that convex bulge on the once placid waters. The resulting bursting forth of froth and foam spoke volumes to those above water about the efficacy of the endeavors of their comrade's (old and new alike).

"On my count," Hoshi said after a minute to everyone, echoing Asuka's countdown just before. "Three, two, one...!"

Mishhuvurthyar Base

Underwater and in the bunker, the room blown into was a huge chamber with four power banks that spilled out from a central reactor. In shape, the power banks looked like flower petals or, perhaps more aptly, tentacles sprouting out from the creature to which they belonged. One such power bank was broken badly from the demolition. Electrical charges burst forth from it and along the surface of the water below. Though the water was only halfway up the sticky red walls of the chamber, a geyser of sea water was still coming in to the room. It would very likely be completely filled within the minute.

Three Advanced and a dozen NMX Neko floated and worked around the broken power bank petal.
 
Coastline

"It will be preferable if you find the Mindy 4 a favorable experience, Tsukiki-hei," Aiko noted in a very unimpassioned and matter-of-fact way. "This team always utilizes the correct armor for the mission, so sometimes we will call upon your Daisy but others will require you in a Mindy. Our armor is a tool — weapons of war to accomplish the orders from Star Army Command — so do not become too attached to one or the other."

Just as she spoke, Aiko's sensors sounded an alert as they detected the first signs of Asuka's explosives work. Within a split second after that, the whole team could feel a momentary rumble beneath their feet even at their perch high on the sea cliff's plateau. And then they saw the great pillar of aerate water reach up from the center of the cove below. The roiling spear of water fell back to the surface almost as quickly as it had shot skyward, leaving behind a trickling chorus of countless sea-drops as they met back with their source.

"Prepare for transit," Aiko informed the others. "Make ready your arms; we remain weapons free."

The princess followed the lock on Hoshi's location as it moved on her sensors. She made manual micro-adjustments while the Kaiyō team waited in anticipation for any signs from the advance squad.

"On my count," Hoshi's voice called at last. "Three, two, one...!"

Mishhuvurthyar Base

The order then given, Aiko activated her Kirie's Heavy Lift Teleportation Unit in unison with Hoshi's final word and jumped to the captain's coordinates, dragging Molli, Sif, and Miori along with her. In the blink of an eye, the four Star Army soldiers rematerialized at the prescribed location knee-deep in the electrified water that continued to fill it.

Aiko immediately aimed her Thought Armor's shoulder-mounted gauss cannon at one of the three Advanced Type Mishhu distracted with damage control and fired. Still, she remained keenly aware of the massive entryway Asuka had made and the profusion of seawater it was providing at thousands of gallons per second.

"Do you want this space flooded out or shall I seal it, Taisa?" Aiko asked. Her squad was protected from drowning within their power armors, as were perhaps the Mishhuvurthyar, but the dozen-or-so NMX Nekovalkyrja were not so lucky. "It will eliminate most of the enemy contacts in approximately forty-five seconds."
 
Mishhuvurthyar Base

Molli's first action upon materializing within the flooding base was to leap into the cluster of NMX and lash out to individuals with her six arms, clasping onto their torsos and lifting them high, before attempting to hold them against the ceiling. If any held weapons, she attempted to dislodge them from their hands with a repeated battering against the surface that they were pinned to. The process was likely to strain her module's hemosynth system in the face of resistance, so it was in their best interest to neutralize the far more threatening Advanced as quickly as possible.
 
"No need," Hoshi said to the Imperial Princess. She had assessed the situation after slowly falling in through the seawater and began shooting at the Mishhuvurthyar Aiko's cannons were aimed at. Aiko's question followed Hoshi's line of thinking—save as many NMX Nekovalkyrja as possible. Molli's attempt at that as a handful of NMX technicians squirmed between her kalamari claws and the fleshy ceiling underscored it.

But Hoshi had other plans.

"Put them up through the hole to surface where the Kaiyo can capture them, Molls." Hoshi said as she looked away from Molli honing in on the NMX Nekovalkryja. "The Mishhu will take concentrated effort and time to be put down. Keep them away from their equipment instead of concentrating on killing them!"

"Uehara-hei, I'll be requiring your engineering abilities again. Can you find a way to cause an internal combustion through the aether reactors here?" Hoshi asked of the red panel Rikugun soldier.
 
On the question from Hoshi, Asuka barely hesitated. Descending into the chamber was the only thing which gave her pause. There had been lots of sims which involved raiding a Mishhuvurthyar lair, and a small part of her was impressed at how well they'd conveyed what to expect. It was gross.

First things first, though, now that the NMX were being detained and more seasoned hands were going to hopefully deal with the Mishhu themselves. Which left Hoshi's question. "Oh, definitely! Just depends on how many safety precautions they took...." She looked around again and it was an effort not to wrinkle her nose. Not that she was in any way a generator technician, but she was fairly confident she could figure out a way to make it fail. Explosively, perhaps? "How fast do you need it?"
 
Aiko would never question Hoshi's order to keep the Advanced Type Mishhuvurthyar clear of their damaged power banks. But she certainly believed the best way to do so was to concentrate on killing them, counter to her Captain's message. Still, the princess generally understood Hoshi's scheme to slay all of the alien beasts in one fell swoop and so, of course, went along with it.

"Tsukiki-hei: cover Uehara!" Aiko said first, loosing another gauss shot at the Mishhu she'd already laid a slug into. "Keep her safe while she works and suppress the enemy."

"Joined, too, by the gunfire from Hoshi, that chosen Mishhuvurthyar fell. Yet more of their monstrous number remained standing — or rather floating, held aloft against gravity by the same kind of electro-gravi-metric manipulation that Nekovalkrja used — their tentacles half submerged as the water level rose by the second.

"Wil, Sif-hei!" the princess added, trudging forward unimpeded through the salty soup with her Thought Armor's powerful powerful servos. She activated the aether blades out from both her suit's forearm emitters. "Hoshi-taisa wants them occupied. We shall oblige and hold them until her ploy unfolds."

Lunging preternaturally in her tall power armor, Aiko charged in and stabbed through the back of one Mishhuvurthyar's shell-like skull. It had been tending to the damaged equipment wrought by Asuka's explosive entrance, confident its fellows and NMX Neko thralls would keep any intruders at bay. Aiko pulled her Mishhu target back away from its work with her blade still embedded, and soon thereafter began slashing at its massed tentacles below even as some thrashed to engulf her while others stretched and reached to continue tinkering at damage control.
 
Acting on commands, Sif's transparent still-shimmering form kicked up a spray of water as she lunged towards the second advanced type, following closely with Aiko's attack, aiming to bury the spearhead in full around the Mishhu's mouth while setting the aether edge to full and then raising her spear to bisect the creature, with her grip adjusted to make full use of the weapon's range.

But the warning about their tentacles was still fresh in her mind, so she kept a close eye on them. Ideally, she'd have damaged its brain enough to make it think twice about fighting back.
 
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