RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 36: Kōsaten no Hoshi

[Megabirb]

Bridge

With Erika taking over for the helm that left Rio only one choice, to head towards whatever awaited her in the sick bay. To argue or do anything more than Erika had done would only invite suspicion and trouble. She gave one last, worried look to Erika before she exited the bridge with a quick salute.

Hallway
Out in the hallway Rio began to look around, slowly working her way towards sick bay. She checked and looked at everything she could, peeking in rooms as she passed by, glancing at monitors and readouts. Anything that might be of value.

 

[raz]

Sick Bay

"Pathetic," Aiko said back to the Advanced-Type. "It is no wonder you are relegated to this medical bay, where you can see pliant meals delivered on slabs rather than compete for them. This makes no difference to me if you do not have the will to partake on the bridge, or if perhaps Gorga has frightened you away from taking what you deserve. Your bearing is less impressive than the girthy tentacles suggest."

Her words were a last attempt at goading the Mishhuvurthyar out of their hair. Aiko had thus far been surprised by the enemy crew's conduct — always questioning and challenging authority that should humble them — because she had the understanding that they were an effective military despite the SMN's cultural proclivities toward aggression. She would have worried that her Star Army team's subterfuge had been found out if not for the fact they still stood unshackled. If Aiko had to constantly check a SAINT team's intentions on her own ship she'd have already thrown them in the brig.

So the fact they'd made it this far already despite the constant challenges from Rancéde and her underlings told her this was a crew of misfits rather than anything more dangerous. Still, she remained on high alert and ready to strike with murderous intent.

"You have sedatives, yes?" the princess asked, pivoting whether the Advanced-Type decided to vacate or not. She considered how much tranquilizer it would take to knock out this pest, or at least weaken him enough to eliminate in her unarmored state. "A concoction strong enough to keep this ID-SOL down, delivered by jet injector or needle gauge sufficient to penetrate through his muscular layers," she explained, then peering at William and Isuke and back to the Mishhu as if to survey them whilst conveying to her people the idea of her plan with a sympathetic look only they could see.

 

[Ametheliana]

En Route to Engineering

Pregnant with the pause that came after Molli's offer to Chincha, the hallway seemed transmuted into a different place momentarily. One where an easy ally felt safe and comfortable and where the horrors of the Mishhuvurthyar were absent... or at least put off until a different time. Chincha lunged forward towards Molli, shoulder checking her like she had to Asuka upon arrival in the refueling hangar. It was the same shoulder as Molli's cybernetic arm was usually. But Chincha met the other woman's fleshy Nekovalkyrja shoulder with hers instead. She held her hand there on Molli's shoulder, looking into her eyes with a warmth.

"You're one of the best the Sfrarabla Nougpift has to offer, you know. Call on Leepa if something goes wrong. I think you met her. Short-stack with bright eyes and a mouth on her. She's," Chincha looked ready to say something, then bit her words to say, "dependable."

She crossed her arms as her smile made the gold freckles on her dark face burst upwards, crinkling in on themselves as she smiled wide. She looked to Sif and instructed her, "They do a lot for the ships. Better to be on their good side than not at all. Here!" She offered the parasite and it jumped onto Sif's shoulder faster than Sif could react. "Superior Overseer. Right, right. Probably hates your Commander for being same rank."

With her hand freed from one of the many bugs, Chincha used it to key in the console commands, tapping on its upper level as if hitting the numbers 1, 2, 3 ,4. Then, the sphincter door opened and the blaring alarms from inside engineering danced alongside the flashing lights. The aether bay was a lot like the one on Rabaal with tentacles protruding out from a central generator. Two of the appendages had been removed and lay in segments while two technicians seemed to be pulling out their hair over them, bickering.

Sick Bay

"Through an injector!?" Sahacre roared in Aiko's mind. His chemical injector tentacles rose up as if insulted, but the saw-blade that he had used to close the door grazed over William's exposed flesh —of which there was quite a lot of to choose from. The knife's edge merely scratched the ID-SOL's skin and Sahacre's looming form sunk slightly as if dismayed. "Perhaps you are right. About this, though! You are not correct that Gorga is better than me! He lacks the brains I do! I would never lower myself to fighting aga—"

The Advanced-type Mishhuvurthyar began murmuring to himself as he made noisy work looking for both the huge injector and sedative. Having grown accustomed to using his own toxins for smaller jobs than William, it was not easily found.

As William looked around, he saw a lot of electronic equipment. Medical scanners, hemosynth synthesizers, defibrillators, and a volumetric console. Sahacre was paying where William looked little mind after prodding him. It did, though, let a few tentacles slip away from its work in the cupboards to pat the table closest to Isuke. They then slipped on up her elbow, then gripped her chest. The tentacles wrapped upwards from her arm as if climbing a rocky shoal. One of the Mishhuvurthyar's appendages slid further, as if groping its way in the dark along her clavicle and into her mouth.

Hallways

There was a lot to see for Rio. On the level of the bridge Captain Rancéde's quarters were just in front of the bridge and upper engineering, a recreational bath and showers. On the deck lower, there were officer's quarters, fabrication bay, and a cargo lift that ran through both levels. She was able to read some recent mandates from the captain to work double hours and to always tell commanding officers about indiscretions that other personnel did or could commit with the motto: "If you suspect something, say something."

Bridge

"At ease, at ease." Raspu said. Normally a cold woman, Erika's repentant display had thinned the icy shell and her tone betrayed that pacification. She lifted a brow. "Look there, the girls are done refueling. Don't give them too much time to load back in. They should be kept on their toes." She sniffed. "Lift off when ready, helm! I'll send the signal to the base to pull in the atmospheric shell and we'll be off."

Cargo

Charbon's eyes shifted to the refueling crew of NMX just outside the ship.

"Crap job or not, there is a fair amount here. The ship has more ordinance than it would need regularly. I would wonder why, but it looks like they negligently oversupplied. Or perhaps wanted to give the impression they shoot more than they do to cargo specialists."

It was then that the refueling team looked to be finishing up. They squealed as they came into the cargo bay and the first to come in yelled, "Bridge always takes off before we're in all the way!"

With a look of detestation, Charbon shook her head then spoke, "Pitiable. We will need to separate armaments from everything else and prepare them for loading. Let's work fast, as our sisters seem to be doing so well."

Leepa had come in, yellow eyes tight on the two. "Need a hand? I've spent some time down here. It's organized chaos," she laughed.

Charbon looked to Asuka, taking her lead.

 

[Gunhand4171]

Sick Bay

William grimaced at the saw blade running across his skin. He saw the glance from Aiko and knew what she was planning, but it didn't hurt to have a redundancy. He unleashed multiple viruses from his mindware setting them to infect the medbay's systems. In particular, he wanted to take control of the defibrillators. Once he was inside, he'd override the safeties and let the life saving devices build up a a deadly amount of electrical energy.

Glancing at Isuke his heart dropped as he saw the Mishu's tentacle slithering up her arm and chest and towards her mouth. 'Hold on Isuke...' He pleaded wordlessly, redoubling his efforts. His malware attempting to infect the systems were bolstered by William scripting lines of code on the fly to bolster his cyber attack.

 

[Gles]

Hallway outside of Engineering

Molli didn't budge from Chincha's shoulder check, but her stony facade seemed to crack with how wide her eyes became; even in a new body, physicality wasn't comfortable for her. Molli stood in place, frozen as though caught in a blaring light, breath stuck in her throat. The ruse, which was saved by Sif's timely correction of rank terminology, should have called on her to throw Chincha's hand off and reprimand her for conduct unbecoming of a soldier. All Molli could focus on, besides the parasite-covered woman's breath, was her tacit evasiveness. She wasn't outright saying it, but Molli knew Chincha was trying to spell it out; she wanted to go off to her death without any further fuss from outsiders.

A pursed frown formed on Molli's face. For all the limitless potential of her body's digital mind, it was incapable of determining the right combination of words, spoken in the right tone, that could potentially dissuade Chincha from her chosen course. "Leepa," Molli said, swapping Chincha's hand off her shoulder, "Right. I'll be certain to call for her, should the need arise." It was too risky to press the issue further, lest Chincha start to question why an officer was so insistent on saving a life that was, by all accounts, only lost temporarily.

Engineering

The open sphincter and the mercilessly unmuffled alarum that blared out into the hall started to make Molli's pointed ears ring, eliciting a wince from the pretend officer. Though her duty was a masquerade, the desire to silence the blaring noise pushed Molli to quickly walk toward the bickering engineers with a glare on her face. "Why are gabbing instead of fixing the issue!?" she shouted, placing her hands on her hips.

 

[Nameless]

Hallway outside of Engineering

Leepa. That was definitely a name uttered back at the welcoming party. Yes, she was helping the others with refueling, though she couldn't get a good look at her from where she kept herself. Likely someone worth trying to save. A little part of her grew concerned on those last four words. 'Worth trying to save', was suggesting a value being imposed on one's life. Seeing the hints of camaraderie shared between the grunts on the ship, it wasn't all that fair to pick a few from the many for salvation, but saving them all was an impossibility at the moment. But perhaps there was a way to salvage them.

It might not be the version of the crew they met, but they could be given a new life all the same. They just needed to get their hands on the data and make it out of here in one piece.

The parasite jumping on her shoulder made her wince, slightly frozen with a small measure of fear. "Aiieee..." she'd utter, attempting to edge her face away from her shoulder before catching herself. "Sorry, I just know these things have a nasty bite," she'd say, trying not to move around too much. "No nipping, alright, I still got something to fix in engineering," she'd say to the parasite, trying to convince it to stay put.

Yes, this was a dangerous spot she found herself in. But surely it'll be fine if she treated this more like a curious, yet fatally deadly, animal. Let it get to know your scent, don't make sudden movements that might startle it, and don't be so twitch or jumpy. That last bit was going to be difficult.

Engineering

With the parasite on her shoulder, Sif walked into Engineering and the noise and bickering in front of her did not inspire a great deal of confidence if she were an NMX. "I suppose that's the thing we need to take care of?" she'd say dryly, looking at the segmented tentacles, choosing to ignore the fighting technicians being told off by Molli. "Well, hand me a tool. This gun sucks for welding," she'd tug on the strap of her gun. She'd also glance at the parasite, which crawled to her other shoulder.

"Don't suppose you have a welder on you?" she'd ask it, cheekily, but cautiously.

 

[aitoseigi]

Cargo Bay

"As if! No such thing as oversupply," she said confidently. "When it goes down you always burn through more ammo than you planned. Definitely more than the supply clerks say you need." Asuka nodded in approval. "And I don't know about you, but I'd rather have too much ordnance than too little. The blonde looked between Charbon and Leepa, before giving a casual shrug, far more casual than she felt at being put in charge of an enemy work party.

Well, they are mostly likeable enemies, at least.

"Okay then. Ammunition gets segregated from everything else, and then we'll sort by type and size. We can worry about getting everything to the magazines later. Who usually handles the weapons loading around here? Would hate to screw up their stowage scheme."

 

[krisslanza]

Sick Bay

Now, it would be a lie to say Isuke had never been touched without her consent before. But she could quickly say the current situation, would have to fit up within her top 10 of the worst times. Just something about the feel and texture of the Mishu's tentacles felt... wrong. From what she had remembered learning, she also recalled that these things were more then capable of ripping her limbs straight off her body if they so chose as well. There was some silver lining that she was here as a 'prisoner', and not an actual active combatant or the situation would change from just being unpleasant to probably life-ending - for her.

An involuntarily, more reflexive gasp escaped her lips as the tentacle groped her chest, the only thing stopping her from trying to clamp her mouth shut and grit her teeth, was the fact another had already decided to slip itself into her mouth. The appendage would've been impossible to bite anyway, and inflicting harm upon the Mishu could only serve to possibly enrage it and worsen the situation. With Aiko and William present, she knew she wasn't in any ACTUAL danger - this was probably the only reason she could remain so calm at the moment though.

The Lorrfolk had to mentally admit, if this wasn't part of a plan, she would probably be terrified right now. No, perhaps it would be more foolish to assume anyone would not be afraid in this situation.

All she could do for now was keep up her role. Her body reflexively tensed slightly, but she made sure to not bite down on the tentacle or try to give the Mishu the impression she was going to fight back, or try to harm it. Just a bit longer, surely... and well, if not... well, as long as she survived the ordeal she would be fine.

 

[raz]

Sick Bay

Without hesitation, Aiko grasped the Mishhuvurthyar tentacle prodding at Isuke. It was easy enough to yank away. The princess was strong even among Nekovalkyrja, after all, and the Advanced-Type himself was exercising some form of tenderness toward the Star Army Lorrfolk's body as it slithered around and into her mouth. Thus with an annoyed hiss she dug her black fingernails into the slimy, bulky appendage and pulled it to her own side.

What wasn't as simple was Aiko's restraint. Certainly, she was ready to rip this bumbling beast apart with her teeth and the scout ship hadn't even taken off yet. But she had to maintain the charade for a while longer. Though Kitsurugi Aiko was one of Yamatai's greatest warriors, the princess was so because she knew not to pounce upon even an unsuspecting Mishhuvurthyar without a plan that would prevent him from having them all pinned and poked by those tentacles.

"Unsullied," Aiko spat, reminding the Mishhu what she'd already told him. "The Warlord will stuff your proud brains into a battlepod if these prisoners are spoiled. So find somewhere else to put this," she told him, squeezing the tentacle in her hand before tossing it away. Her scarlet eyes narrowed and a small, disgusted grin spread on her face.

"Now," she continued, glancing at the slime coating left behind by the tentacle on her pale palm, "is the sedative prepared yet? Hand it here and I will put them under properly. Then, hopefully, their still forms will tempt you less than your duties."

 

[Ametheliana]

Sick Bay

"Freaky bitch wanted it," the Mishhuvurthyar growled, now out of his clacking maw. He had whipped his tentacle out of Aiko's clutches and curled it up and into his belly pouch. The voice was shaky like a corrugated metal roof creaking and trembling against foul weather. Comfortlessly it swiped towards Isuke with another tentacle. It landed on her scarred, tan thigh before sliding off. Its other tentacles had ceased rummaging in the cupboards and drawers and procured multiple accoutrements which it started toiling with. It looked like Sahacre's attention had slipped off of molesting Isuke as easily as it tentacle had in order to follow Aiko's commands.

Soon, the sedative was loaded into the jet injector and he placed it into Aiko's hands and moved past her, looming towards Isuke with his full mass.

William's efforts showed him that the NUCLEON systems were almost as tightly guarded as a MEGAMI's were on an SAoY ship. The best he could do was avoid detection and make a little torrent of electricity pop out of the defibrillator. The little jolt meant Sahacre had to turn from all three of them, the Lorr object of his interest included, to look towards the loud crackling noise.

Bridge

"Take off," Raspi said. "Atmospheric shell has been retracted and we are clear for flight. Coordinates are for the flagship. That is, if I have heard correctly. What is it your motley crew are under orders from Elder Yaggorahurl to be doing, again?"

Engineering

Those arguing turned on Molli as if about to start laying into her, but something about Myga certainly stopped them.

"Absolutely, we don't have a good way of recoupling these genny conduits. While we were refueling we took all other systems offline while rerouting subset routines but that didn't work. Our main engineer transferred so we're flying without her experience."

The parasite on Sif's shoulder jumped off, plummeting towards the wet ground where it kept moving as if on a slide. It started crawling wildly in midair after it lost momentum on the slick ground and knocked into a panel on the wall. Its fangs knocked into it before it floated and found its place on Sif's arm, crawling up and tucking in behind her hair.

Chincha had wordlessly disappeared.

Cargo Bay

"Chincha usually handles that," Leepa said. "Cap said she, uh, wanted her, though... Uh," she stared at the boxes while disassociating momentarily, her orange-hued face slack at the jaw. "I, uh, know her routine well enough. I'll start loading now."

Charbon tapped her forehead and looked at Asuka when Leepa was out of view. She used sight wireless communication to avoid anyone eavesdropping.

"We need to prepare this ship for battle of one against many. Find a way to make this ordinance outclass this lowly scout." Charbon instructed as she began joining in what Leepa was doing. "With whatever explosives you brought along, yes?" She was expecting a lot of Asuka, but knew that while the rest played out phase one, Asuka and her were best suited to preparing the Mordrakka to fight Yaggorahurl fleet, if things came to it. And against him especially, she wanted his opponents to win.

 

[raz]

Sick Bay

"You really are clueless," Aiko sighed, sounding happily relieved as she shrugged with the loaded jet injector in her right hand. "He must be into your horns," she said, looking past the Mishhuvurthyar at Isuke. "I suppose it cannot be helped, then. We did not even get your name."

With that, the princess stepped toward the Mishhu pest and wrapped an arm gently around one of his tentacles in more of a hug than an aggressive grapple. Her touch deceptively tender and now standing almost underneath his dripping mane of feelers — which, to Aiko, seemed extra juicy perhaps as a result of how he dwelled upon Isuke — she thrust the sedative needle deep into his soft core and pressed the device's activator. If she's aimed correctly, the tranquilizer would penetrate near to the tentacle beast's brain.

"Another missed opportunity for you," Aiko teased, hopping underneath the Mishhu's bulk to face him before his great mass could come crashing down atop her. Dropping the pressurized syringe so that her hand was free to draw her sword if need be, she kept on guard to strike. "If only you had taken the hint. Now it is Isuke-san's turn."

 

[Gunhand4171]

Sickbay

The moment Aiko made her move, William was up and moving. He quickly checked on Isuke, offering her a hand up. "You alright? It took everything in me not to jump up and start going to town on the things face when he started getting gropey." Helping her to her feet he turned and moved next to Aiko. "We need to ensure 'it' won't be waking up again to tattle on us." The ID-SOL told his friend, spitting the word 'it' like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

When he was on the mountain with Hoshi, he learned it was extreme cold that would stop an Advanced from healing. Picking up an injector he looked around the space once more, but not for any electronics, but for a coolant line. "Find me either a coolant line or liquid nitrogen and I will inject it directly into the big ugly's brain." He said to Aiko and Isuke.

 

[Gles]

Engineering

Molli's mind wandered back to her father's garage on Funky City, where power coupling issues were common; for a culture heavily into modding their own cars, plenty of Nepleslians had no idea how to do it in a way that lasted long-term. Obviously, a flying car or bike wasn't anywhere near the level of complexity of a starship, but Molli reasoned that the basic principles weren't all that different. "We're a long way from the fleet, so we'll need to jimmy a temporary fix- it doesn't need to be premium work, it just has to keep the ship together long enough for professional maintenance," Molli pointed to the wall panel that Sif's parasite friend had just slammed into, as well as various stations around the bay, "Strip down anything that isn't essential and find something that's a good enough replacement. Good enough means having room for shaft misalignment and wear resistance, got it?"

 

[Nameless]

Engineering

There was relief when the parasite left, which was replaced with curiosity when it started... Indicating? She was surprised that that thing was actually that smart, which meant they had to be careful what they said around it. There was no room for slips of the tongue here. When the parasite jumped back on her, she still had a reflexive flinch, and a shiver that ran down her spine when it brushed up against her neck. All she could hope for was that the anti-parasite measures were working properly if it did start feeling like it wanted to nip at her.

"Got it, ma'am," Sif'd say as she went over to the panel, opening it to find the tools she asked for. "Well, look at that, just what we need," she'd say to herself, and to the parasite as she picked up the handheld welder. Looking it over, it looked to be pretty similar if not identical to the one she worked with before, only clearly not being maintained as much.

She looked around trying to find Chincha, but with her silent departure she instead to turn to Molli and just nodded, "Parasite's a smart little thing," she'd say as she casually shook the welder in her hand, a small praise for the creature as well as a masked warning for her friend.

Sif walked up to the segmented tentacles and knelt down to examine the connections she'd have to make. "Give me some time to look at what I'm working with here. I need to see what we need for it." Looking to the two techs, she added, "And fill me in on which connects to what. Don't want it shorting out and blowing up in our faces mid-jump. If you have a schematic, even better."

The goal was to have it work long enough to get them to where they needed to be. And while she wanted to make sure it would be perfect, she also couldn't allow it to be too perfect either. This was still an enemy ship after all.

 

[Sunny D]

Bridge

If Erika wasn't wearing a mask her gaze would have bored through Raspu's face. She rather liked the fact she didn't need to control her expression, and could focus on body language and speech. "A-attention! Lift Off in 30." She said into the public attention speaker on the console. "All maintenance crew remove all moorings and return to the ship. All hands secure for Lift Off." She made a show of frantically manipulating the console and running through the checklist.

The time ticked down as the external crew scrambled to unmoore the ship moving with a speed that would rival a air bike racing pit crew. At the designated time she retracted the ramp and secured the airlocks.

When Raspu ordered her to take off she swallowed first before saying a dutiful "Yes ma'am."

The thrusters blared and the ship ascended. Erika had to delay answering Raspus's question as she struggled with the unfamiliar controls and the inertia of a ship she wasn't used to. "Um..." she buffered while she cleared the refuling post."We were on a reconnaissance and sabotage mission," She said, letting a little more confidence in her voice "and managed to capture a pair of officers during extract." She managed to add a proud intonation to her inflection. Her eyes remained focused on the telemetry from the sensors as she talked.

 

[krisslanza]

Sick Bay

Whatever the Mishhu had in mind would forever remain a mystery. Which was likely for the best anyway, Isuke was sure she could... withstand... an ordeal for the sake of the mission, but honestly it was best to not do it if she didn't have to. She didn't mind collecting scars, but emotional or mental ones were significantly less appealing for obvious reasons.

"Wouldn't be the first time my horns have attracted attention." quipped the Lorrfolk casually, "Is it bad to say, I've had worse experiences? Although, I guess this is my first Mishhu experience... not keen on having a repeat."

While she could easily get up off the table on her own, there was no harm in accepting William's help. "I'm alright, it was just a bit of skin contact... well, a little more then that, but honestly, I'm fine. Suppose we should be thankful it wasn't secreting anything from its tentacles though, or maybe it could've been a lot worse..."

The pink-haired Lorrfolk wasn't too sure on the innards of this vessel, but she may as well see if she couldn't help find this coolant line that William was looking for. It would be rather... unfortunate if the Mishhu was to wake up right now. She wouldn't think there would be much danger, but regardless, the situation wasn't the best right now. If any of the crew just happened to come by or something right now...

 

[aitoseigi]

Cargo Bay

"Got it. Though I've got way more to play with here than I brought along," Asuka replied, keeping it brief. Necessity had dictated she travel light, and the goods she'd been able to carry with her paled in comparison with what she had on hand now. And if these folk aren't willing to put all this fine ammo to good use, we sure as hell will!

All that being said, she didn't wish to completely throw caution to the wind. As a Rikugun, space combat wasn't exactly her field of expertise, but cobbling together improvised weapons from the standard issue NMX armaments shouldn't be impossible. She caught herself, though, just before getting ready to pry the cover off a torpedo. Probably shouldn't seem like an EOD expert if I can help it. Instead, she leaned over the sleek weapon as if looking for the safety marking, because she hadn't heard of any military that didn't put safe handling instructions on their weapons.

"Leave the aether weapons for last. Everything else we can start putting on pallets. I guess I can take a look over them to make sure there aren't any compatibility issues," she said aloud, putting just a bit of resignation into her voice. Bundling the weapons might make a bigger boom, assuming the package held together, but this was preferable to her next best option, which was to see if there were any safety limiters to be removed. Risky, but it was hard to win without taking at least some chances.

 

[Ametheliana]

XSS Mordrakka

With the force field that locked most of the crew—save Gorga and Rancede, the XO and Captain respectively—from sick bay activated, the Advanced Mishhuvurthyar would likely not be found. Whether that was before the coolant line seeped enough of a cloud of antifreeze to kill Sahacre remained to be seen.

Though a novitiate to NMX piloting, Erika's on the fly skill-building meant that they were jettisoning away from the clandestine refueling post and set to intercept Yaggorahurl's fleet within the hour. Sated by the worldly operative, Raspu strode to the back of the bridge. The throned Mishhuvurthyar descended his platform with a floating swiftness as he followed. There they stayed, though the silent strings of their telepathic exchanges created hushed pauses between the lapping sounds of their copulation that none on the bridge could ignore.

Those in engineering found Molli heading the project was yielding fruitful returns as she had those there scout for a makeshift generator coupling replacement. Sif and her had found a piece of redundant tubing that just needed to be disconnected and detached then trunkated to fit the bill. With the other two NMX engineers reconfiguring the output subsystems on the other end of engineering, they had a moment alone amongst the three of them (Molli, Sif, and the parasite).

In the cargo bay, nobody seemed to question Asuka's proficiency. Leepa approached her while she brushed her hand against her muddy, orange forehead. "I know it's tough getting familiar with a new crew but you're good people, I can tell." She grasped what Asuka was working on and tugged on it with her. "You been with your own team long?"

Having met Rio among the halls of the Mordrakka, Aiko's small team was bolstered nominally by the green SAINT operative as they made their way on the level Rio had just come from where the bridge, Rancéde's quarters, and the fabrication bay lay.

 

[raz]

Corridors

"With me, Sahty," Aiko said to Rio when she came upon the girl, using the operative's NMX cover name just in case whatever the Mishhuvurthyar equivalent of a MEGAMI was listening. "You are not on the bridge. Fill us in if there is any cause for concern, and take up the rearguard to ensure these prisoners stay in their place."

William and Isuke had followed flanking the undercover princess. So, in truth, she was partly glad they'd found the wayward Rio. Because although Aiko had a explanation waiting, the plausibility of escorting two detainees from where they were meant to be held was only enhanced by Rio's presence. It was much easier to pass the Nepleslian and Lorrfolk off as needing to be somewhere else if there was a second guard.

"We must make our way to the Captain's berth," Aiko strategized, walking along in front of her group to lead them at a steady clip. "If we stop her there it will be all the simpler for me to take command on the bridge. It is unfortunate that we cannot arm you two without drawing suspicion," she added, glancing over her shoulder at Isuke and William.

She was the same Aiko as always — a cool and majestic presence whose every action was taken with quick determination — and other than using the necessary Mishhu verbiage to maintain their charade, she spoke with the same pleasantly refined diction they were all accustomed to. But her red eyes piercing back toward her friends appeared positively sinful owing to the NMX officer's uniform she wore. Shaded by her cap's short visor, Aiko's gaze seemed more malevolent than inspiring for the brief moment it crossed over them.

"Are there any options I have not discussed?" she asked her underarmed squad. "Speak them now before we are committed."

 

[Nameless]

Engineering

"I guess I can add engineering to my bill of proficiencies..." she'd say under her breath as she stood back to admire the work they had done. It wasn't too shabby, just shabby enough to not be a reliable fix to keep permanently. Without knowing the full properties of the materials they worked with, all she could hope for was it wouldn't explode before they reached their target ship. But since they had a breather while the technicians were calibrating the engines, Sif's attention was pulled to the parasite.

This was her longest exposure to its kind, and it worried her that this thing was a lot smarter than she expected. Was it just trained or was it fully sentient, listening and watching as the crew worked, acting as the eyes and ears for its masters? Chincha said that they did a lot for the ship, so perhaps they acted more like maintenance drones? Then again... if Chincha was confident enough to speak about such gross breach of protocols around them, maybe they didn't actively report to the higher levels of command. Would they even be able to communicate?

Watching as the parasite crawled to her palm, Sif would look to Molli. "What's your thoughts on this little guy?" she'd ask. "It's definitely smarter than it looks..." There was innate distrust of the creature, but also a hint of curiosity. She knew the dangers of getting bit by one, but there was also a fascination with its intellect. Perhaps fascination would be too strong of a word, but admittedly, she did want to know the level of sentience this creature had. After all, Chincha and the other grunts breaking protocol and getting resleeved without their superior's knowledge, and insurgents infiltrating the ship are two vastly different magnitudes of concern.

Sif didn't want to draw suspicion towards her, but she also wants to find out if this thing would rat them out the moment it hears something it shouldn't have. It probably couldn't speak, otherwise she'd have heard it say something by now, right? She could try beaming a message to it, but... the idea wasn't really that appealing. What would it even sound like in her head? Throwing a cautious look to Molli before refocusing on the parasite, she tried speaking to it again. "Well, you can clearly understand me, and you know this place better than I do..." she'd start with a hushed voice to not disturb the technicians, or to draw their ears. "Who do you like more? One hop for the Overlord Superior, two hops for Chincha."