Mission Twelve: Naze Sorairo

YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge

An area of the water that was a couple hundred meters' length in front of the two ships burst downwards suddenly in a wide gap. The ocean poured into the opening that the ship below them was heading right for.

"Are we going to make it, Boss?" Hoshi shouted as she stood and her blue and white hair flew in the air as her own feet lifted off of the ground. Her upturned nose was inches from a screen as she asked, "Width?"

"One hundred and fifty... five meters, Captain." Boss had said this in a hesitant manner while wasting no time. The Fuji was barely going to make it and Gravity's skills were going to be further tested.

"Take her in," Hoshi ordered.

As they went into the cascading waterfall they entered the shallow ocean's open maw and were greeted with a chute of assorted guiding lights of greens and reds. The surrounding tunnel they were blasting through seemed to be blue, but that could have also been the large amount of water surrounding them.

Power Armor Bay

For those in the power armor bay, the ride would seem a little more interesting than usual as the sloshing water around the ship ebbed and flowed against her hull and outside of the open, force-field protected power armor bay door of deck 5.

"Hold steady," Eden said and murmured into team comms, "our cue is coming up." She looked to the view screen and saw that they were going deep and down, past the crust of the planet, given the time and depth passing by. Within the time it took to reach the innards of the planet, the Kaiyō shot out of the chute, accompanied by the water and their temporary sister ship, which thrusted up and away while the Kaiyo flew directionless.

"Let's go!! Out the power armor bay door! I'm taking point. We'll acquire targets on our HUD from Boss when we're out. Flying blind until she does tha—aaahhht!" Eden called just as she sprung from the ship in a swan dive, as if jumping headfirst into a pool. She set her moving location into everyone's HUD and marked the order that everyone would be diving out, which was largely based on who was nearest the power armor bay doors, though Alastair was set in a position where he would have to jump immediately if he didn't want to get to his position at her right side.

Bridge

"Pilot, let our crew exit then lay low. I want us undetectable. Weapons, stay active. So help me, Yui, if there is a shot before I say shoot, though, there will be Heaven and Hell to pay for it," Hoshi said, sitting back down.

The view screens showed that the inside of Soranomizu was a structure larger than even the Nepleslian Nightwalker station that was in orbit of Ayenee, a universe away. The central core of the structure was the most insulated area and had several thousand pore-like openings, some of which were spewing what sensors were reading as aetheric plumes. The rest of the inside of the empty water planet was structural and only hosted docking stations and some few modular containers attached throughout sporadically, which were resting on a lattice work of metal beams and monolithic welding.

"Boss, our away team needs coordinates," Hoshi said as she looked at the porous golden orb shooting small and large aetheric flares. Even that was attached to the metal structure and Hoshi wondered how, and then she wondered why. Only finding that out wasn't the mission, though, and she knew it.

The MEGAMI replied, "Calculating best routes, now."
 
Power Armor Bay

William stepped aside as Eden moved to launch. He looked out at the sea as the Kaiyo cut through the water. This was a first for the Neplesian, but he wasn't worried. When he received the order and Eden dove out of the bay, William followed right behind as he was still next to the door. He stepped forward, "William, deploying." As he said this he used a quick blast from his thrusters to send him into the interior of the planet.

His thrusters fired and he moved into position with Eden, his black armor falling into place. "Ma'am, in position." He reported to Eden.

William watched his HUD as they moved, waiting for the route he needed to take. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, clearing his mind of all other thoughts. He would be making them all proud...

Once his eyes opened, he was ready to take on anything that had the misfortune of getting in his way.
 
Not more than a second after Eden had taken to the sea, Arete was running out in a full sprint, semi-awkwardly doing what would have bee considered a belly-flop into the outside. A soft "Sploosh" reverberated through the ship's armor bay as she did so. She took a position to Eden's left by one meter, and behind by half a meter. "Interesting. I didn't know that cave networks could be so large..." She muttered an off-hand comment quietly as everyone formed up.
 
Wyatt was the next person to move out, sprinting the short distance to the door, the marksman flung himself out the ship and into the waterfall, the strong torrent of water forcing him downwards and instead of fighting it, he went down with it to the ground, landing with a metallic thud on a small platform below those that had already jumped and were now hovering about above him.

He could ignore the light spray that was coming off of the waterfall and landing lightly upon his armour, but the constant dripping from the floating bodies above was plinking onto his armour at varying intervals.

That was going to get annoying quickly

Wyatt took a knee and checked his weapon (even though he had been doing nothing but it a short while ago), once he was certain it was working his head was on a swivel as he checked his sectors.
 
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YSS Kaiyō II
Power Armor Bay

Following behind Arete, Walter Hyde leaped out of the Bay, and flew through the waterfall. The water hit kinda hard, but Walter shrugged it off.

He wished it didn't hit so hard, though, he's carrying more weight than most; two heavy belts of grenades do not accumulate to the weight of a goosefeather.

He placed himself a meter behind Arete; Walter preferred this spot since he still wanted to be close enough to the front to have a clear shot at what he's supposed to hit. "I am in position, Eden-Shosa."

Walter had to admit, the cave system underneath the surface of this water world is stunning; it'll be a shame, considering that it won't be likely that the Kaiyo II will go back to the same place twice.
 
YSS Kaiyo II
Bridge
"U-... Understood, Chusa Hoshi. I will not fire until ordered to." She took the opportunity of being talked to and used it to watch her the whole time as she was talking up until she was told to stay active, upon which she looked back at the weapons station. But there it was, when she said "Understood"- a stutter, though minor. Not really afraid but... nervous.
 
YSS KAIYO II
PA BAY

Miles and Shasse each made their own way towards the exit of the PA bay watching as several of the others rushed past and leapt through the waterfall that had accompanied them down, they could tell the water was going to hit hard from the sight of Eden, Wyatt, Arete and Walter getting buffeted as they jumped out and braced themselves.

Shasse was the first to go dashing forwards and leaping through the air engaging her Mindy's flight systems and punching through the torrent of rushing water with a cry of joy at the instant freedom offered when you fly a mindy in the open air, quickly she formed up with the others and noticed Wyatt had descended to the floor where he was scoping out the area. The little neko made a note to keep an eye out for him to avoid any unpleasant surprises if he popped up out of nowhere and scared her somehow, "Emiko hei, in position and await further orders."

Miles checked over his HUD once more to be absolutely sure all the team's signatures were displaying properly, with nothing else stopping him the minkan splashed through the downpour and formed up behind the others with as much grace as a drunken monkey, regaining his composure he brought his weapon to bear and checked to the extreme left and right of the group checking for any surprises. "Belmont, Miles, in position, Triage systems fuly funtional and awaiting orders."
 
Soranomizu Interior
Platform

Eden nearly landed on the platform, but didn't make contact with the structure. She hovered there until her team had made it through the onslaught of water and were now in the open air. The platform was a few hundred meters up above the spewing aether and its structural integrity seemed to be composed of an alloy that could withstand the heat of the aether plumes.

"Notice that the Sorairokun are capable of making metals that can of withstanding aether," Eden said.

"That's not good," Muyomi Peio said from her place next to Eden.

"No... Hopefully they don't use it in their armors. Now, we need to get in there, Boss."

Boss' beautiful dark-skinned chibi portrait popped up in their HUD with a wide smile and said, "You'll have to individually shoot through a pore in between aether ejections. It will also have to happen simultaneously, so everyone must go inside at the same time. I will mark the best places for everyone to move through the openings."

"How wide are the openings? What's on the other side; is it filled with aether?" Eden asked of the MEGAMI.

"The pores are over six feet wide. The other side is indeterminable, but the pores fill with aether over a period of two seconds and expel it at the end of that time. There is a five second gap after the aether is expelled and before it begins building up again. That is when you must go."

Her avatar disappeared after she gave a curt bow of the head.

"You heard her! Make it inside!" Eden said as she saw everyone's HUD fill with with the chibi portraits at different locations in the giant yellow gold orb that was still spewing without cessation. "Move out!" Eden said as she jumped off of the platform in another controlled dive, headed straight for the sun-like object in the middle of Soranomizu.

YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge

Hoshi asked, "Are we ready to wait? Harris-heisho, I notice you have been quiet despite the joke that flew over Deio Asuka's head's wit and humor. Any jokes up your sleeve, Harris?"

Engineering

All systems were green and Kikios could relax while the boots hit the ground.
 
Soranomizu Interior
Platform

As William neared the platform, he did as Eden had and fired all his thrusters, to bring him up from his controlled dive. He then listened intently as Boss informed them about the golden Aether they would need to fly through. William swallowed hard and looked down at the spewing aether. "Understood." He replied as Eden dove off the platform.

He received his coordinates where he needed to dive through the orb. He tilted forward and dove down towards the orb too. He mentally channeled excess power into his forward shields as he fell. Swallowing his fear, he gritted his teeth and maneuvered into position so that he could fly straight through the orb.
 
YSS Kaiyo II
Bridge

"Relax, hon," Gravity nearly whispered to Chlorate from her seat, as if raising her voice would give away their position. In truth, she was giving her task her full one-hundred-and-ten percent. "Just follow orders and you'll do fine."

In her head, she sporadically switched between the various cameras on the outside of the ship, moving the Fuji-class by mere inches if she didn't feel comfortable with their orientation. Still cloaked, she brought the ship closer to the main structure, aiming for the haphazard maze of metal beams which supported the cargo containers. She chose an area out of the way, where no one would think to check, and gently brought the Kaiyo to a halt. They were hugging the complex, so the enemy's scanners would hopefully mistake their ship for just another part of the station.

"We're cloaked and holding, Chusa." Muttered the pilot, who relaxed her posture and began massaging her temples.
 
Soranomizu Interior
Platform

"Yare yare daze..." Walter Hyde looked down into the abyss, and eyed the orb-like structure with amazement, and worry. "This feels like that one book I read. It was a adventure book with a heavily guarded treasure hoard in the center of a artificial planet. Let's... Well, I'm hoping this planet isn't rigged to explode with aether energy."

Walter looked over to Arete, and wanted to ask if she'll be alright with all this; jumping into harm's way felt like something she would struggle with. However, time is of the essence, and if he stood for a second too late, he'll get roasted. Thus, when Eden swan-dived over the edge, Walter spoke up immediately before jumping. "Don't think about it too hard, you guys can make it! Our superiors have faith in us!" He said that with a certain confidence that a Nito-Hei should have, rather than a Santo-hei like himself.

The Minkan mimicked Arete's bellyflop, and dived down to the really dangerous ball of death. For the first time, Walter was glad that that completely unfair basic training regiment at home prepared him for scenarios like this. But only for that, because that regiment was pure bullshit.
 
Soranomizu Interior
Platform

Wyatt stared down into the watery depths. his brow furrowing slightly as he stared into the gates of hell that roared and hissed with hatred, and then seeing the spot he was told to go through.

The marksman strapped his weapon to his suit and gripped the edge of the platform he was crouched on, his legs were coiled up like springs as he redirected power from some of the less important aspects of his suit to his thrusters, he would prefer a short bout of discomfort over death.

Wyatt tilted his head from side to side with a few cracking noises as he readied himself to dive, the thrusters slowly winding up and heating the metal platform beneath him as he raised his toned posterior and angled his head downward, the thrusters getting mighty lively at this point - almost to the threshold of him having to tighten his grip.

"Alder, Wyatt, Diving" he spoke in the brief moment before his body released all that kinetic potential in his body and shot down into the aethery depths in one smooth motion. Wyatt rocketed through the sea at high-speed with his arms at his sides, the chibi on his hud visibly freaked out a little as the timing on his flightpath re-adjusted to deal with the unpredicted speed.

As he grew closer to his way through the ball of Aether, he could feel the heat building up, causing a bead of sweat to run down his forehead as he got closer and closer to his ever closing window of opportunity to get through, a stray thought crossed his mind:

He didn't actually manage to eat anything before they left the ship, shit.
 
YSS Kaiyo II
Bridge
Chlorate gave Gravity a smile but quietly said "Thank you, Gravity, but... my performance is..." she glanced at Hoshi yet again. "...not what was... on my mind." She quickly returned to checking the weapons in case the Kaiyo II needed them soon.

Engineering
The TTD wasn't a concern for Kiki now, but the notably bouncy birb realized she was quickly going to run out of things to do at this rate. Giving her wings a slight flap, she stood up and fidgeted, preferring to keep moving.
 
YSS KAIYO II
PA BAY

Sacre was one of the last out of the powered armor bay. She jumped through the waterfall and then hovered. Nothing had gone wrong yet, but as she looked at the streams of aetherfire that they would have to cross, that was probably not going to last. They would have all of five seconds to get into the structure. That would require some very precise timing. A part of her wondered what they were doing with so much Aether.

Sacre took a breath, steadying herself for what she was pretty sure was a feat designed by some overeager adrenaline enthusiast. Not knowing what lay on the other side make it seem more like a suicide run then a mission. However, she trusted Hoshi and Eden. "This seems like the kind of insane stunt you would find fun." She commented on her private link to Gravity. As she approached, there was a count down on her heads up display. With five seconds before the opening, she twisted and dived through the columns of aether. She was all too aware that a wrong move here and she wouldn't even feel pain as the energy devoured her. She checked her speed, she would arrive at the pore immediately after the aetherfire ended.
 
Miles and Shasse quickly followed the others each waiting for the burst of aether before zipping through the tunnel as fast as they could in such an enclosed space. With no idea what lay on the other side they simply trusted their captains judgement and moved without question, "At least no one has been fried yet." Miles thought to himself thankfully noticing the HUD hadn't displayed any injuries from those who went before him.

Shasse however was trying to contain her excitement as she sped through the tunnel narrowly avoiding the aether buildup that could burn her in an instant, on the other side she brought herself to a stop and carefully moved back around the exit of the tunnel taking stock of the new environment, "Emiko hei, I've made it through awaiting next orders."
 
Wyatt barely managed to make it past a plume of aether, his armoured suit was feeling uncomfortably warm to touch and he looked over it once he was in the clear, scorch marks adorned it but that was all purely cosmetic damage. The marksman diverted all of the additional power he added to his thrusters back to the systems he had originally taken from, feeling his temperature begin to go back to something a lot more comfortable as his heart rate slowly evened out.

His weapon was now back in his hands as he looked around the space he was now in, "Alder Hei, a little overcooked but otherwise fine"
 
Soranomizu Interior

Eden and the team had coordinated well, but one of the Lauren Strong seemed to falter at the last second in front of the hole as it broiled and brewed its aether spit. When she yelped as she saw that she was a little too late, Eden set her teleporter to slave to the Shosa's own LSP on her dorsal hard point and moved Strong-hei away from the aether sphere and towards the platform.

"Stay behind, Strong. You did good, but not good enough. Be our eyes and ears from the outside," Eden said as she looked around and above her. "Team update," Eden said to her away team after pressing her palm into the huge crater of sand in which she had landed in.

She flew up and saw that they were near an ocean that was about a football-field's width away. There was a small sandy bank to be climbed down to get to it and the slate grey ocean tumbled beneath a cloud-filled late to mid-day sky.

To the missions ops station, she said, "We're in the aether sphere innards. I am sending visuals to the bridge." Shosa Teien Eden looked around and then behind herself, where there was a complete lack of cover for a dozen miles, at which point there were craggy hills and, thereafter, mountains peaked with icy white caps. The team was straggled around the sandy ground around her.

Eden told them, "Take samples with science scanners and sensor suites. Perform passive scans only unless directed otherwise. Spread out and buddy up. Alastair, with me. Hyde-hei and Surinus-hei. Care-hei and Abart. Theisilis-hei. Peio Muyomi and Alder-hei. The rest of you, two per group. Full spread. Hold weapons fire at all costs."

YSS Kaiyō
Bridge

"Deio!" Hoshi yelled as the visuals and the individual Mindy's sensors' outputs came in.

"I am reading them," Asuka replied.

"Harris, I want you to sweep for any sign of life forms once they boot up those science scanners," the captain added. "Thesilis-heisho, are we detectable at this rate?" Hoshi asked of the Separa'Shan with the grape green hair. "Gravity, you earned a dinner with the captain for that stealthy maneuver to get us in this defensible, yet hidden and maneuverable, position. Good work, really."
 
Soranomizu Interior
Them Innards, Yo

"Sorry for the silence; I am alright." Even though Walter timed that jump pretty well, that heat was so intense he worried all of these grenades he's carrying would go off at once. If all of them went off, well... Bye bye, Hyde.

He shook his head, and looked around him for a moment; this is what it's like inside this sphere of aether, within a planet that's just a ball of shallow ocean. He wondered if this was artificial, or a work of wonky physics, and if it were the former... Who could have made something like this weird planet? One thing Walter knew for certain.... This is pretty much like that book he read. Except, of course, the lack of treasure. Instead it's this open area, with a ocean to his left and the mountains to his right.

"Now this raises questions. Plenty of them, in my case." Walter initiated his suits scanners, and analyzed the immediate area around him; he didn't wander too far from where he came from, since he didn't want to ditch Arete if she made it in here.
 
Aether Sphere Innards

The little angel shivered instinctively. "What a strange thing to find inside of a facility like this... An artificial biosphere?" She shrugged a little bit, her holstered SMG across her back still. The dive through the pores of the sphere was intense to say the least - folding her wings around her, the woman had taken on a shape not far from a bullet to stop herself from clipping the edge and slowing down. "I feel like something like this would be built to contain something inside of it... Especially given all the traffic outside. Some sort of gigantic laboratory, perhaps? One with... Hazardous technology, I mean?" Taking out the scanner she had been handed earlier, Surinus kept herself next to Walter at a comfortable distance.
 
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