Mission Twelve: Naze Sorairo

Shasse scrabbled in the sand trying to back away from the others as her head darted from one to the next rapidly, her eyes flicked nervously from side to side as though she wasn't even focusing on them at all before she fell on her back and continued to claw at her face and neck. The neko whimpered again as she felt the itch grow, she knew that actually having any blood wouldn't be good for her but this damned curse had her in a stale mate, then the voice returned to her.

Miles looked over from Wyatt back to shasse and noticed the odd behaviour he'd mentioned, "no this is not a normal occurrence, I dont know why- Alastair!" He yelled as his act without thought of a brother removed her helmet.

With everything going on around her, a sudden tone filled her head ceasing her thrashing and whimpers as shasse sat there stunned, her mind began to refocus on her surroundings but instead of being all better she saw each others as a source of blood to quench the thirst. "Alastair..." she spoke softly before pushing on his chest roughly causing him to stagger backwards into Miles and Wyatt before flipping herself onto all fours.
 
Wyatt managed to roll out of the way of the incoming minkan and kick up even more sand, it was no luck, he was ready for something to go wrong the moment he noticed the cat clawing at her own cranium. He rose to a stand and abandoned all subtlety, the rifle pressed into his shoulder as he aimed it at the wild neko, it was very clear that He meant buisness.

The minkan marksman stared deep into the eyes of the neko marksman, he could see a hunger in them and while he wasn’t quite sure what it was for, he knew it wasn’t going to be anything pleasant, not in the least.

“If she does anything... I will retaliate” he spoke to the two men (and also the other neko who he last saw on the shore) behind him in a tone that reflected the gravity of the situation as he depressed the trigger further into the grip, he trusted himself not to squeeze his finger the hair’s width further it would take to discharge the weapon until he needed to, which hopefully he didn’t have to but it’s always good to be prepared.
 
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Alastair took a few steps backwards from the push, nearly running into Wyatt. He quickly reached up and grabbed the barrel of the gun.

"Easy there hot shot, whatever has come over her isn't going to be cured by us killing her if we can help it." He said in a stern voice. As he took to his feet he looked over her stance. She was clearly in the right mind to jump after someone. This made zero sense as his scanners did not pick up anything weird in the area.

"We are in power armor so whatever your thinking isn't going to work Shasse. Now be a good kitty and take a deep breath before you do something crazy." Alastair as he spoke released Wyatt's gun and put himself between Wyatt and his friend Shasse.
 
Miles, unlike Wyatt was not so fast and as he sidestepped the stumbling Alastair caught an elbow to the face and was sent to the floor once more. Miles looked back at Shasse wondering what was happening to his friend as she seemed to change before them from the usual bouncy self into something much more, animal.

Shasse looked at Alastair with a blank expression while remaining perfectly still, her eyes seemed to have taken on a dull shine as opposed to their usual shine as the blue neko slowly looked between the three minkans. "Power armour... yes I can see that. What to do about that, maybe a twist there, yes." She softly spoke to herself her mind solely fixed on getting to the men inside the suits of which one was pointing a rather large gun at her.

Shasse slowly took her hands off the floor and crouched in place, the gauss cannon on her shoulder slowly leveled at Alastairs chest as she retrieved a grenade with each of her hands, eyes continuing to flick between them as she sat not making another movement. "I need your blood, just a little should do..." The blue neko murmured eyes seeming to cloud further as she removed the doll look a like of herself from its holder in a daze and tossed it aside.

Miles could only watch as his friend began equipping herself for a battle, one she would surely lose at the disadvantage of 3 to 1 but the air of calmness she had as she leveled her cannon at his brother was unsettling. Seeing her retrieve some sort of carved doll and tossing it aside drew his attention as he scanned it with his mindy, "Alastair, Wyatt. That doll is giving off a faint reading similar to her brain waves I think they might be linked somehow, whatever it is we can't kill her... We have to help her." He spoke over their comms his voice straining on the final words.
 
Aether Sphere Innards
Beach

Eden pushed forward and grabbed at, not Shasse, but the doll that had been flung. Her thrusters engaged, she balled up around the doll and tumbled with it before flying up and curving down, towards the blue-faced, white-haired Neko clad in only part of her Mindy. Eden turned on inertial dampers as she nearly collided with Shasse, pressing herself and the raggedy blue doll into Emiko-hei as the two blasted backwards, into a sandy dune that plumed around Shasse's back.

Mountain

The life form's signal spread once William was at the peak of the mountain —where it had once been localized. All at once, it was all around him instead of in one singular place. There was a subtle lifting sensation as William's armor became buoyant, but netted by an invisible force. He was unable to move his hulking black PA, which hung suspended in the air above the pointed top of the mountain.

YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge

Data came in to the ship thanks to Strong's position and it poured on the screens and in the digital minds of the crew.

Hoshi asked, "Is anybody else weirded out..." There was a long pause as she thought. Eventually, she spoke, "By the subatomic analysis? We need a scientist on board, that's for sure. Who can fill that role for now?" Hoshi asked of the bridge, "What do you think about there being no mass to analyze inside of that aether squirting sphere? Nerai'tha Uithersh Thesilis-heisho, answer that while also running a scan on William's position and armor. Something's not right."
 
Aether Sphere Innards
Mountain

As William reached the peak, he looked around for the lifeform when he was surrounded by the signal. He gasped as his entire suit seized up and refused to move. He struggled with all his might to move anything, even his head was stuck in place. His eyes rapidly moved from side to side as he began to float upwards, but was still locked in place. Suspended over the mountain.

"W...What's going on?!" He shouted over the comm, barely hiding the fear in his voice.

In his mind, William was frantically trying to diagnose the issue holding him in the air. His weapons were just out of reach, and he couldn't trigger the armor's built in systems either. He squeezed his eyes closed tight, trying to keep the raising panic from bubbling over his consciousness.

It was his worst nightmares... alone and unable to move.
 
Aether Sphere Interior, Mountain

"William? Are you under attack?" She tensed up, looking towards where the Nepleslian's IFF marker was pointing. They weren't in an area that was very steep... So why was he above them? She held position with the squad for now, but said, "Sacre-hei, your orders?"
 
Shasse was tensing for the moment to pounce when she would unleash all hell on the three minkans opposite her when she was caught off guard by Eden's sudden assault, with another yelp she tumbled backwards dropping the two grenades which were both still unarmed and instead bared her teeth throwing a punch at Eden to try and get her away. "Gah, get off me, I need blood!" She yelled out bringing a knee up towards the XO, nowhere near as strong as the punch however as the doll had begun to sedate her movements and emotions already.

Miles had managed to regain some of himself and got to his feet about to say something to the neko when Eden had swooped in and semi tackled semi tumbled into her, The minkan found himself unable to do anything but watch, again, as his friend was wrestled with by his second officer, had the circumstances been different it could have been an interesting show to watch but for the time being it was a little less than terrifying.

In her panicked thrashing and flailing to escape from Eden, Shasse's guass cannon discharged several times sending shells into the air and sand alike with one rocketing past Alastair, her eyes seemed to widen as she realised what had almost happened and her movements faltered.
 
Aether Sphere Innards
Beach

Eden's hands did not let go of Shasse as she propped her up and thrusted upwards and out of the sand. She raised the blue Neko up with one hand pressing the doll into her sternum while the other hand on Shasse's back. They were in the air while Eden's LSP took control of Shasse's Mindy and the most she was capable of doing was squirming within the confines. Weapons were turned over to her and there was no more chance of them going off again, without Eden's authorization.

"Team, Emiko-hei is compromised by blood magic from Ayenee. Immediate extraction requested." Her eyes darted to the part of her head where she saw Sacre's Mindy's vitals. "Sanssinia-hei's team needs to start scouting for an exit. Belmont-shoi, Emiko-hei could be using her helmet." Then, to the area outside of her suit, she said, "Shasse, calm down. Have this," she pushed the doll into Shasse's hands, "and known we'll find an end to your curse. Give it time."
 
Mark heard Will's surprised transmission over the comms and had a sinking feeling about it. Something was very very wrong and he felt William was in dire danger. He did not wait for an order, no too many had died from inaction on his part, and he would not add another face to his nightmares. Mark sprinted ahead before taking low altitude flight towards William's location.

"This is Santo-Hei Oaklen, advancing to William's position, moving to provide immediate aid. No one else is falling on my watch.", Mark stated over the comms, "You hear me Wil? I'm enroute, just hang on, I got ya brother!" he said on a direct channel.

He just hoped he wasn't going to be too late.

"Run little demon, run. It will not change their view of you in the end. Try all you might, you will not be able to save all of them. Just. Like. Your. Brothers.", Orias said with a an immense tone of boredom, as if she had been waiting for something to happen all day.

Mark switched his comms off before speaking, "Shut up, what do you know about having a heart. It doesn't matter if they fear me, hate me, are disgusted by what I've become. When you're family, you risk everything for them, or die trying. So shut it, or be useful. Things will be different this time."
 
Aether Sphere Innards
Mountain

Walter felt his heart race when he heard William panic on the comms. The guy who happens to be in a walking arsenal was the one who got frozen in place, and that worried the Minkan. Of course, his... Unique pysiology mandated the need to inject a small amount of adrenaline into his blood; it made him feel tense and... Stiff? Stiffness is a new one to Walter.

He didn't even get the time to say anything, either! Mark just flew off towards something that has no explanation for it's occurrence. This odd force could be anything; telekinesis, graviton particles, magic, trajector beama, floating invisible gloves, bacterial hivemind, Walter could guess plenty of ideas there is just so many possibilitiesohdamnitallWilliamwhywou-

Walter snapped out of it; no, he will not be another problem child on this mission, he will be a problem solver. Right now, the best option Walter could come up with would be to take a better look at the scene, reassure William, and keep a good distance away. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea.

With a calmness that heavily contrasted his true feelings, Walter brings up the idea to the ladies. "We might have to follow Mark up to William, but we also need to keep at distance from William, too. I'd rather be part of the rescue team, not the rescued team."

Well, Walter did try to incorporate a bit of humor, but... 'A' in only participation.
 
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Today was a strange one, definitely a strange one.

It was Wyatt's first mission since he had been crammed onto the Kaiyo-ii, the fact that the name contained numerals didn't exactly fill him with confidence, he imagined he wouldn't be around for the naming of the Kaiyo-iii...

The minkan had tried to keep himself occupied when he was ship-bound while during the two missions he had sat out, but he had made sure he would be ready for when his name was in the away-team roster. The bastard almost smiled when he heard that he was finally getting out of that god-forsaken ship but the moment he began to introduce himself to people (In his own, bland way), some snake made a beeline for him, pulled a scalpel out and began spouting off shite about him having a pea-brain.

Wyatt had an immense amount of respect for combat medics, but he had little patience for people who felt the need to make themselves seem superior to those they were talking to and so the respect for her line of work was overshadowed by this. Sure he was not the most academically brilliant person by a long shot, but he was practical, he knew how to get stuff done and rather than lose his temper he decided to not give a flying fuck about what they were saying, everybody slipped up once in a while, so he'd let it slide and move on.

The day got even stranger when he found out they'd be diving into a ball of Aether, although he found that it was less volatile than the snake.

The strangest thing was yet to come however, when a one of the team's cats suddenly twisted the strange dial to 11, muttering about blood and coming about an inch from being shot in the face from all the crazy she was radiating.

One of the gauss rounds burrowed into the sand near Wyatt's feet, but his attention was diverted to the two mindy suits that were flying upwards in tandem while he looked at them through the targeting system of his rifle, his index finger was hovering above the trigger opposed to nearly pressing it down although he was sure he could still land a shot if he needed to. He could've sworn he saw a doll being moved around but eh, must've been some dirt on his scope.

"The fuck kind of operation are you folks running here? and why does the XO sound so confident when she talks about a cat being possessed by blood magic?" Wyatt spoke into his comms, meaning for it to only be for those in the immediate area (including the XO) but with his attention being diverted, he accidentally set it so that everybody on the entire team could hear his words, bridge crew included.
 
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Aether Sphere Innards
Mountain

Sacre nodded as she received Eden's orders. "Aye Ma'am, however, William has become stuck in something. We will need to free him before we can scout for exits." She responded.

Sacre looked at the situation, she wasn't sure exactly was happening with the life form. She suspected that it was deliberately trapping them. Sacre didn't know her impromptu squad well enough to maximize their advantages. She was expecting them to call out if they had something that could be useful. "Stay calm William. We have you. Walter, prepare to lay down some fire, on your discretion or if I give the command. We will form a line to William. Walter you will anchor us at the rear. We'll grab on to each other, hands and legs. Oaklen, you'll be the point man. I'll be behind you, and Arete behind me. Walter, don't grab on, and shoot if we all get stuck. Perhaps that will shake us loose." Or convince it to kill us all. She thought morbidly.
 
Sphere Innards, probably.

Arete sniffled a bit when she got a better look at William, suspended in the air as he was. "Hmmmm.... Sacre-Hei, I think I have an idea." Pausing just long enough for a "Go on..." response to reach her ears, she continued, "Whatever's holding him up doesn't seem to be directly touching him, like a net or a salvaging device. I think we might be dealing with something that could easily take over all of us at once. But... I can get him out without touching him." She looked up again, frowning under her armored exterior as William continued to rise.

"I don't know how much knowledge you've gathered about Sages. Let me add to that a bit by saying I can influence Gravity-err, gravitational forces. If I'm right about this, I should be able to pull him down with much less risk than us entering the same area." Well, this is also hoping that whatever's got him isn't able to shift its own force to compensate for what I can do. We'll work on that later. "I would like to try this, but you are in command."

Sacre's response was concise and direct: "Do it."

Inhaling deeply, the angel spoke: "Be ready to help support him in case he's still disabled." Arete's eyes narrowed; her mind started to clear. Yet externally, it looked like Arete wasn't moving a single muscle. Around William and his armor formed a little sphere of personally-controlled gravity - nothing visible without a way to trace it, but there nonetheless. Arete knew better than to fight whatever it was that was pulling him upwards, even if the planet was going to help her. No... Sideways will do. Then cushion him with an upwards force so the fall is softer...

William felt the sensation of falling again. Only, it didn't feel normal... He was falling sideways, towards the gathering of soldiers led by Sacre.

Basically, Arete is using gravity to pull William towards the group, but only horizontally. If the thing that's trapping him lets go, he'll start falling in the normal direction too.
 
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Aether Sphere Innards
Beach

The wild shot from Shasse caught Alastair by surprise but he had just enough time to deflect the shot with his arm shield. "Whoa there sister, I get your looking for blood but side order of burnt Alastair wasn't on the menu." He said as he got back to his feet.

Was a moment later he got the message that Shasse had been cursed with blood magic. The hell is blood magic. Not that he cared at this very moment as she looked to to have been contained. He quickly walked towards Eden and Shasse, making a point to pick up her helm.

"Eden, at your service as requested." He said with a smile not that one could see it through his mindy suit. "I can take it from here with Shasse." Alastair commented in a calm voice. A second later he unwrapped the chain from his left arm. He made a quick loop knot in both ends. A second later he tossed the loops into the air and the drones punched through the loops. "Feel free to drop her at anytime, Alastair lift service can take it from here."

This was not the glory he was expecting from this battle but helping out one of his crew took top priority.
 
Sphere Innar- GOOD LORD, what's happening in here?!

Had Walter ever heard of Sages? He has, actually. The Minkan was a little curious about the different kinds of life on Ayenee, but he was honestly just bored at the time, and figured he'd kill time by reading all about the inhabiants here. If he were given the chance to summarize them, he'd go along the lines of "They're people that can control physics to a certain extent with the power of their minorly mutated brain." Walter has been here for months, after all. Though despite that, he didn't think he would ever meet one/associate with one/see them do their spooky psychic powers. It's not like Star Army has this kind of thing recorded.

So, his jaw basically dropped when he realized he has a crush on someone who's that strong. Walter's heart even skipped a beat when he saw it happen right before his eyes.

"... Woah, Arete. That's amazing..." Walter watched, then remembered she wanted someone to catch William in case he falls. Well, he's got great strength, might as well make use of it should the situation demand it.

"On it, Arete-hei! I'll go spot William now, and you keep at it! You guys can help me if you like to." The Minkan zoomed upwards, and hovered by William, only to find out he got too close to the gravity bubble; being half in the bubble made Walter feel way too uncomfortable, borderline nauseous, prompting him to back off a little.
 
Aether Sphere Innards
Beach

Teien Eden made a quick call, "Belmont-shoi, you're genius! Use what you've made to scout for an exit with Alder-hei. I need Miles Belmont-hei here with me while we prep Emiko-hei in a different way than you're proposing. Belmont-hei, get her helmet, please."

Mountain

Arete would get the distinct sense that there was none within the aether sphere. William stayed affixed in the same location. Using her body's own manipulation of gravity made a slight budge in his position, though, but then he remained still once more.

Soranomizu Interior
Platform

From Strong's position, she saw that a patrol team of five mid-size ships had come in from one of the holes on the surface of Soranomizu. She watched as they vectored around, sweeping different areas of the interior, staying on the edges of it—far from the aether sphere but looked like they were meandering towards Kaiyō II's position.

"I am noting three medium gunships and two scouts patrolling the area," Strong said on a line to the bridge.
 
Aether Sphere Innards
Mountain

William took a deep breath closed his eyes again. "Okay... okay I'm calm." He lied. Once everyone was around him, he felt the gravity well generated by Arete begin to pull against his suit. He gritted his teeth at the odd sensation, and the feeling of being pulled in two opposite directions at once. Then as quickly as the sensation appeared, it was gone. He felt himself move back to his previous position in the air.

He cursed to himself, as he opened his midware and tried to link into the suit to see why his suit was locked in place. If he could gain control of his thrusters, he could fire all of them at once to pull himself free. "Come on damn it!" He cursed as he continued to search for a solution on his end. "Any other ideas?" he asked, reopening his comms.
 
Aether Sphere Innards

"Damn! Whatever's got him is reacting to my force. I can't go much stronger or I might hurt William... Badly. And even then..." Her voice trailed off, but it was easy to figure out what she was trying to say - even at her strongest this... thing might still be more powerful than she is. On top of the part where the combination of forces could injure William, or possibly even kill him.

Picking something heavy (such as a steel beam) up by counteracting a planet's gravity in the local area is easy; everything is easier to move as long as you know what inertia is. Trying to rescue a living person from a magnetic... Gravitational... machine thing? People aren't able to walk off stuff like that - they'd get crushed together or torn apart. Arete crouched a bit.

Hunching her wings by a bit, she continued, "We should go back to Sacre-Hei's plan, then."
 
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