Mission Twelve: Naze Sorairo

YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge


"Nerai'tha Uithersh Thesilis-heisho, please engage graviton beam projector! Pull in anyone that can't fly. Patch me in to the team, comms!" Hoshi called and when she was able to talk to them over comms and telepathically, she said, "This is Kaiyō actual. Immediate extraction required! Shoot your way out of that thing, just get out and on the ship. Those that can't fly will be pulled in to the power armor bay! Again, immediate extraction required. This thing requires bigger fire power than we've been giving it... Trust me, team. Plan's in place."

To the bridge, she said, "Hold main aether weapons fire." To the engineering room, she said, "Begin to divert aether engine power to the main weapon array." She looked to Gravity pointedly.

Soranomizu Interior

Eden looked to Shasse and put a hand over her head, smoothing her vamp friend's hair. "We're going to get you back to yourself soon, okay?" She looked back to those that had exited the sphere and called out, "Get to the ship, okay?" Her eyes worriedly watched as the Kaiyō came to their rescue and, for a moment, she believed she was being rescued by her wife and daughter, like old times. She sighed and then looked to Shasse one more time, smiling weakly. The remaining ships in the water planet's nearly hollow interior seemed to be vaguely civilian. At least, they weren't attacking the Kaiyō or the crew.

Aether Sphere Innards


Just like William had been suspended above the mountain, nobody inside of the aether sphere would be able to move anymore.
 
Sacre tried to move against the force. It didn't work. She took a breath and reported back to Hoshi. "Plan's already been put through the blender, looks like the same thing that got William has gotten a hold of us too." She responded.
 
Aether Spehre... Uh Oh

Arete stiffened as she felt her Mindy suddenly stop responding around her - the way her body pushed at the gel interior was immediately different and noticeable. Her breathing quickened, her arms struggled futilely to reach and put pressure on her head. Her voice was weak and scared, a little peep emanating from her mouth; "N-no..."

This isn't how it should go. It isn't. Trapped here... Trapped in a shell to die slowly. It doesn't... No! "NO! WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME? WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?" The angel's heartrate pushed itself to and past the limit, the powerful, rapid thumping droning into her mind as it echoed through the metal trap she was within. If anyone, anyone at all could hear her breakdown, Arete's sobs were starting to flood the comms of the group.
 
Aether Sphere Interior

There was no response for several minutes when she asked for directives or orders, only Eden saying for her group to follow her if it was safe, at the opposition of other orders to stay. She doubted it was even directed at her, but she did slow to a stop, after all they had clearly found nothing of any note on the coast, and given how the path ahead was nearly identical to what they had been looking at since they began scanning, she truly did doubt that they'd find the one spike of importance at the sand ahead. She was not with Eden, and she assumed that it would be wrong for her to follow the group that she was not with nor was called to.

Did she miss something? Was there some direction she failed to take? She wasn't sure, she was almost positive that nothing had been directed at her since Abart and her began scanning. Things had fallen apart clearly, but they had not been contacted or redirected, and she had no will or want to disobey orders and bring any unwanted attention to herself. That was, until, the order for immediate evacuation was sent out, immense danger she didn't know much about was clearly nearby, and with the order she had no intent on finding out what it was. Naturally, she turned her gaze skywards, and began to fly upwards, but as she left her low floating position, her MINDY came to a gruesome and unnatural halt, holding her in the air.

It was still, she couldn't move in the slightest, not even her fingers could budge the systems of the MINDY. She was perplexed, and for a moment thought something had gone wrong with her personal systems, but when the cries of her companions began to echo through her radio she knew it wasn't just her. The MINDY's were stuck, and everyone still inside was stuck as well. The realization was cold, and it was painful. A dire set of needles pained in her chest, and her throat grasped for air that never flowed. She was stuck in a dangerous zone, one that she was just told to immediately evacuate from. What was coming? What was going to happen.

"This is Jôtô Hei Trauma-Care, requesting immediate assistance." Her voice was cold, calculating, she shut every emotion down that came up, she couldn't afford to panic, but that didn't stop anything, it only kept it below her synthetic skin. It was like pressure bubbling, ready to burst out. "I cannot move, my MINDY is not responding to any motion and is preventing any form of locomotion or action. My suit is dead-in-the-water, I repeat, my suit is dead-in-the-water." She shut of her mic before she let something slip that she wanted no one to hear.

She was terrified of many things, and death was perhaps one of the largest. Existence and non-existence were perhaps the two concepts she truly struggled with, and the fear welling in her chest was in response to the possibility of the latter. This wasn't a natural place, what if something happened to her? If she died-

If she died.

It was a somber feeling, to realize how helpless she truly was in this moment. No one in a MINDY could help her, and that was all that was down here. Unless they could somehow grab her with the ships systems and reel her in, she still had to go through that barrier, and the barrier seemed like a deathwall to her. Though the people inside the MINDY's had made it out, they were all organic, and it was clear that the barrier had practically torn apart their suits. What if it wasn't specifically the suits that it had targeted? What if it was the synthetic systems? She was a synthetic system, if she went through it there was a glaring chance that she would be horrendously mauled and damaged, if not outright destroyed. But staying within was no better, there was no telling what would come through or what would alter the interior, after all there was no life within it, and that had to be for a reason, it looked so welcoming to life but if nothing grew or lived there then it was surely too turbulent and dangerous that existing here would be limited at best.

If she died.

What if they left them there? Eventually the organics here would die in their suits, even with the systems in place to keep them alive for extended periods of time. Most likely from thirst or starvation, potentially a mix of the two. But Care? she did not need food, she only needed maintenance to stay in peak form, if she was abandoned in this immobile MINDY, she could persist for weeks, months, years. She didn't know the extent of how long she could stay, but it would be too long, too much time staring at the sky above, her only way out, forever out of reach. Would that truly be living? She'd go mad, surely.

If she died.

The thought rang in her head and so she focused on every possibility that was not death. She feared it, she truly feared it. If she died she would not be there to conceptualize it, she would not have the time to watch herself fade and thing 'Well it was a good run,' in every possibility the moment she died she would not have the consciousness to even acknowledge her own death, one second she would exist, and the next, she would not. She did not give the idea of soul transfers even a passing thought, thought Yamatai used it so openly, she could never take herself to believe that a copy of her was her. If you take a system of files and duplicate them, even if you erase and destroy the original the copy is still a copy, it wouldn't be her. The only real way that she could see it properly working was a direct transfer from hardware to hardware, the software staying the same, but if she died that would not be possible.

She did not want to die.
 
"It was a trap all the long" Sphere

Walter felt his armor lock up; he felt like he was imprisoned. His first immediate thought was a moment of empathy; William had to go through this earlier, after all. The second thought was a moment of guilt; he... More or less stalled and brought the party down, really. Then Arete began yelling at the top of her lungs. She almost drowned out Hoshi's orders, but he managed to break down the gist of it.

"Arete calm down! Please, be calm about this! This looks bad, but we'll figure something out. Last time William got stuck like this, he could teleport out, right? That only happened because we shot at something until it gave up, just like Hoshi said!"

With his two grenade launchers still propped upwards, Walter gave that idea a go. The Minkan activated his guns, and fired every grenade he had left into the sky.

"GIVE UP ALREADY!"
 
Aether Sphere Innards

For a moment, there was no change, then there was a slight shift in everyone's body positions if they had been struggling. If not, they remained relatively affixed to the same position, if not "let go of" momentarily, dropping a few inches.
 
Aether Sphere Interior

Hoshi suggested through the open comms that firing at the sky may loosen them as it had with William, the first person to fall under such an issue earlier in the mission. She struggled and tried to move her arms, but they were aimed downwards, and her heart sank in response as her struggles stopped, trying to think of a solution. The only weapons on her MINDY were the standard forearm implanted pulse cannons, and she grew to regret this immediately. She had chosen her MINDY with a select amount of focus, she never intended to be one of the hard hitters of the group, only wanting to give herself maximum mobility so she could get in and out of situations as quickly as possible, with the intention of say, grabbing an injured citizen or squadmate and pulling them from direct fire.

But all of that was useless now, as her pulse cannons could not move, aimed at the sand below her. She stayed quiet, thinking for several moments before she activated them anyway, a burst of shots raining down on the empty coast below. It wasn't the sky, but it was her only option, her only means of escape that didn't rely on anyone else. But as she fired something changed, explosions of grenades filled the air, and she could only assume that someone else was lucky enough to have already been aiming upward. She did not know how much he or she had fired, but it was enough to change the circumstance. She dropped a few feet, and tried to adjust her arms as she became aware of the brief locomotion afforded, but her reaction time was too slow, and her arms only raised somewhat, still not facing the sky.

She was still stuck, but there was progress, a brief understanding of how it worked, something was holding all of them, and when the barrier of the sky was disrupted with their weapons it seemed to lose its grip. She could only hope that someone was aiming at it, because without them, she was still dead in the water. She did not know how much the others shifted, but if it was anything like hers, then it meant they were all held by the same force. "This is Jôtô Hei Trauma-Care, whoever fired loosened the force holding me for just a moment, Hoshi's plan worked somewhat. I am still requesting assistance, my weapons are not aimed skyward and I cannot move them. I am reliant on outside assistance if at all possible, please advise." She would be impressed with her own cold acting if she had the luxury of doing anything but trying not to panic.

She was too busy being calm to think of anything else, between running through scenarios trying to determine just what could possibly help and the act of pretending to be calm, there was no room to think, no room to try anything else. She wanted to cry out in tears 'Please, I'm scared and I need help, someone, anyone, a hand, a stick, anything, give me anything, I need help!' but the words would not form. She felt helpless. She hated the feeling.
 
Aether Sphere Trap

The Minkan was definitely disappointed, but if anyone back at home saw him give up now, they'd actually go out of their way to completely overwrite his personality to make sure no weakness existed. Walter will not start giving in now.

He tuned up his comms more, now a part od the same public channel rather than the channel of this small team. "That would be me, Care. I did what I could, but I only had a little less than 300 grenades left. Now I'm out of ammo, and the air in my compressor has run dry, too. I can't use these guns anymore even if I picked up those ammo drums."

"Hoshi-hei, we need your help! The Kaiyo II has the biggest guns here, and only about 300 grenades was enough just for a budge. If anyone else can shoot, please do!"
 
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Mark began to prepare for what he planned. Looking around very carefully, he saw what he needed as Orias whispered a basic tutorial in his ear. Moving over to a nearby tree, he examined the shade it provided. Yes this would do it's dark enough to support an opening.

"I'm ready and have everything I need if we're doing this. I've marked a waypoint on our exit.", Mark send out on the comm channel once more.

Things were about to get hecktic, and he readied himself for what he was about to reveal to the others. Would they fear him, or worse attack him? That was not Important, what was important, was getting everyone home.

It seems whatever was here had other plans. He felt his armor lock and heard over the radio as everyone suffered the same thing.

"Shit, fine, that's how you want play it. I've got a surprise for you.", Mark said as he struggled.

He felt the familiar heat as his body burned, and his body changed. Soon armor and flesh was corrupted and morphed as the tall lanky demonic figure as before witnessed by Alastair replaced Mark.

A tear in material fabric of the world ripped open in the shade to someplace dark. It lumbered into the realm it had opened. Now it was time to figure its options. The IFF would seem to disappear as Mark in his altered form moved through this dark space. Sensing where he wanted to go he opened an exit rift, his wings carrying him through quickly to reappear outside the sphere and along side of the Kaiyo II's hull. That trip, granted short, had drained some energy due to the unpracticed act.
 
Aether Sphere Innards

As William slowly rose attempting to scan for a way out of the sphere, he felt the familiar sensation of his armor locking in place. He screamed a curse as he was locked into place in the sky once more and began trying to shake himself loose again. He stopped when he heard that it wasn't only him this time that was stuck, but the entire squad was stuck this time. "When we get out of here, I am gonna make a formal request to crack this damn panet into a billion tiny pieces of molten slag..." He growled angrily as he began powering his self defense lasers.

The laser emitters in his shoulders began to glow, and fired rapid pulses of energy in all directions around him, trying to make whatever it was let him go. When he only moved a few inches, he stopped and slowly began returning to his original position. He cursed again and just floated there above everyone, watching the fake sky as he waited for something to happen.
 
"Looks like our ride is here" Wyatt spoke as he saw the Kaiyo-ii drift into position and the doors to the armour-bay, the nekkid minkan could feel his body begin to be pulled toward the ship so he kicked off the wall to help speed up the process. The sounds of gunfire and explosions within the ball of aether could be heard from out here and it made the marksman feel remorse, he shouldn't've been so proactive with his actions, he should be down there, giving hell to whatever they were shooting at.

Whatever was done was done, it wasn't like he could go back through, his favourite Mindy suit, the one that had carried him through combat again and again was no more. Fuck, he almost felt a little sad at it's loss, those things were expensive.

His feet touched down on the cold metal floor of the PA bay, he grabbed his oversized jacket from where he had hung it earlier and wrapped it around the front of his his lower body to hide his privates while he moved to the bridge to find out what was going on out here and whether he needed to grab a gun or not.

Maybe a pair of pants, that'd probably be another thing but first he needed to know whether he'd need a gun.
 
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Miles had shot towards the sky faster than he'd ever flown before, something he usually wasn't a fan of was going fast but the news of Shasse and Eden's survival was pushing him to go faster. His body slammed throuh the roof just as the trap within the sphere activated grabbing his legs as he was slipping theough, the mindy burning off around him.

Shasse returned the meek smile as Eden stroked her hair, "We made it... But what about the others?" As she said this Miles' body flopped quite ungracefully out of the sphere trailing a rather large amount of blood. "Ede- i mean Tiein Shosa look! Miles is injured." The little neko pointed to her friend who was now spinning around sending the red liquid everywhere.

Just as thoughts of freedom crossed his mind, they were instantly overwritten by the immense sensory overload that accompanies massive bodily trauma, looking down to the source and letting out a screech of pain he saw his right leg was just a bloody stump below the knee. His vision blackened at the edges and a loud static filled his ears drowning out everything around him as the minkan began to lose blood at an alarming rate, the last thing he did before drifint into unconsciousness, was stretching out a hand and trying to float in the vague direction of the kaiyo.
 
Alastair was reviewing the best course of action when his Mindy completely stopped. It was as if he had got tied up in a web yet nothing was there. Almost instantly his team started to react to this new confinement which was not going over very well. For him this was nothing to freak out about, yet hearing the struggles of his team triggered memories long forgotten.

"Miles, you will never be strong if you don't stand up for yourself." His father said to him. Alastair was standing off to the side watching Miles be pinned to the ground by an older family member. This had turned into an almost weekly event where people would tease and pick on Miles. They say it was to make him stronger yet Alastair could see the smiles they had on their face. He stood there, helpless to act and endured the bulling of his half brother. He wished nothing more than for Miko to show up and make one of his stupid jokes while pushing the kid off Miles and helping him to his feet. Then Miles locked eyes with his and the decision was made to act.

Later that night Alastair beat the crap out of the kid that had pinned Miles. His knuckles were still bloody when he told father what he had did and gave a warning. "Unlike the good nature of my half brothers, I handle things different. Keep that in mind." Weather this was a test of the old man or he really did take this threat serious, this type of play stopped. Alastair never shared with his brothers his deed. He thought best to just have them believe he was the same guy as before.

As he zoned back into the current time he knew exactly what had to be done. "Thanks for the the tip Hoshi, will light up the sky like we are having a rave party in here." He said in reply to her idea.

"Alright team, if you got a way to aim at the sky do so and light it up. Its a suggestion that might free us." He he finished speaking his drones turned up towards the sky and started to fire in bursts.

His Mindy indicated that Mark and Miles both had vanished. Ah hell, did they both just jump through the dome.
 
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YSS Kaiyō II
Power Armor Bay


Miles was drifting in space until Eden and Shasse had jumped towards him with a little help from Boss to manipulate the graviton beam. Soon, he was inside the power armor bay and they were now cradling him in their arms past the armory and the the zero G lift, where his blood oozed out of him, slower now, floating in mid-air, even after they were out of it and in the med bay.

"Get him into the tube!" Eden murmured. "This Minkan won't give out on me today..." She looked to Shasse after he was in. "You two are very close? I want you to sta—..." She began to think twice about leaving Shasse alone with an unconscious young man, seeing as how she was now a fully fledged vampire. She shivered. "I'll need you with me. We're needed out there. Say your goodbyes."

Soranomizu Interior

The aether sphere was visibly rippling all over and undulating wildly from the outside.

Aether Sphere Innards

The outer edges of the sky began to dissipate in places, then would wrap its aethery self up around the holes, patching them within about ten seconds of them being shot. What was more, people inside began to loosen and then would notice they were all freed if they kept up the shooting. The ground below them became semi-opaque and those standing would get a literal sinking feeling as, like quick sand, it began to give way.
 
YSS Kaiyo II
Bridge
Chlorate continued firing the quad cannons and aether turrets at the enemy. It was almost uncanny, for discounting the inaccuracies of the weapons themselves, every shot seemed to be on-target. Some areas had distinct "lines" of sustained fire heading to strike the enemy patrol in the same place multiple times in succession. Other shots seemed to be lone, straying off to hit a different part of the patrol ship. The patrol ships had weaponry blasts thrown at them so mercilessly with such perfect accuracy.
Engineering
"Understood," said the cockatoo. She started diverting the power. The power readings could be seen changing, indicating it was being rerouted to the main weaponry.
 
Slap, slap, slap

Those were the noises that came from Wyatt as he ran, his bare feet slapping against the cold, industrial flooring that made up the halls of the Kaiyo-ii. The Minkan Marksman burst into the bridge of the ship and brought his right hand up to his forehead to salute, choosing to immediately start speaking before people said something about him being on the brink between nakedness and barely clothed.

"Hoshi-Chusa, what is the current situation and is there anything I can do to help, ma'am" he asked, his slightly burnt and bloodied chest rising and falling rapidly while the last trails of smoke were beginning to fade away. It was all only cosmetic damage anyway, the pain was bearable.
 
YSS KAIYO II

Shasse had been distraught at the horrific sight of Miles' leg and in some small part of her mind she chuckled to herself at how now it seemed it was his turn in the tank while she had to watch on helpless. "Isn't it funny how these things happen, first me and now you but I wish it could have gone differently." Shasse put her hand against the glass and said a silent promise to return and help him as he had helped her previously.

Shasse turned to Eden and nodded to signal she was ready to her Second Officer, "Agreed, but I think I should probably just take care of something first..." Moving over to a small cabinet the small blue neko retrieved a single small bag filled with red liquid and turned away from Eden out of embarrassment. "It belongs to him, I couldn't avoid telling him and he just handed me this a day later without me even asking, that's just the kind of person he is." Shasse felt herself tearing up but shook her head and focused on finishing the surprisingly tasteful drink before moving back to Edens side, the red in her eyes seeming to be amplified.
 
YSS Kaiyo II
Bridge


"Chlorate, that's enaahhhh—" Hoshi said, cut off by the surprise introduction of the nearly/barely-clad Minkan, Wyatt Alder. "Ittô Hei!!" She stood and her pink hands gripped the command chair. "We have downed all the enemy craft, but we can expect reinforcements. You're trained in starship operation and communication? Take the level two starboard side bridge chair and buckle in, Ittô Hei! I want you as my point of contact with engineering! Chlorate! Excellent work, hope you're this steady of a hand during Star Army starship ops training!" She moved to Chlorate's side and put a hand on the back of her chair's headrest. "Gravity, when everyone is out, I think you know what to do!"

Med Bay

Eden watched in quiet horror as Shasse professionally succumbed to her desire and taste for blood. She put her hand around the blue Nekovalkyrja's own and said, "This will pass. We'll find a way. But you're doing your best. Let's go!"
 
Aether Sphere Innards

In the span of minutes since being stuck, it felt like an eternity of helplessness, so when the sky began to shift and falter, giving away its falsehoods to its inhabitants, she knew something had changed, and it filled her with the grim anxiety that she was going to be able to escape and evacuate, or that things would become much worse very quickly. With a slow jerk she found herself sinking, falling even as if she was pushing through a liquidy paste, quickly accelerating as whatever held her seemed to fade. She could move, she could escape. Life was once more in reach, and for a moment the thoughts of how bad things often were, were far out of reach, replaced by the sole and innate desire to not just exist, but to live.

Was this a way of coping with the stress of such risk? She wasn't sure, and as she shook her body loose, regaining control of the Mindy she quickly accelerated towards the sky. It wasn't over, she knew that much, there was still so much risk in the following seconds that she couldn't dare give a passing glance. The barrier ahead had torn asunder every MINDY that had passed through, and she believed it was not just due to the fact that they were MINDY's but rather the synthetic nature of the devices. Was it designed to target synthetic systems, to tear them apart in some cruel trap to render them all helpless? She didn't know, she didn't have the time to pause and think about it.

More than just the MINDY's, she was synthetic, and she had a window and she didn't know how long it would last. At full strength, if her assumptions about how the field worked was correct, it would rip her to shreds in the same way it did the suits unfortunate enough to fly through. But now? Now it was weakened, and now she had a chance. A fighting chance, and she would claw through all of her hells to take it. Chance. She didn't like chance, it never favored her as it never favored anything, relying on the false luck of its users. But there were no alternatives, and there was no way of knowing what would happen if she waited any longer. It could grow even weaker, but it could also reinforce itself into something stronger, or collapse upon itself, taking everything inside with it.

She had so little information, yet had to make a choice that sent her chest into a flurry of spiking emotions. "This is Care, be ready to receive me on the other side, unknown risk, unknown variables." She had no time to say a word more, as she tried to slam through the barrier.
 
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