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RP: YSS Kaiyō Mission 30: Sugoi Dekai

William sighed. "I'll have to speak with Boss about handing out my old photos... or was it Rei? I wouldn't put it past her. Or maybe it was someone else..." He said looking pointedly at Aiko. Turning to Isuke, he smirked. "It wouldn't have been the first time I tossed someone in one. They really deserved it though." The ID-SOL laughed. "Also if 'baby' becomes my nickname, I'll eat my private stash of cigars." He added with an eye roll.

As Hoshi stepped between the two store fronts, William moved to stand next to Sif, blocking Hoshi from view.
 
"Aww, you guys really have my back," Hoshi cooed thankfully as she moved from the hinges of the door to the other side. "We'll aim to cut the chatter from here on."

The little captain nestled her shoulder into the door with her feet planted and made a soft grunt as she pushed. Her blue and white hair splayed out behind her aloha shirt with the momentum as the metal crumpled inwards from the pressure she was putting on it. The door had bent in slightly around the handle. It was enough that the deadbolt had slipped out of its cubby and Hoshi peeked to either side of the now open door, then brought her hand up, ushering the team through.

While the markets and districts of Urtullan had thus far seemed lively, richly steeped in history, and built up over many years, this area was a stark contrast. Fluorescent lights shone overhead, lighting up sterile white walls and grey speckled floors. From this door there was only one long hallway to go down and Hoshi pointed towards the length of it to the cast of characters filing in, motioning for them to continue their journey down it. After everyone was in, Hoshi set to work straightening out the metal door she had knocked in to mitigate any trail they were leaving behind them.
 
True to Hoshi's request, Molli stifled any questions or comments that came to mind as she walked down the long hallway the squad had infiltrated. These questions lingered, however, like what they could find the further in they went, and whether or not her new Yamataian arm could work as a weapon. Given that she hadn't taken any initiative so far, Molli took it upon herself to take point once she'd slipped through the door. "Get m'back, Tail," the Nepleslian whispered, giving the other woman a small tug on the arm to encourage her forward, ahead of the group.

The harsh artificial lighting made Molli's cyber-eyes dim from automatic brightness adjustment, and they scanned the environment for anything that could work as a weapon. Before she knew it, however, a right turn came up. Once she'd turned the corner, she could see the back of a stout little lizard walking away from her, which made the Nepleslian back up as quickly and quietly as she could. She raised her arm, holding up one finger, but the signal for "Delsaurian" eluded her. With uncertain body language, Molli raised two fingers to her lips, then pointed to Sif's tail.
 
Chatter down, guards up. Once the door was opened, Sif mentally prepped her headspace to go for full infiltration. That meant not only keeping her mouth shut, but also making sure her noise profile was low. It may not be where she shines, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to keep quiet. Still, there was a danger of things going loud, and she didn't want to be unarmed if it happened. She looked around for anything she could bring along with her, a brick or a fist-sized rock, anything she could use as a weapon would do.

She'd find a metal pipe about as long as her forearm by the wall, and once everyone started filtering in, she'd gingerly pick it up. For a blessing, it wasn't slimy and there was no jagged edge on the ends, just a threaded one on one end, and a 90 degree elbow on the other. It had a few dents and it was slightly bent to one side, but it had a good weight to it. She hadn't beaten anyone with a metal pipe before, but if the books were to be believed, a solid hit to the head with the elbow piece would knock people out.

Molli took point, and had tugged on Sif's arm to bring her along to the front. The anticipation of running into a guard down that hallway had her grip tighten on the pipe, heartrate slowly rising as she tried not to think about how she could fumble her first mission. 'It's going to be alright', she told herself, 'Keeping calm is the most important thing. Its just like shooting a gun. Keep your breath steady, and keep that goal in sight.'

A turn was coming up and Molli peaked the corner. The way she retreated her head back suggested she saw someone or something down that hall. But for the life of her, Sif could not identify what her signals were. Something about a tail? Did that person Molli saw have a tail? Looks like there was only one of them there too.

Tucking the metal pipe down between her jeans and belt, Sif started to remove her jacket. "Give the signal and I'll bag them.", she'd telepathically say to Molli.
 
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All of the ribbing directed at William made Ketsurui Aiko snicker in the most discreet way anyone could do so. She wasn't glad everyone else was giving her old Nepleslian pal a hard time, but nonetheless appreciated the momentary interference from being the usual target of William's own banter. The Nepleslian marine's accusatory stare didn't even faze Aiko, either, as she followed Captain Hoshi's orders to cover her. For while the princess certainly had some mischievousness in her bones, sharing old pictures and selfies of the younger William she'd met almost a decade ago wasn't part of Aiko's repertoire.

The time for their light conversation was over for now, it seemed, and so Aiko followed Hoshi into the long and dank hallway. Had she been here on Urtullan for pleasure, the princess may have floated over the grimy ground to spare her bare toes from padding down into the grit and dampness of this slummy sector of the city. But for now, she proceeded on the balls of her feet through whatever trash and mire confronted them on their way.

And then Molli signaled that something was ahead. Or perhaps more appropriately someone. Without one of her katana blades or an NSP in her hand, Aiko felt somewhat naked right as she halted after Molli's warning and stood ready to dive into hand-to-hand combat while wearing her poolside persona's minimalist attire.

"Byrne-hei indicates one ahead," Aiko sent as a telepathic message to Hoshi and William so that they could communicate it to Isuke further back. Molli's attempt to describe a Delsaurian by pointing at Sif's tail was lost upon Aiko so she didn't include that part.

Quickly, Aiko activated the optical stealth that her advanced Nekovalkyrja body afforded her and then took up a position on the wide back-route utility hallway's plain concrete ceiling. There might only be one enemy contact so far, but she knew their situation could change rapidly and wanted to give plenty of room for the full might of the Kaiyo's little infiltration squad to fight in. Taking to the air would give that much more room and still allow Aiko to strike if and when she'd need to.
 
In response to Molli, Hoshi put two fingers out and pointed down the hallway in which the Nepleslian had seen the Delsuarian. It was their route and there was someone in the way of it. Only one thing to do.

She even started looking around the hallway for a maintenance closet or somewhere to stow the body. Setting her sights on a large equipment box that would do the job, she turned her attention to look over Morgana's shoulder and to scope out the feed on the scientist's wristwatch.
 
William continued to lean against the wall as everyone entered. Once the majority had gotten inside, he followed suit. Carefully, he crept along the passageway. He moved with a dexterity that belied his size, each step silent as he moved down the hall. He owed his training to the Danko Clan, though he did have to relearn once he became 8 feet tall. He did wish that he could have snuck a weapon in. His revolvers would have completed the outfit at least. That or his kusarigama, which the Danko Clan were known for using. If things went south, he would just have to punch things... really hard.

When Molli stopped and Aiko signaled him and Hoshi, he sent back a wordless acknowledgement to the princess. He moved up next to the Kaiyo's captain, waiting for Molli and Sif to clear the path ahead.
 
Sif nodded in acknowledgement of the captain's signal. They would proceed and take out anything in the way.

She took her jacket off and took a half second to peek around the corner before moving forward quickly but silently. With one smooth motion, Sif covered the delsaurian's head with her jacket, hooked her left arm around his neck and used all her strength to pin him to her chest, grabbing her own shoulder to lock the grapple. Her other arm hooked under the delsaurian's right arm and leveraged it so it was straight up in the air with very limited range of motion, palm on the back of his head to lock this part of the grapple and to protect her chin from a headbutt. The additional pressure she could apply in this position made for a quick takedown as the blood supply to the brain got cut off. What noise the delsaurian could utter from his mouth was barely audible past the jacket.

Sif made sure to leverage her height advantage against the delsaurian by lifting him off the floor, deny him a foothold. The struggle was brief as Sif began dragging him back around the corner, before another guard walks over.
 
Molli was on the delsaurian as soon as Sif dragged him back to the group, hoisting him up by the legs and guiding her comrade toward the large box Hoshi had spotted. When all was (un)said and done, that was one hostile neutralized and hidden. The Nepleslian gave Sif a reassuring pat on the shoulder with a smile and a nod of approval; the universal gesture for "you nailed it." She'd been curious to see how their freshly hatched Neko would handle things, and it turned out that even the green ones were a force to be reckoned with.

Molli didn't feel the need to wait for an affirmation to continue on, so she gestured for Sif to follow her further into enemy territory.
 
The road forward was clear for the time being. With Molli and Sif advancing at their places on point, Aiko dropped down neatly beside the knocked out Delsaurian and deactivated her body's optical camouflage. The princess' elegant form, first crouching for a moment, seemed to bleed into existence from the center of her chest until she was fully visible as she stood on the floor again.

Aiko didn't know the intricacies of alien biology, but knew enough common scientific basics to regard the knocked out lizard laying beside her feet for a moment of scrutiny. Tilting her head, she zoomed in her Nekovalkyrja vision and watched carefully for signs of cognizance such as a slow reptilian pulse bumping beneath the soft scales below his jaw. Lizard people like the Delsaurians, after all, were cold-blooded. And for all the princess knew, this particular sentry's species may well be resilient to Sif's sleeper hold. Aiko nudged the Delsaurian's ribs with her left toe for good measure, ready for him to wince and reveal some wakefulness.

By the time the squad's rearguard was almost upon where Aiko was standing, she was satisfied with her examination and began walking onward again. With a little hustle, she caught up to Sif and Molli at the front of their stealthy column.

"Good work," Aiko affirmed in a low voice. Just ahead of them lay a T-intersection. "Easier to simply end a Mishhu than it is to incapacitate guards, is it not? Now prepared, we will take the next ones more swiftly. Intel indicates we should proceed leftward there at the split."
 
Morgana followed towards the rear of the group, continuing to look at her holographic wrist watch for guidance. She noticed Hoshi attempting to peer over her shoulder at the hologram, despite their height difference. The science officer moved her arm out, so it was no longer blocked by her body and the dominative captain could take a look. With her free hand she tightened her cross over bag and moved it to her front, so the NSP hidden inside was able to be drawn more quickly.
 
The power signatures that Morgana had been observing as passively low level began to fluctuate just seconds after Hoshi peeked her head over the scientist's shoulder. Having been on the tip of her toes to catch a look past Morgana's tunic, she settled back down on the soles of her black flats as she padded down where Aiko had led. Though there was a bit more hallway to get through, they made it to a section that was a little more industrial to a heavy door.

"I suspect there will be personnel on the other side. You deal with them after I open it." Hoshi did not look to the unarmored and almost completely unarmed group with hers as she said this and instead bent down to peep at where the door met its frame. She probed her hair and found the pin embedded deep within her mass of blue to white strands. A few of them fell across her face, no longer held up by the bobby pin that she was now pushing through a central hole in the door's central push bar. "On three," Hoshi said after standing up and finishing with her fiddling, then counted down.

On three, Hoshi propped the door open all the way while keeping a slim profile against the wall, allowing her team to slip in past her and to also avoid being seen completely. In the next hallway, at first, it seemed there was nobody and Hoshi was wrong.

But one of its paths led up to a staircase where a gaggle of two human men and NMX Neko were standing at the top landing. They didn't turn at the sound of the nearby door being propped ajar (though the Neko's big fluffy grey ears twitched towards the sound). They were more focused on getting into whatever door they were entering at the top of the flight, seemingly in the middle of scanning in on an access panel in order to enter it.
 
The growing industrialization of the squad's surroundings had Molli on edge, as it was yet another unwelcome reminder of Funky City's hazardous factories. With her arms pressed flat underneath her oversized poncho, Molli had the look of an armless soldier. Beneath that poncho, however, she idly rapped her fingers against the cold metal of a crimson-colored cyber arm. Sif had taken the spotlight earlier, but Molli was determined to show off the new upgrade that Boss graciously commissioned.

That eagerness was likely why Molli was first through the barely-open door, and why she shook with excitement upon seeing three hostiles on a staircase. If the NMX's ears had prickled up at the sound of that creaking door, she would undoubtedly notice the billowing of Molli's poncho as her cyber arm raised up. The Nepleslian's red eyes flashed, and suddenly, the arm detached and shot out like a bullet, seizing the NMX's ankle in a claw-like grip. A mental order made the arm jerk back, pulling the shocked NMX off her feet and making her roll down the staircase.

By now, Molli was already sprinting up the staircase, high on her own success. She was emboldened by the heroics of her Neko peers to take out the two humans, who had just spun around with shocked expressions. Molli was almost on them, she just needed to raise an arm to block the blow coming her way. Unfortunately, being high on success meant that Molli hadn't considered that she was missing the arm she usually parried with. She was struck in the face, hard, and tumbled down the staircase after the NMX, where she landed in a stunned heap at the bottom.

Shit, she thought, trying to blink the stars away.
 
Had this not been a Star Army mission and something more akin to a rowdy crew outing, Aiko might have stood aghast at Molli's spectacular show of soldiery. The whole thing was quite impressive from the Nepleslian girl's ingenuitive rocket punch all the way until her fumbled end. Luckily enough the NMX Neko came to be pinned beneath Molli's flailing form.

But, being that this was an official military fact-finding sortie, the princess kept her warrior's wits keen and her body ready to act. So instead of standing in agape amazement to watch her comrade tumble down the hallway staircase in slow motion, Aiko shot off her feet and bounded toward a wall. First she leapt onto the left hand side and then quickly to the right. The spring out of her thick, strong legs propelled her forward with each jump more than any Nekovalkyrja inertial control did, back-and-forth off each opposing wall—over Molli and the felled enemy Neko—until she closed in on the two human men at the stairwell's landing.

"Secure that girl!" Aiko said aloud as she ascended, not really caring about stealth anymore now that the scuffle had broken out. She was clearly talking about the NMX Neko, but could just as well have been asking the team to help Molli up. "Biometric panel. We might need her breathing!"

When Aiko was about six feet away from the men standing at the top, she launched off the right side wall again as she had a dozen times in the past few moments. Instead of landing for another push-off, though, the princess extended her right leg forward and kicked the man standing on the left square in his cheek. As soon as her painted black toenails met his flesh, immediately followed by all the wound-up energy released from her maneuver, a wet cracking sound echoed through the tight stairwell when his sweaty head slapped against her foot and was knocked toward the nearby wall. Aiko landed atop his crumpled body and felt it go limp underneath her, and then braced for a retaliatory strike from behind.
 
William had moved up once the Delsaurian had been neutralized. Nodding at Hoshi's warning he watched as the door cracked open and Molli lept forward. 'Man I should have gotten that upgrade back in the day...' He thought to himself.

He was quickly snapped out of his thoughts by Aiko and her order to capture the NMX neko. He sent a simple "On it." through their shared channel with Hoshi. It was now his turn to vault up the stairs.

As he cleared his way onto the landing, he dove for his target. If he was able to get his hands on her, he'd apply a guillotine choke to keep her in place. That was if he was able to catch her before she was able to recover from Molli's suprise attack.
 
Morgana continued to hover at the rear of the group, covering their backside while they began their clandestine assault. Her right hand dipped into her crossover and wrapped around the NSP concealed within. The weapon let off a barely perceptible high pitched whine as the Minkan’s thumb manipulated the fire control to its stun setting. She kept her hand in the bag, clasped around the handgun to keep it ready but concealed. Her eyes darted up the passage as she heard the soft thuds of Molly’s attacks, only to see the backs of the rest of the team. They quickly darted back to cover her sector.
 
With the Delsaurian safely tucked away, Sif found a moment to notice her heart racing. That was her first ever enemy takedown. And while it went off without a hitch as far as she could tell, she could feel her hands shaking. Something she couldn't let the others see, not now when everyone needed to be at their best. She's read it a number of times, had it described in crisp detail, even visualized in thrilling choreography. But being there to witness someone's consciousness slipping away was a lot different than she thought. From the start the resistance was fierce, and for a moment she thought she could lose her grip on the guard. But after some thrashing, she found it easier to keep a hold of him until he finally went limp.

She could have killed him right there. Snapped his neck and moved on. It'd have been cleaner and faster. Or she could have held on to him much longer and have him expire that way. To think a life could be snuffed out so easily. A soft impact on her back reeled her back in. She quickly retrieved her jacket from around the Delsaurian's head so her hands could do something else but shake.

Molli's gesture was met with a nod of affirmation and thanks as Sif followed her forward. She draped her jacket over her shoulders, her left hand gripping on to the two halves of the neck to hold it closed. She might need it again if they run into another guard. The metal pipe was back in her free hand and ready to swing should they need a quick knockout.

There was a moment of surprise when Sif heard Aiko speak, and for a split second she wondered if she had thought out loud again. But she nodded in agreement. Ending a life seemed to be a lot easier.

Sif was ready at the door Hoshi was opening, ready to spring into action as soon as it was opened. She was relieved that the hallway was empty at first glance, but her eyes quickly locked on to a trio above the stairs. This was going to need some coordination. She had moved forward and to the side to make way for the others to filter in, turning to them for a sign on what to do next, not wanting to act on her own as she was in the dark when it came to how the rest of the squad preferred to fight. The concern was immediately displayed when Molli shot her arm out to send the enemy Neko back down the stairs, quickly followed up by Molli charging forward. The ending was not as smooth, but the princess was quick to follow up, ignoring the stairs entirely.

Hearing Aiko's order, Sif ran to rush towards the enemy Neko, but William had gotten to her first, so she redirected her attention to provide support. "Excuse me," she'd say as she leapt a few steps up the stairs past Molli and continue running up the rest of the flight. By the time she reached the top, the remaining human had stopped fumbling with his sidearm and was poised to shoot.

Sif took a swing at the gun, but he had pulled away. Her desperate swing caused her to be off-balanced, and she slammed to the wall next to the door half-crouched, but upon seeing the human take aim on her, she dropped fully and threw a kick at his kneecap to force him to the ground where she threw herself onto him in the least elegant dive possible, trying to wrestle the gun away.
 
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"You see those energy spikes?" Hoshi asked with her eyes glued to the fluctuations coming off of Morgana's bracelet. She spoke to everyone, not just the scientist as she continued. "They're powering on that weapon, for sure. We have to hurry."

Though Hoshi had seemed to be all eyes on the scientist's instrument, she quickly diverted her attention to the man Aiko had knocked out. The princess' powerful kick to the dome had promoted a temporary lapse in consciousness in the man Hoshi soon had gripped under the armpits. She was hefting him to the hidden space under the stairs. Her eyes tracked William grappling the NMX Neko, then her head arced back to watch as the new recruit leapt onto the second man. Hoshi winced at Sif's initial punch as she herself stowed the man. She looked back up to see him losing his struggle against the stronger Neko as he tried to pry the gun away, putting all his focus in that and not on any martial prowess.

The captain was soon gleaming a bit as she noted everyone had taken out their opponent. Even with Molli's blunder with her new arm's technology and Aiko bracing for the strike from behind that never was, they had managed to best them. The enemy Neko in William's grasp was pushing against his hips and backing away, trying to get out of his forward facing chokehold as best one could. But when the Nepleslian had stonewalled her, she began tearing at his arm and leveraging to bite into the meat of his bicep. Her right hand even flailed towards the Type 45 M3 at her hip but couldn't reach it. The men had been less apt to defend themselves than the NMX Nekovalkyrja, making Hoshi think they were just technicians or scientists and not soldiers or security like the Delsaurian or enemy Neko.

"Knock him out and throw him atop the other," Hoshi said to Sif as she stepped up the stairs.

Wordlessly, Hoshi grasped the wrist of the Neko and pulled her palm off of the torn leather of William's jacket sleeve and onto the biometric panel Aiko had noted. She turned to the Ketsurui as she did, and nodded to her, then to the ID-SOL. The two were the closest to the door and would be breeching it the moment the hand went on it, so Hoshi took a step back to give them space to do so. Molli was close behind, though with Morgana behind cover and Sif moving the second man, Hoshi was only planning on making room for the other Nepleslian to join in the initial breech.

"She needs a resleeve," Hoshi said, at first thinking to aim the request at Sif with the newly acquired weapon or Morgana with the secreted away NSP. But then the grim reality of what that would put on their shoulders settled on to the captain and her dark blue eyes grew dim. The human men wouldn't wake up in mere seconds if they knocked her unconscious and she would be able to undo any bindings they set on her in minutes. Time they needed unperturbed.

She pulled the grip of the NMX M3 pistol out of the holster and without much more affair, pushed it up to the the enemy Nekovalkyrja’s furry black ear. The Neko’s sneer fell, understanding her fight all the while trying to keep her hand anywhere but on the biometric scanner, but Hoshi managed to place the palm and fingers solidly over the requisite outlines. In the milliseconds after the door slid open, Hoshi killed her. The proximity of the pistol to the Neko’s head meant it was nearly silent and the diminutive captain put her arms underneath the weight of her kill, pulling her towards the pile of bodies.
 
William held firm as the NMX Neko clawed and bit at his forearms, his face a mask of indifference despite the pain shooting up his arms. The only show of pain was a slight grimace when the neko bit down or clawed a spot on his arms down to the muscle. He assisted Hoshi in getting the biometric scan, holding her near the panel. When she signaled to him and Aiko, he nodded in acknowledgement.

Then, all at once she stopped struggling, going limp in his arms. William frowned, but not at the sight of the enemy combatant dying in his arms. He let her fall, Hoshi taking over to drag the body away. Pulling off his jacket, his forearms were shredded, rivulets of blood dripping down onto the floor. "She ripped my jacket." He grumbled, taking the ruined jacket and ripping off two strips to wrap his arms with. As he did, he realized his hat had fallen off in the scuffle. '"Where'd my hat go?" He asked turning around to find it had been crushed under foot. William sighed "I liked that hat too..."

Standing, he moved up to one side of the door, perring out to get his bearings. Looking back to Aiko he smiled. "You and me. I'll go right. You take left." He said, waiting for the princess to stack up by the door.
 
Molli recovered from her fall by the time the other members of the squad had conked the humans unconscious and wrestled the NMX neko to the bionetric scanner. It was the first time Molli had seen one give up fighting out of fear, a far cry from how unrelenting the squids could be. It was a small thing, but the growing list of disturbingly "human" qualities from the NMX and even the Mishhu were starting to make Molli feel a deep sense of unease. Fighting was easier when they all seemed like mindless monsters.

The cyber arm had tumbled down to the bottom of the stairs with Molli, and all it took was a thought to activate its anti-gravity field and make it fly back into her flesh hand. Even under pressure, it was remarkable how natural it felt to control. After she reattached it, Molli pulled herself back to her feet, just in time to see her Captain blow out the brains of their NMX hostage.

Molli was stunned by the suddenness of the killing, especially after they'd stacked the two unconscious humans on top of each other. It was William's callousness at the kill that made a bit of color leave the Nepleslian's face and froze her in place. Logically, even emotionally, the NMX's death shouldn't have mattered, given that she was the enemy and that new bodies were readily available.

It still felt wrong to do that to another living being and to act so flippant about it.

Seeing the dead neko hoisted atop the unconscious humans was what finally pushed Molli to act. Wordlessly, she walked under the stairs and grunted from the exertion of pulling the neko off and setting her a good distance away from the men, while still being under the stairs. This had the unfortunate side effect of giving Molli an intimate view of the neko's eyes, devoid of life. The Nepleslian's heart raced as she brought a hand up to close them, making their fallen foe look more peaceful in death.

Realizing how much time she was wasting, Molli tried to find a gun, but found the NMX hadn't kept any other weapons besides the pistol. Disheartened, she tried to think of an excuse for dallying as she ascended the stairs. Falling into position at her breaching point, Molli held the gun in an iron grip, and was quietly hyperventilating with a wide-eyed look from what she'd seen. Unlike the others, she wasn't born comfortable with such sights, nor hardened to accept them quite yet.
 
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