Into The Lion's Den

[Neri Kaioh]

Neri closed her eyes as Chi gave out the mission report. The soft hearted twin gave just the facts. They would take as much time as they needed to accomplish their goal. She was not worried about burning through the fuel. They have yet to do it and this time would be no different. She would make sure of it.

Her voice was sharp as she responded to the pilot. "We will be there as long as it takes. There is a mission to be completed and pay back to the enemy. I am not leaving until it is done."

Her focus was back to where it needed to be. She laughed at Natsumi, "If only it were that easy. I would settle for a good old fashion chess game. You could almost say that we are in one now. What do you say, we take the knight down?"

Her eyes gleamed as she rubbed her hands together. It would be a lot of fun to show the universe that they mean business. It would draw attention to them. She also knew that they would be able to handle whatever came their way.

[Tomoe Natsumi]

Natsumi smiled at Neri-chan with a knowing grin. "Oh dear..you always did know how to catch my interest. I do love chess as well."

She looked out at the stars. "Do you know..when I was a child...I used to be mesmerized by the endless black of space. I always wondered how far out it went....and how far one could go. And no one knows...how far it goes...Wait ..was that a song? No..can't be..."

She then went silent - thinking about her mother's long black hair....and how she used to stare at that too as she walked along behind her as a child..imagining her mother's strength and beauty.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki was listening to all the conversations and didn’t need things going like they were going with Neri and Natsumi. She didn’t mind romance and this sure wasn’t jealousy. She had long ago settled her mind that romantic entanglements would be a distraction from the whole mission. She did find that while the need and desire to have someone share a moment or two with you did strike her she found that she kept a lid on it. The one thing she did know about herself was that it could be either a man or woman. She did find the new guy interesting and he had some good qualities. The biggest one was he didn’t scrape and bow to her like others would have done. She looked at Neri.

“You’re head in the game Neri?”

She smiled at winked at the woman. She liked Neri and they got on well enough.

“Or are they in the stars with our sweet Sumi?”

She gave a quick chuckled as she looked at Nats.

“Nats...you ready for this? I know you’ll be good handling the injured but how about under fire? Either way you’re good. Just like anyone else. Well except that Ryuusei guy.”

She gave him a playful shove. She was in good spirits.

[Ryuusei Fuushino]

With that shove he smirked in return. "That's right, I'm not good, I'm 'Great'!" And turned to Neri. "And don't worry about Nats," He grabbed mizuki'shand before continuing. "We'll keep her cute butt out of trouble."

[Alexandra Kino]

Alex listened to everyone talk as she waited for the call to spring into action and draw enemy fire as only someone clad in Ada's experimental Cataphract Armor could. The armor was certainly attention-grabbing, which was the entire point of her role as a bullet sponge and support weapon user. She was meant to grab and hold enemy attention while the other royals went about their business of completing the mission. Her arsenal only complemented her role... in between the Light Machine Gun and Grenade Launcher, she could definitely keep enemy attention as well as tank small arms fire and hit back hard if the chance presented itself.

"So, what's my priority? Do I take point to go in first with weapons blazing and draw their fire while you guys do your thing? Or do you want me to tag along with a certain group to provide suppressing fire?" Alex asked Neri, who seemed to be the designated leader for this particular mission. She certainly seemed to know the most about their objective. Suddenly one of the armor joints on her left leg seemed to not work properly, leaving Alex's left leg stuck out straight. The brunette felt that it was only fair to warn the others before they got into action.

"One thing, though. Don't expect me to set any land speed records while running in this armor. Also, something seems to be off about the leg joints." Alex cautioned Neri and the others. Even with her enhanced strength, the Cataphract Armor was kind of bulky. She only hoped that it provided good protection in exchange for limiting mobility like it did.

[Ada Mizuno]

Ada heard Alex complain about the Cataphract Armor's left leg sticking out. True to the brunette's word, the left leg would simply not retract no matter how hard Alex tried. Ada did not like this development at all. To make matters worse, she had not anticipated it and therefore could not even perform a quick field repair of the malfunctioning armor joint with her custom-made repair kit, which was back at the station.

"I can't believe this. I checked over everything in the lab. I checked over all the joints, all the cables, all the connections." Ada said to herself, rummaging through stowage bins for some tool, any tool that could be used to effect a quick repair to the Cataphract Armor. The armor was more than just a simple protective suit. It represented a considerable investment of time, effort, and hard-to-find resources and it had just picked the worst possible time to quit working.

"Looks like Murphy's Law just happened." Ada commented aloud, hurriedly closing a stowage compartment above Alex's head. She thought that she had seen a wrench on board earlier. Now where was it?

[Hayate Tenoh]

Hayate had been cruising in space and listening to the radio chatter from both her brother and the Black Swan. So far there were no signs of enemy activity detected by her, William or the Black Swan. So far, so good. The escort mission was going how expertly planned and conducted missions should go... smooth and uneventful.

Hayate was thinking about how this mission would go once the other royals reached their destination and began the rescue operation. Unless they were raiding an area with an enemy carrier that happened to be conveniently nearby, Hayate and William could keep the airspace clear with ease. She was more worried about how the other royals were going to pull off the rescue, but that would be their problem. She and William only had to keep the airspace clear until it was time to go.

Hayate thought she heard the sound of someone complaining and bins being moved around in the background. Had something happened to the Black Swan and they were conducting emergency repairs in mid-flight?

"Black Swan, I keep hearing clattering noises and someone talking in the background. Is everything OK?" Hayate asked Chisana and Captain Marconi.

[William Tenoh]

This was boring. For the past few hours all they had done was fly in a straight line and listen to the hum of spacecraft engines. Maybe Ada or that Liam dude could turn their mechanical genius to churning out drone fighters for Dark Echoes so that the royals could have air superiority on demand. Then William did something uncommon and put some thought into the idea.

On second thought, maybe cranking out automated fighters was not such a good idea.

First, it would be resource-intensive and the station was already held together by duct tape and chicken wire. Second, one good jamming signal and the drones would be good only for enemy target practice. Third, if the enemy could broadcast a command signal and take over the fighters for their own use, the royals would be on the wrong end of their own creations. Fourth, William did not want to be replaced by a bunch of circuits.

William's thoughts then turned from drone fighters to what he was hearing on board the Black Swan. There was certainly a lot of commotion all of a sudden. It sounded like someone rummaging for tools in a big hurry. What was going on there?

William was about to ask when Hayate asked the question for him. He remained quiet and kept an eye out for trouble while waiting to hear from the mother ship.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki was in a mood, whether it was good or bad wasn’t the question and that was usually what people asked. Ryuusei piping up and saying he was great wasn’t something she expected but not unwarranted at all. When he took her hand she frowned deeply and looked over at him.

“You’re hand broken?”

She wasn’t the touchy feely type and she found the fact that he was holding her hand to be strange. She wasn’t uncomfortable with displays like this but the guy had spent one evening watching movies with her. There was a limit to her good humor and right now wasn’t the time to test it. She was about to say something more to Ryuusei when Alex asked her question.

“Well let’s keep people from being nosy. You know they take to much of an interest on us and you ensure that interest ends, permanently.”

She pulled her hand out of Ryuusei’s as Ada rose to assist Alex with the armor malfunction. A low growl could be heard as she rose.

“Ada get that shit fixed...now!”

Her explanation of checking everything in the lab was great. She wondered if Alex had every worn it prior to this.

“Is this the first fucking time Alex has worn this?!? We seriously don’t have fucking time for this Ada. Fix that shit or get it off her.”

Mizuki’s mood had soured and she was going to break that shit if Ada couldn’t fix it.

[Freya Aino]

Freya has held her silence while everyone else spoke. She had been idly checked her explosives and ensuring they were in the right spots for her to use when the time came. She was happy to let them banter because she had the best job. She blew things up. She nudged Felix and pointed to Ryuusei and the way he took Mizuki’s hand. She covered a snicker and leaned close to Felix. She spoke softly to him.

“That Ryuusei is going to lose a hand. We will get to see blood prior to the mission.”

She giggled softly at that thought and went to say more but stopped as Mizuki started cursing about Ada’s armor. Their resident inventor and mad scientist had built something and now it wasn’t working. Mizuki didn’t need to go off like that. Ada could fix it, she hoped. Ada was searching frantically and that’s when she realized that she was looking for tools.

“It’s Chi’s ship ask her where she keeps the tools.”

[Alexandra Kino]

Alex watched Ada enter a state of deep unhappiness as the bespectacled royal frantically searched for some tools with which to conduct quick repairs on the suit's left leg. The brunette had not seen Ada this distraught in quite some time, not since that party where people died and their parents... no, never mind. Alex did not want to go there. That unpleasant event was something best left in the past.

Alex could not stand to see Ada like this. She struggled with the stiff left leg of the Cataphract Armor, but after exerting quite a bit of effort she stood up on both legs. Alex took one step forward and the right leg of the armor seized up too, causing her to wobble in an effort to stay upright. The brunette waved her arms around trying to balance before she lost the battle and fell to the unforgiving metal deck on her chest.

"Um, Ada... I don't think that this was supposed to happen. I don't think that any of this was supposed to happen." Alex called out from the metal deck. She tried to push herself upright using her arms, but the left arm joint did not work.

"Ada, the left arm's not working now. A little help, please." Alex called out plaintively from a prone position.

[Ada Mizuno]

Ada was hurriedly searching through the stowage bins for something with which to fix the Cataphract Armor, which had picked the worst possible time to malfunction. She needed tools and fast. Mizuki's foul-mouthed remarks did little to improve Ada's mood of slowly growing despair.

She had put so much effort into the armor. She had spent almost three months working on it in her spare time... what little spare time she had after working in the medical bay and working with Dark Echoes' computer systems, which always seemed to need attention. Ada had to beg, borrow, and steal the resources needed to make the suit and had put so much work into it and now it was seizing up on the hapless Alex.

Ada took a deep breath and addressed Mizuki's question about the testing of the suit... or lack of it.

"There are only a few people who can really test the Cataphract Armor, Mizuki. The only people strong enough to wear it are Felix, Captain Marconi, or Alex. I chose Alex. I admit that more testing was needed, but as we all can see, that testing did not happen." Ada replied to the question as calmly as she could despite the growing realization that her big project was a big failure. Mizuki's brusque comments did not endear the Tsukino to the unhappy Ada. Contrary to what Mizuki thought, this issue was a technical problem that did not exactly have a quick fix. Swearing at the Cataphract Armor would not magically make it work.

Ada pulled herself out of that uncomfortable state between despair and anger long enough to listen to Freya's suggestion to ask Chisana for the location of the tools. Now was not the time for pride. Alex's situation had worsened in the meantime and the brunette needed help fast.

"Chisana, where did you put the tools for the ship?" Ada asked the more reasonable of the two Tsukinos.

[Tomoe Natsumi]

Natsumi gave the thumbs up to Mizuki and Ryuusei with a wry grin, "I'm not very good at combat...admittedly,,.likely because I've never wanted to be. Yet I have powers that could end lives - horribly. I don't wish that. But nor am I going to let innocents get hurt. I'll do my best to help my family as I always do..."

She pauses and then looks seriously. "My mother was the same way.... always telling me funny jokes to hide her broken heart. I'm serious... actually...the most serious when I'm joking." She looks around. "My jokes are just to distract from how serious I take this... I am not strong...I am not agile...I'm no fighter. But I know one thing - be kind."

She closed her eyes.... and whispered one of the final words of advice her mother had said to her, and it seemed the words fit this situation so well.

"I cannot fully say what will happen next Daughter, so before I go, let's have a final talk. You and me, once and for all. What's all this for? Shall we win? Is that what you think this is all about? We're not trying to win. The princesses aren't doing this because we want to beat someone — or because we hate someone, or because we want to blame someone."

She looked around at each and every other daughter or son, and saw in their eyes their mothers. And she saw a thousand tears.

Then she continued the words...as if it were not her voice but another's, and older one...speaking to no one...though she hoped some would hear. "It’s not because it’s fun. God knows it’s not because it's easy. It’s not even because it works, because it hardly ever does. We have done what we did because it's right! Because it was decent! And above all, because it was kind! It was just that. Just kind. If I run away with you and your sister today, other good people will die. If I stand and fight, some of them might live — maybe not many, maybe not for long. Who knows, maybe there’s no point in any of this at all, but I'm going to do whatever little I can do. So I'm going to do it, and I will stand here doing it until it kills me."

She remember as a child staring up into the midnight forever eyes....not sure what to say back, trembling all over in unknown dread. "One day, you're going to die, too little one, someday. When will that be? That's not important.
What is important is who you will die for. Who you are is where you stand. Where you stand is where you fall. Stand with people who will stand for the people. When others are terrified, be among those who try to help a little. If nothing more, at the end, just be kind. Sometimes...that's enough."

"I don't know what I will do down there... But I will stand by every single one of you to the end...That I promise."

[Ryuusei Fuushino]

"Eheheh, sorry was caught in the mo." Yet for some reason, the thought of her breaking his hand was kinda exciting...

...Luckily a distraction from that came when Natsumi gave both of her squadmates a thumbs up, before delivering a speech. One of the first things she said rose an eyebrow. (So I ain't the only one who can use 'magic'.) As far as he could tell from the others, they relied on conventional weapons.

He understood her feelings; killing isn't an easy thing to do..he'd been a fighter his entire life and still didn't like doing it unless it was necessary. he was also still just a 'hired gun', so it wasn't his place to tell her 'how' to fight; so instead he returned the gesture and responded with. "No sweat, as long as we got each other's backs, we should do fine."

[Chisana Usagi]

The loud clanging and clattering made Chi grind her teeth a little. She had not been paying attention to what was happening in the back. It was not her place to do so. She was in charge of making sure everyone was safe and sound during the journey.

The sound of Hayate's voice made her jump. A hand was placed over her heart as she let out a sigh to calm herself. She pushed the call button, "Not sure, I have just been flying." The desperate sound to Ada's voice, she guessed something was going wrong with the new armor. "I think something broke. Not to worry, it will get fixed."

Chi looked over at the captain, "Take the helm for a minute. I'm going to get what she requires before I have a worse mess to clean up later."

After he agreed, she walked into the hold were the others were. She took in a sharp breath at everything. Her footsteps fell softly as she walked past most of the mess. A large portion of her tools where in the back, by the secondary monitoring panels. She hauled out the large box with a clang. She lifted it barely off the ground as she walked back to the others. She set it next to Alex.

"There you go." Chi gave the tiniest of smiles. She bit her tongue before she said something she regretted. She headed back at her seat as she checked the radar. "We will be dropping out of slipstream in five minutes. Radio silence will happen at that time." Her lips formed a thin line as her eyes stared straight ahead.