3931/Grineer Derelict

Grineer Derelict
Date of Scene:	22 March 2016
Location:	Void - Debris Field
Synopsis:	Grineer! Warframe! Violence! All this and more at the introduction of Warframe to the Multiverse.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 255, 385, 571, Starbound Flotilla, Yang Xiao Long, Kushiko, 967

---

Kushiko has posed:
The Void--at least here in the Multiverse, is a rather different affair than the one universe from which the ship broadcasting it's scattered signal is originating from. Here, it's a far more palatable to traverse, so long as you have the means for it, or to outright bypass it via teleportation and the like.

The Grineer galleon--in this case, a galleon being one of the ship classes--may be seen for why due to it's ship sihoulette. Upon either side and pointing downward (relatively) are a spread of extensions, possibly for propulsion and navigation but certainly not weapons. It's a fairly /massive/ ship, and what weapon ports there are are largely forward facing: actual weapons are likely in the form of the ships it can carry, evidenced by what seem to be docking bays in the rear and sides.

Simply put, it is a heavy troop transport and closer inspection and scans indicate other weapons and options available. Curiously, there are no shields, even for environmental reasons, heavy armor almost crudely lacquered upon every inch of the ship's exterior; a darkly olive, military green dominates the color. Red is also a color--particular iconography emblazoned declaring the ship a vessel of the Grineer Empire could be seen on the side of the vessel as well; otherwise, the lighting of the ship--for what lights still remain, as some seem to be flickering--ias a harsh yellow-orange tint.

There are some vessels nearby, scouts and the like, but none have drawn too terribly close to the ship itself. Radio chatter is a mess--some might be interested in the reward the Grineer are offering for information on where their ship landed. Others, for salvaging operations. Those who would scan the vessel would find that in some ways, there's a lot of sensor damping material due to the raw thickness of the alloyed and ferrite armoring of the ship.

More curiously still, there's a very, /very/ faint degree of energy residue. Unseen, but it's quite possibly being a reason why no one is interested in being first aboard the ship itself.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Wow," Says Alexis, looking out at the ship as her own vessel comes into close contact. "What an eyesore." She's got the ship on approach, circling the Galleon until she can determine some sort of docking bay to enter through. Kaz is present, currently trying to get a lock on signals while determining whether or not the ship is actively defended or not. Given the fact it's not doing anything right now, indicates it could be a derelict.

    he Spectre picks up energy signatures alright, but neither Kaz nor Alexis can determine what exactly they are. It's strange, really, all the more reason for them to investigate further.

    She'll go in via the docking bay, loading up as her STALKER suit begins to seal out external hazards and hooks to an oxygen cell on her back. Upon landing, she enters the bay with her GASH coilgun at the ready, scanning for hostiles.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
There's a flash of the sort that, in a thicker atmosphere, would normally be associated with lightning and thunder - but instead, the Mike-maru-go drops out of its version of warp drive, reappearing in realspace at a near-halt. Yuna takes a few seconds to get her bearings (with Elner's help, as usual), then puts her cruiser into forward motion again, approaching the galleon at a sedate pace. "Elner, any open landing bays we can dock in or something? Anything our size?" she asks the robo-faerie, then reaches for the communication panel, opening all frequencies. "This is Yuna Kagurazaka, Union ally, calling unidentified vessel; if you can hear me, please respond with your name and the name of your ship."

She sets that transmission to repeat at intervals, then looks over her shoulder, towards the main cabin. "Looking for a docking bay or something so we don't have to spacewalk across. You ever been out in the empty Void before?" she asks her human passenger. Yang's not the only occupant of the cabin; Erina, Jiina, and Marina are all along for the ride, since Yuna has no idea what to expect.

And if there are docking bays Yuna can steer her cruiser into, once Elner picks out something suitable, Yuna flies in to dock/land/whatever.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    The Union has a lot of resources to bring to bear, when a small and fast insertion into hostile territory is needed. Most of their dropships are rated for travel in the Void; a necessity, given what Elites get into. It's one of those dropships that comes hurtling through the 'picket line' of varying other ships, some daredevil pilot willing to just blaze on by at full speed. As soon as it's by, it cuts all thrust, starting to coast; then maneuvering jets turn it sideways, and the side hatch opens up.

    A single woman leaps out, taking on the momentum of the vehicle, while the pilot himself re-engages controls and dashes off in a different direction.

    The silver-haired swordswoman doesn't have maneuvering tools, but she might as well; as soon as she's close to the ship, she banks around, skimming along its side. She's both searching for an entry point, and reaching out with her senses - feeling for what battle happened here, what might still be, and what might be soon to come.

    When she spots Yuna's ship, however, the demigod swings up and around, flying on an intercept course so as to meet up with the Mikemaru-go.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone had had a bit of a rough week, bungling things hard with Kyra without meaning to. An incident on X's world were she was lablere property and nearly /sold off/, thankfully X had come to understand she wasn't full out machine. She was glad to be out of that. She picked up the call for help and was coming to check it out with her passenger on board.

"Slipbolt will stay with the ship while we go in X, I'm already suited up for trouble, I'll deploy drones and get you a tac feed from them, damn would you look ar that ship? It looks mean, also our sensors are getting nothing we're going to be going in blind X."

Kotone heads for the teleporter pad and makes ready to beam aboard she's not going to dock her ship with this, oh that's just asking for trouble.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "Never been higher than an Airship before." replies the blonde brawler. "It's really pretty out here... but nothing we've ever built on Remnant can get much higher than about a mile... Dust Engines lose efficiency really quickly the higher they go."

    She's strapped in, but is craning her neck to peer out of any viewports at the stars, and the ship they're approaching. She probably looks like a big kid.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Hooo nelly, these guys got a human-style design."
"Without the same anarchic flaws."
"Please try not to antagonize George. Regardless, this is..."
"Meant to be scary lookin', aye. And look at these pansies, scared of a little energy."
"Dry. We might be irradiated, Pavo."
"Risssk, bah!! Floran think, we can handle. Radiation nanossskin, sssuck it up."

    The STARBOUND FLOTILLA is here! The SFS Vehemence is an ultramodern white craft, a heavy weapons platform that leads the other five. Just behind it, the SFS Abdication -- a miniature house-sized castle-looking spaceship with a large sensor array -- and the SFS Kaleidoscope -- four other ships welded together, lashed with vines, and given a heavy railgun -- slip into the available space as well, and beyond them, the trio of the SFS Rapacity, a pyramid-styled craft bristling with strange red gems, the SFS Mendacity, a modern, chunky durasteel industrial craft, and the SFS Connoisseur, a light blue fish-styled sleek spacecraft.

    All six converge on the vessel's docks; while the Vehemence attempts to hack and the Connoisseur attempts to more naturally prompt to hail, the Mendacity will unfold high-intensity hull-cutting materials to just slice open the docks. Whatever method works -- if any does -- they're definitely not going to prevent the others from following them, so hopefully there will be an entry point soon. They intend to dock and disembark within without too much caution, if they can... To the swift go the prizes! Caution is for poor people.

X (967) has posed:
An S.O.S. from space is hardly what X expected to encounter today. But when life gives you lemons... learn to juggle?

    R E A D Y

    X wouldn't normally be able to reach such a remote location in a timely fashion. But he's aboard Kotone's ship, looking out the viewports with a grim expression on his rather human-like face.

    "I've never seen anything like it!" And it's definitely of a make he can't even begin to extrapolate. "How many people could be aboard a ship this big?! ... And to not get anything back from hails... I don't see ANYTHING that would have stopped it..."

    He makes a dash for the teleporter with Kotone, already worrying about the implications.

    So it looks like... teleporting to the docking bays, or something?

    "Are you really sure about this, Kotone! I have a bad feeling about this ship. Your ship's a much safer place to be!" Well yeah. Of course he's volunteering to go it alone and encouraging her to leave it to him...

    It's a robot's job to handle the dangerous places, after all.

    But seeing all of the other people coming...

    Might be a moot point, trying to push that angle.

Kushiko has posed:
Unfortunately for those such as Yuna who may be hoping against all hope that there may be some sort of response of those aboard insofar as anything--be they drones or otherwise--there is simply no response. Only an automated signal, which now that people are actually close to it? Seems to be clouded with interference; signal noise due to some strange energy. It'd highly sporadic, like whatever might be causing it was fading.

Further still, the language itself, in terms of written form is highly coarse yet direct to the point. The implication is clear that whatever occupants initiated the signal wanted it to be found by other Grineer, and to kill /anything/ that isn't Grineer aboard.

Alexis, on the other hand might find that she has little to no issue approaching the ship; nor would any others for that matter. There's other points of entry on the ship, not the docking bays but not really good for anyone except infiltrators to maybe progress aboard. Anyone searching for it would discover along one part of the ship, one of the ports for ventilation between the hulls was breached, though sealed afterwards.

Those of the Flotilla might just notice these options as well.

There are some systems that may require hacking if they wish to be used--the one Alexis used was already hacked, for instance, perhaps without her necessarily realizing. Surely she wasn't just let in. Surely not.

Airlocks exist in multiple points for ready access both under and on the side of the vessel itself--it would be childs play for most to breach these systems once inter-system understanding is achieved. Either way, outside the systems that are already breached, those that aren't are under a combat-based lockdown by some of the occasional excerpts of (ALERT) and the like.

Either way, it would be of little true issue for those to actually get on board once there. The problem really, is what's on board? Setsuko is going to find.. certain interesting feelings the moment her feet touch the ship itself. The noises that would greet the others once they're actually aboard are.. well. The hull straining. Creaking, even. Engines are not wholly online. Gravity and life support systems are functioning at full strength, however.

In the docking bay itself, there's a small number of craft that could be seen from the getgo. Some in the middle of repair, some in along a conveyor system above and to the sides for launching of the aforementioned support craft. There's an unmistakable notion for some that, this ship is not for atmospheric flight, by the number of ship and landing craft here. Surely someone should come to greet the arriving Elites.

.. yet no one came.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    <Hey, Alex?>
R    <Yeah, I know. Freaky how easily we just got in. Someone's been here before us.>
    <No shit. Pirates?>

    Alexis scours the docks first, searching for hostiles with her rifle ready. <Dunno, not many signs of combat yet...this is creeping me out.>

    She begins to exit the docking bay, rifle raised as she stacks up against a door, or something looking like a door.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
With the lack of any response from the ship, Yuna shuts the hail back down after a few moments, but keeps one channel open - mostly so Jiina and the others can hear what's going on. Yuna also tasks Elner with trying to analyze the 'jamming' energy, attempting to pinpoint its source and to quantify its properties ... but Elner will have to do that on the go.

Once the cruiser is docked, Yuna heads out to meet up with Alexis and the others. Elner is sticking with her, of course, and Yuna's already manifested the Matrix Divider, just in case.

"These 'Grineer' are probably really xenophobic," is Yuna's cursory speculation upon reading (or having Elner translate) the ship's automated message. She sounds, and looks, distinctly uneasy. "I wonder if they drew the fury of whoever wiped out the crew ... Where do we want to head to? Bridge, engineering ... somewhere else?"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Breach is go."
"Hmph. Take caution."
"Aye, ye lug, don't ye hold a worry."
"Insisting. Please be alert for survivors in need of help."
"Ahhh... From the offensively inelegant design, I suspect this is something we will not find."

    The various Starbound captains find their way into the docks. and make their landing, deploying in their standard Durasteel equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces and powering them. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a set of futuristic EVA-combat and exploration armor in a suit that glows a gentle red at the faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator.

    Moonfin and Biteblade take point; the former has a durasteel power katana drawn, while the latter holds an advanced railgun-styled bow. They head out of the docking bay, Biteblade listening keenly for any signs of noise aside from the hull creaking. The first thing to do is follow signs of importance. Heavy power cables, anywhere that looks like it recently had foot traffic, and of course, Seft pulls out a heavy industrial sensor unit. Maybe they can get a better bearing of where important energy signatures are from the inside rather than the outside, so she sweeps for it.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Setsuko swings on board right behind Yuna, smoothly going from flight to walking without skipping a beat. "Bridge would be the first place to go for investigation," she says to Yuna. Already, she stands with her left hand holding her scabbard steady, right hand on the grip of her blade, ready to draw. "And I concur with that assessment. This battle was... bloody. If we run into any of the ship's crew, be prepared for a fight."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Thousnads It was called a troop ship, right? So a whole lot of people would be on board if it was hauling soldiers, X We should be on ourg uard about this. It could be nothing but a ship full of well armed, well trained fighters ending up like this? I don't like it."

Kotone's weating her form fitting stealth gear rather than heavy armor. If she gets in a heavy fight here it's going to badly for her. She's also got several small drones with her that take off to start mapping things the moment they can get in. She opens up a tactical net to those like Makka and X who can take it.

<<All right moving out I'm going to try to find a good terminal b ut we should head for a major point like the bridge or engineering.>>

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "I'll follow your lead." replies Yang, as she deploys her gauntlets, just in case. "Smells like death in here... can't you smell it too? That acrid stench in hanging in the air." The normally happy-go-lucky attitude is gone, this is serious time and Yang's got her game face on. "You stay back at long range and pick anything off at a distance, let me take the front line."

    Yang /does/ attempt to access one of the computer terminals, that isn't showing the ALERT lockdown, tapping on buttons and going through menus. She's no hacker, but maybe she can find something of use.

X (967) has posed:
X came here to hunt for survivors who'd need help. But prospects are starting to look less and less hopeful. But at the very least... now he wants ANSWERS for where thousands of people could have gone. He's just not able to let this one sit now that he knows about it.

    So he materialies on the hangar's floor - or emerges from one of the Starbound ships through a group teleporter. Whatever works. Either way, he's taking the lead for Kotone.

    X takes a short time to take in the sights of the docking bay, paying attention to how... QUIET it was. For a ship this big? Quiet? Quiet doesn't seem... right.

    "..."

    Lips pressed together thinly and a troubled look on his face, X starts tromping his way for whatever accessway leads further in. "Agreed. The bridge is our best bet!" But while he walks... his right hand glows and blazes, the hand vanishing in favor of his weapon.

    All the while, behind what looks like ordinary green eyes, advanced optics and scanners are taking measurements of everything he sees, mapping tools load... and links telemetry with Kotone and Maaka.

    Of course, this means he also has a GREAT opportunity to see the Core Fleet in action and various others. This just gets him looking even MORE troubled.

    He hopes all these people know how to handle themselves. They LOOK like they do...

Kushiko has posed:
There's a certain contrary element; Setsuko, being whom she is, would know something horrifying happened here--though horrifying is relative. A battle was held here. It lasted a good /damn/ long time. Those arriving at the docking bays, as they investigate would find armor: heavy powered suits that are almost crude at first blush, but closer examination reveals a startling effiency to how well they could protect someone.

Such armor systems are good for many features--including life support. Those who are particularly inquisitive about these alloyed and ferrite-enhanced armors might see that it's almost designed, universally, for one shape. No variation when it comes to one model of armor, though some armored suits are clearly heavier duty, but the internals are startlingly the same with a startling degree of modularity. Repair flexibility, perhaps?

In any event, following signs of foot traffic and power cabling will lead those looking towards a door. And in proceeding past the seemingly empty docking bay, the circular door that would split open sparks, slightly. Not so much the door itself, but a broken bar atop it's threshhold. Cursory examination reveals it to be a security sensor bar. And a single throwing star in it. Three-pointed, but any measure of examination of it would indicate that.. it's /not/ made of typical material.

There are still some security and computer systems active; at so many points for ready access it seems, there's a terminal stretching out from the decks depending on which part of the ship one is in. These terminals are good for checking ship maps, and also basic information from the looks of it, should anyone approach them, as well as indicators for other terminals that are the primary systems.

Though when they approach them, the following may be noted of the text: a unique set of barcode letters with dot-matrix-styled 'cuts' made along their left edges to various depths. Translation isn't terribly difficult though multiversal translation effects carry it so far. Some things are simply lost in the translation owing to a lack of the same letters existing in other common languages.

More troubling may be for those who aren't looking for terminals--some of the cabling and other conduits leading to those--would be the first signs of battle. Bloody battle, as it happens. Near one of those terminals is a body that has been bifurcated. More and more bodies could be discovered turning a corner along one massive corridor that splits into varied sections. In some of those sections are large, circular lockers, but some of these details pale as the scenes of battle simply unfold.

still wielding a crude-looking, but efficient blade glowing with heat. Crude, ballistic weapons that would be undoubtedly highly effective. There's at least two bodies pinned to a wall, bent forward at an obscene degree owing to long bolts having not only punctured their body armor, and them, and carried them to another wall.

One of the bodies begins to fleck with a strange energy, almost a soft pink in color. That energy residue from before? That's a source of it right there. The energy residue that was detected is pervasive. It might be almost described as a scent in terms of how it would appear on sensors, and be felt otherwise; is it a ghost? There's a particularly odd, extradimensional flavor to the energy itself. It's already beginning to fade here..

... oddly, many of those dead Grineer, the ones that don't have faceplates obscuring their twisted visages of anger.. are almost completely identical..

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Aleixs agrees with the major, and after linking up with peoples' tactical nets, she advances with Yang taking the lead. She swaps her coilgun for a ten gauge shotgun acquired from an Imperium vessel, the intimidating pump-action weapon giving a hearty cock while she heads down the hall.

    She raises a brow at the dead Grineer littering the place, giving a thin-lipped grimace behind her mask. "Goddamn, whoever hit this knew their shit." She says, kicking aside half a Grineer foot soldier, pausing only to interface with the nearest data terminal she can find, in order to figure out what went down here. She notes several of the fallen Grineer, as well as their weapons. These were purpose built for combat, reliable but ugly as sin, even the soldiers seem like they were grown in vats someplace, and hooked up to combat cybernetics to fill gaps in their bodies.

    She kneels down, searching for spent casings, discarded magazines, and other signs of whoever did this in their wake. Sometimes, she draws a knife, digging through entry wounds to extract projectiles if possible.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa didn't like this at all as she started to move out, she seems to be on edge thogh and has an laser rifle rather than an SMG. Also she's carrying several strange alien looking grenades, and seem to be taking her time as she moves. She does tkae note to check out the armor however she thought they were junk. Then she got a llook at them she let out a low whistle. Thee things were pretty high end but it was odd they were all standarize like gear made for certain modles of cyborg bodies back home.

She however is more keen to get into the computer systems which she does. She doesn't jack in directly but she's clearly looking to try to work them she'll attempt to get non secure information first and maybe a ship map before she tries for antything else major. She halts in more than a bit of shock as she looks t the body. It looks only slightly worse than what happned to her so long ago.

<God in heaven they were slaughtered...> 5R
She's going to work the terminal now and worse they all seem to have the same face.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    As the group proceeds, Setsuko moves to the fore, alongside Moonfin and Biteblade both. She doesn't draw her blade as Moonfin has, but she keeps at the ready, and keeps all her senses - both natural-but-superhuman and outright supernatural - as sharp as she can. She silent and steady in how she proceeds, and her scrutiny on the surroundings is as sharp as her blade. She notes the thrown shuriken with a faint frown, and the casualties of battle with a dispassionate glance. Her sense was accurate, then. Bloody battle here.

    Only the faint glimmer of the one body causes the tall woman to tense, and that only for a moment. There's a split second where she's ready to draw steel on the corpse, before she restrains herself and relaxes. "...I don't know what that is. But it feels... odd. Disjointed somehow. Be cautious."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna is happy to let other people take point - Yang and Maaka in particular; Yang specializes in close combat and Maaka is more or less willing to take point for dealing with security traps - but she's still looking around at things, even though she'd much rather not look at any of the dead bodies. She kind of has to, though. As long as the bodies stay dead and don't suddenly start moving again, it should be fine ... right?

She's more interested in the ship itself, and those messages; while Elner is already multitasking between scanning for that energy and maintaining a data crosslink with Maaka, X, Kotone, and whomever else, Yuna also asks the robo-faerie to try and help translate the written messages. As it is, though, Yuna's attention does shift more and more towards the dead bodies ... partly for two reasons.

First, of course, is when Elner confirms that the energy coming from a couple of the bodies matches the 'jamming' from earlier. Second is the peculiar similarity that so many of the dead Grineer share. "Are these all clones?" Yuna wonders, her voice hushed but probably still carrying to her allies. "And if this is the same energy that was interfering with transmissions ..."

Yuna trails off, swallowing hard, and looks a couple of shades paler. Could *ghosts* have been jamming the signal? Is that actually possible?

Apparently ghosts scare her more than genuinely dead corpses, though.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "Bingo!" Yang chirps happily, opening her Scroll and copying an image file to it, before forwarding it to the others. "Got ourselves a map! This should make things quicker."

    She then falls in beside Maaka, keeping her arms raised in a sort-of boxers stance as she creeps forward, eyes scanning for movement. The energy on that body gets her attention, and she calls a hold with a raised fist, before approaching cautiously. She's hoping her Aura can protect her from any harmful effects, as she reaches towards the corpse to see if it has anything unique about it.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Clones."
"Disturbed. They were butchered..."
"Bifurcation. We find ourselves sharing the company of those of the blade."
"Aye. Perhaps a pirate. Would be no surprise."
"Well, sure as hell was a surprise to these guys."
"You guysss, gonna eat that?"
...
"Nnnno? Okay, Floran eat then."

    Biteblade is a cannibal and gains significant combat advantage from consuming freshly killed flesh. As a result, she partakes, in a capacity which will not be described for the sake of taste. Meanwhile, Moonfin moves on. "Ahh, you have recovered a map. Excellent. The warrior who spoke first of it suggested well. We should find a path to the bridge." He links in on the network that the others are on, perusing the map itself. Unless there's any other marked locations on it that are of note, he -- and the other Starbound captains -- are going to leave the corpse investigations to those at work on them, and advance the squad off towards the bridge.

X (967) has posed:
The more X sees of this place the less happy he gets. He does show good sense when rounding bends though. After getting the door with the NINJASTAR'd sensor bar open he's careful to glance around it before just walking out into the corridor. Robot sure knows his tactics!

    But this just gets him emerging into a horror scene... of a sort that he hasn't seen ANYTHING like before. "Ahh!!"

    In a fit of shock X just charges headlong until he reaches the bodies... which he then kneels down to examine more closely. "This looks like... a beam saber wound?" That these aliens all have similar features is lost on him - the significance of it at least - but for now the sight of all these bodies - even if they aren't human - has a sickening feeling building in his core.

    THEN there's the matter of the energy. He hops back and away from the flickering, buster raised warily! ... But it turns out to be nothing more than just some flickering residue. "Grrr... who or what did this?! Whatever they are, they leave this weird energy behind. My sensors can't tell what it is."

    Since there's a deal of blood around, X turns his high-resolution sensor suite - otherwise known as his eyes - towards the blood stains. Looking for foot prints and the like. Something that might tell him WHAT was manuevering against these people. Or at least which direction they appear to be going in. And he's also checking the feeds from other people across the tac-link. having a computer in your head - well, kinda being one - is pretty useful.

    But then wooo, someone finds a map!

    "Great. All we need to do is find the nearest security station then! ... If this species uses those."

Kushiko has posed:
Examining the bodies is not a bad idea at all! The wounds are myriad and varied, make no mistake. The body that Alexis in her case, happens to pick is one that was absolutely riddled with them; their puncture of armor seems to be augmented by a corrosive enhancement which mercifully by now won't be too dangerous to Alexis.

Her systems will likely ping her to this factor, however.. but maybe more oddly, the shots seemed to come from almost above? Sure, the corridors and everything like that are spacious, but, that spacious? One of them begins to dissolve, a reactive dissolution renders one of the spent bullets into that same, purple-pink haze as before.

Yang and Kotone alike would be able to discover a map without much trouble--there's different portions to sift through, given the multiple decks of the ship itself. Occasionally there might be a little indicator pointing in glaring red against the yellow about parts of the ship that were breached and basically serving as nav beacons for soldiers to go and investigate.

By the look of it, there wasn't anyone to actually /do/ this sort of thing. Still, this information is not terribly well secure and can be downloaded with ease and distributed. Mercifully, Yang's actual examination of a different body doesn't seem to register any possible /harm/, at least not directly. The one body she looks at seems have had an astonishingly clean cut to it.

Setsuko would catch the sight of one body seeming to almost crumple inward on itself, before fading away altogether. Another body indicates something.. /animal/ tore into it. Clawmarks, and a bite that seemingly tore open the alloyed armor plating as there's signs of an utterly futile struggle against some beast.

It's entirely plausible that Biteblade may have been beaten to the punch in regards to the consumption of cloned flesh.

X's own discovery seems to be adding to the menagerie of what sort of attackers laid siege to the Grineer here. One weapon looks like it was a straight cut, one resembles the cauterized flesh of a high heat or energy based weapon--though in one particular case of claws? .. unmistakably energy based claws as while a beast tore into one, something.. /bigger/ did that job. The exact depiction which will be spared the rest of the group.

But melee isn't the only element to it. Despite ones with missing limbs, there's others that simply have their heads blow off. Corrosive, armor-piercing rounds: some discovered rounds are basically 4" bolts that defy conventions of ballistic arms. They're clearly effective, however. The scene being painted indicates.. surely it has to be multiple attackers. The energy residue once fully examined, studied.. gives a faint trail.

One. Sometimes two. Sometimes three. Never more than four. Those who progress beyond checking the bodies would begin to pick up on this. Distinct, yet inconclusive phantoms. Security footage would verify this, once they are investigated. And for those beginning to make their way towards the bridge would find more bodies, make no mistake.

But.. curiously they would find an odd, white tower. No more than four feet, it's releasing some degree of atmospheric conditioning--or it was. By now it's inert and true life support had returned. Those reviewing the systems might find that for a period during the conflict, life support was shut OFF in order to stop them.

.. but it didn't. Was this device why?

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang looks over the body... a clean cut, straight through armour, bone and tissue... She's seen damage like this before on her own world, but not to /people/. Grimm, sure, their innards are a morass of red matter with no distinct form or function, bifucating them is still fatal due to structural destabilisation... but this...

    "Maybe this universe has Huntsmen too..." she remarks to herself, before turning her eyes towards the next chamber. She spots that tower, and glances back. "Alexis, cover me... I'm moving up ahead... I think I can see something in the next chamber." she calls back, before standing and moving foward. She's keeping her gauntlets raised defensively, making sure she's got her ranged shells in place.

    When Setsuko says she's joining, the Huntress in training breathes a little easier. It's good to have backup, after all.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    PING indeed, as Alexis notices a lot of corrosive elements in the body she inspects. This guy got jacked up old-style, with acidic rounds no less... "Holy shit, I want whatever shot this guy..." she mutters, before she tries to pry the Grineer's armor open, dig around in whatever's underneath as she wedges her fingers in a gap made by gunfire, and pries with all her strength.

    She winds up giving up on this, tossing the corpse aside in favor of another, bisected body to inspect the wounds inflicted. It's disturbing to look at this stuff, even for a seasoned mercenary like herself, and she's jarred from her thoughts as she stands up with her shotgun.

    "I got your back." She says to Yang, nodding as she follows the huntress towards whatever it is she and Setsuko noticed. The lack of life-support systems and deactivated atmospheric conditioning seems odd to the cyborg. Perhaps they attempted to choke out the intruders? Not a lot of good that did them, evidently.

    She stands back up, shotgun in hands, and she begins to link up with the other warrior women.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Sensing some of Yang's unease, Setsuko removes her hand from Zanjintou's grip for just a moment; long enough to rest it on the blonde's shoulder, giving her a brief but encouraging squeeze. A lifelong soldier, Setsuko has seen things like this before, but she knows quite well that others here haven't. And this is pretty brutal, all things considered.

    But it's only for that moment. In a place like this, she's all business otherwise. Yang has her gauntlets up, Maaka has her shotgun ready, and Setsuko has her sword ready to draw, her eyes and ears pushed to their limit - with a heaping helping of 'using her battlesense to prepare for danger' besides.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is content with what she finds, given this is an unknown military ship? She does not want to press things too much with the system unless she has to. Who knows what sort of nasty defences they have in here. She'll start to go over the map quite rapidly while she hands it out to the rest of the Flotilla and the other people here. With the info aquired she's going to try to make for the bridge. She keeps on her guard and deploys several of her own recon drones to scout ahead of things here.

She makes note of the tower and eyes it, it doesn't seem to match the tech of the ship quite right. Still she doesn't wiat too long and she's honestly trying to not look at the bodies, also at this point she engages her optic cameo as she preses on ahead.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The longer Yuna tries to figure out what's going on with the bodies and the energy, the less comfortable she is on the ship. But the group has come this far, and Yuna doesn't want to leave while the others are continuing the investigation. Besides, there's no telling what they might find ...

Elner pauses next to one of the Grineer corpses, leaning just a little bit closer. ".... Antimatter?"

"Eh?!" *That* got Yuna's attention. "Where are you detecting - wait, inside their bodies? That should ...." She trails off, swallowing again. "Is that what the energy's coming from?"

"No, but it tallies with the way the bodies are disintegrating," the robo-faerie says. "Like it was meant to destroy their remains and/or equipment."

Yuna just sighs, gripping the Matrix Divider tighter, and quickens her pace to catch up with the others. She's out of her depth, there's nobody left to save, and this ship gets more freaky with each discovery. "Elner, switch from normal life-sign scans to motion tracking, if there's anything moving that isn't us, I want to know about it as soon as you detect it. Even if you're not *sure*, tell me - tell us."

X (967) has posed:
Truth be told, this place is terrifying. X is scared. All these soldiers were just WIPED OUT. By three to five individuals it seems. This is one heck of a group here...

    If they encounter these infiltrators, SOMEONE's going to get killed. Very strong chance.

    Which means... it would be better to call for backup maybe. Try to convince the otehrs to leave, maybe... and continue this mission himself for their safety!

    Yeah, fat chance of convincing people of THAT, he decides, after glancing around at everyone's determined faces.

    Yeah he's terrified.

    But at this point he can't just leave. The others here could need help soon. Especially if these infiltrators yet remain.

    But he's also getting worried at this point. While Elner might be switching to motion tracking, X has no such sensors. So he must simply stay alert and keep looking around.

    Except after deducing some of the damage patterns.. he's keeping one optic towards the ceilings at all times.

Kushiko has posed:
Yang would be among the first to discover the remains of the life-support granting unit that helped the attackers when the defenders attempted to shut them out. It's expended, lights dimmed to near nothing. Setsuko would also catch sight of some locked storage containers, others simply broken open. Curious little shaped objects are lying in disarray--closer examination by anyone would be not unlike ammunition clips and other material.

The chamber slopes downward at first--there's supply crates like nothing else, heavily wrapped and entirely immobile. Upon full entry into the chamber and entry into that chamber, it's revealed to be what it is. An absolutely /MASSIVE/ weaponry room. A mass accelerator would be the official name for it, as the chamber and room is built around it. Ramps downward go fore and aft of the ship at their bottoms, and around and underneath the staggeringly enormous barrels of the cannon.

Inactive though it is, there's no mistaking it's designed to take on heavy targets with terrifying ballistic promise.

Though the bridge is not too terribly far now, more and more bodies could be discovered. Added to the list of methods of death appear to be a group that had.. somehow been crushed from the inside. Residual magnetic force detected internally. Again, much of this is beginning to fade. Setsuko would sense the deeper that they got, the more that Grineer had been killed.

Underneath the cannon lies multiple computer systems, some for the weapon, and others still--as the map indicates--this terminal is one of those to access more information. Perhaps here one might get some idea of what exactly happened, or more about the Grineer themselves. Databanks are useful and all!

Occasionally some of the terminals that have been progressed past may be glowing, pulsing from the still running alert. The signal is still being broadcast, for all the seeming good it'll do. Motion detection doesn't seem to pick up anything just /yet/--beyond what seems to be some conveyor systems nearby for the shipborne artillery.

Those who decide to access the terminal and begin to hacking will uncover some key information--confirmation that alarms were deliberately triggered by then-unknown force, later identified: WARFRAM (warframe), automatic shunt to disabling atmospheric stability. All forces engaged.

Want to know more?

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is now on the bridge having passed likely even more carnage on the way. She's seen killing but like this? She's seen types of weaponry that not even the most wacked out dicatorship on her world would touch. This leaves her witrh an uneasy feeling as they finaly make it to the bridge. She'll move to jack in and start to get data, she does however have a dummy barrier equipped to give her some addtional protection. She's going to attempt to find more information on what happend with this warframe. She'll check for logs, video feeds, anything.

<< I'm in the system now but damn they sent /every soldier on the ship after this warframe thing.>

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka approaches the bridge, slinging her shotgun as she wanders towards a terminal. The battle here seems well over, but honestly that gun is something that Alexis doesn't feel comfortable leaving around in the open like this.

    Grunt. "I dunno about you guys, but I don't feel keen on letting someone get ahold of this ship. That cannon would be a mess of trouble in the wrong hands." She suggests, before she pokes at the terminal idly.

    She will look to see if there's a way to plot courses, or just nab whatever's in the databanks themselves regarding these Grineer, a fat file will be excellent studying material when this is over.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang spots others heading to the bridge, and instead, heads downward toward the nearby terminal to access it and browse the database. She does keep an eye over her shoulder at the warning from Setsuko.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    The feel of oncoming battle has been growing for some time, a sliver in the back of Setsuko's mind... though, one that a part of her anticipates, rather than dreads. With everyone else gathering intel from the area around the mass accelerator cannon, the demigod has gone completely still, standing in the middle of the room. X gets a brief glance; mixed feelings there, but feelings that boil down to 'kind-hearted but painfully naive'. The glance is only brief, though. She is as still as a statue because the entirety of her being is now practically singing with the close approach of battle.

    Those with keen eyes can certainly see it - tension in her, from head to toe, like a coiled spring. There is even, very briefly, a faint blue shimmer around the edges of her figure. When she says battle is coming soon, she isn't kidding.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Pickin' up a whole lot of trail and not a lot of blazing."
"There is incoming trouble. The tide rises."
"Let 'em come. More prize to take."
"Find the unknown element first. No ambush."
"Worried. Is there some way to track where they may be in the immediate sense?"
"Huh... Floran think, Floran underssstand after all thisss."

    So, cameras don't catch them well. They destroy sensors. And now the Flotilla folks are on a countdown to catch up with this raider. So, Biteblade uses what little opportunity she has. Clearly they can't use the ship's own internal systems to get a reliable read on where the target is, but the native crewmen in combat with them CAN. And... The entire hull is creaky. Creaky and groaning. It transmits a lot of stress and vibration through its body. So Biteblade uses a very tribal way of tracking: She briefly lays down and puts her keen ear to the floor. Heavy grineer footsteps will be louder and more urgent when the target is nearby, and the target will have more unusual footsteps. Is anything transmitting through the body of the craft to give them a direction?

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
On the one hand, any bit of information might be useful, and as much as Yuna is hating this star galleon, she *is* kind of tempted to ask Elner to dig in the computers for more details.

On the other hand, there are plenty of other parts of the ship that need investigating - such as the bridge - and there are other members of the investigation team who could pull data from the computers and analyze it as they go.

Imn between the two is the fact that the bridge - as far as Yuna or Elner can confirm - remains close at hand, along with a new voice coming in on the radio frequency they've been using; Yuna can only presume that Ford Graham is also from the Multiverse, not from whichever world the ship Unified from. At any rate, making for the bridge sounds like a great idea, and Yuna quickens her pace to head that way with the others.

Elner is still scanning for signs of life not accounted for by the investigators' team, of course, as well as saving copies of any data forwarded to it over the data-sharing link.

X (967) has posed:
HOW exactly Setsuko is able to warn the group of oncoming battle, X doesn't know. But she sounds certain enough of it that he's not about to question it in the field.

    He's got a feeling she's right.

    The newly-activated android grimaces. He's been in a few fights, but the level of sheer BRUTALITY on display here has him uneasy. He's fought NOTHING on this level before...

    And there are people around he's gotta watch out for.

    "If you have some way to teleport out now Kotone... take it!" He insists upon making his way over to her. Since she's working on all that hacking, he takes a position at her back, free hand gripping his (for the moment, lowered) X-Buster.

    "Whatever the infiltrators are, they're fond of ambushes."

Kushiko has posed:
So, people wanted to know more, did they? Know more they shall.

There's reams of typical database information here about the Grineer--classifications of units, and mention of their leaders, the twin Queens, the SISTERS. Other than an absolute obedience to them there's little more. Occasionally a name with rank seems to appear. Councilor Vay Hek--a blistering diatribe from him is blasting one of the officers aboard the ship to ensure the vessel's supplies aren't raided by the Warframes.

Confirmation of earlier suspicions are also found about the Grineer themselves; to a man, they are clones, products of ancient, barely-remembered technology from centuries past, the result of which that Grineer bodies are in a constant state of degeneration. By the look of medical and engineering reports, however while they can't fix the clones from the outset, the fact that these defects are as mass-produced as their technology, they have a practiced ease by which to deal with it.

This has allowed for the rapid standardization of techno-augmetic adaptation between generations. Indeed, it could be argued that the Grineer are better at fixing broken bodies than they are at making ones that function to begin with. Their homeworld is a ruined, uninhabitable Earth. They are a people acting on an ultimate xenophobia, fueled by hereditary madness, and a burning hate of anything and anyone not like themselves. One of their primary goals seems to be dealing with the Tenno--one of those comments from Vay Hek was a promise of throwing 'their beloved Lotus' into the sun.

Yeah, these are not very nice people, are they?

But amidst data there is security footage. Much of it is damaged at times, but a picture begins to emerge. Sleek, feminine figures. Eyeless. But carrying weapons of a wide variety of fashion. The Floran's method of tracking would bear /some/ degree of fruit. There are very, /very/ faint vibrations that could be felt in another part of the ship. Or is it a mere echo? There's little telling for sure--somewhere, above. Even ignoring the distance between then, there is a sense that.. /something/ is taking pains to conceal it's presence; was it here before, or did it just arrive again?

More data to be decoded; some of it needs to be analyzed later. Battle data and the like. Didn't some of those bodies have arrows sticking out of them? High tech arrows, no doubt but.. one of the more distressing elements comes into play at last. Crew count is listed at somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,141. Automated drone complement appears to bring that number higher, from the looks of it.

Now, with Elner and others able to properly access the system sensors are able to confirm the grim reality--no crew left alive. Sensor data also indicates the supply stores were raided in the midst of the fighting itself, the Tenno, or Warframes, or whatever they were, fighting as a distraction for a lone operative to raid the ship before departing.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is taking the data download and going over it even s she saves it. She gets an idea about the Grineer. She also wonders about the name but she'll worry about it later. For the moment she's seen what the warframes can do, she's also aware that it's a bad idea to be here when the Grineer get here to claim the ship. She thinks it's about time to go really she'll go oaver the rest of the data over. She's also cloaking again, like hell she's going to be exposed when kill bots of one sort or another come. Be the clones or something far worse.

<<X I'm sorry I brought you into this.>>

She's also rapidly sharing the highlight reel on the data she got, that the clones who made this ship are Xenophobic as heck and it would be beswt they lilely get out of here, or be ready for a fight.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis gets the transmission just as terabytes of data have been uploaded into her head. There's a lot of information rushing into her head at once, but she immediately makes it so that the data's been compressed and downsized into a neat little package.

    Kaz will get himself a nice little datafile shortly, while Alexis remains behind to defend the ship while it overloads. She checks her shotgun before giving it a firm pump. "Okay, let's get set up, people! I'll get us set up before they reach us."

    She'll produce some land mines as she begins to head off, searching for choke points to rig up with explosives.

Kushiko has posed:
So, things have changed; rather rapidly, insofar as the incident upon the Grineer ship. One thing certainly became obvious -- it's crew, and a decent amount of supplies and salvage were relieved in no short order. A menagerie of varying wounds, from arrows to bullet to blade and claw in a dizzying amount of fashions. Limbs and the like were often separated by a goodly amount of degree. And more than a few bodies simply pinned to bulkheads.

Biteblade had an excellent feast, this is certain, cloned flesh or not.

But as much as data had been pulled from the system, more time would be needed to analyze it later; the navigational maps of those aboard the ship still were pinged with two primary elements -- one, the reactor and ship engine room, which with the map already downloaded would make progression there remarkably quick, as well as a point of exit other than the docking bay should it prove necessary.

Yet still, a third element was present as well. Purple-blue symbols on the map indicating these.. Warframe, these Tenno, were en route. For those of the Flotilla, a select number of places where resource caches were to be discovered were pinpointed. Of the Warframe themselves, those who might be tracking in alternative ways, such as the Floran might be able to pick up on if one is still focused on such things. Even then, it's.. terribly faint, with the exception of something that has to be quadrupedal; regardless, whatever /that/ one is is moving with a swiftness all it's own accord.

Finally, there was the matter of the paths, the rounded corridors of the warship itself. From closed to more sprawling open areas. There were places that could be booby-trapped, but with the exception of a few supply rooms that deadended, there were multiple paths everywhere; multiple levels within some chambers. One certainty: there was truly no uniform deck configuration to this ship, owing to the preference for modularity and repairable elements rather than static angles.

Reports were coming in; Grineer were boarding the ship. The sheer size meant that initially as the group proceeded back to to the engine and reactor room, that they wouldn't quite yet encounter them unless they dawdled. Starboard side, from the sound of it to answer one question posed by where they were coming from. And it was a /lot/ of them, from that sound. But there were still things that could be done. Salvage could be acquired by a roving band while the reactor sabotage was performed--least in theory.

On individuals HUDs and other sensory data, another ping showed the arrival, indicated by that same symbol. The ship groaned a little bit. The Grineer marines were boarding. The focus would be at the engine and reactor rooms for those with a keen sense of battle.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang isn't a planner, a thinker. She's a woman of action, and so while others set traps, the blonde brawler gets herself ready. She'll hang back at a crossroads toward the engine room, one of the major connection paths, and fight to hold off the incoming Grineer.

    "I'll hold 'em off and buy you guys some time. Get that reactor wired as fast as you can then get out." she calls to the others as she stops and turns to face the incoming Grineer. She won't stop them here, no way, and there's other ways around, but by the Shattered Moon, she'll give those that are foolish enough to face her reason to fear the Burning Gold.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Setsuko is swift. Were she on her own, she could probably cross the ship in an unfairly short amount of time. But she has allies here. Comrades in arms. The choice of going ahead and leaving them behind is pretty much out of the question. So she restrains herself to human speeds, keeping pace with the group and staying out near the lead. Much as before, Zanjintou remains in its sheath, and her hand remains on its grip, prepared to draw at any moment. "I'm no technician myself. Yuna, can Elner set the core to overload? The three of us should be more than enough to delay them until it's ready."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
So here they were, Kotone was with the rest of the group, in a charnal house. All of the dead being part of a very xenophobic species of clone. Things just kept getting worse honestly as something else is here. A Warframe that did /it/ four of them had cleaned out the ship. She was more than unedge the Grineer were boarding the ship. She's already cloaked and has her laser riflr ready, she checks the hudd showing there are more contacts getting on.

"So we got a choice here fight an unknown enemy or bail, I'm thinking we should bail here, of we cam"

Shes not about to bail on the party and leave them behind. She really does not like this at all.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Confirmation that the Grineer ship is being boarded (by Grineer forces) quickens Yuna's pace considerably; the best way to keep this ship from being used as an anti-planetary WMD really does lie there, and Yuna is happy to leave the fighting to her comrades. Still, Elner's already planned for backup, and the remainder of the Matrix of Light has been alerted, just in case they need to fight to protect the Mike-maru-go.

Or rather, in case Erina and Marina need to do though. As far as the little robo-faerie is concerned, Jiina is needed elsewhere ... namely, in engineering. Elner teleports Jiina as close to engineering as the ship's architecture will allow, but that only gets her so far ahead of the Grineer.

Yuna just makes the best time she can to engineering from where she was beforehand, Elner keeping pace next to her. "Okay, Elner, start scanning and translating; see if the Lotus can give us any pointers, too. We want to freeze out the reactors, not make them explode, right?"

X (967) has posed:
Talk about being entirely stuck in a very unlikeable position. X is frozen in place while a sea of activity rushes around him. People storming off to stall the Grineer, to sabotage the reactor... there is discussion of simply fleeing! But...

    All the ships are back through halls of Grineer. An enemy that he doesn't wish to fight. There are people here that he needs to protect too!

    So where should he be?

    Sure it takes him a while... but eventually makes his decision. <<Our best route of escape is back the way we came. We have no choice but to fight. There's no other route to our ships!>>

    X HATES the decision he's just come to. It's all over his face as he makes a mad charge over to Junction Sixteen, robot boots going CLANK CLANK CLANK with every steep until he comes to a halt near Yang Xiao Long. The blue robot's frowning something fiercely but his honest eyes shine with concern.

    "Not alone you won't, miss!" Concern, but also plenty of spirit. X extends his hand for a fist-bump with Yang!

    It's a weird gesture, but trust Zero to have filled X in about them!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Pavo ditches the group, in the sense that the Starbound captains arrange to defend the area and draw attention while she goes to scavenge the caches.

"Sorry, kiddo, looks like we're not 'boutta ditch."
"You can attempt an emergency teleportation from here, if you like, but I understand the experience is... Troubling. I would advise you either fight your way around the conflict, or stay and participate."
"Troubled. I am uncertain of this purpose, but if these Grineer are as it has been said they are, perhaps it is acceptable..."
"Don't focus on that. The punching one is giving us time. Deploy defenses."

    The Starbounders spread out. Biteblade dives into side-halls, using her enhanced speed and strength to move into flanking positions. Moonfin, Seft, Albert, and George all begin deploying defenses. Barricades, turrets, firearm emplacements. Tremendous cutting hazards, electrical hazards. Blocked-up hallways filled with horribly thick and resistant metallic alloy. While Yang holds them off, the Starbounders intend to FORTIFY the reactor against any breaching! Not unlike Alexis Maaka, here!

Kushiko has posed:
On the one hand, it would take a little bit for some of the Grineer forces to actually get there properly; the sheer size of the vessel meant that from where they were boarding--even if the docking bay would be somehow clear, Yang and X may not have many to deal with at first. It's a trickle of soldiers; masked Lancers with their Grakata rifles and a Shield Lancer holding his heavy riot shield as a vanguard. They're taking cover and moving in very traditional military fashion.

More specific, what look to be melee units; Butchers and Powerfists are attempting to use the coverfire being lain down by the rifle-toting Lancers to approach their targets, even ducking around bulkheads to keep themselves out of sight long enough to effect an ambush. At least, that's the running theory so far, as the Lancers begin to open fire--shots richocheting off bulkheads but more than a few aimed as true as they can be.

It's not too dissimilar for Setsuko; though she has some more heavier units on her way than most. Do the Grineer detect something? It's difficult to say for certain: particularly when it comese to slightly heavier armor of flamethrower-wielding units begin their own approach. Leaner-looking feminine units are situating themselves as a half-dozen or so close the distance. The feminine one at a distance is wielding a sniper rifle, bringing it up to fire as other Grineer units open fire with their assault rifles! The size of the junction makes it plausible for these guys to be coming from nearly every direction, it seems, yet it's not too terribly difficult to obtain cover on both sides, as it were.

Almost everyone is seeing an additional unit type that is a bit.. odd, next to these: misshapen spheres of sorts, rolling units that weave in around as they are just a bit faster than their bipedal counterparts. Though in the case of Setsuko, she very well may pick up on something else coming. Savage furor--not necessarily at her--but approaching all the same.

The members of the Starbound Flotilla and Alexis Maaka's maneuvers indicate one thing to the Grineer; they're going to have /trouble/ like nothing else to get through there. There's yells of pain as some of the explosive mines that were set by Alexis on her way through just eliminate a couple of hostile pings outright.

The scanning systems tell a pretty quick story outright; the rooms that are pretty well deadending into the coolant systems are twofold and differently designed. There are security systems in the sense to prevent their exploitation as well as prevent damage in the case of an accident. Yuna would arrive at a t-shaped junction; to either side are powered energy conduits oscillating; damaging these would cut power to the rather powerful energy wall denying access to the coolant systems themselves.

It's a rather impressive redundnacy in design; attempting to breach or bypass directly through the shields would incur heavy electrical damage and drain one of energy.

As to the very prospect of evacuation, the pulsing green icon on the map indicates an extraction point. And from this, a single figure descends from a ventillation shaft; wreathed in gold lining amidst black and blue-purple colorations. The soft fabric of a syadana rustles behind her; oscillating colors behind a single cyclopian diode upon Mag Prime's head as she regards Kotone.

As if to offer her (and by extension, Alexis) the option to withdraw for her own safety. Wielding a similarly plated rifle, she gestures to some of the metallic alloys that the Starbounders have placed; electromagnetic force ensures that the fortification has just all that much more strength to it. Yet not a single word, other than the pulsation of magnetic energy from her fingertips, nor a sound either.

The Lotus comes across the channel, "She will guide you, if you need it. There are paths out of here that the Grineer cannot use, and will do so for Alexis momentarily."

Furthermore, those odd little energy signatures are showing up once again if anyone's still running scanners. Most notably

Kushiko has posed:
Furthermore, those odd little energy signatures are showing up once again if anyone's still running scanners. Most notably with the Mag Prime's expenditure of energy in order to magnetize some of the fortifications together.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang looks to X, then grins and touches her right fist to his outstretched one. Her gaunlet racking its slide before she gets into position. "Nice to have the backup, lets give 'em hell." she says, fists up in a boxers defense stance.

    The Grineer come around the corner, and their rifles light up.

    Yang grits her teeth, and crosses her arms in front of her, bullets glancing off her gauntlets, and mushrooming against her Aura, leaving little gashes along exposed skin which close quickly after they're made. "I /hate/ ranged fighters." she growls softly, drawing her right arm back, and firing an explosive bolt down the hallway. On impact that bolt explodes like a grenade, which should give enough of a smoke screen for the brawler to advance, jinking side to side to throw off the aim of the Lancers.

    The Butchers and Powerfists are coming in close, and the brawler grins a bit, shifting her stance and ducking under a slash of a big blade, before driving her fist into the Butcher's midsection. "Bang." her strike punctuated by a shotgun blast of kinetic force.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Ya the ship's too scrambled to beam us out, we don't have much of a choice do we?" She notes to the Flotilla she knows they are right there's no way out of this but she does not like this t all. She'll keep moving to head and not leave her firends behind at all. She's looking at the units coming in, she's going to go info war support for the most part and attempt to get into their comm systems to see if she can pick up anything of use. She might not get anywhere but who knows. She keeps moving and trying to keep out of the gight as she moves to keep with the Flotilla.

and then something drops in on her, she stares, it's seeing through her stelath and ther's a momebnt of panic until Lotus comes on the comm.

"... All right then... lead the way I don't have much of a choice do I?"

She'll follow but she's clearly on edge, she also shuts the optic cameo off to save it's power for when it's needed.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
'Bypass the system by any means you see fit,' says the Lotus. Yuna looks at the energy conduits, then hefts the Matrix Divider. "All right ..." She eyes the conduits briefly, wondering how much energy's going to run loose when they're breached, but she has to trust the Light Suit to protect her sufficiently.

Then she starts shooting the conduits, trying to blast them when the fluctuations are at lower ebb. The blasts from her weapon are concussive energy bolts; their Holy/Light element probably won't be an issue here. Elner's ready to pop a force field in front of Yuna in the event that the conduits explode more violently than expected, though.

And if taking out the conduits on one side of the junction isn't enough, Yuna then repeats the process on the other side.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Cover? What is this 'cover' of which you speak?

    Faced with enemies, Setsuko makes a number of snap decisions in the blink of an eye. The use of Zanjintou's full form anywhere on this ship is too dangerous to consider, even in such a wide-open space. She could carve through something important. For a similar reason, the use of her divine power for 'cutting arcs' is probably a bad idea. Launching projectiles that could carve through steel easily, has some big risks.

    No, she'll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Close to melee range, carve them up. Use their numbers against them. Provide such a hazard that they have no choice but to focus their efforts on her instead of pressing Yang and X. Which means, first and foremost, priorities. The ranged units pose the greatest danger. The sniper in particular. Following that, the ones with the flamethrowers. She's not sure what the rolling units are capable of that their peers aren't, but they need to be watched. So the demigod resolves to destroy their ranged marksmanship first, but also thin the close-range herd a bit in the process.

    All of the decisionmaking happens in a fraction of a second. By the time the first sniper shot fires, she's already moving. It clips across her left shoulder, a deep gash that sprays blood behind the demigod but doesn't slow her. She launches with speed more appropriate to a highway car going fast enough to earn a ticket, barreling straight towards the nearest flamethrower trooper - only to suddenly stop in front of him, drop low, and draw her blade. The quickdraw is incredibly fast, the arc perfect, aimed to carve right through his chest. In the same motion, however, she reaches out with her left hand to /grab/ his armor, and bodily throw him. Straight towards one of the snipers.

    But the sudden storm of movement doesn't stop there. Suddenly, Setsuko leaps, what looks to be a high and soaring arc... and one where it would be easy for a sniper to take her out. But before she even reaches the top of that arc, she suddenly changes direction. Flight is a handy thing like that. It lets her stop a jump in mid-air, and re-direct straight towards another sniper.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    And then, Biteblade lunges into the conflict. Dashing madly, through the side-halls, she surges ahead of where the Starbounders halt the Grineer advance. While Pavo's scavenging around for the caches, Biteblade goes to work. Her own work is not that unlike the local Tenno, oddly; her magnetic induction bow, her twin daggers, and her vicious melee brutality and hunter-killer tactics are meant to sew chaos and discord among the Grineer, brutalizing the squad leaders and dashing away before a full response can be done.

    The SPEED of it, though! Her semi-powered armor works in perfect tandem with her body's tremendously overcharged death-powered biology, meaning she's leaving huge wakes of wind behind her, firing arrows that blast the air from whole hallways or pierce bulkheads. She works well with Setsuko here; her high-energy cannibalism results in a tremendous healing factor that lets her compete a little with the war god for kills, and the energy boost for speed. She lets Setsuko focus on the snipers; Biteblade focuses on the short-range fighters and their short-range fighting, and the leaders!

    Meanwhile, guns are drawn from the Matter Manipulators of the remaining four Starbounders. They take positions and intend to blast apart anything about to break through the group's heavy hitters.

X (967) has posed:
WHUNK! Because fistbumps between gauntlets and robots is heavy stuff! But is there a little jolt when they touch? Heh. maybe.

    X's hopeful smile fades immediately when the Grineer fill the corridors! "If we can just keep them busy and avoid lethal force I'd appreciate it! ... But don't put yourself at risk!" Even if they're omniaggressive clones, these Grineer are living things and he's not supposed to be here fighting them!

    He's got to TRY and avoid bloodshed.

    At first X is content to use the wall junction for cover, ducking around it when the shots come in... and then slipping out of cover when the enemies stop shooting! He lays down suppressing fire of his own! Bolts of plasma spew forth from his X buster at a fairly rapid pace... but they're aimed pretty badly. Or... rather... they're deliberately aimed to miss. He's aiming at the floor, at walls, towards feet. Where he can get away with it he risks shots for weapons!

    Grineer armor's probably enough to tank his humble buster though - at least, uncharged. A few shopts.

    he hopes.

    "ghhh--!!" But then he spots there's melee units closing in. And he answers the only way he can.

    Rushing out and breaking cover with a stunning diagonal cartwheel-like FLIp that takes him to the opposite wall of the hallway! The instant his legs make contact he acts in that split moment before gravity takes over to pepper the hallway with more wild shots... then SPRINGS OFF the wall, moving forwards and up to stay a respectable height above the ground. HOW the robot's able to seemingly just bounce from wall to wall isn't too clear. But ricochet shots manage to hit him even as he seems quite capable at evading a good deal of the normal ones. heavy slugs puncture X's lightweight Titanium-X skin and wreck sensitive innards, drawing sparks and weird fluids before auto-repair systems staunch them.

    But he's not going down just from a few shots. Instead...

    "Let us through! We're not here to fight you!" He leaps up to the ceiling right above some of the closing melee-ists!

    Helping gravity take its toll, X SPRINGS downwards and flips about, bringing considerable strength into a heel-dropkick of sorts to one of the soldier's shoulders! The moment his other foot's on the ground he spins about and ducks towards another, brings his fist under and upwards with dire purpose for the heaviest plating he can find on the Grineer's armor. And on contact?!

    His fist blazes with light, X-Buster machinery now resembling a weird cuff or gauntlet around his fist. It pistons with the strike, transmitting one hell of a KABOOM shockwave into the blow

    The wave of light flows all across X from the fist until it's covered his whole body. Where he was blue and light blue, he's now bright yellow and brown.

    YOU GOT
    EMBER CELICA

    Oh, so that's what the jolt during the fistbump was for.

Kushiko has posed:
Frightful honesty time: sometimes the best way to deal with a problem, especially the Grineer, is straight on. "ATTAF!" is one such battlecry from these Grineer, their voices having a slight vocal resonance due to their commsystems, guttural and sharp. "Ket klem!" is another excited cry as more Grineer begin to pour into the area.

One of those Butchers that Yang picks up on is rather.. unfortunate. The armor he wore is light for the purposes of running up on a target. Not only is he blown back off his feet with a pained scream dying on his feet, but one is pretty sure he's missing a misshapen chunk of his body as he practically ragdolls in another direction. The movement Yang took is enough to keep one from actually hitting her.

The Powerfist, on the other hand, stops short in order to leap up into the air and come down, slamming his fist and sending a shockwave of force back outwards--it might do some good versus that smokescreen that came up as a Roller unit passes by and around, weaving to launch itself up at Yang's midsection, blunted spikes expanding outward to try and stagger her. So that's what /those/ do.

One of them barks, "Tre gos tu kowah!" (Let's go to cover!) Not that it helps them very much, given the way Biteblade is moving through their lines. Some turn and attempt to engage her, while others are simply cutdown in the process of readjusting where they're at. X's cover fire, as beneficial as it is to Yang, is also allowing for Biteblade to score some particularly vicious blows.

Sadly, much of X's pleadings are answered by the rapidfire shots from their assault rifles.

Setsuko's response is something that in equal parts terrifies and galvanizes the Grineer, as while she may not realize it, the Demigod very much reminds the Grineer of something that tends to happen to them with some frequency. Clones and all have certain memories sometimes. It's a surprised voice that is cut into a low, gurgling hiss as the flamethrower-wielding soldier is carved and spat out by Setsuko. The first sniper cries out as she's barreled over--the impact not necessarily killing her until she's slammed into a nearby wall by the momentum itself.

Upon approach towards the next sniper has the female Grineer taking a step backwards and attempting to steady her aim. Give her credit; she's got some cajones. It doesn't necessarily /help/ though as a sound draws her attention--coming almost blindingly fast out from the corridor is a howling kind of growl preceding a purple-black.. /beast/ leaping atop it, knocking her down as it bites into an outstretched limb. Some of the flamethrowers have turned about and indeed, begun to focus on Setsuko in the interim. Some of the Roller units are banking and splitting up as well.

Biteblade seems to be drawing upon this initial thought as well from some of the Grineer--a few scattered cries and the like question 'warfram?' and the like, especially given the utilization of bow and blade in equal measure like that. Marines are scattered by the winds themselves at times as the Floran moves through as they do--another Ballista sniper simply cries out helplessly before being separated from the mortal coil.

Kushiko has posed:
There's no shortage of ranged units, one might be sad to say. As some soldiers are cut down, more are seen approaching further down. Or coming around. The few that aren't directly engaged find themselves on the wrong end of the guns by the remainder of the Starbounders. Pavo herself is finding a wide assortment of scavengable material; some is alloy plating and ferrite, but also what appear to be ampules of explosive chemicals. Safe to handle, from a passing glance.

One thing that's pretty nice to discover; the systems here are straightforward enough that with the destruction of the conduit elements, the power supplying the protective shields that deny access to the coolant systems flickers and dies, not unlike the yellowish energy barrier that resembles a screen of noise, one might say.

A single terminal rests nearby, pulsing with green light. Seems that did the trick; a cover is unlocked and one can reach for a handle of a cylinder to twist, and loosen up. Doing so will shut down the rest of the system in this area and begin putting the system into stasis, due to a lack of cooling systems currently. Interestingly enough that, when Yuna reaches the Reactor Room again once she's done with the first, two things are of note: one is the primary fuel cell itself seems to have been automatically ejected due to emergency systems.

The second is that the coolant cell from the other room has been deposited there next to it. What the...?

Another Grineer unit approaching from a briefly uncovered portion of the junction starts to make their way over, but a figure hurtles towards them--from the ceiling? That one elicits angry noises at first: "WARFRAM SPOTTED!" but it's already too late. She lifts her hand, and the figure's.. armor? Whatever it is unhinged as she releases a wave of that pinkish-purple energy from earlier. As some of them begin to shoot, their very movements, no, even the weapons themselves slow as the energy expands in a wave.

As she lands, she lifts her Soma Prime rifle, and with a few shots, starts a chain reaction of explosions that results in pained and terrified sounds as the dozen or so Grineer around her are simply erased from existence, shadows of their bodies falling into nothingness around her from the explosions. This one was not the only one, however; something /primal/ has arrived.

Specifically, Valkyr; she--as best as anyone can tell, it's a she--sends a body flying from the direction some of the grineer are coming from with the sharp report of a shotgun blast that's answered by several more; shotgun wielding Grineer beginning to advance on the Elites as well--but after the sharp shatter of her shields, she howled. It was a feminine voice. A voice that raged against an ancestral wound in primacy--even those who are not of flesh and blood could /feel it/.

Energy wreathed her, a convocation of lilac-pink energy sparks and trails that radiated from her form--her forearms bore four sets of three energy spines each, floating just above the limbs from in angled placements parallel to one another. Solid energy extended from each of, and through her fingertips as she hunched over from her cry, before she leapt at a Grineer Lancer, caring not of how many shots she was being peppered with before shoving her claws, rapid-fire into it's chest.

The battle is joined.

Kushiko has posed:
The Mag Prime on the other hand, after ensuring that Alexis and Kotone wish to exfiltrate, leads them both. She utilizes a Latron Prime, and the few soldiers that /are/ encountered are either shot down outright or lifted up, their bodies magnetized and /crushed/ inwardly. It's not much of a pretty sight, make no mistake. And the whole time, there is silence, once throwing her Glaive to rebound around a corner and clear a path--however temporary--to the docking bay for Kotone and Alexis to depart by.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Coming down towards the sniper, Setsuko shifts her course again to one side when the Grineer woman reacts with impressive calm. She's expecting to have to duck a sniper shot, but that need is obviated by a beast of some sort slamming into the sniper. The swordswoman halts her blade, knowing instinctively that this is not an enemy. Instead, she turns, and faces down the approaching flamethrower units. They present a hazard, but one she knows how she'll counter.

    Setsuko's biggest advantage here remains her speed. But it's not her only one. The use of her divine power to create ranged cutting waves may be out, but she can still put it towards less dangerous (and, admittedly less deadly) uses. As the first of the Grineer approaches, she curls her hand into a fist, blue light shimmering into view around it, only to suddenly throw a punch as soon as the first wave of flame is unleashed. It's a concussive blast, a brief but forceful burst of blue designed to push that flame back in its owner's face. Immediately, she's forward again, repeating her previous performance with a downward cut through the flamethrower troop's chest - and then grabbing him much as she did the first.

    But he's not a projectile this time; he's a shield. A human(oid) shield, to allow her to close in on the others armed with lethal flames. She's not defenseless against the Rollers, either; one manages a gash in passing along her back, but only one. After that, Zanjintou lashes out every time they come near, and unlike with the Grineer she's currently holding up as a defense against fire, these she simply aims to carve clean in half.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "KYUH!" Yang just sent that guy to orbit... but the combined blast from the Powerfist, and the leaping attack from that Roller send her stumbling backwards into the bulkhead. She's cut up pretty bad, the wounds sealing slower now, while a trickle of blood seeps from the corner of her mouth.

    She pushes back straight, eyes closed and head hung, as if she's about to collapse... but instead, she takes a single step forwards, and dents the metal floor under her foot, buckling support beams and making the entire SHIP shake. "You've just gone and PISSED ME OFF!" she yells, eyes flying open to reveal burning red coals where the lilac hues once were.

    The same motion causes her to explode, a wave of kinetic force and flames expanding around her as her hair begins to glow radiantly, flames licking from within the golden tresses. Those eyes focus onto that Powerfist that did the shockwave punch, and with a motion that causes the entire corridor to buckle outwards from the airpressure, she's from where she landed, right up in his face, roaring soundlessly as she uppercuts him with an explosive punch powerful enough to pulverize a spaceframe bulkhead.

    She rides the momentum up, flips upside down to 'land' on the ceiling, before arching and pushing off down the hallway into the midst of the oncoming Grineer.

    She ratchets her right arm back, and on hitting the middle of the formation, SLAMS her fist down into the floor, tearing up the metal and sending shrapnel flying around her in all directions.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna lets the Matrix Divider disappear once again, and with Elner's confirmation, she opens the cover, twists the handle, and with maybe a little more work, she extricates the cylinder -

"*Heavy!* Yuna groans as she's suddenly supporting its full weight. Fortunately, the Matrix Divider boosts her own strength enough that she won't put her back out from it ... but Jiina reaches Yuna at this point, and the two of them have minimal trouble carrying the cylinder between them. And it looks like somebody already got the other coolant cell into position?

Well, they DID hear that they'd have some allies on the ship - but it's good to see proof of that first-hand. "You sure you didn't pick up on who did this, Elner?" Yuna wonders as she and Jiina are maneuvering their cylinder into position and hooking it up as necessary.

"There's enough shielding in the bulkheads to interfere with my precision scanners," the robo-faerie remarks. "At any rate, let's not waste any unnecessary time."

Yuna nods, and starts looking among the control consoles while calling in to the Lotus for further instructions - and letting her allies know things are ready to freeze the reactor.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa was one to avoid a fight if she could, should she see it being pointless. Still she wasn't about to bail on her allies if she could she can hear the Grineer now. Oh this is going to get bad but the Tenneo is leading her out? Right She's got a way out she's not bailing, she knows they need more firepower and the ships are undermanned fight? She is carrying some sort of energy weapon at the least and is packing few gifts from Dr. Shen if it comes to it..
% DShe takes the hand of the Mag Prime and is going to get lifted up.

Kotone will use her laser rifle to give what support she can but she keeps moving and trying to not think too hard on the Mag's powers.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Okay, so insert the cylinder into the reactor - Yuna thought she'd done that ...

She checks again, though, and after a moment (and some closer attention by Elner), she and Jiina get the cylinder slotted into the right place where the fuel cell used to be. Jiina focuses on getting the connections properly arranged as Yuna goes back to the control panel, looking for the prompts and having Elner help parse them out ...

Yuna admittedly wants to get the process started, but she doesn't want to kick it into full 'freeze the reactor' before her allies are *aware* that the clock has started and they have a clear evacuation route, however they're leaving the ship by. And she's not entirely sure how many commands she can enter before that happens - it may only take one button for all she can make out.

X (967) has posed:
With his pleas answered only by LOTS OF BULLETS, X ends up pelted pretty heavily. All he can do is throw his limbs up to protect his vital systems. So his arms and legs take a beating, armor shredded and internals again sparking and spewing glops of some oily substance. But he lands in a backward skid... just in time to see Yang not only get her ass kicked, but come back with force he can hardly conceive coming from a human!

    X's eyes are REALLY darned wide now.

    But one thing's certain.

    He's not going to get ANYWHERE by holding back.

    "So we're doing this the hard way after all."

    In his vision, targeting reticles form and spiral inwards, locking onto different body parts of the Grineer soldiers as well as weapons.

    The yellowish shade fades and he's quickly back to looking a few shades of blue.

    Hardly because he intends to lighten up though.

    Grimly, X raises his buster. Motes of light gather the whole while. It takes only a second before -- BWOOOOOSH!!

    A bolt of roiling plasma, several times more impressive than those little shots from before, storms its way down the hallway for an offending rifle - and the arm holding it, really.

    No sooner is the shot let loose than X charges another and another. It's precise and brutal - he's going for weapon arms and failing that, knees and whatever can manage to disable enemies instead of just beat them back!

    Still not aiming for REAL vitals, but this would be very fatal against anything less than CYBORG CLONES in POWER ARMOR or whatever they're wearing!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Biteblade continues to devour her way through the groups. The rest of the Starbounders aren't needing to handle any stragglers breaking through, especially with Valkyr suddenly iving in. Valkyr, for Biteblade, represents probably the most favored of the Warframes that could be involved, given how Floran-like her combat style is. In such a frenzy -- even with Biteblade's astounding clarity of mind -- she finds herself gravitating towards the site of the cries, and her combat brings her over. She's peppered with bullet wounds rapidly healing over, draining her energy. Looks like she won't last too much longer at this rate of combat, with so many foes, being used to one-on-one hunting far more.

    The Starbounders are working on getting things set up for the extraction of all the warframes here. They know where to go, so setting up some proper time-saving things to cover the escape will be necessary here! Plus, you know, getting that to help out Biteblade who would otherwise possibly be left behind. Pavo rejoins Kotone shortly, her Matter Manipulator seeming stuffed with materials.

Kushiko has posed:
There's a particular kind of growling huff that comes from the quadrupedal thing before it rips the Ballista's arm off, making a happy little sound otherwise as it expires. Definitely doglike, but there's enough little iterations--like the feet, for instance--that it's not entirely a dog as she sprints for one of the Rollers; too late to stop one from coming into contact with Setsuko, slamming into one with it's forepaws to give Setsuko some additional relief.

After all, with the Scorch units (The flamethrower guys) and a new wave of Lancers approaching and peppering the area with firepower, one of which is flailing in agony as the flames are backwashed against it, setting him on fire--at least for a moment. Talk about being hoisted by your own petard, eh? The flames don't last long for him. Unfortunately, neither does he, though that heavy armor is good for deflecting the flames spewed by the other Scorches.

Yang certainly does a hell of a job as it comes to evoking the notions of a berserker, soaking in damage in order to amplify one's rage and the like. Comparable indeed to the ball of rage that Valkyr nearby has become. The corridor on the other hand, may not survive, to say nothing of the Powerfist and remaining Butchers--the sheer force of it all making more than a few of the remaining Lancers get knocked the hell back and some dying outright to the explosive forces at work, from shrapnel and beyond as parts of the ship in that immediate section buckle and peel like a canopener.

The Powerfist's remains are fused somewhere in there. Probably.

Suddenly, however, there are a dozen or so Grineer units that appear to have some sort of frigid, cool aura beneath their feet. The source can be traced to one heavier-armored unit than most; an Eximus. The importance of this is highlighted suddenly by a map-ping tagging it--courtesy of one of the Warframes it seems under the tag: 'ARCTIC LANCER EXIMUS': in this case, he's already deployed a shell of ice around him. Drawing too close /will/ slow one down, and any ice powers will not be nearly as effectively here.

The two Warframes do not deliberately draw attention to themselves, and that seems to be accomplished quite well; the Hysteria that Valkyr has wreathed herself in besides, the two are working to catch what units that the others do not with startling, measured efficiency. The pink-purple energy of antimatter is constantly cycled around Nova Prime; she elects to stay in places and move where the others can handle it; indeed at the Arctic Lancer Eximus, one of them suddenly appears after the end of an energy.. /tether/ of some kind appears, depositing her through a Wormhole as she fires off another Molecular Prime.

The wave of antimatter-infused energy cascades through bulkheads and beyond, slowing not just the movements their reactions. The energy wave doesn't even have time to fully expand before she leaps into the air, throwing open a doorway and disappearing to another part of the Junction to check the side paths. It does leave the Valkyr Warframe amidst Yang and X, however briefly as it were.

X's shots are things that remind the Grineer of one of their foes, the Corpus, though they can at least suss that the Reploid is not one of the many constructs and proxies the Corpus have made. The fact that they don't necessarily go down or die doesn't stop them from firing back, some of them staggered and unable to immediately respond. This.. is where the Valkyr 'frame steps up.

Kushiko has posed:
At the sight of one of them staggered, she reaches with a hand, pulling one back down and before it even has a chance to react, she's rolled atop it onto one knee and shoves an energy claw through it's head before rising back up again, sweeping a nearby Grineer off his feet by slicing apart one of it's legs, sending it tumbling end over end with a misery-laden cry as it croaks. With Nova's energy heading out, and Biteblade's own approach, she howls once more--a Warcry to be specific. The energy bathes Yang and Biteblade in equal measure, and suddenly they might find themselves striking a LOT more faster, to say nothing of the gaussy energy providing a second skin of armor.

It's a single, unvoiced gesture for Biteblade to caution as she indicates the Eximus and it's troops as she sprints, tail flowing behind her as waves of energy trail from her run towards the Eximus in question.

Mercifully, Yuna's work isn't being interrupted by what might typically interrupt a Tenno group working here. Though they have their own ways of erecting barriers, the Flotilla's bulwark and fortification have ensured Yuna has no genuine issue at all. A clickhiss is heard as the coolant cylinder is put into position as it is readied for the system restart and flood; the coolant and fuel coil look similar except for color--a yellowish red for the fuel, and the ice blue of the coolant itself.

Once she starts the system, four cylinders on cardinal points surrounding the Reactor will be flooded with ice white fluid, displaying the rather prominent changeover. There are still Grineer pouring in, but thanks in part to the Flotilla's members, to Kotone and the additional frame, once the sequence is begun it'll be relatively quick. The buffer zone being created is rather sizable. Mag Prime herself working closely and carefully; there's definitely a guardianship of a persona as contrast to the other two seen so far.

There's increasing pressure--they've definitely picked up on what's going on. A Bombard; a rocket launching wielding soldier is spotted amidst the Eximus-based group heading towards Setsuko and the other, an explosion impacting next to a bulkhead by Setsuko herself.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang isn't stationary, no. Even while the shrapnel is being thrown around from her strike, she's up and running in its wake, barreling into the middle of the Grineer like a glowing golden pinball, bouncing from one to another to another in a blurr of motion and flame.

    She doesn't give any thought to defense, to dodging return fire. Her one focus is destroying as many of them as she can. They can't shoot if they're dead, right? She's taking more and more damage, and eventually, her Aura fails with a flickering flash of orange-yellow.

    The next strike she takes, sends her wheeling and skidding back down the corridor, coughing out a gob of blood onto the ruined deck.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    If the environment were less fragile - or at the very least, if causing damage to it were less of a potential issue - Setsuko might deal with the Eximus herself. But she's limited to close-quarters for the moment. She can't safely get close. She'll have to trust someone else to hit the source of that icy aura, unless something drastic happens that forces her to handle it. Instead, she turns towards the rocket trooper. The first blast going off behind her, she reacts to smoothly, tumbling forward in a practiced roll that takes her out of the danger zone. When the second rocket comes in, she reacts on autopilot, Zanjintou snapping up and /through/ the projectile, carving it apart before it can detonate. But the third...

    Well, by now it's probably hot enough that just grabbing it will sear her hand. But the demigod is fully willing to bite back that pain, because it will allow her to reach out with impossible speed, precision and reaction times, and /grab/ the rocket mid-flight. She doesn't hold onto it very long. Just long enough to spin herself around and hurl it right back at its source.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone takes note of Pavos' return and she seems to be making ready in the evrnt she needs to fight, Kotone is clealry on edge though she's not looted a single thing today she's more concerned about gtting out o here with the dat and she looks to the warframes and does her best to help get it going. The Warframes seem to know what they are doing and seem very used to group work as she helps alng here.

"I'm trying to get into their comms but I ain't got nothing, not used to their systems set up I'm afraid."

The cyborg knows to the Mag, while she contiunes to work and keep watch as it's needed.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Time to pull the switch ... or in this case, push the button.

With Elner double-checking translation of the on-screen prompts, Yuna enters the command to inject the coolant; she lingers just long enough to confirm that the process has begun and that the timer has begun counting down.

And then she, Elner, and Jiina start heading for the extraction point. Once they're far enough away - out of the shielded-bulkheads area of engineering - Elner will teleport back to the Mike-maru-go and prepare for immediate takeoff; if Yuna and the others need to use the Lotus's evac point, Elner will just pick them up elsewhere as needed.

Kushiko has posed:
For what it's worth, Yang manages a hell of a job. However, armor coming in a bit too late only delays the inevitable. Nova Prime, one of the other frames of a slightly more fragile (relatively) disposition catches the visual, the ping on systems. She immediately hurtles, sprinting, leaping and twisting her body in such a way that energy catapults herself forward. At the apex of this, she opens a square, dimensional doorway--a line of eneregy appearing at it's exit point.

The bodies of so many Grineer strewn about her, Nova Prime lands next to Yang--too late to catch her properly, but not too late to stop her momentum with a flip, and opening up a wormhole back towards the extraction path. Smooth synthetic material grabs onto the arm as she holsters her weapon in order to make her way to the engine room, and from there, continue carrying and whisking her back to extraction.

X (967) has posed:
There is so darned much to take in here that X is pretty overwhelmed. Even for an advanced machine like him, this is WAY too much to process.

    So much carnage out of ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. All born of a mission he figured might be going out to rescue some people who need help.

    Yeah, he's ignoring the next Grineer SOS, That's certain.

    But having the Valkyr swoop in and finih off soldiers he was trying to spare is rankling and sickening to say the least. The robot rather audibly balks, making protesting noises for a brief moment...

    But he's drawned out by Yang's bloodied coughing.

    Yeah. Honestly... humans take higher priority than these freakish, merciless aliens.

    "That's fighting too recklessly!" He decides Yang neds cover and thus, leaps her way to provide some cover. Largely in the form of wildly laying down shots at anything that might be eying her while shufflin her around some crates. Or a corner. Or something.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang's world is a blurry haze. She's scratched up, bloodied and beaten. She can hear X's voice, and doesn't resist being pushed into cover... but then Nova comes along and whisks her away from the front, lilac eyes swimming as her consciousness teeters. She does start moving towards the evac site, moving slowly and leaning against the wall a lot. She's in pretty bad shape.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Biteblade will be able to go on a little more, it seems. The WARCRY means that while she may be physically slowing down, her chronology is speeding up! The energy SURGES through her, and she tears her way in towards the Eximus with the Valkyr! Sliding in behind her, she rushes in for a series of swift strikes with her accelerated POWER DAGGERS, tossing the pair at the Eximus, and then swiftly retrieving them from the body, hull, or shielding they get embedded into, to cover the Valkyr... And then swiftly disengages! She was there to give some cover to the Valkyr, not finish it off.

    Yeah, it's time to head out. The others are too! The Starbounders set up a final wave of turrets and and a series of inconvenient barricades, and make their break for it. Yuna's pushed the button. The six spacecraft of the STARBOUND FLOTILLA are automatically breaking away from the dangerous docking bay, swinging around, and heading towards the evac site. Those who have no way of evacuating on their own will likely be given the chance to BEAM UP onto the teleport-capable ships.

Kushiko has posed:
The button is pressed. It's time to go, and even before Yuna and Elner and the others start funneling out, one can see ice beginning to grow, to cake across the metal surfaces of it. Oh, when it goes.. it is going to /go/. Mercifully, actually extracting is remarkably easy. Any Grineer that are still alive are more intent on getting to the Reactor room to stop it. Not that they can, at the rate the group has worked.

The potential fragility of this ship works so much against it's favor. If people weren't still on it that couldn't survive a proper vacuum, there'd be less an issue (hell, even the Warframes have their ways, not that they're known yet) and people getting worn down is.. problematic to put it plainly. Biteblade and Yang in particular are two individuals the frames seem drawn towards protecting, with Nova working to ensure she arrives under the care of the Flotilla members, Kotone and Mag within moments. Without a second more, she nods once at Kotone and the others before heading back.

The wormholes she creates will last a while, but be only one way. Mag Prime on the other hand, moves over, and unfolds a golden-flaired disc; it begins to exude rejuvenating waves of energy. A temporary stopgap, but it'll help stabilize a little bit more. For Kotone's benefit, what she /does/ manage to get on their comms, however little, well. They're pissed. It seems it was a good idea to do what they did here, and with Kotone and the others ensuring the way out is secure, it helps for what happens once the reactor goes. But that takes time. Time that seems to stretch out, bothersomely enough.

Setsuko's herculean efforts are worthy of a tank to be certain--might be easily confused for Tenno herself if it weren't what she actually /looked like/. A cry of agony escapes one of the Grineer as the rocket is sent back, staggering the thing backwards as it--and a few more Grineer--start to fall under the rapidfire shots of another frame. Mesa; the gunslinger, drops in to support the remaining forces on the ground. Ventillation shafts are rather nice that way. X's covering fire is part of why this option is able to work, one might notice after the fact. They're more focused on their combined firepower and trying to document a little bit of it while trying to put X down as much as Setsuko that they don't even notice.

Twin longbarreled guns that seem more part of the frame's hands than actually separate pieces sling hot lead like there's no tomorrow. The blindfolded-looking frame slings shot after shot; so much that it pieces and eventually breaks down the Eximus' ice barrier. Perfect timing for Biteblade and Valkyr to sprint forward and not unlike a pair of buzzsaws, carve a path through nearly a dozen Grineer around the Eximus; sliding and spinning and then ending in an uppercut that tears four furrows through armor and flesh, toppling the Eximus with frightening fury.

Shortly after, the ice slowing them down simply flakes off their bodies. A slight nod from the figure before she turns and makes her way towards the evacuation point. Among the ships arriving is a curious one; a spade shape profile uncloaks nearby, attaching itself to the ship not too far from the docking bay itself. The Liset, it identifies itself as the void mask fades, leaving faint echoes of the optical-based stealth on those systems still present.

Nova Prime reappears, sprinting out through one of the side corridors and making a quick gesture for some of the others--X, Setsuko, Biteblade, Valkyr and Mesa among them--to book it. She opens a Wormhole in the other direction and with the paths established, it would be pretty instantaneous to get around and over to extraction.

Which.. is needed. Because as the Reactor goes, it's effect is profound. Containers, systems for environmental controls BLANKET the entire ship in ice. Spillage from liquid-bearing containers practically flash freeze half the ship within seconds, then more as time progresses. There's hazards, but they're relatively easy to avoid to get out.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    As soon as 'the time left to full overload' is less than 'the time it would take the Grineer to stop the overload', Setsuko is gone. "All personnel, fall back. We're in retreat!" And much as before, she's not leaving her comrades-in-arms behind. She will stay on the absolute back end of the retreating group, acting as a tank to ensure that the Grineer are unable to hit them in the back while they're retreating through the wormhole. Only once everyone else has retreated does she herself dive in.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The sight of the engine room *already* starting to freeze over is enough to make sure Yuna hurries. She's sorely tempted to switch into Powered Form and use its hoverthrusters to speed along her way - but she doesn't want to plow into a bulkhead, or an ally, or the like; ergo, she stays in the basic Light Suit, trusting Jiina to watch her back and to support her if there's anything to fight their way through.

The Mike-maru-go, seemingly devoid of humanoid life signs, takes off from the Grineer ship's docking bay, maneuvering to form up with the Liset. Yuna can transfer over to her ship from the Tenno(?) vessel later - getting out definitely takes priority.

X (967) has posed:
By this point, with Yang rescued - however haphaardly- X is at his limit. It's time to get OUT of here and just... try and forget this ever happerned. unless he can come up with some kind of useful conclusions. He's not so damaged that self-repair won't have it taken care of by the next day or two...

    Coming pretty close to it there though! He can only duck behind cover so much while still laying down suppression fire of his own!

    When a path's finally carved - as much as he wants to protest it - he bolts for one of the ships in the hangar, but keeps a sharp eye on the others to make sure EVERYONE is getting out of here.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa will go over what she does get on the Grineer's network later but the basics are clear they are very angry. Oh so very angry angry and so heavily armed. She's leeping up with the group as they go, she also does notice the worm holes are something new but she leaps throug, trying to keep her bearing as they keep moving, she'll make sure to thank the Tenno when they get out of here. Yes she's thinking wen she's confident they can get out of this mess with these mysterious space ninja.

"Pavo lets keep moving so you can get out with the loot you have and the rest of us!"

Kushiko has posed:
It's pretty well beyond time to get going, yes. The Liset on the other hand is not very much a traditional landing craft; it will serve the purposes of getting someone transferred over at least, as the way it takes the frames aboard is.. odd. A humanoid-shaped recess that is like a cylinder, revolving around, depositing the frame on the inside.

Thankfully there is a nice little secondary crew alotment, though it's clear that the Tenno do not pilot these. With Setsuko the last one through along with X, everyone is safe and secure and aboard their respective ships. Job well done.

LOOT ACQUIRED: Credits, Ferrite (x2200), Alloy Plates (1000), Detonite Ampules (12) and Control Module (1)

The Grineer ship simply drifts, at this point; all things of use, and the Grineer interest in it, having evaporated in the climax of the conflict. It'll be abandoned after this. Well done.