The Finding of #1515 (collab with Kezika)
04 Dec 2021KazukoHimura
Having needed to clear scavengers out of a base in Buzhang Ku, Kazuko found herself walking forward, checking the abandoned settlement to see if any remained. The lithe woman had already cleared out about 20 or so, picking up any goods she found along the way. After all, anything missing can be blamed on prior scavengers, right? With the main area of the settlement gone, Kazuko made her way to the landing pad, easily walking across it as her ship had prior been dismissed to avoid any damage from gunfire.Once at the power building, Kazuko made her way around, gathering items left behind in containers, and even opening up the locks on a broken SRV to pilfer the components inside. With everything outside nabbed, the lithe woman made her way to the door, cutting the maintenance panel beside it off with her arc cutter. The panel fell with a clatter, and Kazuko pulled out her energy link, overcharging the port inside. With a synthesized hissing whirr, the power building’s doors opened, allowing her to slip inside unnoticed.
The power building’s interior didn’t stand out from any other base Kazuko had been to, nor did the contents of the lockers inside. But still, the woman continued, checking every nook and cranny. Once satisfied, she stepped outside, only for her eyes to widen in shock. A small group of people, easily identified as Raiders of StKM 1-442, were grouped nearby, one of them eyeing her in a way that left Kazuko unnerved. The main group consisted of seven individuals walking down the slope from the landing pad. Another two were also up by the anti-personnel turret, seeming to be tinkering with it for reasons unknown. One person stepped forward from the group of seven and began speaking, transmitting into Kazuko’s helmet.
“Ah, the one that now goes by the name Kazuko Himura if I’m not mistaken,” he asked.
“What are you bastards here for, more Buzhang Flatworms? Going to make other people’s lives miserable!?” Kazuko exclaimed, going from annoyed to agitated to furious in the short span of the conversation.
“Oh, no we have plenty of stock, we’re just here to obtain others goods; But of course I know your name, I should introduce myself as well, I am known as Nanurjuk Umialittak and I am but a humble merchant, and some goods were stolen from me and ended up here,” he explained.
“Let me guess,” Kazuko quipped. “More parasites. Or more slaves.” The lithe woman said no more, she didn’t want to admit about the two higher ups she blew up, one of which led her to the possession of some important data-and some rather appalling files.
Nanurjuk paused for a brief moment, “Well, now that you mention it, I suppose it counts as both,” he said as he started walking forward, “See, we recovered the black box from one of our ships that was recently destroyed, and we found some interesting transmissions,” Nanurjuk stated.
“Fuck!” Kazuko exclaimed, immediately pulling out her plasma shotgun, aiming directly at Nanurjuk’s helmet. “Leave this place, and leave me be, and I’ll spare your life.”
One of the entourage members quickly responded by throwing down a shield projector grenade covering the group as Nanurjuk grinned slightly, “Now now, I’d hate to have to damage valuable chattel, so come along peacefully 1515,” at that moment a few rounds from the turret fired at the ground at Kazuko’s feet.
Once called by her old number, Kazuko felt as if every ounce of fight in her had vanished into thin air, causing her to stumble backwards in shock, coincidentally moving out of the way of the turret shots. The lithe woman then took a deep breath, dropping a shield projector grenade of her own, quickly switching to her carbine, waiting out the duration of their shield projector grenade. The members of the group then began to move out, surrounding Kazuko in her bubble with weapons drawn. A few of them also dropped shield grenades of their own as well, and the turret was clearly adjusted slightly to now be trained on her.
“How many of those do you have dear,” asked Nanurjuk snidely. Kazuko choked back an exclamation of shock in response, attempting to fire at one of the members that was outside of the shield bubble, slowly backing away. The leader turned to a guy standing to his left,
“Ready the net launcher, her bubble will drop any second now.” Upon hearing that, Kazuko immediately high-tailed it into the power building, huddling in a dark corner away from the doors. Raising her left wrist to her helmet, Kazuko began to speak quietly, more out of instinct than out of any secrecy.
Pictured below: Kazuko huddling in a dark corner, prior to contacting Jenelle.
“Jenelle, I’m in a bad situation here. I’m hiding in the power building from Raiders who want to capture me! I need assistance, as soon as possible! They should be a group of seven in front of the front entrance,” The frightened woman relayed the necessary info to her hired fighter pilot, who had taken the opportunity to man Kazuko’s Cobra Mk III, Umbala, in case of emergency. Meanwhile, the flanking circle began closing in towards the door of the power center while another pair of the entourage moved around to the side of the building with the other door.
“I’ve got your orders, Commander,” Jenelle responded over the comms as the events outside were unfolding. “I’ll have them cleared out faster than you clear out pizza!” Kazuko’s comms then fizzled out, only for the sound of an overhead ship to be heard.
“Shield Projectors! We’ve got a ship,” Nanurjuk commanded. The flanking team responded by dropping enough shield projectors to cover each of them as they began to fire on the ship. The ship fired back with a projectile that exploded just above each of the shield bubbles causing a rain of small knives, some of which managed to penetrate through the shield bubbles and embed into some of the suits.
“Flechettes! Retreat to the bar,” Nanurjuk frantically shouted into the comms as they all began running towards the bar on the opposite side of the landing pad, dropping more shields as they ran for cover.
“I’ve got them scurrying into the bar!” Jenelle exclaimed through Kazuko’s comms. “Going to hover nearby to keep them inside so you can make your escape!” With a sigh of relief, Kazuko slowly stepped out from the dark corner, trying to peer out the front airlock door’s windows to see if the coast was clear. When everything looked fine, she stepped outside. The anti-personnel turret from earlier however, was still trained on the door and active as it began firing at Kazuko mere moments after stepping outside, hitting her a few times. A sniper was also lying prone in a small gap underneath the turret platform. Additionally, the turret arc would be just enough to cover both doors. Kazuko got struck by the first shot easily, her shields absorbing most of the blow, but the remaining force was enough to push her back, allowing her to duck to avoid a similar effect with the second blow, which took the lithe woman’s shield’s offline. She was able to dodge all but one of the remaining shots as she scrambled back inside, the final one grazing the left side of her torso. Kazuko didn’t notice this until some of the adrenaline wore off once she was inside, the lithe woman gasping in pain and clutching her side. She then staggered back to the corner she was in prior, curling up against the wall. With her comms raised, Kazuko contacted Jenelle once more.
“When I tried to escape, I got shot at by the turret. The arc is wide enough to cover both doors. Jenelle, I’m trapped in here, and I’ve been shot,” The trembling woman’s voice began to waver as she continued speaking. “We have to call for backup. You know very well I can’t stay in this building forever.” Kazuko winced as pain seared from her injured side. “Contact Kezika.”
“Stay calm, Kazuko,” Jenelle insisted over the comms. “I’ll contact Kezika right away. If you start feeling like you’re going to lose consciousness, contact me immediately, just like in the plan we came up with for these kinds of situations.” Kazuko’s comms went silent for a brief moment, before sparking to life once more.
“I’m contacting Kezika now,” Jenelle’s voice could be heard, before silence fell once more.
* * * * *
“Copy that Jenelle, I estimate about a 10 to 15 minute ETA,” Kezika sent back through comms from where she was on Keltim. She stood up and stepped out of the room followed by her equerry Xavier while talking through her Insight link, “Security, I’ll need two specialists to join my ship immediately for rescue duty.” Working with haste through two longer hallways she made her way into the hangar of the orbital shuttle and boarded along with Xavier. Inside already awaited the two requested security specialists getting suited up in their Manticore Dominator suits.
“Belt in, launching immediately, finish suiting in orbit,” Kezika stated as she strapped herself into one of the shuttle chairs as well. Once everyone was secure she radioed to the shuttle pilot that they were clear to launch. The launch took approximately five minutes to reach the Kirkbride in orbit and quickly transfer into Kezika’s awaiting Type-10 Defender, named Derecho. Xavier took the pilot seat while Kezika and the other security specialists continued suiting up.
* * * * *
Kazuko’s own suit was able to keep her from bleeding out, covering her until help arrived, but it didn’t do anything for the outright fear consuming the lithe woman. She remained in her dark corner, trying desperately to keep herself calm, but to no avail.
“I shouldn’t have said anything back then…should’ve kept my big mouth shut,” Kazuko thought aloud. “If I didn’t run my mouth to Marcus Cleary, I wouldn’t be in this situation…”
* * * * *
After a few minutes more of waiting, Xavier dropped Derecho out of planetary glide mode near the base, but a few klicks out to avoid visual spotting. Xavier got low to the ground and then landed the ship about 3 kilometers out momentarily as Kezika and the two security specialists got out in Scarabs and drove to the far sides of the line of habitat buildings. Kezika and the security officer that also went to the same side stepped out of their SRVs and slowly made their way over to the side of the bar close to them, while the other security officer did the same from the other side of the habitat buildings. They each positioned themselves just around the corner from each of the bar’s two airlocks.
“Jenelle, you are clear to pop the turret and block the sniper,” Kezika radioed up to Kazuko’s ship.
Pictured below: Jenelle holding position
“You got it, Kezika!” Jenelle exclaimed, firing one of the two beam lasers at the turret, holding fire until said turret exploded. She then carefully angled Kazuko’s ship towards the front of the power building, moving into position in such a way that the sniper present had no clear line of sight to Kazuko’s escape route. All the while Kazuko herself remained still despite the commotion outside, only reacting once her comms sparked to life.
“Kazuko, I’ve secured you a clear exit. Quickly, make your escape!” Jenelle’s voice sounded, sending Kazuko running out the front airlock, and scrambling behind the building. The lithe woman, despite her injury, pulled out her trusty Manticore Intimidator so she, too, could take down Raiders.
“I’m behind the power building,” Kazuko stated, over her comms to Jenelle and Kezika, fear still present in her voice despite putting on the airs of a fellow mercenary. “Do either of you need anything from me? I’m armed and ready.” Nanurjuk shouted a command as he saw the Cobra begin moving to land behind the power center, “She’s making a break for it and the ship has moved, get over there!”
Entourage soldiers began moving out of the building with their leader following behind. However as the first two stepped out from airlock A they were immediately felled by a pair of plasma shotgun blasts each. Likewise another soldier stepped out of airlock B and suffered the same fate. Kezika swapped over to her Manticore Oppressor along with her guard and moved over to the door, firing the gun at the squad in the hallway, likewise the guard on the other door did that same. Nanurjuk then pulled out his own TK Eclipse and fired back along with two of his guards that remained “Ah I see she called her master did she? Are you who I have to thank for stealing her?” Kezika quickly dropped his shields in response, however, hers also had dropped a moment before, so she stepped back into cover and tossed a fragmentation grenade down the hallway as she did,
“No, I came along later when I bought a hospital.”
Once Kazuko had gotten aboard her ship, the lithe woman made her way to the cockpit, standing next to the pilot’s seat.
“I got this, Jenelle. These bastards will pay for all of this. Especially Nanurjackass here.” she stated, her bold tone slightly weakened by a faint hint of residual fear.
“Are you certain, Kazuko? Even with your injury? I may be your medic, but this is one sticky situation,” Jenelle added.
“I’m certain. My suit’s kept me going this long, hasn’t it? Jenelle, prepare for possible fighter maneuvers,” Kazuko ordered as Jenelle moved to the passenger’s seat, allowing the lithe woman to take the helm once more. “We’ve got some raiders to destroy.” Kazuko remained in position for the time being, opening her ship’s comms. “Kezika, I’m out, and both of us are ready to take these fuckers down. What’s our plan?”
“We’ve got them pinned in the bar, but I expect them to have incoming backup,” Kezika replied. Kezika and her guards then sneakily moved over to hide in the covered roof portion of a pair of adjacent habitat buildings after a few grenading attempts by Nanurjuk’s guards. So far however, none of them risked stepping out still believing the doors guarded by shotguns. An Anaconda ship dropped above the base after about two more minutes and launched a fighter. The fighter then flew down and shone light around the front of the bar, clearly searching for Kezika and her guards.
“Sir, there are no contacts out here anywhere,” the fighter radioed to Nanurjuk.
“Hold for Xavier, then engage the fighter,” Kezika communicated to Kazuko as a very large black ship peaked above the nearby hills and began unleashing an absolute storm of bullets and railgun fire on the Anaconda from over 5 kilometers away. Once the enormous black ship appeared and engaged the Anaconda, Kazuko moved the throttle, the pancake-like ship zipping straight towards the fighter. The enraged pilot pressed a button on her flight stick, firing double beam lasers at her target. The Anaconda began moving towards the Type-10 to get in engagement range. Meanwhile Nanurjuk and his team each prepared shield generator grenades to make their own break for it. They moved in a cluster out the bar’s airlock, throwing themselves out a row of shields most of the way to their ship waiting on the base’s main landing pad.
Kezika, seeing this, began making way towards the landing pad with the two guards to attempt to block them off. They reached throwing range as the raiders neared their last shield cover before they’d have to clear a gap until getting under their ship’s own shield. Kezika threw out both a shield disruptor and a fragmentation grenade into the area of the gap. Nanurjuk responded with a shield disruptor of his own towards Kezika and fired shots her way, causing her to move. He then began a dash across the shield gap with his team as Kezika and the guards opened fire into the space. Many shots hit various raiders, taking down some shields and injuring at least two of the entourage members. The raiders however made it under the protection of their Krait Mk II’s shield and boarded with haste.
“Xavier, focus fire on the Krait,” exclaimed into the comms channel, and then began running towards the power building. Within seconds the landing pad and the Krait in the process of taking off were being peppered with over 25 multi-cannons rounds and 7 rail gun shots per second. The green hued prismatic shields on Nanurjuk’s Krait Mk II disintegrated each of them while the power distributor screamed to keep up. The Krait lifted from the pad and retracted it’s landing gear, and a massive burst from the thrusters had it moving away at over 400 m/s as it arced up and aimed itself perpendicular to the planetary surface. With a bright green burst the Krait’s shield generator ran out of energy to maintain the shields as the relentless rounds from Derecho began making swiss cheese in the hull around the ship’s frame shift drive.
Upon noticing the shift in fire from the behemoth of a ship towards a smaller Krait, Kazuko, too, redirected her fire, sticking to using the beam lasers for the time being. Once the shields went down, Kazuko pressed a few buttons, before speaking an order.
“Jenelle, passing control of the lasers to you. I’ve got some missiles to drop,” The pilot then switched over to missile control, too focused on blowing up her now-nemesis to catch Jenelle’s response. Nanurjuk’s ship, however managed to jump into the supercruise reference frame before the fire from the two ships were able to damage the frame shift drive enough. Meanwhile Kezika’s team surrounded the sniper that was still hiding under the anti-personnel turret. Kezika pulled out her profile scanner and pulled the info for the sniper with a loud “bounty detected,” notification.
“Well this here is dead or alive, but I suppose you have a preference, Qimmiq,” she inquired of the sniper. With that the sniper pushed his rifle off the edge of his hiding spot and put his hands up. Kezika then reached in and yanked him out of the thin gap while the guards trained their weapons on him.
“Xavier, clear for exfil when you’re finished, with a plus one,” Kezika radioed to her pilot while she watched him finishing up with the Anaconda.
Kazuko was furious when Nanurjuk’s ship escaped, but quickly turned her focus to the Anaconda, firing a couple missiles upon it. The pair of missiles hit the Anaconda squarely in the rear thrusters, causing them to malfunction, as the Anaconda then began drifting out of the banked turned it was performing and drifted hard into one of the hills at over 100 m/s, snapping the already heavily damaged hull in half just before the explosive depressurization ripped apart the rest of the ship. Kazuko pumped her fists in the air and stood up upon the Anaconda exploding, before wincing and clutching her side again.
“Ow…forgot about that,” Kazuko remarked, turning back to Jenelle. “I think we’re at a good point for me to get patched up, don’t you think?”
“Not just treating your injury, but getting some food as well. It’s been almost three hours since you last ate, and Kazuko, you know I don’t want you missing meals,” Jenelle launched into a slight lecture as the Cobra was set in a flight pattern to simulate gravity, the two pilots heading to the small med bay.
Kezika’s team moved back up to the landing pad as the giant Type-10 landed down on the pad and lowered the ladder to the rear access hatch. She had the prisoner ascend first with the guards continuing to train their weapons on him. She followed next, then her two guards who all proceeded into the ship together as it took off to head back to Keltim.
Kazuko soon found herself in the passenger’s seat of her own ship, quietly eating a couple ration bars that were intended to tide her over for the time being. Jenelle requested to fly the ship back so the injured pilot could rest after she was bandaged up and had some food in her, which Kazuko agreed to. She only agreed due to the fact she was exhausted after everything that had transpired, letting Jenelle take control of the Cobra once more so it, too, could return to Keltim.