The cold Toyko air hit her as she emerged into the back allys behind the club. Dragons were soon to follow, she had to lose them.
She hopped up onto some boxes and jumped over the small fence blocking her path, the Dragons were close behind, climbing over the boxes to follow her.
The Dragons took off after her, as she dissapeared round a corner. The sounds of the nightclub were fading, and the streets could be heard.
Amy emerged from the ally and into the bustling streets of the City. She squeezed through the crowds and took off down the steps to the metro station.
The Dragons holstered thier guns and scanned the crowds, looking for the woman in the purple dress. Nowhere to be seen. One of them swore and kicked a phonebooth.
"Captain Michiba ma'am!" the young recruit saluted and straightened up,
"Move along recruit" Amy waved, passing a group of fresh recruits in the corridors.
She slipped into the elevator and pressed one of the buttons, sizing up the small scientist beside her. He bowed slightly, smiling uncomfortably. Her uniform made him nervous.
As the elevator stopped, they both stepped out. The scientist scuttled off down one of the corridors, leading to the Research and Development sections of the station.
She strolled the corridors, nodding to another group of soldiers as they passed. Amy stopped at a door, entering a code into the keypad. The door slid open, inviting her into the vast armoury of light arms.
She strolled through, eyeing up each weapon, stopping at a rack of pistols. Amy lifted off a small pistol, tucking it under her dress shirt.
She grabbed a couple of small grenades, pocketing them.
She backtracked, following the corridors of the station to the Research and Development wing.
Amy slipped through a large bronze door, the corridors here were different from the military aspects of the rest of the station. They were white, with bright lights lining the ceiling.
There were windows into room on either side, each stacked full of floor-to-ceiling server units, recording all of the Kusari Naval Forces secrets and data.
Each room had keypads, requiring a complicated code for each one.
She passed a couple of men in lab coats, none of them questioning her prescence her in this section of the station.
Amy quietly slipped into a utility closet, returning to the corridor once again in a lab coat, it covered her military uniform and although she lacked a name tag, she doubted anyone would notice.
She turned a corner, the corridor widening out and splitting into two corridors, one curving to the left, the other to the right. A wall seperated her choices, the signs above each questioning her.
A few Kusari Naval soldiers patrolling the wing coming from the corridor on the right, Amy avoided them by going left.
The tiles on the walls quickly turned into more windows as the corridor straightened out, this time instead of Server rooms there were labs. Biological mostly, a few medical science and one involving canisters of gas.
There was a man struggling to carry a whole load of folders, aswell as attempting to enter the code to his lab. He carefully balance them, missing the keys he meant to press and having to try again.
"Need a hand there?" Amy smiled, outstretching her arms,
The man turned on the spot, grunting with the folders in his arms,
"Sorry? Oh, yes, thank you" he handed them over, entering the code correctly and stepping inside, "Just place those on the table please"
Amy obeyed, setting them down and scanning the room. She read his name tag in her head,
'Doctor Mark Kenshin - Xenobiology'
That made sense, the room was filled with jars of Alien Organisms, distilling tubes and chambers. Glass vials of odd coloured liquids and a shelf of dead Nomad Artifacts.
He booted up his desk computer and sat down,
"Can I help you?" he asked, turning to face her,
"Yes, I'm Taya Yukawa from down in chemisty" she lied, searching his thoughts as he pondered, "I'm here for the... Samples you wanted analysing" she lied again.
He signalled Taya to follow, as he stepped across the room with a folder in his hand which he filed as he walked passed a rack. He swiped his access card across the doors unlock system which opened the electric sliding iron doors giving passage to the containment room. It was filled with all sorts of testtubes and glass jars, each filled with different liquidised substances, some glowing or flickering very mysteriously yet some seemed familiar like a sample of what seemed to be 'Liquid Cardimine'.
Mark made his way towards the end of the room, and reached into two large gloves which inserted themselves into a large glass pillar which contained a light blue pulsing figure which emitted a small purple glow at times, it was settled within a mist of liquid nitrogen. Mark grabbed the object with extreme caution and placed it in a capsule as he exerted it from the pillar.
"Here it is!" Mark smiled as they both watched the object with curiosity.
Mark Handed it over to Taya.
"Handle it with care, its very fragile! Plus, who knows what will happen if that stuff gets out of there?!"
Amy pocketed the small object, as Kenshin turned away.
"So I'll write you up a sheet of the tests I require, and we'll see what the first batch of results yield" he fumbled around for his key card,
Amy checked the room for cameras, none. She pounced, grabbing the small man by the collar and slamming him into the wall.
With her free hand she drew the handgun from under her dress shirt. Amy fired several shots into the glass of one of the containment units, cracking but not breaking the glass.
The shots wouldn't leave the room, as the whole thing was sound-proofed, designed to keep things in.
Kenshin flinched, his eyes filled with terror.
"Wha-?" before he could finish Amy threw him into the glass containment unit, breaking through the weakened glass and spilling several volatile samples all over him.
He screamed as the chemicals merged, burning and blistering his skin. Amy pulled a hand grenade and set a timer on it. She rolled it across the floor to the mess that was Kenshin.
"Thanks Mark" she smiled, picking up his keycard and leaving the room. Amy wedged the door open with a small box of files and stepped out into the corridor.
A few alarms went off as Amy hurried out of the room screaming, a few soldiers made their way down the halls quickly and entered the room which was now partially in flames, one turned to Amy.
"Mam', get to safety, off deck four immediately!"
Amy rushed away without hesitation smiling to herself as the men entered the R&D section and encountered the fires within the containment section which were now spreading. A few explosions were heard as the agonizing screams of a few men could be heard amongst the ongoing siren in the station.
A station announcement could be heard; -:-[May All Units Within Deck Four Please Evacuate The Area Immediately]-:- The message repeated itself several times. More men made their way down the corridors past the sealing doors prepared in firefighting and enhanced biosuits passed Amy as she left the corridor.
A few moments later another announcement was heard over the Announcement System. -:-[Deck Four is currently sealed off, the problem is being dealt with, may all personel within the sector please standby until further notice]-:-
Some engineers passed Amy, with emergency kits and fire extinguishers.
"Hurry, Dr Kenshin is in there!" she cried, faking hysteria.
They swiped their keycards as they passed, following the thin streams of smoke leaving the biology section of the level.
Amy removed her labcoat and threw it aside, leaving through the bronze doors back to the Military section of the station.
There were now people rushing around, working on countermeasures to contain the accident. Amy moved about them in her military attire once again. Slipping into the elevator, she selected the hangers.
She arrived on the observation deck, overseeing the incoming and outgoing ships. Currently in the hanger below she could see several men outfitting Chimaeras, a military freighter to the left, having it's hull plating replaced.
In the center was the KNS-Soburin, a Kusari Gunboat going over it's final checks.
A man approached her,
"Captain Michiba" he saluted, "I'm Katsumoto Takeda, overseeing the work done to the KNS-Soburin, you wanted to see her?"
Amy nodded to the request as Katsumoto placed a hand on her shoulder and escorted her up the sliding gangway onto the KNS-Soburin. "Here she is, The Gunship Herself, a beauty isnt she?"
Amy humphed in agreeance as she smiled facing Katsumoto. He walked up a set of stairs passed a small sealed door which seemed to be the cargo hold and entered a larger spacious area with what seemed to be a neural-net navigation system at the center and armament placements on both sides as well as a ladder leading towards the cockpit.
There were two full arc gunboat turrets on either side of her, a backwards firing turret just above the stairs in which she entered this room and at the front a large forward gun with an approximate firing range of 1500m. It was quite the ship and Amy looked about faking some of the excitement which she should have felt, Katsumoto smiled in satisfaction.
"Come My Lady, let's introduce you to Leiutenant Mishiba, also captain of the vessel, up the ladder after You Ma'am" Katsumoto said, being a gentlemen.
Amy did not speak she smiled and made her way up the ladder opening a hatch leading to a cockpit room with four seats, the piloting seat of Kenji Mishiba, and two others seeming to control the ships weaponry and systems. Lt.Mishiba arose from behind the chair where he was knelt tightening the controls and smiled.
"Ah, Katsumoto, I see you bring a visitor" Mishiba stuck out his hand hoping for a shake, he seemed a respectful and nice man, but there was something about him today that just didn't feel right to Katsumoto. He ignored this though and Amy and himself shook the captains hand.
"Well, best be showing you the observations deck to the hangar" The two of them descended from the cockpit towards the gangway and out onto the hangar.
"Mhmm... get her prepped and push through the nessesary papers, I want to take her out within the hour, I'll be supervising Lieutenant Mishiba in his operations" she pulled a small sheet of paper, "The Lieutenant is under watch, I'll be keeping my eye on him and see how he performs"
Katsumoto nodded, rushing off.
Amy entered the Gunboat again, she picked up the intercomm to the cockpit,
"Get her ready for departure Lieutenant" she commanded, closing the ship off behind her.
She hopped up to the cockpit and took control of the ship from him.
*** The crew, enlighten them ***
She told him without words, he obeyed, moving down the ladder to infect the gunnery crew. Opening the comms system, she patched in to the flight control deck,
"This is Captain Michiba, I'll be taking the KNS-Soburin out for routine flight checks, please prepare us for departure"
A fuzzy voice responded,
"Yes Ma'am, releasing docking clamps now"
The KNS-Soburin hovvered in place in the giant airlock, as the door opened the ship's engines buzzed into impluse and glided out from the station.
As she checked the systems, Amy engaged cruise and plotted a course to New Tokyo