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//WARNING: This could get gory and disturbing, those of a sensitive nature should probably not read it.

Day 2

Ayame, sat behind the barricades, her heart thumping in her chest. She could hear the sounds of screams coming down the corridors, the Phantoms had taken four of the habitation sectors, and they’d been turned over to the depredations of senior members of the Phantoms. Ayame had seen one with blood all across his jaws, his metallic legs and arms covered in slick red ooze. She’d taken potshots at him but he’d simply turned to leap at her, she’d run. As fast as she could, managing to make it through a bulkhead and lock it behind her, the Phantom simply leering at her through the viewpane.

Now she was with a squad of her comrades, they’d managed to shoot a number of Phantoms, but more kept coming. They’d fallen back further and further, trying to drag the wounded and the dying with them, on more than one occasion she’d had to shoot one of her own colleagues to save him from a fate far worse than death. She’d tried to blot out the screams, and the smell, but it wasn’t easy. If she survived this she’d never fear anything else, ever. The Phantoms were fear personified and right now she was scared. Her Kusari heritage showed well though, she didn’t allow her fear to show, her honour remained intact although for how long she couldn’t be sure.

Syn, leered through the viewpane at the girl on the other side, he could almost taste her fear, but the bulkhead was too secure for him to get through. He turned away to see a young woman in her twenties, running down the corridor away from him, licking his lips he begin to give chase. She ran into an elevator the fear apparent from every action, fiercely jabbing at the button to make the doors close. Syn leapt and landed as the doors were beginning to close. pushing them apart he made his way into the lift.

Ten floors up the doors opened and Syn stepped out to a hail of gunfire, he jumped back into the gore splattered lift and and slammed his hand on the close button. Knowing it would buy him only a few seconds he exited via the emergency hatch into the elevator shaft above. He found an air vent and ripping the covering plate off crawled into the duct beyond. Slowly and carefully making his way along he found where the shooters were, he made a few quick calculations. Putting all of his weight onto the grating he fell like a stone onto the surprised guardians and began laying about with claws and barbed tail, this was no time for play, these people simply needed to die. Once the deed was done he communicated his position to the Marines and made his way back to where the Revenant waited.

While the Revenant, Dark Star himself, was busy dictating strategy to both the Reapers and the marines, there were others with things to do. Not to say that wasn't important work, of course. It could be difficult to smash aside barricades, when part of said barricade was a Skyblast cannon brutally hooked into the station's power grid. Somebody on the station had been smart, Dark Star had to give them that much.

"You'd think they'd be nice enough to use standard plugs." The Reaper known as Overload muttered bitterly to himself, currently ripping open the guts of one of the various computer terminals aboard Aomori. As the resident hacker, it was his job to gain access to the GMG's network, see what he could pull out of them that way.

"Honestly, I can't blame them for wanting to make things difficult." A cold synthetic voice replied, sounding almost bored. "They're not Kusari, and their only other neighbors are Rheinland, who they -really- don't like... And they almost certainly don't like us."

"Almost?" Overload paused, glancing down towards his tool-kit where a small hologram of a crystal imp hovered.

"Some of them seem quite willing to submit to the Master, heh heh..." The laugh would have been disturbing on anyone else. On the hologram, it was even more so. The human, however, seemed un-phased.

"Yeah, well... Gotta recover some losses, I guess..." He continued to fiddle, before finally pulling a wire from his tool kit and lifting his head. The array of plugs on the back of his skull had earned him the nick-name 'Button Head' amongst the marines, although they did have the decency to avoid using the phrase around him. Inserting the plug into one hole, he pulled another and did something similar, then took the other end of the second wire and plugged that into the computer console.

"All righty then... Looks like we're patched in." The human closed his eyes, the sights and sounds of cyberspace filling his consciousness rather then that of the real world.

"Oh goody... You know, I love it when you let me in... It's so very... Intimate." Overload grumbled at the words, feeling the rampant AI's data-stream flood into his mind as well.

"Just remember we've got a mission, right? Gotta hack into this..."

From down the hall, one of the Marines posted on patrol and guard duty heard a very strange thing.

"UNGH! F*ck! Mission, d*mnit! Mission!"

Trans Intercepted. Rec 01-05-09 22:31:40 Origin: Aomori Station, Engineering Level.

Decoding transmission:

Tracing Source...
Source: Kasugai Osaku, GMG Engineering
Tracing Destination...
Failed. Unknown transmission header.

Dumping:
Log>

The Eidolon was unamused. His marine contingent had been cut off by a simple slamming of a bulkhead. No matter, the fools on the other side could do no more than simply slow down the Phantom scavenging party. He quietly watched the sparks fly from the nearby bulkhead; the marines were easily cutting through it. Virus entertained himself by reading through the transmissions caught by the web of signal interceptors created by the Hellbound nearby. No message would make it out.

Virus yawned, the messages displayed through his helmet were nothing he hadn't seen already. Run-of-the-mill we'll fight to the death nonsense. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Sir, we've broken through bulkheads four and seven on this deck. Our next cut is expected to be met with heavy resistance.

What sort of resistance? The Eidolon asked coldly.

We read at least five on the other side of bulkhead six.

Virus walked to where the marines had just finished cutting and were setting up a simple explosive to blow the wall down. A small explosion casually tossed the weakened wall into the next room. After waiting a few moments for the smoke to clear, Virus took the first step into the room beyond. Four people were still standing on the other side, guns drawn. There was no hesitation.

As the marines entered behind him, Virus cut the nearest man down with one of the retractable blades attached to his power suit. He pinned a second man to the wall with a clawed gauntlet, the bloodsoaked blade through the man's arm. The marines let loose the fury of fire from their flamethrowers. Virus let his focus slip as he watched the marines' work, enough to allow the man he was holding to lift his gun and put it to Virus' neck. The Eidolon dropped the man as he fell to his knee.

I was going to just kill you, but I think I have a better idea. Virus' voice came through his suit distorted. Virus grabbed the man's hand and removed his forearm. Not surprisingly, the man screamed in agony, clutching his stump as he staggered backwards. Virus stood up; his visor was cracked from the impact, and parts of his helmet completely gone.

The man turned to run, but Virus grabbed the man's back and dug his claws around the man's spine, shattering the ribs in his back. Virus carried the man back to their temporary HQ, his screams echoing through every section of the station. The marines would finish clearing the floor without him, if anything they were glad he was gone. After all, they get more to kill.

Virus scanned the current employee registry with his ruined helmet, and found the man's name. Hajime Tanaka, simple security officer. Virus dropped Hajime on the floor near Fleshrender, I hope you enjoy your dinner rare, 'Render. The man lay on the floor twitching in pain and anguish. He got lucky, and I thought that might be... Just a little too good for him. Virus said, tilting his head and motioning to the damage to helmet.

"How delightful. Fresh meat" Syn bowed to the Eidolon. "Thanks to you, sir."

Syn paced around on his claws his body position gave all the signals he wished to send. A predator, like a dinosaur from old earth, Syn circled his prey.

"Tell me, lucky man, what manner of death did you envisage for yourself? Not his I imagine and yet you have no idea what is coming to you, you fear us, and yet all you have seen of our work is our Marines. You have never experienced what it is a Reaper does. Do you truly fear us, or simply what you think of us?"

Syn's tail flicked as he walked, making scratching sounds on the ground the man scrambled backwards as best he could, but blood loss from his stump was weakening him.

"I do not fear you." He spat on the floor as best he could.

"A brave display, mein herr. But I can taste your fear. I know what you are thinking, I can almost hear your thoughts." Syn stalked over to the man. Crouching down he extended a claw, he jabbed into the injured man's stump.

"There, that should ease the pain and prevent you dying from blood loss. I have days of entertainment planned, and I wouldn't want you to tire too soon."

"I will give you no amusement. You will not break me" The security officer looked proud, defiant.

"That is the spirit, get your blood boiling. Really taste the anger, you want to kill me, and I will grant you the opportunity. If you can manage it, well then all you have to do is get past the rest of us." Syn's vicious smile crept up. He stalked over to a compartment in the wall. Drawing out a large harp blade he threw it across the room to land at the guards feet.

"Pick it up. Come at me. KILL ME!" Syn screamed at the top of his lungs.

The guard didn't move. Impassively he watched the creature. Studying. Not for how he could kill the monster but for how he could make the monster kill him. Taking up the blade in his good hand he leapt for the demon. Instead of the claws he was expecting he got a tail straight to the face. He fell to the ground, blood streaming from his nose as the creature stalked towards him, another flick of the tail and his legged was pinned to the floor the cruel barbs causing him to grit his teeth in anguish, but there would be no crying out not for this bastard.

Syn leaned over the guard. Hissing between his teeth he slowly leaned into the man's ear.

"Now the games truly begin." With a flick of his head Syn tore the guards ear off, the guard yelped, nothing more. Syn crouched over the man's face again as he slowly devoured the man's ear. The guard's resolve dropped and he let out a whimper, he could not move without further damaging his own leg, but the blade lay mere inches from him. He grabbed it and swung for Syn's neck. Syn flicked a hand across the arc of the blade and the blade lodged into Syn's arm as four of the man's fingers scattered on the floor.

The guard screamed. Syn exulted.

"Master!......Master Raikoke! You have a message!"

The "petite" lady known only as Raikoke, except by her closest peers, turned and placed her stern gaze on the low level officer that just interrupted her.

Raikoke was currently frustrated, having just finished a meeting with Kishiro Officials in one of Ogashawa's supply holds. Without Aomari, Kishiro has been bringing in the supplies directly to the mining station's inadequate facilities and to complicate matters not every Kishiro ship has been making it through the Honshu systems. Damn Phantoms, who or what are they?

The officer made a stiff low formal bow which was repeated in kind with a smaller bow by Raikoke.

"Konban-wa, what do you have for me?" replied Raikoke, her impatience and frustration evident in her voice.

"The Kusari Navy Force, Master. They have responded!" hastily the young officer handed Raikoke the message.

Raikoke read the message as she walked with the officer to the temporary command center that they had setup on Ogashawa.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" she shouted out to those in the room, "KNF has responded to our call for help. Despite being tied up with their war in the Taus, they will dispatch a force to come to our aid. As of yet they haven't provided us with the specifics to their force but have assured us that they understand the urgent need to drive the Phantoms out of Aomari"

"Kampai!" erupted the cheers in the room.

Straight to the point as always, she immediately began setting orders to the officers on board.

"Alright, inform the rest of the Guild Masters and our head of the Security Division about the KNF's message. We will provide an appropriate time to make a co-ordinated assault as soon as possible.

I need an update on when Niigata is going to be complete, I have a feeling we will need it finished sooner than we think.

and can someone get us in contact with Aomari! We need a status report!"

"Hai!" they all affirmed in unison.

She briskly left the room, a migraine forming in her head. What's become of the people stationed on Aomari? What kind of horrors are they facing? But she couldn't let these worries creep in her head, the coming preparations were too important for her thoughts to be clouded now.

Her disciplined mind quickly snapped back to what she was about to do when the KNF message came: a meeting with a Zoner emmisary.
Rigid and collected she marched off to inform the emmisary that GMG's H-fuel operations are still unaffected and shipments will continue as planned......

What a week.

Shiraishi crawled slowly through the vents of Amouri, peering through the alloys of the walls with the helmet the Phantoms had provided her with. Though the stealth armor was slimmer, and less protective than the combat armor the rest of the marines wore, it was still bulky enough to encumber Shiraishi inside the cramped ventilation system. Sighting a group of four people huddled behind a wall, seeming to be shooting down the hallway, Shiraishi found it prudent to make an appearance.

Powering up the seven inch plasma blade that was mounted on her left arm, Shiraishi cut a square hole in the bottom of the ventilation system. Throwing her body down the hatch, Shiraishi fired the pistol with her blade still presenting its jade tone to her pale suit.

The men attempted to turn themselves, but before Shiraishi fell out of the vent, two shots had fired from her pistol, both erupting a gauge in the man leaning against the wall's chests and sauntering their wound shut in the same instant due to the heat of the shot while the second shot ripped a whole in the wall of the hallway. With her body outside the vent Shiraishi turned herself and fired into the second man's neck, evaporating the flesh and and bone from Shiraishi's adversary.

Like an elegant dancer, Shiraishi rolled with her blade upright from her chest, creating a whole in the floor, and reached out at the end of the maneuver, disabling the third man in the brigade by removing his legs. She stood upright and brought the blade through his torso in the same fluid movement. Shiraishi finished the movement by facing the final man in the brigade.

The man stood shaking, and fired his Kishiro Kinetic Pistol in a combat pose. Due to their proximity, only one shot was fired, though it pierced her armor and cut into her right shoulder, due to the man's sloppy posture in his fear. Shiraishi removed his hands, sauntering the wounds with her blade, and pinned the man against the wall with her right elbow.

"What is it you fight for, pet?" Shiraishi asked, making an effort to open her helmet's vision-guard with her left hand, "I don't want to hurt you, I only want to play."

"You're a monster," the man responded, quivering, presumably from pain, "What do you fight for? Sadistic bitch."

"Now, now, kitty," Shiriashi whispered to the man before the marines that were previously pinned by the men came into the junction, "No need to get nasty, I only wanted to play with you. No one ever wants to play with me."

Shiraishi pulled her blade upward, watching as the man's eyes widened from both the lack of breath and the pain of the new wound. As the marines turned the corner, Shiraishi leaped back into the vent, giggling, to look for more playthings.

Reaper Nightsmoke slowly moved down the corridor, his back snug against the wall. As he came to a junction, he lowered to a crouch, listening for the sounds of his prey around the corner. Unlike the marines he was fighting alongside, Nightsmoke preferred not to wear the helmet that came with his power armour. He preferred to feel the blood splash across his face, see the last look of terror as his victim realized that there was no way out, to watch as their life's flashed before their eyes. Sitting crouched, the Reaper pulled out his sidearm, and held against the wall. Suddenly Nightsmoke jumped, into the corridor, with a roll, he let loose four shots from the pistol, and ended up against the wall on the opposite corridor. With a quick look around the corner for confirmation, Nightsmoke rose and walked past the makeshift barricades the defenders had erected, giving a slight kick to ever of the four defenders laying dead on the ground. Holstering his sidearm, the Reaper walked down the corridor checking compartment numbers as he went. Finding the door he was looking for, Nightsmoke put a shaped charge on the door and calmly walked back down the corridor, a violent explosion following behind him.

Returning to the compartment, Nightsmoke stepped over the shattered door frame, and entered the room. Looking around the room, he saw what he was looking for. Sitting down at a desk, the Reaper plugged a data plug into the terminal on the desk, opening up the system, he quickly found and downloaded the information he was looking for. Manifests on all the GMG shipments over the last 24 months, routing numbers, escort armaments, ship personnel, profit margins, every piece of data that anyone could ever want.

Walking back into the corridor, Nightsmoke turned to get on the way to his next objective. Three shots rang out, one of them slamming into the Reapers left shoulder, spinning the Reaper pulled his pistol and leveled it sighting his target, a young Kusari man about the age of 20. He looked at the Reaper, seeing his face, one word escaped his lips as he saw Nightsmoke fire on him..."Dasentaki" and then he hit the floor, felled by the Reapers fire. Nightsmoke looked at his shoulder, the projectile had managed to to get through the mesh on his amour. Cursing, he made his way back to the command post.

DAY 3: The Personal Log of Ensign Sum Yungai

Blue. As seen from space the blue means to me the life-giving waters of the planets that hold them.

Blue. A colour that envelops and coddles me in the deep Nebulae. It conceals me and lets me strike at my enemies.

Its funny, the people of Liberty sometimes use the term 'feeling blue' to describe a depression or despair - I had not really understood that until now.

And now the blue that I see is stained with red. It mists my eyes and is only washed away by my tears.

This is my first entry in this log for three days, since the nightmare came to place I was born, my Aomori!


The call came through about three hours into my patrol. We received word that strange ships were attacking New Tokyo, and were headed into Honshu. I was ordered to Aomori in case of an attack.

The official reports tell it better than I could. All I can say is we failed, I failed. I feel even worse because my ship is perhaps the lightest in our fleet. I made a little headway against these - I dont even know WHAT they were - these phantom ships, the fighters that is. But I was largely ignored.

Once our gunship and the bombers were destroyed or driven off, the order to retreat was given. We do it all the time , retreat into the nebula when times are tough.

Father it is like you told me "When the wind blows ill we are the Willow, we bend with it but do not break".
Father I broke that day, I am broken! I was going to tell you that day the Guild Masters were considering me for a promotion. I was going to propose to Azuki!

I cant even see her face in my mind anymore. It is all red.