[Fiction] Closing Overture

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako sits in an office section of her ship. Located just within Japanese waters, under the surface by 60 feet. She looks out into the ocean and watches some rare fish swim by the window. She loved this window so much she put her main computers in it for communicating. But some recent electrical irregularities make it impossible to send a signal without deploying an antenna bouy. With a thunderstorm raging above, that is hardly advisible.

She had just submerged after posting in her OpNet Journal to let her friends know of her vacation from the outside world.

She quietly listens to Moonlight Sonata over her speakers. Affording herself a time of relaxation. Untill a warning ping hits her mind.

Eh?

Her computer has picked up an object on sonar. As per red-class security protocol, it went passive, only to lose the object.

That is odd...

She switches off her computers and runs up to a moving ladder and grabs a rung, heading for the bridge. She takes the command chair, and observes the last recorded ping.

...Computer, activate primary defense systems.

The ship activates it's defensive arrays of water-useable lasers to shoot down torpedos and surface to sea missiles, and locks down all compartmentalized sections of the ship.

"Now... what is going on here..."

[DeathSquad]

Deathsquad smirked at least one of them did. The U.S.S. Jimmy Carter was crewed only with the insane Nova. Which was more than enough. The precision in which the operated would leave most drill teams in the world envious of coordination.

"We'll gentlemen I suggest we get to entertaining our lady for the evening." One particular DeathSquad spoke to the others on the bridge. This one didn't seem to be doing any mundane work and seemed to be a leader if such a thing was possible among the cloned psychopaths. "Let's start off with something simple for her. Launch All eight Tomahawks. Set the flight paths to come in from all four cardinal directions at once by twos. We cannot make this totally easy for her."

The ship thumped several times at the armaments where launched. "E.T.A. to target is ten minutes. " One rather professional acting version of the Nova responsed. "Load and fire all remaining Tomahawks then. We might as well make this a pretty fireworks display. Helm begin moving us in. Bring us in deep and then angle us up toward the HKs hull. I want those tubes loaded with Torpedos the moment the last cruisemissle has left the ship."

The leader moved over to the operations table and watched the display of the now outgoing weapons. Secretly he hoped she would survive it. But if she didn't then she wasn't worth all this effort, and that was just a shame.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako's sensors go red like a tidal wave.

What the hell?!?!? It's an American ship? What's the deal???

The Hikari Maru II IDs the incoming weapons.

8 Tomahawks... 2 Foreward, 2 Aft, 2 Starboard, 2 Port... Computer, arm all laser batteries. Shoot them down before they have a chance to breach the surface.

The HM2 fires blue-green lasers, capable of firing at great depths. They hit from their batteries precicely as directed. But...

More weapons? TORPEDOS! I didn't see...

SLAM! BOOM!

2 torpedos hit in the aft of the ship, taking out the HMII's magnetohydrodynamic drive.

"Crap... I won't be able to bail. I'll have to slug it out. Deplete his ammunition!"

BOOM!

Another torpedo hits the Starboard cargo bay, flooding it instantly.

"Craaaaap..."

The ship lists to the right. But Sakurako recomposes herself.

"Alright... if I can play defensive, time to go offensive!"

Computer, lock foreward defense batteries 1,2, and 4 on hostile, aim for the engines. I want the ship disabled.

The HMII locks in the USS Jimmy Carter. And fires...

[DeathSquad]

The sound of water vaporizing outside the vessel resonates, as the laser barrage begins gouging furrows in the titanium hull of the ship. It only brings a smile to the shark toothed mouth of the hunter within the damned ship.

"Do you think we got her attention lads?" He laughs and all the others join him. The laugh is hollow and in unison.

"She's going for the engines now. Turn the ship nose into her and accelerate to ramming speed. Continue firing Torpedoes from all tubes." Deathsquad's mind races across the scenarios that are about to play out, in his mind. He know's the little blossom is a genius but can she keep up with him in battle?

He calculates on who he would face on board. Some of her friends? They would die, unless of course it was her absentee lover Ronin. Or the blond idiot Jager. It didn't matter. The contingencies for anyone short of Divis Mal showing up where solid. All would fall before him so that he could reach his precious pink prize.

"You three, prepare for boarding action. Teleport aboard and make your way toward her engine room. Cut any power lines you see along the way. Be prepared for her defenses. You know what to expect." With that three of the 5 bridge crew stood and checked their weapons. The laser packs hummed quietly to life before the readiness indicator glowed green declaring full charge and combat ready.

The three vanished in a pin point of glowing crimson light. Only to appear out of glowing spheres of blood red aboard the HMII. And they began to cut their swath of destruction through the ship.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako notices the opposing ship turn towards her.

"I see, ramming me huh?"

Sakurako blows ballast tanks, and turns hard 90 degrees, to allow the bridge to pass by her hull harmlessly.

Fire all available starboard turrets, target the bridge con tower.

As the starboard lasers fire on the conning tower of the submarine, DS's boarding party attacks withing the ship itself. Sakurako's pre-programmed protocols kick in. Without a thought, the bridge console chair spins 180 degrees and slides into a secured pod, and a hallway, running along the center core of the ship opens to her.

"Damn, boarding party. I'd better move to my armor and welcome them." As she says this, she takes a long breath, and breaks the wristband Ronin gave her.

Security drones, repel the intruders! Sakurako screams in her head as she runs to where her combat armor is stored. She thanks god that she's wearing the gift Alchemist gave her. She knows it's kinetic reduction would be enough for the first few blows, combined with her own armor, but after that...

She climbs into the back of the suit and it starts to close behind her, locking it's armor plates into position. After locking and sealing the neck gasket with her helmet, the sealed life support system kicks in and the sensors come online. This was the same suit that saw her through the Marianas Trench dive. She knew such forces Deathsquad would exert would be the same or less than the depths she traveled.

She feels the HMII break surface as the armor completes it's start up sequence. She grabs a cylindrical object from an armory locker.

"He won't expect me to have this..."

She moves to a second hallway that heads for the starboard cargo bay. which had been blown out earlier from a torpedo strike. She figures it'd provide the fastest escape route.

Ronin, it's time you prove to me I'm more than just bait...

[Sakurako Hino]

((Okay, this story will be wrapped up soon, probably over this week. Thank you everyone for your patience.))

Sakurako starts making for the damaged cargo bay. Seriously considering escape, after noticing through the eyes of her security drones at least 3 or possibly 4 clones of Deathsquad encounter her drones. She has them well equipped. Miniature rail-rifles, small tesla coils, even a few microwave emmitters. All combined with mono-molecular blades and even a few plasma torches.

The drones and the clones collide in battle, and Sakurako sees every moment in her head. It's vicious. The clones, even if they were weaker copies of the original are way more tougher than any armor she could put on the drones. Way more durable than most of the weapons she could bring to bear. It takes 8 of them just to take down 1 clone.

Then Sakurako makes it to the bay. Still sparking and smouldering ruins of various equipment and items are strewn about the now burnt-out bay. She starts running for the opening blown out by the attack. As she reaches the edge something slams her backward, into a rear wall.

"No no no, you can't leave yet, Sakurako. How much of a host would you be if you just left your guests behind?"

Deathsquad smirks, standing well in front of her, his toothy grin, showing what sort of malice he has in store.

"Oh, and you decided to wear armor today? Interesting I didn't shatter it on the first punch... but it looks like I've done damage in any case."

He did, a dent where his fist landed is sitting squarely in the center of the lower abdomen of the hardsuit armor. Stress fractures where his knuckles landed form in different directions but all heading upwards. Escape this way now would be impossible. She'd sink like a stone, and Deathsquad is now blocking her escape as well.

She starts to slowly try to slide away, and DeathSquad just appears to her side.

"Sorry, I'm faster than you, too." He says, before uppercutting her from a crouched position. Knocking her into the ceiling of the bay, then dropping to the floor. Her helmet now shattered, as well as a few teeth. Withough the helmet taking the blow... she'd not have a head.

"So nice of you to make this more fun..."

[Sakurako Hino]

"I try to aim to please." Sakurako says, after spitting out a few chunks of teeth and some blood.

"I'm sure you are aiming to do just that, little pinky. I'm sure I'll enjoy beating you into unconciousness before taking you someplace where I can keep an eye on you." DeathSquad says, leaning towards her. Sakurako looks away, and sees that her little toy she grabbed earlier is still next to her left hand. She grabs it, and a blade of concentrated plasma flashes to life and she swings for his exposed neck.

Sakurako thinks she had him dead to rights, but DeathSquad grabs the blade of the sword, the heat and energy of the plasma doing nothing to his thick hide.

"Nice little toy, but... not enough kiddo." He says, before grabbing the cylindrical weapon, and crushing it. It explodes in her hand, doing severe damage to her hand itself, and destroying the armor glove. He then grabs her arm and with a series of twists breaks off the armor, then breaks the arm itself in several places with almost surgical precision.

"Dammit, you bitch!" He yells, as Sakurako screams out in pain. "Why won't you just stay quiet!!!" He says, and slams her again with a punch to the gut, fragmenting the armor and sending her careening into another bulkhead which was damaged in the blast. The torso and back parts of the armor fall off as she slumps down. She notices her vision blurring as excruciating pain shoots through her now broken left arm and the near winding from the second gut-shot. She whimpers in pain as he walks foreward, then the sound of helicopters fills the cavernous cargohold. Sakurako for a moment hopes and prays it's the JMSDF, but it is only a media helicopter.

"Damn..." DeathSquad says. "Now I'm gonna have to make this quick. I wager I gave you some wicked internal injuries. I felt like... 3 vertebrae crack on that one."

He's right. Sakurako can't even feel her legs. The dread finally comes over her. She's not going to make it to even be a hostage... Even if he held back... she's ground chuck.

"You're right... DeathSquad... Thing is, with the damage you did to me..." She says, after coughing up blood from an internal injury. "You got too rambunctious. Ever think of what would happen if I died?"

DeathSquad thinks about that. "Yeah, no one would give a flying fuck... although Ronin would have a case of blue balls enough to come after me twice as hard. But... I want to play with his mind. Seeing you, all broken and battered... Trust me, I've set up for this sort of... error. Of course, for someone like you it'd be a living death, but what the hell. You like machines anyways, right? Why not have one keep you alive for a while..."

[Sakurako Hino]

"Then I would choose death... you monster..." Sakurako says, still concious, but she feels that another blow like that, and she'd be assured a quick trip to a slab in the city morgue. Or worse.

"Monster? Heh... I sort of like that. It's quite sexy coming from you. The way you said that through all that pain. It's almost... like a heavenly choir." DeathSquad says, almost in a giddy tone. Almost on the level of orgasm.

"Let me ask you this, before I knock you the fuck out and take care of my business. What was your intent before even starting on this whole affair, little pink?" He says, sure to keep a distance this time.

"Simple... I thought... if someone saw me actually doing something about a scumbag like you... Then perhaps if I failed... someone else would... succeed..." She says, barely holding on.

DeathSquad walks over, half tempted to crush her skull. But, he picks her up with one hand, by the head instead. "Little pink... you're quite the martyr if you look at it. Always willing to sacrifice yourself to some half-assed higher purpose you read in some comic book in your childhood. You're a failure, Sakurako. And I intend to keep you alive to see how much blood you'll spill for your cause. In a way, Sakurako... you are now responsible for those who die here on out."

She sneers. "Go to hell... demon." "I will, eventually... On my time though. I'll meet you there, in any case. But for now, I'll give you a taste. Before you get the main course later." He says, before casually discarding her to the side. The blow of landing on her broken arm, and the twinges of pain and the blood-loss is too great. She falls unconcious. With only a thought left in her concious mind...

"Ronin... I was wrong... you were protecting me... weren't... you..."

*Fin*