Chapter Six

Inuyasha frowned in concentration as he followed after his other two teammates. While Kouga hadn't explained why they were to fall back and meet up with the icicle's team, the slight hitch in his voice had him a little worried. Nothing was said between the three as they hurried along, reexamining the rooms they had already passed. As they came around the final bend, Kikyo whispered that the other team was already waiting for them.

The shocking sight of Sesshomaru completely covered in orange goo had him cracking up.

"Oh, shit, Ice pop!" He gasped out and belatedly realized he was the only one laughing. Sango had let out a horrified gasp and Kouga's hand trembled slightly before he clenched both of his fists.

"Think for a moment, Inuyasha. What does this possibly signify?" Sesshomaru hissed out quietly and was satisfied when his laugh abruptly cut off.

"Taisho, what exactly happened?" Kouga demanded as he swung his gaze to everyone else in the room. In a quick and precise manner, Sesshomaru explained the situation and what Higurashi and he had found. The silence that followed was deafening.

"You're saying a completely healthy Baasratu was hiding itself in one of the rooms you were checking?" Kouga asked slowly as the full implications of what this meant hit him. "You think there may be more, don't you."

"Yes."

Sango felt her stomach drop to her toes and her hands clenched to stop them from trembling. Miroku murmured softly to her, but she wasn't concentrating on what he was saying. Why would there be un-wounded enemies?

"In addition, none of us have been able to contact main dispatch." Sesshomaru finished as he looked directly into Kouga's eyes.

"Shit."

"Well, hell. What do we do now?" Inuyasha broke into the tension and Sango tried not to jump from the volume he used. "What, are we gonna turn tail and head back to our ship?" He crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin, a smirk crossing his face. "Or are we gonna hunt the last of these bastards down and finish the job the other guys couldn't do?"

His cocky questions eased the uncertainty in the room and Kikyo felt a small burst of pride for the boy. Yeah he was a brash idiot, but he had a certain charm to him all the same. Kagura felt a smirk hitch her own lips as she planted her hand on her hip. "Hell yeah. I say it's about time we took care of things ourselves." She purred and her smirk sharpened when she heard Naraku cackle in her head.

Ayame frowned slightly and crossed her own arms looking to her captain. "Will that be alright though?" She asked seriously and met Taisho's eyes with her own. "I know we're capable of taking care of ourselves, but we don't know exactly what the situation is or why these Baasratu managed to slip under a battleships radar. Not to mention the fact that we can't get in contact with anyone."

Inuyasha snorted but Sango shook her head. "I agree. Is it really alright for us to hunt down who knows how many more there are? Not to mention whatever else may lie ahead." Kouga crossed his arms over his chest and looked to the floor. This wasn't a decision to make lightly, but they couldn't just stand there ruminating any longer. If they were aware of the Baasratu, then the Baasratu were aware of them.

"Alright then, a vote." Kouga said decisively and then put up his hand. "All in favor of hunting the bastards down and finding out what the hell is going on?" All but the two raised their hands and Sango groaned.

"Majority rules. So what's the plan?" Kouga asked Sesshomaru.

While the both of them were the same rank, Kouga wasn't deluded enough to think he could plan a strategy better than Taisho. Sesshomaru frowned slightly and looked off to the side as he rearranged his thoughts. Looking back up to the other captain he asked what they had found down the corridor they had taken.

Inuyasha snorted. "A whole lot of nothing, that's what. Bunch of dead Baasratu and broken equipment."

Kouga glared over at what was supposed to be his subordinate then sighed in agreement. "Yeah, nothing suspicious anyway. We had four more rooms to check before we would reach the hall connecting to our meet-up point. It's why it took us longer to back track."

Ayame shifted her weight to her left and put a hand on her hip. "Yeah, well we had a lot more rooms connecting to the corridor we went down." She paused and her eyebrows scrunched in thought. "A lot of creepy laboratory-like rooms."

Kagura gave a short nod as if affirming what her teammate said. "I think one of the rooms I searched was an operating room."

Sesshomaru glanced sharply over at Kagura, his eyes narrowing slightly. "An operating room?" He asked softly and waited for her to elaborate. Kagura shrugged and waved one of her hands flippantly over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I dunno. It had three long metallic tables and weird equipment set up around two of them. Hadani said it looked like one of the research labs he had been working in recently."

Ayame shifted nervously as she looked to her captain. Ginta had told her that Kagura's partner, Naraku Hadani, had been working in the labs that a few researchers used to dissect and experiment on a few of the Baasratu they had managed to capture and hold prisoner. According to Ginta, the technology involved in holding a Baasratu was highly expensive and only in the experimental stages. In most cases they wound up killing the Baasratu within moments of capture.

Kouga crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. "Great. What exactly does that mean?"

Sesshomaru straightened slightly and glanced to the other captain. "It doesn't matter. It's not our job to decipher the meaning behind what they used this meteor base for." He looked to each of the team members assembled before him. "We're here to clear out whatever is left." Kagome snorted softly in the back of his mind.

'Yeah, like you aren't trying to figure that out yourself.' She whispered sarcastically and Sesshomaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

'Higurashi.' He stated warningly and Kagome snorted again. She had no reservations about rolling her eyes, or the mental equivalent of one, anyway. She allowed her energy to again flutter along Taisho's before flaring out slightly to watch for enemies.

Though she could 'see' the energy used by the other psychic's on her team, she wasn't sure if they could 'see' her in turn. It differentiated depending on the psychic's abilities. A brief flare came from her right and Kagome smiled at the familiar feel of Kikyo. It had been a really long time since she had been in contact with her cousin, and regardless of the issues between them, it was reassuring to know she was there.

"Well, what's the plan, Taisho?" Kouga asked once again and met his cold amber gaze with his own.

"We'll head back down the corridor my team was searching. Stay close and don't wander too far." He answered shortly before turning and taking the lead. Ayame followed close behind and Sango found herself behind her.

Kouga cracked his knuckles as he took up the last position at the rear. He smacked the back of Inuyasha's helmet when the idiot's mutterings reached his ears. "Fall in, stupid. And stop talking to yourself. You sound crazy." Kouga sneered and relaxed slightly when Inuyasha scoffed back at him. The tension was starting to eat at his nerves.

'I'll say. You need to chill a bit, bro.' Hakaku murmured as he trained his energy on their surroundings. Kouga let out a short breath and rolled his shoulders back. His eyes swept briefly through an opened doorway and then ahead to the next opening. While he was watching the front, all of his other senses were trained behind them.

Though it seemed to take an eternity, they found themselves at the room Sesshomaru had encountered the healthy Baasratu. The body still lay where he had decapitated it and the splash of gore looked to be undisturbed. At least nothing else had been lurking in the room with them, Sesshomaru absently noted as he turned his attention to the adjacent room the Baasratu had come flying out of.

Forcing the door open to get inside, Sesshomaru was aware of Kagome's energy examining the room before them. 'I don't sense any more in here, but…' Her voice was distracted and her trailing sentence had his back up in an instant.

'But…?' He lead out slightly as his eyes roved over what couldn't be anything else than a torture chamber. A large table took up the middle of the room and he found himself checking under it for anything that might be hiding. Along the far wall of the room was a large rack, and some of the things hanging from said rack…he didn't even want to imagine what they could possibly be used for.

'I think there is something in that locker, Taisho.'

Higurashi's voice tore his eyes from the strange equipment and brought them to the large metal container along the right wall. He straightened his shoulders and slowly crept to the door, moving as quietly as he could, considering the floor made squishing noises. As his hand closed around the handle to open the door, Higurashi's energy coiled around him, strengthening his armor.

With a quick jerk he had the door open, and his eyes took in a sight he hadn't been expecting. A gagging noise behind him told him the others had followed him into the room. On two lower shelves inside the cabinet were jars of what appeared to be pieces of what was once a human being. While disgusting in its own right, that wasn't what held everyone's attention and had Sango leaving the room to keep from retching in her helmet.

Hanging from two large hooks was the upper torso of a human. The chest cavity had been pried open and pinned neatly to the stumps of what used to be arms on either side. What had Sesshomaru's complete attention was the fact that the heart was still beating. Ignoring the shuddering gasps coming from his partner and the loud exclamations from his younger brother, Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes as he studied the torso in front of him. There were no connecting wires to indicate that this was hooked up to any kind of electrical pulse, so how?

How the hell was the heart beating?

'I think I can…just please…' The gasping voice of his partner caught his attention and he averted his eyes from the gruesome sight, stepping away from the cabinet. Kouga stepped up beside him, also studying the torso in much the same fashion that he had.

'Higurashi?' He asked softly, keeping his tone mellow, waiting for her gasping to quiet down.

'That was…I mean…' She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. 'There is a…energy…field around the, uh, heart.' She said after she had managed to calm down.

'An energy field?' He questioned even as he swept his gaze over the rest of the room, scrutinizing everything in a different light.

'Yes.' Her voice lost its shaky quality and became more firm. 'I don't know what kind of energy it is, and honestly, I don't want to touch it. Somehow, it is keeping that thing alive.'

"Alive how?"

All eyes swung in his direction and Sesshomaru realized he had spoken out loud.

'I mean as alive as if it still had a head attached to it. Taisho, that…torso…is fully functional. As if it wasn't opened like a weird science experiment.'

A sick feeling traveled up from his stomach and Sesshomaru found he didn't really want to think about why their enemy felt it was necessary to even do something like this.

"Can we leave this room now? I think I might take a page out of Taijya's book and hurl if we dawdle here any longer." Kagura said caustically as she walked toward the door. Inuyasha followed rather quickly, nearly pushing Ayame along the way. Kouga finished making adjustments to his map and grimly followed Sesshomaru from the room.

"I made a note of this for later." He stated as they emerged into the corridor and headed toward the next room. All six of them shook off the disgust and pushed the thoughts on what they had found to the back of their minds. They still had half a base to scour.


Though the majority of the meteor base yielded nothing further of note, it wasn't until they reached a small unassuming doorway that Kagome thought she was losing it. 'Taisho.' She breathed out and Sesshomaru paused his forward motion. Focusing on what Higurashi was doing, his eyebrows scrunched as she seemed to be inspecting the small utility closet more than he thought was necessary.

'Something isn't right with this closet.' She stated. Her focus shifted slightly when she felt Kikyo's energy brush hers as she too examined the closet.

"What do you mean, there's something in there? It's just a freaking closet!" Inuyasha burst out and Sesshomaru frowned. If two psychics were saying there was something in the closet, then there had to be something in there. Walking into the small space, Sesshomaru waited for some kind of direction from his partner.

Almost immediately he felt her encircle his wrist and he brought his hand up to the left side wall. His eyes widened as his hand sunk into the wall. The thick feeling of cold oatmeal traveled up his arm and he tried not to shudder at it.

"The hell?!" Inuyasha exclaimed, further catching the attention of the rest of the team.

"Uh, Taisho? Is your arm in the wall?" Kouga asked, rather stupidly, in his opinion, and he pinned him with a glare. Before he could reply sarcastically, Higurashi's voice again distracted him.

'There is another room behind this fake wall.' She said excitedly and Sesshomaru felt a shot of adrenaline tighten his muscles. 'No enemies in the immediate vicinity, but I think I sense something farther…down?'

Relaying his partners' words, Sesshomaru ignored the questions posed to him as he took in a breath and walked through the wall.

'Dammit, Taisho!' Higurashi shrilled, 'If I was even a smidge slower, you could have been stuck in whatever the hell that wall is made of!'

'Hn. Didn't I tell you I wouldn't tolerate incompetence, Higurashi?' He smoothly interjected and allowed a small smirk at her huff of disbelief. Before she could go on another tangent, he directed his focus on the room they had just entered. It wasn't like the rest of the base at all. The floors were hard rock, most likely the meteor rock itself. The walls were made of the same material, so he felt it was safe to assume that this room was tunneled into the meteor. It was not as well-lit as the base had been and Sesshomaru absently looked along the walls and flooring for the source of the light.

Finding no definitive source of the soft light, he allowed a frown to pull the corners of his mouth down. A ripple of awareness traveled up his spine and he smoothly stepped out of the way as Inuyasha fell through the wall.

"Bastard!"

"Quiet, Inuyasha." Sesshomaru breathed out even as the others started to trickle in through the wall. Higurashi was on high alert and that could only mean that the enemy was close. He glanced over the other five in the small room with him and gave Kouga a sharp nod. They would have to proceed forward in silence.

Sesshomaru took the lead, his saber drawn and already infused with dark energy. His heart rate picked up slightly as Higurashi fed him information in small waves with her energy. 'They are aware that something has gone wrong.' She breathed out quietly, effected by the tension created by the soldiers. 'There is one incoming…might just be a scout. We will intercept it around that corner.'

Slowing at the aforementioned corner, Sesshomaru crouched and brought his sword up in an arc, effectively slicing through the Baasratu before it could make a noise. As he straightened from the lunge he had ended in, he looked over the body of the alien leaking its life blood on the floor. 'Dead.' Kagome absently answered his silent inquiry as she studied the patterns of energy further ahead and down ward. 'There are about twenty of them ahead of us. And they all know that the scout is dead.'

She could feel her curiosity pique as she studied the strange waves that could only be alarm spread from one alien being to the next. Were the aliens that closely linked with each other? If so, then this might be an all-out battle any way. Relaying her findings to her partner, Sesshomaru in turn quietly informed the rest of the team as they assumed an aggressive formation and began there trek down the tunnels. Though they came across many intersecting tunnels, Kagome kept them on the right path.

'They've split up slightly.' She murmured as they came to a four-way intersection. 'Two will come up on the left corridor and a third from the right. Three altogether incoming from the path in front of us.'

'The tunnels connect back up ahead.' Sesshomaru not-quite-asked as he directed Inuyasha down the path with the lone Baasratu and Kouga and Kagura took the path with the other two.

'Yes.' Kagome answered even as she geared them up for more confrontation.

Sango glanced to Ayame and the both of them grit their teeth. From what their links were telling them, it was time to get serious.


Sesshomaru allowed the team a short rest, even as he eyed the door in front of him. While the corridor had been linear the majority of the time, the damn Baasratu had put in a hell of a fight. At one point, there had been two scaling the ceiling in a creepy spider-like way. He glanced over at Inuyasha who was to his immediate right. Though the boy was an idiot, his reflexes were rather good, though he would never tell him that. Those reflexes had saved the both of them twice on their advancement to…whatever was behind this door.

The last Baasratu had stood before the door in front of them, seemingly determined to keep them from inside as opposed to just wanting them dead. That same Baasratu now lay a ruined mess in front of said door. 'For sure that was the last.' Higurashi murmured as she circled her energy around the hit he had taken in the shoulder earlier.

His suit was undamaged, thanks in large part to the energy Kagome had bolstered through the active material, tightening his defenses at the last moment. However, Sesshomaru knew that while he was undamaged, his psychic could be harmed instead. 'Are you alright?' He asked almost disinterestedly, if it weren't for the fact that he bothered to ask at all.

Kagome let out a sigh and checked over herself as she finished fussing with the armor. 'Yes, just bruised.' She answered softly as she returned to checking out their surroundings. Though the aliens were now gone, there was still questionable energy in the room in front of them.

"Damn. That was faster going than I thought." Kouga wheezed out slightly as he put his hands on the top of his helmet. He absently listened to his partners grumbling as he sent energy over the pulled muscle on the back of his leg. 'You all intact, Hakaku?' He lazily asked as he took in the others on his team.

'Just some bruising.' Hakaku murmured begrudgingly as he sent a last wave over his partners' knotted muscles and took to inspecting the armor along his arms. The pain he felt from his own arms told him he hadn't been strong enough to fully block the enemy's energy attack. Kouga raised an eyebrow, even as he took in the way Sango and Ayame excitedly whispered to each other.

Sesshomaru left the wall he was leaning against and strode toward the last door at the end. Everyone else took this to mean that break time was over and stood as well. Behind the door was another laboratory. Slightly irked that whatever the Baasratu were trying to hide wasn't immediately obvious, Sesshomaru stalked along the strange counter tops with weird equipment.

A brief glimmer from the far counter caught his attention and he turned his attention to it. As he came closer his lip turned down in what could have been a scowl. Lying, almost innocently, on the counter was what appeared to be a soldier's armband. Though not really worth a second glance, normally, it was the almost pristine condition of the armband that gave him pause. Well, pristine if one ignored the severed arm it was still wrapped around.

A soldier's armband was where all pertinent information was stored, whether that be maps of the current ship they were on, or messages from upper command. His eyebrows lowered as he reached for the armband.

'Don't!'

Higurashi's shout had him jerking back his hand. 'There is weird energy wrapped around that thing. Don't touch it.' Sesshomaru straightened and turned his attention on the others in the room.

"We have completed our mission. Let's report back to the drop off point and get ahold of command. They'll be getting antsy about how long we've been in here by now, anyway."

Kouga snorted and turned to the doorway, "Yeah if we can get ahold of them, that is. Man, I normally hate writing reports, but this is gonna be one hell of a story to tell."


Kagome felt a groan escape as the gel in her pod drained and she came fully back into her own. Coughing out what was left in her lungs, she spit it out into the small drain at her elbow. Her hands came up automatically to begin taking off the numerous electrodes pasted to her head and she winced at the pulling pain from her shoulder.

Her pod came open and she swung her feet to the floor, her eyes already looking for Miroku. She winced again at the sight of the large bruise creeping up his neck and onto his lower jaw. Letting out a small chuckle, Miroku shook his head at the expression on his friends face. "Wasn't fast enough to stop all of its energy attack." He explained softly and Kagome shook her head, her left hand crossing to rest on her right shoulder.

"Me either."

"Oh my goodness, are the both of you alright?!" The loud exclamation had both psychics jumping and whipping their heads to stare at Wallace. "You both must be so exhausted! Having to enter combat during what was supposed to be practice like that!"

Kagome blinked and belatedly realized she was exhausted. And ache-y. She had never engaged in actual combat before, but she supposed that didn't matter anymore. She had never had to defend against such caustic energy before either. Coming out of it with only a shoulder bruise was pretty amazing. The way the armor and the defense of the soldiers worked, relied heavily upon the energy and reaction time to the psychic linking with the soldier.

However there was a drawback on the linking system that made many psychic's rethink becoming a battle link. Because a psychic used their own energy to manipulate the soldiers' energy, it was also their energy that protected them from the energy the Baasratu used to attack. The problem with this was the Baasratu energy attacked whatever energy opposed it, meaning the psychics got what was termed bruising from blocking. While the energy couldn't cause real damage to a psychic, it certainly left its' mark.

There have been many advancements in technology concerning the pods to stop this kind of psychic attack on the users of the pods, but so far they could only dim the pain while the psychic was inside the pod. Adversely, they had developed a way to yank the psychic back into themselves when their linking partner was critically wounded or dead, before they 'died' as well. Usually, when a soldier died, if the psychic wasn't pulled back, the psychic died with them.

The latest pods had a way to monitor critical conditions and manually pulled the psychic back from the link to save the psychic, at least physically. Mentally, most psychics weren't able to recover. Along with many other forms a psychic signed when they became a battle link, they had to make a decision on whether or not to be kept alive if the pods pulled them back and they became vegetables. The medic forms were rather numerous, Kagome herself didn't want to be left alive if she were little more than a vegetable.

However, none of this would matter by the end of the week. She was only temporary. Kagome ignored the twinge she felt at that thought and stood on shaky legs. Wallace walked over swiftly and had a shoulder under one of her arms, helping her to the locker room showers. "Come along, dear. The hot water will do you some good. Then its' off to the med-bay. Got to get you and Soryu checked out." Wallace rambled out and Kagome glanced back to see a male guard helping Miroku to his feet in a similar fashion.

Glancing to the time projected by the bio scanner by the door, Kagome was startled to realize she had been linked to Taisho for over ten hours. No wonder she was exhausted, it was the longest time she had ever been linked to anyone. She decided she was also too tired to be disgruntled at the fact that she hadn't minded being linked to the jerk either.


"It was found on the meteor base out of the western quadrant." The monotone electronic voice rang out eerily and she looked down at the projected pictures before her. Her eyes roved over the grotesque images of the opened chest cavity, the numerous laboratories that were documented and settled on a picture of the armband. Frowning softly, she adjusted in her chair and reached for the small mic beside her screen.

"What of the armband?" She questioned and winced slightly when that same electronic voice covered her own dulcet tones. The shadowed figures projected around her shifted and another voiced her question as well.

"Yes. Has anyone checked its contents? Why would the Baasratu have this in their deepest, hidden lab?"

"We suspect treachery."

The simple statement had all on the council freezing in silence. She clasped her hands and frowned into the screen at large. Though none could see her face, just like she couldn't see theirs, it made her feel better to image they could feel her glare.

"Treachery? To what end?" Though the electronic voice held no emotion, the words themselves conveyed the speaker's incredulousness.

"That is what we intend to convene over in four hours. The video documenting the opening of the armband within our own labs will be sent to you shortly."

With nothing left to discuss, the projectors and screens dimmed and she leaned back in her chair. A harsh sigh left her lips as her screen dinged with a notification that the video had indeed been sent to her. Deciding to watch it later, she got up from the small desk in the equally small room and headed toward the hidden door in the back.

As it opened, she glanced around the small office she had set up for herself in the back of the small boutique she owned and ran. Though her clothing was only big in the western fleet, she had plans to expand all the way to the northern fleet. Even if only as a name brand murmured underground. Her eyes caught her own in the large floor length mirror she had hung on the far wall. The solemn expression she found there didn't suit her.

Forcing her lips up into a semblance of the usual cheery smile she normally wore, she pinched her cheeks as she sat behind her desk and pulled up a communications line. A real smile lit her face when her husband answered.

"Sorry darling, I just got a huge order in from another ship. They need the designs out by Tuesday." She apologized softly and tried to keep any guilt from her voice. Though she knew she wasn't allowed to, she absolutely hated keeping anything from her husband.

"Are you alright dear? You look absolutely exhausted." Her husband's deep voice soothed over her nerves and brought a natural flush to her cheeks, as he always did.

"Yes, but I'm afraid I won't be home until late." The small chuckle the generated from him had her smiling as well. She placed her elbow on the desk and her cheek in her hand, still smiling. "So, I'm afraid I won't be able to take you your dinner tonight."

"That's fine, love. I'm in a bit of a time crunch myself. Apparently the enemy is getting better at concealing things. However it appears our sons are now up for promotion." There was a small commotion over the line and she frowned as his face hardened slightly while he looked toward his doorway.

"I'll be right there." He dismissed whoever had entered and turned his attention back to the screen.

"I see that the Inu no Taisho truly is busy this time." She teased slightly as her husband grinned sheepishly. "See you late tonight, love."

Izayoi Taisho laughed as she cut communications with her husband and picked up her pocket screen from the desk. It would be best to listen to the video in her council office where none could interfere, she thought, feeling more energized after seeing her love blushing like a teenager.

xXx

Well, thanks for reading, please review.