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RP: UCS Zenpyou [Mission 2] Containment

Kim

Kim

スター軍の司書
There was an eerie stillness within Hangar 13 on 7B where the UCS Zenpyou was being temporarily housed and repaired. The rear hatch had been reattached in the main crew's absence but all the sounds of welding, and repair work that they had left in the amidst of had gone silent.

All around the hangar tools had been discarded on the ground not properly put away but had been turned off. The lights in the hangar flickered as they got closer to the Zenpyou's open rear bay door. A cursory glance into the open bay or the hangar did not reveal the presence of any other personnel.
 
This is not right, thought Alice to herself. "Hey guys? Where is everybody?" she said aloud as she walked carefully towards the Zenpyou. She had her hand on her pulse pistol just to be ready to draw it quickly. She took out her communicator with her other hand, "Here is Peacekeeper recruit Mason calling Zenpyou security chief. There is no-one in hangar. Where is everybody? What is going on, sir?"
 
Chikai followed Alice into the hangar, "This is definitely not a good sign. Technicians don't just drop their toys and run unless it's bad," He said pulling out his communicator and activated the life sign scanner mode, at the moment it could only tell him about the others in his group. But as they approached the ship it should give him more information.
 
While Alice kept her hand close to her side arm, Roken had his out as he stepped in front of the others, "let me take point, alright?"

He moved at a steady pace as he neared the rear bay door, Roken's augments sent him a steady stream of information as he scanned across the hangar bay, "I don't like this," Roken said as he kicked a stray tool that was in his path. "Once we're inside I'm grabbing my PA... I'm thinking that the repair team is handing the explosion we felt earlier but I want more info...we can't be the only crew heading to the Zen..."
 
Chikai's life sign scanner revealed several moderate thermal level readings within the Zenpyou's rear bay that were humanoid shaped. There were also faint signs of oxygen displacement and some heart rate readings inside the hangar as well. Whomever they were, they were clustered fairly close together.

Other readings indicated that there was something else filtering through the ship's ventilation system but it was in such trace amounts that it was hard to pin point what the additional substance was.

The regular hangar lights flickered off, and the red emergency lights groaned as they kicked on. The thermal and other life sign readings within the ship suddenly disappeared.

Alice's request fell on an open line, filled with static. But there was a faint echo from her radio request on the opposite side of the hangar closest to the containment doors that led back outside the station.

Looking inside the hangar bay doors showed that the power was still on inside the Zenpyou and tools were once again on the deck, turned off but not put away. Several PA were missing but many were hanging limply in their appropriate properly secured racks against the walls of the bay.
 
"Okay something is definitely off," whispered Alice as she pulled her gun out. She was thinking of pulling out her flashlight too, but that could give them away. She was looking around as they went inside the hangar. When they got to the Power Armor bay she could see that some were missing.

"Chikai could you notify the security of the station? If something happened to us right now, nobody would know about this. I mean, we were recalled but nobody has told us about anything. They won't know that the Zenpyou is like this," said Alice as she started climbing into the Tenshi she used last time.
 
"No problem. Be careful; until the main lights went out I was getting a number of humanoid life sign readings. Getting the PA's is probably advisable, there is something in the air, this scanner isn't powerful enough to identify," Chikai said to the others.

Chikai quickly queued up a message and sent it to station security.
//Flash - Urgent//
To: Mercy Station Security
Following crew members have returned to Hangar 13 on 7B.
PK's Roken Techard, Alice Mason, Kenshin Chikai and Adrian Tsukai.

We have found the hangar bay in a state of array, and no sign of other Zenpyou crew members. Unidentified life signs were detected initially upon our arrival but have vanished. Also we have detected some sort of contaminant in the atmosphere. Advise compartmental isolation of the air handler system to avoid spreading the contamination.

We are donning PA's and continuing to investigate. Please advise.

Kenshi Chikai, Peacekeeper Third Class
Click to expand...

After sending his message he looked around the power armor bay. Given that we are in the ship and on station, I think I'll take one of the No-M-01 Mantus suits, he thought as he approached one and started preparing to get into it.
 
There was no confirmation of the Security Team receiving Chikai's message. In fact, there was a loud screech of falling metal outside the Zenpyou near the door they had entered the hangar from the station.

Inside the Power armor bay, one of the Tenshi on the farthest rack at the very back of the hangar blinked out of existence as the others started donning their power armor.
 
Roken looked back from where they came in, "get your suits on quick." He decided to wait a moment till at least one of them was suited up before doing the same.

Roken's augments had kept a close eye of the surrounding area, the sudden drop of one of the PA's set off his targeting, "Hurry up, I don't think we're alone in here." As Roken slowly edged toward the far end of the PA Bay, he almost wanted to call out but he kept close to the shadows in hopes that whoever or whatever was there would not see him.
 
Alice finished suiting up with putting her helmet on and sealing it airtight. "Okay Rokken, you can suit up. I will cover you." she said and stood up getting her forearm pulse cannons ready. As always a feeling of discomfort came when she has put on the PA suit. That will probably never change.

First, she swept the surrounding area for any movement or injured and dead crew members. Both optically and with the sensors of the suit. Last thing they needed would be some pirates or whatever jumping at them from behind the cargo boxes scattered in hangar.
 
Adrian climbed into his own PA, sealing it air tight and powered up. Scanning his eyes over the boot up information, seeing all initial systems were operating.

Happy, he began to scan the area, altering his sensors to focus on low-frequency transmissions hoping to pick up on any radio signals being emitted.
 
Chikai climbed into his Mantus and powered it up in record time. He set his HUD for split screen on one side showing thermal imaging and the other for light enhancement. He took a few steps towards the center of the bay. Set his Xaser Pulse Canon to Pulse Energy Projectile mode but kept it in standby. From his position he performed a 360 visual scan.
 
Within the power armor bay their thermals scans indicated that there had been some movement of several Tenshi from their initial spots on the storage racks; the tools still indicated a bright thermal shadow which meant that they hadn't been turned off very long. The very nature of their power armor made it difficult to detect using thermal or low light sensors, but with a long wave frequency infrared scan, it'd most likely reveal any power armor using their active camouflage.

There were several possibilities that would have explained the inexplicable disappearance of the life readings but the most plain would be connection between the disappearance of the Tenshi. But further scans inside the bay didn't reveal anything further. The doors leading deeper into the ship was open and the floor panel that Commander Fleming had been working in had not been replaced. It was possible that the other crew members had retreated further into the Zenpyou.

Outside the Zenpyou the grinding noise continued, there was a disjointed mumbling from the back of the hangar bay punctuated by further interference by whatever was jamming their communications frequencies. Their PA were able to isolate and amplify the sound of the signal, "....breech.... level 10.....unidentified.... moving...control systems... regroup... 1ALPHABRAVO Hangar...."
 
After completing his visual scan of the bay he made his way towards where he had last seen the commander. "Since we didn't see anyone coming out of the bay; and thankfully no bodies. The repair crew must still be somewhere on board. We should conduct a search, the only question is should we split up into two teams or stay together?" Chikai said to the others.
 
Roken finally completed all PA systems checks as he suited up in the suit he has been using since he first boarded the Zen. “well splitting up is one idea, we can check the ship faster that way...” Roken's PA caught the broken communications as he took a few steps toward the nearest door. “Did any of you get that...bah...where is a shotgun when you need one..” Roken turned to check what other armaments his suit could use other than the standard but half gave up as his mind wandered back to the broken communication.

“OK, this is what we know: This ship is empty...kinda, the crew working on it left in a hurry just like what happened on our last assignment so...I'm thinking we have visitors on the station.” Roken pulled up the Zens map as he checked a few key locations they may have to go. “Getting to the bridge is top priority and we also need to make sure engineering is secure as well before we get the ship up and running, once that is done we work our way down the list and lock the ship down till we can asses what happen to the crew and maybe get a clear communication to someone outside the station.” He let his fist fall in his hand with a metal clang as he looked at the others, “any other plans or ideas would help as well...but we have to work fast.”
 
All four peacekeeprs got into their armors succesfuly. Whole and alive. Alice was scanning area but she couldn't find anything. She returned to others. "I am not sure splitting up is such a good idea. There is only four of us, and who knows how many of them. Whoever they are," she said. "I also tried PA communicator again, but something is jamming it so no calling for help for us. I think there are two courses of action in front of us. Either we should try to get Zenpyou operational again and find out what happened to crew, or head back into the station and warn them. We can'T be sure they know about the situation. Anyway I think it is clear there is someone hostile on the Zenpyou or on the whole station."
 
Chikai considered Alice's suggestions. "Securing the Zenpyou to me should be our priority. If there is a hostile force onboard the ship, leaving it in their hands is not an option." he shuddered at the thought of the Zenpyou's firepower being unleashed inside the station. "We also do not know the condition of our crew. We owe it to them to ascertain their situation."
 
"I agree with Chikai on this, we need to make sure the Zenpyou is secure. Keeping the Zenpyou out of hostile control is a priority in my mind" Adrian glanced towards Alice, making a serious expression behind the shell of his PA. "We may even find out something if we stick withe the Zenpyou."
 
Roken listened to the alternative plan on gave them a nod, “alright then lets try to secure the zen since were here and work our way from there.” Roken looked at the others before putting his P.A. Helmet on, “hopefully we find the crew were not gonna let whatever it is causing all this mess harm anyone else, so are we all ready do this?” He wanted to make sure everyone else was on the same page before they started anything, whatever was out there it was going to take all of them working together to handle it.
 
"Well, since we are all agreed, let's get moving." Chikai said as he moved toward the corridor that lead inward. He switched on his helmet lamp and surveyed the area where he last saw the commander looking for any sign of what happened to the man.
 
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