RP: YSS Eucharis [Pre Mission 26] Getting Settled In (YE 38)

[Rattenkind]

YSS Eucharis - XO's cabin

Spoiler

YSS Eucharis - XO's Cabin


Natsumi listened as Sigurd explained his situation, the hesitation and apprehension was obvious in the young man.

"Oh, is that what's been eating at you?" she asked and flashed the Nepleslian man a pleasant smile. "The order for mental backup is a standard practice aboard our ships before we head out on a mission, or when we take on new crew" she explained. "Is there any specific reason why you don't want a mental backup created for yourself?" she asked. "Do you have an aversion to being brought back if something happens to you?"

The concept of being reincarnated after death was pretty normal for Natsumi. She was Nekovalkyrja and it was a concept programmed into her since her creation. While she did not necessarily have a firm feel for what she thought of if her consciousness would transfer to a new body or if it would just be a data duplicate, was another thing, but she at least had the comfort of knowing that if she were to die, some form of her would continue on, even if it was not the original her. That said, she knew there were plenty of people from other cultures who did not believe in the system as her people did.

"If it is something that you do not want to do, I don't think there will be an issue with it, and I can make an official note on your record for future postings. I would just want to bring it by the Shosho's attention. As captain of the ship Shosho Hanako should be aware of the position of all her crew. If something was to happen to you in battle, or the like, that would be a bad time to learn that you had opted not to be revived"

The feeling of relief due to the XO's response was... intense. Sigurd hadn't expected her to respond that way at all.

"Thank you, ma'am!", he spoke with gratitude in his voice. "The reason I reject mind backups is my upbringing by my parents. I consider mental backups as well as soul transfer to... lessen the worth of life. It doesn't seem to be unique anymore. It seems to reduce the consequences of our actions."

He shook his head. "I know it sounds a bit crazy. But if you can't die... every moment you experience, every choice and every action isn't worth that much anymore. Because there are infinitely more to come."

 

[Wes]

Bridge

Shosho Hanako took her seat in in the center of the small starship bridge, feeling at home among the familiar white walls and red carpet. She checked the screens on her desk for a moment and then started the ship's journey into space. "Charisma: request departure clearance and request safe vector,."

"We are cleared to depart," the ship's AI replied immediately, after getting an instant response from another AI that controlled the starport operations. "Departure vector assigned." There was a lot of traffic in the Yamatai system, enough that some coordination was needed to make sure the way was clear.

"Follow the departure vector on automatic pilot," Hanako ordered, rolling Marcus's blue stone around in her palm like a ben wa ball.

"Aye aye, following vector automatically." It would be roughly an hour before the ship got out of the Yamatai star system's gravity well and was out in open space where she could engage the hyperspace fold systems.

Cargo Bay

As the ship lifted up into the sky, Cherry and Victory watched the starport grow smaller and smaller from the cargo bay door/ramp. After a minute or two, they finally shut the thing.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Power Armor Bay

Tsuguka gave each of the now suited-up nekovalkyrja a look in turn, strangely sensing their heightened nerves more acutely now that she couldn't see their faces. It was the body language. They weren't exactly panicking by any stretch, it just seemed a little euphoric to be all metal plated with nowhere to go, perhaps.

"The blonde man with the cat ears was Joto Hei Jackson Howard." An informative tone cut through the tense air. "He's formerly Nepleslian, I believe... And also an extremely competent engineer. Probably a good idea to be nice to him." His relationship with the pilot Umeshu was probably another good reason for that, but the red neko decided to let them figure that bit out for themselves.

It was funny, watching their varied first reactions to the armor. Said a lot about their personalities. Shiho and Astridr kind of just looked like they were stretching out in preparation for a fist fight. Junko was still testing out the photonic projectors. On the other hand, she wondered what exactly Freyja was doing staring directly into that grena- Oh, it was fake. Interesting.

A short stride brought Tsuguka up to weapon racks. Some of the weapons were truly strange, barely fitting the assigned hangers due to age, obscurity, and general incompatibility. There were even bits of Lamia M1 mecha back there, not to mention spare parts for Hanako's personal Mindy H1, a baroque frame now older than all of the current away team combined.

What the Joto Hei actually retrieved was a molecure tape dispenser and half a dozen applique KEAA armor blocks. They were for the face of her Mindy 2's old shield, which now needed a sling attached to it in order to even be held by the Mindy 4.

"We don't have much information about the main enemies' full capabilities, but the weapons of their cronies are primarily kinetic." She explained, now taping the blocks to the face of the shield in zig-zag rows. Considering the weight and awkwardness involved, it was pretty obvious why they had waited until now to do this. The power armor made everything a hundred times easier. "Suites-Heisho will elaborate, I'm sure. But it's worth noting this whilst choosing your gear."

Now noting the subtle inertia caused by the acceleration of the ship, Tsuguka chose to pause for a moment, and review the team again.

"Are there any questions? Speak your minds."

 

[Mad_Stylus]

<<Power Armor Bay>>

Junko nodded emphatically to Freyja's unspoken query. On a basic level, she was fairly certain they were programmed to find the tools of war satisfying. That seemed a shallow explanation for what she felt in the armor. Programming, chemical functions and so on seemed too cold and clinical for something that enriched the soul.

She looked up as she felt a small shift through the deck plate. Was the Eucharis lifting off, then? She turned to Tsuguka to confirm, and stopped. Reactive armor on a shield was a very Daisy tactic, as opposed to the space-based Mindy combat she'd been hammered on so much.

"What exactly are the enemies we'll be facing? What we've heard so far has painted a numerically superior but technologically outmatched force." It wasn't what she'd been expecting, in hindsight. Maybe it was a NMX proxy force?

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay

"Finally," he muttered as he felt the subtle vibration of the ship's reactor starting. He couldn't stand planets, the launch was definitely welcome.

"What exactly are the enemies we'll be facing? What we've heard so far has painted a numerically superior but technologically outmatched force." It wasn't what she'd been expecting, in hindsight. Maybe it was a NMX proxy force?

"Do NOT," he nearly shouted, then continued with a softer tone as he walked across the bay, "..underestimate them. These Rixxicor are relentless and the Kuvexians are resourceful. None of us are safe on this ship, twice now they have found ways to bypass our defences. They know how to restore NMX warships to space worthy - no, COMBAT READY conditions. We're not fighting the Rixxicor, we're on the brink of war with the Kuvexian Empire and they are every bit as dangerous as we are."

The door to the elevator closed as he finished speaking. He let out a sigh of relief. He'd successfully managed to speak publicly again and make a smooth exit. He knew how absurd it was. Here he was, a man who'd faced off with an enraged king, thwarted the plot of a terror cell, and brought the fight straight to the NMX FOBs.. and still he just didn't feel right when the attention was on him.

He noticed that a heavy weight was no longer on his back. He reached his hand to where the grip of his sword should have been but it wasn't there. He wasn't wearing the saya either.
'Oh, right, I left it at my armor rack,' he remembered, 'I need to keep a closer eye on that thing.'


YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

Candon sat down it the booth farthest from the staircase to the lounge with a glass of water with his communicator on the table displaying the dossiers of every member of the armor team as closed folders displaying each member's face above a schematic readout of their armor. He sat deeper into the booth opening the folder for Masumi. There was simply no real information about her. He wanted to see some combat preferences, specializations, something! All he could see was.. average. So much average.

'Damn, did she even have any friends?'
He thought as he read her combat trainer's note on her field of science:
Good with science
"What the hell?" He mumbled as her saw pink hair through the volumetric display.

'Convenient... '
"Care to join?"

 

[Ametheliana]

YSS Eucharis
Wardroom

Masumi made it into the wardroom and found herself being ushered to the booth by Candon Suites. She nodded her head, yes, and sat down across from him.

"I would love to, Suites-heisho. I didn't know I wouldn't be the only one here so early..."

Some small part of her had wanted to wait alone, as was her usual since she left boot camp and lost all of her friends. The comforts of loneliness and learning science were all she had had for months at EF2.

She finished her statement, "...and I'm happy to see you're here to wait with."

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Power Armor Bay

Tsuguka just put her free hand to her hip and listened, nodding resolutely after Candon had finished.

"Let's say out of thirty Rixxikor, twenty-nine are useless jackasses. They are just there because of some kind of insect swarming instinct, and a love of shiny objects to loot. Completely inefficient and pointless." Memories scrolled back through a lot of those faces, belonging to a multitude of bugmen she might have even felt a little guilty about ending the lives of. But that pitiful feeling only lasted until her memories scrolled along to number thirty. "The problem is that last one. The one who will sick a grenade to your back, stick a rocket launcher in your face, lead you into a trap right when you least expect it... The one that knows you aren't taking them seriously."

Renewing her motion of up-armoring her shield, the hand motions help sooth out the pent-up aggression that all of it brought on. Perhaps the only emotion that Tsuguka never needed help expressing.

"Suites-Heisho is the intelligence specialist. I'm sure he'll have more to say on this specific matter, in our meeting after lunch." Audible fire still pervaded her words, now addressing all of them again instead of just looking at Junko. "Normally our suits are left fully armed, so they can be used at a moment's notice. For now, just familiarize yourself with what we have in stock."

"If that's all, then you are free to dismount and get something to eat whenever you like. Astridr-Hei, go across the corridor, one floor up, and requisition an empty bunk, please."

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

"Oh, thank you, but unfortunately I'm not simply looking for company," he replied as he pushed the communicator to the side, keeping its volumetric display facing them so they could both read it, " this is your dossier. Now normally I only have to read someone's dossier once, twice if it is particularly interesting. This is the third time I have read through your dossier… don't be flattered, it's not a compliment.

"After three times reading through this I still don't know a damn thing about you. I don't even know what field of science you study. All of your scores through training have been... To be frank, they are average to an extreme. Eighty point zero zero percent combat effectiveness? Wa- what is that? H- how is that even possible?.. now look, I'm not insinuating that your dossier has been forged, anyone who is trying to infiltrate the empire would have put a lot more effort into creating a false dossier than this. The reason I wanted to talk to you about this is because of your aptitude test score. I'm not allowed to tell you what the score was, but let me put it this way. It was higher than mine, and at the risk of sounding arrogant that's impressive. That's probably the reason your on this ship.

"More than that I've been organizing the team and the best formation I've come up with is going to involve you and I working together a lot to accomplish objectives while the infantry beat down doors. So I have know.. who are you?"

Candon sat back again awaiting an answer, one that he hoped would be more informative than just her name.

 

[HotelKilo]

YSS Eucharis
Bridge

Realizing she shouldn't have tried to interrupt the Admiral, Belle waited at the back of the bridge as the vessel lifted. Apparently her heart wasn't done pounding in her chest; as Eucharis rose from the starport she felt a profound wish that there was a window to peep out of on the bridge. It was only the second time (in her memory) that she'd left the gravity of a world behind. Departing Keren III had felt almost like a relief, leaving behind a life that had increasingly felt stifling. Being aboard a warship breaking orbit for a combat mission felt distinctly different and despite herself Belle felt her heart soar.

Even if her part in that mission was making sure that all the right lines had been signed and boxes stuck in the right storage racks. Almost as fast as her spirits had risen, she was back to an even keel thanks to the pages of text displayed in front of her.

Belle's thoughts drifted thanks to a crick in her wings to the previous night... Despite knowing what kind of quarters there were on a gunship, the sleeping module still had felt very nearly claustrophobic. It really wasn't that much different from the barracks the Elysian had been living in since joining the Army, barring the fact that these clearly weren't designed with those blessed with wings in mind. Sleeping curled up in her own wings had a certain primitive feel to it that seemed out of place on a space going warship.

Clearing her throat, wings twitching anxiously, Belle's voice intruded into Hanako's quiet reflection. Duty may have called, but so was her lack of breakfast. Her voice was all business today, "Shosho? Ma'am? Should I come back later?"

 

[Blizzard]

YSS Eucharis - Fabrication

"...Well, that's a good start, at least." Yawned Jax as he pushed himself away from the monitor and popped the joints in his fingers. Displayed on said monitor was a mathematical equation similar to that of an inertial dampener, only reversed. The Parking Brake was one step closer to completion. Not very close, but every journey had to start somewhere.

He was in no mood to even think about Valhalla at the moment, so he saved his work and strolled over to the elevator while smoothing out his coveralls.

YSS Eucharis - Wardroom

Jax put on his token grin and relaxed his posture. Whatever sob-fest he was going through, the other guys didn't need to get bummed out right before a new mission.

"Wasaaaaaah! Jax is in the house, y'all!" He whooped loudly in a very Nepleslian fashion. He gave everyone a quick wave as he made his way to the buffet for a snack.

 

[Ametheliana]

YSS Eucharis
Wardroom

Oshiro Masumi nodded as he talked and when he was finished, said, “I have an understanding and knowledge of planetology, anthropology, phytology, zoology, genetics, astrophysics, chemistry, computer science, astrochemistry, astrometry, astrochemistry, astrobiology, and," she hesitated as she looked at the worry lines that etched his face as he spoke, then said, "psychology. I have no particular field of study as of yet as I am a general scientist. I am proficient at sensor and scanner reading and can do so in the field and aboard the ship. I have been trained to be able to do autopsies on different specimens and have gone through the normal trials and tribulations of a star army scientist."

"I, like every other Yamataian soldier, am well trained and have that to thank for any high test score I received."

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

Candon's face had in fact changed as Masumi rattled off an ology for everything. He was fairly confident that he heard chemistry twice and psychology was downright unnerving.
'Ohhh, crap.. I told he my cabin number..'
His mind turned to theories of her 'real assignment', that being an undercover SAINT operative for the purpose of prying into his mental health...
'A SAINT employed psychiatrist.. I thought Nakaide trusted me more than this... but many people have high aptitude scores. maybe she isn't…'
His brain kept it playing in a loop.

"I, like every other Yamataian soldier, am well trained and have that to thank for any high test score I received."

"Yeah, no," he replied shaking his head, "training is important and most tests are useless. Aptitude however- it's different. I think your dossier makes more sense now. Masumi, you have a rare condition. You know how to think. It's not something you can be programmed with, a professor can't teach it to you. You either have it or you don't. Occasionally experience brings it but most people will live their entire lives thinking within the box. I think in time you'll develop this into useful talent. In the meantime, are you trained in any kind of cyberscience? Hacking, Jamming, tetris?"

"Wasaaaaaah! Jax is in the house, y'all!" He whooped loudly in a very Nepleslian fashion. He gave everyone a quick wave as he made his way to the buffet for a snack.

"Oh, that's perfect timing. I need you to bring my armor to fabrication and repaint it after lunch," he responded to the obnoxious intrusion of youthful insanity, "and I'll let you hold my sword."

 

[Ametheliana]

YSS Eucharis
Wardroom

She listed off the areas of training she had received, cursing herself for slipping up and repeating herself. While she did, Masumi felt the same thing she had felt for the other scientist aboard the Eucharis when she saw him on the cargo ramp- empathy for him. It was odd, feeling it again. He looked grizzled and something there was hardened in his grey blue eyes.

He asked her what she could do and she answered simply, "Yes, I can cause intentional interference in a communication network and get past encryption systems," then added, "among other things, such as Tetris."

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

Candon nodded with approval, "You and I are going to get along just fine. We'll probably even have fun with this. I can perform electronic warfare operations on my own, it just takes me some time and honestly I don't like doing it. With the solid volumetric tech the fabrication module probably isn't going to be as needed as what I'm going to give you. I want you to take the E-3000 leader support pack that was assigned to me for extended combat operations. It has a special software on it for the purpose of jamming subspace communications, which is easy seeing as all you have to do is put out white noise on every frequency but the ones we use. Additionally I'm going to sync up our AIES so we can access information more easily. You will have access to the information collected from my drones and I'll be able to see the data from your leader pack. Together we will serve as reconnaissance for the Infantry and provide them back up when needed.

"I do have a couple of expectations. I need you to be capable of working independently from me, like not needing solitary, just occasionally we'll have to split up and regroup at different areas. Second, I need you to be punctual. If you're going to be late I need to know so that I can plan accordingly. Third, I know you don't have much real experience but I need you to be ready to make judgement calls. I won't always be around to give orders, there might come a time where you need to make a big decision without my input.

"Since we're going to be partners in this I want to know what your expectations are of me, go ahead."

 

[SensualCoder]

YSS Eucharis
Power Armor Bay

Once she had flexed enough and gotten a good feel for her new suit, not to mention the few little adjustments and tweaks she would need to make to the suit, Astridr marveled a little at how well-kept the Eucharis' suits seemed to be. Very little modification or adjustments necessary, almost like this suit had been made for her. The thought brought a little smile to the pink-haired Neko's face as she went over to get her armor loudout ready.

During her time in boot camp, Astridr had leaned toward fire support and grenadier roles in combat, and so chose her loadout appropriately: a gauss rifle and missile pod for her shoulder mounts; the offensive augmentation pods for her leg mounts; a General Equipment Pack for support and extra ammo that went into the dorsal mount; a LASR-SLAG rifle for her main hand-held weapon. Looking around the racks, she couldn't find any plasma blades or really anything hand-held that could be used when the fighting got up-close and personal, so Astridr settled on a simple combat knife that she sheathed on the waist of the armor. She'd have to requisition something more powerful, but it would do. Like her mother, Astridr had been known to get ferocious, almost feral, in hand-to-hand combat, a quirk of her gene-design perhaps. But that should do it.

Astridr-Hei, go across the corridor, one floor up, and requisition an empty bunk, please.

"Hai, Tsuguka-Hei," Astridr replied stiffly as she went back to her armor rack and went about sloughing the armor off of her. To the young Neko, it felt like pulling off the blanket of a very comfortable bed when you should get up but know you could probably sleep in a few more minutes in max comfort. Once secured back in the rack, the pink-haired Neko patted the chest plate of the armor once more and smiled before slipping back into her work uniform, picking up her duffel bag and backpack, and then took Tsuguka's directions to the living quarters.

Crew Cabins

Scanning down the line of cabins circling the lounge, Astridr felt her face drop as she realized all of the cabins had been occupied. Though 2 and 3 had a space left, the young Neko felt a little iffy about sharing quarters with either of her seniors, especially after that cold elevator ride with Tsuguka. The memory made another chill run down her spine as she hurried on to the sleeper cabin. She breathed a sigh of relief as it had room left, and being fresh from boot she was used to living in such places anyway. The pink-haired Neko moved inside and plopped her things onto an unoccupied bed before heading back out to join the others in the Wardroom.

 

[Ametheliana]

YSS Eucharis
Wardroom Booth

Hearing that she would be something of an integral part of the reconnaissance unit for the armor team made her feel something, something that she had felt back in boot camp more than she had while studying science. It was the feeling of being a part of a team.

Not only that, but now she was in a position to be a major asset to the team that had big missions ahead of it.

She began to move her index finger over her knuckles as the Nito-Heisho spoke and eventually her stern face turned to that of a smile as he talked to her about his expectations of her. She knew she could meet them and exceed them. If there was one thing she had besides loneliness and science at her side, it was confidence, now that he had revealed her aptitude test score. There was no pressure for her to exceed, in her mind, only the understanding that she would.

"Thank you for the E-3000, I didn't ever expect to be in possession of something so valuable so soon. Thank you. Do I have expectations of you?" she said. "Only that you follow Shosho Hanako’s commands and fulfill her orders, as you request I fulfill yours.”

 

[Zack]

Cabin 5

Wazu dropped his duffel bag down on his bed and then fished out his datapad again, sitting down as he continued working on his Rixxikor-Space-Herpes project. The split with Erika when he left Ether had been terrible, and Aikiko leaving the Eucharis wasn't much better. It took a moment of his thoughts drifting before he realized he was just sitting there brooding.

“When did I become a grumpy old man?” He thought out loud.

A change of scenery would do nicely. He couldn't worry about Hanako looking like she was isolated from the crew if he himself was doing something quite similar. He would head toward the door of the cabin, pause, and then return to his bed to make the very wise decision of switching out of his current 'How does this work?' NMX mating cycle T-shirt and into something plain and green.

Wardroom

Unlike the nekos on the ship, when Wazu entered a room, he had to take a moment to manually scan the whole place with his eyes, Candon was otherwise occupied, the new people were new, and Jax was available and as animated as ever.

“Hey Jax,” Wazu said, joining him in line at the buffet, “I have another technical challenge for you if you are interested.”

 

[Blizzard]

YSS Eucharis - Wardroom

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

"Oh, that's perfect timing. I need you to bring my armor to fabrication and repaint it after lunch," he responded to the obnoxious intrusion of youthful insanity, "and I'll let you hold my sword."

"-Eally?!" Asked the mechanic in genuine excitement as he whipped his head around, having momentarily forgotten that he had a roll in his mouth.

"..."

"...Oh, -eye."

Jax chewed and swallowed, then nearly jumped up and down like a giddy child. "Sure thang, Spooky! I'll do that!"

“Hey Jax,” Wazu said, joining him in line at the buffet, “I have another technical challenge for you if you are interested.”

"Yeah, sure, Jimmy! Whatcha got?"

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

Thank you. Do I have expectations of you?" she said. "Only that you follow Shosho Hanako’s commands and fulfill her orders, as you request I fulfill yours.”

"I can promise that I will always work in the best interest of the empire. But that actually brings up a different topic," he confessed, "When I was assigned to the Eucharis I was specifically asked to protect Hanako's reputation this may involve going above and beyond orders... that means breaking rules sometimes. I need to know what you think of that."

 

[Ametheliana]

YSS Eucharis
Wardroom Booth

Immediately she said, "I follow Hanako's orders, hers are the ones I take. But I will help you in so far as you need me to help her. If that is what you are asking."

She hadn't known there would be an intelligence specialist that found her skills invaluable and if she had, she would have spent a few more minutes a night studying skills like hacking and cyber science. Maybe if she had she would be able to hack an AI by now. But she hadn't and couldn't. Having something like the E3000 with its own CIES at the ready made her feel like she would be developing her skills further than before, though. Perhaps learning more before now would have been fruitless because the true knowledge to be gained was in the field, and more so, maybe Suites was the one to best teach it to her.

She looked towards the zero g passageway, knowing the bridge was a bit beyond it. She had been looking forward to seeing why Shosho Hanako had only one available position, that for a scientist, aboard the ship when she had sought out the position. She didn't know if she would get the opportunity to find out, now that she was choosing her own path, one towards SAINT and not aboard the bridge, reading sensors and scanners as she had once hoped to be doing.

"I would like to know more about your assets, your skills. I know I have a lot of knowledge to gain from you, but I don't know what it is yet. What is it that you would most like me to learn from you?"