Soresu
Well-Known Member
Re: [Main Phase: Mission 3] Silent Garden
ON, VSV Astarte
Garden of Mu'Klamal
Bukor 12, 936
14:41, Commonwealth Standard Time
The minutes after the Astarte exited fold went without incident, and initial scans revealed an absence of any hostile presence and no evidence of them passing through this region in the recent past. Some of the senior crew had been called in to the bridge examine anomalous signatures, but the frame runners were allowed to remain on stand-by when it was confirmed the area itself was relatively safe. In particular, a message specifically requesting the ship's Solanii Liaison had been sent out, as the signal was of a strange kind.
Meanwhile, the Vaytulri Farouk received a ping on his datarod. Someone on the bridge was trying to communicate with him.
"Sckhak... Snk... Snuh...?" Hissed Mu'Tasim through his nose as he was awoken from his sleep. His ringtone had gone off, and his datarod was vibrating enough to wake up a sleeping herdtitan. Before fully shaking himself awake, he activated the rod's holographic screen and viewed who was calling him. "Bridge... personnel... ah..."
The Temple Guard shook his head, remembering that he had fallen asleep in the Base Shrine of the ship after a bit of meditation. As a result, the Temple Guard had fallen asleep sitting up. He straightened himself, still sitting, and stared at the screen for a moment, regaining his focus, then hit the accept button on the screen.
"Yes, hello?" answered the Vaytulri, his face still looking a tad weathered from the sleep.
"Vaytulri Farouk." The female missions operator from his sortie addressed him politely, by name and rank. "The Senbalri Vadranno had requested you meet her at the elevator of your deck to assist in an inspection. We've detected anomalous signals coming from the ship that started up after we exited fold."
Mridula dragged herself from the safety and enclosure of her pod and almost collapsed onto the floor, her head still cloudy with sleep. She had been pinged while she was napping, the pod's connection to the ship notifying her that she was needed, but she had to check her datapad to find out why, exactly, she had been roused. She banged her shin on the table as she approached and cursed loudly.
"...a... signal? From the Gardens? Mmnh." She straightened out her uniform, getting rid of sleep-wrinkles, and gave her hair a much-needed brush before setting off to the bridge.
The voice that had roused her from her sleep chimed in again. "It's biological, but the emissions don't make any sense."
"Ah, I will be there right away." Mu'Tasim said, looking at the far wall, where he left his equipment before he sat down for meditation. He clambered to his feet and walked over to the wall and strapped the Fael Raig to his belt, holstered his Laiz Pistol, and strapped on his LLS ammo, both anti-personnel, and anti-armor to his belt as well. With all his weaponry strapped in, he settled his robe around himself, successfully hiding his all his munitions, and then left the shrine for the elevator. As he approached, he ran his hands through his beard and hair, trying to make himself presentable. "Senbalri Varanno?"
"No sense? How?" the biologist responded to the additional information... just before she stumbled into a bulkhead, the bang resonating in the hallway. "Argh."
"It's a weird noise that's why! Weird Weird Weiiiiird!" the NI's voice butted into the communication to Mridula sounding dumbfounded.
"Yo." The Senbalri turned around, holding up her pale hand in a friendly salute. "Kinda glad you answered my request. The regular warrant officers didn't feel like helping me out with an inspection, and I heard that you were on this deck, so uh..." Anik said with a nervous laugh, patting herself on the side of the head.
"They're picking up ZPE signals, but they're sort of faint."
"Weird noise? I need a little more detail, please! I can't do anything with 'it's weird' and 'it makes no sense.'" The liaison rubbed her face, turning a corner on her way towards the bridge. "Just... never mind, I'll take a look myself."
"Well, I will gladly assist you, Senbalri! I usually relish opportunities to deal with problems on foot, to be totally honest." said Mu'Tasim adjusting his belt of munitions under his robes. "Now, ZPE signals, eh?"
The Temple Guard thought for a moment before stepping onto the elevator.
"Ah, it's probably just some interference from some VANDR maintenance in the hangar bays." shrugged the Sund Wakir, motioning his head towards the door to beckon her to follow.
"We're detecting resonance fields and light concentrations of Veyrinite at the areas were the signals originate from. We're pretty sure they're biological, though." The sensors operator that had been sending the messages to her rose from his console and stood out of the way to allow her to take his seat. "But the weird part is..."
"... the signals are in space."
"I don't know about that. There's almost fifty meters between the storage areas and the nearest VANDR bay, but I guess there's no point in arguing with you." Anik nodded and took a step into the elevator, punching in the codes for the storage decks. She seemed to be slightly skeptical "One of the mechanists from the surveillance team is going to be waiting up by the entrance."
"Well, then we'll just figure this out once and for all! Oh ho! This sounds exciting!" Mu'Tasim said with a grin, the curiosity of the situation was strikingly obvious. At least, the mysterious nature of what was going on was making his dungeon-crawling senses tingle. "Reminds me of when I fell through a sinkhole in the Nuocr. Was nightmarish, and I had fight my way out with just a revolver and a scimitar, but I don't think I've ever experienced a greater thrill."
Mridula walked to the man's seat and crouched in front of it, not quite sitting as she peered at the screen. "...are they... floating bodies, or something?"
Data coming up was still imprecise, but the initial scans revealed two things that disproved her immediate hypothesis. First, the objects were far too large in size and of the wrong shape to just be a corpse or VANDR wreckage. Stranger still, was that the object appeared to be moving... away from sensor range, at a fairly high speed.
"...does anyone have a telescope?"
"...it's just the storage bays, hon." Anik said with a slightly stunned expression, playing off her shock with a soft chuckle. It was quite obvious that she was surprised at his sudden enthusiasm in being shangaied into a random search by someone who was technically his subordinate. "But that story sounds like a lotta fun. Did you get to tangle with anything really tough, or was it all the usual deformed whatever's beneath the desert?" She asked, watching the decks fly past them through the clear hyperglass window around the back of the elevator.
"Oh, the usual deformities you hear about in stories, but of course, there was a mutation or two that proved a great deal of trouble." Mu'Tasim said, a story-telling glint arising in his eyes. Thinking back to those days in the dark, he couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic to the utter fear of death he felt walking through rocky depths. "I nearly had an arm ripped off by one quadruped, it had brutish claws for hands, and from what I could make out, several eyes. Luckily, my other arm was free enough to use my pistol, but despite being out of ammo, I simply jabbed the barrel deep into one of it's eyes and used the opening to kill it!"
Mu'Tasim sighed dreamily, "Ah, good times."
"Eh, then again, that's probably not one of my brighter ideas. Plus, it'd be rude to bother her, and she's probably under guard, and they probably won't let us even near her, let alone just get a glimpse of her." Akjit spoke, twiddling his index fingers around one another. "You, umm, wouldn't have any better ideas besides just standing here or taking a peek at the brig, would you?"
Firuz rose his right eyebrow at Akjit. He couldn't help but smirk at what he was insinuating. "Heh. I guess we could go check it out, if only to see what she had planned or what her condition is... you know, we could check if she's feeling like some Hlaraian dreams." Firuz chuckled. The frame runner might've been crazy, but he had a good sense of humor. He would put his hands to his side and simply stand there next to the viewport and answer Akjit's question. "Well, I dunno. What do you have in mind? Are we really gonna go check 'er out?" Firuz didn't really mind that idea at all.
"Try the particle sensors? It probably won't give us away to anyone, since no one else is here." The sensors operator advised, leaning in on the back of his operations pod and shuffling nervously. "We would've tried that, but the object was stationary while we were moving towards the system core and our scans were making sense. When the captain ordered us to break a few minutes ago, they started to fly away towards the inner system."
"You young people don't use your eyes enough," Mridula mumbled as she plopped down in the chair. She started to twiddle around with the volumetric display of the sensors, bringing up the particle sensor display and increasing the size so both of them could see easily. "Whatever it was, maybe we scared them off."
The elevator dinged, leaving Anik and Mu'Tasim at the entrance of the first floor of the aft storage bays. Anik waved at the mechanist that had been sent over the help them get into the bay, and stepped out into the hallway. "So, Alia. Do you guys know which floor the emissions are coming from?"
Akjit snickered. "Damn, I was trying to be polite. But if that's what was on you're mind, go ahead. I was just going to ask her what's up with her group." The Ivuori started to walk towards the elevator in hopes of taking it to the brig after all.
"Suuure you were." Firuz chuckled and followed after Akjit.
As the lift moved the two, the young man frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? I'd be nice to ask one of them, but less so if it's some big guy who want's to rip your guts out. Better a cute girl who'd want to rip your guts out, you know?" The doors opened, punctuating his sentence.
"Heh. Whatever, dude... I guess so." The joke was kind of defeated by Akjit's defensive nature.
"Second level," Alia said as she pointed up, "the readings seem to be coming from somewhere up there and near the back somewhere."
Mridula was able to skilfully pry just a bit more information out of the sensors than the operator, managing to get a clear sweep around the strange object. The ship NI relayed the data to her via voice. "Scans reveal tissues laced with high Veyrinite content, pseudo-organoid architecture. The object is generating resonance fields to disguise its size and nature, and mask what appears to be a zero-point siphon."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mu'Tasim said, grinning widely again as he waved at Alia.
Anik tapped the console and let herself in, glancing around quickly and frowning a little. Although the ship's internal sensors had listed the sector as having been repaired back to normal, the lights hadn't even gone on when they walked in, and the area hadn't even been cleaned up properly since the last battle. Pulling her flashlight out and aiming it around gave a better view of everything, but there wasn't much to be seen aside from piles of food packets strewn around between half-emptied shelves.
"Damn. It's like the service drones didn't even fly in."
"Should I take a shuttle out there to see? We don't seem to be able to get any better readings, and... whatever this is, Solan would like some data on it, I think."
It was an awkward moment for Akjit; he rubbed the back of his head to express that. On the other hand, it was not so much as what happened earlier in the day. "Heh." He shook his head back and forward in disapproval. No need to think about his crewmates that way considering they were all stranded in the same ship for who knows how long. He didn't want to come off as the ship's pervert or something. Though, that was probably already taken by someone. As newcomer, he wasn't sure.
As he came up to the brig, Akjit was the one to start the dialog with the person up front. "Excuse me. We've been talking about the NVR and what it's been up to; I've said they've been really sloppy with destroying the biosphere and all. I think it's just to scare us, but this guy says that I'm probably giving them too much credit. Could you let us ask one of the POWs about this? My friend, Malik, he's a Frame Runner like myself; eh, he caught the escape pod of one of them, and I'd like to ask this person. You know. Since this person's fresh off their boat and all." The Ivuori changed his manner of speech in hopes of getting a better result, sounding casual and relaxed in comparison to his discomfort earlier.
Personally, Akjit was surprised the person on duty let him say all that, let alone listen.
"I'll put a request in with the captain to see if we can borrow one of the Waka." The sensors operator replied, pressing a few buttons on his datarod. "We'll probably need to get one of the shuttle operators to drive, unless you have qualifications to pilot one of those things."
"I might be able to. Everyone else is off enjoying their time on break, I wouldn't want to interrupt them." She tapped at the interface some more, trying to get information on the signals' speed and direction. "And it's not like there's anything to crash into or anyone shooting at us."
A surly looking Sund Wakir Senshirin grunted at the request. "You both do not have authorization to talk to the prisoners. So why exactly should I let you?" the man, a Senbalri asked.
"Heh. Tell him, Akjit." Firuz smirked and patted the runner on his shoulder twice. He found all of this highly amusing. Like he was pulling a prank on someone; or, in this case, with someone. He found he was kind of a co-conspirator of Akjit's little plan, which would probably fail, but he still went with it regardless. Not much anything better to do in the ship for now. Obviously, though, since Akjit had gone forth and spoken with the guard, Firuz was pitting Akjit further down the very hole he'd dug when he decided to ask the guard nicely without making up any authorization and what have you. There was a smile Firuz couldn't get off his mouth from what was going on. He hoped it wasn't too noticeable.
"If you say so, ma'am." The sensors operator nodded. "I've got permission from the fleet NI to grab one of the shuttles, so we can head out any time you want."
Akjit rubbed his chin for a moment before replying. "Well, no reason really. We're just here because we're bored and figured whoever was down here was too. I mean, do you ever get to talk to anyone down here or is it always quiet?" He asked. He looked back at Firuz for a moment and continued on. "Firuz says they're complete nutjobs and are only held together by their desire to kill us. But I say they're smarter than that because they built all these ships and frames I had to shoot down. I mean, do you know? I guess I'm kinda asking you now since you're the closest we can get." Akjit's naive, honest expressions were either going to get them in, or booted straight out.
"Hrm..." hummed Mu'Tasim as he raised up his Fael Raig up in the air and activated it, letting it's light flood the room. He leaned the blade towards one direction, and then the other to gather a good survey of their surroundings. "Now, where is this place in question?"
"How about now?" Mridula deactivated the screen and stood up, dusting off her rear.
The guard nearly spat on the ground glaring at the two. "I've got six people on patrol in the brig as we speak. So I'm not alone down here!" he barked at the two. While standing shorter then the pair it seemed he was a little ball of fire. "Coming down here to talk to the prisoners without no authorization is against regs. That old Graimel of a Vaygraiv would have my horns on a plaque and yours too if he knew you were down here."
"Uh... yes ma'am." The sensor operator said with a salute, brushing his white bowl cut hair away from his eyes in doing so. "It'll be prepped in ten."
The Cohronl rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. Geez... You'd think asking a prisoner somethin' like that wouldn't be that much of a hassle." He still had that smirk on his mouth. The situation was pretty funny, particularly with Akjit treating the guy as if he were a high school friend he hadn't seen since boot camp, but it was probably gonna go downhill from here on in. "We'll just be on our way, I guess. Sorry to trouble you."
"Can't you go any faster?" the liaison asked the operator, crossing her arms over her chest. "Come on. Ten minutes is ages."
Alia shrugged. "I'm not sure, the readings I got just pointed to the rear part of the floor."
"I know it probably seems that way, but it's a miracle we got clearance this easily." The operator scratched his chin, his eyes darting between his datarod and the ceiling. He seemed to be drawing up blanks trying to get a workable solution to her problem. "I might... we might be able to launch earlier if we get in one of the M1-1b's, but they're sort of crappy to fly."
The young Ivuori looked at the guard's horns, and then Firuz' horns, and then attempted to look up at his own. A hand reached up and gently patted the side of one. "But, but...we're not talking to the prisoners right now. Just you. And I don't see you being kept company by the others either." Akjit then raised his hands up, palms forward in a defensive gesture.
"Don't get me wrong, but don't you talk to any of them? Can't you tell us? I just want to know what we're up against here! Last battle, we came back with hardly a casualty, but what about next time? If anything you can tell us would give some insight into how they think, it might save some of us down the road."
"Uh... Akjit... really, dude? You're gonna insist?" Firuz took a couple of seconds to think about it, and then realized. Well, in all honesty, he has a point... the guard'd do us a favor if he clarified that doubt for us. It's not like it's gonna take all day. Just a yes or a no from her'd do... He turned to stare at the guard after Akjit finished making his case before the guard. Firuz had already turned to leave, but was actually interested now. The spaceship operator shrugged and kind of made a meaningful motion with his shoulders and head, acceding to Akjit's inquiry. "...actually, you know, he is right. We're all in peril here. The sooner we know, the better."
Mu'Tasim advanced to the back of the storage area, the torchlight of his Fael Raig leading the way. He was feeling a little edgy, on high hopes that they'd find something interesting that would make this anomalous reading. "Then let us root out this signature and find out what's the cause for worry." said the Temple Guard excitingly.
As Mridula found her way to the bridge what had happened earlier happened again. Except this time it was a sneak attack from behind. The NI, Ishtar had been waiting by the bridge entrance, standing against the bulkhead waiting for the Liaison to walk through. When the opportunity had presented itself she charged at Mridula from behind slamming into her back with a little force, arms wrapping around her waist just a little above her hips. "Hello Vaytulri Osei!" the NI greeted enthusiastically.
"Crappy to fly? Why? Old - mugahgh!" Mridula almost fell over as she was leapt onto by the small NI, only managing to stay upright by putting a hand on the back of the operator's chair. Her other hand went to Ishtar's arms around her. "...hello, Ishtar."
Ishtar had begun rubbing a cheek into Mridula's back by this point, smiling quite like a pleased cat at being recognized. When what the woman had said while being crashed into however registered she nearly jumped back. Instead she settled with nearly going ramrod straight. "Oh! I'm sorry for doing that!" suddenly feeling awkward.
"Ya'know guys. I once heard'a that Vaygraiv pistol whipping some Lantulri for making fun of his eye patch once." a voice said from behind the pair. "Poor bastard was said to have had a stutter until finally they shoved him into a Prajna tank just to get it over with." a hand then rested on both Akjit and Firuz's shoulders.
"Personally. I know for a fact he didn't end up stuttering he just got busted back down to Vayshirin and was working some shit job on a garbage scow."
Yeah, that didn't sound good. Whoever was behind them, he hadn't been there when Firuz had turned to leave. "Akjit... you know, my interest on the NVR is starting to dwindle. I'm thinking more of the, you know, the guards down here in the brig and how they're really devoted to their work. I realize now, that these guards are probably the backbone of this ship! Without them, what would we be but a space husk filled to the brim with prisoners and brigands about!?
We should let them resume their most honorable, sacred duty and leave the brig, you know? It's only fair they get their space, right?" He looked at Akjit with a bit of a concerned look, not turning his head. His glowing blue eyes pleaded with all their intensity Akjit agreed. Firuz was no sooth-sayer, but in times of duress, he could come up with some interesting stuff to get out of a pickle.
Mridula turned around as best she could and ruffled Ishtar's hair. "We're about to leave, so, um... this isn't really the best time."
"Uhm...Uhm...I have a shuttle prepped for you and ready in the shuttlebay." Ishtar's face flushed slightly. "I was monitoring the situation and thought ahead of time and that it would help."
There was some sort of reaction from one of the cell's occupants, a quiet rustling inside of the cavernous holding area. A small arm stretched out, the hand and fingers raking inwards, trying to get the attention of the new arrivals. "Hey. Hey! Don't scare them off!" A girl's voice complained, somewhat distressed by Firuz' sudden loss of interest in the NVR prisoners. "I'm totally classified information. Don't you want to talk?!"
With complete surprise, Akjit half raised a hand as though he were still in a classroom. He expected complete failure to even talk to any of them after Firuz tried to bug out on him. "I-I do." He spoke. "Um, only if it's ok with the guards here." He spoke, looking at the two guards.
"Oh, they don't care. It's not like I have awesome mind control eyes or anythin'." The prisoner retorted, withdrawing her arm back into her cell.
Well, that was a twist! How'd have expected the prisoner to actually go out of her way to talk with them? When he realized that the prisoner was talking, the interest on the NVR peaked back up to full attention. A bit more seriously this time around. The operator really did think these people were full of hatred. He was surprised the prisoner was talking so calmly... though perhaps it was just sarcastic scorn towards them.
"Naw, baby you got the prettiest eyes on the ship. It's just you're a traitor and all." the voice from behind the two said." 'Sides these two look a little wet behind the ears."
"Hey!" The prisoner complained, objecting to the title of traitor the VIA Operative pinned on her. As far as she knew, she hadn't betrayed anything. "I didn't even know what in dreamless sky the Commonwealth was until those NVR bastards rolled in. We're just conscripts, you know!"
Anik glanced around, preferring the more precise light of her stick to the faint and far reaching glow Farouk's laser sword. Examining closer revealed more of the same things, but there was something... weird, in the very back. Most of the paneling had glowing parts and pieces, but she could make out a trio of smaller lights buried somewhere in the mess of food packets at the very back of the room.
The Mazerinii woman put her flashlight up, and gestured over to it. "There's something over there. Looks kinda weird."
Alia looked between the two. "So...?" She asked, trying to figure out which one of the two should go. "Why don't you check it out Mu'Tasim?" Alia said, gently nudging him.
"I think I will." said Mu'Tasim with little hesitation in his voice. He stepped forward, his sword raised still as he leaned over the packet covered object. For a few moments, he only stared before digging his free hand into the pile of packs and casting them side to side with wild swipes.
Akjit clenched a fist as she mentioned the NVR. She was a conscript? Was this even true, or was she just messing with them? "You don't sound like you like them." he flatly spoke. "And they sound...more recent? Are they? I don't know if you're lying or not, but before I was even deployed, I was on a shuttle with other trainees. It got blown to pieces, and I was the only one that survived." He looked over his shoulder for a moment at the second guard behind them, his eyes asking if he'd be stopped. He looked back at her lonely cell. "And now, here you are, right after an attempted biosphere destruction. I just want some answers, that's all. Just. Just who or what are the NVR to you?"
Firuz' eyes frowned. He didn't care if he was being grabbed by some grunt twice his size. "You're willing to destroy a whole planet without even knowing who we are!?" The Cohronl pilot screamed at the prisoner, burning with anger inside of him. It was understandable that mercs wanted money, but how much were they willing to do for it!? No amount of money the NVR could provide them could even begin to compensate what they would be undoing. The entire Commonwealth economy would've collapsed something awful.
Akjit's hand came out and pinched at Firuz' sleeve, his eyes pleading. "If she's telling the truth about being a conscript, I'd rather you not yell at her. If she's really telling the truth, there probably wasn't a thing she could have done to prevent this." He turned his gaze at the cell again, expecting an answer. Anything from her really.
"...do you, uh, monitor me specifically?" Mridula rubbed the back of her head. "It seems like you always... have data on me. ...thanks for readying the shuttle, though."
Ishtar shook her head. "I used to do this before I had my own body. I assist in the day to day running of the fleet. It's just now I can actually say this sort of thing directly." the NI said somewhat embarrassed. "B-But! I can see what you mean...I guess."
"...if you say so. Hey, do you want to come with us? You'd probably be better at piloting the shuttle than me. Or can you not leave the ship?"
"She can accompany you if she wishes." the gruff voice of the Vaygraiv said from nearby. "Her link to the fleet is wireless." the NI's eyes lit up at the opportunity.
"Well, all the nasty stuff was done by automated machines. I'm not some genocidal monster, you know!" The prisoner seemed to say indignantly, a small ruffling denoting that she might have crossed her arms behind the cell wall. "We were just conscripts from fringe worlds they'd conquered to bolster the force they were going to throw at you to keep you tied up while the missile cruiser did whatever it was supposed to do. Is that a huge deal?"
Firuz recoiled at Akjit's pleas. "Psh, whatever!" He turned to listen to her, and frowned some more. "Gah... so that means you weren't--!?" Damn, he was wrong all along. They weren't really planning on destroying the biosphere. If it happened, it would've been a miscalculation from their behalf. For a second he was glad he didn't place any bets on the whole 'crazy or not crazy' NVR argument. But that was a very fleeting second.
"If what you're saying is true, then whoever orchestrated this wasn't even on any of those ships? They just winded up these toy soldiers and the ships for you to accompany?" Akjit frowned at this. Assuming this was true, again, if it was, then he wasn't overestimating them at all. He wasn't giving them too much credit. It would mean that the enemy was cold, and ruthlessly efficient after all. She didn't even know what they big ships were even going to do when they arrived. It was too much. He reached a hand up to his mouth. The young frame runner wanted to throw up.
"No. It's not a huge deal. It's worse than I guessed."
The man standing behind the pair whistled slightly. "Well!" he exclaimed taking his hands off Akjit's and Firuz's shoulders then clapping each of the two on the back. "Here I didn't even have to get all messy with the interrogating and what not. All it took was me calling her a traitor and for you two to go Makuzhar and country on her."
A dark haired and skinned face suddenly popped between the pair, giving them a brief glimpse of who it was. "An' you Miss Conscript. Thanks for the freebies! I'll make sure they give you somethin' a little better then those herdtitan shit kebabs on your dinner plate tonight."
PAUSE
ON, VSV Astarte
Garden of Mu'Klamal
Bukor 12, 936
14:41, Commonwealth Standard Time
The minutes after the Astarte exited fold went without incident, and initial scans revealed an absence of any hostile presence and no evidence of them passing through this region in the recent past. Some of the senior crew had been called in to the bridge examine anomalous signatures, but the frame runners were allowed to remain on stand-by when it was confirmed the area itself was relatively safe. In particular, a message specifically requesting the ship's Solanii Liaison had been sent out, as the signal was of a strange kind.
Meanwhile, the Vaytulri Farouk received a ping on his datarod. Someone on the bridge was trying to communicate with him.
"Sckhak... Snk... Snuh...?" Hissed Mu'Tasim through his nose as he was awoken from his sleep. His ringtone had gone off, and his datarod was vibrating enough to wake up a sleeping herdtitan. Before fully shaking himself awake, he activated the rod's holographic screen and viewed who was calling him. "Bridge... personnel... ah..."
The Temple Guard shook his head, remembering that he had fallen asleep in the Base Shrine of the ship after a bit of meditation. As a result, the Temple Guard had fallen asleep sitting up. He straightened himself, still sitting, and stared at the screen for a moment, regaining his focus, then hit the accept button on the screen.
"Yes, hello?" answered the Vaytulri, his face still looking a tad weathered from the sleep.
"Vaytulri Farouk." The female missions operator from his sortie addressed him politely, by name and rank. "The Senbalri Vadranno had requested you meet her at the elevator of your deck to assist in an inspection. We've detected anomalous signals coming from the ship that started up after we exited fold."
Mridula dragged herself from the safety and enclosure of her pod and almost collapsed onto the floor, her head still cloudy with sleep. She had been pinged while she was napping, the pod's connection to the ship notifying her that she was needed, but she had to check her datapad to find out why, exactly, she had been roused. She banged her shin on the table as she approached and cursed loudly.
"...a... signal? From the Gardens? Mmnh." She straightened out her uniform, getting rid of sleep-wrinkles, and gave her hair a much-needed brush before setting off to the bridge.
The voice that had roused her from her sleep chimed in again. "It's biological, but the emissions don't make any sense."
"Ah, I will be there right away." Mu'Tasim said, looking at the far wall, where he left his equipment before he sat down for meditation. He clambered to his feet and walked over to the wall and strapped the Fael Raig to his belt, holstered his Laiz Pistol, and strapped on his LLS ammo, both anti-personnel, and anti-armor to his belt as well. With all his weaponry strapped in, he settled his robe around himself, successfully hiding his all his munitions, and then left the shrine for the elevator. As he approached, he ran his hands through his beard and hair, trying to make himself presentable. "Senbalri Varanno?"
"No sense? How?" the biologist responded to the additional information... just before she stumbled into a bulkhead, the bang resonating in the hallway. "Argh."
"It's a weird noise that's why! Weird Weird Weiiiiird!" the NI's voice butted into the communication to Mridula sounding dumbfounded.
"Yo." The Senbalri turned around, holding up her pale hand in a friendly salute. "Kinda glad you answered my request. The regular warrant officers didn't feel like helping me out with an inspection, and I heard that you were on this deck, so uh..." Anik said with a nervous laugh, patting herself on the side of the head.
"They're picking up ZPE signals, but they're sort of faint."
"Weird noise? I need a little more detail, please! I can't do anything with 'it's weird' and 'it makes no sense.'" The liaison rubbed her face, turning a corner on her way towards the bridge. "Just... never mind, I'll take a look myself."
"Well, I will gladly assist you, Senbalri! I usually relish opportunities to deal with problems on foot, to be totally honest." said Mu'Tasim adjusting his belt of munitions under his robes. "Now, ZPE signals, eh?"
The Temple Guard thought for a moment before stepping onto the elevator.
"Ah, it's probably just some interference from some VANDR maintenance in the hangar bays." shrugged the Sund Wakir, motioning his head towards the door to beckon her to follow.
"We're detecting resonance fields and light concentrations of Veyrinite at the areas were the signals originate from. We're pretty sure they're biological, though." The sensors operator that had been sending the messages to her rose from his console and stood out of the way to allow her to take his seat. "But the weird part is..."
"... the signals are in space."
"I don't know about that. There's almost fifty meters between the storage areas and the nearest VANDR bay, but I guess there's no point in arguing with you." Anik nodded and took a step into the elevator, punching in the codes for the storage decks. She seemed to be slightly skeptical "One of the mechanists from the surveillance team is going to be waiting up by the entrance."
"Well, then we'll just figure this out once and for all! Oh ho! This sounds exciting!" Mu'Tasim said with a grin, the curiosity of the situation was strikingly obvious. At least, the mysterious nature of what was going on was making his dungeon-crawling senses tingle. "Reminds me of when I fell through a sinkhole in the Nuocr. Was nightmarish, and I had fight my way out with just a revolver and a scimitar, but I don't think I've ever experienced a greater thrill."
Mridula walked to the man's seat and crouched in front of it, not quite sitting as she peered at the screen. "...are they... floating bodies, or something?"
Data coming up was still imprecise, but the initial scans revealed two things that disproved her immediate hypothesis. First, the objects were far too large in size and of the wrong shape to just be a corpse or VANDR wreckage. Stranger still, was that the object appeared to be moving... away from sensor range, at a fairly high speed.
"...does anyone have a telescope?"
"...it's just the storage bays, hon." Anik said with a slightly stunned expression, playing off her shock with a soft chuckle. It was quite obvious that she was surprised at his sudden enthusiasm in being shangaied into a random search by someone who was technically his subordinate. "But that story sounds like a lotta fun. Did you get to tangle with anything really tough, or was it all the usual deformed whatever's beneath the desert?" She asked, watching the decks fly past them through the clear hyperglass window around the back of the elevator.
"Oh, the usual deformities you hear about in stories, but of course, there was a mutation or two that proved a great deal of trouble." Mu'Tasim said, a story-telling glint arising in his eyes. Thinking back to those days in the dark, he couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic to the utter fear of death he felt walking through rocky depths. "I nearly had an arm ripped off by one quadruped, it had brutish claws for hands, and from what I could make out, several eyes. Luckily, my other arm was free enough to use my pistol, but despite being out of ammo, I simply jabbed the barrel deep into one of it's eyes and used the opening to kill it!"
Mu'Tasim sighed dreamily, "Ah, good times."
"Eh, then again, that's probably not one of my brighter ideas. Plus, it'd be rude to bother her, and she's probably under guard, and they probably won't let us even near her, let alone just get a glimpse of her." Akjit spoke, twiddling his index fingers around one another. "You, umm, wouldn't have any better ideas besides just standing here or taking a peek at the brig, would you?"
Firuz rose his right eyebrow at Akjit. He couldn't help but smirk at what he was insinuating. "Heh. I guess we could go check it out, if only to see what she had planned or what her condition is... you know, we could check if she's feeling like some Hlaraian dreams." Firuz chuckled. The frame runner might've been crazy, but he had a good sense of humor. He would put his hands to his side and simply stand there next to the viewport and answer Akjit's question. "Well, I dunno. What do you have in mind? Are we really gonna go check 'er out?" Firuz didn't really mind that idea at all.
"Try the particle sensors? It probably won't give us away to anyone, since no one else is here." The sensors operator advised, leaning in on the back of his operations pod and shuffling nervously. "We would've tried that, but the object was stationary while we were moving towards the system core and our scans were making sense. When the captain ordered us to break a few minutes ago, they started to fly away towards the inner system."
"You young people don't use your eyes enough," Mridula mumbled as she plopped down in the chair. She started to twiddle around with the volumetric display of the sensors, bringing up the particle sensor display and increasing the size so both of them could see easily. "Whatever it was, maybe we scared them off."
The elevator dinged, leaving Anik and Mu'Tasim at the entrance of the first floor of the aft storage bays. Anik waved at the mechanist that had been sent over the help them get into the bay, and stepped out into the hallway. "So, Alia. Do you guys know which floor the emissions are coming from?"
Akjit snickered. "Damn, I was trying to be polite. But if that's what was on you're mind, go ahead. I was just going to ask her what's up with her group." The Ivuori started to walk towards the elevator in hopes of taking it to the brig after all.
"Suuure you were." Firuz chuckled and followed after Akjit.
As the lift moved the two, the young man frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? I'd be nice to ask one of them, but less so if it's some big guy who want's to rip your guts out. Better a cute girl who'd want to rip your guts out, you know?" The doors opened, punctuating his sentence.
"Heh. Whatever, dude... I guess so." The joke was kind of defeated by Akjit's defensive nature.
"Second level," Alia said as she pointed up, "the readings seem to be coming from somewhere up there and near the back somewhere."
Mridula was able to skilfully pry just a bit more information out of the sensors than the operator, managing to get a clear sweep around the strange object. The ship NI relayed the data to her via voice. "Scans reveal tissues laced with high Veyrinite content, pseudo-organoid architecture. The object is generating resonance fields to disguise its size and nature, and mask what appears to be a zero-point siphon."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mu'Tasim said, grinning widely again as he waved at Alia.
Anik tapped the console and let herself in, glancing around quickly and frowning a little. Although the ship's internal sensors had listed the sector as having been repaired back to normal, the lights hadn't even gone on when they walked in, and the area hadn't even been cleaned up properly since the last battle. Pulling her flashlight out and aiming it around gave a better view of everything, but there wasn't much to be seen aside from piles of food packets strewn around between half-emptied shelves.
"Damn. It's like the service drones didn't even fly in."
"Should I take a shuttle out there to see? We don't seem to be able to get any better readings, and... whatever this is, Solan would like some data on it, I think."
It was an awkward moment for Akjit; he rubbed the back of his head to express that. On the other hand, it was not so much as what happened earlier in the day. "Heh." He shook his head back and forward in disapproval. No need to think about his crewmates that way considering they were all stranded in the same ship for who knows how long. He didn't want to come off as the ship's pervert or something. Though, that was probably already taken by someone. As newcomer, he wasn't sure.
As he came up to the brig, Akjit was the one to start the dialog with the person up front. "Excuse me. We've been talking about the NVR and what it's been up to; I've said they've been really sloppy with destroying the biosphere and all. I think it's just to scare us, but this guy says that I'm probably giving them too much credit. Could you let us ask one of the POWs about this? My friend, Malik, he's a Frame Runner like myself; eh, he caught the escape pod of one of them, and I'd like to ask this person. You know. Since this person's fresh off their boat and all." The Ivuori changed his manner of speech in hopes of getting a better result, sounding casual and relaxed in comparison to his discomfort earlier.
Personally, Akjit was surprised the person on duty let him say all that, let alone listen.
"I'll put a request in with the captain to see if we can borrow one of the Waka." The sensors operator replied, pressing a few buttons on his datarod. "We'll probably need to get one of the shuttle operators to drive, unless you have qualifications to pilot one of those things."
"I might be able to. Everyone else is off enjoying their time on break, I wouldn't want to interrupt them." She tapped at the interface some more, trying to get information on the signals' speed and direction. "And it's not like there's anything to crash into or anyone shooting at us."
A surly looking Sund Wakir Senshirin grunted at the request. "You both do not have authorization to talk to the prisoners. So why exactly should I let you?" the man, a Senbalri asked.
"Heh. Tell him, Akjit." Firuz smirked and patted the runner on his shoulder twice. He found all of this highly amusing. Like he was pulling a prank on someone; or, in this case, with someone. He found he was kind of a co-conspirator of Akjit's little plan, which would probably fail, but he still went with it regardless. Not much anything better to do in the ship for now. Obviously, though, since Akjit had gone forth and spoken with the guard, Firuz was pitting Akjit further down the very hole he'd dug when he decided to ask the guard nicely without making up any authorization and what have you. There was a smile Firuz couldn't get off his mouth from what was going on. He hoped it wasn't too noticeable.
"If you say so, ma'am." The sensors operator nodded. "I've got permission from the fleet NI to grab one of the shuttles, so we can head out any time you want."
Akjit rubbed his chin for a moment before replying. "Well, no reason really. We're just here because we're bored and figured whoever was down here was too. I mean, do you ever get to talk to anyone down here or is it always quiet?" He asked. He looked back at Firuz for a moment and continued on. "Firuz says they're complete nutjobs and are only held together by their desire to kill us. But I say they're smarter than that because they built all these ships and frames I had to shoot down. I mean, do you know? I guess I'm kinda asking you now since you're the closest we can get." Akjit's naive, honest expressions were either going to get them in, or booted straight out.
"Hrm..." hummed Mu'Tasim as he raised up his Fael Raig up in the air and activated it, letting it's light flood the room. He leaned the blade towards one direction, and then the other to gather a good survey of their surroundings. "Now, where is this place in question?"
"How about now?" Mridula deactivated the screen and stood up, dusting off her rear.
The guard nearly spat on the ground glaring at the two. "I've got six people on patrol in the brig as we speak. So I'm not alone down here!" he barked at the two. While standing shorter then the pair it seemed he was a little ball of fire. "Coming down here to talk to the prisoners without no authorization is against regs. That old Graimel of a Vaygraiv would have my horns on a plaque and yours too if he knew you were down here."
"Uh... yes ma'am." The sensor operator said with a salute, brushing his white bowl cut hair away from his eyes in doing so. "It'll be prepped in ten."
The Cohronl rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. Geez... You'd think asking a prisoner somethin' like that wouldn't be that much of a hassle." He still had that smirk on his mouth. The situation was pretty funny, particularly with Akjit treating the guy as if he were a high school friend he hadn't seen since boot camp, but it was probably gonna go downhill from here on in. "We'll just be on our way, I guess. Sorry to trouble you."
"Can't you go any faster?" the liaison asked the operator, crossing her arms over her chest. "Come on. Ten minutes is ages."
Alia shrugged. "I'm not sure, the readings I got just pointed to the rear part of the floor."
"I know it probably seems that way, but it's a miracle we got clearance this easily." The operator scratched his chin, his eyes darting between his datarod and the ceiling. He seemed to be drawing up blanks trying to get a workable solution to her problem. "I might... we might be able to launch earlier if we get in one of the M1-1b's, but they're sort of crappy to fly."
The young Ivuori looked at the guard's horns, and then Firuz' horns, and then attempted to look up at his own. A hand reached up and gently patted the side of one. "But, but...we're not talking to the prisoners right now. Just you. And I don't see you being kept company by the others either." Akjit then raised his hands up, palms forward in a defensive gesture.
"Don't get me wrong, but don't you talk to any of them? Can't you tell us? I just want to know what we're up against here! Last battle, we came back with hardly a casualty, but what about next time? If anything you can tell us would give some insight into how they think, it might save some of us down the road."
"Uh... Akjit... really, dude? You're gonna insist?" Firuz took a couple of seconds to think about it, and then realized. Well, in all honesty, he has a point... the guard'd do us a favor if he clarified that doubt for us. It's not like it's gonna take all day. Just a yes or a no from her'd do... He turned to stare at the guard after Akjit finished making his case before the guard. Firuz had already turned to leave, but was actually interested now. The spaceship operator shrugged and kind of made a meaningful motion with his shoulders and head, acceding to Akjit's inquiry. "...actually, you know, he is right. We're all in peril here. The sooner we know, the better."
Mu'Tasim advanced to the back of the storage area, the torchlight of his Fael Raig leading the way. He was feeling a little edgy, on high hopes that they'd find something interesting that would make this anomalous reading. "Then let us root out this signature and find out what's the cause for worry." said the Temple Guard excitingly.
As Mridula found her way to the bridge what had happened earlier happened again. Except this time it was a sneak attack from behind. The NI, Ishtar had been waiting by the bridge entrance, standing against the bulkhead waiting for the Liaison to walk through. When the opportunity had presented itself she charged at Mridula from behind slamming into her back with a little force, arms wrapping around her waist just a little above her hips. "Hello Vaytulri Osei!" the NI greeted enthusiastically.
"Crappy to fly? Why? Old - mugahgh!" Mridula almost fell over as she was leapt onto by the small NI, only managing to stay upright by putting a hand on the back of the operator's chair. Her other hand went to Ishtar's arms around her. "...hello, Ishtar."
Ishtar had begun rubbing a cheek into Mridula's back by this point, smiling quite like a pleased cat at being recognized. When what the woman had said while being crashed into however registered she nearly jumped back. Instead she settled with nearly going ramrod straight. "Oh! I'm sorry for doing that!" suddenly feeling awkward.
"Ya'know guys. I once heard'a that Vaygraiv pistol whipping some Lantulri for making fun of his eye patch once." a voice said from behind the pair. "Poor bastard was said to have had a stutter until finally they shoved him into a Prajna tank just to get it over with." a hand then rested on both Akjit and Firuz's shoulders.
"Personally. I know for a fact he didn't end up stuttering he just got busted back down to Vayshirin and was working some shit job on a garbage scow."
Yeah, that didn't sound good. Whoever was behind them, he hadn't been there when Firuz had turned to leave. "Akjit... you know, my interest on the NVR is starting to dwindle. I'm thinking more of the, you know, the guards down here in the brig and how they're really devoted to their work. I realize now, that these guards are probably the backbone of this ship! Without them, what would we be but a space husk filled to the brim with prisoners and brigands about!?
We should let them resume their most honorable, sacred duty and leave the brig, you know? It's only fair they get their space, right?" He looked at Akjit with a bit of a concerned look, not turning his head. His glowing blue eyes pleaded with all their intensity Akjit agreed. Firuz was no sooth-sayer, but in times of duress, he could come up with some interesting stuff to get out of a pickle.
Mridula turned around as best she could and ruffled Ishtar's hair. "We're about to leave, so, um... this isn't really the best time."
"Uhm...Uhm...I have a shuttle prepped for you and ready in the shuttlebay." Ishtar's face flushed slightly. "I was monitoring the situation and thought ahead of time and that it would help."
There was some sort of reaction from one of the cell's occupants, a quiet rustling inside of the cavernous holding area. A small arm stretched out, the hand and fingers raking inwards, trying to get the attention of the new arrivals. "Hey. Hey! Don't scare them off!" A girl's voice complained, somewhat distressed by Firuz' sudden loss of interest in the NVR prisoners. "I'm totally classified information. Don't you want to talk?!"
With complete surprise, Akjit half raised a hand as though he were still in a classroom. He expected complete failure to even talk to any of them after Firuz tried to bug out on him. "I-I do." He spoke. "Um, only if it's ok with the guards here." He spoke, looking at the two guards.
"Oh, they don't care. It's not like I have awesome mind control eyes or anythin'." The prisoner retorted, withdrawing her arm back into her cell.
Well, that was a twist! How'd have expected the prisoner to actually go out of her way to talk with them? When he realized that the prisoner was talking, the interest on the NVR peaked back up to full attention. A bit more seriously this time around. The operator really did think these people were full of hatred. He was surprised the prisoner was talking so calmly... though perhaps it was just sarcastic scorn towards them.
"Naw, baby you got the prettiest eyes on the ship. It's just you're a traitor and all." the voice from behind the two said." 'Sides these two look a little wet behind the ears."
"Hey!" The prisoner complained, objecting to the title of traitor the VIA Operative pinned on her. As far as she knew, she hadn't betrayed anything. "I didn't even know what in dreamless sky the Commonwealth was until those NVR bastards rolled in. We're just conscripts, you know!"
Anik glanced around, preferring the more precise light of her stick to the faint and far reaching glow Farouk's laser sword. Examining closer revealed more of the same things, but there was something... weird, in the very back. Most of the paneling had glowing parts and pieces, but she could make out a trio of smaller lights buried somewhere in the mess of food packets at the very back of the room.
The Mazerinii woman put her flashlight up, and gestured over to it. "There's something over there. Looks kinda weird."
Alia looked between the two. "So...?" She asked, trying to figure out which one of the two should go. "Why don't you check it out Mu'Tasim?" Alia said, gently nudging him.
"I think I will." said Mu'Tasim with little hesitation in his voice. He stepped forward, his sword raised still as he leaned over the packet covered object. For a few moments, he only stared before digging his free hand into the pile of packs and casting them side to side with wild swipes.
Akjit clenched a fist as she mentioned the NVR. She was a conscript? Was this even true, or was she just messing with them? "You don't sound like you like them." he flatly spoke. "And they sound...more recent? Are they? I don't know if you're lying or not, but before I was even deployed, I was on a shuttle with other trainees. It got blown to pieces, and I was the only one that survived." He looked over his shoulder for a moment at the second guard behind them, his eyes asking if he'd be stopped. He looked back at her lonely cell. "And now, here you are, right after an attempted biosphere destruction. I just want some answers, that's all. Just. Just who or what are the NVR to you?"
Firuz' eyes frowned. He didn't care if he was being grabbed by some grunt twice his size. "You're willing to destroy a whole planet without even knowing who we are!?" The Cohronl pilot screamed at the prisoner, burning with anger inside of him. It was understandable that mercs wanted money, but how much were they willing to do for it!? No amount of money the NVR could provide them could even begin to compensate what they would be undoing. The entire Commonwealth economy would've collapsed something awful.
Akjit's hand came out and pinched at Firuz' sleeve, his eyes pleading. "If she's telling the truth about being a conscript, I'd rather you not yell at her. If she's really telling the truth, there probably wasn't a thing she could have done to prevent this." He turned his gaze at the cell again, expecting an answer. Anything from her really.
"...do you, uh, monitor me specifically?" Mridula rubbed the back of her head. "It seems like you always... have data on me. ...thanks for readying the shuttle, though."
Ishtar shook her head. "I used to do this before I had my own body. I assist in the day to day running of the fleet. It's just now I can actually say this sort of thing directly." the NI said somewhat embarrassed. "B-But! I can see what you mean...I guess."
"...if you say so. Hey, do you want to come with us? You'd probably be better at piloting the shuttle than me. Or can you not leave the ship?"
"She can accompany you if she wishes." the gruff voice of the Vaygraiv said from nearby. "Her link to the fleet is wireless." the NI's eyes lit up at the opportunity.
"Well, all the nasty stuff was done by automated machines. I'm not some genocidal monster, you know!" The prisoner seemed to say indignantly, a small ruffling denoting that she might have crossed her arms behind the cell wall. "We were just conscripts from fringe worlds they'd conquered to bolster the force they were going to throw at you to keep you tied up while the missile cruiser did whatever it was supposed to do. Is that a huge deal?"
Firuz recoiled at Akjit's pleas. "Psh, whatever!" He turned to listen to her, and frowned some more. "Gah... so that means you weren't--!?" Damn, he was wrong all along. They weren't really planning on destroying the biosphere. If it happened, it would've been a miscalculation from their behalf. For a second he was glad he didn't place any bets on the whole 'crazy or not crazy' NVR argument. But that was a very fleeting second.
"If what you're saying is true, then whoever orchestrated this wasn't even on any of those ships? They just winded up these toy soldiers and the ships for you to accompany?" Akjit frowned at this. Assuming this was true, again, if it was, then he wasn't overestimating them at all. He wasn't giving them too much credit. It would mean that the enemy was cold, and ruthlessly efficient after all. She didn't even know what they big ships were even going to do when they arrived. It was too much. He reached a hand up to his mouth. The young frame runner wanted to throw up.
"No. It's not a huge deal. It's worse than I guessed."
The man standing behind the pair whistled slightly. "Well!" he exclaimed taking his hands off Akjit's and Firuz's shoulders then clapping each of the two on the back. "Here I didn't even have to get all messy with the interrogating and what not. All it took was me calling her a traitor and for you two to go Makuzhar and country on her."
A dark haired and skinned face suddenly popped between the pair, giving them a brief glimpse of who it was. "An' you Miss Conscript. Thanks for the freebies! I'll make sure they give you somethin' a little better then those herdtitan shit kebabs on your dinner plate tonight."
PAUSE
