RP: YSS Goban Episode 01: Communiqué

On: YSS Goban

Kyosuke was on the bridge, helping patch up some of the damage that had occurred there. However, a small alarm rose, showing an incoming KFY shuttle heading toward them. The shuttle, apparently, was holding a crewmember of the Goban who was lost by Personnel. Heicho Saiga was attempting to fix one of the battered turrets, while Kayama was working on the engines with Ann.

"Shit," Kyosuke muttered. "Pilot, get up here. I need someone to help me greet this lucky bastard who skipped out on our little bit of fun." He left the bridge for the ventral umbilicals.

"Yes, Captain, I'm sorry again that I couldn't get to the bridge..." She said, gesturing to Ann to hold a couple of cables so she could go with the Captain.

"Shoi," Kyosuke said over the comm. "And we managed without you."

Lucas looked out at the stars intently as he shuffled his deck of cards in his left hand. He'd only been to space a few time in his entire life...and that had been in the last ten weeks. If he had to pick one thing, besides women of course, to be the most beautiful thing in the universe, a sunrise over the silhouette of the station would rank highly.

The shuttle Lucas was on docked slowly with the Goban. The shuttle opened its rear hatch and exposed the way for Lucas to exit the shuttle. At the other end were two individuals, one a Yamataian in red panels, and another a Yamataian in white panels.

On the final approach to the station, Lucas had put away his cards. He had to tear his eyes away from the scene in order to be prompt in his arrival. Tardiness was never good for first impressions. Especially for officers, he thought and snorted to himself as he approached the entryway. Upon coming up to it, he straightened his uniform one last time, then boarded the Goban. Dead ahead of him was apparantly the welcoming committee. He set his bag to his right, and bowed low to them. "Sir, Santo Hei Lucas Hanley, reports as ordered." he said crisply...the way they teach you in training.

Kyosuke grinned a little. "What'd'ya know. A Nep that knows his manners. Hanley-Hei." The door shut behind Lucas, leaving the shuttle to leave the area. "Welcome aboard. Don't suppose you know how to fix an engine?"

Lucas was a little offended by the comment, but didn't let it show. Such things come from superiors, and he had learned to take it in stride. "Uh, no sir. Not besides the basics. And I'm a little fuzzy on that, sir." he said, still standing at attention.

"Great. Kayama-Hei, take the rookie here and show him the ropes on the engines so we can get out of here in some semblance of decency." Kyosuke turned up the zero-gravity corridor. "I'm going to check on the Heicho."

Pausing for a moment, Ameko looked at Kyosuke and then back at the Nepleslian. "Yes, Shoi," she answered, still eyeing the new blue-eyed crew member, "Right this way, Hanley-Hei."

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Nick was in the armory, above the ceiling as he worked on the aft turret. Kyosuke popped his head in. "How is it going up there?"

The Geshrin Heicho looked down towards the direction of Kyosuke's voice, smirking, "As good as can be expected, Shoi.â€

Tasuku pulled out his datapad quickly typed something then held it up to show the people in the room.

Tasuku's Datapad said:

1. Someone please disable that damned things direct access to our communications system!

2. Shoi, if you give me the order now, I can have that thing eliminated and the situation under control before time runs out.

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Kyosuke was incredulous. He brought up an image window and virtual keyboard in front of him and typed directly to Ann.

Kyosuke said:

"Does these things have access to our communication systems?"

Click to expand...

In return said:

"Yes it does, Shoi. Shimada-Chusa wanted you to communicate with it if necessary."

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Kyosuke said:

"Make it so we can hear them and they can only hear us when we want them to, Ann."

Click to expand...

Ann did so. The droids could no longer hear them.

"Alright Yatani-Hei -- what's your plan?"

Reading the messages over the floating screens, Lucas frowned and pondered a way to solve the situation without destroying the Yamataian property...they tend to frown on that. Unfortunately he couldn't come up with any ideas other than what he had previously stated.

"Can Ann talk some sense into them?" he said at long last. "They are machines after all. Isn't there some sort of computer lingo that they can spout to each other?" Lucas said hastily, then remembered his rank, "uh...Shoi-san?"

"9:15 and counting."

Kyosuke looked to Lucas and winced. "Ann, how about it?"

"I am under orders not to interfere with them," Ann said simply.

"Shit." Kyosuke wracked his brain. "How about ... uh ... dammit. Custodian 01!"

"Yes," the robot replied.

"Can you stop what you're doing?"

"Why?"

"Because ... because you're not allowed to self-destruct."

"Insufficent reason. 8:51 and counting."

Lucas's shoulders slumped a little when Ann replied. He was sure that would help. Yet as the Shoi yelled at the bot, it gave Lucas an idea.

"Custodian 01, you're familiar with logic, yeah?" Lucas said into the radio quickly.

"Yes," the Custodian said. "I am well versed in logic."

Lucas nodded, hoping...no, praying to God this worked.

"Alright, well, since all of the crew members are in this room (you can quickly scan to verify), that means none of us are in the shuttle bay, preping armor. It would take more than the time allotted for self-destruction, for any one of us to properly suit up and deploy. Since we have not left this room for at least two minutes, further guaranteeing the destruction of the ship before the deployment of armor, it could only be assumed that you are not in eminant danger anymore...right?"

The Custodian seemed to pause. "Information incomplete. Crew compilation unknown. 8:26."

Lucas was taken aback. How could a top-secret package with two guards not know the vessel's crew? Don't the spooks give that info to the guards, if at a minimum, for the records. Somebody fucked up good. Lucas thought.
"Then why don't you scan the ship for yourself?" Lucas said to the radio.

The Custodian paused. "Insufficent equipment. 8:20."

Meanwhile, in a small shuttle approaching the YSS Goban

Galar Vanatosk was nervous, he had just graduated from a untiversity in the capitol city and now he was putting his talents to immediate use, for he had no money to speak of, only barely getting by before his greaduation. "I wish they had told me more about the ship, instead of just giving me the handbook." he said to himself. He turned the music in his head up louder to mask his apprehension.

After a long while, he finally could see the hulking figure of the freighter in the far distance. He hailed it over a common radio frequency.

"This is Santô Hei Galar Vanatosk, I have recieved orders to be transferred to the YSS Goban. Requesting permission to dock."

"What?!" Kyosuke blurted.

Ann didn't know how to respond in a way that wouldn't make Kyosuke more frustrated and angry. There was no mitigating this situation.

"A new crewmember has arrived on a shuttle and is asking to dock," she said again.

"God -- dammit all!" Kyosuke pounded the table, rubbing his head with his other hand. This wasn't going well. "Just tell him to wait out there -- he might be useful."

Ann did so.

"Okay, so anyone else got any bright ideas?" Kyosuke said. "A Mindy could cut through the DOC well enough, but I doubt it'd work before the droids blew up."

What the fuck is going on around here? Lucas thought as Ann gave the latest bad news. He sighed heavily and exchanged an sympathetically irritated glance with the Shoi.
"Well, what I was going for was to see if the fuc-...erm...bot is malfunctioning." Lucas said, quickly swallowing his swear. That's the last thing he needed right now is to be reprimanded for cursing in front of a superior. Assuming they survived, of course.

"Either get it to scan itself, or have Custodian 2 do it. What do you think, Shoi?"

In the middle of the confusion Tasuku had stood up and left. "Shoi, I still suggest that we remotely strike the androids" Tasuku said into his datapad(which was in a compact mode), as he ran toward the armour bay. "I suggest we continue trying to reason with it, don't let it know anything is going on. Like it was said the power armour won't be enough to get to the androids, but thats not all we have, I'm heading for the Fox; all I need is the order to fire once I'm ready; and if you can manage to reason with it before I need to, all is still well." Tasuku took a breath as he rounded a corner, "You might also consider detaching anything that contains one of those Custodians, and trying to manuver away from it a little, just in case..."

"Hold on, Hanley -- Yatani, get the fuck back here!" Kyosuke was standing with his hands on the table, leaning toward the radio. He'd just caught Tasuku's message. "We have a shuttle out there now; if I need to just blast it, I will!"

Kyosuke looked back at Lucas. "Alright, that's not a bad idea -- let's try it." His breathing was a little heavy now; he wished he had time for a drink.

"Custodian 01!" he said.

"7:41 remaining," the android replied.

"Are you sure you're not malfunctioning?"

" ... Negative. Self-destruct was begun before self-diagnostic. Malfunction could have occurred during events outside."

"Um," he said, taking cues from Lucas, "Scan yourself and make sure you're not. And do the same for Custodian 02!"

"Affirmative. Custodian 02 continuing self-destruct during self-diagnostic. 7:29 remaining."

Kyosuke wanted to tear his hair out.

Ann, on the other hand, spoke to the new recruit and his pilot. "Vanatosk-Hei, stand by. We may need your shuttle's aether cannons."

What the hell is going on here? Galar thought, Why in the name of... why would they need to use the aether cannons for?
"Aether cannons standing by, shoi!" he said after a moments delay.

Lucas nodded in the direction of the Shoi. At least the DOC could detatch. So much for the mission though.

He sighed, there had to be a way to pull out of this damned problem.

"Well...I'm almost out of ideas. What's next Shoi?" He said as he muted the comm so the bots couldn't hear him. Maker knows they didn't need another problem to arise.
"I agree with you that these things need to be destroyed, but as a last option. You and I both know that smudges on records aren't easily erased. Was there anything else that the Chusa told you?"

Lucas was suprised at how stable his voice was while looking death in the face. Inside he wanted to scream with frustration, but he put up a hard front to at least help the other crew members. Maybe it was determination to live..at least another day. But dammit, he didn't need his first assignment to be a failure.

Considering no one else had ideas, it seemed, Kyosuke was indeed on his own.

Fat lot of help the crew was.

" ... Fuck it." The commander stood up. "Shimada didn't tell me shit -- in fact she lied to me at first and now she could be lying again. Fuck this!"

He brought up an image window, as Ann had left for the bridge. "Ann, cut the fucking thing loose."

"Ozaki-Shoi?"

"You heard me. Detatch the DOC."

" ... " Ann hesitated, but did so anyway. The hemosynthesized clamps of Yamataium slowly unbonded from the Zesuaium-armored DOC and slipped back into the holes along the ship's port side. The DOC was now just floating there.

"Hey, new guy in the shuttle!" Kyosuke yelled. "Blast the DOC's loading door as we pull away from it."

He looked to Lucas and Tasuku. "Get in Kylie armors and cut through the DOC's hull."

Lucas heaved a sigh of relief as the Shoi gave orders and the DOC released.
"HELL YES!" he shouted but caught himself. "Erm..Shoi." As much as He really wanted to save that bot, Lucas was glad that the immediate threat to the ship was about to be eliminated. He'd rather shoot the damn thing down his self (even in zero-g), than wait around to be blown up.

Lucas bowed deeply, then looked up with a fresh face of confidence. "In how many pieces do you want that bot, Shoi?"