RP: YSS Goban Episode 01: Communiqué

"Only if we tape someone to the trigger," Kyosuke said with a grin. "Just make sure the CFS doesn't blow on us."

It wasn't too long before the group approached the Kohana Cloud. There was the occasional mining ship with NovaCorp's logo on the side, but otherwise the sailing was smooth and free of visitors.

"Vanatosk-Hei, start talking to NovaCorp's traffic controllers. Hanley-Hei, power down the one gun we've got. Helm, lower to 250 c. Let's just see what they have to tell us. We're just barely on time."

At that moment, a KFY Fox-class shuttle entered nearby space, with its pilot signaling that it had not one, but two crewmembers to add to the mix.

" ... " Kyosuke just shook his head in his hands. Shimada-Chusa, why do you hate me?

The Yamataian sat next to the pilot continuing to study the crew roster of his first assign ship the YSS Goban. Taking a moment to stare from the datapad his red eyes burned with conviction. "So this little slice of paradise is to be my home.â€

The young man with the sideburns had just been in a blur.

"Whoa... interstellar travel really gives you a kick in the head..." He said to himself as he was rubbing his head, trying to relieve the pain as he was wandering towards the Bridge with a suitcase trailing behind him, lost in the scenery.

He then realised that he had forgotten to wear his rank pin. He reached into his pocket and took out a "Santô Hei" rank pin and promptly put it in it's place. "Whew, that could've spelt disaster." He assured himself with a grin.

He then saw into the Officer as he came up onto the Bridge, he bowed deeply and said: "Shoi, do you have any orders?" In the back of his mind, he hoped that he had said the right words.

The pilot of the shuttle Luca and Anthony were on just looked at both of them with a bored, condescending glance.

"I'm a Heicho," the Yamataian said in an equally bored voice. "And we're waiting for the Goban's communication officer to respond to my hail."

Lucas chuckled as he Shoi replied. It was good to see someone smile. Especially after being blown out of a DOC only hours before.

On final approach to NovaCorp, Lucas complied with the Shoi's orders to lower their weapon. He too sighed as the shuttle came into the viewscreen and his thoughts returned to his first arrival earlier that morning. He laughed mentally as he remembered seeing the sorry wreck that his new home was. Things can only get better from here. he thought as he remembered the Hepheastus fleetyard that was active in this area.

"Say, Shoi. Are we gonna take a break at the NovaCorp shipyard?" Lucas asked as he swiveled around in his chair to meet the eyes of his commander. "We could get the yard dogs to patch up the Goban before we head back." He said almost hopefully as he leaned back in his chair.

"Good thinking, but it won't happen," Kyosuke said sourly. "The goats they use for cargo will unload us fast enough, but labor contracts between NovaCorp and KFY say that' all yard dogs get to do. Besides, our armor's slowly regenerating at least."

Seeing Galar was somehow frozen by what he saw, Kyosuke shook his head and picked up the comm himself. "Shuttle, this is YSS Goban, we hear you. Two new crew, correct? Umbilicals extending; go meet them and just send the two across. I'll meet them later. Yeah yeah, that's all fine. Thanks."

The shuttle did as it was told, and Luca and Jason found themselves in the center of the Goban, floating in zero gravity. A Neko with black hair was their to meet them.

"My name is Ann," she said. "Please follow me?"

In the meantime, Kyosuke instructed Nick to take them farther inward.

Galar closed the channel with NovaCorp, stood up, and nodded to Kyosuke, "Shoi, we have permission to dock at loading bay 4 to the right of us. I transferred the data to the pilot's seat.

Galar thought as the ship turned towards its destination, this ship and its crew really have been through hell, I only hope that it goes better from here on.

"That's good," Kyosuke said. "Now sit so I can see this stuff. It's been a while for me."

"Loading Bay 4," as it was, seemed gigantic. The bay itself was just a rectangular opening with the corners rounded off; it had to be at least a two kilometers tall and four wide. An enormous "4" was painted on the right side. This was just a tertiary bay, however, as the enormity of the NovaCorp's mining and shipbuilding operations became apparent in the viewscreen.

Ships far larger than even a Chiharu-class glided every-which-way, always surrounded by small mercantile fleets, which were surrounded by shuttles, freighters, tugs, goats, you name it. All seemed to bristle with graviton projectors and focused plasma cutters. One such fleet crossed above the Goban's bow, tan-colored hulls visible only because of the various lights the ships had. One of the medium-sized vessels -- the Heicho reported it to be about a kilometer long -- was in front of them and on the same trajectory.

Once the Goban was lined up a bit more, everyone could see that Loading Bay 4 was only three quarters as tall inside as it was outside. About 600 meters into the bay, the bottom portion had a step about 500 meters high. That step contained much smaller bays, ones appropriate for the Goban and like freighters. A NovaCorp traffic controller told Galar they were to proceed further to Sub-Bay 2, Dock 3.

Not knowing what to expect, the floating Luca had become slightly disoriented by Zero Gravity. Him and his suitcase were floating around the Goban.
Fortunately, he re-oriented himself, gripped his suitcase, heard his orders and began 'swimming' towards Ann.
"Hi, pleased to make your aquaintance." He said to Ann whilst attempting to bow. However, he threw himself off balance whilst doing so and performing a somersault.
Well, I guess this should be a lasting first impression Luca thought as he kept on spinning. He then stablised himself and came to eye level with Ann, ready to follow her where she'd go.

Jason felt relaxed as he disembarked the shuttle, noticing immediately the neko that called herself Ann. "Greetings, name's Jason Travkai. If I may ask what exactly occured to give the Coban such damage to the exterior of the ship? Also is there any interior damage to the ship's propulsion systems by chance?"

While he would be waiting for his response he would take hold of his floating duffle bag and gracefully floated behind Ann. He took notice of the imbecile beside him and let loose a sigh. "I can only hope not all the personnel here are like this one." he said to himself.

Ann gazed at Luca queerly. For a Yamataian, he seemed to know little of his own anti-gravity power. Perhaps, Ann thought, he'd just left a Geshrin body.

Jason it seemed was sharp enough -- and bold enough -- to ask the right questions. "Pavone-Hei, Travkai-Hei, this way." She floated up the long corridor and up to the lip of the second deck, gently landing on it and walking a few steps forward to give them room to land.

"We suffered damage from a pirate attack," Ann said easily as the two awkwardly came to meet her on the second deck. "However, we are now safely within NovaCorp space. If you are ready, I will introduce you to the commander. The Nekos behind you, Chocolate and Vanilla, will take your things for you."

Continuing to follow Ann, Jason gracefully land beside Ann on the second deck. Taking notice of both the two other neko's and Ann's words he handed his duffle bag to Chocolate with an an "arigato," nodding slightly.

"I am ready to meet my commanding officer and hopefuly begin repairs immediately," he said, as he fixed his collar and his rank pin. Looking back at the idiot he just sighed again and offered him a hand. "Come on the sooner you stop goofing off the sooner we get to the commander so come on."

Luca took Jason's hand and stood up, "Sorry, I'm just that used to Zero Gravity... I've never been in space before." He turned around and handed his suitcase to Vanilla with the words: "Thanks for the service," with a nod and a brief salute.

He then began to follow Jason and commented: "You really sound like you know what you're doing, I bet must have been on another ship like this," He extended an arm for a handshake as he continued, "By the way, my name's Luca (Pronounced Luu-ka), what's yours?"

Doshii Jun said:

"Good thinking, but it won't happen," Kyosuke said sourly. "The goats they use for cargo will unload us fast enough, but labor contracts between NovaCorp and KFY say that' all yard dogs get to do. Besides, our armor's slowly regenerating at least."

Click to expand...

Lucas grinned. "Once again Shoi...It's not the armor I'm worried about." He said as he watched the display. He'd seen a few docks before, but never one to this scale. It gave him a sense of awe to know that this baby was on their side...well, at least...on friendly terms anyway. Lucas leaned back and watched the display as the shuttle docked and the passengers unloaded. A few minutes passed and he could hear them just outside the hatch to the bridge.

"Name is Jason, Jason Travkai." he said as he would turn and give luca his handshake. Turning around once more to face the direction Ann was he would answer Luca's second question. "No this is my first assignment, however I spent a great deal of time at the training facility at Kyoto."

He would go silent now as they would be approaching the bridge. His thoughts , voice, attitude checked he would take one last breth as he took his first steps in stride as he entered the bridge.

Galar took off his headset, turned to Kyosuke and said, "We are now to proceed to the final approach, the lights inside the docking bay will show you the way," he looked at the pilot.

"From there, we are just supposed to let the workers here take care of the cargo, right shoi?"

I wonder if we will get any time to look around he thought as he changed the music in his head, or any time to relax at all... I would sure like some time just to spend drinking a nice cup of tea and reading a good book in a cafe looking out on space.

Kyosuke didn't speak to anyone. He kept his eyes fixed on the viewscreen. He wanted to focus on it and not the knot in his stomach.

The Goban gently "touched down" into the docking bay they'd been assigned to. The place was actually very clear -- dark grey panels, a couple of pallet jacks lying about, no one there to really meet them at all. In fact, the runway lights that had been there to help guide them in were turned off. The force field behind them shimmered in a vague sort of way, but that was really the only movement.

"Kind of them." Kyosuke hit a button on his console, and the lightsof the Goban flipped on -- well, the one that still worked. It showed the panels were a lighter kind of grey. Otherwise, zero. The bay was spotless and barren.

"Great." He lowered his seat and got up from it. "Alright everyone, let's get going here. Someone'll come out to meet us, eventually." He went to the door of the small bridge and opened it -- Jason and Luca were still chatting away.

"You two red-panels must be my latest blood-colored meat shields. Wonderful. Follow me; we've got to make some sense of this. Hanley, Heicho, you as well."

The anti-gravity setting on the central corridor extended to the loading bay's decking below them as soon as the door in the ship's hull opened. It switched to a low level of gravity, allowing the white-shirted officer and his four red-shirted crewmembers to gracefully float down to outside the ship. Kyosuke stretched his legs as he walked away from the ship some.

"Shit. Thought I'd never get off that thing." He turned and faced the opening of the bay as a cluster of Sojourner transports glided off to his left in the somewhat-dark mouth of Loading Bay 4. "Must be going somewhere deeper in this place."

He looked to the crew. "How are you bastards now, eh? Nice to be off that ship."

Lucas grinned as he followed his Commander. Finally. Fresh air. he thought as he passed the two gawking soldiers. He gave a courtious nod and continued out of the ship.

Lucas also wondered why the dock was dead. Usually the lights brightened the grey mass of the bulkheads, and someone was always around to look pissed off that they actually had to work. It was a given for any station, Well...except here I suppose. Lucas pondered.
Kyosuke's voice snapped him back to the grim present.

"I'm sorry Shoi. I feel uncomfortable." Lucas grinned, "I mean, there's not the emminent threat of being blown up, nor the daunting task of repairing our lovely metal casket. I'm in somewhat of a shock, Skipper." Lucas nodded his head in the direction of the Goban as he talked. For the most part, this was the calmest that he'd been all day, though a part of him did sigh in relief that he wasn't trapped with those crazed Custodians anymore. A chill went down his spine just thinking about it.

"I know what you mean," Kyosuke said, rubbing his head. "Something's got to go wrong here soon. It wouldn't be right otherwise."

He walked down a little farther into the bay. "But that doesn't explain why the fuck there's no one here to meet us," he said, his voice echoing a little bit. "We can't sit around and wait all day, after all."

Looking at his watch, Kyosuke frowned. They were actually 20 minutes late from the time they'd docked.

It was, at that point, a man with trimmed grey hair stepped through a door off to the Goban's left, a pool of light flowing around him until the doors shut. He snapped on a square light hanging on his breast pocket and looked toward Lucas and Luca.

"Are you Ozaki?" he said.

"Er...No, sir." Lucas stumbled as he was clearly startled by the man's sudden appearance. He glanced over at the Shoi, in confusion as anyone with a brain knew that officers in the Star Army wore white and enlists wore red. Luca's eyes returned to the man as he gestured with his thumb, "He is."