RP: Pisces Episode 01 - 'Under A Blind God'

"Custodians?" Camellia echoed as she looked at a manifest of supplies and cargo on the station, "hmm, I think there are a few. Why do you ask?" She requested as her two helpers finally returned from their errand.

"Well that would solve some of our security problems wouldn't you agree Cam?" Caine asked as he made his way to her to speak in person. "I ask because the CO expressed interest in stationing at least one or two to inspect incoming supplies to prevent anymore severed eyes or the like from getting on the ship." He said.

Beethoven's 1st Symphony

SCENE >> Marina's Office

Marina's job was largely to keep the station from falling apart at the seams; to make sure that the many personnel needed to maintain the station didn't have issues, to make the proper administrative decisions, and to delegate tasks to her subordinates. The funny thing was, though, that it left a remarkable amount of downtime, one of the secrets of command. She had to look like she had a great deal of work, even when she didn't.

To that end, she was arranging papers on her desk, and awaiting the arrival of the chief engineer ("Is that his title?" she thought), trying to compose herself. It wouldn't do her any good to be nervous in front of someone who was basically going to be in charge of things for the next little while, at least until the station was complete.

Terry stood outside her door (which he had found with considerable difficulty) and prepared himself, running his fingers through his hair (and touching those vaguely unfamiliar ears) and straightening his uniform. Well this was in then – time to meet not only his new commander but Marina, someone he had not thought he would meet again. He was glad though ... for many reasons. Someone he could perhaps relate to. He thought about his situation and knocked on the door, calculating that its thickness and composition should allow for the transmission of sound through its medium. He liked being an engineer.

"Come," said a familiar, yet distant, voice from within.

Opening the door through the handle and walking in he quickly noted Marina's position and bowed, "Good day Arisa-Taisa. I have come as ordered.â€

Yaichiro was almost through his shift, working a bit faster than expected...but it was still a daunting task. Weapons still had to arrive, as well as KAMI, so at least this was something to focus on...

"Alright, team. I've been given word that the Chief Engineer, head of all the Engineering Teams, has arrived. We've been working hard, but let's keep it up. There's no telling when he'll pop in for an inspection, and given that we lack the weapons to install and that the KAMI hasn't arrived, we'll be hard-pressed to explain any slow-down."

A message window appeared on the screen nearest Marina, bearing the logo of the First Expeditionary Fleet; a short message followed. Apparently, the 1st XF and some of the decimated 5th XF were going to be stopping at Pisces for repairs, since Virgo and Gemini were fairly packed at the moment with fully repaired warships, both newly built and on loan from the fleet depot at Nataria. As the Chujo on the screen went on, she give statistics on the number of civilian and ship-less military evacuees they would be unloading on the station--There were a great many of them.

As soon as she recieved the order, Marina was exasperated. This station couldn't handle that many refugees! The station was undermanned and the fleet's resources were stretched...and then there was the murderer to worry about, though he hadn't yet striked again.

An unmigitated disaster, Marina thought, as she smacked her forehead in annoyance and exasperation.

Once the custodian androids had been activated and set onto their own tasks, acting as the station's security for the time being Caine THOUGHT he had time to relax. That was until he'd gotten word of the slews of ship-less military refugees and civilians coming on board. He'd been relaxing in his quarters when he'd gotten the message and now he was walking out of it with the jacket open and his hands in the pockets cursing silently to himself.

This is completely asinine, first they understaff this station and now they're expecting us to handle this too? He thought and blinked, pausing for a moment as he went to go meet these people. Wait, someof them are military types right? That means we get some help, just have to get them to help out.

Sighing, he went to go meet these people in the "arrivals" area of the station. This was not shaping up to be fun at all, seriously. With the AI still offline this would be even harder. Thinking it migh tbe best to look sharp Caine zipped the jacket up and waited for them, once they refugees started boarding, he was quick to start sorting them out to pick out the military soldiers.

Chief had received virtually the same message by dint of being patched into the station's communications for a routine test; immediately she went to work, requisitioning every passenger liner and cargo ship within ten light years to rendezvous at Pisces station to serve as emergency dormitories. With the transitional residences still unfinished, and most of the existing dorms reserved for station personnel they'd have to make do with cabins on star liners, or tents in the holds of a freighter. They simply HAD to, there was no other choice. And first chance she got, Chief was going to redirect a good number of them to Kyoto, see how they liked dealing with refugees.

Yaichiro was working even harder now that he was aware of the people coming to pisces...he'd taken to 12 hours work, 5 hours sleep, 1 hour for other activities like bathing and meals...without KAMI, and by extension the nodal system, in place, demand for clothing and fresh water to bathe/dress wounds was going to be near OBSCENE...luckily they were over a planet covered in water, but it was still a critical issue.

Meanwhile, a child wandered through the halls, seperated from the group...he seemed only about six years of age, and unattended...a Fifth XF Itto Juni pin was affixed the front of his baseball cap, and his unruly hair poked out from under it...he looked around, seemingly frightened, even as a herd of other children ran past, marking on the walls with crayons...

Camellia was seated in front of a console in the Security office, her head cradled in both hands as she was groaning in exasperation over the situation. First, her discovering her current security detachment was herself and two simpleton Nekos. Then, this. A logistical and security nightmare, made worse with the Kami still offline and the ongoing investigation. Inou and Sasaki were running around the office like chickens with their heads chopped off as reports for clearances and manifest screenings were firing off one after another.

Leaning back, Camellia was stroking her fore head, her hair having been moved and exposed her hectacromatic eyes as she quickly read a manifest and then cleared it. "At lest we have those custodians for the leg work." She sighed in defeat, which was answered by the other two agreeing.

[Posting as Kitty, under Seki's permission in her absence.]

Kitty's arrival on station seemed to come at a rather coincidental time. It was not long after, indeed, that the sounds of... children... became absolutely unmistakable. Not that it mattered terribly much to Kitty. She was here to accomplish her mission, nothing more. Oh, accomplish her mission, and perhaps engage in some acts of questionable morality and some rampant alcoholism on the way.

But a small child, unattended, caught her attention, and caught at her heartstrings for just the briefest of moments. She knealt, offering a hand to the boy.

"...are you lost?" She smiled winningly...

The boy seemed quite scared, but eventually nodded, timidly taking the hand offered to him.

"Yeah...I was gonna live with Mommy 'n' Daddy on Taiie, but they told me it went 'splodey...'n' I can't find Mommy and Daddy in the manifest things, so I started looking around...I think they're dead..."

A bigger kid ran up behind the lost boy; this one was clearly someone who got most of his money and stuff through beating up smaller, weaker, nerdier kids. Notably, he was completely bald. "Hey nerd! I like your hat!" Behind him were two other, similarly nasty kids (although these ones had hair), and it looked like the situation was going to get a lot worse before it got better.

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Meanwhile, Marina was handling the comm requests that constantly poured in from ships wanting to dock. She could handle the chatter (just like a carrier group, she thought); but she wasn't a traffic controller! How was she supposed to know who was docking where?

She needed help; and with that in mind, she opened a comm channel to Nozomi. "Nozomi-Taii, I need you to tell me where these ships can dock...I can't handle this by myself!" She was rather flustered, and it was audible in her voice.

The boy looked at the other three...he was scared, sure...but he COULDN'T give up the hat...

"...It's the last gift Daddy gave me 'fore he and Mommy died...it's important."

"...Taiie..." Kitty didn't really have time to take in the gravity of that statement before those three newcomers arrived at the scene. It didn't take a genius to know they were bullying sacks-of-shit, which was good, because Kitty wasn't a genius. Especially not when she was slightly inebriated, like right now.

Sharp, perhaps, but noone's genius.

She rose, crossing her arms, and glared at the older boys. "...yes, his hat is quite nice, isn't it? And if you can't tell by his rank-pin, he is my superior officer, and I will fight to the death to defend him. Mind you, it would be your deaths, not mine." She gave a bright smile. "You have your ultimatum, now you can make your choice."

Her right hand found the orphan's shoulder.

"I will handle the situation." Chief kept the reply short and immediately turned her attention to worrying about which ships went where. She prioritized according to size, passenger capacity, available provisions, and emergency capacity; before long she had assigned each ship a berth from what was available, and even going so far as to use the external airlocks to connect ships to.

In addition to that she daisy-chained vessels together; every ship that had an airlock on both sides was being used to dock more ships, the end result making it seem as if the starcruisers had been bound together side by side. Which in fact they were.

The two other kids immediately ran off, but the one remaining simply grinned. "I'm not afraid of you!" And he took off his jacket - how many cybernetics could a 10-year-old kid have, anyway? Clearly, Nepleslia needs some kind of law against that sort of thing...a better one, anyway.

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Marina was nothing short of amazed; through the comm, she heard how quickly Nozomi had turned a clusterfuck into a neatly organized fuck - still a problem, but one that could easily be dealt with.

"You're...amazing..." was all she had to say.

Chief shrugged it off. She'd save amazing for the real bad situations. After all why wouldn't she have a contingency plan? She's the one who requisitioned all the starliners to begin with. The refugee ships would begin offloading their passengers as soon as they were able, though there was one ship on the manifest that she didn't see docked at the station...a ship carrying something she needed quite literally.

The younger boy's eyes widened at the sight...

"...Your body...it's all metally!"

Kitty set herself a few steps infront of the orphan, and maintained her glare at the one child who clearly failed to fear her. She didn't have any actual intention of hurting him - he couldn't have been more than ten, for god's sake - but she did feel the need to put some fear in him.

"You really should be. An integral part of Star Army training comes in the final day, when all Combat Arms are expected to kill a fully armed and armored ID-Sol bare-handed."

She settled herself to a ready stance. Cybernetics or no, Yuki was very quick, and had a grand background of capoeira and aikido to fall on. She wouldn't need to hurt him to show him the futility of this course of action. Of course, the hope was that he would be reasonable and back away... but that was never something to count on with Nepleslians.