RP: YSS Goban Episode 02: Human After All

Ma'at nodded. "Okay, Roken. Then you can call me Ma'at. It's only fair. And to answer your question, no, I haven't been with the crew for very long. I just joined yesterday to be truthful."

Seeing the sedatives taking effect on the unnamed man, Ma'at turned to Roken and Galar. "Um....may I ask for your help? I don't think I might be able to carry him on my own." Ma'at knew that she could, but she really didn't want to do it on her own, not with a crew full of men.

Meanwhile, Jason had left the bridge and went into engineering or what little engineering their was. Upon entering Jason was in total disgust on how badly kept it was. Wires dangling from panels, hull coverings barely hanging on, an engine that sounded like it was on its death bed and a damaged console awaited him; Jason had his work cut out for him. "Well everyone's got their place and so do I.â€

"Sure thing Ma'at" Roken said as walked toward the sedated crewman, he hoped that she might have said yes, then he would have asked her where they where heading and what the commander's mission was. "So where are we going to put him?"

Something else was bothering him, the commander hasnt briefed him on the mission If there is a mission Roken thought, and then this mystery crewman who cant say why he's on the ship gets himself stuned, Roken hoped it would get better.

What Jason had found, as he soon realized, was the tiny crew compartment -- literally thrashed by a group of pirates that had temporarily heisted the ship from civilian owners before the Star Army had caught them and repossessed the vessel. The technicians hadn't finished cleaning that part before the crew of the Goban had picked it up. Jason, however, was able to give it a fair cleaning with some help from Roken and Galar.

It took about 8 hours from the moment the Adauchi reached the strange expanse to arrive at the coordinates Ann's message had left for them. It was, oddly enough, even more empty than the place they had been -- a nebula was several light years away, and that was about it.

What was there, however, was the Goban, set at a dead stop in the middle of space, all systems powered down. Kyosuke just rubbed his head; he had expected something else, but what the hell, he thought.

"Well ... shit." He looked to his bridge crew, then at the floor. "Guess I better find out what's in the cargo room ... Heicho, you're in charge up here for now. Pavone, keep watch on sensors and the comm; Hanley, be ready to get us out of here."

Kyosuke left the bridge and collected Ma'at, Galar, Jason and Roken in the cargo room. There were enough spare AMES suits for everyone, so it worked out that way -- but weapons were in short supply, and it was hard to say who was waiting on the vessel.

"Vanatosk, you've got some extra weapons with you, right?" the Shoi asked.

Galar replied, "yes I do shoi, I bought a GP-12 and an EMP pistol. Do you need them for something in particular?"

(A few hours earlier)

Lucas had sighed for a moment, before answering Luca's question. "Well, I joined because I just needed to get away from Nepleslia. Sure, I could have lived a life of big time crime and all, but that's just not me. That, and everyone I know is either dead, or dying." He had paused a moment and fiddled with his hands, before looking back at his monitor. He had just remembered too many things at once, and any new-body-numbness he had felt (or rather...hadn't felt) after the body transfer, was now wearing off. Memories came rushing in to fill the void.

"I'd rather talk to you about it later." he said after what seemed like forever. "Perhaps over a few beers...assuming we're alive that long." he grinned as he had looked back at Luca. "Now let's get back to flying."

Eight hours had passed since that conversation, and Lucas and Luca had chatted over other things, such as past women, present women, future women, guns, faults of Nepleslia (mostly Lucas on that one), their newly acquired and unyielding hate for any and all Custodians, a few stories about the Hooligans, how they couldn't wait to get their damn ship back, women once again, the pondering of where the sprites on their current ship are, a short discussion about whether sprites count as 'past women' (Both Luca and Lucas agreed that, yes they do...but neither had had the privilage), alcohol, guns again, and finally, taking turns napping.

Currently, however, they had finally reached their destination. Lucas stared intently at the display of their "mothership" in the forward viewscreen. As the Shoi said his orders, Lucas responded with a sharp, "Hai!" , but never took his eyes off of the screen. "Well...there she is..." Lucas whispered as he waited for the rest of the crew to reclaim it.

Luca saw the Goban, just hanging there in space on the screen before him.
"It's... there..." Luca beamed as a smile stretched across his face and a tear of joy run down it, "It's there! There it is!! I'll soon get my stuff ba--"

Then he heard Kyosuke's orders and his sudden happiness had died.

"Shit..." Luca sunk back into his chair, "Yes sir." He stood up and picked up a headset, and put it on, ready to recieve any call and shoot at whatever tries to threaten the Adauchi or Goban.

"Well, if you need me there, just communicate me and I'll be over ASAP!"

After cleaning for the past eight hours, Jason went to the bridge and their before him was a powered down Goban. "5 KS says that they took all the electronics off line. We'll probably have to manually hack our way in or short circuit some panels to gain access." Jason said watching his beloved Goban sitting.

"Luca if were calling for you, we probably need a meat shield." Jason said joking. his orders clear, Jason went into the cargo hold and put on his AMES suit and waited for the others to ready themselves.

Lucas cracked a smile as he heard Jason come on the bridge.
"I'm sorry Jason. I can't hear you over the sound of you not getting our ship back." Lucas said as he plotted a quick escape course, in case the Nekos had set up an ambush. He seriously doubted that they would come all the way out here for just that...but one could never be too sure.

"Hey Luca. Target the engines in case the Goban isn't as empty as it looks. We don't need it running away again." Lucas said.

Kyosuke thought a moment. "Get both. Keep the EMP, but give the GP-12 to our man Techard here. He's going to take the aft."

He turned to the medic. "Bolverk-Hei, you're with Techard. Just keep an eye out for any injuries. Galar, you're up front with me."

Walking to the wall of the cargo room, he picked up the comm handset conveniently installed by a previous owner -- there's no way the Star Army would use something so low-tech -- and got the bridge.

"Hanley, take us in and connect to where the Goban's umbilicals would come out." He hung up the handset and started donning his AMES suit, removing his 28C pistol belt so he could use the AMES' built-in one.

"Aye, Shoi. Bringing the Adauchi about." Lucas said into a the comm. Lucas continued the approach to the Goban slowly, in order to let the team get suited up.
"500 kilometers....400 kilometers...300 kilometers." Lucas whispered out loud. The range between the two ships was basically point-blank for any suprise attack, and would be suicide on any normal terms.

"Range: 100 kilometers...ship onscreen" Lucas said quietly as he activated the bridge's viewscreen to show the Goban just as they left it...a battered, wreck. Lucas sighed with a slight relief, it was nice to see it once again. "1000 meters to go. Initiating scan." Lucas said as he activated a quick sensor sweep over the "dead" ship. Besides the previous damage she had seen before Lucas's arrival, the ship was running on back-up power. "Hmm...So Jason would owe me 5 KS. Should've taken that bet, eh Luca?" Lucas grinned before turning back to the helm.

"On final approach...docking sequence activating." Lucas said as he made the Adauchi barrel roll to meet the Goban belly to belly. The corvette's umbilicals extended and attached to the cargo ship's docking port.
"We're attached and ready to go, Skip." Lucas commed over to their leader. "The Goban is on backup power, but that's all I can read from here. Good Luck Kyosuke-Shoi, and everyone else."

Galar handed his GP-12 to Techard and donned his AMES suit, now prepared to move into the Goban and said to Techard, "You had better return that, I just bought it!" He turned the safty off on his EMP pistol and moved into position behind the Shoi. Galar was nervous, but tried not to let it show; they were facing off against an enemy they had fought before and lost. He hoped that the new crewmembers and the extra firepower they had would be enough to vanquish the NH-X's.

Ma'at had been a bit confused as to why they all had to go to the bridge seeing as it wasn't that big. But she knew that she just had to follow whatever orders that where given to her.

When she was finally given one, she nodded. After putting on the AMES suit, she moved over by Techard, just watching out for the injuries that might happen. Ma'at made sure that she was ready. Wouldn't want to be unprepared in case something happened.

"Sure thing" Roken said, it took him longer to suit Roken's training was still fresh in his mind. When he finished his check he looked over at Ma'at "lets hope that dosent happen but if things get bad I'll protect you," Roken said.

Luca gave a salute to Kyosuke and the crew who were going into the shell of the Goban. He then turned to Lucas, "Yeah, you could have made some easy money on that bet. But hey, we might be getting a pretty penny for returning an entire ship to Yamatai," Luca paused for a moment to think before he continued, "We're also lucky that a salvage crew didn't go after it b'fore we did!"

Luca leant back in his console and heaved a mighty yawn before aiming one of the Torpedoes towards the Engines of the Goban, ready to fire.
"Mmmnnhh, fear wears me out."
He began to nod off while his hands were on the controls.

Galar fingered the safety on his EMP pistol waiting for the order to enter the ship which just hung motionless and dead in space. It could be empty for all we know. Galar thought, On the other hand, of course, it could be filled with those confounded NH-X's and that goddamned custodian waiting for us with guns drawn. Galar thought he would rather have the former, and be confused rather than be dead or wounded.

He looked around. Everyone seemed to be reaedy to go. It wouldn't be long now...

Kyosuke looked at his crew with a bit of pride. They actually looked ready to do this. He nodded.

"Galar," he said, "Lead us in."

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Galar could see the Goban was dark as the Adauchi's doorway opened from the bottom of the ship and into what should have been the anti-gravity corridor. It wasn't completely black; dull emergency lighting shone from the top of the corridor at least, though for them it was at the bottom, as they stood over the entrance. There was no blood, no blast marks, no signs of any struggle at all. A Neko's hand -- seemingly attached to a Neko's arm -- was a visible silhouette on the emegency light.

The ship's temperature was a cool 15 degrees C.

"Well ... they left her in good shape," Kyosuke said across the built-in radio. Everyone was broadcasting on 154.000 MHz, according to Kyosuke's preference ... which was the default.

The Goban's natural gravity compensation seemed to be awry, which made things wonderful for Galar. The moment he stepped down through the portal and into the Goban, he dropped like a stone and crashed feet-first into the emergency light.

Kyosuke blinked and looked at Ma'at. " ... You okay down there, Vanatosk?"

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Outside the sensor range of the Adauchi, two small SMX destoyers cruised along at a light 500 c. Their course would bring them within three AU of the two Star Army vessels.

The fall caused Galar to experience a great pain in his backside. He was rubbing the hurt area when he heard Kyosuke yelling down after him. He replied, "Yeah, I'm alright. I really need to get a Yamataian body though." Galar stood up and dusted himself off. His EMP pistol had fallen from his hand as he fell and as he went to go pick it up from where it lay, he saw a neko. It was one of the Goban's sprites, Galar was pretty sure her name was Toffee. She looked at him, and even though she seemed like she recognized him, she did not speak.

"Shoi, c'mon over here. It's Toffee."

Kyosuke looked down for a moment. The fall was a good five meters, at least. Galar, it seemed, was more durable than it appeared. Better not forget that.

"I'm on my way," Kyosuke said, but he had a plan to execute first. He took the polymer thread gun from its waist holster and dialed in a length of thread about eight meters long -- just to be on the safe side. He pointed the gun up at the lip of the Adauchi's entryway and fired it. A jet of black polymer zipped out of the gun and stuck to the place he'd pointed at, with several more meters piling at his feet. He pressed the small red button on the side of the gun to disconnect the thread, then took the end. His gun went back into his holster.

"Never thought this part of basic would come in handy," Kyosuke muttered, checking the chronometer on his left glove. He then took the end of the rope, tossed it down the corridor, and took some of the top end in his hands. Down Kyosuke went, rappelling down the corridor until he made it to the bottom.

"You guys do the same as necessary," he said over the radio before looking down at Toffee.

She looked okay ... in the dark. "Gah," Kyosuke muttered and turned on the helmet's built-in lamp. As he bent down, he saw Toffee did indeed look okay -- just unconscious. No visible injury, but he wasn't a doctor.

He bent back up and looked down the corridor toward the bridge. No other Nekos in that direction. He looked the other way -- no Nekos there, either. Wonderful.

"Yes sirâ€