RP: YSS Heartbreaker [Mission 0] To Go Even Further Beyond

Bridge

"Welcome back, Ittou. It appears the installation wasn't as abandoned as the provided intelligence led us to believe...?" The Captain eyed Rin's ever-so-slightly untidy uniform, but had no further comment. For now. The beleaguered bridge bunny sighed in relief as someone arrived to help spread out the workload, Ochiko immediately funneling information to her station. The engines were behaving, although Nakane seemed to be taking a bit of extra time running tests before they did more than orbit the planet. The MEGAMI already had coordinates for the next system laid in for the Shoi to look over and approve.

Medbay

The Medic was soon resting in her tube, form seeming tinted by the red liquid. The fluid seeping in through her wound, steadily patching her back up. Meanwhile, Nora was doing something similar by hand. The wound closed, bleeding finally slowing to a stop under her care. With fresh blood and fluids pumping into her, Yjara began to feel some strength returning to her. The two Infantry Neko had departed, leaving Sayako to watch the more thoroughly trained medical professional tend to the wounded human.

Bridge

Rin paused a moment in her path as she felt Yumi's presence behind her. The teal-haired officer exhaled a moment, before glancing behind her at the veteran Nekovalkyrja. "This is the way of things when one kicks tombstones and chases ghosts... when you find them they are ever eager to add new residents to the graveyards of the forgotten. Luckily, that was not to be today." Then her tone became more icy, as her warmer emotions faded and her face hardened before having to see the Taii again. "There's no room for fear aboard this ship, Heisho... the only certainty is that we must face the unknown everyday with our eyes wide open. Blood will inevitably be spilled again, but for the Empire's future that is but a small price to pay." Her manner of speaking these words gave a sense of cold fearlessness at how easy it seemed to shake off the terrible things they saw and the bloodshed visited upon their allies on the away team. It was both inspiring and a little disconcerting the Yamataian's dedication to what could ultimately be a suicide mission into deep space -- but, unbeknownst to many, Rin's enviable bravery in combat only existed because of an even greater fear that exceeded it.

A stickler for proper military decorum -- having had it drilled into her head by her parents since birth -- Rin unfortunately realized a bit late that her white paneled duty uniform still hung half-open, and as the doors swished open and the Captain's eyes fell upon her she was most definitely caught hastily fastening the zipper to its end with a sound that couldn't be covered up, even with a clearing of her throat and flowing into her best salute -- this only exposed the few spots of Neko and human blood from the impromptu surgery in the Shuttle Bay that did not wipe off and had now soaked into the cuff and tinted her single gold bar a pinkish color. It was only proving more of a challenge to not show weakness after today's events that fell on her shoulders. "Hai, Senchou. It was unfortunate, but this may be a blessing in disguise. Contact with the zombies is evidence that we are following the correct trajectory of Uesu's Fleet in Ochiko's database. A second sortie into the base is still possible, for elimination and identification of all bodies and breaching of the final doors that we had to abandon. But that order is yours to give, Tsukisaki-taii."

After giving her report, Hoshitomo-shoi resumed her post at the helm and moved to relink her SPINE connection with the pilot's chair, slipping on the skin of the Heartbreaker as her own. It had a stronger beat now, as power flowed through the conduits in a smooth, cyclical rhythm. It was relaxing and centering. Gazing to the star charts in front of her on the display, her wounds and failures were suddenly insignificant, swallowed by the utter blackness off the southern edge of the map that presented itself. However, a thin line of blue light pierced this darkness as the navigator painstakingly plotted the new course coordinates supplied from Ochiko. Where they led was not UX-29, but now a system even further beyond... a course that one had to trust the elder MEGAMI implicitly to follow, and from which there was likely no going back from.

"Speaking of graveyards - and forgive my intusion," Miho said, cutting in behind Rin with a bow to the captain and her superior. She was already out of her Sylph and back to being her regular, tiny self, floating about in doll-sized military garb. "I gathered as much visual data as possible while we were down there - specifically, snapshots of some of the living dead's uniforms and tags before we cut them down. Well, as many as I could possibly capture on visual, anyhow. We can at least take those ones off our MIA databases and give closure to those families, if they exist."

The flew over to her station and bowed once more before plugging in and disseminating the data she had captured.

YSS Heartbreaker, Medical Bay

Not wanting to disturb the teal-garbed Neko as she went about her duties, Sayoko exited the Medbay and sent a message to the Taii via telepathy.

YSS Heartbreaker, Medical Bay

As Yjara was uncouscious due to lack of blood, she had the dream of her sister, being kidnapped and how she wasn't usefull. Watching how they ran into danger instead of getting out of it, having a weight on her mind for not being able to save her and imagining what they did to her after capturing her.

After some time thinking about it, a bullet suddently appeared and hit her, shocking pain on her eye and shoulder as she fell on her back, sight turning blurry. As she struggled with the pain her strenght was getting weaker and weaker as she watched her sister being captured, screaming her lungs out for help before falling uncouscious.
A terrifying image appeared before her, making the scientist panic and suddently wake up from the dream, sitting up, to then fall again from the slight pain on her shoulder.
"Where am I...?" asked the confused, still weak human, slowly analyzing her sorroundings.

Yumi paused at the officers statement about fear and couldn't help but chuckle a bit before shaking her head as the door opened. She saluted the captain when she entered the bridge with Rin, and considering she wasn't an officer, or a pilot, or anything that should be on the bridge, she took her leave considering her presence was not needed, however she paused before leaving and looked back at Rin. “Having such bravery is admirable, Hoshitomo-Shoi... May I speak freely however?”

Bridge

Rin looked up from her astrometric calculations long enough to give Yumi a respectful moment to speak her piece before she had to return to her duty station. Her slight chuckle made the XO curious as to what her observation might be. "Permission granted."

Yumi gave the Shoi a respectful nod. "Fear is an important survival mechanism, without it people will inevitably die. There is a difference between being brave, and being a fool. A Brave soldier will take both fear and courage into account, while a fool soldier will ignore fear and only take into account bravery. Fear tells us when to stand, and when to run, and without it we'd lose the sharp instincts needed to survive, needed to fight. I feel that every emotion has a place upon the battlefield, its all down to how a person uses it that will determine its usefulness however." She bowed to her. "I, of course, mean no disrespect towards you... I simply believe that in my experience, that Fear does indeed have a place here Hositomo-Shoi. It has a place everywhere." She stood there, however, as she was going to let the Shoi dismiss her since they were talking face to face. It would be rude and disrespectful to just leave after stating that.

Hoshitomo-shoi listened intently, and brought a hand up from the console to rub her chin a moment in thought at the subordinate's words. "I can tell you speak from experience about this concept. You are not entirely incorrect -- fear has its place, certainly, in keeping one's head in the battlespace. There is no soldier that is sentient that does not feel it in some way, and I am no exception." The teal-haired officer then shook her head once before adding: "When I say that fear has no place on the Heartbreaker, I am referring to the fact that while we cannot possibly know what lies ahead on this journey, we must constantly fight that inbuilt hesitation when facing the unknown and commit to making it nonetheless. There is no running away... rather constantly running forward to face those fears."

Rin gave a cool-eyed glance in the direction of Yumi once that was said, as the course ahead lit up across the blackness on the volumetric screens that were streaming to the other bridge stations. "It's almost time to go. Return to your duty station, Heisho. I will be counting on you next time."

Medbay

Nora was startled at Yjara's sudden return to consciousness, and moved quickly over to where the scientist was laying. Putting a reassuring hand on the human's forearm, Nora tried to soothe Yjara, who was clearly confused as to what was going on.

"Easy now, it's alright. You're in the Medbay right now. Apparently, there must have been more of a fight than you all were expecting, and as a result you suffered a pretty serious wound to your shoulder." Nora's red fingers motioned to the newly-sutured skin. "I wouldn't fiddle with it too much, the stitches are still fresh. It should look cool when it's healed, though," she added, trying to lighten the mood. "Also, you suffered heavy blood loss, so I've got you hooked up to a couple of IVs to get you back into shape. For now, just lay back, rest, and lemme know if you need anything," giving a little smile as she turned to go over to the Medic in the hemosynth tube.

Upon checking the system's diagnostic, the Medic seemed to be healing up as quickly as could be hoped for with such a deep stomach wound. The blood had clotted and the skin had already scarred over, and since everything seemed to be going in the right direction there was nothing for Nora to do except let the tube work its magic. Nora walked over to one of the empty beds, laid down, and started to thumb through an anatomy textbook on Nekos while keeping an ear open in case Yjara needed anything.

Yumi stayed calm during her excplination and bowed lightly when she was finished. "My apologies then Hositomo-Shoi for the misunderstanding. I assure you that I will face any challenges you face with an utmost fervor... I shall not let you down." She said with a slight smile, before she was dismissed. She bowed once more, then headed towards her room to relax with what little time she had to relax.

The scientist rested, with a slight pain on her shoulder from the wound caused by the decreasing effect of the painkillers she took while in combat, before starting to talk to the Neko monitoring close by, with a low tone 'this reminds me of the day my sister was killed, same state as I am right now, just a bit more wounded and alone...' she stopped a second or two and grinned before restarting again 'I could be called a survivor from that' starting to laugh lightly, even though visibly containing her tears before retainning her normal self 'if I got this pretty scar in my first mission, imagine when we return home, I'll look even more baddass than I already do' the human laughs, stopping with the increasing pain on her shoulder, even though it's a serious duty to try and stay alive, being ready for anything.

Bridge

"If you fear anything, fear failure. Fear disappointing Star Army. Fear letting Yamatai down. Fear returning alive yet unsuccessful." The Captain spoke up, before nodding to Yumi to confirm her dismissal from the Bridge. Her frown was firmly in place as she sat back in her chair, one hand rubbing the hilt of her sword. "We're still within communications range of the Seisenkyo. I'll send our findings back to Gemini Star Fortress and have them eliminate the infestation." Ochiko was already working to lay in a course with Rin. After a moment of thought, Valesti pulled up the ship's interior communications.

"All hands, prepare for Hyperspace jump." That familiar hum began again, as Nakane prepared the Fold Drive for use. Skirnir's fighter was docked and secured as they pulled safely away from the infested planet. "UX-29 AKA UX-HB-0 'Vagabond" was a known system at the edge of explored space. We will now be leaving that small comfort behind. Travel time to UX-HB-1 'Juggler' is approximately one week in folded space, with recalibration to local time once we reach our destination. Report to your duty stations or return to your cabins." The Captain did not have any comforting words to follow up that reminder that they would soon be far away from any backup or rescue. Where no Neko had gone before.