RP: 5th XF Mission 006: The Finale [All 5th XF Players]

Jatsu quietly entered the bay, carefully holding his model of the Akuro. He looked around the room and sighed. What the hell am I going to say? he thought. Do I even have the right to say anything? He looked down at the model and sighed again, then slowly walked toward Roger, weakly feigning a half-smile.

Taisho Yui was there with her entourage, as well as Princess Himiko, whose face was hidden beneath a black veil. Both were dressed in long black dresses, although Yui's had a prominent golden rank pin on it.

Kazuhiko looked up from her speech writing to see Yui and the princess. That was ... fast! The Shôshô went to Yui and the others and bowed deeply.

"Ketsurui-Taisho ... Hime-sama," she said simply. "I am Shôshô Kazuhiko Minari. My apologies, Koyanagi-Chujo should arrive soon. Is there anything you require Taisho, Hime-sama?"

"No, I'm fine," Yui answered. Her cold tone made it clear she was still immensely outraged over Katsuko's death, although the bubbling anger was well buried with professional grace. The princess didn't speak; she merely observed.

Caine noticed Yui and her entourage coming in and just silently bowed to her staying to himself for the moment looking over at the coffin meant to represent Karou and sighed a bit sadly. He walked over to it and lightly put a hand on it, thinking about the good times they'd shared though he was still quite sad but trying not to show it outwardly. "I'm always going to miss you Karou..." he said softly and hung his head so the bangs shadowed his eyes.

"As you wish, Taisho, Hime-sama. By your leave." Kazuhiko bowed again and walked toward the back, the image window with her speech popping up in front of her as she looked at it. Yui's presence was slightly unnerving -- she'd never met a member of royalty before, let alone the Mistress of the Star Army -- but Katsuko was more important now. She continued writing her speech as technicians carefully went over the flags again and made last-minute checks.

"Hey, Jats," Roger said as the other man approached, noting his model as well. "Another day, I'd make a wry comment about keeping "boys from their toys," but I just can't, not right now. He coughed an odd cough, somewhere between a laugh and a whimper, and continued. "Have you thought about what you're going to say?"

Jatsu slowly shook his head. "No idea. Not even sure if I'll say anything." He looked at Roger's model, then slowly glanced around the room. He sighed, then turned back toward Roger. "You know what you're going to say?"

Mayumi and Taisa Nakamoto stood in the lift headed down to the level where the armor bay was. Mayumi said in a low tone "I am sorry, but you will be returning to the Iori alone after the ceremony.â€

Kazuhiko nodded at the message -- last minute preperations had included about 60 chairs in rectangle formation, split in two groups seated in front of the podium for officers.

Caine jolted a bit and looked at Kiyoko with a tear still standing in his eye and tried to smile weakly and when she stepped away he sighed a little and smiled some. He rather boldly but still gently embraced her from the side to offer her some physical comfort. "Yeah, I know. Just it's still hard; but ya know: I think they'd want us to hold our heads high and try to make them proud." he said and gave her a gentle squeeze. After the momenty embrace he blushed whispering to her almost into her ear. "We should probably get to our seats." he pointed out and gently escorted her to her seat having just moved so his arm was around her shoulders and released her once they got there.

Standing at attention he looked over at her and winked giving her a nod. If you need help or someone to talk to, you can come to me if you want. he offered telepathically.

Kiyoko blinked as Caine hugged her, she took a deep breath and looked up towards the ceiling of the bay a moment and then nodded. Thank-you Caine... She headed for her seat and sat down. Awaiting the beginning of the ceremony. By now the whispers were rampant throughout the ship about who she was, even more reason for her wanting to get out of there.

Creighton slipped away from anyone he had been with and stalked behind the SANDRA crew. This wasn't the first large funeral he had been to. His father had taken him to one for a diplomat when he was 17. But this one hit closer to home.

He didn't want to be seen on the broadcast, which his father might see. So he motioned to the guard by the SANDRA. "I'll handle them, you're relieved." The Chui stated. The neko Santo-Hei nodded and left the bay, she looked as if she was going to cry.

Creighton turned back to the proceedings and watched it starting. He felt the heavy air around everyone. It was so sad, incredibly hard to keep from leaving the room. He adjusted his cap, making sure it masked his eyes.

A tragedy. All of it.

After the anthem of the empire played, Mayumi moved to the podium, and a silence settled over the bay. She stood there a moment, the crowd looking to her, and her looking to them. One of her staff positioned near the podium handed her a datapad, she nodded upon receiving it. Her gaze returned to the crowd.

"It is with honor that I attend you this morning, for I stand here because of the sacrifices, and the victories that have shaped the empire. Those who we gather to remember today are those who sacrificed for our way of life, paying with the highest possible price...their lives.â€

Camellia opted out of going to the funeral. She had cried enough to start again. Instead she stayed in her quarters, laying on her bed and watched it through security camera feed she requested from the Ship's AI. While watching she mentioned to herself. "When not in body, be in spirit."

After Mayumi finished up with her speech and a certain amount of time, Caine got up and went on up to the front, having volunteered to speak a few words. He didn't really know what to say about his fallen comrades as he didn't know Corro or Jaq too much. But when he did get up there he gave a honoring bit about how those two were both good men who did everything they could in the name of duty and how much of a shame it was they were gone but they'd not want everyone moping.

Then, with a glance toward the coffin, he moved onto Karou. Moving along with much the same type of commentary but once talking about how she was in private, his eyes clenched shut for a moment. His voice started to crack and break as tears started to fall making him apologize to everyone and returning to his seat hiding his face.

Kazuhiko looked down from her seat at her speech, then up at the podium again. It wasn't that she was poor at public speaking, but she felt so out of place. Her speech involved rousing rhetoric and the need to soldier on ... but she was not in a place to use those words.

She stood up and slowly walked to the podium. Her heart thundered in her ears; the image window with her speech vanished as she took her place, looking out over the hundreds -- possibly a couple thousand -- there to pay their respects. She had wanted to mention Chiharu-sama ... speak about her virtues, and how they connected to Motoyoshi.

As she looked down for a moment, she found her mind full of stale air. What could she say? What can I say?

" ... I can say nothing, in the face of those who have fallen. Who had no soul savior, no escape pod, no chance but to fight until death took them. No words can accurately express their courage, a kind of courage we all too often forget in this day and age.

"All I can say ... is, 'Arigato gozaimashita ... arigato.'" Kazuhiko turned from the podium and walked to the front of it, where everyone could see her clearly. She sat down on the deck, legs folded beneath her, hands on her knees, eyes straight forward looking at the left rows of coffins. She then bowed from her sitting position, forehead touching the slightly cold deck plates as her hands kept her balanced. She would have made a samurai proud.

"Thank you for saving my unworthy life," she said quietly in Japanese.

She stayed there for a moment, then rose up to the sitting position again. Facing the right rows of coffins, she bowed again in the same fashion.

"Thank you for saving my unworthy life," she said again.

She could hear the old Hoplite soldiers moving in the background, possibly bowing the same way. Kazuhiko finally came to her feet, tears welled in her eyes. She turned to the crowd.

" ... " The lump in her throat did not leave. Instead, her eyes cut a swath across the crowd, focusing ever so briefly on each person she could make out from behind the tears. Then, she sat back in her seat.

Actions, she thought as she batted away a tear. Just as the Taisho would have done.

Yui took the podium and looked around at the crowd, making eye contact with everyone. Her words were crisp and resounding. "In an age of technology and reason there are certain things that arguably should not happen. We should not have to fight constant wars; we should never go hungry, and we should never have to leave our friends in permanent death. Katsuko should not have died.â€

Roger, looking about and seeing that no one had yet stepped up to the podium after Yui, arose and made his way to it. For a moment, he merely stood there, looking at the model he held in his hand, rotating it slowly between his fingers. Then he spoke. "I, I don't have a speech as you can see, 'cause truth be told, I've never been much of a speaker. But I was in a unique position of knowing both the Admiral and the 17th, so there's a couple of things I'd like to say about the both of 'em."

At this point he began to cough slightly, reaching up with his left hand to stifle himself. "Excuse me," Roger mumbled, reaching into his uniform jacket to withdraw the flask again, taking a drink to brace himself. Then with a sharp exhalation, he continued. "I remember the first time I met the Admiral. I'd just gotten out of advanced training, when wham, I was assigned to the Akuro I as a technical sentry. I don't remember why exactly, but for some reason, I showed up late to my first briefing with her. The look she gave me; whoof; to this day I'm amazed she didn't decide to vent me out an airlock then and there. It was at that point I knew we were off to a good start." He chuckled slightly to himself, and took another drink. "But even as I was debating the merits to sudden decompression, I knew that this woman, as formidable as she had revealed herself to be, was acting only out of genuine concern for the fleet, and for the well-being of all of us. And not once in my years serving under her did I ever see her ever falter from doing so." He turned to her coffin, saluted, and in a very uncharacteristic move, bowed, somewhat awkwardly, he himself not used to the motion. "You were a damned fine Admiral, ma'am. I'm going to miss the hell out of you."

Roger the stepped off from the dias, and moved over to the coffin which symbolized Corro. "And you, youhardass sonuvabitch... I don't know how many ships they had to throw at you to take you down, but I know you bloodied the noses of each of 'em, and then sacrficied your own life to save as much of the crew as you could. It's the only way you operated Corro." He shook his head, small tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "Sorry," he mumbled, readdressing the assembly. "Corro was my first CO, assigned to me by the Admiral. Before I was an officer, before I was chief engineer on any ship, I was a member of the 17th Kasairyuu Power Armor Wing, under the guidance of then-Cadet Corro Adlich. Mind you, I was support personnel, but still. At first I thought the guy was just another hotshot pilot who'd been put in charge of a bunch of other hotshot pilots, but then, I had to deploy on a mission with them, and damn, they really ARE a bunch a hotshot pilots." He grinned, then apologized. "Sorry, Caine, Cam." He sighed. "But there ain't a single other bunch of hotshot pilots I'd rather have covering my ass. Jaq, Bishop, Sayo, the whole bunch. And Corro, Corro... he saved my life, in the middle of a rescue mission to Taiie IV. Beat the ever loving tar out of a gator I'd gotten too close to and was trying to eat me. Without him, I'd have been so much gator chow. And I never got a chance to pay him back..."

At this point, he withdrew a small black metal box with a magnet attached to it and held it in front of him. "It ain't even close to a repayment, Corro, but well... you're going to need 'em wherever you are." With a clunk, he attached the box to the side of the coffin, and stepped back. "Use 'em if ya got 'em, captain." He snapped a quick salute, and returned to the podium, raising his flask anew. "To Admiral Katsuko Motoyoshi, Captain Corro Adlich, and the 17th Kasairyuu Power Armor Wing. God help any bastards who try to stand against you, wherever you are." He downed the remainder of the flask, said thank you, and returned to his seat.

Kiyoko took a deep breath; she gracefully rose from her chair. Her regal stature became prominent as she settled behind the podium, he head held high, and her feelings wrapped tightly beyond her facial expression. Her soft, alluring voice was almost musical, it held a tone of sadness yet demanded warmth. "Most of you do not know me, I am Motoyoshi Kiyoko, Taii...Daughter of Taisho Motoyoshiâ€