RP: UCS Zenpyou [Mission 1] Blackened Wings

[Kim]

Siren 2: Mayer Station - later that evening….

It was exactly 2 hours after the UCS Zenpyou’s crew had completed the dinner Mess Detail when they were summoned to what looked like a soundproofed racquetball court. The walls were almost a blinding shade of white with how the soft overhead lights illuminated the room and bounced off the high polish of the well-waxed hardwood floor. Sound echoed throughout the room but it was excluded from the warm, busy sounds of the bustling station outside the doors and free to be as loud as it wanted- as the sounds on the court never escaped into the corridor. There were chairs arranged in a half circle pattern near the center of the court.


Commander Fleming stood in the center of the court in a fresh short sleeved variant of the Peacekeeper Jacket uniform with the Zenpyou’s patch on the right deltoid of the jacket’s sleeve with the Pirate Taskforce patch on the deltoid opposite where the UOC patch normally went. He lightly touched the very tips of his very short black hair as he waited for everyone to settle down into their seats.

Stacey Fleming, contrary to his name, was a tall; olive skinned man with a height typical of a Nepleslian at 6 feet and had the build of a man who rarely ventured out of a gym. He watched his men with appraising dark brown eyes as he wondered if they would present a better showing than the two officers he already dismissed from his ship’s roster.

Belinda was unimpressed and a little disappointed that those two lost their first assignment out of the Academy, but there’s no help for it- I cannot have people that are willing to waste resources over their ego. The point of training simulations is to prepare yourself and others for hard combat scenarios not humiliate your crewmate, he thought irately to himself as his thoughts shifted back towards his current crew roster.

The remaining officers seem to have rather solid service records and have seen some form of combat before so this should be old hat for them. But I’m curious to know why my officer to enlisted ratio is like a Marine bases male to female ratio… it just seems kind of strange to give me mostly officers… those poor enlisted buggers, they’ll be doing an awful lot of saluting on ship, he smirked as he tapped his PCC bracer to bring up a volumetric projection of the Asuka Class Scout they’d be calling ‘home’ for the duration of this assignment.

“Good evening once again, if you have forgotten due to onion fumes and the heat of the galley’s stoves- I am Commander Stacey Fleming and I am your ship’s captain on the United Outer Colonies’ ship Zenpyou,” Fleming said with a smile and humor in his voice, “This projection is of the Zen, as you can see she is an Asuka-Class Scout with more space than we’ll know what to do with once we get rolling. We’ll have the option to use some of the lower decks as brigs for any pirates that happen to surrender or we capture. I highly doubt that we’ll have very many that surrender but I intend to either catch or kill as many pirates as we can.

Our directives are to investigate the reports of piracy we receive before we take any of the supposed pirates into our custody or harm them. BUT if we witness harm to someone’s life or if we are fired upon, we have the right to protect and defend ourselves at whatever cost. Admiral Mitsuya and Prime Minister Tange wanted to be absolutely clear that we are not to act as Executioners, as that would make us no better than the pirates.

With that said, we are authorized to use as much force as the situation dictates to resolve any potential threats to life. We are not to use lethal force to protect property- only life. If the pirates run- we are authorized to pursue; if they hide within a planetary population we are authorized to conduct a house to house search until we find them. We have been asked to use discretion and try our best to respect the privacy of our citizens but we cannot allow pirates to get back out and harm others.

With such a task, we will be doing what I think is fairly unique to our standing as a nation of ‘Peacekeepers’ rather than soldiers- we are asking questions and conducting criminal investigations before we run in with guns blazing. Now, if we do end up with prisoners we are not authorized to treat them harshly or use ‘grieving’ techniques to interrogate them unless we know for certain that the information will stop someone from dying.

Again, that is rather ambiguous but we must do our best to determine when we’re being lied to and when we need to move on. The general idea is that we are not killers, thugs or what have you but Peacekeepers so we must do what we can to uphold the peace without becoming what we are fighting.”

((More to come. Just breaking it up. Feel free to respond to the info dump. =) ))

 

[Tyler]

Zero would continue to eat quietly before finishing his meal and picked up an apple to have as dessert and flicked it into the air as he studied the messages on his PCC. Seeing as he didn’t have anything worth paying attention to in his mailbox, deleting the advertisements he got. He didn’t have any family nor any real friends to hope to hear from and didn’t make time to socialize anymore and continued out of the cafeteria after the mess hall duty. Passing the two hours by reading in his quarters and resting some to recover from all the traveling he’d done to get there.

P2C Cross took a seat in the briefing area with his arms crossed watching Fleming seriously. His expression neutral as he listened to what was being said about the mission at hand. Internally the news made him balk and shake his head some, this was going to be a police roundup of criminals? That’s what it sounded like to him.

“So we’re in the acting capacity of higher paid, better equipped police correct?” Zero asked in a level tone.

 

[Kim]

“So we’re in the acting capacity of higher paid, better equipped police correct?” Zero asked in a level tone.

"Essentially, the other half of the Taskforce is geared more towards educating the colonists and training them to be police officers. With our more... hands on approach to dealing with the problem, we are also authorized to deputize and arm colonists as we see fit to help in our investigations," Fleming responded in an even tone as he looked at Zero. He looked back towards the other crew with an inquisitive look.

"Before I continue the briefing, did anyone else have any questions related to what our directives are? I know this is a lot of information to process at once and those chairs aren't really form-fitting to your butts but, we'll make it through this," he said with a reassuring grin.

 

[Aendri]

"To what extent are we training the colonists? Because too little makes them just as dangerous as too much, and I question why we don't just put small garrisons on the planets instead. It would make much more sense, and provide them with an already trained police force, as well as defenses against just about anything that would come their way."

 

[mizunoyoroko]

"With all due respect, 'deputizing' and arming colonists isn't a good idea in my opinion. They aren't trained to be able to identify potentially criminal activity, such as pirating. They're more likely to jump the gun and go off on some innocent third party. Furthermore, they're almost more of a liability than an asset in a firefight. Without having gone through proper training, we won't be able to know if they'll be able to shoot the enemy, or accidentally hit us in the back. Heck, they probably don't even know how to handle themselves in a firefight." Natsuko suddenly grew very quiet. "But that's just my opinion...sir." the Sub-Lieutenant said.

Snap...got all talky again. You know better than to speak to a superior officer like that. This is just a briefing anyway, he didn't say we would be doing that anyway. Natsuko looked around the room at her comrades, hoping a disapproving glare wasn't coming from any of their faces.

 

[Kim]

"To what extent are we training the colonists? Because too little makes them just as dangerous as too much, and I question why we don't just put small garrisons on the planets instead. It would make much more sense, and provide them with an already trained police force, as well as defenses against just about anything that would come their way."

"The EDS ship crews are going to spent 6 months with each set of selected interested colonists in how to be police officers. The crux of the matter is that we don't have any trained police forces to just bestow upon the general population.

The shortage of manpower is really the main problem that we are having, it was decided to train the colonists themselves because it is their homes that they are defending and the need the proper training and tools in order to do just that.

With the garrison question- again, we don't have the bodies to really spare. Every ship we take off patrolling our borders the more likely we're going to have more attacks from pirates and other troublemakers against our citizens. If we cloned our Peacekeeping force- I suspect we won't be having these problems with personnel shortages but... the pains of moving forward from the old ways.

We could also ask for help but really, as the proverb goes "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a life time, very good questions though, Uindo. It's very important to take into consideration that we've been on our own for almost a year now but we're still building up the means for better self-defense," Fleming responded thoughtfully to the enlisted man with a nod. Those were the right questions to be asking in this sort of situation. He looked to Natsuko as she gave her own opinion.

"With all due respect, 'deputizing' and arming colonists isn't a good idea in my opinion. They aren't trained to be able to identify potentially criminal activity, such as pirating. They're more likely to jump the gun and go off on some innocent third party. Furthermore, they're almost more of a liability than an asset in a firefight. Without having gone through proper training, we won't be able to know if they'll be able to shoot the enemy, or accidentally hit us in the back. Heck, they probably don't even know how to handle themselves in a firefight." Natsuko suddenly grew very quiet. "But that's just my opinion...sir." the Sub-Lieutenant said.

"And you are quite entitled to it, Hiragi. But deputizing colonists can mean several different things. If we just need their assistance in gathering people together for questioning- they would need the authority to bring those people to us, then we aren't exceeding their abilities as the average citizen. Or perhaps, we find a retired SMoDiN soldier that knows how to handle himself in a firefight and he wants to help fight the bad guys that are shooting at him- then we can give him that authority to legally stop the bad guys.

I personally think that it's better to go down fighting than be a hostage or a member of an unarmed populace... but that's my Nepleslian upbringing speaking. It's strange to me that Lewis Pasco Day isn't celebrated out here and if these were Nepleslian colonists... we won't have these problems but we're a much different culture trying to feel itself out.

Hiragi, if you ever get a feeling in your gut that a certain colonist shouldn't be given the power or authority to act as a deputy to assist us- please speak up. Usually your gut instincts are right. But that goes for all of you," Fleming stated with a warm smile as he looked around at all of his crew members. "If you think something isn't right, do not keep it to yourself. Vocalize your concern and we'll work it out. We are in an age of high technology but we still have some sort of primitive survival instincts that we should listen to.

Again, very good concerns, there should be some sort of doubt in this sort of mission, we're not dealing with anything that's black and white: we're dealing with shades of gray that we absolutely must investigate and figure out the answers for ourselves. We cannot just hear one side of the story, if we can, we need to hear both sides and then figure out where the third one, the truth really lies," the Commander paused again as he looked to the others. "Anyone else have concerns or questions based on the mission directives before we move on?"

 

[Tyler]

Zero sat and listened to what Natsuko and Fleming said, sitting a couple seats away from the black-haired, and quite attractive woman. In his mind he agreed with her, giving a civilian a gun and even minor police authority caused problems like on Nepleslian. It was really quite stupid to do such a thing but if they were trained like Fleming claimed then it should be ok but there should still be a limitation to their authority.

"Then we should limit the greenhorns to minor police powers only and assign them only disabling and non-lethal weaponry." Zero said calmly, directing his blue hues back to the commander.

 

[Kim]

"It's a matter of discretion that we'll have to handle as it comes up. I'd rather not make any blanket statements since we'll have to look at each situation uniquely to see if there would even be a need to supply the general populace guns," Fleming replied almost feeling that his own statement was a matter of common sense but he knew that everyone wanted to establish guidelines for what they felt comfortable doing.

"Sometimes, people can do more damage with something as simple as a pen than as complex as a Tenshi. If people want to arm themselves I doubt they will need us to hand them something. In the old days, fists and feet were good enough."

 

[Blackdragon]

Roken sat quietly as he listened to the others, he did not have anything to add to the conversation but payed attention to every bit of it, seems like this gonna be more than just a simple assignment.

He noticed for a moment that he was developing a habit of sitting in the back thinking to himself that the closest seats should be there for those with a higher military rank and greater responsibility, what he was not expecting was the whole questioning and criminal investigation aspect of there assignment, even now he never liked law any real law enforcement or militia group it just brought back old memories that he would have rather stayed and pushed into a small dark corner of his mind

 

[Seth]

Never one to draw attention to himself, Tesuro kept his thoughts to himself and decided to wait until the very end of the briefing to see if he had any questions. One thing he hated was asking a question only to have the answer be "we'll be covering that in a moment". The other officers presented valid concerns, each one countered with a well thought out and elegant response from Fleming. Obviously this was not a reactive emergency mission and a considerable amount of thought had gone into it.

 

[Prowler]

Brynhildr sat in one of the chairs towards the front, he had been sitting idle listening to conversation. And now he decided it would be his turn to ask a question or two. Speaking out in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he asked his own questions.

“Sir I was wondering, how are we going to be selecting the colonists who will be deputized? Will they be screened thoroughly before training? Who will be training them specifically? And since in all likelihood the pirates will have weapons, should we not furnish the deputized colonists with small arms weapons? If not we might as well put them in a meat grinder ourselves.”

Having said his bit in the conversation he waited for one of the officers to comment or answer his question.

 

[Kim]

Brynhildr sat in one of the chairs towards the front, he had been sitting idle listening to conversation. And now he decided it would be his turn to ask a question or two. Speaking out in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, he asked his own questions.

“Sir I was wondering, how are we going to be selecting the colonists who will be deputized? Will they be screened thoroughly before training? Who will be training them specifically? And since in all likelihood the pirates will have weapons, should we not furnish the deputized colonists with small arms weapons? If not we might as well put them in a meat grinder ourselves.”

Having said his bit in the conversation he waited for one of the officers to comment or answer his question.

"For the rare times that we'll need to deputize a colonist for assistance in an investigation it'll simply be a matter of need. If they have the abilities we need- we pull them. Deputizing a colonist is not full-fledged police training- that is NOT our mission. As I already said earlier, if we pull them into service we will be arming them. If you some how missed Hiragi's concern over arming those that might be unqualified.

If you are referring to who will be training colonists to be police officers- the Education and Defense Squadron or the EDS ships will be doing the training as I previously stated.

I think you are misunderstanding what 'deputizing' means. Deputizing a colonist means that we are conscripting their services in an emergency situation to assist- not giving them a permanent position of power. Again, our mission is to conduct criminal investigations into reports of piracy; apprehension of those suspected of piracy and defense of the colonies were are near by against attack," Fleming replied sharply before he continued.

"We do have the authority to go to a colony and place people into control but without knowledge of that community or the training necessary to properly train those to be police officers, it's just causing unrest," he tapped his bracer PCC a couple times and it projected an image of 5 heavily modified and beat up ships all painted with a similar green and gold paint scheme with an image of a dragon clasping a sword in its talons- 3 were Fuushigi no Umi Class Escorts and 2 were Sojourner Medium Transports.

"Moving along to the next portion of our briefing, the colonists on the Ice planet, Miyame 3's Awabaco Colony have been reporting attacks on their incoming supply ships by this band of supposed pirates that call themselves the 'Barras Family'. So far, it has been reported that the Barras family have destroyed 6 civilian supply ships with no known survivors and we have been unable to verify the number dead but it is estimated that over 40 people have died at their hands.

Our task, of course, is to try to confirm the reports and verify whether or not the Barras family are the the culprits. We'll be examining colony surveillance footage as well as checking scheduled supply drops and numerous other sources we can find to determine the actual damage.

We have been unable to verify too much data ahead of time because of communications difficulties with Miyame 3. There will be another PCIS vessel in the region trying to confirm reports on another colony on the other end of Miyame 3 that has supposedly been under siege from the Barras Family," Fleming added with a frown as he looked over the faces of his crew.

"We'll be leaving in the morning for the Miyame System, the Zenpyou is in hangar 13 waiting for us to settle in. Any other questions in relation to our mission?"

 

[Kyoki]

Ai wasn't particularly fond of even really the possibility of having civilians fight, but what needed to be done was going to get done one way or another. Speaking of fighting, they were going to investigate some family? That's an interesting way of running a pirating group, make your siblings and such go out and kill stuff, or something. Eh, these criminal people never made much sense to Ai anyway. All she needed to know was that it was her duty to stop them and how to stop them.

She pondered whether or not to ask if it'd be cold there, being an ice planet and all, but decided against it. There'd be better times to ask silly questions.

 

[Seth]

Tesuro continued listening until the end of the briefing with his arms crossed and a serious look on his face. It seemed like he would be seeing some action soon, though taking life wasn't something that Tesuro enjoyed. Still it was better for scum such as this "Barras family" to be taken down than to continue to allow them to exploit and slaughter innocent colonists.

 

[Blackdragon]

Roken sat there for a moment before a thought popped into his head, “I have one question actually.” He paused for a moment hoping what he was about to say made any sense or was not already addressed during the briefing and he missed it, “how much influence dose this family have in this system if any really.” He straitened up in his seat as he cleared his throat before continuing, “I mean...with what intel was acquired, do we know if they have someone on the inside giving them info on supply ships moving or if they are changing flight routs?”

He hopped what he said made sense but at least he said it, he wanted to know for himself if there was info on weather or not the family has some kind of group or individual that may be among the other colonist or if there just moving around hoping to catch a transport ship that was not paying any attention.

 

[Kim]

"They aren't a staple in the system from what intel has been gathered, they showed up about a month ago and have been causing problems for the Miyamae System but have mostly been targeting Miyamae 3. We think it's related to the fact that we do have a base on Miyamae 1 but we believe they are originally based out of the Asura System but we haven't gotten any reports of piracy from Asura System about the Barras Family specifically," Fleming replied thoughtfully.

"We're not sure how they know the supply schedule but Miyamae is one of the furthest Eastern systems of the UOC so they very well could just be watching transport traffic in and out of the system."

 

[Tyler]

Zero sat with his arms crossed and paying keen attention to the questions and responses from around him. Formulating his own opinion and tactical scenarios to how things were going down in the Miyamae system. It sounded to him like that something fishy might be going on with their in-coming and outgoing civilian traffic. "It sounds like they may have a few people disguised as civilian police or customs agents and redirecting trade merchants to isolated areas of space where interference from spatial anomalies cuts off their communications. Leaving them to be easy prey for their own ships." Cross said.

"How feasible is that based on Intel?"

 

[Kim]

"Based on the fact that on each planet, there isn't civilian police or customs agents it's very unlikely. We suspect they are using something a little less lower tech to jam communications from Miyamae 3 rather than utilizing spatial anomalies. They have found hull debris from what they believe to be from two of the missing ships in orbit around Miyamae 3 so it is believed they are being a little more direct in their interference by intercepting ships, boarding them and then blowing them up when they arrive in the area," Fleming replied with a nod- it was a good scenario but they had more of a notion that the Barras family was utilizing much simpler methods.

 

[Prowler]

Brynhildr sat and listened to the conversation. Becoming more and more passive as the time passed. Yet listening very carefully. His mind was filled with what may occur on the mission. And the seat was getting rather uncomfortable. Shifting into a more comfortable position he asked another question. “Do we have any Intel on what we may be facing? Do we know what ships they have available? Is there any other information that may be vital incase of attack?” His eyes were filled with curiosity, wanting to know what they were up against. So he would know what type of medical jobs he may encounter on the mission.

 

[Kim]

Fleming looked at Brynhildr oddly, like he had two heads. He's not a quick one, is he? But perhaps he just doesn't know his ships.. his file did say he's out of boot and not everyone is a ship nut.

"You know that pretty picture of 5 green and gold ships that's projecting from this thing on my arm? Those are the ships the Barras Family are reported to be using.

For those unfamiliar with old Star Army of Yamatai ships and NDI ship Classes, these are OLD old ships that were mainly used for cargo transport but they all have a modified weapons load-out to a degree that we do not know the specifics of.

The Fuushigi no Umi Class Escorts look like they might be possibly packing Gillian Manufacturing's Rapid-attack interdiction cannons in addition to Civilian Weapon Pods and torpedo tubes. We do not have any confirmation on what their actual weapons load out are. The Sojourners look like they still have the standard TRC-650 Pulse Cannons and possibly also have torpedo tubes. The old Sojourners were also know to have a 10 Demon Power Armor load-out but again, we don't have that information- any ships known to have encountered the Barras Family are debris or missing.

We're lucky to have pictures of the outside hulls. There are obviously, 5 ships with an unknown number of personnel onboard. We just have to prepare ourselves for the worse and keep our guards up. I have a data file with all the known Barras ship data to be downloaded onto your personal PCCs from the Zenpyou's server. "