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RP: UCS Zenpyou [Mission 1] Blackened Wings

Adrian smiled at Alice "I am an engineer, yes. Peacekeeper Recruit Adrian Tsukai is the name". Glancing back at the Zenpyou he commented, "She is indeed a fine ship and of course, I will do my part in restoring her to full effectiveness."
 
"Hello Adrian, I am Alice. It is nice to meet you," said Alice again introducing herself. "I would like to help out, but I don't have any technical expertise," she sighed.

Alice smirked a little looking on starship through the windows. Scars in the hull made her feel bad. There wasn't serious damage yet she wanted to be here and protect the ship with other crewmembers in the battle. Even though she knew that it is wrong for peacekeeper, she couldn't wait to meet pirates head-on and clean the sector of their filthy presence. Those bastards deserved prison or worse in her opinion, and if she could be the one of those taking them out she would be most happy.

She sighed again. What is she thinking? She was only rookie and not even a proper crewmember yet and already she wanted to protect the ship and battle pirates. For now she should just stay back and do what her commanding officers told her and do it 100% right.
 
The lady moved further into the crowd, away from Ai. Some of the members of the crowd scowled at her as she did so. "We've been hiding in the mine for less than an hour, so not very long." One of the two men responded, obviously they were some kind of town leader or something. "Now that you're here the Barras family wouldn't dare attack us," he commented. "If you want, I can show you to the central computer that governs all aspects of the dome," the man offered.

"I don't think we'll need the computer. But thank you," Ai replied. "What could you tell us about the Barras family? Their ship, where they hide out, their armaments, that sort of thing."

The civilian glanced away then looked back at Ai before speaking, "I couldn't tell you much really. They came in and demanded we give them some kind of tribute or else. We told them no so they blockaded us. We don't know anything about their ships or where they hide honestly, though I bet they listen in on our communications since they somehow stop every ship we send out."


----

The civilian nodded, "I wish I had thought of taking those parts out. Well, at least it's off now, would you mind if we took that jammer back? It's one of the few defenses against the Barras family we have." the Civilian replied.


Gin pondered the person's request. "I will need to check with one of the officers about turning the device over to you." She answered. Gin then activated the comm in her armor, "Lieutenant Kitano, one of the civilians is asking for the jamming device back. Should we give it to them? Or would you rather we hold on to it until we are ready to depart?"

-----------------

Natsuko held her hand up to her helmet and turned on her radio, rerouting it through the circling shuttle. "We're fine, we just encountered a localized jamming field. It seems to have been cleared up. Ai has found the civilians and is talking with them now, do you have any orders, sir?"

David sighed with relief when the message came through. "Secure the LZ. I will be down shortly." David stood up from the console in the armor bay and walked over to his armor and began to don it. When they lost contact with Team on the ground he had started to worry that they might have fallen into a trap. David had been interrogating the captured pirate when they had disembarked and had found out some useful information

"Understood sir, will do." Natsuko replied, relieved that they could finally communicate with the Zenpyou again. "Sub-commander Stryker is inbound on a shuttle, Peacekeepers Wavrian, Techard, and Cross, you're with me on securing the landing pad," Natsuko said before waiting for the group to form up and leading them to the landing pad.

David walked into the shuttle and sat down as a pilot took to the controls. "Be quick, I would like to see my people as soon as I can." David sat back in his seat and placed on his helmet. He rolled his shoulders and then flexed his knuckles. He had some scratches on his hands left over from the interrogation and his hand was sore.
-----------------

Ai blinked, listening to the civilian. "So have they never actually attacked? Knowing what sort of weapons they have would really help." A quick pondering, before she sent, 'Natsu-chan. It seems that the Barras Family might be listening to communications. We could potentially use that as a trap or lure to bring in the Barras Family to attack our ship or something. Well, attack it again.'

"Peacekeeper Karasu, we could probably let them have it back. We should know how to deal with it now. Just keep on your toes and pay attention with what they're up to," she replied.

-------

Once Gin got her response from Ai, she picked up the jammer and handed it to the person. "Here you go, although you might want to consider a different way to install it. One preferably that will not bring down the dome on your heads." After that Karasu took a position in the doorway so she could look outside and keep the person in view. "How many people are in this colony? From the structures I would gather you have a fairly sizable population," she asked.

"We have a considerable amount, a couple hundred at least I'd think." the man replied to Gin after taking the device. "It's installation was intentional, designed to dissuade people from trying to remove it. Should they screw with it too much the whole grid collapses and they're stuck in the dark."

--------------

"Good idea, Ai-chan. This time though we'll be ready." Natsuko replied, recalling the original attack that ended very badly for the peacekeeper cadet.

--------------

"Yes, but it was only a brawl. Actually it's what started the whole thing, they were drinking in the bar one night when one of them got so drunk that he attacked and killed one of the women in the bar." the civilian next to the man nodded slowly in sad confirmation.

"Oh. So you've never tried fighting back?" Ai asked, quite curious.

"No ma'am, we're just miners we don't have anything to fight back with," the man said. After a few minutes the crowd finally dispersed and returned to their homes and shops, checking for damages and starting to return to normal everyday life.

This left the two civilians and Ai together, "Is there any way we can help you at all ma'am?"

Roken followed Ai back to the landing pad, a little more relaxed than usually seeing the situation seemed to be better under control. He remained silent not really needing to talk to the civ's seeing how Ai and the others were handling it.

"I can't think of anything at the moment, but thank you. It's nice to see that you've taken an initiative to defend yourselves. Is it alright if we contact later, if we come up with questions?" Ai asked. It seemed it was just a matter of stopping the pirates at this point.

Roken was sure Ai would be alright and returned to the landing pad, taking a quick glance back just to be sure. It did not take him long to make it back semi-alert as he checked his communications and his suit's systems.

"Of course ma'am," the man replied.

Ai bowed. "Thank you again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I should probably go check in with the rest of the peacekeepers." With that, the Sub-Lieutenant turned and took off, heading towards where she last knew where the others were.
-----------

David's shuttle landed and he stepped out ready for any possible attack. After he saw there was no danger he lowered his guard and then removed his helmet. He walked over to the group that was waiting. "Situation report."

"It seems to have calmed down sir. Ai is in there talking with the civilians that we found, but it looks like the pirates didn't beat us here," Natsuko reported to Stryker.

Roken saluted David as he pulled himself away from what he was doing to add what little info he could offer, "they have not been hiding long, so they might have figured us as the family......might have." Roken was not sure if it was useful or not but at least he could say that he had something to add.

David returned Roken's salute and then looked back at Natsuko. "Bring me to these civilians. We have some things to talk about," David motioned with his hand for Natsuko to lead the way.

"Aye sir," Natsuko replied.

"How was your conversation with the civilians?" Natsuko asked Roken as she led the small squadron toward Ai's current position.

Once they had arrived Natsuko looked at her friend, "How're you doing, Ai?" Natsuko turned her helmeted head to face her friend as she spoke.
 
It didn't take long for the shuttle to reach its destination and set it's pads down on the floor of the Zenpyou's launch bay. Slowly but surely everyone started to file out. Even as they did so, it became evident that large quantities of supplies, equipment, and even personnel were being transferred from the Cael to the Zenpyou. As the members of the crew slowly exited a small mob formed. Just as the pair of Peacekeepers themselves exited, someone climbed up on a crate.

"Alright listen up. I'm Cadet James Cochran and I'm here under orders of Commander Stacey Flemming, the commander of this ship." The speaker paused, waiting for the group to get quiet. "You are all a part of the crew that has been assigned to or is being transferred to the Zenpyou and are just now arriving. Normally you'd be told what quarters you've been assigned to and allowed to stow your bags before reporting in, but unfortunately the Cael is on a timetable and needs to be able to leave ASAP.

That being the case, you can place your bags and equipment against the far wall behind me. In order to do this in a more organized and efficient method you've all been broken down into teams. Team leaders have already been decided and alerted about what members make up their individual teams. After you've stowed your bags you'll report to your team leader for your individual duty assignments. If you have any questions you may direct them to your team leader at that time. Let's get to work folks."

With that the man climbed down off of the crate he had been standing on and met with a smaller huddle of people. Just as the crowd quickly dispersed and headed off in the direction of the far wall, beeps could be heard emitting from each communicator of the peacekeepers present. What would be revealed was a message containing the team assignment of the peacekeeper, a picture of their team leader, and a location to meet.

After a few minutes the smaller huddle broke up and each team leader moved to a different location, when they arrived at their predetermined location a holographic number appeared in the air above them indicating the team number.

------

Team Assignment said:
To: Peacekeeper Recruit Alice Mason
From: Cadet Cochran, Logistics Department, UCS Zenpyou
Contents:

You are assigned to task group 7. You will report to Petty Officer 2nd Class Loreana Almal for further assignments. A map has been provided indicated the meeting location for group 7, and the layout of the UCS Zenpyou has been downloaded to your Peacekeeper Communicator.

Team Assignment said:
To: Peacekeeper Recruit Adrian Tsukai
From: Cadet Cochran, Logistics Department, UCS Zenpyou
Contents:
You are assigned to task group 7. You will report to Petty Officer 2nd Class Loreana Almal for further assignments. A map has been provided indicated the meeting location for group 7, and the layout of the UCS Zenpyou has been downloaded to your Peacekeeper Communicator.
 
While getting off the shuttle Alice got separated from Adrian. She wanted to talk more but that will have to wait. She stepped out of little ship and looked around the bay. There quite a lot of things leaving the shuttle and she wasn't the only one leaving Cael. She went with other people who exited her shuttle.

Although being caught up in that mob made her felt quite uncomfortable, at least she stood at attention when Cadet climbed up a crate and told them all what to do. Well at least she had work to do.

She looked around people around her hoping to spot Adrian but she couldn't see him anywhere. She sighed, picked up her bag and started walking to the far wall Cadet Cochran showed them.

Massive beeping could be heard when Alice and the others received their team assignments. "Hmm, number 7, lucky number," said Alice quietly to herself. "Well at least I hope so." She put her bag by the wall and went back to the person with big seven above her. In front of Petty Officer Almal she stopped, stood at attention and saluted. "Peacekeeper Alice Mason reporting for duty!"
 
Wavrian fell into place behind Natsuko, ready and alert. Aside from the panic around the bombs, he felt that this was going quite smoothly for his first mission out of training. Everything was flowing smoothly to him, his hands and body running like a well-kept machine.
 
Adrian wandered out from the shuttle he arrived and was immediately swept away by the tide of other arrivals. It was going to be difficult finding anything, let alone knowing what to do.

After Cadet Cochran's announcement, Adrian search though his luggage in search for his communicator, already on his way to the far wall. Geez, this isn't a good time to have lost it. Adrian managed to find it, operating the power switch to turn it on.

"Okay then, group 7 and Petty Officer 2nd Class Almal, let's see if I can find them". Looking up Adrian could see Alice stood in attention under a holographic number 7. Adrian took a couple of strides and stood too attention next to Alice, sliding her a wink. "Peacekeeper Recruit Adrian Tsukai reporting"
 
Members of group 7 slowly trickled in, reporting to PO2 Almal as they did so. When both Adrian and Alice had reported in Almal checked their names off of the list and told them to wait for everyone else to arrive. Of course, there wasn't long to wait and once everyone reported in Almal had everyone circle up around her.

"Welcome to group 7. We are assigned to transfer some of the heavier cargo from shuttle craft to storage in the Zenpyou. We'll be transferring spare parts for the power armors and the ship itself. These will be all packaged in containers on pallets that will facilitate easy movement. Everyone will take a Tenshi power armor from a nearby rack and break off in groups of two to move this stuff." Alma paused a little bit as she read her datapad, then after looking back up continued.

"Shuttles will be landing near the forward entrance of the shuttle bay off to the left. Shuttles from the Cael carrying parts that need to be transferred will be: Kellan, Girvan, and the Toren. Shuttles from the Zenpyou transferring parts from the Cael will be: Izanami, Kanaye, and the Tora. If there are no further questions then you are dismissed. If you have any questions then you are free to ask them," Almal said.
 
Gin made her way back out of the power station. She had not received any orders as to where the team was forming up, so she sent a message to Ai. "Sub-Lieutenant any reason for us to remain here at the power station, or are we going to regroup somewhere else in this colony?"
 
Hmm, they would be using Tenshi. That made a lot of sense. But power armors made Alice somewhat uncomfortable. Of course, she knew that they had to be used. She looked at the power armor rack. They looked nice that is to say, strong. Alice did not want to ask anything, but she waited for anyone to ask a question, before suiting up.
 
"I'm fine, Natsu-chan. Apparently, a woman was afraid of me," Ai blinked, as she replied to Natsuko.

"I don't think we need to remain at the power station. The civilians should be able to handle that themselves. But, we need to come up with a plan to draw out the Barras family, and neutralize them on our terms. Apparently they're listening into our communications, so we just need something that will make them want to attack," she replied to Gin.
 
As Alice waited many others in her group were already equipping their Tenshis and heading out. "You okay hon'?" Almal asked Alice with a bit of concern showing on her face.
 
While she waited if anyone would ask anything Alice got lost in her thoughts. "S-Sorry Petty Officer, I am okay." Alice blushed and felt little stupid.

Well, it looks like none of the others will be asking anything. Alice saluted and ran away to power armor rack. She randomly chose one of Tenshi and started equipping it. Time to work, she thought, it should at least give her something to focus on.
 
David followed Natsuko and continued to scan the pathway. "We had a pleasant talk after I convinced him that it would be in his best interest to comply. I would like to here what the civilians are saying first. I believe there is some disagreement in what happened."

"The civilians are saying there was a disagreement at a bar or something. The Barras family got mad, demanded tribute or something later. When the civilians wouldn't pay up, the Barras family started the blockade," Ai summarized what she had heard for David.

"That doesn't surprise me." Natsuko led the group toward the power station, toward the remaining two members of the Zenpyou's crew. "It sounds just like something a pirate would do."

Roken remained on alert while the others talked, he was half listening to the conversation, "So now all we need to do is just convince them to return to the colony right, doesn't really sound like a hard thing to do," Roken said as they made there way to the power station. "With them dealt with the blockade issue will be solved.....right?"

David nodded his head and responded to the others. "Our prisoner has told me that they're are not pirates. It would appear that our innocent colonists killed one of their children in a bar fight. The colony brought no one up on charges and that infuriated the traders. This is a matter of revenge. We need to solve this issue diplomatically. I would like to see no blood shed here."

"Personally, I am more likely to trust the colonists over some prisoner. They attacked us for no reason anyway, without so much as a peep about anything. That hardly seems to me like some angry traders," Ai responded. She was rather surprised and annoyed that David seem to take the prisoners word as a matter of truth that easily.

"I agree with Ai. They did attack us, that doesn't help their story any. Why would you attack the people that could help you?" Natsuko asked, "Did they have any evidence to support the claim?" Natsuko mulled over the implications, it basically was a he-said she-said argument, and with more people saying one thing than the other it seemed more likely to be the case.

Roken was a little surprised by what David said, "Well, no matter what anyone says they still need to answer for there crimes.....and before that we need to get them." Roken just took a note of the information he was able to listen into, already knowing that the family still needed to be dealt with and that the colonists still had to answer for not handling the situation (if it was true). "Now how are we going to get them here again?"

David looked Ai in the eyes and shook his head. "I am not trusting this man blindly. I am giving them a chance. They attacked us because they have been ordered to keep the blockade. They are not going to get off with no punishment but if there is truth to their claims then we much investigate so this does not escalate any further," David looked at Roken. "I plan on asking them politely. If that doesn't work I plan on using the threat of organized military response.

Gin made her way back to the other members of the away team. Stopping short when she heard talking about using a threat from the military. I think I will wait to find out what I have missed. She thought. What could we use as a bait that would lure the Barras family out so we could capture them? She wondered.

"So we're going to investigate the claims?" Natsuko asked rhetorically as the group joined up with Gin, "Maa, you're the boss." Natsuko looked over the group. "Let's get investigating then, one side says one thing, the other another. Somebody is lying, but I doubt it's the citizens. Nonetheless, question as many people as you can, if you find any inconsistencies with their stories than take note of them but don't let them know. If the citizens are telling the truth then the story will be roughly the same from all of them," Natsuko said. "If anyone asks, we're building a case against the Barras Family." Of course, as far as Natsuko was concerned they were in fact building a case against the Barras Family, a community that large wouldn't be capable of such an elaborate lie.

Natsuko opened up a telepathic link with Gin, "It appears that the prisoner we caught claims that the citizens killed a child of theirs. The citizens claim something different than the pirates, somewhere someone is lying about something, though I bet it's the Barras family personally."

Roken almost wanted to complain, he really didn't want to go and ask the colonists questions, "Well they're both guilty in my opinion till we get the facts strait." Roken let out a sigh as prepared to go back and ask them, "there should be colonists at the town hall, and there might be something on there computers that might help a little." He did not want to say how he would find the info if he could access their systems but even then he could just ask someone there where to start. "Also we could hit the bar here and find out what the owner knows."

"That's right... the colonists did say they had their computer that we could access data from. It'd likely have the information we needed," Ai said. This whole thing was just getting tedious.

"Alright then, Peacekeeper Roken, Recruit Karasu, you'll start questioning the colonists. Ai and I will handle the computer," Natsuko said, allowing the small group to break up. "Use encrypted channels for communication and let anyone know if you find anything."

"Understood," Roken looked back at Karasu. "I think we should hit the bar first and on our way there we can ask anyone we might run into." He honestly wanted to handle the computer but oh well at least he wont have to do anything that would get him in trouble.

Gin smiled, "Well, talking to the locals may not be exciting, but its a place to start. With two of us, we can either interview two at a time, or one interview and the other observe the person's reactions."

"Okay, Natsu-chan. You two, keep on your toes, just in case," Ai said to the two recruits. She didn't want to say it, she just wanted to believe the civilians since it seemed so much easier to believe, but she was supposed to be unbiased and help whoever was in need.

With guidance from one of the colonists it didn't take long for both Natsuko and Ai to reach the computer room. Once inside they were shown how to access all the functions of the computer including its logs, surveillance cameras, city budget, and any other function that the computer controlled or was a part of the process for.

Ai attempted to access any relevant information about the interactions between the Barras family and the colonists, specifically whether a child was killed or whether there was some drunken rage occurring that started that whole mess.

---------------

Likewise, it didn't take too long for Gin and Roken to reach the bar. As the pair of armored peacekeepers entered an uneasy silence fell upon the establishment. "Wanna take off your hat and stay awhile?" the bartender asked from behind the bar, "What'll it be?"

Roken looked over at the bartender, "Love to but we're still on duty....actually we would like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind." Roken eye was looking over each person that was in the bar including the bartender, he did not want to show that he was not intimidated by any of them and that he didn't want to put them on edge enough, after all he was the one in power armor.

"Sure, fire away." the bartender said as he bent down to wipe down the counter while he waited for Roken to ask him his questions.

---------------
Meanwhile, Ai's search turned up several results. There were many records in the budget concerning financial transactions between the Barras Family and the colony, as well as, several videos recorded from security cameras corresponding to their visits. One such video, met the criteria of Ai's specialized search. As she played the video, one of the colonists was attacked and killed by a drunken member of the Barras Family. Something though didn't feel right about the film. After more careful inspection an inconsistency was revealed. It appeared that several drinks on the bar just disappeared out of the blue just before the fight.

"Well great. This was pointless. They doctored the video..." Ai groaned. "I suppose that kind of proves the colonists wrong, huh?" Her armored hand lightly face palmed her helmet.

"It doesn't look good, that's for sure," Natsuko responded, "But the Barras family could have hacked it or something right?" Natsuko didn't like where this was going, and she didn't like being lied to.
--------------

Gin paused to take in the bar and then moved up to join Roken at the bar. She put her helmet on the bar and said, "I'll take an ice water please." "I would prefer taking the people into a room and questioning individually, out here it will be hard to ensure they don't parrot each other," she thought. Then she sent a message to Roken. "Perhaps we should inquire as to a room where we can talk to the people privately?"

Roken walked over to the bartender, yeah finding a private area to talk is a good idea. He removed his helmet, as he leaned over to speak. "First....do you have a room where we can talk to some of the colonists privately?" He couldn't really keep an eye on the other people in the room since his other augmented eye was still damaged but knew that Gin had him covered. "When we find a room we should start with the bartender and work are way through every person in this room," Roken sent back to gin.

The bartender nodded and showed Roken to a back room, "You can use this room if you'd like." the man said. "If you'll excuse me I have to get back and manage the bar, somebody called in sick today."
 
Adrian rubbed his hands together. "Sooner we get this done, the sooner I can start fixing stuff," he said to himself. He wandered over to the Tenshi rack, and after randomly choosing one, he began to prep it. He also eyed Alice readying the one she had chosen, though her face showed she didn't exactly seem at ease.

Adrian climbed into his armor, starting up the systems and checking them as he went. With all systems green, Adrian approached Alice, asking over the com, "Alice, you feeling okay?"
 
Alice prepped her armor and climbed in. Systems started and armor came to life. All lights were green but she decided to start a manual check anyway- she moved her arms and walked around a little to physically see if everything was really "A okay".

She turned her attention to Adrian as hecalled her. "Oh, I am okay. I am just a little nervous," she replied to him. "You know it is my first ship and all. Plus, I don't really like power armors." She felt stupid again. What sort of infantry soldier doesn't like wearing her armor?

"Okay, let's just get this show up and running. Moving some boxes shouldn't be that much of problem," her mood went up and she started to be excited again. Adrian little question helped her. Well it is her first assignment so she should show them how good she could work. Work is a work. Boxes now pirates later.
 
Wavrian felt out of place with all of the socializing. This was most certainly not his forte. The technician stayed away from the conversations and questionings, preferring to busy himself with fixing up anything that appeared to need it. Honestly, he was quite lost. He couldn't figure out why the citizens were being questioned. All of these layers of conspiracy and mystery were new to him.
 
As the pair of Adrian and Alice put on their armor their AIs informed them which ships were ready to unload their cargo and it didn't take long for the pair to get over to one of them and begin hoisting off the last of the cargo palettes. As they finished pulling it off the shuttle, their AI updated informing them which cargo hold to take the cargo to, as well as informing them to stand clear of the shuttle. "Give me a 40-foot clearance ASAP," the pilot radioed to anybody nearby as the engines warmed up in preparation for launch.
 
So this is it for unloading the shuttle, thought Alice, now to give the pilot some space to take off. She hurried into to the safe zone. She checked the location of the cargo hold again and waited for Adrian.
 
Following the pilot's message over the radio, Adrian realized he didn't want to be where he was standing right now. He quickly hurried over to where Alice was waiting for him.

"Heh, I wouldn't want to get caught in the thrust of those engines," said Adrian, as got to where Alice was. "Now where do we need to move this stuff to next?"
 
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