RP: UCS Zenpyou [Mission 1] Blackened Wings

"Yeah, those are pretty big engines," replied Alice. "We should bring it in one of the cargo holds, let's just follow the AI." She continued as she walked, "we will finally see more of the ship than its landing pad." Alice couldn't wait too see more, she was beginning to feel excited again.

The AI directed Alice and Adrian to a lift designed to take cargo down to the cargo bay, and once they were aboard the lift began its slow trek down to the cargo bay. After a few minutes, the lift finally cleared the bottom of the module containing the main gun and forward turrets to reveal a massive warehouse like cargo-hold in the bottom of the Zenpyou.

From the height that the lift was currently at, Alice and Adrian could see other workers bustling about to move their various cargo into position and some waiting for the lift's arrival. The AI updated the HUD of the Tenshi power armors that Adrian and Alice were in, indicating a rough position for the pair to take the container. Unfortunately, it was almost across the length of the cargo hold near the tail end of the ship.

"Heh, looks like there is quite a walk in front of us," said Alice. "Well that's if we don't die of old age before this lift gets down." She took a few moments to look around the cargo-bay and observe the other people doing their respective jobs there. "They look pretty busy," she said. "I can't wait to get busy with my work too."

Roken thanked the bartender for his cooperation as he leans back to talk to Gin, “alright we have a spot to talk to these people privately so lets go ahead and just go through the entire room.” Roken looked at the colonists that were sitting in the bar, observing who was sober enough to talk and if anyone seemed a bit nervous, they would be the people he would start with first the others he would go through last. I hope the others have found something useful from colony security cam's. Roken took a deep breath and set his helmet on the bar stool, “Alright I would like everyone's cooperation while we gather information to better deal with the family, whatever info you have about them will be a great help to us and we can bring these individuals to justice.”

"Just our luck that we'll have move it all to the other side," smirked Adrian "Well no point in moaning about it now, work is work and it needs to be done".

Adrian watched as another group sorted though their cargo, "Well if they are all busy, we can't let ourselves fall behind then."

Karasu took a quick look at the offered bar room. What're the chances that the room is monitored? Wish we had the equipment to sweep the room, she thought.

"If they hacked and edited it, Natsu-chan, then wouldn't they have made themselves look innocent? Not just remove a few bottles from the counter? Though... I suppose that does throw the colonists into question either way...." Ai frowned. She went to searching for any other discrepancies in other such videos.

"True. Let's go and be over with it," Alice said and stepped out of lift. "The other side can't be that far, just a little stroll through cargo hold," she said with smile. She started walking trying to not hinder other workers.

In Miyamae's colony computer terminal room...

Natsuko frowned as well, "Maa...I guess so." Natsuko responded, helping Ai search through the records. I don't like being lied to, Natsuko thought as she watched the video again on the side screen, but why would a whole community lie about something like this? Even to get a whole community to do this. There has to be another explanation. After all, the Barras Family did attack us when we entered the system, Natsuko groaned in frustration, None of this makes sense! The Neko slammed her fist down on the desk in frustration.

Meanwhile, Ai's search was not very fruitful, other videos were coming up clean. There were videos of the Barras Family being in the tavern before, but they were as peaceful as any other members of the community had been.

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In Miyamae's local bar...

Through the Tenshi's sensors Karasu was able to determine that if there were any bugs they were not actively transmitting, though that wouldn't exclude the possibility of things like tape-recorders or even systems similar to those installed in the Tenshi itself for recording audio and video.

After Roken's announcement the room burst full of noise with everyone trying to give him information all at once. Several people were already approaching him to try and be heard over the noise of others, or to give him pieces of paper with scribbles on them containing information.

"Alright, that's enough." a loud voice, belonging to the barkeeper cut through the noise. "We're going to do this in an orderly fashion so that the Peacekeepers can actually hear you folks. They're gonna take you back into one of the rooms one at a time and you can talk to them there."

People looked at each other, toward the bartender, and even toward the rooms. "Don't worry none, it isn't an interrogation. If you've got any information on the Barras Family feel free to give it to them there, if you don't then you don't need to go. We'll start with you," the bartender picked randomly a man that had been eagerly trying to get Roken's attention from the middle of the room. The brown-haired, brown-eyed man was a little scruffy but didn't look to bad otherwise.

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On board the Zenpyou...

As the pair walked the length of the ship, they dodged many other crews doing the same duty as themselves while the favor was returned from those who had nothing to carry. Throughout the entire trip a loud 'zip' sound could be heard going in any number of directions above them.

"This," the Tenshi's AI explained, "is a zipline based crane system. It allows crates to be hoisted at any location within the cargo bay itself." Finally the pair reached the end of the cargo bay, where the crate was marked to be placed. The crate would need to be lifted up and placed on top of 2 other crates that were already stacked. Luckily, the AI noted a nearby control terminal for the crane.

"Well, that shouldn't be that hard," thought Alice. She put her crate on the ground and walked to the terminal. She looked at controls. "I could probably do it, but if you want the honor is all yours," she said to Adrian and pointed to the terminal with smile on her face.

"Oh sure, I love to play with toys," said Adrian, with a broad grin which no one could see. "Let me just drop this over here." Adrian moved the crate slightly to his left and lowered it.

He then made his way over to the control panel; the controls themselves weren't complicated with only a simple joystick with up, down, open and close buttons. After playing with the controls for a little while, Adrian had gotten the hang of them, moving the crane over Alice's crate and picking it up, and then suspending it in mid air.

"So... who's at fault? The Barras family does look guilty, even if only attacking us with out being provoked. But, the doctoring of the video doesn't help either side. I do suppose the Barras family could have hacked in and just edited it to make it look like it was faked or something...." Ai said to Natsuko. Why did it have to be so confusing? She was meant to be a PA pilot, not some detective!

"You are not bad," Alice told Adrian. "But it doesn't look so hard anyway." she said with wide smile on her face. Soon Alice's crate was on top, and Adrian's was soon to follow.

Just before Adrian moved to exit the crane, the control screen on the crane flickered before shorting out. "Peacekeepers Tsukai and Mason, this is Supply Quartermaster Davids, one of the crane's in your area has malfunctioned, could you fix it up for us? The error appears to be originating in the machine room, positioned behind the crane. You'll need to enter your credentials to pass through the door, though that shouldn't be a problem."

Okay another job. Again out of her field. "Okay repairing is few levels higher than moving boxes so let's do this," she said to Adrian. "I can hand you equipment or something cause I am no mechanic, well I know few things about computers but that is all. Well we will work it out don't we?"

“Thank you.” Roken said to the bartender as he stepped toward the individual in the middle of the room, “alright and your name sir?” He kept his helmet tucked close to his side as he gave him a second look over.

I would bet my entire paycheck that it was but just keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary when we take him in and lets hope what he has to say to us is useful. Roken did not flinch or give away any signs that he was communicating mentally to his fellow peacekeeper, his stance was more relaxed at the moment since the bartender had the crowd under control.

He stood there and waited patiently for the man to give his name.

"Great! Now this is what I'm here for," Adrian smiled. "Now which crane is it?" Adrian turned to Alice still smiling "This may not be your forte but you may just pick something up, now let's get on with this job."

"Lead the way," said Alice. "Sure, I donť mind learning and knowing some technical things might not hurt. At leas,t we don't have to be afraid of boredom." They walked a short way to the crane. "Okay this is it. Let's get it done."

In the Zenpyou's Cargo bay...

The pair of peacekeepers were directed toward the door to the room where the malfunction was detected. There was a pinpad on the wall for the peacekeepers to input their password. Unfortunately, both the screen and the pad seemed to be offline. Nothing indicated that this should be the case, in fact the Zenpyou's computer was quite sure that the pad was on and operating normally in spite of extremely obvious evidence to the contrary. It would be possible of course to bypass the door control to force the doors open if necessary.

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In a local bar on Miyamae...

"My name is Jonathan Remos, and you are?" The man responded offering his hand to the Peacekeeper to shake. The man's movements and attitude didn't seem to betray any nervousness, if anything he seemed rather calm and relaxed himself. Just as he extended his hand, a smirk crossed his face, "And who is the little lady?" Jonathan asked winking at Karasu in the process.

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In the Miyamae colony's computer terminal room...

Natsuko's face reddened a little bit and she was silent for a little while. When Natsuko finally spoke her voice was quiet, and her question seemed more of a sentence than a question. "Mah, we're officers now aren't we?" Natsuko's mind flashed back to her Cadet training. Times had been more than a little bit confusing since the UOC had formed but it was slowly ironing itself out. "Ne Aichan, we're no longer just PA pilots are we? We have more responsibilities than we ever did in the YSE as armor pilots. To the citizens of Miyamae III, in light of current events perhaps even the Barras family, to our teammates." Natsuko glanced at her friend, she knew the frustration that Ai felt. Things were getting to complicated, this was supposed to be something simple, in and out just as fast. "Sometimes, I guess there is no 'good guy' or 'bad guy'. We can't wait for our superiors to make these decisions for us anymore. It's our turn now, neh? That is why we went through all of that training after all," Natsuko sighed and banished the various windows that she had pulled up.

"Peacekeeper Wavrian," Natsuko said into her communicator. "Come to the central computer station, there is a matter I need you to look into for us." With that Natsuko popped off her helmet and let her long black hair fall down her back.

"I'm having Peacekeeper Wavrian come to check and see if he can find out who altered this file." Natsuko paused, "If the Barras Family isn't responsible for altering this then we need to find out why they did attack us and why they are being framed." Natsuko put her hand on her friend's armored shoulder. "Could you try and set up a diplomatic relationship with them?"

The Azorean jumped when he heard his name. He hadn't expected to be called in for anything during this time of interrogation and diplomacy, so he had taken to standing out of everyone's way. After a brief moment of smiling with joy, Wavrian radioed his acknowledgment of the order, then broke into a jog for the computer station.