RP: UCS Zenpyou [Mission 1] Blackened Wings

While Roken was waiting for the first colonist to answer his questions, Gin was mulling over the events of the mission thus far. It was a puzzle that the pieces did not fit and it was giving her a headache.

First the Zenpyou rushes to the system, without a decent compliment of crew, to rescue a ship. We arrive and the ship is already so much debris, and we are being jammed. How did they know we were coming, and why bother to put up a jamming field when there was no significant force to engage the ship. The Demons were pathetic against the UOC Power Armor. We board the wreckage and find supposed pirates still on board. But they are not armed. We disable the jammer and there is not so much as a ion trail leading away from the scene to indicate where the enemy ships went. So we come down to the colony. And we are present again with the same puzzle. The colony supposedly was attacked, but there was no sign of damage, no weapon fire. But the colonists were all secure in their underground facility and rigged the dome to blow up if someone tampered with it. Why would they do that. It would trap them with whoever was there. Unless they had another way out. Now we are having to look into a domestic dispute between the colonists, and the Barras family. It does not make sense. Its like being caught in the middle of a game of Go, and you can not see the other pieces to figure out where to go next.... Most of the crew came down on the first shuttle and if we had not been careful could have been blown up and caught in the debris. Now the commander and more of the crew comes down. What if all of this is a diversion, an elaborate hoax to keep us so confused and busy that we miss the real objective. How many people can there be left aboard the Zen? What if she's the objective? she thought.

She sent a signal to Ai, "Sub-Lieutenant Kitano Ai, ma'am. Nothing that has happened since we arrived makes sense. Could all this be some elaborate plan by a third part to get the majority of the crew of the ship leaving it vulnerable to being boarded? By my count once the commander came down there would not have been hardly anyone else on board."

"I suppose you're right Natsu-chan," Ai agreed, frowning a bit. "Still, this does feel like a lot of pressure the first time out. Couldn't it have been something simpler?"

"Anyway, sure, I'll see if I can contact them. Would it just be us and them, or should the colonists be in on it as well?" she asked. It was Natsuko's idea, so Ai wanted to get to know the idea better.

"That is quite possible, Peacekeeper," the sub-lieutenant replied to Gin. "Still, it's our job, however complicated it may be, to figure whether that, or some other events, are true. If you believe that a third party is manipulating this, what do you propose we do to prove that?"

Gin was dumbfounded by Ai's reply. Thinking to herself, If she agrees it is quite possible. Shouldn't she be concerned about making sure the ship is safe?

She then replied, "Ma'am, first I would respectfully suggest that steps be taken to secure the ship. Then we should conduct a background check on both whomever is funding the colony, and the Barras family, and see who would gain to profit from their conflict. Since I am currently occupied assisting Peacekeeper Techard, I would suggest assigning that task whomever might still be aboard the Zenpyou ma'am."

"This is strange," said Alice. "This piece of junk should work." Trying to push buttons did nothing. Hmm... technical flaws really aren't her expertise. "Try have a look on it, Adrian. But it is strange. This pad should be okay. Computer says it is okay! Hmm, maybe the malfunction is from the battle-damage? What else it could be?"

"Hmm, you could be right, it could be battle damage," said Adrian. "I'll have a look at the wiring see if anything happens, if not we'll have to pry the doors open."

Adrian fumbled around the edge of keypad, managing to remove it from the wall; the space where the pad was, now revealed a series of wires.
Adrian frowned, nothing seemed out of place and nothing indicated why the pad wouldn't be working.

He turned to Alice, "You wouldn't happen to have any wire on you? Or perhaps a bit of metal?" asked Adrian "I'm hoping the doors operate on having a complete electrical circuit."

"Oh normally, I have two or three wires with me, but just today I left them in my other power armor." said Alice with sarcasm in her voice. "Sorry, no wires. So what is wrong with the damn thing? Can you repair it or is it a time for muscle work?"

Roken glanced back at Gin before answering Remos, “Peacekeeper Gin.” Roken wanted to roll his eyes but he kept his expression as it was, Roken's observation of the individual didn't find anything to betray any nervous behavior which was good or, at least that's what he hoped. Guess we can start this then, He gave Remos a confident smile as he motioned to the room the bartender mentioned, “We really appreciate you coming forward to help us in our investigation and to everyone else here as well, I am confident that we will have this situation well under control.”

Roken sent Gin a quick mental message letting her know that they were going in to begin the questioning as he made his way to the room.

Gin upon receiving Roken's message moved towards the room where the interviews would take place. Interrogation was not her forte, but she was confident that she could at least help create an atmosphere to encourage the people to talk. She pulled out her folding staff. With a practiced twist and flick the staff extended and locked into position. She leaned against the wall, and let the staff rock back and forth in her hand.

The engineer arrived at the computer station within minutes, allowed himself a moment to catch his breath, then stepped inside. "Engineer Wavrian, reporting. How can I help?"

"Let's keep it between us and the pirates for now. If the colonists planted the evidence then we don't want to give away the fact that we know. Be careful though, if it were the pirates then you could be in a lot of danger, they've already attacked us once." Natsuko didn't like the idea of sending Ai to talk to the pirates, even though she had proposed it. They've already attacked us once, why wouldn't they do so again? Still, if they didn't do this then maybe they'd be willing to talk. Natsuko's stomach did cartwheels as she mulled over this. "I think you should be able to take the shuttle that we used to get down here." Natsuko suggested.

Just as Natsuko finished speaking the door to the computer center opened up and in came Wavrian. "Peacekeeper Wavrian, I need you to see if it's possible to figure out who edited this video." Natsuko transferred the video to another monitor and motioned to it. In reality Natsuko knew nothing about the video editing process, nor about file systems other than the Kessaku OS.

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"Great, I hope I can be of help to you." Remos offered before heading back to the room with the two peacekeepers. Once the trio reached the back room Remos sat down and started off, "How can I help you?"

"Okay. I suppose you'll handle things here while I'm gone? Well, take care," Ai stood and waved to Natsuko, before leaving, nodding to Wavrian as well.

"Well, Peacekeeper Karasu, it looks like your worries on security will, partially, be calmed. I'm heading back to the Zenpyou now, though I am going to be contacting the Barras family."

Once outside, she sent a request for the shuttle to come by and pick her up, if it had left again.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything around I can use, so it looks like we are going to use the good ol' gung-ho approach and force the doors open," Adrian commented to Alice with a grin.

"Well nothing can be done so let's get over with it. Isn't what these power armors are for anyway? So let's get this door open," Alice said to Adrian and moved into a better position to open the door by force.

Gin let her staff swing down and tap the floor. "So Remos, can you relate to us the incident with the Barras in your own words?" Tapping the staff again as she moved to another place.

Wavrian seemed a bit taken aback by the task assigned.

"Video analysisss isss by no meansss my specialty... I am sorry, but I don't believe that my training covered thisss. I specializzze in how thingsss work and how to keep them working, and I did learn how to ussse standard computersss and devicesss, but the intricaciesss of video editing are beyond me."

Mitsuya System, United Outer Colonies ON:>


Remos sat in front of Roken, ready to answer any questions that the Peacekeeper may have.

Roken was relaxed, or at least that's the way he wanted Remos to think as he set his helmet down on the table, "Ok, lets see...." He rubbed his head thinking of how he was going to ask the question. "Alright, could you tell me what you know about the incident with the Barras family, or anything relating to that?" He smiled a little distracted by Gin tapping the ground with her staff.

"Well, there isn't much to know really. The Barras family used to be one of our favorite trading families until one night a pair of them got drunk and murdered one of the girls. It's a shame really." As Remos spoke his eyes darted all over the place, not in apprehension but seemingly out of boredom.

Roken made a mental note of the eye movement as he took in what Remos said, "I see.....I would assume you had them tried and dealt with accordingly." Roken kept his working eye just above Remos's head, his augments scanning the room and still keeping track of his facial movements and anything else that might be a little out of place.

"We tried actually, then they just came in with guns and took them away. We couldn't do anything to stop them, we're a peaceful colony after all." Remos's eyes still darted everywhere, but something else seemed off. Remos's voice didn't fluctuate the entire time that he spoke, it merely stayed a straight monotone the entire time.

Roken heard it, ok....wait... It hit him that Remos could be reading something, but he couldn't be sure where and how unless there was someone behind him or he had augments like he did. He focused his eye on his for a moment, pretending to be concerned by the last thing he said, "I'm sorry, nobody was hurt when they took them i hope." Roken didn't like how Remos was acting, the eye movements were normal at first but the but the way he spoke was off, like he was reading off something.

Remos shut his eyes and nodded before looking back up at Roken. "Did you have any more questions?" Remos asked.

Roken had him, or at least he thought he did. His augments scanned his eyes to make sure Remos wasn't augmented as well while he made the choice to try and see if he could get him to admit or at least slip to confirm that he was being sent information, "that should be fine but I want to be sure, this is all you know right you wouldn't leave anything out because any info will help us resolve this issue." He smiled at Remos, being as friendly as possible before he needed to turn this into an interrogation.

Remos's lip twitched slightly before he spoke, "Of course not," Remos responded. Roken's scans indicated nothing out of the ordinary as far as augments were concerned. The man was a Yamataian, which didn't lend itself to augmentation very easily anyway.

Roken almost gave up but the twitch is what got him, he fiddled with his helmet as he frowned "Remos....you're sure, right..? You wouldn't hold out on me now would you?" Roken assumed that it might have been a mental link..unless they had someone behind him with a sign in his hands for Remos to read from.

"Well, like you said, it'll help you resolve the issue if I tell you everything. I've told you everything I know," Remos responded coolly.

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Back on the Zenpyou...

The two peacekeepers easily kicked open the door. The lighting inside the room was out and not responding to the remote commands of the Zenpyou.

"I think I'll wait outside, it shouldn't be hard to fix right?" Adrian said waiting at the entrance to the door.

Okay, so I should fix it. Okay, why not? Alice thought for herself. It can be fun. It was dark in the room but not that much for a night vision. A flashlight would be enough. With that Alice went into the dark to find the problem.

As Alice entered the room the problem didn't seem to jump out at her. In fact, it seemed like everything was working right, it seemed like one of the problems was in an attached side room. As Alice searched through the side rooms she noticed a datapad buried behind some wires with inputs going into it.

Well what do we have here. Alice is curious one after all. Someone forgot his datapad. Let's have a look. She reached behind wires and picked up the datapad carefully to not touch its screen. She was also careful to not unplug the wires in it.

The screen displayed a layout of the Zenpyou, currently highlighted was the ventilation system. Currently, it displayed all of the vents on the current level and the level above.

Well, this room should control the cranes. Alice didn't think this was supposed to be here. She opened a channel to peacekeeper who sent them here. "Peacekeaper Mason speaking, was there someone tinkering with the ventilation systems in this room?"

Once the channel was open, Alice would notice the distinct presence of static on the channel, along with the distinctive click of a rifle safety being toggled off coming from behind her.

What the heck? Alice really didn't expect that. She is on the ship only few hours and there is already guy with a gun behind her. She must be careful what is she wishing for. Well, this was in hand-to-hand combat training just few months ago. Alice turned around prepared to push the gun away with her left hand and hit the assailant with her right. She also wished that her armor is really tough.

Her opponent wasn't quite ready for that response, in fact her opponent wasn't really aware that Alice was aware of her. As Alice spun around the enemy fired her gun, sadly for her Alice's hand was moving fast enough to cause the shot to barely miss, bouncing off of Alice's shields. Alice's target was in a Super Demon, much like the armors that had attacked the Zenpyou earlier. Alice's strike was true but hardly final, her enemy staggered back into the electronics that lined the walls, dropping her rifle as she did so. As she fell back, a pair of mini missiles launched from from the shoulders of the Super Demon.

"Oh crud," shouted Alice and tried to jump away from rockets. Let's hope they are not guided. She inwardly swore that if she survived the rockets that the bastard would get it hard, she wasn't even left with enough time to pray for her shields to hold up. Time went awfully slow as missiles left the shoulders of her enemy.

One of the missiles completely blew past Alice and blew up some of the electronics showering the room in sparks. The second missile however hit Alice's armor square on, her shields flashed a bright orange and her HUD automatically darkened to adjust for the increased light. As the light dissipated her HUD showed that the shields had completely absorbed the hit and were operating at 80% efficiency. She also saw her opponent rushing for her rifle.

Alice didn't wait for anything. She had her forearm guns. Energy Pulse Canons. Nice things to have in firefight. She aimed both her hand on her adversary and fired a full barrage from both her guns. Ten rounds per second was fine by her.

Alice's shots hit their mark, the Super Demon's shields flickered brightly before failing. The pilot fell forward inches from her rifle, completely exposed and unprotected, her helmet heavily damaged.

Now is the time to die. Alice was prepared to finish her prey but then it got her. Oh damn, I'm a peacekeeper I can't just kill my enemy. "Okay don't move and give up or I will blow you head off!" She shouted waiting for a slightest move of the bad guy.

Alice could hear a curse escape the lips of the pilot, apparently female by the sound of her voice, through a rather large whole in her helmet. "I give up," she said just as the lights started to flicker on.

Alice was relieved. She didn't have to kill anybody. Who knows it might come with the job but she would be happy if she could postpone if only for now. Now where the hell is Adrian? He had to hear explosions and gunfight. Alice still aimed at woman in armor. "Hey Adrian we have intruders on ship! Alert security!" She yelled to the doors where her companion waited. "And you, hands on your head so I can see them and cross your legs. "No funny movements and you will live! Now how many of you are on the ship?" She demanded of her captive.

Adrian didn't have to call security, they had already been alerted and were on their way. While Alice waited on security forces to arrive the pilot complied with what Alice had told her to do. "There are three more of us, though the others aren't in Power Armors," the pilot looked at the ground in front of her as she spoke. Less than thirty seconds after Alice called for security they were there and heavily armed.

Finally! Alice didn't stood up afraid that her prisoner would try something funny. She looked at security guys. "There should be three other around the ship according to this woman," she said to them. "They can anywhere on the ship, but without power armors they shouldn't make much problems. Let's hope they didn't have enough time to sabotage anything."

YOUR HIDING SOMETHING, I KNOW IT!!! Roken thought as his face twitch a little, “And I..we are grateful that you were so eager to help us but....well for a moment there, you sounded a little flat.... I mean....like maybe you were reading something or you kinda drifted on me for a moment.” Roken took another step towards Remos, eyeing him for a moment, “that eager individual that stepped forward in the bar kinda slipped away and I got someone else that was giving me information.” If he couldn't get anything else out of him he would have to leave the rest to Gin since he was slowly making himself out like a bad cop in his opinion.

Adrian arrived directly behind security, hearing what Alice had said. "So the first thing would be to find the rest of the intruders before they can do serious damage," said Adrian, "I think finding out what the objective was will make it easier to find them".

"You're not even going to ask if I'm okay? Well it's true that it is not that important right now." Alice was watching as security apprehended that woman. They should interrogate her as soon as possible. Maybe scan their communication. Alice hoped those three intruders wouldn't have much time to cause serious damage and sabotage Zenpyou.

"Hey Adrian, you should have look at this datapad here. It is connected to Zenpyou's systems," she said to Adrian.

Adrian took the datapad, then turned is head to Alice and grinned, "Well, you sure did a good job redecorating, I think you are going to keep me busy." He then looked at the apprehended woman. "Well, I'm guessing you're fine, am I right?" He said still grinning.

Adrian started to browse through the datapad, trying to find something that would be helpful to find the rest of the intruders.