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RP: YSS Celia Mission 1: [Ohara] An Oasis in the Void

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Yangfan

Yangfan

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A few short hours after the Celia and her escorts left the Anisa system, the ships arrived at the unexplored system that the radio signal originated from.

"This is Taisho Chen to all escort ships. Detach from the hull and commence defensive escort pattern alpha. Watch my back... Shina, scan the system. Look for populated planets."

The four Yuis and the four Ketsuekis immediate separated themselves from the Celia's hull, and took up positions around the Celia.

Meanwhile, with Shina at the controls, the Celia tuned her powerful sensor suite at the system. An air of excitement was in the Celia's bridge.

"Sir, I'm detecting... one planet, with two moons, and one asteroid ring further away from the sun," reported Shina. A preliminary system map appeared on the main view screen of the bridge. "The planet appears to be populated. I'm getting a lot of EM noise from it as well. The only signal I can pick up from this range is the numeral sequence that we originally detected. The asteroids are rich in magnetized iron and other minerals... I can't tell you anything more unless we get closer to the planet, sir."

"Celia, take us into orbit," ordered Henry.

The YSS Celia dived toward the planet, with her escorts following close behind.

"The moons are unpopulated, sir, and quite desolate," reported Shina as they got closer. Her eyes widened. "Sir, something's already orbiting the planet! It's..."

Henry leaned forward with interest.

"It's a primitive artificial satellite, sir," Shina sounded a bit disappointed. "More like a metal bucket with solar panels attached, really. It's transmitting the numeral sequence in several radio frequencies."

The Celia and her escorts eased into low orbit around the planet.

"The planet's definitely populated, sir. I'm detecting major population centers, roads, canals..." said Shina.

"Kioko, try to lift some signals from the EM noise," ordered Henry. "Shina, find out whether we've been detected yet."

"I'm on it, sir," replied Kioko.

"It's hard to tell, sir. My best guess is, with their level of technology, they can't see us yet unless they are actively looking for us with sensor sweeps, or if someone gets extremely lucky with a telescope, which is unlikely, sir. We probably would be detected once we are in the planet's atmosphere, though," replied Shina.

"I'm starting to sort out the stronger signals, sir," added Kioko. "It'll take a while for the computer to make any sense out of their language, though."

"Hmm. I'd like to know a bit more about the planet's inhabitants before we make contact," declared Henry to the bridge crew. The lessons learned on Fenyar were still fresh in his mind. "Shina, keep scanning. Celia, order two of the Yuis to the other side of the planet. I want the planet mapped. Kioko, start translation and analysis of the planet's radio signals as soon as possible. Taii Kamitaka, report to the shuttle bay and begin flight preparations. You'll be flying us down there. Taii Kaori, I'd like to suggest that you meet with Ittô Heisho Wikkedson before our away mission. You'll find him in the shuttle bay as well."
 
While Yuri was backing herself up, Ryoko went out to poke around the ship a little to find her own way, not wanting to bother her superior officer. Ryoko felt confident that she would be alright and not destroy...too much. She passed the bridge and looked inside as the door slid open; she say and was momentarily fascinated with all the glowing panels and consoles as well as the pretty planet they were in orbit around.

Unable to really stop herself she stepped in and stayed toward the back, looking at the displays. "where are we?" She asked Celia's Avatar, thinking it was another neko.
 
He nodded and rose from the tactical station. "Yes sir, I'll get on that right now" he said and turned. His form walking off the birdge quite rigidly. His posture represented what he stood for each time he walked. He slowly approached the designated lift and pressed the proper coordiantion of controls down. He waited for the door to open, then he proceeded to step in. His voice was rough, " Shuttle Bay" The lift began it's swift decent into the bowels of the ship.

The lift came to it's halt finally at the shuttlebay. He stepped forward and looked around the shuttle bay his eye smoving about. He walked into the bay a bit farther. His eyes moved about, looking at the various pieces of high dollar equipment. These were all in his care, or that's how he thought. He was responsible for everything's safety. Living beings, AI's, and Eqiupment. He approached the first lower level officer than him. " Excuse me.." he said, at first to get this persons attention. " Taii Kaori. here to see Itto Heisho Wikkedson..."
 
Woot looked to the Taii, who was obviously much younger than him. "Wikkedson is in the briefing room next door. You can't miss him." The veteran sniper pointed at a large doorway that was labeled "Briefing Room" in white letters. The shuttles appeared to be fully packed with all the necessary equipment, waiting only on the crews and Taisho Chen's command.
 
After being conveyed to the Celia from the Ayame II via a Minion class corvette ship along with some supplies, Kelsey braced herself for her new command. After the reassignment from Asehantal, which she was still angry about, it seemed to her that the military wasn't overly concerned with her wishes. Rather than being jaded about it, she went on optimistically, but mostly with nervous anticipation of the weeks ahead.

Kelsey looked about with trepidation at the ship as she entered. This being her first assignment to a ship in space, she wasn't sure how the atmosphere or culture aboard ship worked. She also was curious about the crew. Having checked the manifest, she knew there was a 12 foot tall "troll" among other things. All this was apparent with the pensive look on her face as she reported for duty. Her black eyes framed by her blue slightly longer than shoulder length hair, which was pulled back in a loose pony tail, looked directly at whomever she addressed. (be it a camera or a superior officer)

"Nitô Heisho Isen Kelsey, reporting for duty."
 
Two Yuis swiftly made their way to the other side of the planet. Their powerful sensors began mapping the planet's geography as they went.

Celia turned to Ryoko when she heard the question. "We are on the bridge," she said. "...But you probably wanted to know which system we are in. I'm afraid I do not possess that information. It is standard procedure to label the system with the name used by its indigenous inhabitants. I guess you'll have to ask them personally when you go planetside... Excuse me. Something requires my attention." With those words, Celia's eyes went blank, as her consciousness traveled elsewhere on the ship.

A split second later, Celia's voice reached Kelsey's ears via a speaker embedded in the control panel of the airlock that Kelsey was standing near. "Welcome aboard, Nitô Heisho Isen Kelsey. Please report to Ittô Heisho Wikkedson in the briefing room near the shuttle bay. Tell him that you are to serve as a tech sentry here. He will handle your assignments."

Meanwhile, planetside...

The morning sun slowly threw its warm yellow beams upon the Free City State of Everspring, upon its stately town halls, upon its quaint cottages, upon the glorious and majestic Temple of Freya, the religious and spiritual center of the planet and the headquarters of the Order, and upon the first floor windows of the Museum of the Relics of Our Goddess.

And through one of these windows, the sunshine came down upon an array of solar panels, which were hooked up to a small orange plastic box, about a foot wide on each side. Legends say that, once upon a time, the box served as the homing beacon of a ship that could soar beyond the stars.

Aboard the YSS Celia...

"Sir," Shina spoke up. "I'm detecting... But... That's impossible."

"I see it, too, sir," said Kioko. "A homing signal, originating from one of the larger islands. The signature is encoded in an archaic Nepleslian protocol."

"Nepleslian?" Henry asked. "But there are no records of any ships ever exploring this region of space, Nepleslian or Geshrin."

"The signal is identifying itself as the Nepleslian merchant ship Unicorn," said Kioko.

"That's a strange name for a Nepleslian ship," commented Henry. "Celia, look it up in your database, please."

"Right away, sir," replied the Celia. Her eyes closed momentarily as her mind pored over countless indices and records. "Sir, I've found 14 Yamataian merchant ships and 2 Nepleslian merchant ships that have ever carried that designation."

"What are the 2 Nepleslian ships?"

"One is the YSS Unicorn, a low-orbit merchant ship that is currently in service. The other is the NSS Unicorn, an interplanetary merchant ship that was presumed lost 152 years, 4 months, and 24 days ago. The last communication from the ship reported that it was experiencing a deep space spatial anomaly and was in distress. The ship never made it back to Nepleslia, sir."

"Well, looks like we have a ghost ship on our hands," said Henry with a sigh. "I guess we'll be landing there first."

"Are you going to go looking for treasure, sir? Yarrrh."

"Don't you have radio signals to analyze, Kioko?"

"Right, sir."
 
He nodded to the older man a moment. His eyes turend tot he briefing room. He began his rythmic military pace to the room. He slowly approached it, and then entered. His from passing through the door and beginning to take in the inhabitants. He stood somewhat tall, even for a Geshrin. His light ice grey eyes seemed to be glass, staring forward in an unrelenting glare. They were glazed, covered with painful memories, all buried, deeper than a hole that stretched for miles. He looked around, noting that it wouldn't be hard to find this creature that was to be working with him. He stepped up and brought his hands to his forehead, the salute gesture. His posture rigid. He brought his hands down behind his back and eyd the large being. " Taii Kaori, I was told we'd need to talk....now seems as good a time as ever..."
 
Ryoko nodded. "That's true I suppose." She nodded again as Celia's Avatar went distant. She listened to the conversations floating around about the so called "ghost-ship". That was interesting indeed. "If I may, run a scan for lifesigns on that ships and look for escape pods or if some are in stasis..." She suggested meekly.
 
Henry swiveled his chair around to face Ryoko when he heard her voice. "Of course, Shoi Yamikage, man the comm. station next to Kioko and run some high definition scans on the originating location of the homing signal. Shina..." The chair noiselessly rotated back to its original orientation. "Transfer control of one of the sensor arrays to Yamikage's station, and continue scanning the planet. I want an extrapolation of the exact technology level and military strength of this planet."
 
Ryoko smiled at Henry as he assigned her to a station, she was privately hoping that he would. The all-knowing grin was still on her lips as she sat at the station and started to perform the high-definition scans of the originating source of the signals. The sheer data-gathering ability of this ship's sensors was outright amazing as they quickly began scanning the vessel for lifesigns or stasis pods, half heartedly hoping to find at least someone.
 
Replying to the empty space in front of her, Kelsey grinned and moved forward while mumbling.

"Thanks for the welcome."

She moved forward into the ship. After looking around for a while making sure she knew the layout well enough to get by, she eventually stumbled upon the 11 foot berserker. Taking in the sight of the massive troll, she grinned and spoke confidently.

"Nito Heisho Isen Kelsey reporting as a tech sentry. I'm prior infantry, so I'm not sure how good I will be at this job but I'll be sure to give it my best shot."
 
After a quick, "Hai," Kaya made her way to the shuttle bay to prepare a shuttle for take off. It didn't take long and she soon found herself in the pilot seat doing numerous check ups on the shuttle over and over again. The good news was she had basically made sure that everything on the shuttle was working properly, the bad news it soon became like counting sheep and after some time Kaya could be found in a deep sleep in the pilots seat.
 
Under Ryoko's directions, the ship's sensors reached out in the direction of the homing signal. Soon, a blurry and pixilated bird's-eye-view image of the originating location of the homing signal appeared on her screen, and the image grew clearer by the second.

When the image finally reached photo-quality, Ryoko found, probably to her surprise, that the signal was originating from a large building of some sort. She couldn't see much, only the roofs of buildings in some sort of urban area. It was impossible to tell whether the ship's hull was housed inside the building. The screen indicated that several much smaller energy signals were also being emitted from the building. None of them were large enough to indicate the presence of a functional starship, though. If any life pods were present, they were probably deactivated, as none of the energy signals detected were distress calls.

Life signs, however, were everywhere. The buildings and streets of the urban area were teeming with creatures, although Ryoko could not get a good look at them from her vantage point.

Meanwhile, Shina and Kioko were busy collecting information on the planet and uploading them into the Celia's database. Shina was able to make educated guesses at the planet's tech level and military strength by examining its infrastructure and military bases. Kioko pieced together the planet's political situation by listening in on its radio broadcasts.

Planet Name: Ohara

Species Name: Phod

Geography: One main continent, with several archipelagos. Land on the main continent is relatively flat, and has many rivers, canals, lakes, and in-land seas. (The originating location of the homing signal is a large island near the main continent.)

Technology: There exist operational nuclear fission plants. Solar and wind power appear to be the main sources of energy. Lighter-than-air flight has been discovered. One artificial satellite is in orbit. (Tech level C)

Dominant Factions: The Lage Republic and the Haton Federation.

Politics: Lage is a socialist authoritarian government, ruled by a committee called the "Boop" and the Grand Assembly. Haton is a capitalist representative democracy ruled by the Grand Congress. Political tensions between the two nations are high and rising.

Military: Both Lage and Haton each maintain several dozen divisions, consisting of infantry, tanks, fighter jets, and naval warships. In addition, several hundred long-distance nuclear missiles are stored in underground silos in remote locations.

Industry: Ohara has exceedingly high agricultural production capabilities, most of which goes unutilized. Its industrial manufacturing strength is increasing rapidly.
Click to expand...
 
Wikkedson raised a large stony gray eyebrow. "Former infantry?" he rumbled. "Are you on this mission?" he asked both Kelsey and Taii Kaori. The large figure was getting dressed in a flak suit similar to the ones Nepleslians wore, a light green suit with black tiger stripes and a thick solid-green flak vest.
 
"Indeed I am, per my orders. Hopefully I will still be an asset to the team."

Kelsey said, still attempting to be chipper and optimistic despite having no clue what exactly a tech sentry does. As she spoke she adjusted the new red uniform she had bought for her new job description, almost with a sort of nostalgia for the old blue which signified her infantry days. Her ribbons were crisp upon the uniform, even the service award she didn't feel like she deserved from Aeshantal. It's orange and white presence serving as a constant reminder that she was pulled off the mission before any progress was made. As she finished speaking she shifted her weight to one foot, trying to make herself at least a little more comfortable in the new clothes.
 
He nodded slowly to Wikkedson. " Yes, I'm a part of this mission. I was ordered by the Captain." he looked around the area a moment. "Yes, I am also former infantry. I miss those days though, when things were much more simple." One could ALMOST make out a smile thorugh his rigid military persona. He looked over at Wikkedson again and then to the others moving about. " Do you need anything from me, Or may I begin my own preperations?"
 
"Preparations?" Wikkedson's deep voice growled. "Why the hell," he leaned forward, becoming more shadowy at his figure bocked the light from the celiing, "aren't you ready already?" He shooed Kaori away, obviously quite frustrated. From the troll's point of view, there was a certain amount of equipment that any Star Army soldier should be ready to use in moments, and at any time. All of the regulars had their stuff waiting in the shuttles already. There wasn't much to bring...it wasn't like they were expecting heavy combat or anything.
 
Ryoko blinked as she looked over the results of the scans, she giggled a little bit when she got a relative count of the lifeforms. The purple-haired shoi continued to run the scans, seeing if she could get better resolution on the scanning results.

"Sir, we're reading the Nepleslian ship is in a hangar or some other type of building, it's surrouned by smaller lifeforms. Though with the age of the ship, I do not think that they are Nepleslian."She half turned to Henry speaking in a firm tone of an officer. "They may be studying the ship and backengineering it..." She added, in a tone that hinted at suspicion.
 
He stared at the large figure for a moment, Unwaving in his movements. His eyes locked into a cold, hard glazed over look, as if something inside him stirred. His teeth felt as if they would grind from their gums as he turned around, and looked over his shoulder before moving forward. "I had other duties to attend to, it all comes down to priorities. Now, Excuse me while I go prepare myself. Perhaps some manners could be learned in my absence." His form moved briskly out of the room. He had to go make his own preperations. To retrieve his own weapon, something he'd carried from his beginning days into combat...Of course, that troll would never understand. It was sad, how creatures in the military didn't understand respect properly...
 
"That's certainly possible, Shoi Yamikage," replied Henry. "Although, judging from their technology level, they didn't manage to learn anything too important just yet. I wonder... what happened to the crew of the Unicorn when they first landed?" he asked no one in particular as he thumbed through some information on his own console.

"Hmm. This is interesting. Why didn't you tell me this, Celia?" asked Henry as he turned to face the avatar, who was standing by his side. "The captain of the Unicorn was a woman. That's exceedingly rare for a Nepleslian ship."

"I realize that, sir," replied Celia. "But I don't see how that's relevant to the situation at hand."

"It's... It's not," said Henry. "A female Nepleslian captain... Well, at least the name of the ship makes a little more sense now."

Meanwhile, planetside...

Goz Jelvu, head curator of the Museum, yawned as he stepped onto the first floor of the building in which he works. Acknowledging a salute from an Order guardian with a wave of his wing, he began making his morning rounds.

Now, Goz was considered knowledgeable about the Relics in every sense of the word, but even he could only really use about half of them. No matter though, as Goz knew which of the devices needed to be turned on in the mornings, before the first wave of pilgrims arrive. And he knew exactly were the "ON" buttons were, so all was well.

Several of the devices have become mundane with the passage of time. For example, Goz had yet to see a Phod who was impressed by the Goddess's juice maker, except maybe for its religious value. Other devices, though... They defied description.

Goz powered on a laptop computer, after carefully making sure that the solar panels attached to it were in good working order. He pondered for a moment about the words of the computer scientist he met last week, who told him that they were still at least a decade away from replicating this technology.

Next, Goz moved on to a large, grayish, box-shaped machine connected to a monitor and to what looked like a radio dish. "I never figured out how you work," said Goz to the machine. "It's not my fault though. The records say that you are a sensor machine. But you never detected anything..."

The machine said nothing.

With a shrug of resignation, Goz examined the array of solar panels providing power to the machine, and pushed the "ON" button.

Almost immediately, the familiar star map lit up on the monitor.

"Never a thing..." said Goz.

A green blip appeared onscreen.

Goz's eyes widened. The machine never did that before.

Aboard the YSS Celia...

Ryoko's console began making a low bleeping noise. On her screen, a yellow warning message flashed over the building from which the homing signal had originated.

A long-range sensor was activated inside the building. The Celia had been detected.
 
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