RP: YSS Miharu Mission 1 "REAR GUARD", Day 5

"Excuse me," Rei spoke up after clearing her throat, "But given the plans that have been proposed so far, would Takuma-Hei and I be operating as a pair in one team or would we be split for the operation?"

"I ask only because if it were the latter, I would certainly be able to get into the room with the MEGAMI - though I am by no means expert in constructive interface with computer systems. It, erm, wasn't precisely my specialty."

"You could go in a teleporting Mindy as well," Mara answered. "There's going to be one free and your skill at demolition can help getting past the floor hatch."

"We should go ahead and begin assigning everyone their teams, Armor setup, and payloads. A few small rehearsals wouldn't hurt either so we have a better visual idea on what the interiors look like. Schematics don't help much with that." Nyton added.

Tom groaned. He was getting used to that sound coming out of his mouth, the sign of a man who was beginning to get frustrated with his work. The Yamataian worked methodically, picking his way deeper and deeper into the inner workings of the Fold System, but with each layer he patched, there seemed to be another problem or quirk that caused him to shift his attention from what he was working on.

That nagging itch had now become a full-blown rash, and his environmental suit was helping that mental irritation become a reality.

"Damn, you sure are messed up..."

The outside world was rather distant to Tom as he worked. He was so immersed in his task that he had lost track of time since Yukari last contacted him. Everytime he heard her voice, it warmed him, gave him a spark of energy that helped carry him through the task at hand.

But she hadn't spoken to him for a while, perhaps taken away by more pressing matters? True, Yukari was a bridge member and Kotori's right-hand woman... it would be natural to assume she had more pressing matters to attend to than to chat with the ship's engineer.

He connected another wire.

Yukari frowned. "I do not understand. You are less full of personality because Hoshi-san is not powerful enough?" Quantum computers were, as far as Yukari knew, practically omnipotent. Nothing could match even the smallest of them. She found Hinoto a little hard to believe.

"We were talking about flexibility," Hinoto ran her hands through Yukari's wavy brown hair and began to work it up into a lather. "The ship's main computer was created first and Mara soon after. She is a few days my senior but you can learn a lot of things in the span of a few days. Seeing Mara is five times older than I, I would it would explain the advantages she has over me well."

<center>* * *</center>

A volumetric window opened to Tom's right, showing a picture of Kotori from shoulder up.

"How are things going Tom?" She asked. Kotori winced in sympathy. "Fixing the fold drive is taking a lot more time than was estimated. Do you think you can have it operational by tonight?"

Yukari nodded, blushing at having her hair touched. She realized with annoyance that there seemed to be few ... unresponsive parts to her. It was not fair. She did not remember having this problem, but she was rarely touched.

"With personality comes some flexibility. I was not clear," she said. "There are times ... when it is acceptable to improve upon orders. Thinking 'on the fly,' it is called."

"Well, ma'am, this thing is like a freakin' onion," Tom said, his formality at the moment forgotten. "This ship has some amazing layers, but it's a beast to maintain... hold on a second."

Tom saw a part of the fold system beep and light up at him, causing him to lift his head and shout at someone in the far corner of the subdeck.

"Don't touch that yet! I can't have those connectors running into the fold system until I'm ready to supply operational energy!"

He returned to panel level with Kotori.

"Further iterations of this ship should have a more streamlined design, if you're looking for faster repairs. But, if all things turn out ok, I think we can pull off your deadline."

"Good," the Taii nodded back. "If that's the case, delegate what you need done to your staff; I want you to get out of that suit, get a quick dip in the public baths," The way Kotori emphasized that last bit was sort of odd. "and then go and make lunch for the crew. If you see anyone on your way that doesn't seem to be busy doing something important, you can enlist them on my authority to help you out."

"Ketsurui-Taii out." The window came to a close and disappeared.

<center>* * *</center>

Hinoto continued to carefully wash Yukari's shoulder-length hair. "Do you mean 'improvisation'?"

Yukari's hair seemed to pile down between her shoulderblades the more it was touched. She really had a lot of it.

"Improvisation can carry negative connotations," the Chui said, sounding like a shy teacher. "But yes. One bends with the wind, not against it, for if they do not, they will surely be uprooted." She bit her lip just a little, as Hinoto's hands touched her scalp briefly to soap it as well. It felt very soothing -- apparently her head was sensitive too.

It must be this Nekovalkyrja body, she thought. It is not for fighting only. I should correct my nervous system to recalibrate its sensitivity ... but this feels too good. Yukari blushed a little, but said nothing more.

Hinoto stood up a bit higher and bent forward a bit, a fingers industriously massaging more over the front of Yukari's head and around her ears.

"But aren't rules and orders there to be followed to the letter? If I am not supposed to follow rules to the letter, then why are there any at all?" the sprite asked over the distinctive swish swish scrubbing sound.

"Very well then," Tom softly said to himself as he stood up. "I stink anyway."

Working in the subdeck for hours in an environmental suit always made one stinky, and Tom was no exception. He figured that, with the way things were going now, that he'd end up needing to take 3 or 4 baths a day.

He yelled down to Nimura who was standing at one of the control panels.

"Ok, Nimura, I need you to take my position here and continue connecting this wire matrix from where I left off. I'm sure you know how to do it, but, as a quick reminder, red to blue, white to black, green to orange. If you manage to complete a section before I return, have Ichigo run a small current of electricity through it to measure its receptivity. Nothing under 95% efficiency will do, but we need to take into account our new deadline of tonight to finish. All of our lives may depend on it."

He pointed to Ichigo.

"Ichigo, don't bother with the connectors and take Nimura's former position at the control panel. When Nimura gives you the signal, send an ultrashort pulse of moderate strength through the designated grid on the fold system. DON'T provide a constant stream of ANY magnitude. We're trying to simulate an activation of the fold's capabilities, but we can't risk supplying too much energy or we'll fry everything we've worked on."

He pulled his helmet off at the door to the subdeck.

"I've got to make lunch too, so if you get hungry at any time, stop by for a quick bite. I'll leave something waiting for you both. Rock out."

He left the room to go to the public baths, as per Kotori's orders.

Ichigo and Nimura scurried to accomplish Tom's bidding. Leutre was down there as well and busy working, assuming he had stopped screaming.

Miyoko had remained silent for most of the briefing, but now she spoke up, addressing Nyton. "If you could spare me for a bit during the preparations, I'd like to get Ketsurui-taii and Suzuka-chui's ST backups taken care of at the very least- Westwood-hei, Amagasaki-hei, and Ryszard-hei as well, if you could spare them. I'm sure you can see the risk in charging into battle with no recent backups for the two highest-ranked officers on the ship..."

"Say, that reminds me," Mara looked over to Miyoko and then back to Nyton and Masako. "Do we have any particular way of proceeding for treating the injured should some of our people have it bad in the assault? If someone's power armor is disabled or that a pilot becomes wounded or unconscious, what do we do? If either Kurohoshi-Juni or Claymere-Juni fall in battle, how do we proceed exactly?"

"Injuries will be the reason why no one is going alone," Masako replied to Mara's question. "For either of the smaller teams, we have a Mindy to take injured personnel out of the line of fire. But for the larger insertion team, I'd like Saito-Hei to be there to provide emergency first aid if necessary. Any wounded in that team will have to be taken back to the launch bay they entered from and from there..." Masako paused pensively.

"Hmmm...I would suggest a shuttle be there for transporations sake, but I'm unsure how we'd work that considering we're already spreading our personnel quite a bit."

"What about the Artemis transport?" Sigurd proposed. "Perhaps Suzuka-Chui could put in on standby to help the insertion and recover wounded personnel?"

Masako frowned slightly as she scratched the tip of her ear. "But isn't that a personal transport? Does the Artemis have enough room for a person in power armor?" the young warrant officer asked the sprite curiously.

"It seems like a manueverable craft, but wouldn't one of our shuttles be just as efficient, if not more because of its capacity?"

"I doubt the Taii would leave a personal vehicle aboard if she had not considered using it for the Miharu's mission," Sigurd replied. "The Artemis' capability of shifting to humanoid form made it more efficient at countering enemy power armor - I prioritized defensive capabilities over carrying capabilities."

Suddenly, the sound of Tom entering the public baths was heard.

"Do do, do do do do do, gonna take a showerrrrr. Hoo ha! Gives me powerrrrr!"

He had JUST walked in and hadn't taken notice of any of the surroundings except...

"Woah!"

...the huge design on the wall.