RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 17.1] Odds and Ends

Recon Team

"Do it please," he said to Konoka kindly and looked around and at Reika. "Tachihara-hei, Helen-Shosa, I need you two to help paint a picture of exactly 'what' happened here, we don't have proper systems yes but I do believe a lot can be gleaned just by examining the damage this place has taken."

"DarkSky-hei, Natsumi-hei, I need you two to return to the ship real quick and get me a hydrogen container that we salvaged, I've sent you two the specs on what it looks like. It shouldn't be too hard to find, so once you get it bring it back to me quickly," ordered Takeyu as he walked up to the reactor and looked it over with an engineers eye.

"As long as we don't push this ship to hard the reactor shouldn't scram," he muttered and glanced off to his side at where the missing hyperdrive was. "Once we get it online I might have to completely rewrite the power systems so that we don't bleed power into systems that are either destroyed or don't even EXIST anymore," the engineer looked rather annoyed at several items that were presently missing.

After a moment of a thought he looked over at Bors. "Bors-hei? There are a few maintenance hatches here, check them to ensure that they can be opened please, if you find any explosives, just mark them so that we can have DarkSky-hei disarm them. When your done doing that, then check any nearby rooms for materials, but use your drones to help you search."

He then walked over to another area of the bay and stopped for a moment. "Tomomi-hei, Misato-hei, see if you can find me anything that can be used to patch up some of these holes or anything that can be used to repair some of this ships systems, we don't need to full repairs, just enough so that the systems don't overload when we bring main power back online. Don't wander to far away from engineering, and stay out of the maintenance conduits."

The Chief Engineer grumbled at the damage and shook his head. I really wanna get my hands on whoever would harm this poor girl...

He looked over his should at Tomomi. "One other thing, Tomomi-hei, I might need your assistance in rewriting this ships power systems though I'll know for sure once we get main power online."

Takeyu then pulled his ICP out of his pack and turned it on, and started browsing through a list of software he had created for his job and brought the one up that dealt with altering a ships power systems. This software, provided the main computer isn't to heavily damaged, should be able to do the job but I want a fall back plan, he began to sift through the programs to find a backup, one used in the event of a heavily fragmented or damaged computer system.

Recon Team

"Affirmative." Helen spoke aloud, as she continued to stroll around the engineering compartment. There was a sigh from her, as the utter mess which the compartment was in told her plenty, that, and the bridge, along with the blood, it really painted a rather vivid picture. "Reika, how about your first guess, judging by the damage and blood distribution?" Helen asked, as she continued looking around, but she also listened for the rookie SAINT's insight. As she looked about, she did pay mind to what systems were damaged. Who ever did this, did know what they were aiming for, where they were going, and what they were doing. Though, the looting... this is not a field-strip, everything was taken, it had to have been captured, then towed to a stripping yard before it was sold to the Shosho. Though, why sell on an open market? Are they that comfortable with those who could see what they were doing and the possibility of evidence that could serve as a trace? Helen thought to herself, as she waited to compare notes.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko blushed as they landed, and the man moved closer, permitting her a closer look. Why did she keep running into so many undressed males after being assigned to the Eucharis? From the lack of reaction from her captain, this type of situation must be fairly common. While Hanako welcomed the former prisoner on board, Murakami searched out any spare clothing the new arrival might cover himself with. She tried to avoid looking at him as she offered a choice of outfits in his general direction, keeping her eyes on Hanako if possible. She'd rounded up pieces from spare male uniforms, some silk pajamas and a baggy pair of Nepleslian pants they'd just stowed away. Hopefully he could find something that fit well enough, and assemble a hasty outfit from the mismatched materials.

Cargo Bay

As the Lorath Occhestan entered the ship he got a better look at the Shosho as he passed by her, and did a double take. That sea green hair! Those golden eyes! This was a woman of Lorath history...the officer who had served at the side of Rufus Sydney during first contact, and Lor's subjugation, the one who had faced Melisson and tried to stop the moon-fall, the woman who took the queen's virginity and sparked the civil war that had left the Occhestan people as slaves and exiles.

The man accepted the silk pajamas and dressed in them, looking concerned.

"Please have him medically examined and see if we can remove the collar safely," Hanako ordered.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko awkwardly bowed, hands still full of unused clothing. "Yes Shosho. Um...Konoka-Hei is on the away team." She returned the clothes to proper storage, giving herself a moment to think. "...but, I suppose the Medical Lab would be a good place to wait for her to return." As Sune stepped in to take charge, she remembered something. "Um...there are a few others waiting there already. They had wings, too. Maybe you'll all get along?"

Smiling at the thought, Mitsuko bowed to the group before turning away. She moved to gather the items she had been allowed, planning to stow them in her cabin. It seemed like the cargo loading was temporarily paused while the wreckage of that ship was investigated. She stayed alert, just in case she was needed again, while busying herself changing her cabin's sheets and arranging her new possessions on the desk.

Recon Team

"Understood" Natsumi replied to Takeyu, then glanced at Johnathan. "Let's go, DarkSky-hei!" she said and started off, exiting the engineering compartment.

She sent her probes ahead once more, making sure the path out of the ship was still clear of any surprises. At the hatch though she glanced at the new Infantryman.

"Um, I think you might want to handle disabling the explosive on the hatch before I try and open it" she said

Recon Team

"Hai!!" Tomomi responded to Takeyu, giving a thumbs up. Considering the precision of the pirates, she knew this was going to be interesting. She launched two more of her drones and directed them to look for an metal sheeting or rigid material that will be able to withstand differences in atmospheric pressure.

She then moved to see if there were any storage rooms located very close to engineering they already checked for traps. She also attached a lifeform module to the science scanner to periodically do some scans.

Cargo Bay

Sune followed Hanako down to the cargo bay. He watched the Occhestan's reaction when he recognized Hanako. Sune knew Hanako's service record, and had been concerned about how their guest might react.

Upon hearing her request that the person was to be taken to medical he spoke up.

"I will take him to medical. With Konoka on the Ayana I will take charge of medical and see to the care of our newest guest." He said walking over to the Occhestan.

"I am Jalen Sune-Shosa the First Officer of the Eucharis and former medic, what might your name be sir?" He asked as he motioned for their guest to come with him.

Recon Team

Jonathan examined the excape pod hatch they had used and closed behind them on the way in. It still had the detonation cord and remote detonator emplaced, ready to make an emergency hole with which to escape by. He then examined the other doors along the escape pod gallery, recalling that others along this bay had been utilized.

"Natsumi-hei, we shall use one of the other expended pod chambers." With that, he moved to one of the used escape pod doors to open it and effect an egress to the exterior of the ship.

Recon Team

Bors gave Takeyu an affirmative nod as he set off to do his designated task. Checking the maintenance hatches was easy enough, though finding them was slightly more difficult, not having spent to much time in an engineering department Bors didn't know really where to look, but blood trails and also the lack of objects left in the room made the job a bit easier.

After checking the maintenance hatches, and making sure they could open, Bors exited the room to explore the adjacent rooms for anything useful.

"If anything were to attack now would be a great time," He said to himself as he used his suits plasma cutter to cut a hole in one of the rooms doors, "Then again seems like they just gutted and ran so I doubt anybodies left." After cutting a decent sized hole in the door, Bors kicked the remaining portion down resulting in a large clang as the metal hit the floor. "Knock knock anybody home?" he said jokingly as he entered the room taking out his flashlight so he could see better. As Bors searched the room for anything useful, he also tried to see if he could find any distinguishing markings left by the pirates thinking that he may have run into them in the past.

Recon Team

Natsumi followed Johnathan out of the newly opened escape pod hatch back out into the rain, using her suits thrusters to glide down to the muddy ground.

"Now, if I were a hydrogen tank where would I be hiding?" she asked herself. she looked around for it, but there was a lot of stuff. Some had been loaded on the ship, some drug over by the wreck for storage and even more awaited. "Hmm..."

She smiled as she spotted Mitsuko just inside the Eucharis cargo hatch and knew the Logistics neko had been taking inventory of where things were going.

"Murakami-hei, did that hydrogen canister get loaded onto the ship yet?" she asked over wireless

Recon Team

Reika directed her gaze towards Helen briefly before she lowered it towards the dried blood covering the floor plating. As she was considering how to frame her reply, her violet eyes slowly turned their attention to different places around the room, building up a picture of what happened aboard in her mind.

"If I recall correctly, the Ayana warships were designed with the purpose of either serving as escorts for larger UOC ships or as patrol vessels. Judging from its current state -- this ship was most probably a Peacekeeper patrol vessel operating on its own-- if it had been serving as an escort ship, it is highly unlikely a boarding action would have succeeded whilst it was operating as part of a larger taskforce or squadron. Allies from other ships would have been able to come aboard and lend aid."

The operatives gaze became remote, as she was longer focusing upon her surroundings. Instead her concentration was centered upon speaking her theories about what had occured. "With the blood spatter, explosion damage and projectile casings we have seen so far both on the bridge and here, its fairly obvious that the ship was boarded and its key systems were targeted in order to cripple or assume control over the vessel. Considering the fact that the vessel has been completely stripped of anything with value and the presence of the Zen Arms .45 caliber shells around the bridge -- piracy is the most probable explaination for the ships current state... .45 Caliber projectiles were not generally used by the UOC, nor have they ever significant use amongst any major military groups to my knowledge."

Reika's eyes refocused and she turned her gaze back towards Helen, addressing the officer directly. "The blood-trails we went past seemingly lead to the escape pods. It is unlikely that anyone could trek through the ship with such a significant amount of blood-loss, so a far more likely explaination is that the deceased bodies of the ships crew were tossed into the pods and jettisoned into space by whoever killed them. If that is the case, the pods and the remains might be salvagable if we find some clues directing us to the location at which the Ayana was captured."

The SAINT operative frowned, considering. "I do find it surprising that pirates would so brazenly target a military vessel -- and that they apparently captured the ship with a disturbing level of precision. I also find it strange that they would then simply strip the ship for salvage and abandon or just sell off the hull for a pittance. Usually, such a vessel would be much more valuable to pirates incorporated into their forces, allowing them to seize larger and more valuable cargoes, or fend off military responses to their actions. In most cases pirates have little choice but to use captured freighter and merchanter ships, shoddily converted into combat vessels with haphazard armor plating and makeshift gun mountings -- ships that are rarely if ever a match for true warships, except when fielded in large numbers."

Reika's frown intensified slightly and her teal-furred ears twitched nervously. "It might just be my training making me paranoid... but something about this doesn't quite add up and is setting off mental alarm bells... this ship feels too much like bait in a trap primed to spring shut."

Cargo Bay (heading to Medical Lab)

"My name is Technician Bran'won 'Insight' Occhesta," the Lorath said as he followed Sune. "I was captured by loyalists of the corrupt royals during the Lorath Civil War and forced into cruel slavery. From there I was frozen to be sold off. What year is it? What is the situation with the Lorath? You said this is the Eucharis, not the Sakura?"

Surface

"Have Tomomi check out the computer," Hanako sent Takeyu.

The hydrogen container sat out in the rain, its white-painted surface harked with a large "H" and a materials hazard label. It was speckled with mud from splashes.

"There it is!" Hanako exclaimed, pointing it out.

Outside in the rain, one of the team's roaming drones spotted some interlocking Andrium hull frame pieces and Transparent Durandium windows/windshields that could be used to patch up holes. There were also computer parts out there.

Recon Team

Behind the helmet of her Kylie, there was a smile upon Helen's lips, a wide and beaming smile, one which would go unseen by the other members of the team. She felt a beaming of pride in the up-and-coming operative. Certainly, Reika had just earned a recommendation from Helen if the operative were to ever be needing a reference for an assignment in her future. Though, even though Helen smiled, she did not let that fact come through in her voice as she spoke.

"Your assessment seems accurate and corresponds well not only to the information available, but also to my assessment." Helen informed the operative, as she added; "Good work." Then, came the serious business which was at hand, the matter which nagged at both operatives. "While we both came to the same conclusion, that conclusion also leads us to a problem; who, when, where, and why? Perhaps the Elysians we've retrieved may know something, though, it seems more likely that we're going to have to piece together this puzzle purely by forensic evidence. Oh... and there were government organizations which used the .45 a while ago, before your time, but they're long gone and would not be relevant." With that, Helen opened a message line to Takeyu.

"Reika and I have examined the information available, and have come to the conclusion that this ship smells rotten. It was likely pirates, however, there are pieces to the puzzle which do not fit. Such as the precision of the attack, the fact that a perfectly usable warship was gutted then sold on open market, and the general mode of operations associated with the way which this raid was executed. Our expert determination is that we're not seeing a whole picture here, and if we are going to determine the full picture, we're going to have to collect more forensic evidence and try to retrace the history of this ship." Helen informed Takeyu over a secure communication channel. "Perhaps assign someone to start picking up shell-casings for DNA traces and finger prints... though, even that fact is fishy, brass-catchers would be ideal in this situation, and why would they leave those behind if they're selling the ship? This really seems like an orgy of evidence... and those rarely happen without it being something fishy."

Cabin 4

Mitsuko received Natsumi's message while gathering her things, and quickly worked out a reply. She sent a thorough map of the cargo bay and everything stored there, with an area off to the side representing the cargo scattered on the planet's surface. The tank's location was marked clearly.

The captain simply pointing at the nearby tank was a much more direct approach.

Recon Team

"Thank you, Shosho, thank you, Murakami-hei!" Natsumi responded after receiving directions to the hydrogen canister from both of them. She quickly made her way over to where Hanako had pointed and Mitsuko had designated on her map and spotted the white canister

"Oh, there you are, Mr Hydrogen canister! I have an important job for you!" She said as she carefully picked it up and cradled it in her armored arms.

"DarkSky-hei, I have the canister, gonna take it back inside" she said to her fellow who had come out with her as she headed back to the wrecked ship, entering into the escape pod hatch they had used to exit for their search.

She wasn't sure how happy she was to be going back into the dark, dead and creepy ship and hoped Takeyu would be able to restore power and hopefully lights once he had the hydrogen canister. Her probes swept around making sure her path back to engineering was clear.

Medbay

Entering the medical center Sune turned around to face the new guest, “That is correct. This ship is the Eucharis; the Sakura was destroyed in YE 29. The Sakura was the first of the Sakura-Class Gunship. The Eucharis is a Plumeria-Class Gunship. Technician Bran'won 'Insight' Occhesta what was the year when you were frozen? If I know the Shôshô she will do her best to make arrangements to get you back to your people.”

Sune walked over to the charging station and took out a PMS-1. “With your permission Technician, I am required to perform an examination of your to ascertain your physical condition, and if there is any medical issue needing treating. After the examination I will see if we can get that collar off you without causing any harm.” He pointed to one of the examination tables. “If you would kindly get on the table, we can commence.” He said with a reassuring smile.

Medical Lab

"I see," insight said, a pensive expression on his face. "So it is five years since I was frozen in YE 29," he said. "The last I heard, the Occhestans were going to find new star systems to the North. Do you know anything of their whereabouts?"

The Occhestan nodded and got on the table for the exam, keeping his controller unit close by.

"I do believe finger printing is something best handled by you operatives, given the conclusion you two have come to, I'd rather have an expert handle that then fresh recruits," Takeyu said encryptedly and with some thought.

"It's beginning to sound like a mercenary operation to be honest, or pirates who were only interested in the stripping of the vessel. But a military one isn't commonly targetted, even back when I used to be a miner, pirates would typically steer clear of military ships because they lacked both the firepower and manpower to take one down."

"Unless they had help," said Takeyu as he set his ICP down on the ground and started the proces of removing some paneling to inspect the internal wiring and curcuits. "Back in the day some pirates would use captured salvage, ships, or credits to hire mercenary groups in order to take on larger pray."

"So, either the guys who did this are mercenaries or the pirates were just that well armed and this ship was alone. Given the state the UoC were in, I guess that's possible," he glanced at the message from Hanako and gave a nod and added it to his list of things to do. "That just adds to my concerns that this ship is a trap, if we bring main power online it might cause a.... hmm...." he rubbed his chin curiously for a moment and nodded. "Shosa, think you can locate the main communicaions array and check and see if it's there?"

On another part of his HUD he saw one of the teams drones move across some debris. Ahh those will work, he muttered and sent the following message to Natsumi and DarkSky:

Recon Team - Engineering

There was no pause from Helen as she walked about the engineering compartment, listening to Takeyu's thoughts on the situation. It did certainly make sense in regard to the angle he was coming from, though, there was one more thing that came to Helen's attention, a thought that was one she had to send further up the chain than Takeyu.

Helen Klein to Hanako said:

Excuse me, Shosho, forgive this interruption, however I do have a question in which I must bypass Takeyu to ask... is there still funding from our government being funneled into the hands of 'Yamatai Sympathetic Organizations'? Because there is evidence that indicates a well trained and well armed force was behind this vessel's fate, and I was curious if any known Yamatai funded organizations were active in the space of the former United Outer Colonies.

Click to expand...

After sending off the secured transmission, Helen turned to Reika and spoke verbally; "Reika, looks like we're going to be scuffing up our knee pads. Boss wants us to round up shell casings and other discarded materials which may have been left behind by a raiding party. If you see any, pick it up, and be sure not to smudge any finger-prints." Helen instructed, as she listened to Takeyu's continued speech.

"I think I recall where the communications equipment and interfaces are aboard this ship. What do you want me to look for? Also, should I interface with the Eucharis' sensors to conduct a scan?" Helen asked, as she looked to Reika; "I'll be back, the Boss wants me to check on the communications systems." With that, Helen strode out of engineering, and carefully made her way along to where she recalled the communications systems were located aboard the Ayana-Class ship.