RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 22.2] Echoes of the Past - Part 2

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Ooops!", Sigurd uttered as he watched the results of his diplomacy and thought about what to do next. The decision fell on keeping the shôshô in the loop first.

"Ma'am, I think I've got Hei Darkfire back...-ish", he reported loudly. "Unfortunately I also attracted even more of these Rixxikor, as it seems."

After reporting Sigurd mind raced on the question how to separate his fellow crewmates from the intruders. Unfortunately he didn't have the time to sort out something especially clever or these Rixxikor would just create more chaos, so he went for the first thing that crossed his mind and activated the mike again.

"Cool bros! Ya're awesome! Stay in that cargo bay for now, will ya? We still needa prepare stuff and our ship can get cranky from time to time. It knows us but doesn't like strangers, so it might just decide to kill ya if ya get into deeper. But our buddies you got there with ya could coax the ship to accept ya. They're good friends with our ship, you know? Just let them enter that they can talk with the ship. Ok, bros?"

Sigurd began to sweat and hoped the Rixxikor would buy that nonsense he feeded them with. I'll be a storyteller in my next life...

(Not) Derelict

Aikiko stopped firing when the buglike creatures stopped firing upon her. Plus the order from a senior re-enforced it. She could see the bodies she had shot and they were very much dead. She muted the extra frequencies that the bugs were transmitting on and kept the tactical links open.

"They shoot at me or us.. they die like their comrades," Aikiko spoke softly back over the Squad Freq. "Any word on Tugs and Doc?"

Aikiko giggled at seeing these buglike creatures swarming the Eucharis like the way ants would swarm a piece of fruit on the ground. She stayed airborne, hovering out of reach of the Rixxikor that was on the ground. She moved to a new location, teaming up with Kale.

She landed near the Airlock and began to prep a breaching charge that would literary destroy the airlock and breach the ship at the same time.

~~PA Bay~~

Receiving the reply from the bridge, she acknowledged. She was being rag dolled about as a shield, so Antonia Stark turned on her external speakers. "EVERYONE!!!! Freeze!!! Joto-Murakami, You too! That is an order..."

Tony took a breath and thought how to word the next bit. "I have word from the bridge that a ride off this rock will be given with a few conditions. One," it was hard to talk as the Rixxikor kept moving her about trying to block shots from the blood thirsty Mitsuko. "One, Stop shooting, Mitsuko will also stand-down. Two You all just chill out and grab a seat." She pointed at the benches. "Lastly... No One attacks, threatens, or harms any more of this ship's crew members... These are non-negotiable..."

PA Bay

It wasn't hard to hit the things, but she simply had too many targets to deal with, even with her drones assisting. Mitsuko had pitched ropes and Rixxikor through the open door and back to the surface, more stunned bodies piling up on the Bay floor. She had been slowed down when so many began huddling around, clinging to and hiding behind the Nepleslian. No matter their disagreements or her disapproval of the Cadet, she wasn't going to risk injuring a current crew member or causing the aliens to turn on her. She'd backed off for another pass as she tried to calculate some sort of approach that would avoid the Nepleslian when Stark's speakers crackled to life. The usage of her proper name and rank caused her to actually take the communication seriously, hesitating momentarily.

It was just then when the newest crew member's battered suit was pitched up into the Bay, shocking the poor Neko. She had no idea how the small creatures had managed to get him up the forty or fifty feet to the opening on the third floor of the Eucharis. The presence of the injured crewman complicated things further. Mitsuko pulled back as best she could, huddling near one of the blast shutters with her camo still active, drones quiet as they hovered overhead, threatening but not firing. After she'd heard the terms, she again opened communications to Stark and the Bridge. "Sh...Shosho, we're standing down? We're letting these...hostile...things on board?"

Rixxikor Vessel

Tsuguka seemed to stand silently for a long time, blank faced, simply gauging the situation, one hand on Taharial's shoulder to curb the feeling of isolation. Military policing wasn't exactly her favorite area during training, but this kind of sight was really too pathetic and desperate to consider an enemy.

"A human?..." Her voice parroted, curious. Primarily, she needed to tell the shosho about this. On top of that, like a flash in the dark, she remembered what she had said to her team members before going in; If we aren't back in five minutes, well... You know what to do, Akiashiro-Hei...

"Miss Taharial, can you go back outside and tell Akiashiro-Hei to stand by, please? She'll know what you mean." A cool and calm voice, like any other person might attribute to a friendly phone call. Even if some of the creatures became hostile, the red lynx had lost faith in such a bold and clean-cut plan the minute civilians became involved... Well, maybe they weren't quite humanoids, but they certainly looked like civilians to her. "Also, please give the Shosho a situation report, then return here with their status... I need to do a little more investigation here."

Another period of silence. It was that weird kind of personal interaction where Tsuguka actually felt like her usual imperial, overbearing sort of demeanor, was really the correct form of visage to be giving off for once.

"What were you doing before you crashed?" She placed the question out there, tactically. If the red neko simply told them everything they wanted to hear, they could tell her any old junk just trying to appease her in return. As long as it was functional, she wasn't willing to give up the concept that she wasn't an exterminator just yet. "Where were you going? Any cargo?"

Rixxikor Vessel

Taharial looked at Tsuguka "okay kitten, be safe, I don't want to have to patch you up everyday" she turned and leaves the way they came hoping that Tsuguka would be safe, as she started to leave she smiled thinking that she was worrying about nothing but still thought about these creatures and what has happened to then since they crashed.

As Taharial exited the craft she basically yelled as she didn't know what Tsuguka had told them to do "THIS IS TAHARIAL, AKIKO PLEASE STAND BY, TSUGUKA.S ORDERS" she blushed realising she didn't need to yell that much "sorry for yelling, but didn't know what you were planning" she hadn't noticed that the Eucharis was swarmed because she had only just got out of the Rixxikor Vessel.

(Not) Derelict : Rixxikor Vessel

Aikiko eyed the opening of the airlock. As she aimed her weapon at the opening, Taharial exited the airlock. She paused with her manipulator arms extended and working on a package that clearly was labeled : Danger Explosives : which she was clearly setting up to breach the ship.

She winced at the yell that Taharial gave. "Where's Tugs?" She calmly responded, pausing in her work.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Hanako let out a frustrated sigh before replying to Mitsuko: "No, the aliens do not have permission to come aboard. The ones who are already in the bay can wait there but I still need to find a place to bring them. Tell the others to stop trying to enter the ship and that will have to wait for us to summon a larger ship to accommodate them. In the meantime we will lift off and get out of the reach of their rocket packs. Also, ask if they have a leader I can speak with."

Next Hanako told Natsumi, "slowly lift us off the ground and get us into a hovering position where we are still visible but safely out of their reach."

Hanako then called for Taharial again. Last time the medic had not responded. "Taharial, Eucharis. Have you reached Darkfire-Hei yet? If you can hear this and are not on the ship, return to the ship immediately to render medical assistance. We are lifting off. Over."

Finally Hanako turned to her new trusty science guy. "Sigurd, I need you to go down to the power armor bay and gather information on the new species. What exactly are we dealing with here? I will unlock the blast shutters for you."

Power Armor Bay

Tony's commands actually seemed to work, as the aliens took seats around the now very crowded power armor bay. One of them experimentally took off its spacesuit helmet, revealing a light purple mantis-like head with antennae. The bug-people chattered among themselves, speaking in crude profanity-laced Trade language about what their plans were after getting off Splorfin IV, which apparently included a lot of eating, bearing offspring, exploration, and more eating.

Rixxikor Vessel

The Rixxikor group continued to eye Tsuguka suspiciously. "Last world...too crowded," one of the aliens finally volunteered. "We go to find a new planet with food."

"Rixxikor are explorers," another chimed in. And then it randomly shit on the floor.

PA Bay

"Understood," she replied to Hanako. "Also, Darkfire-Hei was...returned to the Power Armor Bay. He appears to require medical assistance." Mitsuko then forwarded the message she'd received from Hanako over to Stark, keeping her in the loop. Since they seemed to be listening to the Nepleslian and staying relatively calm, she decided to let Stark negotiate with the aliens. Murakami was just relieved to have clear orders to follow for this situation.

Bridge

As soon as the order to lift off was given Natsumi went to work. Her SPINE connection allowed her to work lightning fast and within moments, the Eucharis was lifting off the ground, gingerly raising into the sky on her anti-gravity system. The sleek warship rose higher and higher as Natsumi brought the ship up to an altitude above that of what the alien bug's rocket packs could attain.

The ship was still well in sight, a visible and deadly dagger in the sky as Natsumi set the Eucharis to hover at the desired altitude.

"On station" Natsumi reported as she programmed the altitude and positioning coordinates into the computer and let the MEGAMI take over maintaining station keeping.

Rixxikor Vessel

Taharial smiled "she is inside with more civilians, she told me to come out so we could stop you doing what you were planning while we were inside still safe." Taharial then went on the main channel "Shosho, there are a lot of Rixxikor in the ship all wanted a ride, they have a few different versions of why they crashed, one said there was a human that was the most worrying" she waited for a response.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Sigurd squinnied like he'd gotten hit when he heard the shôshô's last order, but luckily he sat with his back towards her so she couldn't see him creasing his face. Instead of expressing his displeasure he just answered: "Yes, Ma'am!" and stood to walk over to the science station again. There he lay his communicator onto the console and began copying all relevant data concerning these Rixxikor on his communicator. The effort, however, only got rewarded with an "Operation Denied" message from MEGAMI. Damn!

Of cause MEGAMI denied him copying the data. He just arrived aboard the ship and hasn't gotten all clearances yet and military security wouldn't allow for classified data to be copied onto the communicator of every random guy who came along. He was definitely in need of proper briefing once this immediate situation was dealt with.
But now was not the time, Sigurd decided, grabbed his communicator and turned without the might-be-helpful data towards the hatch to meet his command.

Having left the bridge he strode at a forced pace towards the PA bay while he did a quick performance test of his sidearm, for he had nothing else to defend himself with. He would have been quite more comfortable wearing a power armor - which said a lot for Sigurd, since didn't like power armor at all, as he figured himself more a scientist than a soldier -, but his power armor, if he even had one assigned yet, was in the PA bay full of aliens he liked the power armor to protect him from. And somehow he doubted he could manage to get into one.

Arming up at the armory wasn't an option either. First, Sigurd doubted he would yet have clearance to enter it unaccompanied, second, he supposed showing up in the PA bay armed to the teeth wouldn't help to calm the situation a bit.

When Sigurd arrived at the PA bay's hatch he positioned himself to fill the hatch as completely as possible, his right forefinger ready to push the opening button and his left hand close to his sidearm, ready to draw but not actually resting on it. The last thing he wanted was to allow these creatures to enter the Eucharis any further. He took a deep breath and pushed the button. The hatch opened...

Rixxikor Vessel

Aikiko spoke softly, "hai!" Finished setting up the charge. Even though she would have to recover the explosives later. She was using remote command detonators for this job. She frowned as she would have to either dispose of the explosives or decon them for storage.

She looked back at the Eucharis and noticed it rising up into the sky. She frowned as she watched the Rixxikors with their jump jets packs try to follow the Eucharis up. A few burned their packs out of fuel and crashed back to the planet with spurts of dust and particles rising from ground caused by the escaping air of punctured environmental suits.

It was a good thing that Aikiko killed all coms except her IFF Beacon as she couldn't help but give a soft chuckle at the antics of these Aliens.

Derelict Exterior

Kale sighed, his offer of communications with command seemed to merely have confused the aliens rather then actually producing any appreciable result. they were muttering to each other animatedly though otherwise mostly immobile, a couple were fiddling with what looked like rocket launchers. They weren't threatening as such but it still made him a little edgy.

Hearing Tahariel's rather loud shout only amplified by the com speakers sent his head rattling for a moment, as his auditory receptors attemted to compensate.

"Understood, Tahariel-Hei. Next time could you just use normal short wave? We could be about a hundred miles off in any diraction and we's be able to hear you as if we were standing in the same room. What's the situation like inside? We've heard nothing since you entered."

He noticed the Pumeria gunship lifting off in the distance, but kept his attention on the alien crowd infront of him. They were.... unpredictable to say the least. Besides there were enough people aboard that defending the ship should be a breeze.

It was of course that a little bombshell went off inside his head as he realised that in the time from when they left the ship to the arrival at the site Dirjon-Hei had dissappeared off the grid. Bringing up the comms network he noticed a little "No-Connection" symbol next to his name. He switched to the command net and hit the figurative panic button.

"Shosho, we may have a problem, Dirjon-Hei is missing in action. He must have been gone for at least the last half hour. My apologies I have no idea how i managed to lose track of him. How should I proceed?"

~~Armor Bay~~

With a death glare towards where Mitsuko was hiding, like a coward after causing most of this trouble, Tony studied how the aliens were talking. hell it sounded like her friends on her right after they had first learned those magical words. so with a thought she figured, when in Yamatai....

"Hey fuckers... We need some damned help from ya'll... I need your chief, leader, or master, what ever you call them. Need to speak with them to set up this fucking transport deal to get you off this shitty planet."

Tony grinned behind her helmet. If her drill instructor had heard her she would have been laid out with a few new lumps for that one. But if the boss lady had an issue with it, she'll just take the lumps if it helped get this mess cleaned up. So help her, if she found Mitsuko in a dark passageway...

Rixxikor Vessel

Taharial sighed "I am sorry for shouting, it was because I wasn't sure what was going on between Kitten and Aikiko" she shock her head seeing all the Rixxikor out here "about the same as out here, but in a shit stained corridor" she did not sound happy at all "its a good thing me and Kitten had helmets on I think that the ship blocks out the radio chatter so sorry we haven't been talking."

Taharial tried to talk to the Shosho again "hello Shosho, I have the report from inside and it is just a lot more Rixxikor all wanted a lift from their Shit stained ship" she wanted to get back to Tsuguka and make sure she was okay and to help inside the Rixxikor Vessel.

PA Bay

Mitsuko turned towards the hatch as the blast shutter opened, revealing yet another new face. She was wary, but a lightning quick check of the ship's records cleared up any suspicion. She moved out of his way before switching off her camo, not wanting to startle him by flickering back into existence right in his face. "Are you here to assist Cadet Stark with...negotiations?" It was being rather generous to call her crass words negotiation, she thought. "Or Darkfire-Hei?" She gestured towards the damaged suit and the injured but living Nepleslian napping inside it. Murakami planned to stay by the door herself, and hoped the blast shutter closed soon, before any of the creatures tried to sneak into the ship proper.

YSS Eucharis - PA Bay

Sigurd stepped through the open hatch and felt his confidence dropping as he now found himself in one room with these strange aliens. Nevertheless he didn't clear the hatch in a way that anyone could just get through. When Mitsuko appeared next to him he flinched ever so slightly.

"Are you here to assist Cadet Stark with...negotiations?", she asked him. "Or Darkfire-Hei?"

Sigurd cleared his throat before he answered: "I was... sent to investigate these Rixxikor." His green uniform clearly marked him as a scientist, so he didn't see any need to explain this any further. "But I'm pretty sure I'm also expected to further negotiate."

He took a look at the pretty shot power armor that was Hei Darkfire. "I'd suggest you get Darkfire-Hei to the medbay, though. I try to make sure none of our visitors follows you through the hatch." No, not try, Sigurd thought as he remembered an old philosophical statement, whose exact source he didn't remember. Do it or do it not. There is no try!

Derelict / Rixxikor Ship

Aikiko finished up setting up the explosives to allow those inside an easy egress if needed. She stood up and looked over the situation as she assigned a coded signal for this batch of explosives. After assessing the situation, she moved to another spot on the Derelict so she wouldn't present to much of a target by grouping up with others.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Taharial, I do not care about that right now! I have called you about a medical emergency twice and you still have not addressed it! Return to the ship immediately and treat Darkfire-Hei!" Hanako reprimanded Taharial. "He is in the power armor bay now."

"Aikiko and Kale, join Tsuguka. No one should be alone," Hanako ordered. "I will scan for Dirjon. It is also possible he is still on the ship, perhaps still looking around the armory."

"There are too many of these Rixxikor for us to transport in one trip. Besides, I need to figure out where we can bring them," Hanako told Natsumi. "Alternatively, we could get their own kind to pick them up, which might be even better. First we need to find out if they belong to a particular nation. If they are from somewhere, we should probably take them home or if their destination is close, maybe there. Thoughts?"

YSS Eucharis - Power Armor Bay

When the blast shutter and the door beyond it opened, Sigurd could see the Power Armor Bay was the opposite of its usual clean interior. Instead of well-lit polished onyx floors there was a shadowy sea of short, disgruntled squatter aliens in dusty makeshirt spacesuits with rocker packs. The ceiling had most of the lights blown out and there were wires hanging from above and emergency lights casting crimson glares on the darker areas of the bay. Some of the visitors were starting to take off their helmets now, revealing ugly mottled purple exoskeletal faces with giant bug eyes and shifty, squirmy antennae. The sounds of juvenile Trade language filled the increasingly stinky air.

As Tony addressed them in the (foul) language they understood best, some of the Rixxikor stared at her blankly while others looked at each other in confusion. Finally, a random Rixxikor stood up. "Leaders are for losers," the alien declared, causing other bugs to cheer. "Just take us someplace with food and resources."

"Why do you want to know who is the leader?" another Rixxikor asked Tony.

"We leaving the others behind?" a third chimed in from near the open cargo bay door.

"Who cares?" yet another said. "We got our ride. Fuck the rest."