RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 22] Echoes of the Past

Power Armor Bay

Tankyusha entered the PA bay, equipped with a couple of large bags on either side of his hips and a few small pouches along his waist in the back. His belt seemed a bit too thick and one small service issue pistol was strapped across his chest. He certainly looked the part of the scientist going out into the wild for the first time. At least he'd left the safari helmet behind.

"Thank you for waiting on me. I believe I have everything I need for this expedition," said the android, seeming pleased with himself. Something about the way he stayed perfectly upright, legs shifting to accommodate the waves as the ship moved side-to-side was a little unnerving to watch.

He approached the bay doors, feet leaving the floor as his anti-grav device kicked in. "In regards to your question, Dirjon-Hei, I'm currently unaware of its purpose. It's near enough to the surface for our sensors to have picked it up and," he pointed to the large volcano in the distance, "seems to comprise the entirety of that mountain there. As the scanners were unable to detect the bottom of the structure, we can safely assume that it descends deeper into the ground. Whatever its purpose, being tall seems to be a requirement. I suspect your engineering knowledge may serve us well in this matter."

Gray-blue eyes settled on Tsuguka. "Ready to depart on your order."

Power Armor Bay

Hanako appeared in the doorway of the passage with the medical lab on it. "I wanted to see the planet with my own eyes and to see you off," she told the team. The Shosho grabbed the door frame as a large wave rocked the gunship like a boat, sending a rush of water over the threshold of the opened armored door and through the shimmering air containment field. A flood that was few inches deep made it inside and swept across the polished armor bay floor, picking up any loose objects on the floor and sweeping them out the other side. Everyone on the ship could feel their stomach rise in their belly as the ship dipped down between waves, rolling from side to side. "I did not expect it to be so rough!" Hanako admitted, having to float in the doorway to keep her glossy black dress shoes out of the path of the water. As the water was exposed to the ship's atmosphere, it bubbled and fizzed like the contents of a just-opened soda.

Power Armor Bay

Tsuguka was holding a scalar SMG out before her as Tankuyusha entered, going through the motions of aiming it in two hands, to make sure it didn't interfere with the fitted elbow switchblade on the left arm. The shield module had to be kept upside down to keep things wieldy, but it worked. Compared to the others, it seemed like she preferred her load out as simple and adaptable as possible.

"No problems, comrade." She responded in earnest, before giving him a quick once-over too. The voice had taken on a soft and informative tone, the faux-freindly kind that would imply nervousness in anyone else, but with a monotone edge that said it was more likely she just couldn't project the emotion all that well. "With this kind of equipment there should be nothing to worry about engagement wise. I would request that you immediately break contact and run at the first sign of trouble, however..." She held up her rifle, and tapped on the side. "Even if you are not organic, there is considerable risk in exposure to the muzzle flare, scalar fields, and distortion effects alone."

There was a pause, a long glare at Dirjon, then an accusing finger towards his missile launcher and grenade setup. "-And please do not stand behind him."

Suddenly, Hanako entered, and the armored neko slapped her rifle into her left shoulder so that she could make a formal salute. It looked pretty dumb, since her body was moving out of whack with the tilting floor anyways. And the ship was turning into a paddling pool.

"You think it's the gas giant, ma'am? Are we close enough for that?" It was an honest question. Reading files was one thing, but a scientist she was not. "At any rate, we are prepared for launch on your command, Shosho Ketsurui."

Aikiko let the water hit her that made it through the containment field. She stared out the open bay doors with the manipulator arms attached to the opening on each side of her holding her steady in place. She had a soft smile on her face as this was new to her. She loved the water and its motion. It was soothing to her even as the ship rolled and lifted with each of the swells. She listened to the others talk amongst themselves.

Power Armor Bay

Hanako shrugged, woozily. "I have no idea," she admitted. "In fact, the only things I am thinking about right now is finding some chocolate and the relief of peeing," she blurted out. She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose. "That water is transferring Carbon Dioxide," the captain said. "It's making me a bit...drowsy. I am going to take some tea and shake it off. Good luck with your mission and keep the bridge informed. You are cleared to depart." Hanako closed the doorway to the armor bay and then moved in a deliberate manner into the nearby medical lab to grab an Oxygen tank to blow in her face. While she was there she looked also around for the tiny neko medic.

YSS Eucharis P.A. Bay

There was a pause, a long glare at Dirjon, then an accusing finger towards his missile launcher and grenade setup. "-And please do not stand behind him."

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"I'd think its the guy in front of me that'll have the prob-" the large wave caught him full in the back knocking down on his hands as the suit tried to bring him back up with the gravity system compensating. As he stood back up he saw his Shosho Hanako on deck and saluted a best as he could.

He looked back out the door the wave came in through but only saw Aikiko, surprisingly still standing and even seeming to enjoy the ride. Dirjon could understand that much, he always loved fishing with his uncle on his johnboat, even when nothing bit.

"... the only things I am thinking about right now is finding some chocolate and the relief of peeing," Hanako blurted out.

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What the hell?, he thought as he missed the first part of the conversation.

"That water is transferring Carbon Dioxide," the captain said. "It's making me a bit...drowsy. I am going to take some tea and shake it off. Good luck with your mission and keep the bridge informed. You are cleared to depart." Hanako closed the doorway to the armor bay.

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"Ready, ma'am," he said, still unsure of how they would move a mountain... Volcano.

Power Armour Bay -> Moon Ocean

Tsuguka ended up holding the salute towards Hanako since it wasn't returned, but in the end was more just confused about the CO's demeanor again. She was worried about the woman's well being, but at the same time, didn't think babying her would be very respectful. "Please... Take care of yourself, Shosho." Was the eventual response over the intercom, carefully pronounced so it was neither insult nor order.

Now, she turned back towards the team. If she gave them very specific plans, would they listen? Was it even worth the heartache if the mission might not be a combat operation? Was there actually anything she could personally do to fix the uneasy air between her and Aikiko?

"Okay, we are setting off." She put a reassuring hand on Akiashiro's shoulder. "Please stay in visual distance. I trust your skills, but radio contact may be unreliable. We don't want anybody to end up lost and alone out there... Even if I'm being paranoid about it, there really is no telling what is waiting for us."

"Most of all." The green-armored form turned to Dirjon next, and raised an informative finger. "Remember that the Daisy shield was not designed to be used as a surf board." ...Was that supposed to be a joke?... Her voice didn't change at all...

Using her gravity systems to shunt herself into a forward skating motion, Toyoe then wafted an arm to signal the others to follow, before leaping out over the dark ocean waves.

"Eucharis, the power armor team is setting out."

P.A. Bay - Moon Ocean

Aikiko released the hold she had on the door frame. She followed Tsuguka over the waves, retracting her manipularor arms to be more areodymanic. She looked around as she recorded everything she saw with her Mindy. She stayed alert for any hostilities.

What she saw, she enjoyed the view and the myrid of colors reflecting off the spray from some of the bigger waves. She checked on those that followed making sure they was doing okay.

Splorfin 14, Ocean

Tankyusha drifted along behind the others, the mountain growing slowly larger and the Eucharis growing slowly smaller as they progressed. He watched Tsuguka thoughtfully. It seemed her attempts at humor were going over as well as his own. She was probably trying to build comraderie amongst the group. Well, he could at least give her credit for her attempts.

"Given that there's vegetation on the ground, it's possible that there may also be creatures in the sea that are adapted to the moon. I wouldn't stray too close to the water's surface." He darted to one side to avoid a particularly tall wave. Tsuguka may be right - the gas giant's gravity seems to have a strong effect on the tidal properties of this moon, he thought to himself.

As the volcano loomed large before them, he looked back to the group. "I don't think we've settled on a matter of entry into the artifact yet. I brought along a few drones as per the Shosho's instructions, to make sure we're being appropriately safe for whatever we choose."

YSS Eucharis, P.A. Bay -> Splorfin 14, ocean

Primitive Polygon said:

"Most of all." The green-armored form turned to Dirjon next, and raised an informative finger. "Remember that the Daisy shield was not designed to be used as a surf board." ...Was that supposed to be a joke?... Her voice didn't change at all...

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Until she'd mentioned it, the thought hadn't really crossed Dirjon's mind. Now that Tsuguka brought it up the thought kept tumbling around in the back of his head.
He studied the shield after she made the comment then nodded thoughtfully, Not designed for surfing, hmm... Fooled me.

Finally it was time to move out. Dirjon made sure to be the last out. His armaments made him more suitable to perform as artillery. The long range of the plasma rifle, chaos of the automatic grenade launcher, and power of the missile pod just so happened to also be common on tanks. In essence he was a flying tank so naturally he chose to provide overwatch, flying highest so as to have better range and an unobstructed line of fire.

"I'll take the high side," he said as he jumped out the door and engaged his fusion thrusters. He rocketed into the sky without any weapons drawn, but the PEW was always something he kept charged and his missiles would lock on with his radar regardless of being armed. With two weapons at the ready he felt ready for anything.

Ames said:

As the volcano loomed large before them, he looked back to the group. "I don't think we've settled on a matter of entry into the artifact yet. I brought along a few drones as per the Shosho's instructions, to make sure we're being appropriately safe for whatever we choose."

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"If we can't find an entry we'll be able to make one, one way or another," he responded, "Tsuguka-Hei, Aikiko-Hei, I'll to be tapping into your armor's computers to monitor performance momentarily. If anything happens I'll let you know and see if either myself or Hitotsu-Hei can fix it on site. Standby."
He spoke his clearance code and his suit began a secure uplink with theirs, the displayed data was shrunken into the bottom left corner of his HUD.
"Were green all the way, team," he informed them before asking, "now that I think of it, were heading for a volcano. Is this thing still active?"

Splorfin 14, Ocean

Despite their somewhat similar appearances, the Daisy felt surprisingly different to be inside than the Mindy. The latter was squishy and compressing to the torso, but the ground-pounder she was currently within felt far more stiff and grinding. Like wearing a suit made of roofing tiles. It was warmer due to the synthetic lining, mind, so not really any less comfortable. Just a different kettle of fish... Most of all, the thought really just made her glance back at Tankyusha, mindful of the fact he didn't even have face protection on. Seeing what appeared to be Yamataian flesh exposed to this environment didn't feel right at all, but at the same time, she figured it must have felt pretty liberating for him... Either that, or terrifying... Well, presuming that all the other emotions the machine had displayed weren't just for their benefit. With this crew, the red neko wasn't taking any option for granted.

"Your observations are noted. It may be an idea to have the Eucharis run a more detailed scan for lifeforms now that she's sitting in them." The response was pretty much the standard dry tone. Tsuguka's speed kept impatiently bobbing up at the top limit of the android's gravity module, through. Her rifle was ceaselessly pointed at the volcano ahead. Apparently, this was a combat mission until proven otherwise. "Launch your drones as soon as we are at a reasonable range, please, Tankyusha-Hei."

"Good idea, thank you, Dirjon-Hei." The green suit of armor didn't seem to look towards him, but the nepelsian could see her actively giving him full systems access. There was a technical manual for her specific NH-33 model in the data packet, too. It did make sense from an organizational standpoint. "I don't know about it's activity. If it comes to digging, however, using Akiashiro-Hei's manipulator arms is probably a better idea than blowing up chunks of it."

"Come to think of it, Akiashiro-Hei.... You... Well, you're the only one of us with actual mining experience." Tsuguka was perfectly aware that wasn't exactly a choice on Aikiko's part, but phrased it as carefully as she could. No point in letting emotions get in the way of an obvious skill asset. "Your input on the structure of the geology would be much appreciated once we are in there."

"No, Dear John." Aikiko killed the interconnecting link between Dirjon and her Mindy, she was thinking of how to breach the volcano to gain access to the artifact. She needed layout of the Volcano and the how the Artifact lay and how close to the surface. "Thinking it over, Tugs. Scince I've got the smaller lighter armor, let me recon ahead.,out." She thought some more. " Hey Brainiac?" Laser Coms to Tankyusha, "send over the data on layout of the volcano and the where the artifact is located. Link me in the loop on the probes transmission when you launch them." She spoke softly without emotions with a trace of respect

Splorfin 14, ocean

Samanthia said:

"No, Dear John." Aikiko killed the interconnecting link between Dirjon and her Mindy, she was thinking of how to breach the volcano to gain access to the artifact. She needed layout of the Volcano and the how the Artifact lay and how close to the surface. "Thinking it over, Tugs. Scince I've got the smaller lighter armor, let me recon ahead.,out."

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The signal from Aikiko's power armor was lost. Maintenance personnel who are qualified to repair and maintain P.A.s are privileged to access their systems and the special codes required to do so. Her refusal wouldn't have been so confusing if she hadn't proceeded to start scouting ahead without any link back to the team.
Now why would she do that? Something's up.

"If you don't want to link up, that's fine," Dirjon's tone was flat, neither irritated nor insulted by her unsanctioned refusal of information, "however, if you break formation I need to be able to monitor your systems."

He opened a channel to the encrypted frequency her thrusters used to relay flight data to Eucharis. While nowhere near as informative as a digital uplink it was available to those capable of memorizing the long code.

Shuttle

Taharial sat on the shuttle putting her ponytail over the front of her shoulder and waited while the shuttle went slowly towards a moon in the Splorfin system, Taharial looked around as her blood red wings fluttered with excitement as the shuttle enters the atmosphere of the moon. The Eucharis came into sight a few minutes later as Taharial got closer to the ship her wings fluttered even more, the shuttle goes to the open docking hatch on the top of the Eucharis and Taharial gathered her stuff and played with the ring on her finger before she got off and entered the Eucharis slowly

on the Eucharis

Taharial looked around because she thought there would of been someone to come to see her and welcome her to the ship, Taharial looked like a frighten kitten for a second then snapped out of it, Teharial gulped then yelled "hello, is anyone here!?", Taharial plays with her ponytail as she waited for an anwser to her yell her wings still fluttered a lot. Taharial put her bags down and played with her ring more and started to chew her hair nervously as she thought 'maybe if I walk around I will bump into someone and I can then ask what I should', Taharial stopped playing with her ring and chewing her hair, then smiled and picks up her stuff and goes to find someone.

Shuttle

Kale cricked his neck. The past few months had been somewhat tenuous for the young Hei. Having been temporarily reassigned to the Tami communications base which despite the long assignment duration. The young engineer had never managed to think of the place as more then a pitstop. Grunt work. Thankfully as of last week command had reassigned him back to the YSS Euchars. Panic attacks aside Kale was looking forward to seeing his friends on board again. Picking up his bag he stepped out of the shuttle.

"It's good to be back."



Main Zero-Gravity Vertical Passageway

Kale looked over at the young medical officer beside him. He just couldn't keep the smile off his face.

"First assignment? You couldn't have found a better place."

Main Zero-Gravity Vertical Passageway

Taharial jumped at the sudden realisation that there was someone standing next to her "um yes it is, it's hard for a medic with my nickname to get an assignment", she raised an eyebrow "where did you come from?, there was no one else on that shuttle and there was AI driving it so...". Taharial leans closer to the guy "anyway I am Santo Hei Taharial, but my friends call me the butcher" Taharial grined and saluted the Nito Hei.

Main Zero-Gravity Vertical Passageway

Kale scratched the back of his head awkwardly, his smile falling slightly. Well.... The one flying that was actually me. Engineers have to be mechanically precise but i didnt think that that was such a literal interpretation.

He chuckled to himself.

"Ah well, I didn't introduce myself. Namach Kale, Systems and software architect at your service." he bowed, as much of an imitation of a perfect gentleman as he could pull off. "Well. I have no idea which of the people I know are still on board. Hopefully Chief Takeyu's still around. Ah well, Adapt, Improvise and Overcome. Let me be the first to welcome you to this fine vessel."

Main Zero-Gravity Vertical Passageway

Around them, the ship continued to back and forth due to large waves outside.

A moment later Shosho Ketsurui Hanako, a small woman with aquamarine hair and golden eyes, floated up the passageway from below, heading up to Deck 2 to return to the bridge. She briefly waved at the new arrivals. "Welcome back, Kale-Hei, and welcome aboard, Santo Hei Taharial," she greeted the two. "I am Hanako, the ship's captain. Check the cabin lists and stow your gear where there an available bed. The ship is not short on staff but it is short on mid-level leadership, lacking officers and NCOs, so I will be looking out for people to promote, based on job performance and the level of participation in our missions. Alternatively you may get a transfer if you do not make the grade, so do your best. If you want to join the ongoing exploration mission, contact Nito Hei Tsuguka on subspace radio. If you need me, I will be on the bridge. "

Splorfin 14, Ocean

Waves gave way to dense, alien vegetation, stripes of green and brown streaking beneath them. Some of the plants were truly massive - the skilled biologist might credit it to the high Carbon Dioxide content in the atmosphere and the weak gravity. Tankyusha was not such a biologist, though one of his many subroutines made a few helpful observations in the back of his mind. Guesswork, all of it, based on what he knew about physics and the mechanical sciences. These were more in line with his specialties.

As they approached the 'volcano', the team came to an easy halt with Tsuguka at the lead. The android had taken her advice, making particular point not to position himself in front or back of Dirjon. He trusted the fellow, of course, but he wasn't the sort to ignore advice from a superior officer. From one of his side bags, he produced a number of tiny drones. They rose up from his hand with a pleasant little start-up tune, then shot off into the distance. "For now, I'll have them attempt to enter through the top of the structure," he started, providing a running commentary of their progress. "Entering the mouth ... now. Sending feed to your HUDs, tune in if you'd like."

The mouth of the artifact turned out to be much larger than the pictures had suggested. Plants had grown over the lip, obscuring nearly a meter all the way around. It wouldn't quite fit the Yui-class they'd encountered earlier, but it certainly looked as though it could try. The inside view was obscured by particles suspended in the air, causing the drones' to cast beams of light across the chamber as they drifted. It seemed extremely tall - the drones couldn't even get a read on the depth of the shaft - with an even, cylindrical interior. The walls of the shaft took the light and reflected it back in shifting, exotic patterns, making it hard to see exactly what they were made out of.

Tankyusha frowned. "This is too big to be a natural formation, for certain. The walls look to be made of quartz or some other crystal, though I don't know of one that affects light quite like this..." he trailed off in thought, starting to turn to Akiashiro for a second opinion.

And then the signal from the drones cut out.

It left them with a rather neat 3D diagram of what seemed to be an endless, mysterious shaft some 20 meters across, plunging deep into the core of an unknown moon.

Lounge

Mitsuko leaned back into her seat and grabbed ahold of something for support, letting out a squeak as the Eucharis fought through the moon's atmosphere. She was shaken up, but thankfully not dislodged from her seat. The Neko let out a sigh of relief when they finally slowed to a stop, although this relief only lasted a moment. She felt the ship swaying around her now, making everything wobbly. "Oh dear...this is no good." She stood up, leaning against the wall for extra support, although her gravity manipulation helped keep her inhumanly stable.

Once she'd gotten somewhat used to the odd rocking, she remembered what she had just been working on. "The Medea was...oh dear..." She exited the Lounge in a hurry, likely rushing past the two new arrivals on their way to select their cabins, heading for the lower docking ring to check for any damage or other complications. While she wasn't technically a pilot, she'd been in charge of the shuttles often enough that she was fairly certain this would be her responsibility, even if one of the new crew members had been the one to retrieve it.