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

Space

Behind the armor crew the exterior of the Eucharis flickered like a large strobe in the darkness of space as its AA guns opened up on the hostile pod and the live enemy torpedo, which were both struck repeatedly by a hail of bright yellow energy bolts streaking silently across the vast vacuum. Little bits of shrapnel flew off of them, but not in the direction of the armor team. Then the pod burst exploded and spiraled as its missile payload chain reacted.

Hanako's voice came over the armor team's radio. "Hostile targets cleared. Recover the sensor items. They are not threats. The power armor replicator is also potentially useful. We have identified the shuttle as a Star Army of Yamatai Ke-T4 Fox."

The shuttle appeared to be intact and adrift, from what the armor team could see thus far.

Bridge

Hanako called down to engineering via the phone, "Engineering, this is the captain. Please join the armor team," she ordered, overriding the normal requirement for someone to stay in Engineering. "We may need a technician out there to investigate the Star Army ship, which is a Yui-class scout."

Cargo Bay

Victory, suited in a skin-tight AMES, went to the rear door-ramp and activated the air-contained forcefield around it, followed by attaching a tether cable to a hardpoint and then pressing the door-opening button, causing the ships' ventral aft armor to push out and open to reveal the door. In a moment, Victory was standing on the door in space, ready for the first of the salvage to arrive.

:: Ke-T4 Fox ::

Aikiko slowed and drifted to a stop as she came in contact with the Ke-T4 Fox. Using the link with the Eucharis, brought up the file on it from the MEGAMI. Looking over the information as it scrolled across another volumetric screen. She proceeded to work her way around it and looking into the front main viewport, shining her Mindy's light into the darkened interior.

Looking for a Tech Service Panel to access, hopefully to learn more about the craft from the actual thing as the MEGAMI had limited knowledge on this type of craft.

"Eucharis Actual, Ke-T4 Fox is in pretty decent condition for the exterior checks on the hull. We need a Tech or ..." Big pause. "Damn ...." She had forgotten other new ones name, "what's her name... the Ex-Mish." She was trying to be concise in getting the right person out here to enjoy the great outdoors of space. "... to bring the access codes or a hacker program to bypass its security programs so we can clear it before sending it to the Eucharis. Akiashiro over." Aikiko moved along the hull checking out other access ports she could peek into.

Shuttle -> Space

"Yes ma'am. Orders received." Tsuguka responded to the Shosho, now orienting her feet infront of her in order to quash her speed rapidly. She grunted as all the blood in her body felt like it was suddenly pooling inside them. Served her right for not slowing down more gradually, really, but in her mind, it was the flight pattern that would be the hardest to snipe from afar.

"Santo Hei Hisoka." Tugs filled Aikiko in. The ex-NMX soldier was her room mate, after all, even if they barely spoke. "...Akiashiro-Hei, any way of telling if the hatch opening mechanism is booby trapped? I don't want any nasty surprises for our tech..."

"I'm going after the telepathic activity scanner. Santo Hei Nunagawa, can you get your mitts on that mass detector system, please?..." Her voice was calm and collected, but also slightly hushed now, as if afraid of waking a sleeping giant. Frankly, her willingness to just destroy the salvage surprised even herself. You could hardly call that efficient. But that tiny little silver splinter... that dead husk of a ship... she couldn't shake the strange feeling that it was silently staring back at her. "I wouldn't exactly call the field clear, but if anybody is inside that old boat, I guess they would have stuck their head out already. We can have a better look when the tech is here."

Tsukuga wouldn't be there if her comrades were to look back; Not having to worry about formation anymore, she simply used her nodal teleporter to stick herself right next to the TAS, and immediately began giving it a visual examination.

Ke-T4 Fox : Port Airlock

"Exciting isn't, Tsuguka?" She inspected the Port Airlock Hatch, running scans for any life signs and explosives for the interior of the Port Airlock as she waited on Shosho Hanako's responce. "Let me check."

Space

"Exciting?" Toyoe responded, as if she had never heard the word before in her life. "As in... to activate something?... erm... I guess that is the plan?"

Grasping the support frame of the TAS and slowly beginning to drag it back towards the Eucharis, she just played the sentence again and again in her head, trying to figure out what Aikiko meant.

If she meant it in the same was as it being thrilling or enjoyable... Well, that was what the shopping and fine food was allocated for, wasn't it?... Did Akiashiro-Hei hate those things? Just what did they get up to on that night-long binge with Stark, then? Was that not fun time? Who planned that?... They did plan it, didn't they?...

Ke-T4 Fox::

Aikiko laughed softly at hearing. "You'll learn, Tugs. I'll buy you a dictionary when we get to port.... you know how to read?" She fell quiet, eyeing the Port Airlock door and its panel.

Space - Debris Field

Mio hardly blinked as the Eucharis opened up with its AA guns. It was a prudent tactical command choice, as far as the youngest in the Armour Team was concerned. You never knew what could be lurking aboard derelicts of hostile ships. But as the guns briefly illuminated the shadows of the debris field, and causing the silver and reflective hull of the abandoned Yamataian ship, she couldn't shake a nagging feeling at the back of her neck. Though, as the orders came in, the white Neko forced herself back to focus on the duties she'd been given.

"Hai, Tsuguka-Hei." She called, before altering her slow drift through space to move towards her designated objective, occasionally using her innate gravitational manipulation, along with the Mindy's own systems, to alter her course to prevent smacking into various pieces of floating debris. It all looked so calm, quiet, and still, but she knew that some of the debris zoomed around faster than a speeding bullet. Spinning around mid-drift, Mio grabbed a larger piece of debris, likely a hull fragment, and put her legs up against it, and kicked off to get a bit of a boost as she headed to the Mass Detector.

"Anyone but me got an uneasy feeling about all this?" She queried on a closed channel to Akiashiro and Tsuguka, while making sure her weapons systems were all operational.

Space

Looking into the cockpit of the T4 shuttle revealed it was empty and the controls were not powered on. There was a bit of frost showing that the interior probably had an atmosphere but was cold. There were no signs of any traps or life-signs around the three entrances to the shuttle--the rear door-ramp, and the top and bottom circular hatches. The shuttle appeared to be in good condition.

"Can you get me a photo of the IRN on the ship and shuttle?" Hanako's voice came over the team comm channel.

YSS Eucharis Cargo Bay

Victory waved at Tsuguka as she approached, and brought the activity scanner into the cargo bay closely to the deck, where the ship's internal gravity would capture it and keep it resting in place. "Anything usable and repairable is welcome," she said over the radio.

Ke-T4 Fox

Aikiko let herself drift from the Fox T4 till she could make out the pitted registery numbers on the hull. "Eucharis Actual, NG-X1-365. Send out a Power Generator Drone. I don't think our Mindies can provide the necessary power requirements we need. Akiashiro over." She moved back to her position. Looking it over, Akiko found the external power coupling. As she worked, she relayed the information she saw to the rest of the team that was taking the space walk. She sent the combat cam vid feed of the Ke-T4 Fox to Hanako; flagged for priority review.

Space

"Yes, I know how to read, Akiashiro-Hei." Tsuguka just shrugged. "I just don't understand your concept of fun at all. Further research required."

She opened her mouth to suggest that the neko could probably just lug the shuttle back herself, given that its gravity systems were inoperable, but stopped just short. Sending a shuttle towards the Eucharis at a quarter of the speed of light, with no pilot, sounded a little too fun.

It took her a moment to recognize the voice of Mio, but she agreed with the sentiment whole-heartedly. "Yes. Way too many places to hide." Never mind the other ship, you could hide a small fleet behind that gas giant if you wanted to. Tsuguka didn't like gas giants. They were big, heavy, hot, and angry, malformed little stars that never quite got their chance. Hearing it cackle and wane on her radio over the electromagnetic spectrum wasn't really helping too much.

"Yes ma'am." The silver-blue figure gave Victory a thumbs up after she placed the emitter onto the cargo ramp, and then quickly teleported away again. "You want any of those hull fragments? Might help to know the age of the NMX craft involved."

Trying to ignore the interference of Splofin I now, she concentrated on Aikiko's feed whilst simultaneously making a first sweep of the power armor replication chamber.

"Who cares about fun anyway?" Mio murmured, more to herself than anything, as she finally reached the Mass Detector unit. She didn't land on it, nor attempt to grab it. Instead, with a brief tweak of her gravity manipulation, she swung wide of it, until she could approach it from behind. Then she approached, but bent her knees. Once she could almost stand on it, in her crouched pose, she used both the Mindy's systems, along with her own Type 33 powers, to arrest herself and keep herself immobile, while kicking out with her legs. That was all it took to start the Mass Detector on its path back to the Eucharis.

Mio engaged the thrusters of her suit and chased after the tumbling piece of equipment, and after catching up to it, she grabbed on. There, she used her Mindy and her gravity manipulation as navigational thrusters, riding and guiding the Mass Detector like a cowgirl on a bucking bronco. "Eucharis, mass detector unit incoming. ETA: 1.5 minutes." She states over the comm channel, while firing her thrusters and powers to bleed off the detector's momentum. With the mass and inertia that thing possessed, last thing she wanted was for it to bang into the cargo bay and earn the young Santo-Hei a court martial for reckless endangerment...

YSS Eucharis Cargo Ramp

Victory pulled the mass detector and the telepathic activity scanner into the cargo bay, returning Tsuguka's thumbs-up. "Items added to the ship's inventory, one mass detector and one telepathic scanner of Mishhuvurthyar design," she noted over the radio. Like Tsuguka, she had also noticed the beautifully creepy sounds of the gas giant and put them on a background channel just to have something to listen to outside of the ship's cargo bay. "Wow." Not far away, the large gas giant loomed in front of the ship, bathed in the dim red light of the system's angry-looking little star, and partially eclipsed by the water-covered, ice-capped moon and several others. There were 17 moons in total.

YSS Eucharis Bridge

"Akiashiro, this is Eucharis Actual, negative on drone dispatch and I remind you that you do not give me orders," Hanako chastised Akiashiro over the team radio. "If the shuttle is offline and occupied, it probably has power already. Try opening one of the hatches. Be careful of the air rushing out. Follow Tsuguka's directions. Tsuguka, get a status report from your team and assign them to retrieve objects of interest, including the shuttle. We will board the ship last." Hanako then began looking up information based on the images of the shuttle. "Nekovalkyrja War Fleet," she said to herself. Next she got on the ship's intercom. "All crew members on the ship, excluding night shift, please call the bridge and report your status."

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko noted the items being hauled in from space, hesitating for a moment. Eventually she worked up the motivation to head for one of the nearby closets where an AMES could be found. She wriggled herself into the snug suit just as Hanako's announcement began. She sighed into her helmet, before waving at Victory, making sure the other Neko saw her heading for the Cargo Bay's nearest phone. It took her only a moment to reach the bridge. "Murakami-Hei reporting. As per my written report, I am currently stationed in the Cargo Bay, assisting Victory-Hei with the salvage being brought aboard." She paused, wondering if there was anything else relevant that needed to be said. "...we'll be thoroughly inspecting all items taken on, and storing them together until we are certain they are all clear." Mitsuko couldn't help but remember the annoying little robots that had stowed away the last time the Cargo Bay had been opened in unfamiliar territory. "And then until their fates have been decided, Shoho."

She nodded to herself, and to Victory, if the other Neko was watching, making sure Hanako had no other orders or clarifications for them, before hanging up the phone to join the work.

Space (PARC)

"Yes ma'am." Tsuguka responded immediately, concerned about how her performance was looking in the Shosho's eyes. Mentally, she double checked the vectors of her team members. Mio was already back at the ship, so she assumed everything had gone well there. "Telepathic activity scanner and mass detector system have been retrieved, ma'am. I'm standing on the power armor replication chamber now. No sign of hostilities."

"Nunagawa, Akiashiro, can you give me a status report?" She took a moment to look directly up towards the smouldering elderly star, and then back down to the massively bulky device below her. "Akiashiro, if the hatch isn't accepting input, just pry it open, please. The only way somebody got lucky is if they are using the stasis system... Nunagawa, you can get the psionic control device next."

Spinning around to begin pushing the replicator now, Tsuguka had the strange sensation of building up thrust without going anywhere. The numbers on her display confirmed that she was, but there was just no point of reference to tell her that visually. "I'm moving the replication system now. I'm on my way back." That was probably a little redundant, but talking made her feel a lot less isolated.

Space :: Ke-T4 Fox (Fox 4)

Aikiko listened to the static, suddenly she felt alone as she checked out the Ke-T4 Fox for a manual opening device for the Ke-T4 Fox. Static broke with the voice of Tsuguka.

"Nunagawa, Akiashiro, can you give me a status report?" Before Akiko could respond, voice of Tsuguka continued, "Akiashiro, if the hatch isn't accepting input, just pry it open, please. The only way somebody got lucky is if they are using the stasis system... Nunagawa, you can get the psionic control device next."

Akiashiro took a deep breath and moved along the hull, remembering an access port on the bottom of the Ke-T4 Fox. She found what she was looking for. “Air and power level is good on the Mindy. No injuries. No hostiles present or discovered yet. I have full combat load of munitions; Akiashiro, out.”

Inside the Ke-T4 Fox (Fox 4)

She extended the manipulators as she braced herself. She grabbed the manual device to open the hatch and opened it up. Once inside the Ke-T4 Fox Mindy Launch Bay, she moved through the stygian darkness. Her light shining off various items as she carefully explored the Mindy Launch Bay.

Inside the YSS Eucharis

Tank drifted, surrounded by the gentle hum of potential that was the ship's fabrication area. Mechanical arms flexed on the walls as though they were his own. A million tiny voices called out to him with the prospect of future greatness in one of the nanomachine colonies. He'd been told by an escort that this area would be his responsibility. The escort had seemed to think it a less than impressive posting, though he had to disagree. This was a place where great things happened - his mind's eye saw the future unfold before him like the Big Bang, a whirlwind of chaos and possibility. Tank had been formally introduced to much of the technology thrumming around the area during his training, but never on this scale. Certainly not this level of freedom. A small smile played across his lips.

He drifted.

"All crew members on the ship, excluding night shift, please call the bridge and report your status."

Tank stirred. Time had slipped by while he was lost in the possibilities.

He opened a line to the bridge. "Science Specialist Tankyusha Hitotsu, reporting. My status is idle - I've acquainted myself with the ship's systems and am available at your request, Ma'am."

Suspecting the Captain had more in mind for her crew than pleasant conversation, he proceeded to the bridge to make himself useful.

Space - Leaving Eucharis.

"Nunagawa, Akiashiro, can you give me a status report?"

Tsuguka's voice crackled into Mio's ears, and she briefly wondered at how much interference the gas giant was pumping into their communications, though she shook the thought away in order to comply with their squad leader's request. "All Mindy systems nominal, Tsuguka-Hei. Full on ammunition, power levels are in the green, air supply is good. No hostiles so far. Mass Detector unit has been safely delivered."

With her report given, the white Neko leaped back into the depth of the void, letting the Mindy suit plot out the most direct course to the psionic control device as Tsuguka had just commanded. "Hai, moving to objective PCD now," she gave the brief confirmation over the team channel. As she floated through space, her eyes never strayed from the Mindy's sensor readouts for long. Perhaps it was the ominous crackle from the gas giant. Perhaps it was the play of shadows in the constantly shifting field of space debris. Perhaps it was her own nerves. But something just didn't sit right with the young soldier.

"Eucharis actual, this is Santo Hei Nunagawa. We're experiencing some interference in our communications. Asking for confirmation on whether it's caused by the gas giant, and if there's any way to clear it up." Mio's voice was as calm and cold as the ice her eyes resembled as she shifted through space. It was the duty of every soldier to report in anything that might be considered unusual, and though she wasn't terribly experienced compared to her two team mates, she felt it better to call in the interference on the communications and have the Eucharis confirm or deny her suspicions than simply let the matter be.

Bridge

"Idleness is unwelcome. Report to the bridge and man the scanners," Hanako replied to Tankyusha.

To Mio, Hanako replied, "Nunagawa, Eucharis; Interference is on EM bands; Tsuguka has already directed the team to use laser communications, which are not affected by the interference. Out." Using out instead of over was Hanako's way of indicating she didn't expect or want a reply.

"Vonderbrink, Bridge, are you recovering debris with Tsuguka's team yet?" Hanako asked via radio, unsure if the robotic crew member was still on the ship or out in space already.

T4 Fox Shuttle Interior

The passenger area of the shuttle was unused, featuring bench seats on either side that doubled as lockers of emergency supplies. The hatch to the cockpit was open and Akiashiro could see everything appeared to look normal. It looked as this shuttle had been sitting powered off in a shuttle bay when it was knocked out of a ship, and could easily be brought out of its sleep by turning on its aether generator from the cockpit.

Space

As Mio moved, a ragged Star Army uniform jacket with a rank pin attached to it floated past her, close enough to grab.

Well, that was one worry eased. If the interference was natural, then there wasn't much she could do but switch over to the laser communication as per orders, as she moved towards the psionic control device. As that tattered uniform jacket floated past her vision, the young Neko did indeed reach out and grab it between metal-clad fingers, examining it curiously, especially the rank pins, as she moved on towards her objective.

"You guys know what the real danger out here is?" Mio queries idly, now on the laser communication as directed. "With all this junk moving around at extreme speeds, you can't tell what's a random piece of debris zooming around fast enough to shear your head clean off your shoulders from the slug of a fifty milimeter gauss cannon. Only difference between them is that when the first rips your head off it's just a random set of happenstance. The second is intentional. Otherwise, they're both just debris floating around in space."

Space

Tsuguka still kept her radio open on several scrolling bands, even if she had no intention of transmitting with it. It was the best way she could think of to keep an ear close to the ground for enemies, and as ominous as it sounded, the gas giant's heartbeat gave her a better sensation of which direction she was facing.

"Same difference if it's perfectly stationary and you fly into it at sixty thousand kilometers a second, Santo Hei Nunagawa." Her standard helpful and informative tone didn't quite capture the gravity of what she was suggesting, but there was also a slight sneer at the end of the sentence, giving away the fact the neko had a macabre smile on her face. "The CFS should protect you. There are nodal teleporters and hand guard shields in the mindy hanger, if you aren't feeling so confident." This was her exact own equipment setup, the others could not have failed to notice.

A surge of strain tightened her shoulders, as she began the decelerate rapidly, and the power armor replication chamber decided it wanted to keep going on its own. Nothing unaccounted for. It finally slowed to a more manageable speed with plenty of room to spare before they hit the hanger. She gave a small wave to Victory again, letting the logistics personnel decide if the bulky think would actually fit or not, whilst she considered what exactly to retrieve next.

"Eucharis actual, Santo Hei Tsuguka here. All team members are reporting good condition. No hostiles. I'm bringing the power armor replication chamber in now..." She floated behind the cargo area on her back, physically looking towards the bridge even if it wasn't necessary. Examining the list again drew her eye to some of the rather more unpleasant items. "Ma'am... Do you want us to investigate the identity of the bodies?..."