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

The multicolored android dragged itself out of the maintenance tunnel and back into the engineering room after having finished applying the monitoring devices on the power systems cables. “Next is the maintenance tunnels to the sensors area and then the ones running down underneath the shuttle bay... I'll have to do the Main Cannon Junction when we are on a lower alert status.” Sheila thought to itself as it made its way to a nearby supply cabinet for more of the monitoring clamps.


Its hands quickly plucking them out of a box and putting them into a small satchel until the sound of the engineering phone rung out, piercing through uproar caused by the machinery and drawing the androids attention away from its task. Closing the cabinet doors and locking them the lifeless hand reached out to answer the call. “This is engineering, whats the issue?” Sheila asked as its other hand cupped around the phone, trying to keep as much of the machinery noise out of the call as possible. Receiving the new orders Sheila immediately began to connect to Pantheon to download the information concerning a Yui-class scout as it replied. “Acquiring schematics now and packing tools that may be of use for the investigation. I'll join the scavenge team once I get my equipment and power armor set up.”


Once the conversation ended and the phone was secured back in place Sheila redirected its efforts at placing the clamps it had just collected back into their proper spot and securing everything that she had out. With the room safe to be empty the android finally made its exit towards the armory to ensure she had at least one weapon at hand in the event of malfunctioning security systems or androids that would have to be dealt with, despite the low probability of combat. Grabbing an Aether Beam Rifle as its weapon of choice its next stop was the cargo bay to quickly get a premium repair kit and pack some additional repair supplies into it. With the only stop left being the power armor bay the android set out for its final destination on the ship before it launched for the scavenging crew.




Setting the repair kit down for the time being the android pulled out her assigned Mindy and glanced over it with a scrutinizing gaze, having not yet had time to properly customize it. With the low probability of combat and the fact that soldiers whom had more time to prep for the mission were already deployed, Sheila's gaze shifted over with the intent to only equip it with a few modules that would be useful for her role as a technician and in the event of combat. Setting its sights on the Ke-M2-W3002 Leg NSB Launchers, Ke-M2-W2903 NSD Upper Leg Hangers, Ke-M2-W2905 Shoulder-Fire Gauss Cannon and its Ke-M2-W2905-BPX Backpack Extension modules the android did its best to quickly attach them onto its Mindy armor while still ensuring that they were applied correctly. The drones could always be used to help scout and study the ship's systems, while in the event of combat the cannon could provide the necessary covering fire to allow cover to be taken.


“This is taking longer than expected.” Sheila thought to itself as it began to put on the modified armor. After a quick systems check to ensure that everything was operational the android reached down to effortlessly pluck up the repair kit in one hand and hold the beam rifle in the other. Closing off the connection to the engineering intercom Sheila launched off into space and towards the abandoned starship with the equipment at hand.





Cruising through space at a respectable speed the android steadily made its way towards the Yui-class scout-ship with the intent to meet up with her fellow crew-mates. With ample spare time until it reached its destination Sheila began to go through the process of connecting herself to the Mindy, preparing it for her to take over the suit's standard AI operations for when the time came to use the drones as an additional set of eyes. It wasn't until a short distance away from the Eucharis that the realization of not picking up any of her crew-mates signatures at the abandoned scout ship dawned on her. “... Huh, did they find something else?” Sheila thought to itself as it began to do a quick scan of the environment, picking up the signatures of the other Mindy Armors around a different shuttle. “Would have been nice to have gotten an update on a second vessel for schematics.” The android grumbled lightly to itself as it changed its trajectory and significantly picked up its speed towards its allies.


Receiving a transmission from the captain Sheila immediately responded as the construct kept the calculated distance between it and the shuttle onscreen for it to view. “Negative captain, the process of preparing the engineering room for my departure and equipping myself for the assignment took up more time than expected. Current ETA upon arrival to the shuttle is one hundred and thirty seconds at current speed, wound up having to take a slight detour upon learning that the crew was at a different location than the scout-ship. If I may ask captain, who is in charge out here and do you have the model of the shuttle the team has taken interest in? If so I can access its schematics in order to maneuver through it without relying on drones to scout it, Over.” Sheila responded.


Locking onto the nearby Mindy Armors Sheila sent them a transmission as the android slowed its speed upon nearing the shuttle. “Sheila Vonderbrink, daytime technician arriving at the shuttle now and ready for orders. ”

Space/ Shuttle

Akiko shook herself as the scene before flickered and changed. She looked around lost for a second or two. She did a system check on her Mindy and accessories. She was unsure what to do next. The shuttle showed it was completely powered down, yet she could of sworn she was looking at a Fox T4 Combat Aero Shuttle. Now it was just a plain old shuttle craft for hauling troops.

Was she ill or even worse? She couldn't've been ill. Even living in the Company's Mining town, she never gotten sick from scrounging nor all of the bad cooking and the rotgut beer she consumed. Was this what people call space sickness?

"Tsuguka-Hei? Inform the Eucharis that I'm powering up the shuttle and opening communication link. Akiashiro out." Aikiko used broadband military radio frequency as she looked over the control panels, making sure environmental switches were in the off position. She moved back and blocked the hatch open.

She moved back to the Bridge and activated the Aether Generator. Once the shuttle was powered up, she activated the communication system. She scrambled to get out of the shuttle.

Bridge

Tank appeared on the bridge only a moment after Hanako's response. He suppressed the urge to apologize for being elsewhere; the Captain likely didn't need her time wasted. He'd be there next time, instead.

He settled into his station, displays flickering to life in the air around him. He tapped a few, sending ripples across their surfaces, and took in the data that came back. His first order of business was to catch up. Tank played back the transmissions up until this point. He made mental notes. Background noise from local gas giant interfering with communications. His fingers danced across the screens and he started a deep-dive analysis of the gas giant's EM pattern. If it's natural, I'll build a quick filter for the away team and restore basic comms functionality. If it's not, well... He glanced to the crew roster a moment, picked out Mio, then plotted out a near-field debris projection and sent it to her. No reason to make her worry. Most of the debris in this area has found a stable orbit already.. there's a few bits traveling at high velocity, though.

On a whim, he began to pull data from the ship's gravimetric scanners and compared those against the expected values. Anyone out there..? A review of the ship's initial scans hadn't revealed anything, but the whole arrangement felt a little too peaceful.

The process took only a second or two. Satisfied for the moment, he finished settling in and glanced to his right. He gave a small, hopeful smile to Natsumi. "Looking forward to working with you, Ma'am." He tapped a few keys, returning to his screens. "I've begun performing scans of the area and am feeding that data to the bridge now."

Space - Debris Field

"With all due respect, Tsuguka-Hei, not all of this junk's stationary." Mio replied as she wrapped the star army jacket around her Mindy's forearm and tied it there so it wouldn't fly away during her trip to the Psionic Control Device. Reaching the machinery, she glanced first left, and then right, her shoulder-mounted gauss cannon and Ke-M2-W2909 Accelerated Plasma Rifle swiveling on their mounts, covering the immediate area where she was looking, ready to open fire with but a thought from the young Neko within the suit. Finding no targets, Mio slowly circles around the PCD, again checking for new targets, and was about to start moving the heavy device as she noticed Akiashiro's transmission on a generic broadband military spectrum. When Tsuguka, and Hanako, had instructed them to use laser communications.

"Akashiro-Hei? Everything okay over there?" Mio queried as she started to apply thrust to the PCD, starting it on it's path back to the Eucharis, while trying her best to get a clear visual of what her team-mate was doing. There was little success with that, however, given the field of debris between her course and that of the shuttle. Hopefully Tsuguka could deal with the woman if anything went wrong.

"Eucharis, Psionic Control Device incoming. ETA one hundred and five seconds, counting." The infantry Neko reported in as she guided the device towards the cargo bay, and decelerating its approach like she'd done with the Mass Detector.

Space / Shuttle

Aikiko heard nothing if by laser communication as the communication laser was blocked by the shuttle's hull.

If by broadband frequency (radio), she would reply. "Unknown-Hei. I'm fine. Inside shuttle and getting ready to exit. Aikiashiro out"

She took her time and exited the shuttle, then switching back to Laser Communication as she unblocked the hatch.

Space (Outside the Eucharis)

"That's the problem with space, through, isn't it, Nunagawa-Hei..." Tsuguka replied to Mio, crossing her arms whilst she stood upside down on the hull. It wasn't just to look cool; She was waiting for her mindy's teleportation system to recharge. "Nothing ever really is."

After a few more seconds of anxious waiting, the system's power levels came back up to an acceptable limit again. She was originally going to wait for Hanako's response over the bodies, but Aikiko was sounding a little rattled, and the shuttle probably took priority. Nunagawa arrived back at the ship just in time to see Tsuguka spontaneously spark out of existence.

Space (Outside the Shuttle)

Tsuguka rematerialized still standing like a pro wrestling trophy, and observed the now operational shuttle for a moment, before looking over to the armored forms of Aikiko and Sheila in turn.

"Good job, Akiashiro-Hei." She spoke with a glimmer of enthusiasm, whilst pushing herself slowly closer by pure gravity manipulation. Alrough she was still on edge, seeing the old thing come back to life did make the destructive side of her personality wane a little. "Santo Hei Vonderbrink, do you think you can fly it? I'm going to interface with the OS and see if I can find out when it was last booted up."

"Eucharis actual, situation update..." She included Mio in the receiving parties, in order to keep everybody up to date. "Santo Hei Tsuguka, Akiashiro and Vonderbink are by the shuttle. Looks operational. I think we have all of the priority salvage, ma'am. How would you like us to proceed?"

Hearing the reply from Aikiashiro the android floated idly beside the ship as it waited for the woman to exit it. “Nothing seems to be exploding, that's a good sign.” Sheila commented to Akiashiro as the android looked down at the shuttle, its head tilted slightly as it floated down towards where the woman had exited it. “Have you explored the entire interior yet or is it just powered up?” It asked in a respectful tone. If it was fully operational it would probably be useful in collecting material from the scout ship, after all its cargo space would essentially be the Eucharis's.


“Good afternoon to you as well Toyoe, and so long as I am not required to perform complex evasive maneuvers on the spot I should be capable of piloting the shuttle to the abandoned starship or the Eucharis. Until it is fully examined however, I recommend using only the bare minimal systems in order to prevent any further damage to already damaged areas. More so the weapon systems than the rest, due to the likelihood of a seemingly perfectly working shuttle being simply abandoned in a combat zone as a sign that something went wrong. Potential causes could be a biological attack and sabotage to major systems, both of which makes its operation more dangerous. As such if you desire I can have the drones scout the ship for obvious signs of system damages or tampering as I hook into its OS from the bridge, connecting you to it through my systems so that you can access it from a safe distance away in the event of it self destructing or contamination.”

Space / Shuttle

Aikiko looked at the newcomer. "Been checked out and in very good condition. If Tugs informed Eucharis Actual. They can fly it remotely. Don't want to ruin the ShoSho's fun now do you? I've opens the comm's system on the shuttle so they can access it. Who are you anyway? I'm Akishiro." Looking over the newcomer with interest as she had seen her about the Eucharis. She never stopped and just conversed with her.

Space, Shuttle​

Behind the helmet Sheila just stared at the woman, wondering how her suggestions would have ruined their captain's fun when their superior was in charge of a far larger, more high tech, and powerful military gunship. “I am Sheila Vonderbrink, a Santo Hei, the new daytime technician for the YSS Eucharis. However I am not familiar with a Tugs on the crew roster, is that what you call your Mindy AI?”

Space/Shuttle::

"Tsuguka is Tugs. It's her combat nickname. You'll get one eventually, Vonderbrink." Aikiko smiled for she named her Mindy something else; not caring if the other could see her smile. "It is rare to fly ships remotely, especially one who has to keep track of a million other things. Or let the Eucharis Pilot can do it." Aikiko voice softens, "My Mindy has another name. "

Bridge

"Tsuguka, Eucharis: Just bring the bodies aboard. Our new medic, Santô Hei Umeki Ayame, will examine them and submit them for identification," Hanako replied to Tsuguka. "Tsuguka is in charge of the salvage operation," she added on the team channel, for the newcomers benefit. "Tankyusha-Hei is now manning ship scanners and can assist with coordination and item-picking."

"Sheila, if you do not know a Fox shuttle's design, I can send out Victory or one of the older crew members who has flown one," the Captain offered. "Victory has been a shuttle pilot for a long time. But it should not be necessary; The T4 shuttle is not so different than the T8. Here are the differences I can think of: it has side-facing bench seats, no airlock--unless you use the passenger area as one, a circular docking hatch on top and bottom, and a rear door ramp. The engines are in the 'wing' areas. If you are comfortable operating it, you can dock it with the hatch on the ship's underside, the one at the base of the main passageway. Our shuttle bay is full and cannot fit it."

Tank's gravimetric scans didn't show any signs of hostiles, but then again the system had a star, five planets, and seventeen moons to use as tools for hiding something.

Cargo Bay

Victory guided the large cylindrical power armor replication chamber in and attached the cargo bay's crane to it to drag it into the cargo bay on the floor rollers, and then took the Psionic Control Device off Mio's hands.

“Not entirely sure why I would require a nickname, Sheila is easy to pronounce and relatively easy to remember spelling wise.” The android responded to Aikiko before turning its attention to their captain's voice. Its helmet turned slightly to look towards Tsuguka for a brief moment before responding. “If you do not wish to remotely fly it as Aikiko said you would, there is no need to send Victory out to retrieve the shuttle. It is only if I'm in a dogfight against a combat vessel that my confidence in piloting it effectively declines; mainly due to a lack of training in the area. A simple docking procedure is one that I am fully capable of doing since it is not a completely foreign ship. As you mentioned, differences in operation tend not to be major between a parent generation and child generation. I'll proceed towards the pilot's room, if there is nothing of interest in our immediate area to store into the cargo bay I can bring it around to the Eucharis shortly.”

Space (Shuttle Exterior)

“-Good afternoon to you as well Toyoe.-" Tsuguka wasn't sure if she heard an element of sarcasm in that, but her head was too filled with navigational data and stray debris trajectories to go all-out on the politeness scale. "Vonderbrink-Hei... I guess you can examine just the main drive and navigation for critical faults, then activate those, if you want. It only has to be operating on minimal levels... I think it would be a good idea for somebody to actually be inside just encase there is a sudden computer failure whilst it's flying, however. Just take it easy, okay?" Her voice sounded reassuring, but typically distant in nature. "No need to take anything else."

Hanako's voice was in her ear again now, and she had been given the order that she wasn't particularly fond of hearing. She looked at both of the comrades present once again, then began to float away rapidly as she considered what commands to give out herself. That, and how each specific team member might react with facing their own mortality.

Well, the shosho had put confidence in her. Hopefully this would be a way to prove that she wasn't just a toy soldier. "Eucharis actual, orders received, ma'am."

"Akiashiro-Hei, can you begin examining those bulkheads for identification markings, and gather up any uniform fragments, please, honey?" The last part couldn't have suited her deep and heartless voice any less. Maybe she was just trying to make up for sounding so bossy before, who knew. "Nunagawa-Hei... I'm going to examine the torture facility. Can you meet me there with some body bags, please?... Watch out for the shuttle incoming."

Space / Shuttle

Akiko was about respond when the word "honey" came over her comms from Tsuguka. She definity knew there was something wrong with either her Mindy or her self. She just drifted off in an ackward angle from the group. Then the word before honey was "please" registered.

Akiko darted off suddenly with , "Aye Aye Tsuguka Tugs Toyoe Santo-Hei." Zipping around, gathering uniforms, regardless whether or not they was Star Armies' or other uniforms that survived the battle. She worked her way to the real goal. The big ship. She tied each of the uniforms; bits and pieces into one long streamer of uniforms which trailed behind her.

Bridge

Tankyusha nodded, swiping a few panels to the side and spawning a few new ones for the latest task. He'd keep the dimmed system scan panels in his peripheral.

"Salvage team, this is Science Specialist Tankyusha Hitotsu. I'll be providing you with an optional HUD overlay that will assist you in identifying priority salvage items momentarily." He tapped a few keys, pulling up the ship's inventory records. They were .. immaculate. Logistics Officer Mitsuko? He didn't think he'd met her yet, but the files were clearly her doing. He keyed them in as the data source for the HUD patch, tying them to the live files rather than a copy. He sent the tiny file to the crew.

"Patch ready. It's tied to the ship's inventory - if we have a need for an item in your view, your HUD will be able to tag it for you with an estimated value to the ship. If further support is required, you need only ask."

Meanwhile..

A sub-process spun off after he found the logistics files, opening a line to Mitsuko. "Mitsuko-Hei, I'm Science Specialist Tankyusha, recently assigned to Eucharis. I'll be leveraging your inventory files for the current operation. I thought you might appreciate being able to make tweaks as the team proceeds with their salvage, so I've attached the data stream to your active files; read only, of course. I hope this is to your satisfaction." The last thing he wanted was to overstep his bounds with a crew member he hadn't even met yet.

Back on the bridge

"Support operations commenced, Captain."

Tankyusha brought up a dashboard of the team's position and collected salvage thus far. He'd coordinate the team where possible, trusting them to make the right decisions in the moment.

Cargo Bay

After ending communications with the bridge, Mitsuko moved over to join Victory, brandishing a science scanner. She began to meticulously examine the newly arriving items, making sure there weren't any surprises. Hidden explosives, communication or tracking devices, chemical or biological contaminants...she could think up plenty of horrible things to worry about. The Neko didn't seem to be too interested in what the items were, though, simply looking each one over in turn. She did let out a short, "Oh dear," as the large power armor replication chamber was situated inside her cargo bay. They were running out of room.

As she began tagging the items and adding them to her well maintained inventory, she noticed someone else dealing with the same files just a moment before she was contacted. "Oh...hello, Tankyusha-Hei. Right." There was a pause as she watched another item looming closer to the open doorway. "Yes, I would appreciate any sort of warning you could give me about the junk....ahem...the salvage they're filling up my cargo bay with. We'll have to make room for everything." There was another pause as she noticed something new on the list she hadn't seen firsthand yet. "There's certainly no room for yet another shuttle, for example." She sounded irritated, but resigned to her fate. Just another day at work. This was all she had to look forward to anymore, really.

Cargo Bay

As the Psionic Control Device was handed off to Victory, Mio untied the tattered Star Army jacket from her arm, and handed it over to her fellow Neko. "Found it floating about. Might help make an identification," the white soldier replied with a light shrug, before visibly pausing as Tsuguka's command filtered into her helmet. She nodded once, even though Toyoe couldn't possibly see the gesture.

"Hai, Tsuguka-Hei," she replied as she spun around and jogged over to where the cargo bay's body bags were stored, and grabbed an armful of the grey bags. With her macabre cargo tucked beneath one arm, she took the leap back out into space.

Space

It wasn't really hard to avoid smacking into the shuttle. It was big, and with its power generator and communications systems activated, it stood out as an active ping on her Mindy's sensors. She wove her way to the debris field, and with the combined power of her Mindy's thrusters and her own Type 33 gravity manipulation, it was a piece of sponge cake to navigate the field.

As she reached Toyoe's position, she gave the senior soldier a nod of her helmet. "Good to go, Tsuguka-hei. But let's use caution. That facility might be booby trapped or something..."

Space -> Torture Facility Wreckage

Beyond simply not speeding ahead, the fact that Tsuguka hadn't teleported straight to the destination spoke of her wariness. She greeted Mio with a small demi-salute as they approached, right before receiving a rather odd transmission from Akiashiro...

"Thank you, Nunagawa-Hei." The voice was low and a bit rough, as if on edge. Her velocity boosted to match her comrade, so that they were both now on the same vector. "You make a good point..."

An awkward moment of silence.

Just what was happening with Akikio? They had started the mission practically at each another's throats, then after activating the shuttle, she seemed to bounce between stoic and cheery far too rapidly. Was it a joke? Was the woman simply anxious? Tsuguka didn't have enough experience with the feelings of other nekovalkyrja, let alone such an emotionally free-willed ex-peacekeeper, to tell if something was actually wrong or not. "Santo-Hei Akiashiro, can you blink my radio when you're done, if that's okay?..."

Another moment of unease. The cardinal soldier didn't like being so unsure of how to handle something. Planning ahead for all possible events was practically her lifeblood.

"This is going to be my first time seeing a dead body in person, too, Nunagawa-Hei." The sharp-faced red neko broke the train of thought, by going after the other elephant in the room. "I don't know if you reviewed my personal logs, but I'm pretty fresh out of training as well. I think the shosho just likes my timekeeping... You may well be put in charge during our next outing."

"Akiashiro is actually the most experienced... It's just that her background is a little... Well, unconventional."

Space - Torture Facility Wreckage

"I haven't really had the time, Tsuguka-Hei," Mio replied when Toyoe brought up the question of whether she'd read the senior soldier's personal logs. "I was a pretty last minute transfer, and since then, it has mostly been getting familiar with my new duties," She explained as she floated towards the facility, and checked the ammo feed and power levels of her Mindy's weapon and shield systems. With a brief tweak of her gravity manipulation, she rolled out of the way of a piece of hull wreckage, before using the same powers to stabilize her flight again. It was exceedingly handy for navigating in space, and she praised the stars that her instructors gave her practical training in deep space survival.

"As for who's in charge, I don't really mind. We're all soldiers, and until one of us outranks the other, then it's the Shosho's call. I'm not about to argue her orders, after all. As for unconventional backgrounds, that seems to be the standard on this ship, isn't it? I mean, we've got Vonderbrink-Hei the android, and if the scuttlebutt's right, then we've got a former NMX soldier onboard, to go along with Akiashiro-Hei." Mio shrugs slightly as she brings her armour's sensors forward to focus on the wreckage towards which she and Toyoe were headed, just in case she could pick up anything out of place.

"Hey, Tsuguka-Hei... you wouldn't happen to be trained in demolitions, would you? Sure would be nice if we could detect or disarm any bombs the Mishu freaks might have hidden aboard this thing."

Entering the shuttle Sheila initiated a quick systems check from the pilots seat to ensure everything was being reported as working properly before making its way back towards where the engines were stored. Reaching into the repair kit the android proceeded to bring out the tools needed to look inside of where the Aether Generator was stored and do a quick check for sabotage. Meanwhile she opened a private channel to Toyoe and proceeded to speak with her usual polite tone. “If I may give some advice, having a stronger impression of self confidence would be beneficial while in a leadership role. While it is a good idea to say please and thank you in a situation where you are of similar ranking with those currently assigned to you words such as guess and think can cause a lower level of trust when said by someone in a leadership role."

"This is especially important in high stress situations since if a leader does not have the trust of those under their command they are more susceptible to disobeying orders for things they feel would be better. When you are truly unsure as to if your decision is the correct one, speak up and say that unless anyone else has other ideas yours shall be the one that will be implemented. While it is not an issue for a scavenging mission such as this, it is best to avoid creating bad habits before they take root. After all, when someone does not have enough confidence in themself they look towards their leader, if neither of them have confidence than panic and fear will begin to take hold.”

If there was no signs of danger or sabotage it would seal up the entrance to the generator and begin carefully piloting the shuttle back towards the ship. Slowing down its speed as it neared the Eucharis and cautiously begin to dock and attach the vessel underneath of the gunship.