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

Cargo Bay

"I'm not sure I want to have a place to put them." Mitsuko seemed as annoyed by the task as Victory. "Mmm...we have some refrigerated containers for storing food. It might be best to use one of those." There was a pause, as she made a face, even if the others couldn't see it. "N-not one of the ones with food in it right now, of course."

She had finished scanning the items they'd received so far by the time Akiashiro arrived. Everything had been clear thus far. She eyed the large ball of damaged, distressed and disgusting clothing warily, as Victory herded it inside. The parts the armored Neko delivered garnered a sigh. It was all more junk cluttering things up. The two of them would be responsible for inspecting, sporting and likely disposing of it all, though. Murakami moved closer to the exit, towards the items just brought on board, as the medic and a newly arrived Neko approached Akiashiro. She watched the group for a moment, before something drew her attention.

"Akiashiro-Hei...um...while it's understandable that you came inside to deliver this...salvage..." Her disdain for the clutter was hard to conceal. "...you are aware that armors are not allowed to be operated inside of the ship, except in emergency cases, correct?" Mitsuko waited near the group for a few moments longer, as Hisoka questioned the returning Neko. Acting strangely indeed. Was she attempting to recharge her Mindy right here? She couldn't help but intrude into the conversation again. "You might want to exit the Cargo Bay and return to the Power Armor Bay through the exit you originally took. They have proper charging and suit maintenance facilities there."

Cargo Bay

Hisoka crossed her arms. "I'll have to ask you to disengage any weapons you have and exit your armor Akishiro, and the medic can come with you. In fact, medic scan her right now." Hisoka said, eyeing the armor clad neko. "This is purely procedure," Hisoka said. "You'll be clear to go back out a collect junk when I'm finished."

Cargo hold/ P.A Bay.

Aikiko nodded to Murakami, "yes Ma'am," spoke softly to Murakami. Then turned to Hisoka. "I'll meet you both in the P.A. Bay." Turns and head to the exit of the cargo bay. Stepping off through the air retaining shields and manuevering up to the P.A.. Bay and entering. She was curious since when did a medical check up include a non-medical debrief. She did carefully put away her weapons and moved her Mindy into it assigned slot. Powered down as she exited the Mindy.

Space -> Power Armor Bay

The trip back was a long and awkward silence. They had met up with Sheila along the way, but there wasn't really much to say about it. With the cascading embers of the facility burning up on atmospheric entry, and several large body bags strapped to them, it was obvious that the mission was completed. Not exactly without a hitch, but what was done was done.

"Eucharis cargo bay staff, prepare to receive the bodies." She remarked simply, as they deployed their grizzly cargo upon the open ramp. There were at least five or six complete corpses, and two bags that were completely formless. "Those are hands. Some feet." The armored neko added, blank faceplate fitting in with the monotone voice all too well, considering the subject matter. "Everything should be parasite free, but I still highly recommend quarantine.... Using the old shuttle still seems apt, if I may offer my humble suggestion."

Returning to the power armor bay wasn't quite the homecoming that Tsuguka would have wanted, since she knew that they were going back out. They were hardly going to leave the entire scout ship just floating around out there. At least there was cleaning equipment here, and a comrade to wash the back of your armor for you. The red matter wasn't even exactly blood anymore... Frozen and then pressure cooked in space, it had turned into a sort of elastic crimson film along the way.

Tsuguka gave a tired wave to Akiashiro-Hei breifly, but wasn't taking her helmet off until every damn inch of her armor was sterilized, and there wasn't quite time to do that now, so... Steadfastly, her mind remained utterly on the mission.

"Shosho, we are back on board. Power supply and weapon conditions are still nominal. Just performing some light maintenance." Her voice sounded weary, but also making an effort to stay resolute. Her eyes were on Mio, wanting to be absolutely sure that her fellow soldier was still holding up okay after such an experience, but also not wanting to belittle the woman by calling attention to it. "May I ask if there will be any changes in the command structure for the following task, ma'am?"

P. A. Bay

Aikiko, expressionless as she returned back to getting dressed in shipboard uniform. She walked out of the P. A. Bay to await Hisoka and the little medic. Not even bothering to acknowledge Tsuguka's wave.

Power Armor Bay

Sitting whilst still fully suited up, Tsuguka just seemed to stare at the wall. Internally, she was wondering what exactly she could have done different with Santo Hei Akiashiro. The memory of slugging through corpses still hadn't faded, and her nerves were still shot, but she didn't want it to seem like it was all just her taking out her frustration on the woman.

"~Akiashiro-Hei... I'm sorry, but are you upset?~" The voice whispered in her ear. Even using telepathy, she sounded tired. "~I'm sorry if you are insulted by this whole thing, but... Well, I was worried about you. Honestly. We were both in and out of radio contact for so long, and the bugs on those corpses were... Well, anything could have happened...~"

Did it still stem back to the fact that Tsuguka was put in charge? It wasn't like that arrangement was forever, and the red neko's inflexible response to this scenario certainly made her feel like it was unlikely to happen again for a while.

P.A. Bay.

Mio, still clad in her gore-caked Mindy, did her best to not dwell upon what had happened in the wreckage she'd explored with Tsuguka. Instead, she simply walked over to the armoury, and promptly began to swap out her armour's load-out. They were headed into an unexplored, potentially hostile, Yamataian scout ship. She removed the weapon-mount on her shoulder, and replaced it with a capacitor, as well as mounting one on her lower thigh. Teleporters would be vital in close quarters. She then removed her gauss cannon, unloading it as well, and replaced it with an energy cloak shield projector.

On her remaining lower thigh hardpoint, Mio attaches a mini-missile pod, as a 'just in case' weapon. She still carried her plasma rifle in her arms when done with her changes to her armour's load-out. Though, she now looked somewhat odd, with most of the Mindy caked in dark red gore, save for the hardpoints she'd swapped out, which only had a couple of light smears from where the neko had handled them. Once she was properly kitted out, she walked over to the charging station and docked her suit, topping up her power levels.

Her instructors had drilled it into her that only two people willingly walked into a combat scenario without their equipment fully charged and in as close to a perfect order as one could manage: Those who got themselves killed, and those whom got their buddies killed. Mio had no intention of being either. As she waited, she put her Mindy's internal linings to give her a full body massage, easing some of the stress and tension from earlier as her body fought against the symptoms of an adrenaline crash, and took deep, slow, deliberate breaths, slowing her heart and allowing her system to gently calm down, while giving Tsuguka a grimy thumbs-up.

Eucharis / corridor out the P. A. Bay

To Tsuguka ~~"What's done is done." ~~ Tone totaly lifeless, as she awaited for Hisoka and the Medic to show up. She began to do a check up on all the things she needed to do as she waited for Hisoka and the Medic. Mindy is being recharge in slot as it is put away and secured. Ammor taken care of, weapons safed and stored.

Power Armour Bay

Tsuguka just shrugged audibly. If Aikiko wasn't going to tell her anything, she couldn't help her. Nothing in her combat manual told Tsuguka that she had to be so polite or forgiving, but she had still tried. The brooding soldier was beginning to feel like she'd never be able to understand those born outside of the batch chambers at all. Was she really so inadequate, to have reacted the way she did to the scenes of those cold, grotesque cells?...

The memories squirmed their way back into her head, and she had to put the entire train of thought aside again. They were not done for the day.

Walking over to the weapons locker, she began to exchange the modular units. Fresh capacitors in the shoulders, micro missiles, and an SMG in the place of her Aether Sabre. The bayonet she had attached earlier was still there. She took note of what her comrade was choosing, and decided to exchange the teleporter on her back for a shield generator. With one of each, they should have the best of both worlds...

Nunagawa... What did she even look like? Her memory had failed her. After all that had happened, perhaps it was time that they actually met.

Using an industrial sink to quickly clean off the maroon grime from her gloves and visor, she sat back down in the charging bay opposite and began to restore her energy reserves. Slowly, she then twisted her helmet free and regarded Mio with her particularly stern, almost masculine red visage. The pointy black ears and jutting hair braids only served to make her angular face look rather triangular, and overall quite vicious.

"Thanks for holding it together out there, Santo Hei Nunagawa." The smile was small and stifling, but the tiredness in her eyes suggested an honest empathy. "That wasn't exactly how my training said things were going to go..."

P.A. Bay.

The still grime and gore caked Mindy, which was slowly recharging, though it frankly didn't need that much given the two new energy capacitors that had just been added to the armour's load-out. Though as Tsuguka took a seat opposite her and removed her helmet, Mio raised an eyebrow inside her own helmet. She'd seen the red neko on occasion during the flight out to the Splorfin system, but she hadn't really had much of an opportunity to talk to her before this. It was ironic, really. Now Tsuguka was likely the one member of the crew she'd spoken the most with.

As Tsuguka began to speak, giving a weary smile, Mio's armoured figure nodded slowly. Then it dawned on her. She wanted to talk face to face, not to a gore-caked killing machine. "Yeah... basic training didn't really cover stuff like that," She replied vocally, before sending an image memory to Tsuguka through the Nekovalkyrja's telepathic abilities. It was a simple image, of Mio looking at herself in the mirror. "Sorry. Not really keen on removing... well, any part of this suit until I've been through a disinfectant bath." She shrugs a bit, causing the cables recharging her armour to shift and wriggle behind her like a bizzare tail. Or tentacles.

"Hey... didn't Akiashiro-Hei have the Calamari dorsal pack on her Mindy?" Mio asks suddenly, out of the blue. She then shakes her armoured head before the entire figure trembles slightly. Then soft laughter begins to filter out of the external speakers, slowly growing louder. "Thank the Empress she didn't join us! Imagine what'd have happened if we rounded a corner and saw her standing there with those damn wriggly arms sprouting out of her back!"

Cargo Bay

"Just shove the stiffs and parts in the medical lab containment cells with the rest of the dead bodies," Victory suggested to Mitsuko, "We have a Nepleslian guy and a frozen head up there already. If they come in the cargo bay, we can use the elevator. For the armor bay, the medical lab is right outside it. The containment cells have a stasis feature that can freeze things and isolate contaminants." She telepathically copied her suggestion to Tsuguka. She went to the door controls and then began closing the large armored door-ramp. The bay filled with hydraulic noise as the ramp raised inward and upward, until the view of space disappeared and the door locked in a loud bang followed by a serious of smaller ones and mechanical clicks. She removed her AMES helmet and tossed a hand through her green hair. "Hey, Mitsuko," she grinned. "I bet that old ship is full of historic Star Army equipment. Think of what we can get from the armory."

Bridge

Hanako kind of squinted at her bridge crew, her golden eyes in slits as she looked from Tony staring back at her to emo-acting Natsumi and to the just-slightly confused looking science mechanoid. There seemed to be a lack of cohesion, but that was not really unexpected with a crew that was largely new to the ship, new to each other, and new out of training. The bridge hummed and beeped in a sort of audible brown-noise-enhanced silence."We should should talk about who is doing what on the bridge," the captain finally suggested.

Hanako also took a moment to reply to Tsuguka. "Would you rather give someone else a turn?" she asked.

Power Armor Bay

Observing Tsuguka look vacantly at an imagine inside of her own head was a bit like watching someone stare at a fly walking around on the ceiling.

"No offense, but you are more attractive than I was expecting." It probably could have counted as a compliment from anyone else, but her voice was the usual void of robotic inexpressiveness. Everybody else on the crew was completely wild-willed and independent, so it was a reasonable assumption that Mio would have come from a more crowfaced and vindictive looking batch... In other words, a similar batch to Toyoe herself. They did apparently have similar personalities. But the star army was a pretty stupendously massive thing, at the end of the day. "And... Well, I didn't even think of that. Aikiko would have been there if she wasn't off doing... whatever she was doing."

"There are showers in the decontamination room." The red neko held up her unfittingly clean gloves in demonstration. "We are going to be called out again any second, through, so if you want to clean your entire mindy, you had better get on it fast..."

In the blink of an eye, she visibly dropped the conversation, and began to stare straight ahead. It was the reply from the cargo bay.

After a few more moments she immediately surged upright, but then came to the obvious realization that she was still in her power armor, still wired up to the wall. An aura of disgust loomed over her. The great majority of her suit still wasn't clean. There just hadn't been time. Her skin still crawled...

"Pathetic." The word was out loud, as she looked down examining her own trembling fear of exposure. Without further hesitation, she snapped off the armor in one quick motion, then briskly made her way to the end of the deck, snagging as many of the body bags as possible in her bare hands. Santo Hei Tsuguka was not going to be a waste of resources, an example of failed training. She made her way to the medical bay with a massive grimace, but the red neko did it.

"If your choice was to put me in charge of the team, I will not disappoint you, Shosho Ketsurui." The telepathic response to Hanako almost sounded fierce. Dragged out from her comfort zone, it seemed that there was a fire in the belly of that soulless doll after all. "Once these bodies have been delivered and Santo Hei Akiashiro is re-suited, we will be ready to deploy once more."

P.A. Bay

"Thanks, I suppose," Mio replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders at the odd compliment from her red-skinned team leader. Though, as Toyoe burst out of her armour and scrambled off to prove some point to herself, Mio watched her own armour's power levels return to a full charge. With that done, she rose from her seat, and ejects the power cables, before stomping off to the decontamination showers. As she stood under the hot spray of disinfectant water, she couldn't help but wonder at the odd sensation of hearing the water pinging of the metal in which she was encased. But she stood there, letting the grime and gore be washed off her, and waiting for the call to redeploy.

Corridor outside P. A. Bay

Aikiko waited for Hisoka and the Medic to show up. She leaned against the cool bulkhead of the ship and relaxed, waiting. She sighed softly, imagining the terror that Mio and Toyoe went through. At least they were alive and safe to come to terms with it. She closed her eyes. Resting.

Cargo Bay -> Hall outside P.A Bay

Hisoka exited the bay and noticed Aikiko resting against a wall. "Akiashiro." She stated to get the other's attention. "Come with me." She said as she turned and after contacting the's ship's computer walked towards the ship's recreational room to talk.

Corridor outside P. A. Bay -> Medical Lab

Toyoe didn't really need to ignore Aikiko and Hisoka to make it past without awkwardness. The contents of the bags were clearly starting to thaw already.

Umeki-Hei was not inside of her office, however, so the robust neko had to quickly examine the containment cells by herself. The stasis feature was... Where?... Being both completely ignorant of how the system worked, and rather uneager to open any boxes that were already occupied, she finally just accessed the computer mentally and sought out a list of common functions. The medic would probably prefer the intrusion over having a whole stack of half defrosted and possibly parasite-infested body parts left on her desk.

Corpses safely stored away and in stasis, she then nimbly moved back to the power armor bay. Her uniform was rapidly yanked off of her shoulders and crammed into a locker, then she got into the decontamination shower naked. No time to be embarrassed. There was enough of that defilement on the outside of her mindy, never mind dragging it inside. Mio was facing the other way, at least, and probably didn't even notice her open the door, but...

The warm water felt good against her aching back, but her stomach felt utterly cold. Tsuguka looked at her black nailed, scarlet hands. Literally blood colored hands, disrupting the dense mist. One shock to her comrade's senses, and the armored woman's CFS could turn her defenseless body to a fine pate.

"Don't turn around, Nunagawa-Hei." It was a simple phrase, softly spoken. "Your visor is probably fogged up anyway... But... Well, I just want you to know the red phantom standing in here with you is me."

Bridge

"Can you think of any way we could see what the atmospheric conditions are inside of the Scout Ship are before we open the airlock to it?" Hanako asked Tankyusha. "If the atmosphere is somewhat normal we could forgo the need of environmental suits or armor. By the way, if you would like to go over there, you may. I am thinking of going down there myself, since I know the layout of a Yui-class scout better than anyone else onboard. I served on three of them, including the original, the YSS Yui." Hanako was standing again, gravitating towards the door to the main zero-gravity passageway.

A small Yamataian shuttle slowed to STL speeds as it approached the large warship in the distance. The pilots opened a channel identifying themselves as a Star Army transport carrying a transferred specialist. "YSS Eucharis, we see nowhere to dock," the copilot complained, "where are we unloading the specialist?"

In the passenger bay, Santô Hei Dirjon Ulvson had suited up in his spacesuit mostly to free up space in his sealed luggage carrier but also to ease the tension he always felt when traveling in small spacecraft. A skilled mechanic, Dirjon was all too familiar with just how often space ships came to catastrophic failure and didn't trust anything he didn't maintain.

As they drew closer the pilots waited for their orders.

Recreation Lounge

Aikiko followed Hisoka into the lounge and headed over to the bar area. She fixed herself a glass of water with ice. She carried it to a table and sat with her back to the wall where she could see both enterances to the area. She looked at Hisoka and watched her. She took sips of the ice water as sat there.

Cargo Bay

Mitsuko nodded, the AMES helmet bobbing, as Aikiko and the crew member pursuing her both exited. The medic would probably be following them any moment now. She had begun untangling and sorting the various bits of uniforms that might lead to identifying the deceased, when Tsuguka entered with what remained of the deceased themselves. The mousy Neko recoiled from the pile of bodybags, some in rather non-body-ish shapes. She wasn't the type to shirk her duties, but there must be a way to have the medic handle this. She was already feeling a bit sick, and couldn't believe Victory was casually removing her own helmet to chat.

"Huh? Oh...right. It's probably more junk, but perhaps something will still be usable. Or at least make an interesting display piece." She had no desire to go exploring, even if the alternative was dealing with this. Thankfully she was saved at the last moment, just as she was about to give in and attempt to relocate the bodies. Tsuguka reappeared, with a fire in her eyes, dragging the grim cargo off into the ship herself, now that she'd properly stowed her armor in the PA Bay. "Oh my. Um...thank you, Tsuguka-Hei." She didn't think the red skinned Neko heard her, but Mitsuko sounded relieved. In comparison, handling the grimy uniforms was no problem at all.