RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 23.1] A Distant Threat (YE 37)

Bridge

The impending arrival of the YSS Vesper was a great relief to Natsumi. Not only would their sister ship be able to assist in repairs to the Eucharis, but the addition of her defense guns would help ease her workload in fending off the space bugs.

Natsumi checked her sensors, spotting the Vesper descending through the atmosphere. She opened a connection to them and started feeding the Vesper their sensor data to help give them better situational awareness of the landing zone and the continued effors to repel the swarms of space bugs.

Med Lab

Sam was shocked at the mention of disinfectant. What was wrong with this girl? Did she still believe guys had cooties or something? He thought that was kid stuff.

Wardroom

Sam followed his angel and listened to her words. "That's fine. The first time's a charm."

Lighthouse, Floor 5

Mitsuko was thankful for the AMES blocking any odors from reaching her. Judging by the look on Aikiko's face, they were not pleasant. "Alright, easy now..." Thankfully the ABMU seemed to be fine, although she did have to push a fallen table out of the way, resisting the urge to tidy up stray paperwork and other items scattered about the section dedicated to medical treatment. "Alright, if you think the main injury is to your head and back, remove your uniform and lay face down, Aikiashiro-Hei. This shouldn't take long."

She was there to assist the other Neko if necessary, otherwise trying not to be too pushy. They needed to hurry, but it was obvious Aikiko was grumpy and...not feeling like herself, one might say. The machine sprang to life and began buzzing about, using a hypospray to inject scanning nanomachines to diagnose her specific injury. Neko were particularly resilient, so it likely didn't need to do much beyond pinpointing the injury and making Aikiko more comfortable. Murakami received the transmission from the Eucharis while she waited for the machine to finish its work.

"Suites-Hei, is there some way to ensure the safety of this facility in the presence of these...Rixxikor eggs?" She had planned to comb the installation from top to bottom and remove them, but the captain seemed to want them back home in a hurry. "Perhaps we could vent the atmosphere, turn off life support entirely as we leave? They required protective suits during our last encounter, so I do not think they would survive in such conditions." That reminded her to locate one of the Lighthouse's spare AMES for Aikiko, just in case, laying it near any discarded bits of her uniform. "Miyako-Hei's injuries do not seem as severe as we first thought, and her Mindy is holding up, so we should be ready to depart as soon as Akiashiro-Hei has finished her treatment."

Lighthouse : Infirmary

Aikiko quickly cleaned off the bed/table quickly, stripped quickly down to skin and laid on the table face down, Her SPINE connection area was a scabby mess from the abuse it received. So far she was being treated fairly with medical aide, so she complied. Eyes closing and relaxing. yet alert.

Already the blank spot in her memories was growing smaller as the her body healing abilities kicked in and Mitsuko's memories helping to tie in a lot of history, yet it wasn't as complete as it should be, but time will restore that.

Lighthouse station Level 3


"Great, 'return to the ship.' Because I just love blown up ships- Oh, on the ground, you say. Well I just love the ground. And bug people. Well I just love bugs. Best day of my fu-…" he paused as he realized that his thoughts were finding words with Stark still in the room with him. With a heavy sigh he added, "I'm not insane," as if it made a difference at this point.


"Sure you an't luv, and I'm a princess." She grinned and winked at him through her faceplate. "Well we better start dragging our asses down there. Though if I might make an suggestion." She looked down the corrador, "maybe we should head there on foot, we can investage as we go and give a fuller report once we get there."


It took him a moment to get that she was joking, the fact that he was on a ship captained by actual royalty making it seem plausible in that second. He looked over his shoulder at her, "great, so we're both crazy." With some of the chuckle lingering in his voice he got back to business, "before I head out I need to do something slightly illegal. If your still here in three seconds that counts as taking an oath of secrecy."


Shrugging Stark had turned and covered him. She wasn't so sure what he was about to do, but she was still smirking about about the both of them being crazy, and the fact they had between them enough firepower to take down most small starships.


He moved to the left terminal and began downloading an additional AI program. It was a simple program built to run subroutines in the SAoY software to grant remote access to its user. It had no real personality to speak of and communicated through either script or fax, thus he dubbed the program 'Faxtrot'.

Should they choose to keep the station in service they'd be replacing the computer anyway.


In a moment the screen went blue with commands filling the small command prompt in the center at lightning speed, evidence that it was the SAINT analysts Candon had befriended that made the bulk of the code. The program's simplicity fit the standard AIES well and in a few moments the screen was back to normal.

"Faxtrot: test," Suites commanded. The sound of a fax machine replied with corresponding words appearing in the bottom of his HUD.




Perfect. Always good to keep an eye on things.

"Alright, team. Were done here. See if you can't get your meds to go," he radioed to his team then to the ship, "Eucharis Actual, inform Medical we have injured infantry returning."


She wasn't so sure what he did, it was all computery and stuffs. It wasn't her realm of technical knowlege. On top of that she really didn't care, she was more curious why he would do something illigal instead of being a good soldier boy, like it seemed all the other SAoY were.


"I'll give you cover and you lead, Other then my hand gun I really don't have the gear for close combat." she took and moment to make sure the scope was ready and set for the lower light levels in the Lighthouse, and made doubly sure the ammuntion and magazines where seated right. Flicking the safety off she smiled, "I'm ready."


With a nod he began walking to the lift that was now operating normally, spying her HHG as he passed her. "Damn, Princess," he said casually, using her new nickname, "thats a big gun. When I found out I was being assigned to a ship I traded my Origin industries sniper for one of those infamous hand cannons and hybrid rounds. It makes me miss my rifle less."


She guestured down to her hip, where the very HHG he just discribed was hanging in her holster. "Like that little saturday night specail?" tony winked at him and then raised her rifle and started following him.


In a minute they would arrive at the Medical bay but first he had a task for his program, a way to kill the eggs and hopefully disinfect the station. "Faxtrot, set the stations thermostats to zero K." The annoying sound replied,


The task of cooling the station to absolute zero was impossible but In a few hours the station would be so cold even a power armored soldier would feel It. Any eggs wouldnt stand a chance.



Lighthouse station Level 5, Medical bay

"Are we all set?" Candon asked to the rest of the team as he entered the room. After a few seconds Tony stepped in backwards, rifle pointed out to cover the walkway leading up.

Lighthouse, Floor 5

In no time at all, Mitsuko was helping Aikiko back up off the table and into her clothes, the Neko pumped pleasantly full of medicine, hemosynth and painkillers. "Almost. Akiashiro-Hei simply needs to don her AMES before the temperature drops any further, and we should be ready to depart." She moved to the exit that would return them to the shuttle, letting Akane and Stark lead the way before she'd try to follow, hopefully with Aikiko right behind her. "Thank you for handling things, Suites-Hei. I'll be sure to make a note of it in my report. Although the Shosho seems rather distracted after that confrontation, ordering us here and immediately back again."

Wardroom

Taharial sighed loudly and in frustration at the man with her 'He is an idiot, an utter idiot' she couldn't believe that he kept this up even though she had said that she didn't like him but he kept trying., she had to admire his spirit and sighs "listen, I am taken, nothing you can say or do will change that or make me break up with my partner."

Taharial sat and waited for the others, she did say that why would wait here till everyone was here.

::Lighthouse : Deck (floor) 5::

Aikiko involuntary gave a sigh of relief as the flood of medicine, hemosynth and painkillers flooded her system. As she got dressed again with motivation of the fast cooling air of the station and with the help offered.

Aikiko followed behind Mitsuko and the rest. At least the shuttle will be warm. With the cooling air, the station began to lose it stench of feces.

YSS Eucharis - Wardroom

Hanako entered the wardroom and got straight down to business, making sure to broadcast the recording of the wardroom to all crew members who weren't in the room yet. "We have managed to successfully drive off the ships from this system, survive their attack, and fend off the Rixxikor until help arrived. Once we get the parts we need, we will back in action. However, we also have some tremendous shortcomings, and they are both bits of information that I need to know. Item one," Hanako listed, creating a volumetric display of the research team, "Were any of the SSS personnel captured, and if so, where are they and can we get them back? Item two, and of even greater importance, who is transporting and supplying these Rixxikor? These ships that were dropping them off and who attacked us...what faction are they part of? Are they part of some distant threat to Yamatai? That is what I need you to figure out for me. Give me some proposed plans to accomplish these tasks."

Wardroom

Hashimoto-shoi followed closely behind Hanako and took a seat in the wardroom proper, the light purple-skinned officer giving a quick bow and a smile to Tahariel and especially Samael, whom this was the first time she had encountered the Santo Hei. She would have exchanged more pleasantries with them, but the captain was in a hurry to speak on the situation.

Umeshu gave her full attention, having put down the task of compiling that ever-growing list of repair materials to forward to the logistics team and the YSS Vesper for when the meeting was concluded, and now instead focused on the volumetric display before her. "Before we make any plans, I think we should first bring up some recordings of the battle that may aid us in hopefully better identifying who is aiding the Rixxicor on Higaflan."

The Shoi then accessed the logs of the battle they had been through, adding additional small projections to the larger one that replayed some footage of the unknown cruiser that engaged them in system, post-battle assessments of its weapons and defensive systems, and perhaps most important the image of a flag that Hanako spotted before on the side of the vessel -- red with yellow stripes and navy with white stars. There was also some of the reconnaissance gathered on the enemy shuttlecraft that were ferrying bugmen around and possibly arming them with missile launchers. She tried one more time to cross reference these things with anything Charisma may have previously encountered in any other faction and add that analysis to the presentation, hoping it may be of some use to the Shosho.

As the footage was playing, Umeshu did offer one suggestion, "If you look carefully, one of the fighters was successfully shot down by Suites-hei's Mindy and could have crash landed somewhere on the surface of the planet. If we can calculate the trajectory and find the wreck... we may be able to discover more about the attackers origins from it."

Wardroom

A few lights came back on, and the hum of electrical devices filled the odd silence. The ship was back to life, albeit, in the sense that a zombie was alive, but it was running again!

From somewhere below, in the recesses of the ship, one could hear a masculine, possibly-deranged voice bellow to the heavens:

"IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVE...!"

Hopefully, the ancient reference wasn't lost to the folks in the wardroom, but soon enough, the source of the voice came skipping through the door, grinning ear to ear. He gave a quick salute to Hanako, and walked to a chair.

"I can't believe it! I-I'm alive!" Jax whispered excitedly to himself. "I'm god-damned alive! Woohoo!"

They may have felt a little confused at the tech's demeanor, maybe raised an eyebrow, but he didn't care. "Scenario B" didn't happen, and that's all that mattered.

Jax calmed down a bit, sighed, and slid a hand down his face. He sat in an empty chair, occasionally letting out a small sound of joy. He kicked his feet up. He regained his composure, regained his calm, and cleared his throat.

"So what'd I miss?" he asked, pretending his outburst never happened and placing his hands in his lap.

Wardroom

(To Jackson)
Umeshu had just finished speaking when she noticed Jackson enter the wardroom and sit down in the chair right beside her. She seemed happy to see him in one piece, and expressing his exhilaration. He had done his part well for a fresh recruit, indeed.

"Yappari, Jax-san. I knew you could do it," she spoke with encouraging tone and placed a hand on his shoulder for just a moment to help calm him down. She seemed to be good at that, being a quiet, steady personality for a Neko. It was a warm personal gesture, too, and showed she hadn't forgotten about their experience before working together to patch up the wardroom they were now sitting together in in the first place. "The repair here is holding up well, too," she mentioned, as her eyes drifted up to the ceiling for a moment at the round metallic disc that stuck out terribly from the colorful paintings on either side of it.

"You're just in time for the meeting about what our next move will be," added Umeshu softly in response so as not to interrupt the Shosho, "We may have won the battle, but there are many unknowns about who we are up against and the science team is still MIA. Be sure to speak up if you have any ideas." She fell silent after this and went back to streaming the battle data to the volumetric display, brushing away some of the dust from the lightly scarred tabletop that still remained from the attacks.

Wardroom

Natsumi was late to join the others in the wardroom, but she'd had much to set up for automating the ships defenses, in conjunction with the Vesper's to protect the Eucharis long enough for her to return to the bridge were the bugs to attack again.

She had been listening in to the begining of the conversation though and was well informed as she settled into her place at the table.

"I agree with Hashimoto-shoi, if we can recover that enemy unit we would improve our chances of identifying whoever is assisting these people" she said. "If it is set up like most other vessels it should have some sort of flight recorder we could attempt to access"

Lighthouse // Shuttle

Aikiko was grateful to be back aboard the shuttle and was feeling a lot better with the treatment. Her ribs and the area around her SPINE Connection was slowly being replaced by the healing itch. But still there had more work to be done on fixing the SPINE ports to work properly.

Seeing her trashed Mindy, she shook her head and made a few funny faces. Being familiar with results of the after effects of explosive ordinance, she was lucky that her Mindy took the brunt of the concussive blast at the time.

She kneeled next to the Mindy and accessed the data storage area to get to the information and data stored there. Also to remove the butt-pack, which could be use as a backpack once separated from the Mindy.

Aikiko nodded her thanks to Candon for coming after her as she took her seat on the bridge area of the shuttle.

Wardroom

Taharial heard the others enter the room and turned to see who was in the room, she saluted Hanako and the others as a greeting "Is anyone here injured, I have brought some medical supplies if you are" she had chosen to ignore Samuel now and deal with the mission.

As she looked around she let out a small sigh "If there were more crew members I would say we send a team to find the science team and one to find the fighter, as then we will have all the information we need." She looked down and felt frustrated at herself "If I am allowed I would like to try and meet the science team so I can give them full medical attention and if the worst has come use their back ups in the Med Lab."

YSS Eucharis - Wardroom

Sam was disappointed at first when the angel said she wouldn't leave her partner for him. That was, up until he remembered she hated guys and that her partner was a girlfriend. He grinned at the thought of having a threesome with two lesbians. As he had never been with a girl before, the thought of doing two at once was quite an enticing prospect. He was about to ask on his idea when girls flooded the room.

Sam just stood there like an idiot. S-so, many girls... He was confused. He had a little trouble deciding which girl to hit on, let alone pay attention to what anyone was saying. He was at a loss for words.

After several moments of awkward silence on his part, Sam decided to go with the only girl who actually smiled in his direction. He went up to a sweet looking neko (Umeshu) and bowed. "Good evening, Milady. How are you this fine day?"

Raccoon Shuttle

Mitsuko closed the rear door once everyone was aboard, setting herself in the pilot's chair as she began readying the little ship for launch. She pulled up the meeting Hanako was beginning on the screens in the cockpit, making sure the audio was also being transmitted to the others sitting in the back. After listening to the others on the Eucharis, she spoke up as well.

"Shosho, no remains were found inside the Lighthouse. It is more likely the team assigned there were....devoured, rather than captured. Suites-Hei has information he could share that supports this theory. Additionally, I would suggest we pull back to receive more comprehensive repairs, and possibly further reinforcements, before attempting to pursue our attackers. We would most likely fare even worse during a second encounter in less than optimal condition, considering we entered the first at full strength."

She quieted down after adding her opinion, glancing back into the rear area of the ship as she headed towards the planet and the Eucharis' Shuttle Bay. After a moment, she sent a text message to the ship, forwarded to Taharial, advising her of the stabilized but still injured status of Akane and Aikiko, and reporting that she would try to bring them to Medical after the meeting in the Wardroom had finished.

Wardroom

Jax returned the smile and got to thinking. A research team was missing, and whoever was in that other ship were the ones who infested the planet with the bug-people...

That. Was. Awesome!

It was as if he were living in an action adventure flick! Like Trek Through the Stars or The Revengers! He just had to write about his experiences on here! It would be phenomenal-! Wait...

"Uh, actually, I think I have an idea," he blurted off the top of his head without really meaning it. He wanted to stop himself, because the idea in his head sounded very stupid, to put it lightly. Sadly, it was too late, and he couldn't just retract his statement. He shied down a little and blushed, ears drooping.

"I, uh, saw it in a movie once..." he began. "You see, there was this lab full of scientists working on a top-secret project, or something very valuable, and these other guys wanted what they were working on, so they kidnapped them and made it look like they'd been killed by another army of bad guys. Then, just as help arrived for the scientists, the bad guys sent said army of bad guys to hold off the good guys while they got away with the hostages.

"So, the good guys were forced to take care of the army that'd been sicked on them, which was really just a big distraction while the main bad guys got what they wanted..."

He finished and sank down into his chair, drawing his legs close to his chest and wrapping his tail tightly around him like a safety blanket, as if to block the obviously bemused and irritated stares that he was sure to get for such an idiotic, childish suggestion.

"It's stupid, I know, but that's all I've got. I'm an engineer, not a detective..." he muttered. Ah, public school! Where would we be without you and your special way of leaving psychological wounds that will never heal?

Lighthouse Station - Shuttle

While Mitsuko helped get Aikiko suited Candon had climbed the ladder back into the shuttle bay. He couldn't help but wonder how the blast doors, weak as they may be, we're bent and broken inwards so far. Letting his curiosity win, he kicked on his CFS and hovered over to the warped hole between the two heavy bay doors. The force field keeping the air in was on the exterior of the station, thus uninterrupted by the mangled door. The side that once looked into space was covered in what seemed to be tiny craters, not in the sense that there was missing metal but rather more. He primed his right gauntlet and made a gentle sweep over the door with his plasma blade. The result was a clean stripe that cut through the foreign metal to reveal the door's slightly marred surface. The rest of the metal surrounding the cut he made glowed for a brief moment before cooling off. Candon released one of his drones that he'd retrieved on his way to medical to get a view of the backside of the folded door. The rainbow discoloration of being superheated was all over but concentrated on what used to be the center.
Whatever they were shooting was a lot like the money shot Nepleslians use.
Having a Nepleslian on the crew did raise some suspicions but ultimately he decided her to be a non threat.
But still…

He at least knew how they got in during the lockdown now. They opened fire on the door with some weapon similar to the HPAR, superheated it and then rammed it open with the shuttle. Though most ships wouldn't stand up to that kind of punishment he'd also had the privilege to test the enemy's armor with an Aether saber overkill that only disabled it. If the armor could barely resist an overdriven Aether blade it could easily move half melted metal.

Seeing the team boarding the shuttle he recalled the drone and half flew back over. Patting Akane's shoulder he reclaimed his SMG, storing it on his left shoulder mount again. As he boarded he removed his helmet and took a seat, returning Aikiko's nod as he entered. He leaned his head back just listening to the meeting while trying to also put the pieces of the puzzle together. Then an idea was dropped, one that may not have been from an educated source but was valid nonetheless. His head perked back up instantly.

“Ma'am, our engineer raises a good point. There were two ships. The smaller one was in a hurry to escape. It must have been transporting something of value, the question is 'what?'. Now we have a Rixxicor militia to deal with… I can think of many ways to use a Rixx infestation as a weapon. In this case it appears to be an obstacle to slow us down. We really need to track that ship to its source and I have a feeling that downed fighter pilot may be the only person who has the information we need. Since we're already in space it would be easy for us here to go pick up that pilot on the way back.”

Wardroom

Umeshu was listening to the discussion intently, and nodding her head with a long drawn out "A, so desu ka... Jax-san..." typical of many old fashioned Yamataiians when the matter was raised of the Rixxikor being a distraction manipulated by someone else. "Pop culture or no, you may indeed be onto something. Seeing the flag on the ship we engaged, those colors make me highly suspicious that the Mishhuvurthyar are involved in some way here... I surely wouldn't put it past them using another species to do their dirty work, as that is their favorite tactic in conflicts past."

She then gave a noticeable tensing of her lips when Mitsuko mentioned that the science team could have been devoured, rather than captured alive. "You are suggesting they... ate the science team? Doshiyo... how unsettling... though perhaps that is the point."

It was then that she noticed that Samael had been talking to her. The Shoi gave a quick "Nan desu ka?" as she was jarred out of the matter for a moment, though this was followed with a return of his bow, however not as low considering their difference in rank. Her wisteria colored face and sage green eyes seemed to come together pleasingly to his eye. "I am well, yes... Darkfire-hei, was it? Perhaps I should ask you the same question, though, since I understand you spent some time in medical after the initial attacks?"