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

Wardroom

Hanako nodded to Hashimoto-shoi. "Good idea. See if you can track the shot-down fighter's trajectory. It is possible we could find an escape pod or ejection seat and recover the pilot, or some sort of data storage device as Natsumi suggested. Thanks to efforts of Howard-Hei I think the ship will be ready to lift off again soon. We also have 100 infantry Nekovalkyrja at the ready to take on ground missions to recover things. The Rixxikor locals pose only a limited threat, mostly due to their numbers."

"I agree that it's entirely possible they could have eaten the science team, and would eat just about anything for that matter," the Shosho continued, "but the ships that escaped might have taken them. It's also possible they were some sort of Mishhuvurthyar; the aether weapons seemed to fit but that is about it. Neither the ship nor the flag on the ship was not a known Mishhuvurthyar design, so maybe we are dealing with some sort of new group. Given they have about the same technology as we do, knowing their intentions are a serious concern."

Hanako paused for a moment before speculating, "I was thinking...if anyone could tell us more about this situation, it would be the Rixxikor. Perhaps should try making a more peaceful contact with them."

Raccoon Shuttle

tony had been listening to the briefing through her suit's comms system. She stayed quiet up until now, simply because she didn't think anyone would want to hear an outsider's opinion. that and she didn't want to step on anyone's toes, but now she had a thought that she felt needed to be expressed.

"Ma'am... I know this is a Star Army of Yamatai problem, and operation, but..." She paused for a brief moment thinking, "Maybe we could contact the Nepleasian's consolat or something and ask them if they have seen or recorded this flag before..."

Wardroom

Sam was amazed at how intelligent this girl was. She knew his name before he got around to the juicy introductions. She even knew he may have been injured in the recent attacks. "Um, yeah... I was." Feeling like a bold fool, he went up to the girl (Umeshu) and wrapped his right arm around her waist. "But, I couldn't just sit there safe in the Med Lab knowing you were in danger, now could I?"

Sam made no comment to the suggestion of peaceful negotiations with the Rixxikor pests. He had tried that once before and remembered all too well how that turned out. Even someone as dense as he was knew the only good Rixxikor was a dead one.

Wardroom

Jax was shaken by that statement. He made a face of horror and disgust and raised his hand.

"Uh, Shosho, by 'peaceful', you mean tear them to pieces with machine guns and high explosives, right?!" he asked. "Because the only thing that should be 'contacting' them is a forty millimeter grenade at about two-hundred-fifty feet per second!"

Jax shuddered. The thought of those gross frikin' bugs being near him scared the hell out of him and made him queasy.

He missed his grenade launcher. He'd named it Wilson, and he and Wilson shared a common dislike of creatures that had a strong resemblance of the common cockroach.

Wardroom

Umeshu seemed a bit taken aback by Sam's advances when he unexpectedly reached for her waist with his arm. She however was very well trained in close quarters engagements, and her hips slipped from his grasp like a slick forbidden fruit. "Santo Hei! Please control yourself. This is a serious strategy meeting, and not the time nor the place for such behaviors," came her chiding officer voice, trying hard to resist the urge to whallop him right there for trying something disrespectful like that right in front of the Princess. Although maybe it was also a little bit out of desire to be closer to Jax-san instead...

Putting some distance between them, the Shoi got back to the task at hand, considering Hanako 's suggestion of trying to make some form of peacewith the Rixxikor. Her favorite technician expressed what a lot of them felt about dealing with the bugs purely in a violent way, but maybe there was another path. "Shosho, while I agree with my shipmates that Rixxikor are usually dealt with best from the barrel of a gun, I think such myopic thinking misses the point of this discussion... namely that the bugmen are easily manipulated."

Umeshu paused and considered things deeply before speaking again. "I flew over many settlements and farms before... there were transports there too. The Rixxikor engaged in such peaceful pursuits like agriculture may be easier to reason with. If we can offer them humanitarian aid like food rations... they could in return at least tell us how they came to this planet and who brought them." She then added a bit more hesitantly, "I'm unsure if we have any Public Relations Liasons aboard... though I have some public speaking training... so... I suppose... I could try it..."

Wardroom

Natsumi listened attentively as the others tossed ideas about. She found herself frowning though at the physical advances Sam made on her fellow operator Umeshu and was tempted to leave her seat and pull him off of her, had she not separated herself from the Santo-Hei. The snowy haired neko waited to see what sort of backlash there was from the Shosho, but also spoke up to support Umeshu's train of thought.

"I agree, I think it may be possible to speak with them peacefully, especially if we bait them with something they want, it may stop them from immediately acting with violence as they have both times we have encountered them. They seem, from our limited contact, heavily motivated by the need to gather resources and territory for their population. Their entire drive may be as simple as gathering food and room to grow their population" she said. "This drive could leave them incredibly open to coercion and use by a hostile force as an expendable army against us. With the proper form of contact we might be able to negotiate a peaceful settlement between us, though I do advise extreme caution, as I think any misstep will be disastrous. This all said, I think it's worth the attempt to try and stave off any more fighting, just have the firepower ready to go if it fails"

She rested her hands on the surface of the table. "I would also like to volunteer to assist Hashimoto-shoi in this effort" she said.

Shuttle Bay

There he was again, delivered to YSS Eucharis by a shuttle in the middle of a mission. Well it wasn't quite the same as on his first deployment, Sigurd reflected. This time he traveled here aboard YSS Vesper which was sent as reinforcement for the Eucharis and the shuttle that transferred him was crammed with spare parts from the Vesper for her badly wounded sister.

But once again I jump right into the action. Hopefully it's less breathtaking this time.

Sigurd strapped his bag on an got on his way to the bridge via the crew quarters to drop his stuff on the way. On his way to the Eucharis he had seen the remnants of the battle that seemed to have taken place shortly before and he didn't really like what he had seen there. Rixxikor... numerous, hungry, stupid harbingers of chaos and disorder.
At his last mission, his first ever, they almost managed to kill him by decompression. His comrades saved him but afterwards he spent more than a month in an hospital on Hanako's world recovering from the several internal injuries that went with it.
Not this time though. This time Sigurd wore his AMES suit and he swore he wouldn't change into duty uniform until they safely left this world with these mad insects far far away...
Sigurd did not like Rixxikor!

He dropped his belongings at the side of the hallway of the crew quarters to sort away later once he had been assigned a cabin and continued towards the zero-g-passageway. When he just wanted to leave it on deck 2 to head to the bridge he heard Shôshô Hanako's voice among others from one deck further up, so instead he continued towards the wardroom where a crew meeting seemed to take place.

Wardroom

Sigurd entered the room and placed himself silently next to the door at parade rest, so that he wouldn't interrupt anyone but was seen by the shôshô.

Raccoon Shuttle, Eucharis Shuttle Bay

Mitsuko was nervous as she approached the ship, seeing the swathes of destruction around it caused by the skirmish with Rixxikor ground forces. This hesitation gave just enough time for the shuttle that had dropped off Sigurd to exit and park near the Cargo Bay, freeing up space for her to enter. She sighed in relief as they finally landed safely inside the Shuttle Bay, the meeting in the Wardroom cut off, screens blinking out, as she powered down the shuttle.

"Due to the wreckage in the Power Armor Bay, it might be best to remove your armor here." She stood and exited the cockpit, turning to speak with Akane and Candon. "I believe our medic is attending the meeting in the Wardroom as well, so there is no point in reporting to Medical immediately, considering you three are mobile." She made sure to include Stark as she continued. "We should all head there and receive our orders from the Shosho. I have notified Chasan-Hei about your injuries, so she will surely want to escort you to Medical immediately afterwards."

Wardroom

With that, Murakami had left the shuttle to attend the rest of the meeting, arriving after Sigurd. She was somewhat surprised to see him again, but stayed quiet as she slipped in to join the others, not wanting to cause a disruption.

Wardroom

"Very well," Hanako nodded. "Umeshu will be in charge of establishing peaceful contact and Natsumi will help her. Also, Sigurd is back so see if he can provide science support for this. Welcome back, Sigurd. The challenge, I think will be that we have yet to find any sort of chain of command for the Rixxikor. Essentially the question is who among them can we negotiate with? As for the infantry section, get together a team to perform a search and recovery of the downed enemy fighter's pilot. We can get replacement power armor from the Vesper and I will assign two supplemental infantry Nekovalkyrja to each team member. The local defenders will probably attack us if they see us, so prepare accordingly."

Wardroom

Sigurd bowed politely to Hanako. "Thank you, ma'am. It's nice to be back."
He assumed parade rest position again and continued unemotionaly: "In addition to the diplomatic efforts I'd suggest for Chasan-hei to perform an autopsy on one or more of the Rixxikor corpses I saw outside of the ship to learn more about their biology and maybe even origin. I'd be glad to assist her with the analysis of the results once I'll be back from the Rixxikor."

Actually he would prefer to help the medic without ever going on that diplomatic trip, but he certainly wasn't second guessing his superior's orders. And who knows, maybe this time he got around to actually observe the Rixxikor's social structures without any unwelcome interruptions.

Wardroom

The girl... She leaped away with lightning reflexes. Sam felt bad. That was the third one now. Maybe it was serious? What if there really was something wrong with him after all? Who knew what the bugs did to him after they shot him up full of lead? What if they laid eggs inside his body and he now reeked a godawful stench that only the female species could smell? What if he was doomed to be a virgin forever?

Sam had enough. He couldn't stand being in a room full of pretty girls who hated him any longer. It was torture! He left the room and walked down the hall, wondering how terrible the life of a bachelor could be.

YSS Eucharis

Aikiko followed a bit more slowly. She was suppose to be the team leader and ended up watching the whole incident from the sidelines. She taken a wrong turn and lost the rest of them, Candon, Stark, and the silent one. The ship felt familiar, yet it drew a blank spot. Seeng Sam appear from a cross corridor.

"Hey!" She called out to Sam, trying to remember if she had seen him before, but came up with a blank. "Hey you! Wait a second!" She picked up her pace to catch up with him before he decided to run off from her.

Raccoon Shuttle, Eucharis Shuttle Bay

Reynolds said:

"Due to the wreckage in the Power Armor Bay, it might be best to remove your armor here."

Click to expand...

Candon placed his helmet on the seat next to him and stood up. He swiveled the cannon on his shoulder forward and leaned his armor against the wall using the flat surface of the ammo extention on his back to keep the armor steady. The cool air chilled him as the armor split open. With his right shoulder still in pain he decided to remove his fractured left arm first. With a gentle pull his arm came free but with the loss of suction in the armor's sleeve also came a hemosynthetic surprise. The collision with the fighter had left it's mark on the suit's liner in the form of a leaking, ruptured section that sealed in just a moment but not before dousing him in synthetic blood based fluid.
Great, just great. At least it's still working.

Reynolds said:

She stood and exited the cockpit, turning to speak with Akane and Candon. "I believe our medic is attending the meeting in the Wardroom as well, so there is no point in reporting to Medical immediately, considering you three are mobile." She made sure to include Stark as she continued. "We should all head there and receive our orders from the Shosho..."

Click to expand...

Still standing with his legs in the armor he looked down then back up, unsure if she meant to get dressed and showered first...
She's definitely not stupid. I guess I'm going to assume the obvious.

With both arms out of the sleeves he reached up and grabbed the railgun to lift himself out, taking note of the fragmented pieces of metal stuck to it magnets, no doubt pieces of the Starships hull from the explosion that separated the starboard wing.
Just another reason I shouldn't be alive

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay
The explosions hadn't carried Suites locker far as he would have thought. Although the clothes inside were shaken up they still vaguely resembled the neatly folded stacks that he'd placed in there earlier. Of course they were still no longer tidy enough to wear in a professional military but it at least provided him pants.

YSS Eucharis, zero-g passageway
After a very quick stop in the showers in a visit to his room to get his working uniform, Suites was heading to the briefing when he heard Aikiko's voice coming from the passageway.

Shuttlebay/pa bay

Stark had followed Suites more out of habit at this point then any real need to go the PA bay. She had stripped her EM-G7 Emrys Environ suit back on the shuttle, and had it draped over the shoulder her rifle wasn't. When He started to strip down she left and dropped her suit off at her cabin along with her long rifle before heading into the wardroom.

Wardroom

She had brushed past Sam on the way in, she was wondering why he had left. Had she missed the debrief? Had he already gotten his order? She really didn't know but it didn't change anything. She entered and found a wall to lean against as she listened and tried to get caught up with what she had missed since taking off her helmet.

Wardroom

Jax stood up from his seat and gave a little stretch.

"Well then! If that is all, I'll just mozy on over to the front landing gear and try to make the ship level again." he announced quietly, his eyes following a coffee mug that was sliding along the floor due to the tilt. He secretly was excited that by "prepare accordingly", Hanako meant that he would be reunited with Wilson soon. A grenade launcher was all the prep he needed!

He was still a little peeved that his highly sophisticated repair techniques hadn't worked on life-support. But, he felt a small wave of cool air brush past his face, and he grinned in satisfaction.

...At least the air conditioning was working again.

"Oh, that reminds me! Shosho, who do I gotta talk to on the Vesper in order to coordinate some repairs?" he asked Hanako.

Wardroom

Umeshu's momentary hesitation to lead the diplomacy mission soon began to fade when she heard Natsumi add her voice to the mix and volunteered as well. This time the surprise was a good one, and her confidence slowly returned. Maybe they actually could do this after all. "Arigatou. I appreciate the support in this endeavor," replied the Nekovalkyrja to her fellow bridge officer.

Though Samael exited quickly after being spurned, it was also about this time that some of the other crew started filing in and she gave them all welcoming smiles, glad that everyone seemed to have come back safely. Of particular note was the Nepleslian that Hanako greeted and identified as a returning crew member, and the green panels indicated he was s scientist as well. Such a man could prove very useful to her forming team, indeed. Umeshu glanced back in Hanako's direction and gave a firm bow of her head when the orders were made official in her task, her eyes looking sure now. "Understood, Shosho. I will assemble a team and begin preparations at once."

The light purple skinned Shoi arose about the same time as Jackson did, and handed off a small datapad to him. On it was displayed a list of replacement parts that had already been requested from the YSS Vesper, and likely were on the shuttle that just arrived to be delivered to him. It would prove a starting point for his work at least, a little parting gift for the technician since duty called his comrade elsewhere on the planet. She didn't exchange any audible words, though her green eyes seemed to say all he needed to know. "No need to thank me, Jax-san. Have fun while I am gone," he heard in his mind's ear.

At that point, Hashimoto-shoi approached the scientist standing at rest and gave a quick bow of her head in respectful greetings. "Hajimemashite, Sigurd-hei. I am Shoi Hashimoto Umeshu, and you have come at a good time. It seems that the mantle of diplomacy with the Rixxikor has fallen to me, and your skill in sciences would be a welcome help. No doubt this will present a great research opportunity, too, and you seem to be the type to appreciate it." She then walked over to the small booth away from the main table near the red velvet curtains along one side of the wall, and motioned for Sigurd to follow and then Natsumi. "Please step aside for a moment and let's quickly go over the plan I had for negotiations..."

Wardroom

Taharial had stood silently in the corner listening to the others talk, it wasn't her place to talk about ideas for attack or negotiation as she had never felt a joy for them, letting the others decide what to do she spoke up "I will go where I am needed, but I am not that good at negotiating but I can try if they need others."

Seeing the others enter Taharial smiles slightly and was happy to see them return, she didn't have to worry about them any more being injured as she could see that the ones who needed it were patched, her heart started to hurt as she couldn't see Akane in the mix and got worried 'hopefully she is somewhere in the ship.'

Wardroom

"Of cause, ma'am", Sigurd murmured and returned the bow a bit deeper than Umeshu did. "I think it'd be Bjarnison-hei though. Sigurd's my given name."
He then followed his superior with his hands still clasped behind his back. "I already had some contact with these Rixxikor during our last mission. But all in all I fear, we don't know much about them."

Wardroom, Booth

Umeshu blushed for a fleeting moment at her error at the Norse name. "My mistake, I'm still quite new here," she apologized quickly, though it was the other thing he said that interested her more than her oversight. She decided to ask a bit more while they waited for her fellow operator to join them in the discussion. "So this is actually your second encounter with them? What occurred during the first contact?" The Shoi studied his demeanor as he formed a response, getting the distinct feeling that it may have not gone well...

Wardroom

Sigurd frowned slightly as he gathered his thoughts and organized them to give an objective report.
"It was on the last mission of the Eucharis where we found a crashed ship on Splorfin III. Like in this mission I joined the crew later, fresh from basic training, when a team was just about to enter the derelict but before we made contact. I manned science station on the bridge when the first Rixxikor emerged right under the ship.

Cadet Stark was sent to prevent them from harming the Eucharis, together with Darkfire-hei and then-Jôtô-Hei Mitsuko. Darkfire-hei got himself shot by the Rixxikor and in their hands so the shôshô told me to talk to the Rixxikor to deescalate the situation and safe Darkfire-hei. I managed the latter but attracted the Rixxikor to board the PA bay where the situation got more tense.

The shôshô then sent me down there to gather information, which I was doing when the containment field failed and I lost consciousness due to decompression." Sigurd's voice newer changed a bit from being neutral and level but his eyes showed a trace of his fear and anger that he felt when he remembered that experience.

He swallowed and took a breath before he continued. "From what I learned about the Rixxikor by observation and conversation I can tell that they are numerous, bipedal, two armed insectoids who care a lot about food and, that was my impression, alcohol. They do speak trade but on a low level. Their overall intelligence seemed to be not too high and their thinking focused on the supply of their wants.

Unfortunately I can't tell much more and even what I said might be in error when it comes to the whole species as we only had a single encounter prior to this one now and that group may not have been representative for the species.

What I could not observe, but what seems to be important to find out, is how they're organized and what moral standards they follow. They obviously form social communities so both have to exist in some form other than anarchy if their communities are to be stable. The fact that they're insectoids prompts the possibility of a hive mind but they appear to be to individualistic to me. In fact they seemed to be outright chaotic, which puzzles me."

And last but not least, Sigurd added in his mind, I hate their guts! but never spoke out loud. Instead he silenced as is report was finished.