RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 24] Looking for Trouble (YE 38)

[Wes]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Well...come on...move the ship," Hanako ordered Umeshu, gesticulating by swirling her dainty right hand around in the air. "I want to make some progress here. Quickly."

Next, Hanako looked over at Wazu. "I will coordinate with Charisma and have her do an analysis of the logs she can scrounge up."

"Researching..." a soft voice spoke from the bridge speakers.

Super powerful AI computers had a way of noticing things and Charisma's first "pattern results" that Hanako received were curious.

"Mr. Wazu," Hanako said. "Is there a way of telling how far a ship has traveled in hyperspace. Perhaps some sort of residual energy buildup? Charisma is speculating the foreign ships are not from around here. I think we already speculated that, but she says they are likely from quite some distance away and I am trying to understand why she thinks that. Apparently her calculations are 'above the comprehension of tier 2 sophonts' she says."

 

[paladinrpg]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Hashimoto-chui finished the last of her tidying up of the sensor data, before spinning her red-cushioned chair around at the sound of the hissing doors. The samurai gave a respectful bow and a salute to Hanako-sama when she appeared, while informing the others with a tempered "Captain on deck!" just in case Natsumi-sempai didn't catch her dramatic entrance first.

Umeshu couldn't help but admire the Ketsurui princess for a moment, in her true form ready for battle with the enemy."Soku!" the operations Neko replied in Yamataigo to the universal hand sign for starting up the engines, resuming her seat at the helm and wasting no time in engaging the ship's CDD. "Setting a course towards Nougfran to intercept," she announced, relaying the navigational data to the rest of Task force 82 as the scarlet-winged YSS Eucharis was brought around to lead the way.

 

[Rizzo]

Aikiko looked up, chewing on a sandwich she had grabbed from the Wardroom/Mess, she had made to take with her. She nodded taking note of the thick file Candon carried and placed in his personal locker here in the P.A Bay. She swallowed the mouthful of food.


"What's the scoop from the bridge?" Aikiko asked, ignoring the file she had seen. "What's gotten you so uptight, Suites-Hie?" She took another bite of her sandwich, finishing it off.

PA Bay

Candon sighed, debating whether he should drop the classic 'it's classified' card but with the possibility of battle with a security threat on the bridge of the flagship he figured it was better to just be honest.
"You know that Neppy that dropped in just moments before takeoff?'" He asked, "I never got a chance to screen him. I just talked with him and it turns out he's got that hero mentality that we all love... or he's a spy. At this point he could be anyone."
As Suites began the startup procedure for his armor he paused, reflecting on what he'd said.

"I'm sorry, the Shôshô knows him. We should trust her."

 

[Samanthia]

P.A. Bay

Aikiko snorted in her fashionable way. "Trust? Shosho this ..Shosho that... Go with your gut feelings Candon-san. Even though he's kinda handsome in his own way. If you are wrong, no foul. You vindicated the Shosho's trust in the man. If you're right, you're ahead of the game. And I've got your six....mmmm..." She smiles as she turns back to working on the Daisy's Load-out.

 

[Zack]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

“Above our heads?” Wazu asked, looking down at his datapad for a moment, his fingers hovering over it as he took his time in deciding not to press the question. Instead he would look up to Hanako,

“... Hyperspace should not be too different from regular space, mostly empty... then again I am not certain hyperspace topography is a category of science yet. A ship could certainly run into high energy radiation that could indicate where it departed from, though we would need a fleet of ships and a few years worth of mapping to determine if that was the case.

Charisma may have a lot of experience in regards to what ship's combined field systems look like after heavy use. Things like metal fatigue around the gravity control panels, or inefficiencies from the ship's field systems wearing down from continued use.

She may also may be comparing the hyperspace-exits of the enemy ship to those of our own. A longer-distance trip requires more energy... perhaps she is seeing a larger release when the ship enters back into regular space.”

Wazu paused again,

“Or maybe Charisma likes to gamble?

If she just looked at all the sensor data available and did not see our target ships on approach then she could narrow down their flight path.

They could come from the southeast, pass up several other possible worlds, get lucky or have a contact inside of your government to get their ships past the sensors in the area, and make it to Higaflan... but I find that unlikely.

They could have come from above or below the plane that the stars of the sector reside on, but the area is basically a large disk and there is nothing above or below it for quite some distance.

That leaves the Western approach. There is nothing out there that would be looking for starships, which explains how they reached Higaflan undetected. I also know that it was not just Nepleslia that had a look around that area, there is nothing there that operates on this kind of scale nearby.

I would wager the ships we are looking for came from greater than 60 light years out, otherwise someone would have run across their civilization already...”

He would finish off by turning back to his datapad, adding,

“Though, if Charisma does not wish to share her reasoning, we should trust that it would only distract us from our current work.”

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay

The vote of confidence was reassuring to Candon until he figured out what she'd really meant by 'six'. Scoffing with amusement he called back, "thanks for watching, good stalkers are hard to come by these days."
Although he didn't notice it something rare was happening to his shoulders. The muscles, generally tight with self inflicted stress, had loosened as his blood pressure dropped slightly. It was a short lived moment, "hang on, where's Akane?"

 

[Samanthia]

YSS Eucharis PA Bay

"Stalker?! You wish!" Aikko laughed softly as she called back, "Not my day to watch her. Akane knows were to be!"

She used a power lift to add a fully self contained two pack missile pod on the Daisy where it was supposed to go. A heavy aether assault rifle and forearm mounted blade that could duel as a shield if need be.

 

[Gunsight1]

Bridge

While everyone was talking, Natsumi tapped in commands to her control panel to bring up the results of the spectograph comparison between the suspected colony vessel and the ones they had previously encountered. If they were a close enough match, it would be pretty solid evidence as to whose ship it was they were sneaking up on out there. She also sent a copy of the logs she had already pulled from the SAINT sensor platforms to both Hanako and Wazu's screens, to give them all the data she had to work with.

"I can make sure you have the access you need" she replied to Wazu's earlier question. "What do you have in mind that's a long shot?" she asked.

While she was waiting for his reply, Natsumi turned her attention to Hanako, "We have a network of sensor platforms left over from the Mishhu wars, they have been in passive data collection mode for years and have some information for us, which I have already downloaded" she said, "But I think we could reactivate the network, bring the platforms back to full power and scan the entire sector with greater range and sensor resolution. If we can get a common path that their ships are taking, it will give us an idea what direction to look in as far as where they are coming from. It would make it easier then to determine how far away they might be coming from if we knew how far away the next closes systems in that direction were"

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay

"I miss the old days," Candon lamented, talking mostly to himself then adding, "the SAOY needs a war, we're getting soft. I just hope our soldiers aren't still being complacent when the Mishhuvurthyar return, or worse."

Opening the weapons locker Candon heaved an aether beam Saber rifle over to his armor station,.

 

[Blizzard]

Meanwhile, in Engineering...

"Siri, tell me a joke."

"For the last time, I am a FAR, Jackson."

"Shut up, Siri."

"What the hell is a Siri?!"

 

[Zack]

Bridge

Wazu smiled a bit, “It looks like Charisma may have beat us to it, but I would still like to check sensor data from everything we have access to nearby, close to their possible avenues of entry, and then everything else. You may be able to pull records of all sensor hits from Yamatain ships. Nepleslia also had a similar all-ship database...” Wazu said, tapping his finger against his Datapad for a moment, “But they downsized that database... other nations would be nice to get but I find it very unlikely they would have passed near anyone besides Nepleslia, Yamatai, or the NMX.

They also may have had contact with someone in an attempt to get ahold of maps of the area. Maybe purchased through 3rd party contacts or just outright stolen from the NMX... though that may be a question for Suites or Stark to answer. They must have some sort of intelligence apparatus working in this area to find out enough about Higaflan to send a pair of colony ships there.”

 

[Wes]

Nougfran System

There was a teal flash as the gunships entered the Nougfran star system. In front of the Eucharis and her escorts, there was a large, battered-looking hulk of a ship that was vaguely shaped like a Daikon radish. It looked quite similar to the crashed one Eucharis had found last year and the one that they had run into in the Higaflan system.

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Hail the Rixxikor colony ship," Hanako told Charisma.

A purple-brown insectoid face appeared on the main view screen. "I am Ruxxles, Lord Supreme Royal Commander of Emperors of the Rixxikor Collective! What do you want, insignificant meatbags?"

"I am Shosho Ketsurui Hanako, Commander of this Star Army of Yamatai task force."

"I heard of you! Everyone who ever loved you was wrong. I hope that your offspring are too big! So when you try to give birth your abdomen breaks open like a dropped watermelon!"

"What?" Hanako frowned, looking around at the other bridge crew.

"I just had sex with your mother," the Rixxikor said flatly, eating powdered chocolate cake mix directly out of a box.

"My mother is dead," Hanako scowled. "This is not a game."

"That made it really easy for me to have sex with her," the purple-brown-faced Rixxikor replied. "And then afterward, I ate the body!"

"That is a sick, and stupid joke. And how would you Rixxikor have sex?" Hanako observed. "Your kind do not even have a penis."

"I used a cheese grater instead!" The Rixxikor shouted, starting to hop around like a hyperactive kid on a pogo stick.

"End transmission," Hanako ordered. The main screen returned to an image of the star field ahead of them. Her face was now completely red and her fists were balled up.

After a moment to regain her composure, Hanako looked to the bridge crew. "Suggestions?"

 

[Gunsight1]

Bridge

Natsumi's nose wrinkled as a look of disgust crossed the young officer's face. She was glad when Hanako killed the transmission. She looked away from the screen and at her admiral and the anger was visible on Hanako's face.

"There is no question in identifying their ships now" She commented and frowned. There had not even been a chancr at proper pieceful communications. The creature was vulgatnr and insulting right out of the gate. She doubted another BBQ was going to do a lick of good either.

A quick thought of immediatly blasting the colony ship from the stars crossed her mind when Hanako asked for suggestions, but she immediatly pushed that aside and crossed her arms.

"They obviously have no intention of talking to us, that is clear" she spoke up. "I don't think letting them continue on to our space would be wise either and we need to know where they came from." Natsumi frowned even more as she thought over the options.

"My suggestion depends on how you want to handle the Rixxicore, Shosho" she paused, "If we want to try and keep this encounter peaceful, we should inform them that they will soon be entering Yamatai space and that they are required to hault, state their intentions, destination and submit to a customs inspection.. If more forceful.. We can disable their ship and attempt to take the information we need by force" she turned beat red as she spoke the second suggestion.

"The more forceful option would likely necessitate a severe amount of bloodshed, if their previous reactions to us are any indication.. And likely even any peaceful attempt would as well. I would reccomend we take the task force to battlestations as a precaution"

 

[Zack]

bridge

Wazu lifted up his datapad to hide his face for a moment, suppressing a laugh after listening to the Lord Supreme Royal Commander of Emperors speak. He would quietly go sit down at the station next to Umeshu and send her a quick message.

 Umeshu,

Where would you hide this ship in this system if you had to hide it?

-Wazu

He would then start using the terminal in front of him to search through the available sensor data, searching for exhaust patterns that would indicate there was a ship nearby that they could not see. The only place he could not rule out was attack ships hiding inside of the colony ship itself.

He would also start tracking the ship backwards using its exhaust profile, wanting to find out from which direction it entered the star system, what stars were along its path., and where its final destination was.

He would wait for Natsumi to finish speaking before adding his own thoughts.



“Ruxxles is just trying to get us to leave, I doubt he will co-operate with us unless he has to.” Wazu winced a bit, realizing he had just made a mistake, “ We could inform it that we will be arresting it under suspicion of being a part of the attack earlier and impounding the ship. Ruxxles might then run for help and lead us where we want to go. If we are prepared ahead of time we should be able to follow that ship indefinitely.”

“Of course, they may just be trying to provoke us into an attack on a defenseless colony ship.” He added, hoping the media implications for such a move were obvious.

 

[Yoshi]

Bridge

Sitting there at her weapons station, Tony had to fight not to laugh during the whole exchange. As the comms killed the connection she lost it and let out a little giggle. The attempts at insults were so.. childish, she could remember attempting some of those when she was around the age of ten.

"Ma'am... If I may." She attempted to sound serious but the giggles were still there just beneath the surface. "If I may suggest... instead of attempting to talk to them like you would to each other... um..."she paused and held her breath for a moment, "Maybe if we talk to them using their form of communication. I found last time I talked to one, they were more receptive to my words when I was cussing and cursing them."

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, PA Bay

Candon was observing the transmission through his datapad. "You insolent bastard," he muttered as the bug captain insulted Hanako's mother.
Though he didn't know of any conversation on the bridge he wrote a message.

I advise we capture the enemy captain Ruxxles alive. We can probably defuse him simply by showing that we possess the ability to kill him. I recommend this plan:
Using subspace missiles to breach the enemy shields, land a small combat team on the hull of the colony ship to board and secure the bridge.

 

[Wes]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Hanako listened to the bridge crew's suggestions. "I think that you are right. They are trying to get a reaction out of us. We saw that killing Rixxikor is not particularly effective in bothering them. They have almost no sense of self-preservation. Why should they? There are quadrillions of them and they will just keep coming. Besides, until a war is declared, or our space is invaded, or they attack us, we cannot just go around killing them. I think our ship should ignore, or appear to ignore, their colony ship and we should continue tracking their origins. In the meantime, we should send an armored squad over to do an 'inspection' for Kuvexians, who are our presumed enemies. Hopefully they will let us. I am almost certain that we can bribe them with food again."

 

[paladinrpg]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

Umeshu seemed to also be a bit bothered by the crass exchange, enduring it with a darkening of her features and an audible, "Kisama..." It was one thing when she, a lowly samurai trainee, was on the ground getting flak from the bug-men,... but insulting the Ketsurui princess like that was a far graver transgression! It took a good degree of her self-control to keep these negative feelings at bay, and a clear head to keep the ship steady. Thankfully the Captain had also managed to exercise restraint, because it was very clear this was purposeful on the Rixxikor's part.

The purple-skinned operator nodded to both of her superiors about the plan taking shape, her pleasant demeanor returning with the thoughts that both Natsumi-sempai and Hanako-sama had taken her earlier suggestions into some account. "Hai, Shosho... I think that's the smart decision to try to bide time and get what we're really after, and also cover ourselves if any violent incident breaks out that we tried to follow protocols. I can back up what Stark-san is saying also... her command of some less-than-friendly Nepleslian Trade slang really helped at the outset of the BBQ operation. I think her leading negotiations for the boarding party might be worth a try." It seemed odd to be complimented for one's insults, but in this case it could be an asset.

Umeshu also noticed the tiny, yet significant ping from Wazu at the science station next to her and considered the question carefully in the back of her mind.

Wazu-san,

There are many methods to hide a starship's presence near planetary gravity wells or highly dense rings and gas clouds that I could use. The issue is we seem to have no real survey data on the bodies present in the Nougfran system, so we would need to narrow down those unknowns first to really say for sure.

-Umeshu

 

[Zack]

Bridge

Wazu would send his next two messages through from his Datapad, typing away quietly for the moment.

Charisma,

Can you check the nearest planet's rings for ships using something a little stronger than the ship's passive sensors? 

I would also like detailed scans of the Colony ship, specifically what it is armed with and its angles of fire. 

-Wazu

Umeshu, 

I am just trying to get ahead of things. I will also start putting together system data, but for now I will trust your instincts.

-Wazu

 

[Wes]

YSS Eucharis - Bridge

"Of course," Charisma replied to Wazu. The Eucharis began extensive scanning of the nearby worlds with an emphasis on planetary rings and dense asteroid belts, but it would take some time to get results.

"I will get our scout ships to do a catalog of this star system while we are looking around," Hanako announced. "We should be able to get some basic orbital data and planetary composition information soon."

The Shosho also called down to the armor bay: "How soon will you be ready?"