RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 27, Part 3] Expanding Horizons II (YE 39)

Wardroom

Masumi made it brief, "I would like to formally ask your opinion on me staying on the bridge during the continuation of the mission tomorrow."

Then, thinking, she added her own opinion, saying, "I think my presence, as I trained amongst the SOFT team, would be a slight, but present boon to the group tomorrow. Despite that, I wish to work on the bridge tomorrow if the issue of team efficacy remains unchanged amongst the away team. I understand the implications of not feeling it necessary to go through the chain of command with this request. I also understand the chain to have failed several members of the team today. I trust..." she trailed off, looking up at the ground instead of Hanako's shining golden eyes. "I trust your opinion above my own, though. Even though I have said a lot, I would like to know what you have to say, if anything. If you would like," she looked up. "I can be admonished for stepping out of line."

Wardroom

Hanako leaned in close to Masumi and darkly growled, "You will be with the away team tomorrow. Is that perfectly clear? Dismissed."

There were many reasons for this. Masumi needed to respect the chain of command. She needed to learn to work with the other crew members. She needed to stay in her role instead of trying to get special treatment from the admiral. She needed to face her fears and be in the danger instead of the safety of the ship bridge like a coward, and most importantly she needed to have confidence in herself as a valuable part of the team instead of a liability that would make the team better if removed.

The Shosho then started making two tacos.

Wardroom

Gulping, Masumi almost nearly whispered, "Understood," after Hanako had already walked away to the buffet line. She turned on her heel and kept her eyes looking straight ahead as she put one foot in front of the other, heading straight away for the door that led to the zero-g passageway. She stopped for nothing and no one until she got to the empty recreation room. Her knees buckled as she entered one of the holographic chambers, her room away from room at this point. She sat looking down at the ground for a few odd moments before she started the program.

Wardroom

Takao finished going through the line, receiving his food, and sat down at one of the empty booths. As he prepared his tacos, he began listening in on what was being said in regards to how the away mission went. He had been paying more attention to watching his screens and monitoring the ship and not on the away mission.

He quietly bit into the end of one of his tacos while letting his eyes look at nothing in particular. He was content on slowly trying to pick everything up by ear while satisfying his hunger.

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

"What unfortunate timing," Candon thought to himself as Masumi left the wardroom. Part of him was glad that he'd chosen to send his request via message after dinner.

Eating became strangely mechanical as his thoughts drifted to Frixxaqz, who may have been the most articulate Rixxicor he'd ever seen. It was a Rixxicor who could actually think things through to at least a two-step solution. This bug had to be the key to success. If Candon could get the Rixxicor to share any common interest with Yamatai it could shift the balance in the war.

Wardroom

Tsuguka covertly listened to the exchange of words between Masumi and the Shosho, whilst repeatedly thumbing a tiny piece of mince gristle into the plate. Eyebrows arced, they just stared straight forward, held at the respectful distance that Hanako's prestige demanded...

The actual results of the conversation, though, it ended up pretty much how the red neko expected. They needed all the help they could get on the field.

Some deep part of her wanted to ask Hanako exactly why she always crewed the elite ship with such oddballs, but given that it might come across as a pompous disapproval for her choices, Tsuguka could only resign herself to not understanding the mysterious, comparatively ancient being once more.

Not so long since she had been confused about the lack of regime herself. The scientist would come around. Candon obviously liked her for a reason.

...

A digital message? From Jax?... He has an assistant now? And it's a girl?... There went her plan to make up for all those favors, by showing him that maid outfit Taharial bought her...

Damn it, even the new guy Takao was an officer, so she couldn't make a lame joke about him eating tacos!

Thumbnail digging directly through the plate, and causing a large chip to suddenly burst off with a terrific 'pop'... Tsuguka was back in reality again, taken out of that dark, brooding visage just long enough to realize she was making such a face.

"My sincere apologies." They apologized to the ship. Like, literally saying it to the open air. "This cutlery does not deserve my vengeance."

Then they went and fetched the chip off the floor.

Freyja wanted to smile at Junko. She couldn't do it, though, not now. More than that she wanted to just go to sleep. Unfortunately, her stomach didn't seem to be willing to let her leave. "Sitting with you would make me feel a little better. I would rather not talk right now, though." She said.

Her stomach growled. Blushing, she stood and walked over to the buffet. She almost settled for sushi rolls. Spicy food was something she had never really tried, especially fish. She didn't know why you would ruin the incredible taste of fish with spices. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it, so why not try it? Resigned to her fate, she made herself a plate with two soft tacos with every topping and a bunch of cheese, Spanish rice, and refried beans. She also scooped up some cherry jello and a glass of milk.

The morose Neko sat down at the spot Junko had suggested. She knew it was rude to start without her but at the moment she didn't care. Freyja took a bite of her taco and felt the jalapeño juice hit her taste buds. It burned and for some reason she liked it. Her rational mind couldn't explain it. She gave up trying to understand some things and dug in.

Fumiko sat up and yawned. It was time to eat. She grinned and floated into the air, homing in on her mother in the Wardroom like a missile. The adorable blue tornado sat on Freyja's shoulder. "Konnichiwa okaa-sama!
Nani tabe teru no?" She said happily.

Freyja managed a slight smile at her daughter's presence. "I'm trying tacos for the first time, musume. Would you like to try some? They're pretty spicy."

The little girl nodded. "Hai!"

Freyja tore a third of her second taco off and placed it to the side of the other one. Fumiko floated down to the table and took a big bite of jalapeño. She yelped and floated over to her mother's milk, leaning her head down to take a big gulp.

A laugh came bubbling up from Freyja's throat. She looked concerned but she couldn't stop laughing.

Cabins

Once he had said his farewells to Blackberry, Takumi was able to locate his cabin with the help of the YSS Eucharis' MEGAMI AI. He wasn't sure if there was a roommate living with him, but time would tell eventually. His next objective would be to find the Shosho, who was apparently having dinner in the Wardroom. The science officer exited the cabin after all of his standard issue possessions were secured and started to walk towards the zero g passageway to head upstairs.

Wardroom

Upon entering, Takumi could see that dinner seemed to be winding down. There were still several crew members around eating, including oddly colored Nekos, but who was he to judge? Times change, and perhaps so should he. Immediately recognizing the Shosho from the data files given to him before departing for the Eucharis, the new science officer walked over to her calmly and greeted her with a very respectful bow. Some old habits die hard, he supposed.

"Good evening, Shosho-sama. My apologies for interrupting your dinner, but I just arrived aboard from the YSS Tomoyo. My name is Shoi Higashi Takumi, and it will be my pleasure to serve you aboard your fine ship." Hanako seemed to be in a foul mood, but hopefully that did not include his interruption. Perhaps he had picked a poor time to simply follow protocol?

Wardroom

Bronzi soon stepped back in through the wardroom entrance and got in line. Everything that had happened had initially had him at a loss of apitite. But his keen sense of smell was unable to allow him pass up Tacos. A personal favorite of Bronzi, he enjoyed them more than even sashimi or Neppie burgers. Waiting for others to make their food.

Grabbing a plate, the four tortilla shells were gently. He added the meat to each shell. Cheese, then sour cream. He held of on the pico. Bronzi then move off to the corner of the room and began consumption of the delicious alien delicacies.

When finished he'd head over to the medbay for some medical attention to his wound.

Wardroom

Junko nodded to Freyja. Didn't blame her for wanting some quiet. It'd been a trying day for everyone and the sooner it was over with, the better. Try again tomorrow, do better, and let all this negativity wash away in time.

Didn't grab anything particular for food. Just enough meat to work as fuel, few other things because why the hell not. She did, however, grab a second glass of cold milk. First time she'd had this kind of food one of her old batch-mates had grabbed too many peppers and almost spontaneously combusted.

She sat down with Freyja and just... stopped.

Stopped, and stared at the little girl with Freyja's face and Wazu's hair.

Slowly, but surely, a smile crept along her face.

Little Fumiko might have been the most adorable thing she'd seen. Felt a pressure, like a wire cage, unlatch in her chest that she hadn't known was their before. She was just so happy, so full of life she just beamed positive energy. Junko had seen mini-Nekos before, but for a good five seconds all her brain could do was loop she's just so tiny.

"Careful, you'll choke if you drink too fast." Junko said, making an attempt at calming the little tyke down. Then she placed the Emergency Milk between Freyja and Fumiko. For whichever of them needed it the most. Then she glanced at Freyja and smiled, before reverting her attention back to the little neko.

Fabrication

Unfortunately for Sura, the nekojin was not keen on landing in prison for statutory rape. Unfortunately for Jax, Tsuguka didn't know that Sura was in fact a sixteen year-old girl.

Miscommunication was fun sometimes.

"Well," Jackson began, starting the recycler. "If you're ever looking for an internship, I just started up a company. Mostly, we do airbikes at this point. Maybe a little R&D on the side. You know, weapons, medical, and all that. Once I get back I'm going to go about expanding my operations to focus more on those things. Just bought a space station out on the frontier, in fact."

Jax then moved back to Natsumi's armor and opened it. He wrinkled his nose at the stench of blood and began cleaning it off of the muscle-like lining of the suit.

"Just a thought. Unlike me when I was your age, you have a whole world of opportunities, and a dad that supports you doing crazy things like coming aboard a military vessel during a three month long deployment. You should always keep your options open."

Fabrication.

Sura indeed knew she was too young for Jackson. Idle imagining was harmless, and she far to shy to ever act on such a thing.

Sura blinked. She had not considered working at a company. Her father didn't have connections, out side of Wazu that was, and Wazu generally spat money out when ever they needed it. But Sura was determined to leave her mark. "That. Is certainly an option I had not considered. I may just take you up on it..."

Sura let out a soft laugh. "Ha, he hates that I'm here. The trouble is he needs me, plus I argued to come. We aren't very traditional, but I am what you'd consider a squire. Win his position as the Gartagen Empress's Champion, the position I hold is a bit more official. But, I wouldn't miss this for anything."

"Though...looking at the damage to that armor. Those are if I had to guess Yamataian weapons damage. My da is one of the best fighters I've ever seen. I just didn't expect to encounter friendly fire from the most elite military unit in known space....so I'm more worried for him than I am for my self at the moment..."

"But maybe not. I'm only guessing. The damage on the Heirophant and other armors looks different than the damage to this one."

Wardroom

"Welcome aboard, Higashi-Shoi," Hanako said to Takumi. "First things first: please do not use -sama to refer to me. However, you may call me Hanako instead of Ketsurui. Secondly, we will be going on another away team mission. Since first officer Natsumi is injured, I am putting Chusa Saiga in charge of the next attempt at this mission to gather intelligence on the planet. You will be second in command on the away team. I am about to eat. If you would like to join me I will be at the balcony end of the big table there. Otherwise, you need to find Saiga and start planning."

As Hanako turned and went to her seat, she caught Tsuguka staring off into space with a strange expression. "Something on your mind?" Hanako asked as she sat down at the table.

Wardroom

Bronzi stood eating his Tacos silently save for the crunching of the shells as he chewed. As he ate he listened.

Saiga was in command of the next mission. Bronzi then spoke up. "Wanna sit the next sorteh out? Or should we be preppin to accompany em?"

Truth was Bronzi didn't want to say it, but he had a feeling they'd get blamed for every mistake made. But he'd leave it up to Wazu, who tended to look at the bigger picture.

As he spoke his gaze fell onto the neko child in the room. Then back to Wazu. "You sonuva..."

"Why's a tineh neko walkin around lookin an smellin like you?" The gartagen said flicking his tail and closing his sentence with another bite from his third Taco.

Wardroom

"..."

Wazu looked up at Bronzi, then back at his datapad. He had not gone for food yet. Bronzi was looking for a good answer, and Wazu only had two bad ones available. If they joined they would have a chance to save some rixxikor lives, but would more likely be part of another massacre. Sit out and they would be letting it happen. Then there was this ongoing coup against Natsumi. Clearly she was out, and the outcome of this operation would determine how armor teams would be handled.

"I did not think she would run back to the girl that abandoned her the moment she decided to come back." He finally said.

Wardroom

Bronzi blinked at the response halting his chewing. He swallowed.

"Wazu Jr?" He said looking for some more context. "Kids love their mommas. Fathers on da other hand gotta earn it." Bronzi was speaking low, so that his heavy voice didn't take over the acoustics of the room. It just sounded like a rumble.

"Luh, we can go tomorrah. But. I guess when we are done here....we could take all da left ova food. Give it to tha buggers. I heard em askin fer food when Natsumi-Sama rang us up..."

"Yeah, just order her to spend some time with me. This will go over well." He responded.

Wazu hated it, both situations, but there was a plan brewing there. "The next mission does not start for a while. We could get in touch with the Rixxikor, get a path cleared... maybe head off the worst before it happens?"

That gave Bronzi and idea. Two ideas really. The metaphorical light bulb had illuminated brightly on a rare occasion for him.

"What if we spoke to da kaptian? Went down first. Sort of a recon op. If it gets hot we leg it. I dun need sleep...dat soft team is intent on wasitin erry thang it sees. Get the rixxikor to back away, maybeh surrender, then they'd only have da bot boys ta waste."

Bronzi then looked at Wazu Jr. "Make her a Toy. A good da don't need to command da kid. I didna make Sura come. She demanded it"

"The kid is not the roadblock here."

Wazu set his pad to check for nearby networks. Maybe he'd get lucky.

"I can try and make contact with the Rixx. Can you see what extra food you can get ahold of? If we do this right we will not need to go down there at all...

... we should start looking for signals that match those used earlier to summon the robots. If the Rixxikor use it again we can know where they are at the very least."

Bronzi nodded. "If that's the case bout that kid then you can't let it stand in yer way. But ya gotta make dat choice." Bronzi said finishing the last taco with a few large bites and short chews. He had work to do. Namely grunt work.

Bronzi approached the buffet once more "Ayy!" He said smiling but taking care not to show his teeth as he did so to Lime and Mango.

"What do y'all usually do wiv all da left ovas? I was gunna see if I could have em as a part of da mission. Kind of a spesho project!" He said putting his plate in with the dirty ones.