RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3, Aftermath

Masako glanced over at the sleeping form of Akiko before turning her eyes back to the elder of the sisters. "And it wasn't hard on you?" she asked her hypothetical question as she sat down upon her own bed, making sure not to disturb the young Yamabuchi. "Both of you have been through something...that I honestly woundn't be able to begin to imagine." she spoke quietly and honestly. "But there is something I do have experience in...it's not good to hold back your feelings. Though I feel like quite a hypocrite for saying it, it has to be said. If you're trying to hold back your tears just for the sake of your sister..." Masako paused before snorting.

"I'm getting into something else I have no experience in," she muttered more to herself before waving her hand. "I apologize if I'm butting in," she said quietly. "Currently, our Cook is taking a well deserved bath...so breakfast should begin after he is out." she explained softly.

After a leisurely walk to the wardroom, Kai arrived to find it somewhat occupied, but not moreso than he had ever seen it. the one odd thing was that Claymere-Taii had a guest whom appeared to not be Star Army personnel, which the young Hei found quite odd. But, he figured it was best not to bother the officers, and so simply got himself breakfast, a toasted muffin with a fried egg and a sausage patty, with some bacon and toast on the side. The Yamataian then grabbed a large glass of Orange juice, and found a table to sit at.

Settling in, Kai began to eat his meal and requested a Volumetric window with recent news to appear, and so began reading the news as he ate. Mostly he came to realize that there was yet another Mishhu war going on, which he somehow had expected, and it did not surprise him all that much, though it was a bit of a concern, especially in his line of work; Being a Power Armor pilot, Kai was likely to be sent out to fight the Mishhu (Again it would seem, as he had now encountered the vile things twice, and somehow come out living. He figured if he could survive a third encounter, he would be able to survive the war)

As Kai scanned the news, he noted several worlds being attacked, and some even falling to the Mishhu. Already? the Hei thought. we must have really been taken by surprise for all this to happen so quickly Kai mused, before suddenly becoming worried.... His family... Was his family okay? Quickly Kai did a search for Tami, and lo and behold, Tami had fallen. As Kai's jaw dropped, a bit of food tumbled out onto the table, and his fork clattered to the plate.... Tami had fallen... Tami, his home, where he had grown up! It had survived the last war, why did it have to fall now? The young Nakamura's mind raced, but he read on through the article, finally getting some relief; Tami had been successfully evacuated by the 9'th fleet and some corporation known as Origin Industries, somewhere around 98% of the residents had made it off.

Kai sighed in relief, and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. They were probably safe. Just to be sure, the Yamataian made a quick inquiry, searching a list of those confirmed evacuated. Indeed, his family had been evacuated, having been taken off the planet by the corporation, and were now living on something called "dawn station". He would have to get a message out soon. Despite having run away from home two years ago, Kai missed his family. Maybe he could make it up to them someday. Maybe.

Sumaru nodded in agreement, but he was not better then he was yesterday. Though his body had healed all of the damage away, he was now paining with his uncertainties involving Sora. "I thank you for the complement, but it is misplaced. I simply fought, nothing more and nothing less," he said plainly, as not to be modest or boast. The battle was not his, nor was it his glory-- his lord was the one who had fought bravely.

He didn't want to linger on the subject, so he tried to fluidly change the conversation onto Tom. "How long have you served aboard the Miharu Freeman-Juni?" Sumaru asked sounding genuinely curious, even though his expressions were mild.

That's when they were joined by another, Sumaru politely averted his eyes until the woman was settled in the water. It didn't matter if people were adjusted to such a lifestyle, he still retained his own gallantry. "Good morning," he said in greeting as he nodded a slight bow of hello to Miyoko.

Shizuka looked back at Akiko while Masako spoke. Her left hand ran down her right arm to her wrist, a nervous fidget as though something more bothered her. She grew more anxious until finally Masako changed the subject to breakfast.

"I see. So everyone must have been fighting then. Perhaps I could go and fix something then?" Shizuka asked, her voice not showing any hint of disturbance.

With her things back in place, Rin left her room. With that taken care of, all that was left to do was to go and get something to eat. She left her room, wondering if breakfast was even ready yet as she walked, since Tom had gone to the bath not that long ago. To her pleasant surprise, it was served. It seemed as though her sisters had helped set it up.

The lavender-haired sprite went about looking at what sort of food there was. She got a bowl of miso soup with some tofu, some rice, and a tiny bit of salmon. With her bit of food, she left to the wardroom, where she took a seat and started to eat.

After Yoroko had left the small huddle of officer's outside Kotori's door she found her way to the wardroom and its attached kitchen. There was busy work going on inside and the food was almost done so the Hei decided to let herself be content with allowing someone else to cook the food. Yoroko stood off to the side in the kitchen, trying to help out those cooking it as much as she could, though honestly she felt a little in the way. Once it was served Yoroko finally let herself slink out of the kitchen and take a seat next to one lavender haired sprite.

"Rin-san?" Yoroko asked as she sat down. "How are you this morning?" Normally Yoroko would be half-dead before finishing her morning cup of coffee, but today was something different, the Hei could feel it.

The beleaguered engineer eventually found her way into the wardroom.

Once there, she wasted little time in getting her tray and her food. The motions preoccupied her mind, letting her bury the gradually building dread beneath the daily routine. The smell of food also helped – it felt like she couldn’t remember the last time she had taken food. She could feel her stomach groan each time she caught a whiff. It might not be the best at the moment, but who cares? Certainly not a starving girl. Certainly not Yuzuki. She took her portion without complaint, or even speech.

When she turned to the rest of the wardroom, though, she found herself at a loss. The ship’s crew was already settling in – she spotted Yoroko talking with another new sprite who had probably served as infantry, and Kai who seemed preoccupied.

Suddenly she felt a little filthy. Even though she had removed her AMES, the jumpsuit beneath – once a pristine example of military cleanliness – was partially singed and smudged, the orange panels now having been marred in more than one place. It wasn’t the worst she’d seen – many of her sisters down in the engineering spaces had already proven a lot rougher on their jumpsuits – but compared to the rest of the ship’s crew, who mostly wore the better-looking duty uniforms anyway, she knew she looked like shit.

Self-consciously, Yuzuki attempted to brush out a particularly dark stain, but couldn’t. It had already become a part of her clothing. She could only hope it would come out or lighten in the wash, but for now it was hopeless.

When she started walking again, by default she found herself moving towards Kai. She had sat beside him before, and right now she definitely didn’t feel very adventurous.

Yuzuki sat her tray down across from his, offering an awkward smile she immediately regretted once she noticed his expression.

“Forgive me,” she managed quietly, “I, ah… Are you busy?”

Wazu's body was a mixture of flesh and metal all the way through. Many organs had mechanical components attached or replacing large sections that had been damaged, his lungs were only functional because of a thin layer of cybernetics acting as an air/blood interface. Significant portions of his right leg had been entirely replaced with cybernetics and parts of his arms were as much machine as they were flesh. Even his brain was patched together with numerous small mechanical components existing in and around key areas. Though technically his mostly cybernetic leg was not damaged he still walked with a bit of a limp, doing his best to hide it but ultimately tensing up a bit whenever he put weight on it. All seemed stationary relative to each other and his own body motion with the exception of nanomachines circulating around in his lungs, focused mainly in his windpipe.

"Well," Wazu said, looking over the food available and searching for a particular white fluffy meat he had gotten used to during the Elysian war. Even as he was speaking to Nyton his mind was busy counting the steps he had taken to reach the galley. He knew his stride was about .4 meters on average and that he could get a better estimate of this ship's length just by walking about.
"Were you on Nepleslia back when the S-A-o-Y was running the place? Actually that dose not matter it just leads into the events I want to tell you about. I was called in to investigate the site of Eve's escape from SAINT custody. She was being transported in a Imperv..er, Zesuium casket with a complex locking mechanism only accessible from the outside, guarded by a host of NH-7s and escorted with trucks and tanks."

As he talked Wazu continued to look among the food presented, settling on rice and eggs to fill his plate with.

"... SAINT had concluded that the convoy was ambushed by a group of well armed Nepleslians and destroyed. However numerous bodies were missing from the area entirely and Eve's casket had not been damaged at all. A SAINT key had been used to open it and let her out, not an anti-matter torch or any cutting tools. The SAINT transport group was compromised and not just at a low level. Someone had access to the keys required for opening the casket, someone knew the time of departure, the route, and had the capacity to assign SAINT agents to the convoy that were sympathetic to their goals."

"Before then a 4th fleet admiral was assassinated on board his own ship, though this time she was using a different name than Eve. She had no connection with the man so it was not a personal killing. Someone had ordered his death and used Eve to carry it out. To even begin such an operation she would need information on where the ship was and have someone arrange a transfer there for her." Wazu did his best to hold back from mentioning that he thought the admiral had deserved what was coming to him.

"On Ralfaris, someone was using Eve to assassinate key individuals and apply political pressure. Her targets were mainly civilians too, not that she had any connection to them either but someone had ordered their deaths in order to further a political agenda," Wazu failed to mention that the deaths in question were his mother and his mother's caretaker, both of which had been killed just to send a message to him.

"I do not care about Eve herself, she is just a tool. If she were to be taken down someone would release her, bring her back, or find a suitable substitute. I want to know who has been pulling her strings and to do that I need to get in contact with her again." Wazu winced a bit, realizing he should not have said 'again' at the end of the sentence as it could lead to more questions he did not want to answer just yet. All the same he kept a close eye on Nyton to watch his reactions. He wanted to see how Nyton would react, surprise, confusion, suspicion, anything that might give away more information. After all Wazu knew he could not count on all SAINT agents to be as incompetent as the ones used against Nepleslia in the past. "I gather that your group here is trying to capture or kill eve as part of an effort to dismantle her organization?"

One big clue Wazu had of the actual ship's size was the rather enormous viewport the wardroom had facing the ship's rear, where he recognized the front half of the smaller detachable vessel the Miharu's crew named Hoshi. The visible engine fins flaring out back (the portside one looked rather chewed up on top) sort of gave him a confirmation that the two joined ships matched the silhouette of the vessel displayed on the ship patches he had seen so far.

From looking at the combat damage, the vessel's armor seemed unusually thick for its size class, likely three times thicker than what the DIoN had on file for the other ship likely in the same size category - the Irim heavy gunship. That was probably why the ship had its uncharacteristically huge sublight propulsion drives (those rearswept winglike fins) - most Ketsurui Fleet Yard vessels tended on much smaller engines.

A quick, rough estimate, of the Miharu's size ended up at 200 meters long and 100 meters wide. He was less certain about the height, seeing he had little indication of the ship's deck count and their average height (Hoshi seemed conservative, but the wardroom he was in was at the height one usually reserved for hangars and gymnasiums, not the confines of a starship); he was certain the ship was at least twenty meters tall... and from the shadow of somesort of rollbar falling on Hoshi perhaps even 30 meters.

While the tone of the enlisted woman's voice didn't seem disturbed, Masako would have had to been blind to not notice the fidgeting. The left hand upon the right arm seemed to be a sign of nervousness as well. "Breakfast can wait," Masako replied as she pointed at the edge of the bed next to herself. "Sit," she said gently.

"You seem as if you are trying to keep it bottled. Want to talk?" the Warrant Officer asked in almost a motherly tone.

Rin blinked at the sudden appearance and joining by Yoroko. She briefly wondered why the other was there, but quickly took it as silly enlisted antics. Great. "Okay," the sprite replied with a vaguely polite tone.

"You?" she asked in return after Rin took a bite of food. It was necessary to at least ask; better to look like she at least partially didn't mind the presence, rather than to get an earful by some officer or even other enlisted. Besides, people would more likely cooperate later if they think you're a good person before.

Yukari took one look at the decontamination showers and turned away from them. They were too depressing.

When she entered the bath, she saw Miyoko, Sumaru and Tom still there. She did not feel like sitting next to Tom, not right then, but she bent down and kissed the top of his head before sliding in next to Miyoko, far enough away that the scents of the bath would cover her own aroma. Her things were in the changing room, but her towel was at the lip of the bath. She had not taken it off until she was at the bath's lip; she was familiar with Sumaru's feelings, if only from her knowledge of samurai.

Her eyes looked ahead to the painted black sands of Ash Bay. "It is good to relax," she said quietly to Miyoko.

Tom nodded to Miyoko when she slid into the bath.

"I was here for Miharu's maiden voyage," he answered. "Which was what, 2 years ago now?"

His hand came out of the water and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Yes, YE 29 was when we kicked off. We've had a lot of crew come and go in that time, but I don't think Miharu and I could stand to be apart. I've repaired her so many times that she doesn't even ask for verifications any more."

He chuckled lightly, rolling his neck against the lip of the bath and staring at the ceiling.

"We're practically married, I think."

Yukari then came by and deposited a kiss upon his head, which made the Yamataian flash a smile as he nodded to her with a "Good morning, Shosa."

After she was seated in the bath, Tom stretched his hands above his head, loosening up a muscle before resting his arms on the edge of the bath.

"Anyway, we never really had the opportunity to chat, Juni. Tell me about yourself. How is everything with you? Do you have any particular plans for the future now that we've wrapped up this mission?"

Nyton listened coolly to Heram explain a whole lot more than he expected. He studied Heram, looked for physical keys, listened for inflections, before realizing that the man was studying him as well. Now the exchange grew even more interesting, as Nyton had already been quite guarded to begin with. A string of memories from his recorder labeled POKER FACE ran which were full of calm and serene moments in his life. While he could control his actions and demeanor consciously this would further balance any subtle physiological signals. No telling what Heram was using to analyze me at the moment. Nyton thought.

The plate Nyton held began to be filled with three pieces of toast, some eggs both hardboiled and scrambled, along with two pieces of bacon. A bland selection, one which he hoped would not give away anything of his character. Likewise he remained stoic even when presented with so much information. Not bad. His information certainly assists me in my research. It is unfortunate we cannot compare notes. he thought to himself. That was when he caught something. A flinch, very brief, just out of the corner of his eye. That is, if his eyes had corners anymore, but the image was filled in by his circular vision. He rewound the memory quickly and tracked down the associated words.

"I want to know who has been pulling her strings and to do that I need to get in contact with her again.

Click to expand...

Nyton did not look at Heram but rather looked around for a tray and cover to use to bring breakfast back to Kotori. It was a feint though as he caught what was possibly the cause of Heram's uncontrolled reaction. If he said 'again' then that means he has been in contact with Eve previously. How was he in contact with Eve before and why? What would he have that would give him access to Eve? Nyton thought while Heram asked a question that had been previously established would not be answered.

Instead of addressing the question, Nyton instead did as had been promised and ignored it, getting the attention of one of the scullery sprites instead. "Excuse me, could you fetch me a tray and cover? I need to deliver breakfast and would like to keep it warm." he said. The sprite nodded and bowed, disappearing back into the kitchen area on her task. With that accomplished Nyton then looked directly at Heram.

"I thank you for your open exchange of information. I do mean that and express that if you have anymore that you may have forgotten at this time, feel free to bring it forward. Now then if you will just give me a second while I wait for that sprite with the tray to return-ah! There she is." Nyton said when the ever so helpful sprite arrived with the delivery. It was a simple plastic food tray, commonly used on ships with a little Miharu logo emblazoned in the middle. A cover came with it as well which was simple and functional. It would cover the expanse of the tray up to within the diameter of the upraised edges.

"Thank you." Nyton said as he accepted it and set his own plate down to begin hunting for more food. To his surprise there was some salmon served up, although someone had already dug into it. He poured some rice into a bowl and then set several pieces of salmon down on the rice. Hopefully the rice would absorb some of the salmon scent, enhancing the flavor and giving the illusion of greater quantity. It was a simple trick he had picked up back home. A few condiments such as soy, salt, and pepper, were added to the side. He then complimented the dish with some vegetables, miso soup, and eggs. He placed the cover over the food to keep it warm and figured he would grab drinks and utensils later. With that task done, and now carefully balancing a tray one handed along with a dish of his own food, Nyton motioned with his head over to the tables. "I appreciate your patience sir. Let us sit down and begin to eat. I will begin to explain just what sort of formalities will be expected of you while you are being interviewed by the Taisa."

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Shizuka was surprised when Masako requested that she sit down with her. Every instinct in her wanted to run away, to flee, just as she had fled from the earlier terror. Instead she sat down but when her back grazed against Akiko's foot she immediately locked up. At that Shizuka shook her head. "No, I cannot. Not here. Not in front of-!" she began to say, somewhat loudly before she got control of her volume. Looking back at Akiko the neko verified that her sister was still asleep.

"I cannot discuss this in front of Akiko-chan." Shizuka whispered.

The young Neko frowned deeply in concern over Shizuka's panicked reaction. "Fine," she said softly as she glanced over at Akiko and nodded. "But now that I've seen your reaction, I definitely think you should talk about it," Masako commented as she slowly stood up.

"I will see you in the Port-side Recreation Room after breakfast." she said before sighing. "This isn't an order...and you have the right to not come, but I think it would do you a bit of good." the Warrant Officer explained before giving her a gently, yet cute smile. "I will also get you some extra uniforms. Holographic clothing may work for modesty, but it would obviously get a little chilly," she said in a joking tone.

Shizuka closed her eyes and breathed deeply a few times. After a few seconds she opened them again and nodded. "Hai, Kurohoshi-Juni. And yes I would greatly appreciate some clothes. Thank you." she said.

"I would think so," Masako replied as she pat Shizuka upon the shoulder gently. "I should have them as soon as possible for you," she stated as she stood up. She kept her eyes upon Shizuka for a while long before bowing politely and leaving her room. Once the door was closed, the young Neko let out a sigh before heading towards the wardroom.

Upon her arrival once more into the wardroom, she noticed that Breakfast had actually been served in a buffet style. "I guess some of the sprites were caretakers," she mumbled to herself as she went to grab food for herself. "Miharu-san, do we have any spare uniforms available in sizes for the Yamabuchis?" she asked the ship as she grabbed a little of the miso soup and mixed the rice and vegetables together with the bacon and eggs, making something like a stir-fry of it all.

After gathering her food, she turned to look at the tables. Noting the Taii speaking with one of their VIP guests, though Masako didn't realize who exactly he was. All she knew was that he was staying in the other Passenger Suite and was a Nepleslian as far as she could tell. Other than that, she didn't care to dig any further. She also noted Yoroko and Rin sitting together, though the young sprite seemed to be her usual reserved self. While she was an Officer, of sorts, she had been talking to the enlisted on board more than socializing with other officers. Maybe now was a good chance to do so.

"Pardon me, Claymere-Taii," Masako spoke up and bowed politely to both men. "But would you mind if I sit here?"

Wazu had to think for a moment about Nyton’s response. He was not falling for the same tricks that Hinoto and the Computer had. He either was just luckily avoiding giving information away by having other things to do or actually thinking about his responses. Getting to observe Nyton in combat implied more the latter than the former to Wazu, this guy clearly knew what he was supposed to be doing even if he did not exactly nail the ‘how’ down.

Then there was the question of the extra food in the to-go tray. It was unlikely that he was saving it for later, SAoY ships had always had plenty of food available at any given time. They were going to go see the captain, so it made sense that the food was for her. For Wazu it made sense that Taii Nyton was more along the lines of XO Nyton.

Nyton also was not responding as Wazu had expected when he mentioned Eve’s connection to SAINT. If he was one of the numerous low level double agents that Wazu expected to be in SAINT then he was employing the ‘just act cool’ approach to dealing with the accusation. Not necessarily a give away but not necessarily proof of innocence either.

“Well, that is the jist of the information I have. If you want more details feel free to ask.” Wazu said as he followed Nyton to a table to sit and eat, having seasoned his food with a bit of soy and hot sauce, then bringing a fork to eat it with, waiting for Nyton to sit down before adding, “Lets get the formalities out of the way,” wanting to quickly learn them so he could get on to more important things.

Provoke and Confront clearly was not working on Nyton and Wazu needed him on ‘his side’ if there was such a thing in this situation. He tried to think back to his best source of information on how to be a super spy…

…What would Phalanx Phillip do?

Nyton was just about to begin his lesson on protocol when Masako made her presence known. He took a quick second to think on whether her presence would give away anything but did not think so. If anything she may be able to help throw Heram off balance if that were possible.

"Not at all, Kurohoshi-Juni. Allow me to assist." Nyton replied, standing up to pull a seat out for Masako. As Nyton stood up and was behind Masako he pretended to whisper something to her ear, only mouthing the words 'Follow my lead.' while knowing that she would not see it. Through his circular vision he watched to see if Heram took note of this, possibly make him paranoid. Then turning his head he faced Heram. "Kurohoshi, may I introduce the Honorable Heram Wazu of the Diplomatic Imperium of Nepleslia. Sir, this is Itto-Juni Kurohoshi Masako." he then introduced.

"Kurohoshi-Juni, I was about to explain some of the proper procedures for addressing the Taisa along with behavior and formalities. It would seem that Mr. Wazu here is a little bit unschooled in diplomacy. In order to prevent an international incident I have taken it upon myself to teach him." Nyton explained while sitting down again.


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Meanwhile Shizuka returned to the side of the bed and looked over her younger sister. A huge wave of shame washed over her before she lay back down next to Akiko. There were tears threatening to emerge again but there was no time to hide them as Akiko woke up. "Mmm oneesan, daijyobu?" she asked half-awake. Shizuka shook her head. "Its nothing Akiko-chan." she replied, wiping her face quickly.

Akiko rolled and propped herself up a bit on her arms. "Oneesan, I'm sorry. You were thinking about....that." Akiko said, with a hint of sadness. She then shook her head and smiled. "I'll always love you oneesan! Oneesan protected me from the monsters and, and I'll do everything to make you happy again!" she said while throwing her arms around Shizuka. I have to do what I can to help oneesan get through this! Akiko thought to herself.

In response, Shizuka just put her arms around Akiko and hugged her. She had no idea what to beyond that at the moment.

"Eh?" Masako couldn't help but question her superior as he actually stood up and pulled out a seat for her. While it was sweet of him, it wasn't a usual move. "Ah, th...thank you, sir," she said as her ear twitched at the breath from his lips. This was getting a bit awkward now as she took the seat offered to her and tried not to blush. A Neko's ears were sensitive after all, one didn't breath near them without causing a distracting sensation. "A pleasure to meet you, Wazu-san," the young Neko greeted the Nepleslian after the introductions were over. Wait, where had she heard that name before. It was a pretty important one if she remember correctly, but she was drawing quite a blank. A cursory search brought up a few ship classes and an individual whom was heavily classified for the most part. And what wasn't classified seemed slightly...odd.

"Interesting," she spoke up as she stirred her concoction of rice, vegetable, bacon, and egg with a spoon. "That is very thoughtful of you, Claymere-Taii," Masako replied with a smile. "And how are lessons progressing?" she asked as she took a spoonful into her mouth with a thoughtful expression upon her face.