Yukari dipped into a short bow as Nyton left. She was alone, outside of Kotori's quarters, with little left to do other than order parts, supplies and perhaps a starship or two.
The work was quickly done. The destroyed Uriko bomber would be replaced by the new V5 Tora-class. Since Miharu had expended only a few of its torpedoes, Yukari opted not to acquire the new Z1-type ordnance. The ship's launchers were not properly calibrated for the Z1s anyway. Extra missile pods for the armors, replacement forearm shields for the Daisy, a Daisy helm to replace the one Nyton had used; all of the work was done from her and Tom's quarters, as she looked out through the large picture window that acted as the far wall. The power of a computerized brain and volumetric projection.
Typical requisition routes were avoided. Yukari culled Kyoto Base armory logs and hangar bay stockpile records, picking out pieces here and there to dodge confronting an inquisitive KAMI or higher IES unit. It was more time-consuming this way, but she tended to come across interesting discarded units or weapons, things the Star Army tossed aside for in its constant quest for the best-of-all-things thing.
One of the things she came across was a tiny collection of six Aether Beam Sabers, neatly bundled and marked for transport to a 5th XF unit destined never to receive them. Yukari smiled. Though the weapons were not useful to Miharu's Daisy contingent, they could be used by the Mindy armors in deep space, and perhaps one of the engineers could tinker with one, come up with something more utilitarian. Yuzuki seemed to thrive off such projects. A bit of work with the requisition logs, and the bundle was being scuttled to one of the shuttles assigned to bring supplies to Miharu through the starbase.
More power armor equipment was "found" in another fleet's request for the brand-new version of a Motoyoshi Fleet Yards project, the Plasma Blade. That sounded much more the speed of a Daisy-clad crewmember. The stock of Durandium cylinders was set for a ship that had already been destroyed; the cylinders were set to be bound for the Miharu.
Yukari also found, much to her distaste, yet another set of uniform types. Since YE 26 Yukari recalled going through at least three different types of uniforms, each more complex than the last, and this set appeared to further the trend. But, as Yukari examined them, they had advantages too, especially the Engineering Protective Jumpsuit. The specifications were given to Miharu for production, with instructions distributed to technicians and engineers to adopt the protective suit.
Thoughts of Tom in the suit were stored for later use.
The Working Uniform's belts were definitely more robust than what Yukari was used to; she ordered a dozen of them, in case some crew wanted to test them.
Most of the other things Miharu needed were repair parts and raw material; Tom and his cabal of sprite technicians had already submitted a list of what they required, so Yukari gave it her electronic "stamp" and let it go.
Personnel came next — specifically, which personnel to take on. Miharu used an algorithm Yukari had taken several hours to compute to filter out the unwanted. She had been confident Miyoko could have done the math faster and with greater accuracy, but she was content to examine what was left over from the filter, as it gave names and faces to the enormous ranks of the Star Army.
Two candidates stood out as ones that could potentially be molded into fine crewmembers who were not lock-step with Yamataian political norms. One was a sniper; the other a technician. The sniper's mother had been killed during battle, and since then she had become shy but cooperative, according to her file. The technician had suffered documented abuse at Educational Facility 1 at the hands of a Yamataian teacher; the chip on her shoulder might be just enough to allow her to acclimate to how and why Miharu did things.
Yukari flagged both for formal interviews. She smiled, happy that work was done, and moved on to a much more enjoyable form of labor — cleaning her various firearms.
