RP: YSS Celia Mission 3C: [Space] Grace Under Fire

Nodding, Isuzu simply rotated in place until the center of the debris cloud was 'above' her and held her arms over her head. Any small impactors with enough kinetic force to damage a mindy would have already left the cloud, but they would disturb less 'evidence' this way.

As they moved deeper, Isuzu spun her drones off in a local sweep pattern, feeding the sensor and positioning data from all six into her armor's computer. *Please give me access to your drone feeds,* she requested. *I'll create a composite 3D image of the field as we search.*

As soon as Ren breached the debris field she released all eighteen of her drones and began to do a sweep of the area. Feeding all data into Isuzu's Mindy without a complaint.

Dropping the shields and shifting to a more comfortable position, Ren aimed herself for the largest piece of debris. ~We should probably start looking here...coming?~

Isuzu nodded again. *Verify it with the drones first. There could be unexploded ordinance or functional automatic weapons,* she warned. Doubtless Ren had already thought of that, but it didn't hurt to be extra careful. *There might be micro- and nano-scale devices in here as well; there's too much loose mass and radiation to get a good reading,* she added, plowing carefully through the particulate cloud shield-first.

Ren spared a bit of attention from the eight bit's she'd sent into the mass to check it out to reply. ~Thanks for the thought but I'm already a step ahead of you. I'll need to recharge the advanced group as soon as possible. The power only lasts for about twenty seconds beyond the field.~

Landing lightly on the surface of the chunk of ship Ren recalled the old bits and sent another wave in to scout deeper.

~So where are you from? If you don't mind my asking.~ Ren decided to distract herself from her nervousness by idle conversation.

*Jiyuu,* Isuzu stated simply, *you?* Though the balance of her attention was devoted to analyzing the data gathered by the two dozen drones they had scanning the area, inside her helmet Isuzu's ears pricked up in cat-like curiosity. Here it comes; c'mon, Nepleslia...

Renko and Isuzu stood on the hull of what their AIES could identify as a Vampire-class ship. The debris around them was so thick that they could only see a few meters around them. Their sensors picked out an approaching friendly unit from all the background radiation, and noted the figure on their spatial maps.

It was not long before they could see a Lamia armor coming toward them from among the nearby debris. “Hello!” its pilot greeted them. “Whew. I almost missed you guys due to all this noise on the sensors! Anyway, a few of my sisters and I have been assigned to guard this wreckage, make sure only authorized personnel can snoop around, that sort of stuff. Don't worry, Celia-sama already told me about you guys. If you want to have a look inside, you should walk along the hull in that direction,” she pointed with her rifle. “I should warn you, though, it doesn't look pretty over there, and I doubt the scenery improves once you get inside.”

Speaking of Nepleslia... -not that the ship's place of manufacture was a great indicator of its affiliation, given how many of these small scout ships had been pressed into 'non-military' use.

"Thanks," Isuzu replied, nodding to the other Neko. "Before you go, I'd appreciate it if I could get an upload of any data you and your sisters have collected since you arrived- even A/V memory, if it's not too much trouble," she added quickly.

~I'm from Tatiana actually.~ Ren turned in the direction of the approaching friendly listened to the Laima.

"Thank you?" Ren said in slight confusion, sending a few Bit's in the direction indicated to determine exactly what the Laima meant by "not pretty"

Having donned and secured her Mindy’s helmet during the flight over to the pirate ship, Kiyoko made a final check of her systems and weapons – making sure the safety of her SMG was now off – before she preceded Zug and the Taisho out onto the deck of the pirate ship’s shuttle bay. Unlike the two pirates that revealed themselves the Neko officer had no intention of holstering her weapon, though to not unduly draw their ire she didn’t keep them in her sights as she may have liked to do, instead holding it across her body and inclined towards the ground slightly. If either of them thought they could out-draw her from there she welcomed them to try.

Kiyoko positioned herself so as to allow the Taisho to face the two Nepleslians while allowing herself to put her Mindy between Branard and the pirates at a moment’s notice. Trusting pirates to be pirates – as well as to gain any useful intelligence while it was available – Kiyoko set her Mindy’s sensors to scan over the ship’s interior as she spoke.

“Before we depart I would like to give due warning that I shall dispatch anyone or anything that I deem to be of threat to the Taisho without warning or mercy; I therefore ask you to refrain from any acts of bravado or stealth lest they be regarded as such.” Kiyoko’s voice – relayed to the two men via her Mindy’s external speakers – was measured and calm, her tone the same she would use to deliver a pre-flight briefing on where to find a shuttle’s safety equipment and emergency exits.

(OOC: Moving things along, assuming that the Lamia pilot departs without incident and we don't suddenly stumble on any earth-shattering revelations in our sensor data alone...)

*Tatiana?* Isuzu had heard that one before; it was an Imperial 'core' world. *That's part of the Warmaster network, isn't it?* she asked conversationally, though inside she was grimacing in disappointment. The odds that Ren had been born a Geshrin had just skyrocketed. Dammit! There went her perfect record.

But that was what she got for making a snap decision, she supposed. As the drones hadn't turned up anything terribly useful or dangerous yet, Isuzu indicated with a tilt of her head that they should move on. Floating in the direction the Lamia had indicated, the technical sentry carefully inspected the hull passing beneath her as she moved.

~It is...I got my training at Fort Ready. Upgraded from Geshrin about two years ago I think. You very old? I'm eighteen....~

Ren followed along paying more attention to her bit's and their cycle of distant range scouting along the hull. Trying to keep as many out in a cycle for as far as they could go before having to turn back. Mostly checking the hull for breaches and potential hazards.

The Neko shook her head. *I'll be a year old in June,* she replied evenly. Isuzu had thought a bit about the timing of her birth, and her transfer to the Third XF; she'd probably been created for one of the ships destroyed at Taiie. I'm lucky I wasn't born a Sprite, she mused ruefully.

~Really? I'm a late May baby myself. I got my Yamataian body for my sixteenth birthday. Not that it was exactily an auspicious moment or anything that was just when it happened.

Are you getting a good feed from this? I'm not paying attention to what's coming in only that the bit's are moving and not hitting any obstacles. 'Tho it looks like were approaching the entry point.~

Ren pointed at the obvious point where the Laima had probably meant to enter from.

The Lamia nodded. “I'll have the information sent to your AIES. Good luck!”

As Renko and Isuzu moved forward, a huge piece of hull suddenly loomed up at them. Information began flooding in from the Lamias in the area, and the geometry of the wreck that they stood upon soon became clear: It was not a single ship, but one ship impaled on another.

The other ship was of the Bellystabber-class, and, ironically enough, had appeared to have suffered a ramming attack from the Vampire-class on the underside of its hull. Extensive structural damage was done to both ships at and around the point of impact, to the extent that it was no longer recognizable where one ship ended and the other ship began.

The entry points were fairly obvious, however: many cracks and gaps appeared on the hulls of both ships near the point of impact. Someone wearing a Mindy armor could easily fit through some of the larger gaps.

Isuzu's mental 'voice' was distracted she answered Ren's question. *There's too much electromagnetic noise to get a lot outside of the visible spectrum, but-* As the sensor data from the Lamias began to come together in a coherent picture, a frown formed on the Neko's face. *-ah. Here, take a look.*

The engineer sent an image of the fatally entwined wrecks to Ren's armor, highlighting the most accessable entry point. *The Vampire was badly outclassed. She may have rammed the Bellystabber in hopes that the transport vessel would be able to escape,* she conjectured as Ren directed their drones to investigate the gaping gash in the hull that was their entrance.

The story here seemed pretty straightforward on the surface, but new questions were raised as well, such as what the pilots of the Vampire had wanted so desperately to defend. Jumping to conclusions had already gotten her burned once today, so Isuzu kept her further speculations to herself as she followed the other soldier into the armor-plated belly of the beast.

Ren gave the data a quick once over as she sent her bit's into the entry point that had been chosen. After confirming the safety she stepped in.

~Bet's that the vampire was on a skeleton crew? I wonder....Are you getting a bad vibe here? Or is it just me.~

*It would only need a few to operate. The crew could have evac'ed by shuttle,* Isuzu agreed. The same couldn't be said for the Bellystabber, however. Perturbed, she brought up the report the Celia had recieved from their sister ships.

Four pirate battleships versus a merchantman and a lone scout escort? Those were rotten odds; what could have possessed the crew of the Vampire to sacrifice their vessel and possibly their lives to take out just one of the pirate ships? Unless the ram was unintentional... but that was a longshot.

*Why did they even try to fight?* Isuzu wondered 'aloud.' Accessing the store of ship information that had been downloaded into her brain during training, Isuzu searched for a schematic of the Bellystabber-class battleship or, failing that, the Yui-class battleship it was based on. *We should see if we can get access to the ships' computers,* she suggested.

~I was just thinking that....~ Even as she spoke Ren stepped through the breach and started her Bit's looking for a likely access point to the local ships net, either one would do.

Looking around herself for access further into the Bellystabber from that point. A cautious edge to her movements.

~I'm gonna look for area's that are still pressurized as well. I still get this...vibe that were not alone in here. Keep your eyes open.~

Inside her helmet, Isuzu quirked an eyebrow. Honesly, she wasn't sure what to make of her partner's... 'vibe.' Maybe she was just intuition-impaired, but the young Neko didn't feel anything of the sort. *Hostiles stuck in pressurized sections of the ship are no threat to us,* she noted dryly. *It's the ones that aren't stuck that we might need to worry about.*

~That's what I'm worried about. Pirates in pressure suits.... with booby-traps.~ Ren shrugged as well as her Mindy would allow. ~If they're in pressurized sections we can just avoid them. But if they're roaming they could cause problems. Just chalk it up to paranoia and ignore it if you like. I have been bitten too many times to not be shy.~