RP: YSS Celia Mission 3D(2): Spelunking

*Shosa said not to disturb the bodies,* Isuzu warned as Ren moved to secure one of the floating corpses. She's a bit distracted, the Neko observed to herself. *We should make sure to get video of all of this, though,* Isuzu added in a deliberately distracted tone, as if to brush off the slip her partner had almost made- as well as to give the Yamataian something to do.

Ren retracted her hands just before touching the first body and nodded her thanks. Instead she began to use the bit's to get as much video and physical data as possible.

~Thanks....~

Isuzu's armor began interfacing with the ship's computer, and quickly returned with a report:

AIES said:

Security measures encountered. Requesting permission to request services from Celia MEGAMI. Further attempts at penetrating security defenses without assistance from MEGAMI might result in trap activation and/or data loss.

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There were only a few bodies left. The rest were likely blown out to space when the bridge underwent explosive decompression. It was hard to tell under the glaring searchlights of the scout drones, but most of the bodies appeared to be Nepleslian.

Frowning slightly at the report, Isuzu opened an encypted channel to the Celia. *Celia, my armor's AIES can't safely circumvent the security on the pirate ship's computer. Requesting assistance.*

~These bodies all appear to be Nepleslian...Huh.~ Ren decided to check any of the rents in the bridge besides those that lead out to see if any went to something interesting. So she began a systematic search of them with her Bit's.

“Acknowledged, Kuroaki-Hei,” replied the Celia via the same channel. “I will establish an interface with your AIES. Stand by...”

Isuzu felt her armor's joints get stiff for a brief moment, before relaxing again. She could also see that the computer screen in front of her had flickered back to life, and was now busy rapidly scrolling text across the screen, at a pace way too fast for her to read. It seemed to be yielding information to the Celia, at least.

“Most of the data regarding the last battle seemed to be damaged or corrupted,” the Celia reported after a moment. “I did, however, find the captain's logs and his personal journal. They are both heavily encrypted, but the encryption is no match for me, of course. Give me a few minutes.”

Given permission to explore, Renko's sensor drones entered the cracks in the ship's internal structure, and then proceeded to roam the ship, gathering and sending back data, returning only to replenish their power supply. It appeared that most of the crew asphyxiated when the ship was rammed, causing the hull to rupture and the ship to decompress. Dead bodies floated like ghosts in the hallways, their discarded tools and weapons floating besides them. The carnage was especially brutal in the engineering bay, where the other ship managed to pierce the hull.

Sensor data in that area was sketchy due to the radiation, but it appeared that the emergency nuclear fission reactor, which was damaged in the attack, still managed to activate itself when both primary and secondary engines failed, thus leaking dangerous levels of radiation into the surrounding area. The sensor drones, who took turns exploring that area to minimize exposure, also sent back grainy images of crewmen impaled on large pieces of shrapnel, or simply cut in half when the ship was rammed.

“I decrypted the first recoverable entry,” reported Celia.

Captain's Log Entry (5 days ago)

We have returned to Halna to sell off our meager plunder.

The local gossip of the day is that several of the pirates in port have taken on some kind of sickness. Apparently, the primary symptom is that disgusting boils appear all over the patient's back. The sick also becomes anti-social and depraved, even by our low piratical standards. Several of those tending to the sick has already been attacked and wounded by their own patients.

Those afflicted with this disease are currently being treated at Halna's main infirmary, where they are restrained for the safety of everyone involved. I shall discuss with the other captains about the possibility of placing the sick under quarantine, lest the disease is contagious.

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"It appears quarrantine procedures may be in order, Celia," Isuzu mused aloud, though doubtless the computer had already come to a similar conclusion. While the Celia continued to decode the logs, Isuzu turned her attention to Ren's drone feeds to see if any of the corpses bore obvious signs of infection.

*Hibiki-san, I need to stay here to maintain Celia's link to the computer. This ship appears to be secure; perhaps you could begin checking the Vampire?* she suggested mildly. *Maintain your bits' sensor feed to me and I can be at your side instantly, if you need backup.*

~Sounds good to me. Just let me recall my drones and I'll be on my way.~ Ren proceeded to do just that. As soon as all the bit's were recalled she proceeded out the tear in the hull they entered through before making her way to the Vampire to check for a possible entry point.

“I'm not too worried,” replied Celia in response to Isuzu's musings. “Nepleslian immune systems are pretty weak. We'll hose you two down when you get back. By the way, I've decrypted another log entry and a journal entry.”

Captain's Log Entry (4.5 days ago)

The disease indeed appears to be contagious, and we have initiated quarantine procedures at the main infirmary. Our efforts are hampered by the fact that most residents here don't have much respect for authority, considering that the vast majority of them are pirates. They do, however, respect shows of force. A few well-placed warning shots are almost always enough to restore order.

Captain's Personal Journal Entry (4.5 days ago)

My medical officer has expressed concern that our current quarantine procedures might not be enough. What if the contagion is airborne? We lack the medical facilities here to perform a full quarantine. I fear for the safety of this station, and dare not discuss this with my crew.

I shall, however, discuss with the other captains about the possibility of sealing off sections of the station with our airlock system. If the disease continues to spread, it may be the only way to save my home.

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It did not take long before Renko found a similarly large hole in the Vampire-class vessel's hull. It appeared that the ship took quite a pounding before it rammed the Bellystabber.

"Pirates aren't explorers; any contagion they encounter is likely to be engineered," Isuzu pointed out diplomatically. "I'd agree that the threat is low for us, but not non-existent, and this is something we may wish to inform our allies of."

Upon finding a hole Renko jetted in, sending Bit's out to search ahead for any potential dangers. Penetrating deep into the Vampire, looking for the bridge as well as any potentially useful information.

There did not appear to be any dangerous sources of radiation inside the Vampire craft, and its hull provided adequate shielding from the radiation leaking out of the Bellystabber. The first thing Renko noticed, once she was inside, was the overwhelming amount of wreckage aboard the ship, which probably fought a very one-sided battle before her crew performed the ramming maneuver.

Soon, Renko was able to locate the bridge, where she discovered three bodies, all floating in vacuum: one Yamataian, one Nepleslian, and one Elysian.

It would be up to the coroner to make the final assessments, but Renko could tell that the Nepleslian male most likely died fairly quickly, judging by the extensive, deep burns and shrapnel wounds on his neck, chest, and arms. Looking around for a source of the burns, Renko could see that most of the power conduits in the bridge had overloaded and blew out. It was probable that the man died while trying to perform power transfer or repairs.

Small, dark brown beads of blood drifted slowly away from the corpse.

The other two men most likely asphyxiated after the ship rammed into the other pirate vessel, causing explosions that took out many chunks of the ship's hull and thereby triggering explosive decompression. There were only minor cuts and scrapes on their bodies.

The sensor drones offered Renko views of the bodies and the wreckage from multiple perspectives. She could see that the three men wore commercial uniforms of some sort. She could also see that the Elysian man wore a pendant of some sort, which shined brightly under the harsh lighting from the sensor drones.

Unfortunately, the central computer system looked to be almost completely destroyed. Renko's AIES reported that retrieval of its memory storage units was not out of the question, but given its current state, it would take an expert in Vampire-class computer systems to do the job.

The frown on Isuzu's face deepened as she looked over the feed from Ren's drones. The state of the bodies seemed to add weight to the theory that the ramming maneuver was a suicide attack. "These men fought a losing battle and then sacrificed their lives to protect that merchant vessel," she observed in a shared channel between herself, Ren and the Celia. "I'd be very interested to know what would make them do that. Any thoughts?"

The first thing Ren checked for when she realized the pair of asphyxiations were just that was for decompression signs or any sort of other damage on the body's. She then sent a sensor view of the uniforms to Celia to determine if they were anything important.

"Celia? What are these uniforms from? Independent security company or something? Also do we have anybody who knows Vampire systems? I believe we can retrieve the computer core's from this thing but the systems are totally trashed. If not can you walk me through retrieval?"

"As for what would make them kamikaze... I'd say that they were protecting the cargo. It must be something extremely important. Maybe vital supplies? Or perhaps it's people. What was the registered cargo for the transport vessels?"

“Retrieving the computer system will have to wait,” replied the Celia. “The Vampire is not a standard Star Army ship class, so I don't have any relevant knowledge or skills to upload to you. Lu-Taii can probably perform the extraction, but he's on another mission right now.”

“As for the uniforms, they belong to the trading company that owns the Graceful Jaunt, which the pirates are holding hostage right now. So this ship is probably from the same company,” the Celia reported. “They are a small, private company, so I'm having trouble getting details on them, including the contents of the Graceful Jaunt's cargo. I've found their employee roster though. You may draw your own conclusions.”

Buckley, Jared
Buckley, Jerome
Naam, Adelee
Oboe, Grace
Oboe, Jae
Oboe, Sayad
Pantheo, Francis
Pantheo, Teresa

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“By the way, I've decrypted another entry in the pirate captain's journal. He started using a few more encryption protocols around this time, but they were no match for me, of course.”

Captain's Log Entry (3 days ago)

It appeared that people have been slipping items past the quarantine. A few well-placed bribes will get luxury items, such as candy and recreational alcohol, into the infirmary. This does not concern me much. What's much more disturbing is that some of the patients have began sending paper letters and personal effects to their friends and family outside of the quarantine zone. A few hours ago, one infected man even briefly broke out of the quarantine zone, armed with a pistol. Security had to shoot him. He's from an influential family here on the station, and I fear that the troubles this man has caused us has only began.

As a precaution, we had sealed off the entire section of the station containing the medical bay.

Captain's Personal Journal Entry (3 days ago)

Why the hell did they use paper when an electronic message would've gone through just fine? Are these fucks trying to infect the rest of us?!

Before we sealed the whole section off, the ship's doctor had voluntarily ventured into the quarantine zone. He will examine the patients first-hand and attempt to find a cure, and has promised to keep me updated with his status.

Funny, I never took him for the idealistic type. Maybe he fancies one of the nurses in the infirmary.

I haven't told my crew about this yet, but it's only a matter of time before they figure it out. I have no idea what to tell them.

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"Looks like a family business," Isuzu noted. "I guess that could explain their actions." Admittedly, she didn't know a lot about 'family' in the traditional sense, but Isuzu imagined that humans had to care about their blood relations at least as much as she cared about her 'sisters' back home.

"If you want to switch places with me, I'll take a look at that computer core, Hibiki-san," the Neko offered gamely. "I'm not an expert, but I dabbled a bit in non-standard systems during training. I may be able to do something with it."

"Computers aren't my thing. Switching is fine with me."

Ren began to extract herself from the Vampire.

"It's gruesome in there but most of the damage seems to have taken place before the Vampire kamikaze'd. What with the way the panel blew out and burned the one guy.... My guess is they tried to hold out as long as possible but when they realized they were going to bite it anyway they decided to....well i believe the philosophy of 'if I'm going out you're going with me' comes to mind here. It may have been about the cargo but with the idea of family's added into the equation, I'd put my money on protecting their loved ones at the cost of their own lives."

(Assuming neither Celia nor mishap prevents us...)
Once Celia had properly interfaced with the Bellystabber's computer through Ren's armor, Isuzu made her way over to the smaller ship. Unsurprisingly, her database of ship schematics didn't contain a file on the Vampire class; Yamatai didn't use them, so there was little chance that she'd ever need to work on one.

I guess we do this the hard way. Scrutinizing the layout of the bridge and the data her AIES was feeding her, Isuzu tried to determine the most likely location of the Vampire's memory storage units.

Unfortunately, the computer system at the bridge was so extensively damaged that it had turned into one giant piece of slag, consisting mostly of melted plastic and twisted bits of metal. Isuzu could theoretically cut into it to see if there were any salvageable parts inside, but without knowing the layout of the computer in its original state, it was impossible to tell where the interesting parts would be. Thus, any cutting would carry a significant risk of damaging what she was trying to recover.

“See if you can find any identifying information on the bodies, like a name tag, perhaps,” ordered the Celia. “Do not touch any of the bodies though.”

The atmosphere in the two bridges were not that much different: darkness punctuated by the sensor drones harsh search lights, bodies floating eerily, typical equipment aboard starship bridges in various states of damage, etc.

"Roger, Celia." Contemplating the bodies and the melted hunk of slag before her, Isuzu suddenly wished her AIES sensor suite had some sort of magnetic resonance imaging function. Maybe I can get a better sensor package installed next time. Setting her wide-band radar to the highest sensitivty, the Neko scanned the corpses in hopes of being able to pick out any metal bits.

Meanwhile, Celia's order had reminded of her of something that she'd glimpsed briefly through Ren's drones. Floating toward the Elysian man, Isuzu moved to examine the pendant that hung around his neck, feeding the image back to the MEGAMI.