RP: YSS Miharu Mission 4: The Fame and the Fury

As Masako approached the Taisa's quarters, she saw her huge superior on the way. "Ah," she responded as she bowed politely before frowning. "You did? I guess that is fortuitous then," she replied with a cute smile. "We can discuss it after the Officer's Meeting then," the small Neko suggested just as Tom walk in on the conversation.

"Oh there's no hurry it seems," Masako replied to the Chief Engineer with another polite bow and adorable smile. "We seem to have arrived here before Suzuka-shosa."

Yuzuki regarded Nimura for a few moments in the resulting silence. The elevator had stopped, and so had the sound; the elevator still creaked under the weight of the capacitor, but that was it.

'Prompt' was Yuzuki's immediate thought, but it wasn't her first - her first had been 'Creepy'. It was unnerving how she had been snuck up on. Maybe, Yuzuki asked herself, she had just been distracted by the elevator? Was she missing things? What else was she missing? She was spacing out, and that was frustrating.

Something about Nimura's placid gaze was unnerving. Without really thinking about it, Yuzuki shied away from it, starting off towards the fabrication bay, expecting that the small group would follow.

"I don't have anything for you immediately," Yuzuki said aloud, "but once we get these capacitors moved, we're going to need to start replacing all those temporary power cables. That's the focus. If the rest of it doesn't get done, it won't be as serious as losing those cables."

"I am fairly sure that the Juni already fabricated the replacements. Take a quick look-around for them, and if you don't find them, get the part number and send it to me. After you're done with that, grab three torches and start pulling the deckplates in the portside multipurpose bay."

That triggered something in the back of her mind. Had the Juni gone to the trouble of restoring the interior plating to its former pristine glory, replacing her spot-welded, mottled sheet plating? If that were true, those plates wouldn't be pristine for very long.

"Rin-san and I will be along when we finish with the capacitors. That'll be when you can leave too," she added over her shoulder at Kyoh, "I still need you down here moving these things. Can you give us that much of your time?"

Nimura nodded mutely and then left to climb the stairs leading up to the catwalk that provided access to the main passageway.

Miyoko gave a bit of a mental shrug at Yukari's distracted response. It wasn't hard to tell that the Shosa was rather lost in the reading, and she wasn't going to be the one to try shaking her out of it. At least, not just yet. Miyoko hurried to read along as the files were displayed, but Yukari's responses to them were starting to make her lean toward suggesting that she take a break of her own--it didn't exactly take a trained psychologist to see that the findings were getting to her.

The request for a meeting finally prompted a response from her. "Will you want us to help present the findings, or should we stay here and continue searching?"

Kyou nodded. "I'm pretty sure I can. I don't think she needed me back soon, I'm just not sure, but we'll plan for ne being here at least that long." She looked at Rin. "But since I don't know when I'll be needed, We should probably get to work."

"Yes that would seem to be the case. She may still be preparing to report." Nyton added to Masako's remark about arrival time.

"Well then, seeing that we do have a moment before the meeting I suppose I can at least send this." Nyton said as he brought up a volumetric window. He quickly cut and paste a quick message to Masako's message box. "There, just in case we find ourselves too busy to go over the subject you at least have an idea what needs to be discussed." he said.

"Takuma-Hei, please stay and ensure we have not missed other vital data," Yukari said slowly to the dark-haired Hei. She was still looking at the screen, her skin a little pale. "Heisho, please accompany me."

Yukari walked slow after the door to the MEGAMI room shut behind them. Each step she took appeared to Miyoko like her last — Heels never fully touching the ground, legs wobbly, knees bent. She put a hand on the side of the corridor and held herself for a couple seconds, as if she would tip over if not for her hand. Her other hand was on her gun at her hip, and her feet were spaced apart, shoulder-width. Slowly she closed her fingers on the wall, until just her tips touched it, her hand in a diamond shape. When they left the wall, she was steady, and she walked forward.

"I do not know if you will be able to stay in the meeting for long," she said, her voice much louder now. "I want you to give the overview of our findings. You can be brief and succinct where I cannot."

As they reached the main passageway, Yukari floated up while she looked back down at the Heisho, just a glance, before her eyes turned up again.

Yukari forced a smile to rest on her face as she met with the other officers outside Kotori's suite. "Thank you for arriving so quickly," she said to them. "Is the Taisa inside?"

Nyton looked over to Yukari and bowed upon her arrival. "No, not yet. We had only just arrived. But now that we are all assembled, why don't we find out?" he replied before ringing the chime on the door to Kotori's quarters.

"Ah, hai..." Miyoko rose to her feet to accompany Yukari. The scientist didn't look nearly as shaken as she had prior to her intermission, but returning to the files had served to return her to a grim mood rather quickly. Such was it that she followed Yukari in silence for once, her eyes kept in the distance as she reviewed the information they'd gathered so far. While Yukari's unsteady walking was hard to miss, Miyoko did her best to not show undue concern. Under normal circumstances, she'd suggest that the woman lie down and calm herself before continuing... but these were hardly normal circumstances.

Besides which, she had some concerns of her own to worry about. Miyoko had never been much of a speaker, though since it was on more technical matters than interpersonal ones, she didn't expect to have much trouble expressing herself, at least. Having that many people giving her their dedicated attention, though, let alone a group of officers... If she'd been a bit more introspective at the moment, she would have found it amusing that she was nervous about public speaking even in the face of a possible invasion of all known space.

The arrival snapped the Yamataian out of her reverie for the moment, and she dipped a bow to the group.

Kotori, now back in uniform, shortly answered the door.

"Welcome. Please, come in," the Taisa bade them. She lead them to her desk, in front of which were arrayed four chairs in prevision of the meeting.

"Be seated," Kotori invited them as she came to rest in her own chair. She loosely crossed her arms as she added: "What do you have to report to me?"

Nyton took a seat as invited, claiming the middle left chair. He was eager to hear what Yukari had to report seeing as she had been the one to call the meeting.

Miyoko shuffled in after the others. Four chairs, four officers... yeah, she was standing. She stood at the side of the group, doing her best to not look uncomfortable. At Kotori's request for their findings, she glanced to Yukari, seeking permission before she started speaking.

"With help from the sprites and MEGAMI, we have gotten access to the information stored on the datacore from Bowhordia. We're still in the process of searching it, but so far, we've found several pieces of important intelligence on the Daughters of Eve." Miyoko paused and looked to Kotori. "There is some information concerning you on there, but I'm afraid that I'm not well-enough versed on your personal history to present it well. Perhaps the pressing part for now is that it mentions plans to have all of the Miharu's officers and Karl Sylvester's family assassinated very soon."

Miyoko stopped and cleared her throat, fidgeting a little as she let the news of everybody's planned demise sink in before she continued. "Our most noteworthy finding, though, was information on the Amaya's Gate project. The project is an effort by Eve to obtain access to the Second Draconian Fleet, which was trapped in space-time in YE 24. Eve plans to breach the pocket they're trapped in with a ship specially outfitted to survive the environment, then use a series of psionic amplifiers to turn the whole fleet to her will. The report estimates the fleet to have millions of ships and to be capable of conquering Yamatai and Nepleslia in a single blow." She took a deep breath before finishing up, "The report estimated that the project would be complete by YE 32. There are indications that some materiel was being coming from Bowhordia, so it's possible that we delayed them by attacking."

The science officer finally relaxed a little, shifting uncomfortably in front of the group for a moment before adding, "If any of you would like more detail, I can answer your questions, or MEGAMI can provide you with copies of the report."

Masako barely had anytime to even glance at the message in her inbox before Yukari arrived with Miyoko in tow. With a polite bow to the Executive Officer and a comforting smile directed towards the NCO in the midst of the Commissioned/Warrant, Masako turned to face the door as their Taisa allowed them entry.

Following Nyton, the small Warrant Officer took the middle right chair and sat in it with a straight-back, seating posture. Her legs pressed together as she angled them to feel comfortable.

As as she sat, the briefing began with a very surprising tidbit on information. Indications of assassination plans on both the Officers of the Miharu and Sylvester's family was very surprising, when it probably shouldn't have been. After all, they were facing against one of the more despicable enemies of Yamatai. This also meant Masako had couldn't allow anyone, including herself, off the Miharu without an armed escort. Sylvester's family was entirely different problem altogether.

Shifting her focus back to the briefing, Masako began to formulate questions she may have for Miyoko.

Tom bowed to everyone who arrived and to the Taisa, then walked into the room. He took one of the seats, the one to the far left, and awaited the report.

He wouldn't be able to sit next to Yukari, which may have been for the best. The Shosa seemed to be uncomfortable, and Tom had a compulsion to hold her hand.

Now that he thought of it, Miyoko didn't look too great, either. Then there was his own series of problems involving the Miharu. Despite his best efforts, his own muted feeling were probably showing as well.

So, resisting the urge to slump in his chair, the engineer sat quietly and listened to Miyoko's report.

Assasination? Tom's arms crossed in front of him. He felt his expression harden, his lips pursing ever so slightly with the weight of the information.

Kai continued to eat his meal, and came across a couple of weapons that he wanted. One was a nice pistol that used standard SAoY rounds, that only cost 200ks, and the other was a rifle for a Powered armor that was more impressive than the LASR, at least in his opinion, and judging by the information presented.

Sipping his drink, the Hei decided he would indeed go and finish the repairs to his Daisy, as it was more than likely that all the engineering staff were incredibly busy. He remembered something about the ship needing heavy repairs after the last battle, and their inability to get to a dock do take on extra supplies.

Nyton listened to Miyoko's brief report on what had been extracted from the computer core of Bowhordia. The Second Draconian Fleet, eh? Who would have thought there would be an entire fleet trapped inside a dimensional pocket? I suppose that is one way to acquire resources. he thought.

A detached expression came across his face as an icy grip took hold of his heart. Concern for his homeworld surfaced unexpectedly. Nyton had gotten used to feeling as though his home was in danger but now it felt as though the cross hairs had gained a laser sight as well. The impulse to warn his family crossed his mind but he would have to wrestle it down for now.

As for the danger regarding assassins, Nyton merely determined to take even higher precautions against any potential threat. Now that they knew just what Eve was up to there had to be a direct action taken. Immediately.

"I wish I had been there for these findings but I suppose I can review the original files later. Did you discover anything else?" Nyton remarked.

On the other side of the desk, Kotori frowned, her amber eyes hardening. Just that, until Nyton asked his question. She took a steadying breath and interjected right after him.

"Ignorance is bliss, but more often death," she quoted. "Our foreknowledge of things they did not want us to know might help us dodge a bullet we would not have seen coming otherwise."

With that bit of positive reinforcement done (or Kotori hoped it was), she added: "Shosa, Heisho: please focus on providing us more information on Amaya's Gate and the operational specifics we need to know. We'll deal with our more personal threat later in our conference."

Yukari, on the far right, repeated her forced smile for Miyoko. "Please continue, Heisho-san."

"Understood," Miyoko replied to Kotori's order. The scientist had to take a few moments to gather her thoughts and mentally arrange the files they'd found into chronological order before continuing. Thank goodness for digital memory, at least.

"The gate project was proposed in YE 29 by Ashigari Amaya, Eve's apprentice. Her personnel file was in the datacore, and paints her both brilliant and loyal to Eve. She's also the commander of the SS Dominion, which I'll go into further detail on later."

Miyoko's speech was a bit more deliberate this time around, since she was still fact-checking as she spoke. "The first stage of the gate project that we've found was Project Scorpion, a campaign to threaten the Great Southern Nebula until Lor was evacuated. Meanwhile, NovaCorp was coerced so that when the evacuation was staged, their gateway system was used for it and left behind afterward. After the system was empty, the Daughters of Eve stole both the gateways and Lor's automated shipyards. These are being used to construct the gate into the pocket and to retrofit ships for the operation."

"Eve's funding seems to mostly go through Nepleslian space and be transferred through shell companies. Additional materials were gotten from pirates and the black market, mostly shipped from within Nepleslian space and using Halna as a collection point. The colony in the system was to be destroyed after an established amount of material was gathered there, presumably as cover for when they began moving it out en masse. It is unspecified how or if this was affected by the Yamataian military actions there."

Miyoko paused. "Miharu, please display a map of known space." When the hologram popped into appearance behind her, she used it to demonstrate locations as she continued talking. "Several zesuaium and antimatter production plants were moved to the East end of the Blue Rift Expanse. This area and Bowhordia are the two locations that appear to be end points for materials related to the gate. Bowhordia was to be the construction site for a command center for the new fleet that Eve plans to attain, and the Blue Rift is an unstable region of space, where it may be easier to pierce through to the pocket that the Draconian fleet is trapped in. It therefore seems likely that the Blue Rift site is where the gate itself will be located." The Yamataian pegged her finger through the east edge of the Rift for demonstration before turning back to the group.

"It is so far unclear how much of a force is present at the gate, but two vessels are explicitly mentioned. The SS Dominion, Ashigari's ship, was the first to be equipped with psionic amplifiers, and it has also been retrofitted to have a crew of only twelve organics, with two hundred nekomachina. It is carrying three Black Mindies and a Kylie, which is reserved for Amaya. It has very little in the way of weaponry for them, so they're likely intended to only be used for self-defense in emergencies. It's also carrying enough food to keep its crew alive for a very long time and has complete override control if its squadron."

"The Takumi is the second vessel. It has been massively refitted, with most weaponry and unnecessary systems stripped to make room for non-aether power systems, psionic amplifiers, and CFS reinforcements."

"It would appear that the Takumi is intended to be the vessel to breach the bubble and brainwash the fleet, and that the Dominion will be responsible for leading them afterward, but this is conjecture on my part. The Takumi itself is a sitting duck outside of the pocket, so it could be a prime target for a strike. There are strong indications that Eve herself will be responsible for brainwashing the fleet."

Miyoko stopped, realizing that she'd been monologueing for a good five minutes. "That's the majority of the information related to the gate that we've uncovered so far. As I said earlier, what we've found estimated YE 32 as the completion date for the gate, but it was unclear when that estimate was made. At least one ship, the Obakemono, that was intended for the project was destroyed. Bowhordia obviously had some issues of its own, and Yamataian actions in Halna may or may not have had an impact. This all sheds a little uncertainty on it."

Nyton assumed his thinking position while listening and Hmm'd quietly. The report in regards to Eve's operations were quite enlightening. "It is as I suspected then. This operation has been going on for a long time and deeply entrenched. Up until now Eve has been moving unimpeded while manipulating events all around her."

Nyton paused and closed his eyes briefly. "Based on these findings our operation at Bowhordia would have deprived her of materiel along with other assets. Knowing that her resources are under attack she will attempt to take steps to protect them. Without the command center she will likely relocate it to one of her ships which should not take her very long. If we could destroy one of her two key ships though that would stop her operation for a significant amount of time. Unfortunately they are likely also on location at the gate." Nyton continued.

"We need to contact Nepleslia and freeze her finances. That may give us the time to reach her location with a force sizeable enough to stop her." he concluded.