RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 6.1] Sword Flash in Darkness - Dinner Briefing

Emiko's emerald gaze swept up from the gift of the ring to the Taisa. The neko flashed Katae a soft smile and spoke in a warm, affectionate voice. "Thank-you, Taisa."

When the opportunity arose, the violet-haired technician ordered for herself sushi and some teriyaki chicken. Whilst waiting for her meal to arrive, her attention drifted to each of those seated at the table in turn, before noticing the arrival of an unfamiliar nekovalkyrja, who was promptly introduced to the assembled crew as their new executive officer.

Emiko gently inclined her head towards the new arrival before greeting her respectfully. "Welcome to the Aeon, Chusa."

Kyoka's head dipped in acknowledgement of the new Neko amongst them - but not before noticing the woman's beauty. A stunning dress, pleasant figure, and nice face were what greeted the Juni's eyes.

Wow. She's pretty. Was all that Kyoka could think on her initial impression. Still the evening must progress, and soon enough her sashimi arrived. The cat simply marveled at the orange meat, picking up a pair of particularly nice chopsticks and holding them in her right. She didn't even bother with any seasoning and just took a piece and ate it, savoring the delicate flavour. Her ears wiggled in delight.

Saki opened the box and looked at the pretty ring inside. "Ooooh," she went as she took it out and looked at it more closely. The ring was golden with stone on top. Saki could see the picture of Aeon being carved into the reddish Jasper stone, that was her birthstone.

"Arigato gozaimasu taisa!" Saki said and stood up bowing and sitting again. She quickly put it on and examined how it looked on her finger. The ring seemed to be made to fit just right. It made her so happy, she raised her head with teethy grin waiting what will happen next.

Saki's jaw then dropped. So they were getting new XO finally and such a beautiful one too. The blue haired neko watched the chusa coming closer, admiring her looks. The silvery hair and perfect body. Saki felt envy as always when she saw nekoes like that.

Once again Saki was angry at herself not realising what kind of dinner this would be. She would go buy a dress or something. Her legend jacket might have been absolutely awesome, but it was not made for formal dinners. On the other hand Luca Pavone was going everywhere in this jacket just fine.

In the end Saki decided in the end that if Luca Pavone does than it must be all right. It was easier that was and she did not have to worry anymore. The infantry neko rose on her feet bowing deeply to the XO to show her respect. "Welcome aboard chusa!" She said happily, ignoring the fact that they actually were not on the board of the ship right now.

Allowing her intense, if pretty eyes sweep up and down the table one last time, Kurusu Chusa quietly took the box on her plate and set it in her lap. Opening it up, a beautiful amethyst stone caught the lighting in the restaurant, causing it to sparkle the moment she slipped it on the same middle finger the Taisa wore it on, gently putting the empty box away in the small purse she slid to the floor next to her as she examined it a moment, then nodded to the staff member from the restaurant coming to her side.

Tilting her head to quietly whisper into a waitress' ear for an order of crab cakes, rice, and a soup of crab, cream, corn, and some other fine ingredients in it to go with sweetened tea, the officer turned her attention back to the new faces.

Compelled by Saki's genuine, over the top welcome, the enchanting Neko slid from her seat and stood with her hands folded in her front. "Thank you very much, and thank you Arai-hei. You warm my heart, I am honored to take command under Ise Taisa, and serve alongside you to protect and improve the grand Empire." She noted, her smooth voice picking up after she bowed forward towards the table, not probably realizing what it meant for her dress, she rose again and smiled down the banquet table at the crew.

"I am Kurusu Misaki, and I was created through a trial program-which is rather boring to explain now. As the captain mentioned, I was the first XO on the Eucharis. If you have ever read the Star Army XO manual, I am that Kurusu Misaki, yes." She explained, though already assumed only those aspiring to become command crew had actually ever read that particular manual, which she never had actually expected to become printed into official circulation.

"This is as good a time as any to tell you to please come to me with anything bothering you, from official business to personal matters. I am in cabin one, and I even have an extra bed if you want to leave your bunkmate alone for a night for ahem, privacy." She paused a moment, and looked to Saki, her glossy lips coming to a smile, "I will also help conduct supplemental physical training and combat lessons, I am a veteran as I said, and a trained samurai. My favorite hobby aside from training is styling hair, if you want it touched up or something let me know when we are not on duty, I will happily do the women or men, the latter of which I have er, less practice with."

The Aeon's new executive officer went on to add, "I would like to learn to cook at least simple meals, which I believe will help me increase morale from time to time." Her eyes settled on Kyoka for a moment, and she nodded to her lightly to acknowledge her, then she smoothly bowed forward, low, far more than she had to while pointing down towards the other end of the table.

"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, minatachi!" She finished, and slid into her seat, picking up her wine glass in a bit of a quiet toast, to the crew of the Aeon, which she quickly took, allowing the liquid to pass her lips and slide down her throat to wet it again after her introduction.

Katae stopped eating to listen to Misaki's introduction to the crew. She took it as a good sign that her new XO was willing to open up to the rest of the crew.

After Misaki sat back down, "Misaki-San, if you are interesting in learning to cook, you may wish to spend some time with Nami Sachi-Jôtô Hei. She is our ship's cook, and her coffee is a wonder. If I am not mistaken you can probably expect a visit from her sometime, to see what foods you like."

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Further down the table on the right, a brown haired, blue eyed Neko looked at the Taisa. "Actually ma'am, I was planning on making my way through the new crew members. I will start with the Chusa tomorrow morning, if her schedule is conducive." Sachi replied her eyes bright with the prospect of learning new recipes.

When a waiter was available he ordered some sushi and a steak with steamed vegetables and a bottle of Sake."Welcome aboard the Aeon, Chusa. My name is Yoshiro Tanaka." He said as he was beaming inside. He had always wanted to meet a samurai and was not aware of how to speak to one. "I would like to speak with you about the Samurai if you would allow it. I want to learn a little about them and see what life is like as a Samurai."

When all of the crew had their food before them, Katae gave a polite gesture to the Hostess Amaterasu. At her instruction the staff secured the front door to the restaurant and left for the kitchen. "When you need us kindly send a person to the kitchen Ise-Taisa." she said as she herded her people to the back.

Katae stood up, "Please give me your attention for a few minutes. I want to give you some information on our upcoming mission. That is why the staff has withdrawn.

Tomorrow morning the Seventh Squadron will be leaving and heading towards Higaflan. Before we leave we will be joined by twelve ships from the 2XF. These will be Urufu-Class Light Cruisers. These will be divided up three to a Plumeria.

Our objectives are the following:

• Destroy the Megamishhu Breeding Facility
• Destroy the NMX Light Shipyards
• Shlarvasseroth-class construction facility
• Destroy the Logistics Engine and War Factory
• Liberate the Prison

This is going to be a lightning raid, we will come in as close to the planet as possible, drop out and engage any ships before splitting into four attack groups.

Each of the Plumeria in the squadron will be carrying a Tenba-Class Transporter in their cargo hold. They will also be carrying two addition squads of infantry which will be deployed in the Transporters.

It is my plan for the Aeon and its escort to take out the last two. Freya-Hei you will be flying the Aeon's Tenba to the surface.

My plan is that our escort will go after the logistics engine, and war factory while we will handle the prison liberation."

Yoshiro took a bite of his steak as he digested the information that Ise-taisa was briefing them with. He was trembling a bit as he was a bit nervous. This would be a big operation and he knew it and he wanted a bit of payback for his father. Those bastards took something away from me and now I am going to help destroy something of theirs. He thought to himself.

"Just a question taisa. Do we know how heavy the resistance on the ground is going to be?" He asked. "It sounds like we are going to walk into a grinder." He wanted to know what to expect about this operation or at the very least he want to know as he much as he could to be as prepared as he could.

Mikael sat away from the rest just casually watching everyone. With the exception of Gustav, Mikael made no real formal attempts to introduce himself at the moment.

Emiko's eyes narrowed in concentration as she listened intently to the Taisa's outline of the upcoming operation. Like Yoshiro, the violet-haired neko also wondered at the strength of the Mishhuvurthyar defences -- both on the ground and in orbit.

Whilst not without teeth, the forces the Taisa said were being dispatched for this operation included only four gunships and twelve light cruisers -- no heavy cruisers or battleships at all. This probably meant the NMX-held system was lightly defended and without a significant number of line warships like cruisers or battleships in close proximity -- though if the mission took too long the NMX could call in reinforcements and they would cut the Urufu escorts into ribbons and block off any escape attempts. Lightning raid was definately the right term -- the Aeon and its crew would have to be fast and precise.

Freyja watched the new XO come in and sit down. She seemed like a nice enough lady. Freyja quickly ordered a bit of sushi and some chicken katsu. She drank some wine and payed attention to every one talking and welcoming the new XO. When her food came she politely began eating it and enjoyed the atmosphere the restaurant had.

When the Taisa gave her brief Freyja was first excited for the fact that she got to fly again. She was just nervous what would happen to her once she landed the assault teams, last time she had to don a power armor and join in the combat. Even though she was trained for it, she didn't like open combat like that at all. With out thinking (the wine didn't really help in this case) she let the concern fall across her face.

Misaki nodded to Tanaka when her food arrived, which she took to carefully, making pauses to dab her lips with a napkin as she let her eyes wander from one crew member to the next.

When the briefing began in earnest, the new XO reviewed the objectives again, and all the intelligence reports she had access to since being added to the roster following her interview earlier. It felt good to be breaking into a real mission again, her last memory came at the end of-well there was almost always something to fight aboard the Eucharis but the idea of their lightning raid had particular appeal to her, especially when it involved doing so much damage to that system's ability to make war upon the Empire, something she couldn't forgive anymore than the rest of her sisters in battle.

Her face slid into something of the samurai mask, though a touch more friendly, as she ate, and listened to the details get worked over again, already thinking about what it would feel like to cut down another enemy after so long, she was sure it would be something like a religious experience, enough her hands flexed lightly for one moment between bites, thinking of the last time she had been in her 1H.

Katae paused for a moment to see if any others of her crew had questions, but as none spoke up she continued. She looked at her new XO and just the slightest shift of her left eyebrow gave a hint that he thought Misaki might have had a question.

"Speed is our ally, overall the system defense in space are not at the Enemy's peak. The Nepleslians had launched an attack, but did not finish the job. After the NMX loss at the Battle of Yamatai, their forces are more scattered their numbers lower. That is why we are pushing at FTL until we hit the Hills Sphere.

The prison will have its own forces, but those are mostly for containing the prisoners. The bigger threat to the ground team is the nearby ground forces of the NMX and the War Factory. The plan is when the Tenba flies over the base and factory it will drop two Ke-Z2 bombs. The first over the factory and the second over the base.

The first bomb will effectively put the factory out of commission. The bomb on the base will take out most of the forces on the surface. But we all know the Mishhu like to dig in. But it will take them time to make it to the surface. That is our window of opportunity for the prison. The blast will play havoc with the enemy's ability to coordinate. Unfortunately it will also have the same effect on our forces on the ground. Short range communications should be okay, but you will need to relay anything to the ship via the Tenba.

Kurusu-Chusa will lead the assault on the prison. Tsubei-Juni will be squad leader for our Infantry. The other squad leader will be responsible for the other group. You will coordinate your actions through her once you hit the ground. Murasaki-Heisho Rinako-Hei you will be part of the assault team to provide technician expertise. Freyja-Hei, once the Assault team is deployed, you will provide air support with the Tenba keeping an eye towards the direction of the base.

That's all the information for now."

Freyja went from worried to excited, as soon as she heard that she was going to provide air support. It most likely be the closes thing to being back in her fighter she was going to get for awhile so she was going to do it right and show them what she could do in her element. her face quickly changed to her mousey smile at the thought of flying combat again. she took a few more sips of wine and brought up the data of the Tenba up on her glasses and started going over it while listening to the Taisa.

Saki ordered herself a curry and pudding for desert and listened to the captain and others. So they will be assaulting a prison. Lately it seemed that all Aeon did was freeing prisoners. That was good, Saki liked the notion. But so far both mission she was on were infiltration missile. They were striking from shadow. This will be her first rapid strike. No going all sneaky like. Attack. Fast and hard. Destroy the enemy. Saki was wondering how that will go.

After swallowing a spoon-full of curry she looked at Taisa and raised her arm. "Ma'am will we get some of the heavier weaponry?" She asked and blushed a little. She was not used to speak before so many people. "I mean this will be planetary assault so Daisy suits would be nice. Also a Tasha or one of the Origin frames."

Kyoka spent the minutes following the XO's arrival mulling over Katae's words. When the muse struck her, she finally spoke.

"Taisa," She coolly said, "If we are going for speed over defense, am I to assume we will be taking Mindies so we can move to space objectives easily after taking the land? Or will Oinari-hei ferry the infantry team from objective to objective, because it seems like it'd be more efficient for us to fly ourselves and engage any significant enemy forces with overwhelming strength, rather than put our pilot in danger with only a few methods to fight back. I understand that the landing requires transports, but once we take our first objective, what then?"

Kyoka gave a nod of acknowledgement to Saki.

"And Arai-hei raises a good point. How heavy are our munitions? Is it a 'blow it all up' or a 'precision structural damage' type of mission? Presuming we destroy the prison, then move to aid our allies after all prisoners have been moved out, of course."

When all was said and done, the Juni was out of breath. She rarely talked so much at once, so this sort of. . . analytical speech was new to her. Plus, she felt like a little bit of a show-off in front of the Chusa after saying that ridiculous mouthful.

Katae pushed her empty plate away and folded her napkin. She looked at Saki. "There will be no Frames, we do not have any available and they wouldn't fit on the Aeon. As for the choice of Daisy M6-1A or Mindy 2-3A power armors for the assault team is up to the Juni. As Squad Leader she is responsible for your load out.

The Tenba will be carrying two Tasha underneath that it will drop off at the Landing Zone near the prison."

She looked at Kyoka, "There will be other Infantry groups dealing with the other objectives. The teams from the Aeon are going after the Prison. We anticipate the possibility of Rippers, and possibly some NMX Light Tanks. After the bombs are dropped from high altitude, Oinari-Hei will proceed to the LZ and you will deploy there, approximately 3 kilometers from the prison below a rise.

Kurusu-Chusa, Tsubei-Juni, you have two hours to submit any requests for additional equipment to me for review, and approval.

Everyone should be on the Aeon at 0800hrs and at their action stations."

She stood up, "Good evening, I have a number of details I need to conclude before I retire. You may stay and enjoy some more food or drink the tab is on my account." she said and then walked towards the exit of the restaurant.

Kyoka looked to the other crewmembers of the Aeon, nearby, uttered a quick "Excuse me. I will be right back," and ushered herself from the table, chasing after the Taisa.

"Ise-Taisa," She began, lightly but firmly walking towards the captain. "May I have a word with you in private for a few minutes?"

Katae slowed her pace, "Certainly, in here or outside? Which would you prefer?" she inquired her expression showing concern.

"Outside. I don't want people to see me if I get worried," Kyoka said, following Katae out of the building and onto the sidewalk. The neko took a minute to work up the courage, for lack of a better word, to start saying what she needed to.

"I'm worried. Er. . . maybe not worried. Nervous? Anxious? This new mission. It's big. Bigger than anything we've faced before." Kyoka finally said, looking at the older woman.

Katae took a moment to look at the Neko before her, reading her body language. She smiled, "This is a big mission, to be honest I would be worried if you were not a little anxious. Is there a specific aspect of the mission that has you concerned?"

"Me, to be exact. I've only been a part of two missions where I've taken leadership, and the first one I didn't even really lead! It was only this last mission I really was directing the others, and even then we ended up breaking off into smaller teams-" Kyoka replied, but a blank look fell on her face. Sheepishly, she continued, "Er. . . I kinda lost where I was going there. Basically. . . what if I screw things up? What if I end up failing the mission and end up killing everybody?"

"First let me pass on a bit of wisdom I learned from my days as Infantry. You can do all the planning you want prior to a mission. You can provide for every contingency. But once you actually get into the battle... you will find yourself thinking on your feet.

You did well on the last mission, splitting up was the right decision for the last mission. Although I do wish that we had found out exactly what that installation was for." Katae replied, she paused for a moment.

"If I did not have confidence in your ability to lead our Infantry, I would not have made you the Squad Leader. But there is something you can take heart in. You are responsible for leading your team and keeping them safe. Our new XO Kurusu-Chusa will be going down there for you. She will be responsible to assessing the situation, and giving your and the other Infantry team orders. She has the tactical knowledge you can depend on. She is responsible to the overall success of the liberation of the prison.

That anxiousness is normal, you have two choices, you can let it overwhelm you and paralyze you, or you can use it to help you stay sharp. We have emotions for a reason, we just have to learn to master them.

I would suggest that you spend some time with her, going over your selection for the load out, and any supplies that you want me to try and acquire."

The younger neko nodded appreciatively, a weak smile returning to her face.

"Right. I just have to stay calm. . . And speak with the Chusa," She sighed, "And I'm sorry about failing to find out about the complex. When I was topside, there were too many NMX soldiers to hazard a crossing to a different part of the facility without risking casualty."

Katae smiled, "You noticed I said I would have liked. You made the correct decision, with the NMX presence that the fires and explosions, it is unlikely that you would not have had enough time to get the information, and you would have jeopardized not only the members of your squad, but also the prisoners you folks liberated."

"Oh. Good to know I did something smart, then," Kyoka grinned lightly.

"You have a good head on your shoulders, Use it and you will do fine." she said putting a hand on Kyoka's shoulder. "And you used good judgement asking to speak out here. Its important that you team have confidence in you. So even if you are anxious, scared or whatever. You need to give the impression that you have things in hand. They will react to that."

"Th-thank you, Taisa!" Kyoka blurted, bowing only a little as to not dislodge the hand on her shoulder. "I'll do my best to make this next mission go well!"

"That is all I ask of everyone on the crew, including myself. Do you best, Is there anything else?"

"No, that's really all I wanted to get off of my chest. I'll submit a list of equipment for you to approve tomorrow. Right now, I think, I've got to enjoy the rest of this night off," Kyoka kindly responded, gently removing the Taisa's hand and shaking it. She headed back towards the restaurant with a little bow for a polite exit.

Katae returned the bow, and watched Kyoka return to the others. A smile came to her face, Yes, I think she is going to do just fine. she thought and turned to walk down the side walk.

Kyoka cheerfully returned to the table, placing an order for some grilled eel. Tonight, she would dine on delicious things!

Freyja carefully noted what all was expected from her during the mission. I sounded like she would be in her element, flying and giving air support. 'Ah, real clean work, nothing like that pa stuff.'

After the Taisa left and the XO came back Freyja excused herself and went to fine the Taisa. She spotted her not to far down the way. Freyja was worried that she would disappear before she caught up so she called Out "Taisa!!" and started jogging after her.

Concourse
Katae was preparing to step onto one of the moving slidewalks when she heard her name. She turned around to see one of her crew members running after her. She quickly recognized the moving figure as Freyja.

She moved away from the slidewalk and waited, puzzled by the circumstances.