RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 6] A Closer Inspection

Nika took note and gave a nod before moving off to dispose her plate. "Military Regulations seemed to be firmly placed, even during meals..." She shrugged it off and left the officers in the wardrooom as she headed back to the bridge, taking the navigation console as Ramiro wasn't back from his meal yet.

With the navigation already set for HX-12 by Ramiro, Nika proceeded to forward the replied response from the SSS to Hanako. It was then the sensors blipped and the neko watched as the Elfin Princess II had been quickly cleared by the Taisa for docking.

"Someone important coming on board Blueberry Juni?" Nika asked, not really hoping to get a reply.

Blueberry was nice enough to open up the security cameras' windows as a figure entered the docking bay and headed to the wardroom. Nika quickly did her homework, "Kurusu Misaki-Shosa..." She softly mumbled as she leaned back onto the chair, closing the windows. Sooner or later everyone would get to know the Shosa.

As much of the crew was just settling into bed, Eucharis received a priority alert message from Yamatai.

Alert Message said:

Communications are erratic at the moment, but from scattered intelligence we have reason to believe an attack is about to take place or is already underway at the Ketsurui Military Sector and Nataria.

1. All leave is canceled. Return to your duty stations immediately.

2. Raise battle readiness to maximum. Fleets assemble and prepare for combat.

3. Scan suspicious personnel for signs of infection. Have any crew that has been off-ship recently get a thorough physical exam.

Further orders to follow once we can better assess the situation.

Signed,

Taisho Yui @ Yamatai

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Hanako went to the bridge, notifying both of her first officers of the message and its contents, while thinking to herself, 'We need to wrap this investigation up quickly.'

"That doesn't include me, does it?" Misaki asked, entering the bridge from behind Hanako. She sent a command to the other ships in the squadron, knowing even if her mental messages wouldn't wake the commanding officers of those ships up, that their AI would make sure it happened. Standing behind the Captain's seat, the blue-haired XO sounded a sharp klaxon around the ship while a simultaneous message flashed to them.

Kurusu-Chusa said:

All crew to primary stations. Repeat. Stations. This is not a drill.

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It went without saying she passed along a highlighted window of the third point of their orders to the medical station. She was ready to go, if Hanako needed her there. A hint of precariousness dragged upon the Chusa as she had Blackberry bring up their active combat systems. The Eucharis was waking, and her teeth were showing. "Coming online and crewed, Taisa."

"Unfortunately, it does," Hanako replied. "Just to be safe."

The Taisa then called down to Hamada's room. "Taii Hamada, please report to the bridge."

Hanako next scanned the planet below...

The atmosphere of HX-12 II contained toxic levels of CO2 (+30%). The primary 'buffer gas' (argon) of the atmosphere was highly narcotic at 2.2 times standard atmospheric pressure. The terrain in most areas was desert or savanna, due to low water levels.

The source of the transmission was an antenna on the top of a steep ridge. Hanako put a view of it on the main screen, focusing on it and then following its cable back to a crashed starship at the bottom of the cliff, partially surrounded by sand buildup.

"Hanako to Pineapple. Prep the Golden Apple for launch."

Junko practically exploded out of her rack; she had moved so quickly that it took a moment for her to figure out why exactly she was up. The klaxon clued her in relatively quickly however, and, having fallen asleep in her jumpsuit, it only took a hand run quickly through her hair before she was ready and speeding out into the corridor. It struck her, as she opened the hatch to engineering, that the XO had not explained exactly what Endoh’s duties were to be during such a situation; perhaps she had a peripheral job, or perhaps retaining her for the night shift was crucial. But all the same, as she sped up to the primary console and began a quick systems check, it was quite clear that she now had sole responsibility for the maintenance and functioning of the Eucharis for the duration of whatever emergency they were currently going through. Shrugging aside her thoughts as the diagnostic reported back all green, Junko quickly double checked the override and emergency presets before activating the intercom. “Bridge, Engineering. The Mainspace is manned and ready. Prepared to respond to helm and weapons demands.”

The message did not fall on deaf ears.

Granted at this point she felt very near death and the thought of simply ignoring the orders lurked on the edge of her mind, but even a little drunk, Shizu knew better than to disobey direct orders. The message she had received from the Taisho, forwarded by the Taisa, was not something to be sneezed at.

The Ketsurui Sector had been attacked?

She fumbled with the rest of her uniform, throwing it on. She hadn't got that drunk in the five to fifteen minutes she had been on hiatus. Shizu had not spared the bottle, had hit it fairly hard actually, but the effects always lagged a little behind for her. Her waking mind knew how inconveniant that would be shortly, but a little drunk or not, battlestations was battlestations. If she was getting deposed anyway, what was another bad mark on her evaluations? Before heading out, she checked herself in the mirror anyway to make sure the uniform was correct and her developing flush wasn't evident yet, and then she was gone.

When she arrived on the bridge, she stood in the doorway for a few moments, not particularly sure of the role she now held aboardship. There was clearly another XO on-board with more experiance, who was now quite comfortably slipping back into the habit of command.

Without words, she simply sat in the mission operations chair and began reviewing the messages there.

'Manned and ready, bridge, aye,' she sent down to engineering.

"Engineering reports manned and ready," Shizu said, carefully controlling her tone, "Prepared to respond to all weapons and helm input."

There were a lot of things to go over on this console, so she began accumulating information. From the different consoles on the bridge, from a panel in engineering, and several screens of the planet's surface with composition readouts she drew her resources, and prepared to settle down to the business at hand.

"Hamada, I need you to organize a landing party to quickly investigate that," Hanako ordered, gesturing to the crashed starship looming in the shifting sands on the main viewer. "The smaller shuttle is already being prepped."

Meanwhile, Hanako put Eucharis into geosynchronous orbit over the site.

Nika jumped from the chair as Misaki made the announcement. How long had she fallen asleep on the console she wondered as she rubbed her eyes to adjust to the screen in front of her.

HX-12 loomed before her as Hanako set the ship into its orbit. With now Shizu already entered and getting status from the following stations, Nika cleared her head and got back to her assigned seat.

"Weapons at ready Taii." The neko replied as she scanned through the data on the console.

Sune jumped out of bed when the alert came, and donned his pants. Grabbing his uniform top, side arm, boots, he headed down to medical. When he entered he say a flahing indicator over at the desk indicating a message. He pulled on his tunic and queued the message.

3. Scan suspicious personnel for signs of infection. Have any crew that has been off-ship recently get a thorough physical exam.

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Sune knew that all crew members of the Eucharis had been off ship recently, and he and Konoka had not yet completed all the physicals.

He started reviewing those that needed exams,

• Oustanding exams
• Ketsurui Taisa
• Kurusu Chusa
• Hamada Taii
• Kumiko Hei
• Valencia Hei
• Sprites

Not good, all of Officer onboard need to be examined. He thought. He finished dressing, and picked up a PMS-1 as he left the medbay. He obtained the location of the officers from Charisma. He approached the door to the bridge. He pondered ordering Charisma to let him in because of the medical order. But decided on a more delicate approach, although it did require him to contact the Taisa telepathically, something he did not do easily.

He sent telepathically to Hanako, Ketsurui Taisa, Jalen-Ittô Hei, I require access to the bridge. I also must request that Kurusu Chusa, Hamada Taii, and yourself submit to a PMS-1 scan per the directive from Taisho Yui. None of you have had a physical since boarding the Eucharis. The scan will only take a few minutes and will allow you to resume our mission as quickly as possible. It is my wish to take care of this as discreetly as possible.

Hamada sat back, staring at the console for a little bit before replying, "Hai, Taisa-san."

She stood up.

'The following personnel need to report to the cargo bay,' she sent to Charisma, and then stopped. She knew the crew roster by heart, she had been working with it in her head for so long, but almost all personnel were essential to the ship. Shizu closed her eyes, putting a hand on the console, thinking hard through the growing haze. She had forgotten to tie back her hair again. It fell over her shoulders and she stared at it for a few moments.

'...I need Miyazawa,' the Taii finally decided, 'Miyazawa, Yamamoto, Blueberry, and whichever cook is on duty. Send out the message; report to the bay in battledress and prepare to deploy. Squad leader will be Hamada-taii. We will be using... five M2. Send a message down to whomever is in the cargo bay to prepare a suit with an E3000 array, and the rest with a standard loadout.'

Was there even anyone in the cargo bay? Probably not. The crew was thin enough as it was. And did they have to be ready for combat? Well, again, probably not. But this signal felt fishy to the Taii. The message from the Taisho and the occurance of the distress signal had been too close together to be coincidence.

Nothing is coincidence, she reminded herself, absolutely nothing.

Once the orders had gone out, she left her post on the bridge and began walking very quickly through the door, in the process nearly bowling over Sune. In all actuality, she only bumped somewhat clumsily into him and gave his chest, which was around eye-level on her, a surprised, confused look before lifting her head up and staring at him.

It took a couple of seconds to register that she had run into a person.

"Excuse me," she said quickly, sidestepping and continuing on down the passage, "I was not watching. I have somewhere to be, please excuse me."

Sune recovered his balance from being bumped into by Hamada. "Actually Hamada-Taii, for the moment, I must ask you to remain here. In accordance with Yui-Taisho's directive all crew members who have been off ship recently must receive a thorough examination. As you are newly arrived, I must ask you to submit to a PMS-1 scan. It will only require a few minutes of your time."

Ramiro lay sleeping in bed, none of the alarms having woken him. It wasn't until he heard the sound of Sune grabbing his that he did wake. As he sat up he checked his comm. He cursed at the top of his lungs as he slipped into his uniform and grabbed his sidearm which he kept under his pillow, buttoning and fastening things as he ran through the corridors of the Eucharis.

Just as Ramiro finished buttoning his last button and tucking in his shirt he emerged into the bridge. Seeing it more crowded than usual he got a confused look on his face. He edged his way over to where Nika was and leaned over towards her. "So what did I miss, something is definitely going on here."

Hanako was obviously irritated with the prospect of having to get an injection...and she was afraid of needles, probably due to the various things she'd been forced to deal with in the past. While Sune and Hamada faced off, Hanako seriously considered ordered Sune not to inject her, or even slipping out of the room to avoid him...but then the uptight medic would probably declare her a Mishhuvurthyar or something.

"Is there some way we can do the scans without the injection?" Hanako asked. She couldn't help but notice the alcohol still on her breath.

"Ohh Valencia-Hei..." Nika yawned as she turned to look at him, "We have arrived at the 2nd planet of HX-12 where the distress signal is coming from, and Hamada-Taii is organizing a sortie to go down planetside." The neko opened up a window on the console showing the planet's status.

"Ohh, and we have Kurusu Chusa on the bridge." She gave Ramiro a gesture towards the still unfamiliar officer. "Other than that, probably you missed me falling asleep on the console." Nika grinned and yawned again.

"Actually," said Hamada, stopping suddenly, as if catching herself, "You're coming with me."

Shizu took hold of Sune's arm with her much smaller hand. It didn't matter how slight the Taii was by comparison. All she had to do, as a nekovalkyrja holding onto a non-nekovalkyrja, was latch on and walk. The rest would logically follow.

"Walk and talk," she ordered, releasing him once she was sure he had momentum, "You're heading down with a landing party. Nobody's getting hurt out here in space, and if someone scrapes a knee they can wake up the night shift. Run the test when we're through, I need you on the ground."

Shizu's mind was racing. Granted, it was limping a little bit by now, and she was becoming visibly flushed with the sudden activity, but that didn't matter. She was remembering things, changing things bit by bit. A little befuddled, perhaps, but it made certain things clearer.

'Charisma,' she sent to the computer, 'Change in plans. Don't bother the night medic. Give me Takeda in the bay, and inform whoever was prepping that shuttlecraft that they're driving.'

Was it taking ship's crew?

Yes, yes it was. Did she care just now?

Nah.

Sune did not appreciate being manhandled by the Taii, especially since he was trying to talk with the Taisa. Once she released his arm Sune stopped and said "Hamada-Taii, under Star Army Medical regulations, I am ordering you to stand down until I have ensured you are fit for duty."

Sune then turned back to Hanako and bowed "Taisa the Taisho's notice spoke of a possible infection and since you and the other officers have all been off ship recently there is a chance that you may have been exposed to whatever this infection is. I am merely fulfilling my duty to this ship by following triage procedures ensuring that the most valuable members of the crew are not affected by whatever this contagion is."

Sune paused for a moment to consider Hanako's request. "Taisa I understand how you feel about injections ma'am, but in light of the current situation the PMS is the fastest and easiest way to ensure that you and the others are not affected by whatever is going on. However, if you wish we can go down to medical and I will do a normal examination, but that would still require a needle as I would need a blood sample as part of the examination and it will take longer to get the results. The choice is yours."

Again, the Taii stopped herself.

Some little, dark part of her brain untouched by the pesky notion of common sense posed the question: Ordered?

A part of her wanted to latch on and drag the offending enlisted by the front of his uniform the rest of the way to the cargo bay. But the Taii was still sober enough to resist the urge to manhandle anyone, luckily, so the only thing that came of it was a deep breath and a slow, easy countdown.

"Very well," she said simply, turning around fully and clasping her hands behind her back, "Scan me immediately, please."

Then, that dark part of her mind added, You are mine.

"Thank you Irenika-hei, and don't worry you weren't the only one asleep." He winked at her and turned around just in time to see things get a little heated between Hamada and Sune. Deciding to get to his station by going around them rather then edging through. Once he got to his station he sat down and started running diagnostics. Wow, people really need some sleep around here, or else someone's going to get their head chewed off. As he finished running diagnostics of the ships systems he started a basic scan of the surrounding area in case anyone decided to drop by for a visit.

“Takeda-hei, please report to the armor bay.”

Junko looked up, a bit surprised, until she placed the strange voice as that of Charisma. She had only heard the computer a few times before and she had never been the one addressed. Straightening up, she looked around for a second, wondering if she ought to respond.

“Um… understood?” she said finally, if a little unsurely. Nonetheless, she quickly set about finishing her visual inspection of the primary power conduits and coolant systems for the ship’s various generators. Stopping by the primary console to set the monitoring systems to emergency automation and to route all information directly to her, she exited the Mainspace and made her way aft.

Entering the armor bay, Junko looked around a little curiously; there was no one in the bay she could see immediately. “Hello?” she asked, a little quietly. It was a possibility that there was someone in a corner of the compartment she couldn’t see. Whatever the case, Junko wished that whatever job she was needed for would hurry up and present itself; having the only engineer on duty doing some minor task in the armor bay seemed like a bad idea if the ship was at battle-stations.

“Charisma, I have arrived in the armor bay as ordered.” She peered around the compartment some more, idly wiping her palm on the thigh of her jumpsuit. “What exactly is it that requires maintenance here?”

Well, wasn't that a little whirlwind? Misaki thought with slight amusement. Things had become unwoven since she'd taken to the brief course of training. Leaving had been a poor idea, especially after the casualties they had suffered.

Just try to pick up and help them as much as you can now. The Chusa thought to herself. "Dewa..." She bowed to Hanako slightly, deciding if something was wrong with her, being in the medibay and not the bridge was the most tactical choice, she relayed that to the CO privately. Stepping into the zero-G passageway, she sent Charisma a pop up window to Sune-hei, informing him she would be heading to the medical center itself rather than debating on the bridge, and that he had a very short amount of time to scan everyone that needed it as per orders.

Still, something seems off with her. The Ketsurui trained woman checked her NSP setting, while floating towards the aft of the ship, and their medical station. If worse came to worse, she just assumed Charisma could handle things, but it was as good a time as any to observe Sune-hei in his element. It made the veteran almost wince with a pensive halt when she learned of the gathering party in the cargo bay. Was it the right kind of mission to send the Taii on?

Sune-hei, I want to see summary reports on all the crew you scan. The specific results were not as important as the fighting condition of everyone, and even on the frontier the anxious tingle was too hard for the NH-27 to ignore. I don't like leaving Hanako! What is he doing up there?

The gifts, forgotten in the wardroom, were an example of the Chusa's stalled plan to help reacquaint herself with the members of the squadron, and introduce herself to the new subordinates in a way that was more comfortable for them. They couldn't all have been Kurosora, after all. Now, she was sure something had become muddled, and she would have to do what was always in her job description.

I wonder if she really read it? This must be very hard for her. Misaki thought to herself. The other tracks of her mind were preparing alternate scenarios for the rescue, and ways the scanning could have been taken care of more quickly. Not forgetting her sister-ships, she sent each CO a request for a sitrep while making her way from the zero-g passage.

This has to go well.