RP: YSS Aeon [Mission 7.0] - Prologue Southern Encounters

Kyoka, finally done with her meeting with the Taisa, returned to the weight room. The projection of a uniform changed back to the supplied work-out clothing that they had to wear in the Star Army as she approached in preparation. She brushed by Vergil with no more than an, "Ohaiyo," going three steps into the room before realizing that the person she passed she did not recognize.

"Ah, might you be. . . DiPaulo-hei?" She asked, wheeling about and bowing in apology. Her mental roster gave her the information necessary, once again.

"I apologize for the brush-off. I was not paying attention. I am Tsubei Kyoka, Itto-Juni."

Josea took a seat and let the others chat. So far his time aboard the Aeon had afforded him great opportunities in his study of alien linguistics. The SSS was pouring over the data he had gathered from both species.

Katae walked into the Wardroom. She went over to the beverage table and poured herself a cup of coffee. She brought the cup up and savored the fragrance. She then took a sip, then walked over to the main table and put the cup down so she could retrieve it later.

From above the crew, the voice of Eternity came out of several speakers. "Crew of the Aeon, fall in."

Saki was happy. She was just on the way back from medical where she received a 'downgrade'. Back to NH-29 it was for her. And it felt good. It was the body she was born with. NH-33 was a good body, but this one was hers. And the new firewall module will make sure no one will hack her.

She had just enough time to get a shower and change into her regular attire. A bodysuit and Legend Jacket. It just felt right. She also let her hair hang for once.

Saki was looking to the wardroom meeting. First it was de-briefing and those were good, because it meant mission was over and no one will shoot on you anymore. It also could mean promotions. For her or for her comrades. Both were as good.

So with happy expression on her face, Saki walked into the wardroom and fell in.

The YSE Anthem started playing in the background, "Attention to Orders" Eternity's voice came out of the speakers.

"The following crew members have been identified for promotion.
Tsubei Kyoka to Itto-Juni
Arai Saki to Jôtô Hei
Tanaka Yoshiro to Jôtô Hei" the MEGAMI continued.

Katae walked up to the three soldiers who were being promoted and presented them with their new rank pins and patches. She smiled warmly as she commended each one personally.

She then took a step back, "I want to thank everyone of you for your contributions on the mission to Higaflan. You all did well and are a credit to the uniform.

Before I give you folks a chance to give me a verbal report on the mission, there are a few announcements I need to make."

Katae paused for a moment, "To begin this was the last mission that our Infantry Squad Leader will be with us. Tsubei-Juni is leaving the Aeon for an assignment elsewhere. She feels that this is the best way she can serve the Empire. While I would have preferred her to stay here, she has to follow her heart.

Tanaka-Hei, is being trained to serve as a Starship Operator in addition to his role as a member of our Infantry.

Saki-Hei, is going to be the ship's Armorer her responsibility will be to keep our heavy equipment in service.

So when we get done with the formal part of this gathering, be sure to congratulate each of them."

Katae walked back over to the table and picked up a glass of white wine and took a sip.

"Okay, I will start the debriefing with what transpired in space, then we will discuss the planetary aspects.

The combined group was completely successful in meeting all of our objectives. The various facilities in Higaflan used by the NMX were destroyed. We also were able to destroy a supply convoy that was already folding to the system when it emerged.

We managed to achieve those objectives while only losing two of the Urufu-Class Light Cruisers.

So, who would like to speak next." Katae said looking around the room.

Garret listened attentively, not yet willing to speak up. He was about to do so in fact, but he muffled a word through his lips as it was about to come out.

He choose to make his presence a silent one, for the moment.

Kata'nova listened in on the preceedings, she had been in the room the entire time but had stayed out of the way. She was nervous right now, being around these aliens that she hardly knew with the exception of Josea and Katae, whom she had already determined were not a threat to her - but the others, with the exception of Freyja - she didn't quite trust yet.

Her tail was still although the tip twitched every so often, she didn't say a word - though that was becuase she was still mastering this strange aliens language. These aliens, so strange in their appearances. No tails.. well, except these other strange creatures with the odd looking ears...

Fryja stood near her new "friend" She hoped that she could keep Kata'nova from feeling oppressed. She had her orders from higher up to learn all she could from this new alien and file a report. She knew it was going to take a bit of time with the computer program helping to come up with a translation program.

When the the CO asked for someone to start the sit-rep, Fryja was not wanting to have to give it in front of everyone, but if she had to she was going to do it quickly and first to get it over with.

"Ma'am, The Mission started well with us approaching each of the targets and dropping our assigned payloads. Once each of the targets were hit I proceeded on approach to the prison for a combat drop. The ground operations team made their insertion with out incident on my end. During my over-watch patrols I was engaged by enemy drones, I proceeded to to remove all that I saw, I'm not sure if I downed them all or if they bugged out after being damaged."

"It was then I saw on my radar the ship of our fellow guest here. The small ship, I believe it was a fighter craft, being shot down by a few drone that I and the shuttle's targeting system hadn't picked up. I brought the shuttle around a gave fire support the the stricken fighter, it was able to peel off and escape, it was only a few seconds before I brought down the drones and went to look for the fighter, I located it near a large explosion, which I believe was it's power core. I rescued the pilot," she motioned toward Kata'nova. "Before returning to the prison for a pick up." The thought for a few seconds about weather to bright it up, but her professionalism won out, "The only issue I ran was The Ground Operations Commander kept asking for Sit-reps from me, but when I would respond and transmit the information there was no reply."

Yoshiro just sat and listened to what was being said after recieving his promotion and wondered what to say. He looked over at the newcomer, the alien for about second and smiled at her to as if to let her know that he was no harm and then turned back to the debrief.

"If that is the case then we need to work on our communications more during a mission. I hope that I am not being out of line for saying that but we really need to get better at relaying info to each other." He said and then became silent again.

Katae listened to the feedback so far, "We will list that as an item to address. Communications in any mission is vital. At the minimum you should always acknowledge a transmission so that the sender knows you received it."

She made a gesture and a volumetric image appeared above the table listing this as the first work item.

"What about the actual deployment of the away team. Our sensors showed that the team was spread out over a sizable area. Was that intentional?" she asked not looking at any one in particular.

Misaki waited for the junior crew to speak before she rose, and bowed formally, "I will provide a brief assessment, ma'am. Deployment of the squads became staggered, it was intentional for my squad. However, I cannot say the spread after that point was on purpose, other than to ascertain target location. Gambit performed admirably, and kept a tight leash on their assigned locations. We brought up the rear, after clearing additional bogies inbound towards the LZ, as you can see here." She changed the volumetric display to provide recordings her communication and sensor modules took, "The team here penetrated further in order to locate the tanks, here, and here while gambit secured control. Communication that bounced through my hub was received by the tenba and bounced to Aeon-actual."

Imperial purple eyes cut down the table, then back up when she progressed the display, "I believe they moved on their own initiative into the basement to look for POWs there, we did recover hybrids as a result, though it was a tactical risk taken by that squad leader, which is acceptable even if not cleared through the tactical chain in place. Casualties ceased when we took control, which should have been taken in full storm, in retrospect."

"Once the cells were opened, the targets were able to be rescued, including our VIP, those that could walk were able to help those that could not. I am not aware of why they opened fire on the hybrids, however once it was time to withdraw, I should point out we made an adequately speedy advance in the other direction, to the LZ."

She paused, to let the display play out the last moments, "If we had been more quick, we might not have been caught in the ensuing explosion. Cohesive unit movement exercises might be prudent to ensure we can work within a similar tactical chain of command more fluidly, ma'am."

At that, the XO sat back down, having run over the major points that had left an impression on her over the course of the mission, her neutral smile returned when she looked towards the Taisa for a response.

Katae listened to Misaki's report. She noted the salient points, although the question of what happened when the team was leaving the Tenba-Class was not really addressed. She decided to not pursue the matter.

"Thank you Chusa, I am sure in the days to come we will have plenty of opportunity to improve our cohesion. After all we are going to need a new leader for the Infantry." she said looking at Kyoka.

"For now, I wish to speak of the future.

The war with the NMX is winding down, and so the Aeon has been returned to her original role of exploration. We picked up Kata'nova Sui'yrena, who is quite obviously not a member of any known species. We have been given the task of finding her people, and establishing contact with them.

We have a few challenges in this task. First and foremost is language. Kata'nova does not speak our language and we do not speak her language. The Josea building on the start that Freyja made with Kata has been working on a translation program. It is working, but has a limited lexicon. As we spend more time with our guest, talking with her, and working with her, the program should improve. To that end, I encourage you to take some time to get to know her.

The second challenge is Kata does not know where her people are in relation to where we are. From what we have been able to gather, her ship suffered some sort of malfunction which caused to emerge here.

So we are going to have to approach this in a methodical fashion. We are going to proceed south to an unexplored system. Once there, we will checkout what stellar objects there are, and our Science member will work on developing a virtual night scape. Creating a map of the sky of primary stars to have Kata look at and see if any 'constellations' seem familiar.

It is my hope that by repeating this, we can eventually get close enough to the Neshaten worlds that we can pick them up on other sensors, then we will move towards contacting them."

Katae took a moment to take a brief drink, "For the duration of our mission our guest is being granted honorary rank of Yonto Hei, which will allow her to move about the public areas without an escort.

Naturally she will be escorted in controlled areas.

Since we do not know where our path is taking us or how long, I suggest you folks see if you need anything of a personal nature and order them from Chiharu starfortress. Our own starbase will remain here until I call for it, and only if I consider the area safe.

Also we are now at Condition 4, so if you wish to go shopping you can do so alone, but we leave in two hours. Do not be late.

Any questions or additional debrief comments? Otherwise you are dismissed."

The young Kit moved the light-vision goggles she had on, the light in the room was so high that she needed them so that she wouldn't be blinded. Now, she could see relatively just fine with the lights being darkened down to level that she could 'see'

Kata'nova looked up and over at Katae, this was going to be interesting. She understood 'some' of what this officer had stated in the short amount of time she had been learning hte language, but naturally it wasn't at all perfect and it would take quite some time before 'she' could possibly understand them.

Her tail moved curiously and her ears flickered a bit out of interest. She had a question, but she couldn't figure out how to phrase it so they could all understand, she tapped her lower chin curiously and took the datapad that she had been given and began to type away on it.

For now, she decided to use a combination of pictures and words. She picked out a picture of a workshop, with machinary in the background and people working around it, then picked out what she assumed to be a person 'asking' to use said machinary.

Her intention was that she needed to repair her body-suit, she had patch sealants on her in her pockets but what she needed were some machines for the finer parts of the repairs - said machines that were destroyed when she self-destructed her scout to prevent valuable data from falling into the wrong hands.

Then, she spoke her langugae so that the translation program could get a general idea of what she might be saying. "Jg J nbz, ep zpv cz dibodf ibwf boz ljoe pg b xpsl ps sfqbjstipq J dbo vtf?"

The translation program chirped, it processed the audio and visual images and said the following.

".... I ... may... you... gamble... repair.. use"

The Nepleslian pilot had sat quietly during the debrief; probably because he was slightly hung-over. He had returned from the last mission to find a package from an old friend. Several bottles of fine Nepleslian whiskey and, even more exciting than the whiskey, the latest in cybernetic eyes and computer interface. How she got ahold of these Trowa wasn't sure but the next time he got a furlough he was going to track that beautiful Nepleslian babe down and see that she was properly thanked.

He had installed the new software and components last night, and then celebrated by drinking a bottle and a half of the whiskey. It had been a while since he had had stuff that good and he kind of got carried away. Luckily, he had a high tolerance for alcohol and didn't show up on duty drunk. The Taisa would have had him thrown in the brig. Also lucky for him, he had two hours to for the remainder of his hangover to dissipate and he was quite sure he would be ready for duty by then.

While Kata'nova waited to see if the computer would get what she said right, although she doubted it would given they had only JUST meet, her nose started to twitch.

She could smell something in the air, it was a sweet and offending smell and made her curious as she began to walk around the room and looked around the area.

Her tail was in constant movement, swiping back and forth and her ears were flat and back. She gave off a slight growl, not one that would indicate a threat though.

She moved around the table, her eyes focused more on the scent and the direction of the smell. Curiously, she stopped near Trowa and pondered the soldier for a moment and sniffed the air around him. It came back harsh and even more offending than when she first smelled, whatever the heck it was.

"Xibu jt uibu tnfmm...." she spoke.

Freyja looked at her new friend curiously, she wasn't quite sure what the furry one was talking about. as she thought of a way to ask Kata'nova to repeat her self, the young pilot wondered off sniffing at things. Freyja followed until Kata' was sniffing Trowa.

Kyle said:

"Xibu jt uibu tnfmm...." she spoke

Click to expand...

She waited for the computer to translate, but the fact Kata' was sniffing him and wrinkling her nose gave her an idea of the meaning, "That might be the smell," she pointed at her own nose and sniffed, "of booze," she made a drinking motion and then acted drunk. she stumbled around and faked a burp. Straightening back up she remember the the program and looked for a picture of the chemical make up of alcohol. Once she found it she had it displayed, she pointed at the picture then her nose.

Wardroom

Katae took note of Kata'nova's curiosity which were then followed by Freyja's antics. The translation program supplied a translation attempt "what is stink".

Katae noticed that Kata'nova seemed curious with Trowa her returning Starship Operator. Could he be wearing some sort of cologne that has her attention. she wondered.

She stood up and walked towards Freyja, "Oinari-Hei, is there a problem? Care to explain what you are doing?" she asked in a clear voice.

Trowa grabbed a carrot from the galley and was idly cutting off bite sized pieces with his pocket knife when he knowtest the… what was it the Taisa called her? The Nish-ate’n something or other. What was it doing? Sniffing him?

Xibu jt uibu tnfmm

Trowa raised an eyebrow. “Likewise, I’m sure.” He had no idea what the thing was trying to say. Maybe she wanted to try some of his carrot? Freyja, the young pilot had befriended the Nish-whatever, approached and was also trying to figure out what her friend was trying to say. When Freyja’s explanation was that he smelled like booze Trowa was not very impressed. Granted he’s usually a jokester and talker, the one-eyed Nepleslian wasn’t in the mood for jokes right now. Although, come to think of it, Trowa couldn’t ever remember Freyja making a joke or even talking much for that matter. The girl was even shyer than Saki.

“Oinari-Hei was trying to translate for me.” The NCO put in before Freyja could answer. Trowa flashed on of his most charming grins at the Taisa. Though, historically, they never seemed to work on her. He continued anyway. “I believe she was trying to make a joke about Nepleslian stereotypes.”

Wardroom

Freyja's eyes popped wide open when she realized that she just accused the Ittô Heisho of being drunk on duty or at least smelling of it. "Oh... No... Sir... I... I was... Wasn't trying to mock your heritage, I... uh... just thought that maybe you had cologne on that was alcohol based. and I was thinking that she was smelling that, though maybe I should have not play acted the drunk part."

She was flustered, she really did like Trowa, he was one of the first crew member she had worked with. "I'm very sorry, please forgive me!" she sputtered the words out quickly. the thought of running away and hiding in the shuttle cockpit crossed her mind a few times already.

The then realized that she might have just told her new alien friend that her fellow crew member was a drunk, she started shuddering and trying to explain to the translation program to help explain herself but all she was doing was causing errors with the program and making herself more uncomfortable with the whole situation. She started wondering if even the cockpit would hide her well enough.

Kata'nova had watched Freyja's reaction and the actions she had made, the young kit thought for a moment on what she was saying before a light-bulb lit up in her mind.

She looked down at the datapad and flashed some images through it, she soon ran across an image of a man with some kind of bottle in his hand while another hand had this bottle up to his mouth that he was drinking.

The smell, however, was already getting to her and she could feel it in her head. Often times, she actually hated how she had an acute sense of smell.

Instead of saying something, she just nodded her head at Freyja's drunken man poses and showed the image that she had picked out.