RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 7.2 Side Story] Desperados

Shizu somehow managed to linger in the main lounge while everyone filed into the back room.

It almost looked like it was on purpose - in fact, it was. She had spotted and met the eyes of the officer that had been speaking with the soldiers at the bar. The blue and the gray met and parted. When the rest of the crew had filed in, though, Shizu joined her.

Rather than actually buying her a drink, Ayuri handed Shizu her own.

"Only a little sip," she said, "And don't sit down, aye? You look like you have somewhere to be, Shi-chan. Wouldn't want to keep the busy white-panel."

"Not anymore," Shizu replied sardonically, accepting the shot glass and examining the contents speculatively, "But I see you put on white, yourself?"

"Reassigned to the Storm. Ironic isn't it?"

"I don't see it," Shizu admitted.

"I'm going to die before you."

The orange-haired Nekovalkyrja had hardly skipped a beat. Shizu watched her thoughtfully for a few seconds before taking another look at the glass in her hand. Tentatively, she took a sip from it, puckering involuntarily. Ayuri stifled a giggle - poorly - and offered a hand for the glass. Shizu returned it, still dealing with the shock.

"How cute," said the orange-headed officer, "And here I thought you couldn't look anymore sour."

They exchanged another glance. The Shoi shrugged, theatrically. The Taii just glowered, too tired to argue.

"Oh, I gave something to one of those Hei, for you," the Shoi went on, looking down at the bar. "I don't know what they're going to do with it even if they said they'd give it to you, but it's passworded and encrypted so If anyone with half a brain looks at it they'll just throw it away as a security hazard. Maybe you should get it away from them before that, aye?"

"What's on it?"

"Oh, you know. A few pictures, a couple of addresses. It's nothing big. I also put that movie of graduation on there, and the party." Coyly, the Shoi tugged at the Taii's clothing. "I see you found another shirt."

"Ouch." Shizu brushed the hand away, rolling her eyes a little. "Don't. My pride. It hurts."

"Don't look so miserable," the orange-haired officer said, quietly, "It can't be that bad."

"Want to bet me?" replied Shizu in the same tone.

"Yes, you miserable little pessimist."

In the moment's silence that followed, they both managed to smile, in their own way.

"I'll call or something," Shizu finally admitted.

"Liar." The Shoi turned back to the bar. "Just get going, will you?"

"Of course. Kanpai, Ayu-chan. I owe you a drink, one of these days."

"Ah...?" The Shoi gave Shizu a confused look, which quickly turned into something more appropriately startled as the Taii stole the glass out from under her nose and began to walk nonchalantly away. Without anything else to do, Ayuri called rakishly after her.

"Better not die, then! Kanpai!"

----------


Shizu entered the room with a vague, enigmatic smile, finding a place on the opposite side of Hanako as Misaki. Leaning back in her chair, she nursed the glass in her lap and tuned in to the conversations around her, crossing her legs in the meanwhile. Without the familiar texture of her skirt she felt a little naked, but she knew that already she was getting used to it.

When it got around to her turn to order, she said 'Whatever's good'.

Glancing to the new recruits, Shizu took a sip from her glass.

It really wasn't that sour.

With the officers finally entered the fine establishment and the crew was provided with a private room to debrief, Nika followed suit, all the while observing the officers interacted with others that were already here before them.

Nika nodded to Darnell as she took an empty seat and looked around, noting that Junko had not settled down yet.

"Where could Junko-san be?" she wondered.

When Darnell was corrected about bowing, he bowed as best he could. He was probably doing it wrong and he continued to speak with his head bent. He said, "Forgive me, after not bowing for my entire life I am not quite used to Yamataian culture. Please tolerate my mistakes. I await your summons to the interview."

He came up from his bow and walked around the edge of the U of the table and began to walk towards the door. He had become increasingly disinterested and the data card was not on his mind. He was no longer hungry, nor thirsty, nor was there any guarantee he would be on the crew. He had presented himself, shown the proper respect, and now his business was done.

Maybe he would go check on one of his samples or something. Or practicing something else, because Darnell never could get out from the creeping suspicion he had been made a scientist by a mistake and would fail when the time came.

The vague thought of how much he would love to get his hands on examples of a Mish came to his mind.

Hanako started on her rum. It was good.

"First of all what took you so long, armor team?" Hanako asked. Her tone wasn't angry, but rather somewhat parental and playful. "Do we not have teleporters for our power armors?"

She paused to dredge a large mass of while queso dip onto a chip and eat it while she waited for excuses with amusement. It was good to be able to relax now that they were done with the mission.

Meanwhile, Blackberry and some of the other former sprite crew began took seats near each other on the left side of the table and ordered.

Blueberry waved Darnell over. "Where do you think you are going? the Neko warrant officer asked. She was also the only other one here with green panels on her uniform.

Watching Darnell get up from the bar and head towards the U-shaped table where his soon to be shipmates were seating themselves, he quickly followed suit. Staying a few paces behind Darrell, he followed him around and through the middle of the U shaped table until he was standing next to him in front of Hanako and stood at attention.

He watched from the corner of his eye as Darnell introduced himself and also was paying attention as he was corrected on his salute. While it partially confused him still, he would sort it out later when he read his Dummies' Guide to Yamataian Customs and Traditions he conveniently forgot to read today.

When the exchange between Hanako and Darnell was finished, Mikael went into a bow and rose back up a few seconds later. "I am Santo Hei Harris, Star Army Infantry, ma'am. Looking forward as well to serve under you command as well." he said as he stood at attention. It was awkward for him to avert direct eye contact when Hanako. He couldn't look up, but considering he towered over all of them, looking down wasn't an option either. He settled with staring into space several centimeters to her left.

"Welcome to Eucharis, Harris," Hanako nodded. "Please join us for this night of partying...we could really use some relaxation right now. Our last mission was quite stressful. Speaking of which..."

Hanako whipped up a holgraphic display using her communicator.

AAR Display said:

Objectives:

1. Prevent capture of Depot Fleet by SMX forces. (ACCOMPLISHED)

Sustains:

1.
2.
3.

Improves:

1.
2.
3.

Click to expand...

"Our objective was to prevent the fleets from being captured, which we did, mostly. What are three things we did well? Anyone is free to speak freely."

It had taken Junko a minute to figure out where the crew had gone. Her first action upon entering the restaurant had been to make a beeline to the bathroom; she had spent a few moments splashing water on her face and generally trying to freshen up. Finally locating the back room, she wandered in, glancing about for a moment before settling in an open seat next to Himeya. The seat seemed far more comfortable than it would have been otherwise and she had to stifle a yawn as she relaxed into it. There were a few new faces in the room; she supposed they might be new shipmates and was happy to see they might be getting more help. Really, though, she wasn’t feeling too up to socializing at the moment, and the Taisa’s start into the debriefing was welcome indeed. Of course, with the massive screw-up that had been Engineering during the engagement she hardly had anything positive to start out with. And so she sat - stifling another yawn - silently waiting for a member of one of the more successful departments to begin.

Sune waited a moment, before replying to the Taisa about the away team performance. He deliberated on how to answer, he decided it was best to just be honest and direct. "Taisa, as for my armor I was using just the standard Mindy M2-2A armor with an optional hand weapon as backup.

When I asked if we required any thing beyond the basic configuration, I was told it was sufficient. So teleportation was not an option for me.

As it is we were barely inside the Irim Gunship, when all the emergency shutters engaged sealing us from the bridge. Which would have meant attempting a blind teleport inside an unfamiliar vessel. Our only recourse was to make our way through an unorthodox pathway following Yarani-Hei through the inner workings of the Gunship."

"My armor is well...non standard, those teleportation units were nothing but rumors and maybe a few prototypes last I knew." Tasuku paused a second thinking of something to add, "Something positive... the Eucharis didn't sustain any major casualties I guess".

It would have really sucked to get blasted before making it home... Tasuku thought. Looking around the room at the various nekos and young recruits he suddenly realized that at almost twenty three years old he was probably one of the oldest there, it was a sobering feeling but he shrugged it off after a second.

"I have." Misaki retorted to Kim softly with a hint of warmth melting into her voice.

She started to talk about the battle, once the pitchers of sangria arrived, but ended up ordering instead, "The bridge team performed very well for lacking battle experience-ah..I'll have the chicken tacos with the nacho side. Anyway, I think we lost a few units on Veridian. Though all that was needed was one unit. I'll make sure we requisition enough for our entire compliment. Those are too tactically useful not to have. Pineapple, please make sure we get more while we have the opportunity."

Glad to see Shizu join them, she slid the other pitcher of sangria her way, pushing the one closest to her for Kim to try if she wanted. It was pretty good, and one of her favourite parts about going to a restaurant that had them if they knew how to make it. Fresh fruit was important to the spacer!

"It sounds like you would have been a good addition, Kurosora-Hei." The XO remarked. Thanks to her skill with demolitions, which the NH-27 was trying to pick up from her, they had successfully disabled the POW base in that hellish jungle.

"Oh, and a quick response to damage control orders." The woman nodded, nose wiggling to move a strand of hair that had been incessantly tickling her. Normally, she might not have said something but some of the crew needed a nudge in the right direction to speak. She concentrated on her sangria in the meantime, listening to the others carefully.

A lot of new crew had joined them after Veridian, she took the chance to study their faces, and to try and form a better opinion on their personality than from what the personnel dossiers told her. Those were downloaded well before she had arrived for the briefing, and they were off. Sleep? Who needed sleep when you had Hanako and free wine punch?

"Thank you, Kurusu-Chusa." The soldier replied, with genuine warmth as she sniffed the pitcher slightly before puring the sangria into her glass and passing the pitcher off to Tasuku. However, the soldier knew she would need to take the drink slowly. After all, she allready had two bottles of beer in her system as it was, and it wouldn't do to make a complete drunken ass out of herself before the entire crew.

"I just hope that my new skills will be able to better help the Eucharis and her crew. I'll have the chili con carne with tortillas, please." She smiled and handed the menue to the waiter as she took in the new faces around the table again.

Misaki, since you're more experienced than me... do you ever get over the constant flow of new and unfamiliar faces?

As the pitcher of wine punch finally passed over to Nika, she poured two cups; One for the tired Junko, and another for herself.

"Have a drink Junko-san." She offered the cup to the other neko as the former listened to their Chusa relaxed debrief, taking her time to drink from her own cup.

"If I may Taisa..." Nika replied as she took another sip of her drink, "As Kurusu-Chusa had reported, the Bridge Team had been very active, both in their profession as well as in damage control. I would also like to commend Takeda-Hei for her dedicated work as well in keeping the ship stable, even with the infestation aboard." The neko took a quick glance at Junko and then back to Hanako, "And Miyazawa-Hei as well for diagnosing the bug quickly under heavy pressure." With that, she leaned back into her seat, swirling the cup in her hand, wondering what she would like to have as a meal as she went through the menu.

"Aye, Chusa," Pineapple nodded, using her communicator to start typing out an order for more teleporters.

Hanako cringed at the talk of Veridian. "I almost was thrown in jail for leaving those power armors and teleporters behind. Do you realize we are the only ship in the Star Army to lose a teleportation unit? They have self-destruct systems and anti-tampering features, but still, it is something we never want in enemy hands. Taisho Yui had to send in a special forces team afterward to recover them. Luckily, everything turned out alright."

"Bridge team active, engineering team fast, and medical worked hard," Blackberry repeated.

Hanako nodded to Blackberry. "Right. One thing I would like to do though is clarify bridge functions. I also thought the bug sample collection could have gone faster. Anyone else have positive things to add about the mission before we go into the 'improve' section?" she asked.

A waitress delivered Hanako's taco and taco salads for Lime and Mango. A second distributed more chips, salsa, and cheese dip. A third went around giving out refills.

"This is outstanding," Hanako declared after a few bites of the big soft chicken taco.

Junko took the cup from Himeya with a weak smile. She started to bring it up to her lips but, upon catching the whiff of alcohol, decided better of it. Adding a depressant to her current condition would not do anything good at all, she decided; she opened her mouth to speak to Himeya but closed it smartly as the debriefing continued. She sat in bemused silence as her shipmates spoke. The thought that Engineering's reactions - her's really - had been a positive amused her in a rather sad way. It's all perspective, I suppose, she thought. Of course, it did not fail to register with her that with such a view of her performance her career might not be over. It had been her assumption since she had first had a moment to think about it that the repeated issues with Engineering and damage control, not to mention her questioning of orders - twice, had spelt at least her dismissal from the Eucharis if not from the Star Army as a whole. Considering that such a situation might not be inevitable, she sat up, a flicker of hope dispelling some of the haze of exhaustion. She glanced about briefly as the Taisa finished speaking before turning back to Himeya to say what she had meant to before. "Thank you for the drink, Himeya-hei, but I really don't think I should be drinking alcohol right now. I doubt that the Taisa would be too happy if I fell asleep at the table."

Darnell looked over at the woman whose hair reminded him slightly of his, except longer, but whose skin looked just plain odd. The last time he had seen something like it was when someone had fallen into a chemical vat. He later committed suicide to escape the pain since he couldn't get treatment. Darnell couldn't but help reflecting on how lovely the place he came from was.

He said, "Ma'am. I am going to test several samples I am working on. You are, of course, welcome to join me, but I am neither hungry nor thirsty nor a part of this crew until Hanako-taisa has approved me." He remembered she was a superior officer and bowed, remaining bowed as he talked like before, "She may decide you are all she needs and I will end up a random nobody. The kind who fall in the first wave and are never remembered, those who fall to the stratagems people like you always seem to resist. The people who get shot and mind controlled and who knows what else. After all, somebody has to be those people." Darnell was frowning but this was concealed by his bow. He realized he more iterating his own fears of his fate than anything else.

He smiled, "But don't worry, you're the heroes. You'll win in the end. The kill 'em all Eucharis, they call you. My apologies, after my mention about Hanako-taisa's approval all my comments were unnecessary."

"I see..." Nika agreed with Junko somewhat as the alcohol she had drank got her a little light-headed, "How about something warm to perk up? Coffee? Tea?" The waiter walked by after providing the officers with their meals, "Hello, might you able to get the same meal our Taisa ordered? And maybe some light coffee for my colleague here." The waiter nodded and went off to processed her orders.

"Better take this drink slow Irenika. Alcohol do makes everything goes round."

Mikael had originally planned on either going back to the bar or leaving the place all together. But with the Tai-sa's invitation to join his eventual new crew, he didn't have a whole lot of options left to him that would have a neutral or better outcome. He bowed one more time about and did an about face to turn himself around. He made a quick scan on the tables when he saw a young female come into a room and sat down on the right side.

He walked to the ends of the table and went around the right end of the table before he settled for an open seat next to Junko. He contemplated moving to the end of the side, but he didn't want anyone to think he was trying to avoid them. He grabbed one of the menus and pretended to be deep in thought over what he will eat. "Awkward......" he thought to himself.

Blueberry got up from her meal and floated over to Darnell until she was right in his face. "Look," she said in a low voice so only Darnell could hear, "If you don't want to be a part of this crew then why did you volunteer to serve aboard this ship in the first place? I have a mind to slap some sense into you if you don't start thinking. You may have friends and family here but out in space all you'll have is that groups of people behind me...the crew is family, and in order to be successful you're going to have to lose the loner attitude and start interacting with them. Right now they're trying their best to relax because they all almost died last mission...Especially the captain. Now, you can either get back to the table and start making friends or you can run off like a coward...it's your choice; make it now."

The Warrant officer crossed her arms and waited.

- - -

"Let's move on to things..." Hanako started.

"...that we sucked at," Blackberry finished, in her typical emo voice.

"Right," Hanako nodded. "Areas to improve upon next time."

Sune thought for a moment, he pushed his half eaten plate of delicious food away, he was unsure of usefulness in the debriefing was hindered by the fact that the medbay was marginally informed of what was happening.

"Taisa, from what I can surmise based on the events as I am aware of. It would appear that the Mishhu anticipated not only our arrival, but the tactics that would be employed upon arrival. They had developed a strategy to counter them. Basically, they out foxed us ma'am."

He waited a moment, the asked. "Ma'am with the considerable damage the Eucharis sustained will you be considering making modifications? If so I have a suggestion. Prior to my posting on the Eucharis I put forth a proposal to Ketsurui Zaibatsu about improving medical care by developing an group of automated units that provide medical services. With the yet unidentified biological weapon of the Mishhu, they would be a good line of defense since the units would be unaffected by such weapons, unlike medical personnel. If I am not mistaken, the AMTC system should be available by this time."

He looked at her as she got up in his face without much of a reaction, "Ma'am. I am not a loner. Where I come from only two things add weight to your life, weapons, and friends willing to protect it. You can only have so many guns, so loners die quickly. If Hanako-taisa accepts me we will rely on each other heavily. But that is an if."

He paused a moment then continued, "And if slapping me makes you feel better feel free, ma'am. As for cowardice... perhaps. Perhaps." He doubted they would appreciate how Nepleslians where he was from could consider friends. Or what they did together. He gave her a friendly slap on the arm, "Fine, let's start with you. What's your name, Aoke-tomo*?"

*Ao is blue, ke is hair, tomo is friend. So he's basically saying 'My pal Bluehair'.