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RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 8.0] Whispers in the dark

Anne took out her pistol and drifted inside the cargo hold. It seemed empty, a mess caused by a decompression. Anne moved in carefully, scanning around ready to shoot anything that looks dangerous. She also had to be careful to not shoot any survivor. There was as mall container nearby which could tell her what kind of stuff was in the cargo hold. Anne went to check it out.
 
"Hmm?" Silic looked at the blip for a second before realizing what it was. "Oh crap! Hit the gas!"

The fighter shot fowards out of the projected path of whatever the object was, engines blazing as it panic burned off.
 
There were no survivors in the hold. The container was filled with bars of gold. There were also containers of ampules of an unknown liquid. Silic's maneuver got him clear of the drone. But from his vantage point he spotted at least two other similar drones.
 
Elisto could only blink when he saw the bodies, or rather, the dead; go tumbling out of the hold and into space. With a heavy sigh he looked into the hold and began to move inside, his hands near his pistol as he surveyed the area closely, looking for a way out of the hold and into the interior of the base. Although, curious as he was, he did look toward the one container that was opened - pondering whether there was a reason - although the presence of gold bars did get his attention as well. He moved over to the container and peered at the bars, curiously wondering what their intent was - other than potentially the most obvious. "Think this is currency or possibly material used on the station?" he asked Anne.
 
Space

As Silic made his adrenalin inspired evasion. His tactical systems picked up two blips which were coded as Neutral. A moment later a a brief message came across his speakers via a tight beam transmission.

Greeting Star Army Pilot.
Are you here to fight the vermin scum? Arrest your thrusters. You are moving through a field on drones that respond to high energy discharges.
We of the Poku Degonjo Saeruo can clear a path through the drones if you wish. Or you may do so yourself.
Click to expand...

Cargo Hold

The lights in the hold started flashing. The doors to the bay started closing.
 
Anne kicked into the lid of the box closing it. "I doubt whole golden bars were used as currency. In large scale trade maybe." She shrugged. "I was more interested in the liquid. That will have to wait." She explained and then that doors started closin.

"Huh what now? Out or stay?" She looked at Elisto, obviously not sure about their next course of action. They finally got in, it would be a bit too early to get out now.
 
Pulling his side-arm from his belt, he moved over to a crate. "Stay," Elisto said and knelt down to stay out of sight. "Don't know what will happen when that door closes, we could be greeted with a dozen hostiles or just people wondering 'why' the door opened in the first place," he beckoned for Anne to find a hiding spot. He could go back outside, but then Anne was right, they 'had' just gotten inside after spending time trying to figure out how - no use going back out.
 
Akemi saw the doors starting to close. Silic had streaked away from some threat. She was turn, did she leave the two alone inside and stay with Silic or join them. "Silic, keep overwatch signal if you encounter anything or any other ship's show up." She broadcasted over the squadron frequency.

She then accelerated her Kawarime and started mental calculations it would be close, but she was confident she could do it. Timing her braking she cleared the doors with centimeters to spare and managed to bring the craft to a stop before hitting the inner wall. She looked for a spot to set the fighter down and climbed out of the craft. "Figured you folks might need some backup, and if nothing else a can opener to cut through the doors if the natives prove hostile." She said as the lights came on steady and the sound of air pumping into the chamber filled their ears.
 
As the large fighter-craft entered the room that was suddenly a makeshift hangar, Anne grabbed Elisot by arm and flow with him away. She was in awe of the maneuver that Akemi just did. Flying through such a narrow space so easily and stopping in time. Anne would be either crushed by the doors or would hit the wall due to acceleration.

"Happy to have you!" Anne said and picked up the box. Which was luckily not so heavy thanks to zero-G and thanks Anne being a helashio. In 1g she was able to lift 400 kilograms easily, this box in zero-G? No problem. "This is full of gold and some strange liquid. I think we should put it in fighter for safe-keeping. It might be leverage for us if people will turn hostile. They will not let us go, they won't get their gold back."
 
Akemi looked at the container, "Sounds good to me. Would be nice if we had the means to analyze that liquid. But we'll save that for later." She took the container from Anne and put in in back of her seat.

The pumping of air completed and silence filled the hold. Akemi looked around. "Well, looks like the next step is opening the door. Either they are not aware we are in here, they are waiting for us to open the door. It is possible that the venting of the hold was initiated from a remote location to dispose of those bodies.

We need to see what is inside this place, so we need to open the inner doors, but with no one in front of it. Scrapyard, kindly check the door controls for tampering, and if possible disable any tell tale that will let them know we opened the door."
 
Silic was about to reply with something rude that would probably include one finger and then remembered how that had gone down last time, and then Akemi was talking to him. Telling him to call if anything came up. This probably counted. Instead he sent something slightly more diplomatic.

Hold one.
Click to expand...

"Uh, boss?" Silic said over the squad frequency to Akemi. "It's funny you mention that. See, I've gots some of them strange folk out here wid me. Talking about 'vermin scum' and to shut of my engines. They say there's a field of drones that home in on energy discharges, they think they can clear a path. Something?"

Silic scratched his head as he thought a little more. "Can I shoot them?"
 
Akemi listened to Silic, his communication was beyond vague. It was obvious that something was going on outside, but she was unsure who he wanted to shoot.

"Tin-man, clarify what you mean by strange folks? How is your HUD identifying the people contacting you? Are they being painted red as in hostile? Have they identified themselves?"
 
"You know, the cat folks." Silic replied, clearly forgetting the irony of the nekovalkrja name and ears. "The ones that shoot at us occasionally. Hold on, I'll send you the message, let me figure out how this thing works."

Giving up trying to tell her, he sent her a copy of the message he had received. He couldn't even begin to pronounce the name of the signature, which wasn't making it any easier. With the immediate danger gone Yaeko shut off the engines and the fighter drifted slowly.
 
Elisto had been jolted by Akemi's menuver, so much so that when he saw that fighter fly into the bay he had been stuck for words and instead just shook his head to clear a cobweb that had grown inside of it. Hearing the order, the operative went over to the keypad and began to fiddle around with it... carefully of course so as not to risk opening up the 'rear' door and having them go back out into space, he only vaguely listened in on the rest of the comm. traffic. "Working," he said to Akemi as he isolated the door controls so as to not alert anyone else in the asteroid that something was going on. "Give me a second..."
 
The inside of the door controls was pretty standard. There was no fancy tell tales to get in the way. In a minute Elisto had it wired so they could open the door at will and no one would be the wiser.

Akemi looked the relayed message.

"Tin-Man you can not shoot at those ships. The Poku Degonjo Saeruo are allies with Yamatai now. Feel free to using your ingenuity to deal with the 'mines' they have indicated. But take no hostile action. See if you can get them to clarify what they mean by scum-vermin, or what their mission is here. Our alliance allows our forces to work together." she replied to Silic.
 
"I didn't get that memo..." Silic replied, slightly petulantly. Still plainly sore at the last time their fleets had encountered.

Greetings cat persons of Poku Thingy

We are here to investigate unknown activity in this area. Do you know what happened here?
Who is the Vermin Scum? Do you eat them?
Are these your mines? Littering is a crime, you know.
Click to expand...

Silic nodded to himself, feeling quite smart actually for his correspondence with a mysterious alien species. He hit the send button.
 
It took a minute or so before Silic got a reply.

Code: 
Yamataian Thingy Soldier
Yes, we know what happened here.

Vermin scum is our term for what you in Yamatai would call pirates. Those who attack prey without honor.

This is one of their bases. Our ships attacked here awhile ago, and reclaimed that which was stolen from us.

We stand watch for the return of any more vermin scum ships.
The mines are not ours, they belong to the vermin scum.
 
"Door can be opened," said Elisto as he shifted his weight onto another foot and made ready to open it. "Akemi, Anne, you two ready?" he asked, glancing at the two and at the fighter.. if there were any hostiles on the otherside when he opened it they would get a very warm welcome..
 
Akemi secured her fighter and took up a defensive position by one of the crates. "I'm ready." She did not feel the need to add a warning for Elisto to not stand in front of the door, as she figured his training was sufficient for him to not make such a rookie move.
 
Anne put her hand on handle of her pistol, making sure the NSP was set to stun. She also fastened the medpack on her back, making sure it was holding. The helashio then nodded at Elisto. "Ready when you are," she said as she hid behind other crate, poking her head out a little.
 
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