RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 9.2] Salvaging Parts and Hearts

Wardroom, 2nd Squadron Dock

Drei would reply almost instantaneously.

To: Orion
From: Drei

Catastrophic failure of infrastructure systems on Nepleslia. Senators and Davis are presumed dead. I have decided to recall all inactive SMoDIN ships and am attempting to direct first responders on the ground to areas of reported fires, power outages, and water/sewer disruptions. A 4th fleet ship is being re-directed to provide orbital surveillance of Funky City.

I am unable to reach the command structure on nepleslia and have lost a majority of my systems in Funky City Simultaneously. This eventuality has not been previously discussed and I require instructions on how to proceed.

Click to expand...

Wardroom, 2nd Squadron Dock

With the information he acquired, Orion hesitated.

Shortly after Orion had stopped speaking about the mindware, his right hand darted to Heram's left shoulder and held on fast. He held Heram close to him and spoke in Drei's voice, with a very low volume so that Heram and him were the only ones who could hear it. Finally a signal as to where Orion's speakers were would be shown, as Orion's left hand proceeded to place itself somewhere near the right side of his right armpit, cupping the speaker as so to further diminish the sound from spreading across the whole room and concentrating around Heram's left ear.

"Catastrophic failure of infrastructure systems on Nepleslia. Senators and Davis are presumed dead. I have decided to recall all inactive SMoDIN ships and am attempting to direct first responders on the ground to areas of reported fires, power outages, and water/sewer disruptions. A 4th fleet ship is being re-directed to provide orbital surveillance of Funky City.

I am unable to reach the command structure on nepleslia and have lost a majority of my systems in Funky City Simultaneously. This eventuality has not been previously discussed and I require instructions on how to proceed."

Orion finished reading the letter in Drei's voice, and let go of Heram. In his own voice, at the same volume, Orion would speak. "Sorry. I felt I had to cut whatever your next movement would be before you did it. This information is highly unsettling, Heram. We may well have to cut the meeting right now."

Wardroom, 2nd Squadron Dock

When Orion's hand quickly grabbed hold of Wazu, Sune's hands moved to his weapons, but only rested on them. The sudden movement of the Freespacer put him on the defensive. However, since the individual made no move directed towards Hanako; Sune chose to just remain ready to respond.

Apparently something is going on, and whatever it is they did not want Hanako and I to know. At least at this point in time. Well, nothing to do but wait and see how this plays out. he thought.

Wardroom, 2nd Squadron Dock

"I do not feel like we are making any speedy progress here. Perhaps we should adjourn for the moment and continue our dialogue with secure telecommunications rather than in person. This would allow us to both continue on our next missions without delay," Hanako suggested to Wazu.

Wardroom, 2nd Squadron Dock

“I agree, we will have to continue this at a later time,” Wazu said, looking over at Orchid so he could say, “Shuttle, Now.” As Wazu moved himself out of the booth he would look at Hanako and explain.

“In the spirit of sharing intel and co-operation. It is looking like the NMX have struck Nepleslia. I’ll forward the relevant Intel to you and my suggested version of the treaty as soon as we have it. It will likely take some back and forth to get to a version that we can both agree to. Now if you will excuse us we need to return to our ship.”

Nepleslia attacked, how badly? How did the NMX get past their defenses. That's another world in close proximity to Yamatai that is now being attacked. How long before they make a push for the seat of the Empire? What does one say at a time like this? Sune wondered.

"Admiral Wazu this is disturbing to say the least. Hopefully your Military Forces will get the situation under control swiftly." Sune said.

Stepping forward Sune turned and gave a curt bow to Hanako, "Ketsurui-Taisa, with your permission I will escort Admiral Wazu and his entourage back to their shuttle immediately." Sune offered, as he sent a message to the detail keeping the shuttle under surveillance. The Nepleslian visitors will be departing shortly. Please clear outbound traffic to expedite their return to their ship. he sent telepathically to the Ikoi's MEGAMI to be routed to the appropriate personnel.

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

Junko shook herself out of her reverie. Takeyu's story had so far been mildly... disturbing to say the least. She appreciated that he trusted her, and the Shosa, enough to talk about so sensitive and personal a subject, but she was still feeling a little on edge about this whole “socializing” thing. It was going to take her a while yet before she could comfortably reciprocate such sharing herself, though for the moment the dictates of good manners would see her through.

“Well, if they were stored in Yamataian space there definintely would be,” she offered, trying to show that she had, in fact, been paying attention.

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

"..." Yaichiro was thinking about it, obviously, before speaking.

"There have been safeguards on ST Backups with little failure of security. I represent such a failure, but it wasn't theft as much as an error on my family's part...anyway, I was part of a successful effort to tighten the laws regarding ST Backups at the beginning of YE 30, so it's even harder now to abuse or mishandle backups. If the backups are in the hands of the government proper, they're as secure as possible."

The officer pondered Takeyu's story thus far as well, thinking something seemed off. They passed a damaged police craft? No distress signal received? He couldn't say there was proof, but something certainly seemed shady.

"Did you ever research the records of the specific police organization? To find if a ship was damaged in that general direction that day, and what caused it? They're likely required to keep meticulous records. Taxpayer money being needed to fix the craft and all...though I have to wonder what sort of "police" organization would have been operating in that area aside from the Star Army at the time. The National Police don't have ships...the Yamatai Security Agency is a stretch...the local Star Army Standard Fleet pretty much handles policing in space."

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

Takeyu rubbed his chin, thinking he probably opened up a wound of some sort in Yaichiro but that thought quickly disappeared when he heard Yaichiro's question.

He gave it some thought, searching his memories for the answer. "I'm afraid I didn't do any of that, I was so caught up in getting the police to find the ship that I never thought to actually look into why they never responded to the distress signal nor why the cruiser was damaged," he seemed embrassed when he realized he hadn't done that, he wondered if Layven, or Sakura, would forgive him for not being more assertive.

His mind raced; now that Yaichiro had given him the question, he now had to wonder. Why DID the police not respond? What was that cruiser up to? What were those police hiding? He had more questions than answers, but perhaps he would find those answers overtime, his main concern was finding proof that his siblings were dead and now that Yaichiro had given him more hope - perhaps even revive his folks.

Takeyu glanced off left and thought. When Yaichiro said about the police and then mentioning the Star Army, he now had to wonder even more and thought about it more thoroughly.

He tapped his chin; and began to wonder about something. "There are more questions than answers..." he said and then asked. "If I may, can I continue explaining that day?" He had to wonder now if perhaps explaining the whole tragedy might give him an answer, he knew he was missing something vital: he had forgotten something.

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

"Please do. This has really piqued my interest." The officer said, wondering exactly what the rest of the story would tell. He ordered another non-alcoholic drink, a simple type of juice, and kept right on listening...

Realizing that he needed more to drink; he had his glass refilled with coffee and looked at its contents. "We arrived at the Chen Nebula a day after we went to Essex, but it took us a few more days to find the asteroid field. We set things up, sent out the drones and my father sent out two shuttles to survey the field," he stopped and took a small sip.

"I was in the main computer room, making some data backups and helping my father get the new sensor system online, when we fell under attack," he clasped his hands together in front of his face. "My father told me to get my two siblings off the ship; luckily they were both with me at the time as I was teaching them a few things about managing the main computer and how to troubleshoot problems. We made a run through the corridors," he mentally recalled how scared Layven and Sakura were.

A very faint, almost unnoticable smile, crossed his face. "If you knew Sakura and Layven, you'd probably love them. Rarely did either show fear, but that day it was understandable that Sakura was very scared. Layven tried to comfort her, and help her out. I didn't think much of it at the time as I did truly believe that we would get out of it alive," he gave out a long depressive sigh. "Sadly, that didn't happen. Sakura was hit in the head while we were running, but I didn't have time to get to her as the pirates swarmed over her - Layven was shot a few minutes later just a few corridors from the shuttle bay, but I couldn't help her as the pirates kept their fire on me. When I got into the shuttle and started up the launch sequence, the side door sealed," he shook his head. "A few moments later the shuttle launched, that was when I realized that the pirates were slavers."

He felt somewhat wrong, having not done much to help his siblings. "I should've done more to get my siblings on that shuttle, I should've ignored the pirates and pulled Layven on board," he felt rather bad now. He wondered what his fellow Engineers would think, he knew it was a risk explaining this, but he accepted his failure a long time ago.

"At least I know now that Layven 'is' alive," he picked up the pad he had brought out a little earlier and looked at it. "Sakura..... I don't know..."

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

Yaichiro listened....was that a look of sympathy on his face? It was a bit hard to tell. The officer's face wasn't without expression, it just seemed that his expressions were very slight by nature.

"You were a civilian in an extreme situation. Even as soldiers, we can't save everyone. You can hardly be accountable for what happened. If you look at it another way, instead of rushing into death by gunfire, you did what had to be done to survive. Afterward you became a soldier and trained yourself while looking for them, right?" The Officer said, considering what he'd do in that situation if he didn't have the benefit of military training.

"Do you know WHICH slavers have your sister or sisters? If we can't catch them safely, maybe we can buy them back. I have a bit of a fortune saved up, and using five or ten thousand here or there is of little consequence to me. I also have a civilian ship under an assumed name that I use for things like this from time to time."

"You sure you want to do that Shosa? I... am not exactly at the rank where I can pay you back easily," he blinked a few times at the Shosa, unsure if what he had from him was actually what he had heard.

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

"I don't expect you to pay me back. Custom made genetically engineered slaves run five thousand each. Your sisters' freedom could probably be bought for significantly less than that. I'm a multi-millionaire, Nayacesen-Hei. I don't spend money recklessly, but in this case, a few thousand KS is pocket change to me. It wouldn't be the first time I've bought a person's freedom." Yaichiro said, making his intent clear.

"I even own a very large home which is fairly empty; save for some staff, a former Ketsurui Samurai, and a pet Kawaii. Since your duties wouldn't allow you to go shopping for a home for them, I could even let them stay there for a time. The room is going to waste, and Midori-san could use the company."

"If we have to give them money to buy them covertly and let the slavers leave peacefully, that's acceptable. If we buy their freedom and get them clear, then catch the slavers with the Army's help, even better. We need to know who the slavers are and how to contact them though...maybe use your digitized memories to relate their faces and voices to MEGAMI, who can then use PANTHEON and accessible parts of the InterNEP networks to cross-reference them with lists of known criminals?"

"Didn't think about that; will do so once the Eucharis has been repaired. Otherwise, I appriciate the help you are giving me, it means a lot. However, what am I do about Sakura? I still have no body and thus no proof that she is dead," he shrugged in defeat. "Only way to truly find out is to search the ship and with the war on, I don't know if that can be done," he looked away.

"Then again, it's only a matter of time before someone takes the chance to salvage the vessel, though I doubt they would bother to report any bodies on board, and I would rather it be me or the crew who does that," he muttered as an afterthought and gave a heavy sigh.

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks


"Then perhaps we should discuss this with the Taisa. It seems like a small duty in comparison to the war on the surface, but it is also the duty of the Star Army to protect those civilians in our Empire who travel through space. If we can confirm your siblings as dead or enslaved, we can in either case take some kind of action...be it reviving their backups or acting to locate those who took them." Yaichiro took another sip of his drink before continuing.

"I can't promise the Eucharis herself would go, of course, and depending on how much information can be presented, they may elect to send a scout of some kind instead...but you don't have to solve this kind of thing yourself. It's one of the duties we all hold."

"I guess I can send the Taisa a request to meet with her, or did you want to do this Shosa?" he asked him curiously but then turned back to eat a bit of his now somewhat cold dinner.

“Please lead the way back to the shuttle.” Wazu asked, “I have faith that Nepleslia can handle this without us, but I would prefer we be there to help.” He would then wait for the science officer to take the lead.

Meanwhile back at the shuttle the Drei in the cockpit would be going through launch preparations, priming the engines, opening the doors, and getting ready to leave the moment the diplomatic party was back on-board.

Sune turned and motioned to the nearest doorway. "This way Admiral, I have also taken steps to ensure that you have a clear path when you depart the starbase to your ship." Sune said as he began leading the visitors back to the landing bay and their waiting shuttle.

Sam's Grill, 2nd Squadron Docks

"It's best if you do so, after doing a bit more research. It's your story, after all. Besides, I've only just returned to the Taisa's crew. If for some reason she refuses to meet with you though, I will try to find some way to comment, but I don't see that happening." He finished his drink, sitting back and relaxing at this point.

"Just remember to do a little research beforehand, to see if you've missed anything. The more information you have available for the Taisa to consider, the more likely she will be to consider a viable plan of action."