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RP: OIF Atuan [OIF Atuan] Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

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The OIF Atuan was docked inside one of the slowly being completed Dawn Station's docking bays, the Ashigaru's that had previously served as the small carrier's compliment having been carted off of the ship and to the research labs of Sector Seven as soon as it had arrived. Javier Feyete's development team had wanted to get a good look at how the Ashigaru reacted to damage from real, high-intensity combat, and they also wanted to study the effects of the Mishhu Frames' weapons on the materials used to construct the Ashigaru. As this would leave the Atuan's frame compliment dangerously low, with only Kelly and his Asura remaining operational, it had been decided to upgrade the ship's frame wing. As such, three more Asura's had been assigned to the ship, with Kelly's Asura(which, apparently, was the preproduction model) serving as the fourth, along with two Kirins to serve as long range combatants. Also, because of the nature of the missions that the ship would have to take in the future, part of the lower cargo-bay was being modified, adding two of the new Scimitars to the Justicar's combat wing for added assistance. Of course, even with all of the production and repair capabilities of Dawn Station, it would still take a few hours for the modifications to be completed, so the crew had been given some time off. In hustle and bustle of unloading multi-ton giant robots from the Atuan, no-one noticed the small organic creatures, along with a vaguely feminine lithe shape dropping away from some of the Ashigarus and the Atuan itself, scurrying away into ventilation shafts.

~~~~~~

Because of the unexpected turn of events that had happened on the Kennewes mission, Kelly Williams found himself in full Origin Uniform, walking besides the attractive, slim-yet-lethargic Arah Tenner, as they strode down one of Sector Seven's major hallways. They had been summoned to the offices of the enigmatic Murakami Kensuke, who was curious as to the exact details of the new NMX Powered Frames, and if anyone outside of the Atuan's crew and most of the OAW-staff of Sector Seven needed to know about the incident. Sighing, Kelly's posture relaxed a bit, as he scratched at his braided hair, which resembled rows of corn.

"Arah, I think I hurt Yoshiko by telling her what happened to Oyu so suddenly. She seemed distressed and worried, and I'm not really sure if I did the right thing. I think that if it weren't for her team-mates, she'd be a bit more distressed right now. I'm a bit worried about how she's holding up, but Taela seems to really look out for her, in the good ol' Nekovalkyrja way." Infact, Kelly had gone to extreme measures to make sure that the pilots were okay. His first order of the day had been "All of you, Shinji, Meena, Lucien, Taela, Yoshiko. Go spend some time together. As a group. There's this place called Gamma's Diner, why don't you all go try it out." Kelly's second order was a bit more relaxed than the wakeup call he had given the pilots on the day of the mission on Kennewes, "Have fun and relax, all of you. That's an order!"


~~~~~~~

Sitting in the large, mausoleum like office, behind a rather modest MAHOGANY desk, Murakami Kensuke smiled smugly, his arms folded in front if his face, as if hiding his smile from the only other person currently in the room.

"You can stop trying to pose like that now, Kensuke. That ominous pose fits someone evil. Perhaps if you were secretly a member of SAINT, sent to spy on Aerin?" The other person in the room was a tall, fair skinned Nepleslian of above average height, with blond hair and blue eyes, and a somewhat pale complexion. His voice, Kensuke noted, had an odd accent about it, sounding more refined than the average Nepleslian accent. His apparently calm demeanor did not leave anyone guessing to who this man was, because there was just a bit of a subtle restlessness to his posture, the faintest hint of the smell that came from doing mechanical work on a Powered Frame, and a few strands of red hair on his shirt, obviously not his. With a slight smile, he spoke up again.

"I am sure that Kelly and Arah will arrive here soon. They may be a bit... odd, but they are certainly reliable."
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Yoshiko entered first into Gamma's Diner on Dawn Station. She looked cute as ever, except for the slightly tired out expression and eyes with the mile long stare. Of course, this was on top of the abnormal semi-silence she had. Yoshiko usually talked as though she were a hamster on a 50/50 mix of SPEED and THRUST. Considering she was now talking like a normal girl, this meant that something was wrong. "Hey guys, we're here." she called out, her voice laced with a touch of boredom. And that was another issue.

After working so hard on improving her Frame, mainly the the sensor modules, she simply gave up. Stopped. Yoshiko had finished one, brought the other to three fourths completion, fell asleep and then spooned it in her bed, and simply stopped trying to finish them after Oyu's death. They now rested in her locker, waiting her return. The Ex-Neko waved over a person working at the diner, and ordered up her fixings. "Steak and Potatoes. Rare. I'd like some of the red pepper vodka. Yes. That one there." she spoke, pointing out the bottle she wanted it from.

Since her change of behavior, Yoshiko had started to censor her own messages sent back home, continuing to say and look like everything was fine. In actuality, she was starting to drink now, not fully understanding why she did it; her young age and inexperience only made things worse, having her follow the patterns of those around her. Her adoptive father, Anton Greer, drank a lot, and she was simply imitating. He always did say it made the bad memories go away. Yoshiko took a long draw of her reddish vodka, Anton's favorite, as though it were water. "So, what you guys going to get?" she asked, bored. Her finger traced the lip of the glass, which hummed a little.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Lucien had shown up the next morning in Origin uniform, somehow. He'd opted to keep his biker's leathers, but since he was an Origin employee, he had to wear the uniform. He was eventually coaxed into it after a heavy night of drinking. However, the Scotsman had his own spin on the clothing and had fun with it, as it was already rather crumpled, frayed and dirty, even though he was in an almost sterile environment.

The tunic was worn open with its belt undone, the shirt underneath it was unbuttoned and his tie had given a sloppy version of the Oxford knot. His pants did not fare any better, looking as though they had been thrown into a washing machine full of stones and a bottle of beer. He'd also opted not to wear one of those silly caps and to keep his biker's boots on.

"That's gotta be th' first toime I've gotten me orders tae party," The Scot commented dryly to nobody in particular as he and the rest entered Gamma, "But orders be orders, aye?"
He sat down at the bar and put his index finger towards the barman to order a drink. The barman promptly slid a drink his way. Lucien paused for a moment and inspected the drink, wondering what he'd been given. It looked like a cocktail of some sort.

"Mate, this is... green," He pointed out the obvious, unamused and uninterested in odd looking drinks, "Methinks I'll have some crisps first, and a go at wot the lassie is havin'."
A packet of those crisps got slid his way, along with the pepper vodka, accruing a tiny bill of 16 KS, so far.

He downed the pepper vodka drink in one shot, shaking his head from the rush, but he was still wary of the green cocktail. The Scotsman had the intention of getting this bill somewhere in the 40's, and that would hopefully be when he's still sober.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Taela was worried for her friend. The drinking session earlier didn't do much for morale, it just made them drunk and giddy. And headache-ey. Judging by the silence that the Ex-Neko was emitting, it didn't seem like it did any good in the long run, either.

"Maybe you should just have a soda, Yoshi-sama. . ." The Neko urged, trying to nudge away the glass of vodka. "I'll have whatever. . . I guess the soup of the day."

She was trying her best, but her friend was a complicated nut to crack. Spazzy one day, brooding depression the next. But, Taela thought of something that, hopefully, would get a crack of a smile out of Yoshiko.

"And put it on Kelly Williams's tab, please."
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Arah nodded along with what Kelly said, her mind apparently elsewhere. Arah really didn't care about the crew aside from the fact of wether or not they died; which had happened to Oyu and which she actually was feeling a little bad about. Despite this, she seemed calm and, as usual, bored as the pair walked towards Murakami Kensuke's office. Anything Kensuke said, however, had very little to do with the Captain of the Atuan; Aerin was in charge of her and any problems the Murakami man could take them up with her. She simply came because she was requested to do so and figured it would be more invigorating than sitting on the bridge as her ship was hacked into and modified.

******

"I'm gonna get somethin' that doesn't mess with My brain, Girl." Shinji said to Yoshiko, Taking her drink and downing it before she could protest, with a slight cough and a chest bump, before ordering Soda water and a bunch of flavor concentrate shots, as well as a stack of cups. The demolitionist began to mix up some virgin drinks, his eagle eyes and experience mixing compounds giving him a hand in making stuff. After mixing some strange, dark drink for himself, He asked Yoshiko and Teala one simple question: "What's you're favorite flavors?"
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Yoshiko sat upright at the thought of having things on Kelly's tab. Her lips were puckered tightly together as her brows met in intense thought. And then she started to giggle. And then Shinji took her vodka away, and jsut as she was about to give an indignant reply, he summoned all sorts of colorful liquids in little thingies. 'Mr. Greer called those 'shots' I think.' the Ex-Neko thought. 'Ooooooo! Colors!' Yoshiko thought at the sight of the syrups and flavors. The sad truth was, the only thing distracting her from thinking too much at this point was her work, and in between that, not much, since she had given up on her hobbies. However, bright colors seemed to be doing a good job right now. Like a little girl, she demanded, "Berries! I want something with berries!" when Shinji offered to mix something.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Lucien, surprised with the outburst from the then-solemn Neko, whose name he didn't quite know, had an idea.
Berries? Wot is this lady loike, a rabbit? He thought for a moment, putting a mental image in his minds eye, Not just som' production-line Neko. Might 's well throw in some green lettuce, 'n hay, 'n a whe- He made a mental/verbal backspace as he stumbled on an idea, "Have some Green, then, lassie!"

He slid his green cocktail drink towards her. He wasn't sure what was in it, but it was most likely absinthe, something with melon juice or mango juice or just some green-coloured cocktail. Either way, it offended the Scotsman's harder tastes, and he wanted it off his part of the bar. At least this was the nicer way of going about it.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

"Watermelon," Taela replied to Shinji. "But it's understandable if you don't have that, so I also like cherry."

When she got Yoshiko to giggle, she silently cheered inside. A minor victory, but a victory nonetheless. The fact that their demo expert was also a mixing expert helped too, considering bright things were apparently up Yoshiko's alley. However, she noticed that Lucien was just passing a probably alcoholic drink to her friend. The Neko then stopped it mid-slide and snatched it up, downing it in two gulps. She thought as her mind began to get a teeny-bit fuzzy, Tastes like. . . eh. . . not my best idea. It's a bit stronger than wine. . .

"No alcohol for her right now."
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

A nicely manicured finger excitedly tapped a dataslate held by its twin and several neighbors, silver-white patterns glittering slightly against the dark brown hue of flesh tanned from generations of living in a radioactive environ.

"So, off-loading Ashigaru and on-loading Kirin and Asura?" the owner of the two hands queried the electronic screen nestled in its tender grasp, thoughts of tinkering with brand new systems tripping several synapses that launched an intense desire in the owner's brain to delay her orders and satisfy a chimera of curiosity and desire.

"No, no, first impressions are everything; customs, customs, they run this dusty little world" the word 'dusty' was intoned with a mixture of fear; respect; and loathing, a beastial grin warding off the troubling demons that had followed the Warcase since her first step outside the home she'd grown up in.

(a)Sync Seven-Three sat in a slightly less than ultilitarian chair that seemed to please itself in only partially cushioning her bottom from the hard plastic beneath its rough upholstery fiber. The chair grabbed the Freespacer's attention once more as she shifted in the well-fitted Origin Industries uniform the company had given her, attempting to find a position in which neither the rough fabric nor the hard plastic underneath meager cushioning would irritate her as much as it did right now. To her growing dismay every shift irritated her body even more until she finally stood up in a huff to see what resembled the faces of the Captain and the Lead Pilot of her ship. A small fragment of non-ego data corrected the pronoun, it was 'the ship of the company she now belong to the employ of'; the ego figuratively backhanded the incongruous linguistic data and wondered how fashionably the cap upon its body's head sat. (a)Sync's half-full hands absentmindedly reached up to check and, satisfied that nothing was out of place aside from a few strands of slightly rose red hair that seemed to desire obstructing her right eye no matter what her hands told it, waited for her superiors to reach her and the door immediately to the rear and right of her that led into the office they had been requested to arrive at.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Yoshiko stared at Taela in horror as she drank the concoction. "But, but, IT WAS GREEN!" she spoke in fear, pointing her hand at the Neko with conviction; her other hand was held up over her mouth to cover up the terrified expression. "In all the movie and stuffs, green is always evil or something, unless it's the army, right?! At which anyone wearing green is disposable!" At the end of that, she suddenly slowed down in her rapid fire speech. "Dispos...disposable..." Yoshiko's animated expression of fear and excitement slowly became downcast, and her eyes began to water, nose sniffing to keep it from running. At about that moment, her plate of steak and potatoes was laid in front of her; she started to dig in vigorously while simultaneously salting the food with the water that came from her eyes.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Shinji nodded at the two girls and began simultaneously whipping up two drinks, using different amounts of flavors and carefully eyeballing the mixture as he poured. Soon, one of the cups was a deep purple and smelled strongly of all kinds of berries, with a hint of Banana to smooth it out, while the other had a small amount of green at the bottom but was mostly pink, with a few black specks of some flavor with a slightly lower specific gravity rising slowly towards the surface. Once tasted it would be revealed that the pink was strawberry, with the green being sour apple, and the dark drops little explosions of Cherry

The demolitionist quickly passed the drinks to the two girls and shrugged. "It's just a trick I picked up between jobs. Got me free food at bars and such." He nodded and moved his single braid back behind his shoulder, then pulled out a small box, revealing a matchstick which was quickly stuck in the corner of his mouth before the box disappeared.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Kelly shrugged as he couldn't get a response from Arah, stepping aside and holding the door open for her as they entered Kensuke's office. The cyborg had never actually liked Kensuke. He seemed too willing to throw things away, and he just gave off some bad vibes. Nevertheleess, he was his boss, so the nepleslian had to show him some respect. Following the lethargic captain through the door, Kelly saluted, not seeing the blond haired man sitting in the corner, but eyes catching the freespacer. Writing her off as another employee Kensuke wanted to foist onto the ship, Kelly stared at the Yamataian, who was...

Who was reclining in his chain, drinking sake while a raven-haired Nekovalkyrja, wearing traditional Yamataian clothing, massaged his feet. The blond man, looked to be shocked for a moment, wondering just where that Neko and the Sake came from, but he shook his head, sitting back in his seat to watch how Kelly responded.

"Ensign Kelly Williams, reporting as ordered, sir."


~~~~~~~

The bell attached to Gamma's door rung as a new person entered the dinner, walking over to the assembled pilots of the Atuan. The man who had entered was pale skinned, with medium length dark hair and hazel eyes, and he wore an Origin Industries uniform with the cap tucked into his belt on his hip. Whistling a jaunty tune, the man walked over to the crying girl. Smiling, he tapped her on the head to get her attention, and the attention of the remaining pilots.

"I don't think you should cry into your food, maam. Sorrow and salty tears will only make it worse, don't you think?"
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

The young woman sat still and arched over her food and purple drink despite the persistence from some new guy. Though cliched, the silence was deafening as Yoshiko simply sat there in silence. "VERY BERRY!" she yelled suddenly, springing up and holding the drink to the ceiling. "I approve! Its like an orgasm in my mouth!" The tears were still running from her eyes, but were now accompanied by a silly smile. Yoshiko took another sip, her entire body shivering in delight. "There's so many different berries in here that I can't tell them apart, but they all go together like inter-galactic peace and cookies! Or, or maybe Neplozlians and Guns..." she spoke, mispronouncing the nation. Yoshiko continued to fawn over the drink, while wiping the tears from her face. It wasn't until her eyes were clear that Yoshiko noticed the newcomer coming in from behind. She stared at him with a silly, empty expression that said, 'Huh?'
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Lucien leaned over away from Yoshiko whilst munching down on his crisps. However, he leaned a bit too far to one side and unbalanced, causing him to self-right quickly and fall towards Yoshiko, and the bar, falling forwards and grabbing the bar.

"Bloody 'ell, she's roight jumpy!" He coughed somewhat, then coughed again since some crisps had some trouble on the way down. He thumped his chest a little to rectify this, and then stood up.
"Mate," He addressed Shinji, looking at the purple drink that he'd given Yoshiko, "Did y' give 'er an energy drink innae the grog?"

He was oblivious to the newcomer as he dusted himself up and smiled towards Shinji, "Don' mind if I 'ave some, do ye?"
World Peace? Cookies? Nepleslians? Guns? Lucien was thinking about Yoshiko's hyperactive side, She's right batty 'n breezy - 'aven't seen 'er fly a frame though. He blinked on that thought.

Eh well, time 'll tell.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

She opted to leave Yoshi to her misery for the time being, since Taela wasn't doing the best job of helping her fruebd. But, it was a good thing that Taela was a slow drinker, for when Yoshiko exclaimed what she did loudly the Neko would have done a spit-take. She waived the effects of the glass of alcohol and guzzled down her fruity drink, puckering up from the tartness.

"A-amazing. . ." She muttered, taking another sip. "You should do this for a living. . ."

She didn't really pay attention to the newcomer.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

"Greetings, Tennor-Taisa; Williams-Shoi," (a)Sync bowed deeply to both of them, hands clasped in front of her. Her red and green eyes glanced to the side as Kelly steamed past her into the office 'Well, that was rude... but he is Nepleslian... perhaps a rough slap on the bottom and an offering of drinks when he comes out?' she thought.

The 'Spacer came out of her bow and spared a quick smile to the Captain, "Representing your vessel, the OIF Atuan, as an experimental frame pilot, I am Hei Warcase Asyncronous Seven-Three".
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

"That's Captain and Lieutenant." Arah corrected the 'spacer, "and your rank is Private. This isn't Yamatai." she concluded. after a few moments, she looked over at Kensuke and saluted lazily, but not disrespectfully. she waited for Kensuke to tell them why they had been summoned, since she didn't feel like asking.

******

"Oo're you?" Shinji asked the newcomer, perking up as he watched the reactions of the girls he had served, but seeming a little confused at Yoshiko's odd reaction. "I like makin stuff explode, this is just a cheap trick" the Yamataian explained, giving the Neko Teala a bit of a glance, and fiddling with the small containers of Syrup.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

Yoshiko looked the newcomer with subtle hints of suspicion. "Soooo. Who are you?" she asked. The young ex-neko took another sip from her little glass, and with difficulty, suppressed the sensation of tasty pleasure she got from it, instead trying to radiate a sense of badassery. Needless to say, she failed and looked rather endearing in her attempt. "Well, anyone can tell you're Origin. But what's your job exactly? Hmm?"
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

The man smiled, grabbing a seat in one of the Diner's booths. It seemed that most of the diner's patrons had left, possibly scared off by the Neko. Smiling, his teeth almost seemed to sparkle. "Emanuel Kurtz-Weber, recently assigned to the Atuan. I assume that you're the pilots assigned to it?"


~~~~~~~~~


Kensuke took a sip of his Sake, smiling at the captain and the ensign. "I'm here to inform you of your next mission. Because of the large order from Yamatai's Second Expeditionary Fleet," the CEO took another sip of his drink, "we're hoping to move the Armor Works to Daichi, so that our main research and development team, led by Javier can, continue to work while he assists the 2XF in developing Frame combat doctrine."


"And I want to develop frames in a planetary environment, namely for aquatic use. Daichi has extensive oceans, from what I've been told, as well as allot of open space. Assuming that the squids don't get wind of our operation before we can move additional security forces to the planet, we'll be fine." The blonde man in the corner, speaking with a slight Kennewesian accent, smiled at Kelly and Arah, standing up and walking to them, shaking Kelly's hand and giving Arah a kiss on the back of her's.

Kensuke spoke up again. "The Atuan is being modified so it can carry additional fighters and frames. For now, Aerin has given you the standing order to continue hunting down whoever stole our Frames. I believe that your next target will be a group of pirates in the Nassau system, yes?"


~~~~~~


Meanwhile, in the depths of Dawn Station, the "Guest" the Atuan had brought with her, as well as some of the new friends that her "crawlies" had created, had found their way into one of the hangars of the station that had been used for OAW for testing Frames. The hangar was suprisingly well stocked: A test had been planned for later in the day, and the few Asuras, Kirins, and a spindly prototype with a bulky "backpack" were inside it. Mre of the Guest's friends were spreading through the station, making more and more friends.
 
Re: Episode 3: The Terror Attacks at Dawn!

"Yes, we are them." Taela responded unemphatically, almost inverse of Yoshiko's attitude. "I would assume we would be getting one or two of those two-person Frames I've heard a little about, seeing as there is now more than six of us."

The Neko downed the rest of her drink before taking a glance around the diner. "It looks like we have scared off everybody else in here." She mumbled, drumming her fingers on the table boredly.
 
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