- RP Date
- YE 44.5.12
- RP Location
- Vicky
SAINT Headquarters
YE 44.5.12
Among the uncounted data centers and processing rooms that made up much of the labyrinthine underground installation that served as Star Army Intelligence's primary nerve center, one particular place was more secret than most others in the Empire. At the installation's figurative center laid the Executive Intelligence Directorate central SCIF, which was a massive semi-circular operations chamber filled with volumetric working stations and desks all situated around a massive wall of volumetric displays. A smooth black zesuaium door at the center of this dark room, within which held one of Director Shida's two primary offices
A veritable army of analysts and other SAINT soldiers worked here to coordinate projects and receive intelligence of the highest sensitivity, and wrote up immediate reports that would be forwarded to the Director and Taisho Yui in real time. It was surprisingly serene, and chatter didn't fill up the space so much as provided it with a low hum of dutiful activity.
Today, as on many days, Shida was away on Yamatai to provide personal advice to both the Mistress Taisho and Empress. So Deputy Director Jinja Emi was in command like she often was, and oversaw her grotto of trusted agents from a wide midnight blue desk hewn from zesuaium. The deputy's desk sat in the middle of the central most of nine aisles that provided access to the rows of working stations lined up on a gentle theater-like slope. The path's direction was forced around Jinja's island, giving her the perfect vantage from which to dominate and manage SAINT's day-to-day operations.
Emi sat there with her cheek leaned into her right palm staring at the volumetric display on her desk. A personnel report stared back at her with the same bored white face she had. Today was a very routine day on Vicky.
When a regional readiness condition alert came through, the peace on Vicky maintained. No klaxons whined nor did any huge text warning regarding danger to the Samurai Sector force its way through. There was no big red phone for anybody to pick up. Instead, Deputy Director Emi got a small notification pop-up on her screen informing her to anticipate a declaration of war.
"Nani?" Emi blinked as she sat up off of her elbow. She opened the little window and read what was contained within. The message specifically had "Star Army Intelligence Command" CC'd so she assumed it was important. Although this pale darkling deputy lacked Shida's unmatched grasp of Yamatai's goings-on, she knew there was a SAINT Yui-7 within sensors range of Sood Zadra. And she further knew that no SAINT alert had come through to her regarding any such situation as described in the apparently urgent message.
Another woman here, but only one, received the YEAL alert and audio direct between Taisho Irim and the YSS Resurgence that Emi did. The analyst Ilo Aruni's station prompted her with the same information but classified as intelligence to be processed rather than some sort of warning.
"Tch!" Emi sneered while she stood to her feet. The Deputy Director had absolutely no intention of putting the Vicky System, under SAINT's exclusive authority, on any sort of alert that prepared SAINT for war based on some automatic broadcast.
Not at least until she went and verified everything with real information.
Ilo Aruni looked at her station, after having decided how to process her last operative report. Field agents had noted Koga Akemi bragging about going undercover with SAINT in the jungles of HX-13, which was a lie. But on the other hand, the little guy wasn't hurting anyone was he?
She put a hand under her yellow bangs and lifted her arms up, stretching her back muscles before she lifted both hands over her blonde head. Her comfortable, relaxed position shifted in her seat as she read the next report: the call Emi was walking over to her about. The gloves of her bodysuit made soft stretching sounds as her fingers moved quickly over her volumetric display. Brows raised in a look of consternation, Aruni had begun compiling all of the information the way she knew the gloomy Deputy Director liked it.
"Chui, what's up?" Emi asked, having crossed the great command room at a quick pace that didn't make up for its size. "I'm getting some priority war warning on SYNC with 'no further information.' Fft!" she hissed. "As if there's something we don't know that could call for this. It's ludicrous."
The Deputy Director's pallid fist tightened around her painted-black fingernails. She wanted to deck whoever sent that alert. But wasn't it automatic? She'd never heard of such a thing in either case.
"So what 'further information' can we give to Shida-bucho and Yui for the fleet?" Emi demanded.
"Though this is the first time we've seen this phone in operation, there are a few notes of data that point to this being some kind of intrapersonal affair among ship crew that escalated." Aruni was snappy and to the point, she wanted to get to the meat of it, but Emi's looming red whiskers were harder to look at than her sharp black claws and Aruni found herself gulping, not knowing which iota or parcel of information to relay next.
Sunken in her seat, Aruni looked like a bullfrog swallowing a fly as her cyan eyes stayed transfixed on her screen. It was only when Pano Uma's brusk voice caught her that she sat straighter.
"We have the Fourth and Seventh Fleets mobilizing in response," Pano Uma said.
"Oh Yui, okay. I've pulled up what I can outside of what you see here," Aruni said, getting back into the action on the volumetric sections of her screen that related simply to transcripts, then pointed out the larger section of standard ship reports and personnel reports. Her voice was more gravelly than when she usually spoke, but her ashen face reflected the dire circumstances bearied therein. Jinja could read them herself.
Instead, Emi leaned over Aruni's station rather roughly and input a command to transfer all data related to whatever was happening near Sood Zadra up to the primary viewscreen. She stood and pointed up at a long-range view of the YSS Resurgence itself shown on a sub-division of the gigantic volumetric display that glowed down over Vicky's command center. The picture was clear, though the red-white-and-blue Fuji-class seemed small and far away in the frame.
"Look, the YSS Kinmitsuna's got eyes-on," she grumbled, picking up a headset from Aruni's desk to listen to Irim's exchange. "Nothing's happening. It's just an open channel between fleet commands with Irim-sama chewing out some dude. And now she's hung up on him."
"A former RISE tech there was discreet," Pano added.
"My sister is right, we're getting incoming intel from the Resurgence's bridge." Aruni was speaking as she worked but also energetically shirking away from Emi a bit as she did. Aruni pointed out the surreptitious status report that she had pulled up in her viewscreen's section on personnel.
"Okay, so basically it's nothing," Emi snorted, looking up at a picture of the Resurgence's XO. She'd apparently worked with the brain babes at some point and was still sending information in. The Deputy Director filed her name away as one of those SAINTs who tried to stay relevant after taking off their black panels rather than one of the others who squandered their gifts.
"And here I thought urgent Star Army-wide alerts were always issued by Yui-sama, not some automated SYNC function," Emi sighed, putting Aruni's headset back down. "Wait. Why was this sort of thing sent over SYNC and not SACN? What a fucking blunder."
She stared up at the information feeds on the stream for a couple dozen seconds.
"Ilo-chui, good work," Emi said at last, sounding like she wanted to walk back to her comfy Deputy Director's chair again. "Get all this stuff off the viewer and then shoot off a preliminary report to Star Army Command. Make sure to highlight this SYNC factor. Besides freaking everyone out, this system's definitely not a secure channel for communicating war readiness levels to Star Army units."
"Right away, Jinja-chujo," it was like a switch had been turned on in Aruni when Emi had begun walking away. The blonde simply attacked her work while still keeping the Chujo in her peripherals.
"There!" Aruni said breathlessly while looking over to Emi only just sitting down at her presiding zesuaium desk. Only one-minute-and-thirty-three-seconds had passed since Aruni first committed to writing an initial intelligence report and already she was done.
Star Army Intelligence Memorandum 44.5.12-124 said:To: Star Army Command, Taisho Yui (@Wes)
From: SAINT Executive Intelligence Directorate
FLASH: PRIORITY INTELLIGENCE UPDATE
1. The regional alert for systems surrounding UX-3 and transmitting from the YSS Resurgence (NG-S1-575) appears to be a false alarm.
2. Based on immediate information and visual confirmation from regional intelligence vessels, there should be no heightened national security status of any kind originating from UX-3 or the YSS Resurgence.
3. The regional alert was sent via SYNC, a civilian communications protocol, rather than SACN. SAINT recommends immediate review of YEAL operating procedures. See attached exhibit.
Attachment:
Authorized by: CHUJO JINJA EMI; Deputy Director of Star Army Intelligence
Memorandum compiled by: CHUI ILO ARUNI
12日5月YE44, 1721 Vicky Time
Executive Intelligence Directorate, SAINT
In quick order, no less than two minutes after Taisho Irim hung up her red phone, this initial report was sent off to Star Army Command for dissemination to the fleets.
Ilo Aruni felt like it was a job well done and took a long few minutes rest. Behind Ilo Aruni, her sister Pano chimed, "You know..."
"Hmm?" Aruni seemed contended with her work and, still looking at it, let her head fall so that her blond hair was behind her chair's back and she was looking at Pano more.
Pano went on, "That's a real newb response."
"Yeah. Some of these white panels sure are acting green... and I don't mean science green, heh." Aruni closed her light blue eyes for a moment's rest after her small laugh. "I'm so fried from that just now."
"Well, no. Can you imagine being her. This brand new thing comes out, someone uses it-" Pano Uma was saying.
"Then completely derails some poor captain's mission by using it incorrectly." Aruni sighed, "I can't imagine." Seeing Jinja from the corner of her eye, Aruni was done talking and with a snap of her fingers at her subordinate, she showed that she thought Pano was done, too.
The two black panels kept at their work within the shimmering black of SAINT's semi-circular inner sanctum. Emi glanced up from her regularly scheduled reports, first to Aruni and Puma before surveying all the rest of her analysts.
Truthfully, the Deputy Director was glad that there had been nothing to report but good news compared to a real need for mobilization. But nonetheless, she wondered what surprise would next rouse her from her perch at Vicky's shadowy heart.
The two black panels kept at their work within the shimmering black of SAINT's semi-circular inner sanctum. Emi glanced up from her regularly scheduled reports, first to Aruni and Puma before surveying all the rest of her analysts.
Truthfully, the Deputy Director was glad that there had been nothing to report but good news compared to a real need for mobilization. But nonetheless, she wondered what surprise would next rouse her from her perch at Vicky's shadowy heart.
((OOC: @Wes the quote in this post has been sent to Star Army Command.
Great way to write about recent events through the news! Use a black panel doing the job of an analyst here! Like my other thread, to RP in this thread you do not have to have an approved character, you do not have to ask me to join. This is an Open Roleplaying thread I am GMing. Character Requirements: Star Army SAINT personnel only (analysts, operatives, and wiki listed NPCs not being played are all okay).))
