Deep Space
The gunship YSS Eucharis slowly approached the darkened form of a damaged and drifting Ki-T2 shuttle craft. It had been some 13 years since the small craft had last been seen, and by all account it had been destroyed by the enemy back in the First Mishhuvurthyar War. So when a SAINT scout ship searching for Kuvexian Invaders had found it half-buried on a small, airless asteroid in deep space, it came as a welcome surprise. Although it was unlikely there were survivors, the presence of some still-operating emergency power systems detected by the Eucharis' powerful sensors offered a glimmer of hope. As the gunship came to a halt near the disabled craft, a pair of spacesuited figured emerged from a side airlock and made their way down to the wreck.
After an initial inspection to check for boobytraps, the shuttle from the YSS Yukika was okayed for docking and the spacesuited soldiers attached a cable and dragged the shuttle out of the dust and into the Eucharis' cargo bay via the rear ramp. As the bay pressurized, they took their AMES helmets off to reveal Victory, the green-haired supply Nekovalkyrja, and Cherry, an engineer with pink hair. Cherry begin using tools to open the damaged shuttle's door and then the two entered to find a pair of corpses in Star Army uniforms and one still-alive Nekovalkyrja in a cryonic stasis tube that was past its operating lifespan but still functional. Without waiting, Cherry activated the defrost sequence. Victory called for a medic.
After a while, the Nekovalkyrja in stasis began to regain functionality, finding herself on an exam table in the medical lab. A blue-skinned medical Nekovalkyrja, dressed in a teal-paneled uniform, hovered over her with an unfamiliar medical scanner.
The ancient (by Nekovalkyrja standards) Type-17 within the tube had been clutching a sample case, filled with an array of test tubes, hastily labeled and protected by their ruggedized container. And it's the first thing she asked about when her vision cleared. "My samples!" Hei Takeda cried out, gasping desperately, flailing to feel for it somewhere around her. She regarded the scanner, more than a decade more advanced that what would be familiar to her, and began to realize where she was, and what was happening. "..teal?"
"Takeda Tachiko, Jōtō Hei, Chief Medical Officer, YSS Yukika, 17th Armor Wing, 5th Expeditionary Fleet." Her introduction played as her biocomputer finished startup. "I cannot connect to sync my internal clock. Nothing is online." Internally, she searched in vain to connect to the network that linked her to her sisters and the computers. "But my integrity is poor, many systems in failure." She merely announced that which the scanner had just confirmed.
"Try to stay calm. You are safe," the blue Nekovalkyrja told Tachiko. "My name is Nitô Hei Orshira Izokia, acting Chief Medical Officer of the Y.S.S. Eucharis, NG-X1-408, of the Star Army Personnel Command. We have just rescued you. You were adrift for some time. If your body is damaged, I can supply replacement hemosynth and we have the ability to make replacement bodies as well as conduct mind-transfer operations."
Tachiko's eyes found the hemosynth-stained, ragged, burnt remains of her uniform on the table across the medical bay from where she laid on the berth. "I know I'm damaged because I'm not excited about all of this unfamiliar medtech." She seemed to be doing a good job of remaining calm as she was told, but it could have also just been trauma blunting her affect after the initial burst of panic. Looking down under the thin sheet covering her stripped body, assessing its condition, she asked, "Why can't I connect to the network?"
Although clearly recognizable as a Star Army of Yamatai uniform, the one Izokia was wearing was of a design Tachiko had never seen before, with a rounded high collar and piping on it, kind of like a male Type 22 uniform but with a skirt instead of pants. "Again, you have been in stasis for a while. NH-17 Nekovalkyrja are no longer in service and are not able to connect to PANTHEON anymore. In fact I have never met an NH-17 in person before. I was born as an NH-29 myself. Let me call the admiral down here. She will explain more. Oh, and we won against the Mishhuvurthyar while you were sleeping. Let me get you a body made in the current model if that is alright with you. And I will ask someone to check on your samples."
Tachiko regarded the medic in the oddly-colored, strangely-styled uniform, eyes flicking back to the scanner, and to the other equipment in the room. The wheels in her concussed, stasis-addled computermind were turning. "Current model? That isn't the 29? How- how long has it been?"
Tachiko sat up, hugging the sheet to her body and flattening her ears to the side of her head. "We won? But... Taiie. Those samples, it's all that's left. All of our research on Taiie IV's flora and fauna. Those genetic samples and data-chips are all that's left..."
At that point, none other than the famous Taisa Ketsurui Hanako, captain of the YSS Sakura, stepped into the room. Except that Hanako was now a Chujo, two ranks higher and a full admiral. "At ease."
Even though, as a medic, she knew a patient doesn't need to stand, Tachiko struggled to do so anyway, though she didn't get very far into the process, given that her legs are still stasis-jelly. She wobbled into a lean, with one leg on the ground and both hands behind her on the bed.
"Welcome aboard the Eucharis," Hanako greeted the rescued neko. "My name is Hanako. I am the Deputy Director of Star Army Personnel Command. How are you feeling?"
Tachi looked up. "Thank you, Ma'am. I..." Her focus turned inwards for a moment, trying in vain to access diagnostics that just weren't functioning. "I'm not sure yet, Ma'am." She gave another look around before turning her gaze back to the Admiral. "But I heard we won." She didn't know, of course, they'd won twice.
"Please have a seat," Hanako said. "It may be a bit of a shock that this much time has passed. The fact of the matter is you went into stasis in YE 28, and it is days from YE 42. A lot has changed since you were last awake. The Yamatai Star Empire is still around and we are still at war, but with different enemies now."
"Forty-two," Tachiko mouthed the words as she flopped back onto the medical berth. She let the sheet drape across her lap, exposing to the antiseptically-cool air of the medical bay not only her torso, but the remains of the hurts on it so crudely healed by the rudimentary autodoc in the stasis pod. "That's a long time, Ma'am..." she trailed off, eyes going unfocused.
"Yes, it is," Hanako nodded. "If you are still ready to serve, the Star Army still needs you and your career is right where you left it. I can help you to get ready to resume being a medic, if that is what you want. If not, I can write you a medical discharge for traumatic stress. You can have some time to think about it if you need it."
At the mention of "traumatic stress," Tachi's fingers curled, crumpling the paper-thin fabric of the medbay sheet and her ears drooped flatly again. "Is... is there anyone else left? From the Yukika?" There was a certain quiver in her voice, right up to the edge of cracking as Tachiko struggled to maintain her composure with the thinnest margin of victory.
"Yes. I was able to find some. There is an Intelligence officer on the YSS Aeon, Murasaki Aoiko," Hanako replied after checking the databases telepathically. "The Yukika itself is no longer in service, though. I am sorry."
"The case I had, Ma'am. It was all of the genetic samples and recordings and other data from our expedition to Taiie IV. I don't need to think about it, Ma'am. I don't know what else I would do." Tachiko looked up, back at the Chujo. "Things look a lot different in a medbay than they did, though."
"That is an incredibly valuable find!" Hanako gushed. "I will have my crew retrieve what they can with the utmost care! I was once able to restore the Kohanian species from data samples when I was captain of the Nozomi after their world was destroyed...perhaps something similar could be done for the life forms of Taiie."
A flush bloomed in Tachiko's pale cheeks at the gushing praise from the famous officer. "It was my job, Ma'am. Chief Medical Officer of an Expeditionary ship. It was part of our mission. I had to get them out before the Mish..." She trailed off yet again, remembering what happened to the system her fleet called home. "Thank you, Ma'am. They're special to me." Tachiko managed a wry, somewhat sad smile. "They said they're putting me in a new body? This one hurts, Ma'am. A lot."
The gunship YSS Eucharis slowly approached the darkened form of a damaged and drifting Ki-T2 shuttle craft. It had been some 13 years since the small craft had last been seen, and by all account it had been destroyed by the enemy back in the First Mishhuvurthyar War. So when a SAINT scout ship searching for Kuvexian Invaders had found it half-buried on a small, airless asteroid in deep space, it came as a welcome surprise. Although it was unlikely there were survivors, the presence of some still-operating emergency power systems detected by the Eucharis' powerful sensors offered a glimmer of hope. As the gunship came to a halt near the disabled craft, a pair of spacesuited figured emerged from a side airlock and made their way down to the wreck.
After an initial inspection to check for boobytraps, the shuttle from the YSS Yukika was okayed for docking and the spacesuited soldiers attached a cable and dragged the shuttle out of the dust and into the Eucharis' cargo bay via the rear ramp. As the bay pressurized, they took their AMES helmets off to reveal Victory, the green-haired supply Nekovalkyrja, and Cherry, an engineer with pink hair. Cherry begin using tools to open the damaged shuttle's door and then the two entered to find a pair of corpses in Star Army uniforms and one still-alive Nekovalkyrja in a cryonic stasis tube that was past its operating lifespan but still functional. Without waiting, Cherry activated the defrost sequence. Victory called for a medic.
After a while, the Nekovalkyrja in stasis began to regain functionality, finding herself on an exam table in the medical lab. A blue-skinned medical Nekovalkyrja, dressed in a teal-paneled uniform, hovered over her with an unfamiliar medical scanner.
The ancient (by Nekovalkyrja standards) Type-17 within the tube had been clutching a sample case, filled with an array of test tubes, hastily labeled and protected by their ruggedized container. And it's the first thing she asked about when her vision cleared. "My samples!" Hei Takeda cried out, gasping desperately, flailing to feel for it somewhere around her. She regarded the scanner, more than a decade more advanced that what would be familiar to her, and began to realize where she was, and what was happening. "..teal?"
"Takeda Tachiko, Jōtō Hei, Chief Medical Officer, YSS Yukika, 17th Armor Wing, 5th Expeditionary Fleet." Her introduction played as her biocomputer finished startup. "I cannot connect to sync my internal clock. Nothing is online." Internally, she searched in vain to connect to the network that linked her to her sisters and the computers. "But my integrity is poor, many systems in failure." She merely announced that which the scanner had just confirmed.
"Try to stay calm. You are safe," the blue Nekovalkyrja told Tachiko. "My name is Nitô Hei Orshira Izokia, acting Chief Medical Officer of the Y.S.S. Eucharis, NG-X1-408, of the Star Army Personnel Command. We have just rescued you. You were adrift for some time. If your body is damaged, I can supply replacement hemosynth and we have the ability to make replacement bodies as well as conduct mind-transfer operations."
Tachiko's eyes found the hemosynth-stained, ragged, burnt remains of her uniform on the table across the medical bay from where she laid on the berth. "I know I'm damaged because I'm not excited about all of this unfamiliar medtech." She seemed to be doing a good job of remaining calm as she was told, but it could have also just been trauma blunting her affect after the initial burst of panic. Looking down under the thin sheet covering her stripped body, assessing its condition, she asked, "Why can't I connect to the network?"
Although clearly recognizable as a Star Army of Yamatai uniform, the one Izokia was wearing was of a design Tachiko had never seen before, with a rounded high collar and piping on it, kind of like a male Type 22 uniform but with a skirt instead of pants. "Again, you have been in stasis for a while. NH-17 Nekovalkyrja are no longer in service and are not able to connect to PANTHEON anymore. In fact I have never met an NH-17 in person before. I was born as an NH-29 myself. Let me call the admiral down here. She will explain more. Oh, and we won against the Mishhuvurthyar while you were sleeping. Let me get you a body made in the current model if that is alright with you. And I will ask someone to check on your samples."
Tachiko regarded the medic in the oddly-colored, strangely-styled uniform, eyes flicking back to the scanner, and to the other equipment in the room. The wheels in her concussed, stasis-addled computermind were turning. "Current model? That isn't the 29? How- how long has it been?"
Tachiko sat up, hugging the sheet to her body and flattening her ears to the side of her head. "We won? But... Taiie. Those samples, it's all that's left. All of our research on Taiie IV's flora and fauna. Those genetic samples and data-chips are all that's left..."
At that point, none other than the famous Taisa Ketsurui Hanako, captain of the YSS Sakura, stepped into the room. Except that Hanako was now a Chujo, two ranks higher and a full admiral. "At ease."
Even though, as a medic, she knew a patient doesn't need to stand, Tachiko struggled to do so anyway, though she didn't get very far into the process, given that her legs are still stasis-jelly. She wobbled into a lean, with one leg on the ground and both hands behind her on the bed.
"Welcome aboard the Eucharis," Hanako greeted the rescued neko. "My name is Hanako. I am the Deputy Director of Star Army Personnel Command. How are you feeling?"
Tachi looked up. "Thank you, Ma'am. I..." Her focus turned inwards for a moment, trying in vain to access diagnostics that just weren't functioning. "I'm not sure yet, Ma'am." She gave another look around before turning her gaze back to the Admiral. "But I heard we won." She didn't know, of course, they'd won twice.
"Please have a seat," Hanako said. "It may be a bit of a shock that this much time has passed. The fact of the matter is you went into stasis in YE 28, and it is days from YE 42. A lot has changed since you were last awake. The Yamatai Star Empire is still around and we are still at war, but with different enemies now."
"Forty-two," Tachiko mouthed the words as she flopped back onto the medical berth. She let the sheet drape across her lap, exposing to the antiseptically-cool air of the medical bay not only her torso, but the remains of the hurts on it so crudely healed by the rudimentary autodoc in the stasis pod. "That's a long time, Ma'am..." she trailed off, eyes going unfocused.
"Yes, it is," Hanako nodded. "If you are still ready to serve, the Star Army still needs you and your career is right where you left it. I can help you to get ready to resume being a medic, if that is what you want. If not, I can write you a medical discharge for traumatic stress. You can have some time to think about it if you need it."
At the mention of "traumatic stress," Tachi's fingers curled, crumpling the paper-thin fabric of the medbay sheet and her ears drooped flatly again. "Is... is there anyone else left? From the Yukika?" There was a certain quiver in her voice, right up to the edge of cracking as Tachiko struggled to maintain her composure with the thinnest margin of victory.
"Yes. I was able to find some. There is an Intelligence officer on the YSS Aeon, Murasaki Aoiko," Hanako replied after checking the databases telepathically. "The Yukika itself is no longer in service, though. I am sorry."
"The case I had, Ma'am. It was all of the genetic samples and recordings and other data from our expedition to Taiie IV. I don't need to think about it, Ma'am. I don't know what else I would do." Tachiko looked up, back at the Chujo. "Things look a lot different in a medbay than they did, though."
"That is an incredibly valuable find!" Hanako gushed. "I will have my crew retrieve what they can with the utmost care! I was once able to restore the Kohanian species from data samples when I was captain of the Nozomi after their world was destroyed...perhaps something similar could be done for the life forms of Taiie."
A flush bloomed in Tachiko's pale cheeks at the gushing praise from the famous officer. "It was my job, Ma'am. Chief Medical Officer of an Expeditionary ship. It was part of our mission. I had to get them out before the Mish..." She trailed off yet again, remembering what happened to the system her fleet called home. "Thank you, Ma'am. They're special to me." Tachiko managed a wry, somewhat sad smile. "They said they're putting me in a new body? This one hurts, Ma'am. A lot."
