RP: YSS Eucharis [Post Mission 23] Loose Threads (YE 37)

[Wes]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

"Do you think they have a FOB?" Hanako suddenly asked. "A Forward Operating Base somewhere in the Kikyo sector? Dpeending on how far away the enemy is, they might need to have some sort of local base of operations where their escorts are operated out of. Maybe by bothering the Rixxikor and waiting to see how long it takes for the Kuvexians to respond, we might be able to calculate its location," Hanako brainstormed. "Or maybe we can plant a tracker on one of the Kuvexian ships and see where it goes when it's not shepherding bugmen."

A chime rang and Hanako looked at her watch, which had an update from Victory.

"Oh, and I want to announce an old acquaintance has agreed to help with our task force. He is ex-military and has a lot of experience. Speaking of which, any ideas for a task force name or motto?"

 

[Samanthia]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Aikiko sat there quietly, she could use the usual aggressive names, then she fought a smile that tried to appear and succeeded. Keepin her voice neutral as before as she picked random words and spoke them, "Welcome Committee," Then fell quiet for a few seconds. "Welcome to the Hotel Bug, you may check in, but you can never leave." She sung barely audible, unaware the other Nekos and those with good hearing could hear her. She remember a flash of an old song sung by some group that named themselves after a bird. She had heard in the Mining Operation Cantina that she very much liked as it pertained to the workers of Mining Camp she had lived in.

 

[Gunsight1]

"If this is the beginning of some sort of invasion of our space I think it very likely they will have a forward base" Natsumi spoke up. "It makes sense for logistics, staging their assets closer to their target, but also to help hide where they come from."

"I agree that planting a tracking device may help us locate this forward base, but I also suggest we be ready to take one of their ships and directly pull navigational data from it's computer if we need to as well," she suggested. This was a more overtly hostile way of getting the job done, but it might be what they would have to do.

 

[Blizzard]

Hangar, Fort Hanako

Jax grinned a raised his hand.

"Ooh! I know! Calamari Coalition!"

He was about to continue, but stopped and scratched the back of his head in deep thought.

"Can't think of a good motto for that, though..." he muttered, then looked to his crew-mates. "If you come up with one, please make it a pun about squids!"

 

[Samanthia]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Aikiko listened to the others speak, as everyone had good ideas and well thought out commentaries on the situation. Even Jax's comments lightened the atmosphere a bit. She felt the itch to get out there in space to make a difference. "What other ships will be involved our battle group, Sho-sho Ketsurui?"

 

[Wes]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Hanako frowned. "I do not know yet. I need time to get it started. We should probably adjourn this meeting for now and meet back in a few days," she suggested. "In the meantime, most of you will be able to take advantage of the extra time to enjoy yourselves on this planet and take care of any last-minute shopping trips and such. When we meet again, the ship will be fixed and we will have other ships to join us."

 

[Yoshi]

Putting her hands up and standing straight from her leaning position, "Don't look at me, all I can do is send in a report, I'm not a diplomat or an advisor." Tony shook her head. It really was all she could do. She was going to send all the information she could get on the Rixxor and their helpers, but if the Nepleslian Navy didn't want to do anything about it, then that was all she could do.

 

[paladinrpg]

Umeshu finally let some emotion slip out and laughed a small bit at Jax's suggestion despite herself, eventually looking up from the display she was hiding behind in his direction. "Nan desu ka?" the purple-hued Shoi voiced in her polite, accented Yamataigo, "Speaking of squids reminds me of a certain seafood cart on the beach I visited here with delicious ikayagi." The thought of some traditionally grilled tentacle on a stick made the feline DNA in her synthetic Neko body a little hungry suddenly, but also gave an idea. "Perhaps that could be a good name for our task force? 'Grilling the squid for information', or 'driving a stake into them swiftly', so to speak," volunteered the young bridge officer to Hanako and company. When the Ketsurui princess mentioned some more downtime, though, Umeshu seemed to get a bit more shy again at the thought.

 

[Reynolds]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Mitsuko relaxed as the conversation continued. Most of the decisions had already been made, it seemed. She drifted back to her worries about the storage space before something Hanako said caught her attention. "Sune?" She guessed the name out loud before even thinking about it, flushing bright red once she had a few seconds to consider the situation. "N-no, nevermind." She looked down at the desk in front of her as she tried to wait out the embarrassment of her outburst. Murakami would have to escape as soon as possible, although hopefully nobody would stop her from meddling with the cargo containers before she returned to her vacation.

 

[Samanthia]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

As Aikiko listened to few remarks and comments from the others, she was already hard at work updating the last minute stuff she needed to acquire. Fluids for her Manipulator arms pack, genetically adapted to her biology so that when she used it. It wouldn't be rejected by her body as a foreign agent causing all sorts of problems. She had updated her physique to accept the injectors from the pack already.

Then came the back-ups for herself, that she didn't have to worry about them later. Aikiko smiled again as she set to fill the remaining time before final departure.

 

[Blizzard]

Hangar, Fort Hanako

"Well then, if that's it, I'm out! I gotta go make a few calls." Jax announced and stood up. He stretched a little, then walked on over to where he had parked. In one of the spaces sat a gleaming, blue Origin, specifically the Type 32. Jax swung a leg over and brought the beast to life. It growled lowly, begging to be set loose. This caused the mechanic to grin devilishly. He slipped a pair of gold-framed aviators onto his face, and slowly brought the bike out of the spot.

Oh god, how he wanted to open it up with all of this open space! He knew he'd have to go easy while he was still in view of his captain. Neither she, or the rental agency, needed to know how fast he'd been going on this thing.

"...And..." Jax muttered as he exited the gate. He looked back over his shoulder just to make sure no one was watching. No one was.

"...We're clear!" he yipped. The bike roared, and he thundered down the road at a very unsafe velocity. But he was no idiot. He'd been riding all his life, and he knew how to control the bike with finesse and skill.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!"

 

[paladinrpg]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Umeshu shook off her sudden quiet as she realized what was happening, standing up just in time to catch sight of Jax's shiny blue airbike rumbling out of the hangar and onto the open road beyond it at high speed. It caused her to give a brief, wistful sigh as she murmured his name. Part of it was concern for his safety, as any Star Army officer should be for the enlisted members under her. But the other part was a sort of longing to be there riding it with him, the wind flowing through her hair as she wrapped an arm around him and...

The ex-samurai blinked a moment as she had drifted off again into a daydream. Jax-san was gone now, and those distracting thoughts needed to depart also for now. She did have work to do: The safety of the Empire was at stake from these encroaching hordes. The purple Neko bowed deeply to her royal Captain. "Ano... Hanako-shosho... if it is alright with you, I think I will stay awhile and assist you? Too much shore leave tends to let one get... a bit distracted..."

 

[Samanthia]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Aikiko snickered after observing Umeshu momentary distraction and line of sight till Jax disappeared in a roar and a trail of settling dust that marked his departure. Aikiko stood up herself and gave a quick curtsy. Giving one more look at Umeshu, her stoic façade fell into warmth of giggles as she moved off to take care of business.

Via telepathy to Umeshu ~~You can't win no matter how hard it is to fight that ~~... then sang ... ~~That lovin feelin!~~ To another burst of fading giggles as Aikiko walked away from the group.

 

[Rizzo]

Fort Hanako
Although he wouldn't openly agree with Umeshu Candon knew she was right about the political fallout. Even then it didn't change the fact that the Rixxicor would ruin the planet they illegally claimed. an idea then formed in his mind.

"Well since we're not bombing the bugs I'll just cancel that aether bomb request," he announced conversationally with just the slightest hint of disappointment as he shut down the program on his phone. With the apocalypse cancelled he stood up to leave, using telepathy to speak privately with Shôshô Hanako as he raised himself from the chair.

Ma'am, you've seen the numbers, you know what the Rixxicor are going to do to Higaflan and how they will damage our economy. They are weapons. When I joined the ranks of SAINT I took an oath to protect the empire from any threat it faced. Unless you order differently that colony will be wiped out by an attack the Kuvexians will be blamed for and we won't have any problems.

 

[Wes]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

Hanako nodded to Umeshu. "Sure, you can stay with me if you like. I hope you like dealing with Star Army Logistics, and Star Army Personnel because we are about to place some big orders."

Next, the Shosho turned to Candon. "Candon, we need that station sitting above them and watching them. Do not do anything rash with the Scientific Studies Service's equipment," Hanako warned her ruthless intelligence officer. "It isn't ours to use, it is ours to protect."

 

[Rizzo]

Fort Hanako
Candon was about to not in agreement but stopped, realizing he'd never said that the bomb was the space station. He was obviously stunned for a moment.
"Well now, I don't recall mentioning what the bomb's method of delivery was," he replied with sly admiration, "if you keep that up you'll be my favorite CO in no time." He ended with a grin, it was the closest thing to a compliment he could manage.

"I'll leave the station alone," Candon agreed, "Oh, there's one other thing I was hoping to ask you about. I think I've found a solution to that glue grenade problem. I'd like to request permission to modify my Mindy and Jax's Daisy with a heated louver over the intake and maybe a few other bits of hard and software for combat efficiency in the base's armor shop, may we do that?"

 

[Wes]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

"We have bomber squadrons for that sort of thing," Hanako told Candon. "But if we start a war with the Rixxikor Collective it is going to be a problem for us because of their sheer numbers. I would just rather bypass them and fight the Kuvexians directly. We have not seen anything that makes the Rixxikor a military threat other than their numbers, and we already demonstrated we can cut their numbers down easily if we are forced to. But the Kuvexians are on our technology level and are actively planning to fight us. If we get bogged down in fights with Rixxikor we are playing into their hands. For this reason I want to treat the insectoids with...restraint. As for the modifications, please send a writeup of them to me first. Also, there is a new Mindy, the -4A, now in development, and I am in a position to request test models..."

 

[Rizzo]

Fort Hanako
"The 4A?!" He unintentionally interrupted, excitement getting the better of him as if he'd just been kissed for the first time, "excuse me, Ma'am, I just thought we were years away from field testing. I'll have those requisition forms filed today!"

 

[Gunsight1]

Fort Hanako

Now that the meeting was over, Natsumi stood, Stretched her arms and walked over to Hanako. She had half a mind to go back out to the resorts and beaches again, but knew she was better needed on the ship to help prep it for departure and its next mission.

"Shosho, I will stay and assist with preparations as well," she said.

 

[paladinrpg]

Fort Hanako - Eucharis Hangar

"Mondainai," the Shoi responded in Yamataigo to let the Shosho know it would be no trouble, inwardly relieved that she could avoid the temptation of heading outside and bumping into a certain someone tearing up the track. It also seemed that the Kohosei Natsumi would also be joining her, and she flashed a pleasant smile the white-haired Neko's way and offered the fellow officer in training a chair.

As she began keying up the official paperwork to be filled out for the numerous requests in the PANTHEON system from the terminal, she felt the telepathy broadcast her way from Akiko, the song once again stirring up those feelings. There was a sheepish sort of tone in encrypted reply to the giggles as the soldier walked away: Yareyare... difficult indeed. Is it that obvious? It was just an accidental kiss...