RP: YSS Kaiyō Pre-Mission Three: Briefing

Space, Away Team

Mitsuko had departed last, making sure all of the others had arrived and deployed as ordered. The Logistics Neko brought up the rear, keeping an eye on the group as Yoshida happily rushed off ahead. She was a bit distracted, contemplating what Ross had been cut off from saying, which the others seemed too excited too have noticed. She hadn't received any warnings that Hanako or the Eucharis was in the area, and certainly hadn't seen any similar names while organizing the ships in the small fleet, so there was definitely something going on above her pay grade. A sigh was concealed by her helmet at the thought of any sort of royal involvement with this fleet, not to mention how their Captain would be handling it. Speaking of...

"Teien-Taii, can you clarify our orders? Once Kokoro-Hei has made her report, are we meant to join her in covert observation? Infiltration? Attack? Or shall we attempt to make contact?"

Mat was nervous about this, he had accelerated into FTL speed, following along with the other members of the advance team. He recorded everything, in case it could be of use.

He fidgeted slightly while holding his position. Should he break radio silence? Were they supposed to maintain radio silence in the first place? So many questions.

Bridge

A few moments after Asuka received the data relayed from the team, she started to go misty-eyed, and not long after that, burst into tears, with a sob. "That's so beautiful!" She appeared to be reading a transcript on her console, and sniffling.

Bridge

"Attempt Contact!" Teien Eden replied to Mitsuko after looking over Asuka's shoulder. She wasn't having the same outlandish reaction, but she was beginning to understand the situation for what it was. "We are to treat this as a non-hostile situation, now. Proceed with attempting contact!"

Ametheliana said:

"Attempt Contact!"

Click to expand...

Anastasia replied after a moment of awkward silence. "Ermm. What nature, ma'am?"
"Transmission, visual?"

Bridge

"I think we have ascertained that you can send over a transmission to them and confirm them as friendly. Nito Hei Navian, would you mind doing that?" Taii Teien Eden asked.

Space

"Let's... head on in," Navian said, having no clue of what else to say. "We may as well stay in formation." As a transmission to the outpost, she sent, "Hello, how are you?" just as cluelessly, while continuing her inbound flight.

Meissa had to stuff a giggle. Good job Navian. "Hello, how are you? How was your day?" What would be their response?
"Oh, the space weather's just fine."
"Oh, terrible solar storms lately!"
"Not bad, couple traders came by, now we're rich!"
You think some random guys out in space would make small talk like that?
She approaches the station with the away team, power conduit to her Aether Beam offline but ready to unleash Aether hell the moment any hostile showed its face.

"It's still more effective than whatever you're trying to do," is Navian's breathless response to Meissa.

Meissa took a little time to reconsider what she said.
"On second thought, it's actually pretty likely they would say those responses."
She continued to ponder her idle train of thought concerning ship-to-station small talk over comms.

Foxes can't say Moshi-Moshi:

"Fine, t'anks. Yeh passin' true, den y' bes' wash ou' fer t' solar activ'teh t'wards niner degrees cenner solar unit nine-oh-nine-hunder." Responded a voice over roughly ninety open channels of communication. Whoever, or whatever this was spoke the common Trade tongue of the Kikyo sector, albeit using a strange lilting, high-pitched accent that made it unclear if this was a woman or a young boy speaking.

While it was pleasant enough a reply, some odd things about it were rather evident. The return transmission seemed to cut out the strange consistent broadcast from before. There was a strange echo on the line, as the entire conversation seemed to be being rebroadcast over another, long distance channel being broadcast... Somewhere... And it was accompanied by a strange burst of electronic disturbance which for a split second scrambled most sensors' readings.

As the formation of smaller craft approached they'd get a better view of it.

A huge boxy structure was embedded into the side of an asteroid nestled in the distance of space; a huge gunmetal gray building about six kilometers at a side, surrounded by a few smaller cubic modules. Two ships seemed to be haphazardly docked around the thing. One large, bullet-shaped vessel with a halo of spider-like scaffolding arms, and another that looked to be slapped together out of girders and shipping containers.

"So wha' brengs a sweet li'l ship fulla fella's like ye t' a place like this?"

"Orders," non-answered Navian, before deciding to also contribute, "...to make friendly contact.

"Would you happen to have any protocol for this that we might find comprehensible, and not too worrisome?" Fully healed or not, Navian was sweating was sweating almost as much as she'd been at the last debriefing, and inquired on the side if there was anyone she could hand off this line of conversation to.

Meissa, upon hearing the voice speak about "solar wind" and all that blather, calmly turned her mic off...and burst out laughing.
When she flipped the mic back on, she sounded perfectly fine. At least the strangers seemed nice. Maybe.

"I betchye wish t'ere was." The voice chuckled, accompanied by the creak of a seat... And about thirty more voices equally amused and expressing it through a combinations of giggles, titters, belly laughs and sniggers. It was suddenly very apparent that this was now a public speaking scenario.

"But 's fine, we're fine, ye're fine. All o' us're friends an' friendly. An' look how in contact ye are wit' us... Why we're practically a-snugglin'. Tell yer orderin' bossypants t'e cool off 'cause yer job ere's done. Take a cool drink an' relax. 's nice an' quiet out 'ere."

Wait...something didn't seem right.
It took Meissa a little while to realize, but she's read about this in one of the military texts she had to read.
She flew up next to Navian to report her realization, using laser comms so the station wouldn't hear.
"They're using a comms proxy. It's also possible they might trip a sensors jammer on us, with the odd static here and there. Or there's something they're alerting with it, being broadcast across everything. I have a sneaking suspicion we've stumbled on a rogue or pirate outpost."

space

Yoshida fell in with the rest of the squad, a bit before they initially made contact, and braodcasted her newfound information overlaser comms, along with the question "What do you think of this?" She tilted her head, and curled her tail around herself as they chatted, and she listened in. She found this whole thing mildly unsettling, what with the odd signals and sensor scrambling. "Sorry Navi! I really don't want to try and decipher those uh, accents! Its practically some whole other language to me!" She said it quite good naturedly over laser comms to navian alone, before she continued with her real concern "Does this seem weird to you too? I hope I'm not just getting paranoid!"

Space, near Mysterious Outpost

Navian addresses the rest of the away team after arriving from FTL, and as she tries to figure out how to approach the outpost. "We'll take the usual precautions; I don't want anyone going off alone or undressing. Until we hear otherwise, these are not hostiles, and we're here to make contact. This might just be a civilian supply depot, and those ships don't look Kuvexian."

Even so, she was hoping her turn to speak wasn't going to come up again, soon.

Space, Near Outpost

Mitsuko could tell Navian was having a bit of trouble with the situation. Conversation didn't seem to be her strong point. At first she hung back, simply listening in. Sensors busy gathering as much data about the outpost as possible, taking the information Yoshida had provided and combining it with what she was seeing for herself. The Logistics Neko was rather experienced with mapping out locations and estimating their interiors and contents. This type of spacial awareness came naturally to her, with her profession. She was looking for any suspicious structures, anything that could hide a surprise they would not enjoy.

Once they were well within visual range, she finally diverted some of her attention from this task to join the conversation and rescue Navian. "I've been forced to converse with the Rixxikor before. As well as teenagers. These people seem much easier to understand, in comparison."

"We are representatives of the Star Army of Yamatai. I am Joto Heisho Murakami Mitsuko, of the YSS Kaiyo. We are merely conducting some standard scans to assure our superiors that you are as friendly as you claim. I am sure you understand. Once they are satisfied, we'll all be very relaxed indeed." She made sure the Kaiyo was hearing both sides of this conversation, as well as receiving their findings. "Could you identify yourself and state the nature of this installation, please? If we are disturbing any sort of work, I'm sure we can be out of your way momentarily." She didn't seem as excited about the alternative, but mentioned it anyway. "...or we might, perhaps, meet in person to discuss things further, if both sides find this acceptable. And desirable."

Live on Space Radio:

At the formal language's introduction, the primary lilting voice gave a small groaning noise. Many other voices which had been heard laughing before broke out into a susurrus of hissing whispers and quiet protest. A couple of tapping noises indicated that a hand somewhere was touching physical buttons... Then the first speaker came back, speaking slower this time. Making some effort to rein in their accent, as if they didn't trust the other end of the conversation to understand them anymore.

"A current poll is takin' place to determine cooperation inclinations. Please wait." The transmission cut from the voice; all channels soon broadcasting a repetitive three-note bit of muzak.

And then, what could well have been a stalling tactic to buy time ended so abruptly that it likely wasn't actually to buy time. Three seconds later, their speaker returned.

"Polling completed. Cooperation determin'd by 28% affirmative, 26% negative, and 46% abstaining." They said in the same slow tone. "Yer speakin' with elected representative Galo One-Four on behalf of the waystation 'Silent Palace'. We are a resupply depot for deep space expeditions conducted o' behalf a' the Projectorate Consensus, AKA Free State Protectorate. Star Army Vessel, ye are currently unannounced within legally reco'nized mili-tary sovereignty o' the Democratic Imperium o' Nepleslia as outlined by the DION-Free State protectorate treaty recognizing a radius o' one light year surrounding all Free State holdings as o'r legal legal teri'try; an' part o' th' protectorate."

"All transmissions're recorted an' forwarded secure t' th' office o' Senator Crowdtalker Scovil Oh-Two fer th' sake o' quality control, an' safety o th' Deoradh Nation. Please po'er down all weapons, an' wi'draw all Yamataian Milit'ry Assets ou'side'a one ligh'year distance if this com-you-ni-kay is ter continya."

Near the Outpost

Navian had a sinking feeling as she listened to the Freespacers' response. She spoke up in an effort to avoid mission failure, in this case meaning either a terrible stand-off or a diplomatic incident. "We didn't mean to intrude on your space, this outpost was previously unknown to the Star Army.

"We do not intend to approach with our ships; however, if we withdraw all our assets, it may be months or more before this communication can continue. Perhaps we could negotiate something less final?" Navian was about to add that no weapons had been powered up, but she had to double-check that with the rest of the infantry team.