RP: United Outer Colonies [Prelude] Beyond these crowded shores...

Sighing as she exited the shuttle, Ai followed the others. How much longer could it be before they could go do something that would take her mind off of her current negative thoughts? The longer she roamed around doing nothing productive, the more she was killing herself mentally with thoughts of 'I don't deserve to love apparently,' among other things.

Natsuko padded through the halls of the Kibou trying to keep her cool so she wouldn't pop when she reached the bridge. Between everything that had happened in the last 48 hours the neko was rather pleased that she hadn't exploded on somebody yet, but that was one of the few positive thoughts that ran through her mind. As the neko entered the bridge, her fake smile went up. "Cadet Hiragi Natsuko reporting as ordered." Natsuko said as she saluted to David.

Sukai stepped through the corridors of the Kibou quickly and nervously, eyes downward to avoid the gaze of any passersby but darting all over to take in the strange new surroundings. Coming into what was clearly the bridge of the starship, Sukai halted his hurried gait to look around for the recognizable insignia of a ranking officer. Amidst a loose tangle of people, he found and, somewhat hesitantly, approached the Lieutenant Commander. The man being seemingly unoccupied, Sukai stood and saluted.

"...Peacekeeper Recruit Andoru Sukai reporting for duty! Sir."

Kenoki followed Natsuko onto the bridge with no attempt to hide her dark mood. She took up position next to Natsuko but said nothing. For now, the fire in her eyes spoke volumes, What are we doing here, why are we wasting all this time, why can’t we just get on with our job!?

Natsuko looked sideways at the new crewmember. More and more changes. Oh how the Seraphim scramble to head the Patrician's call. Natsuko thought behind her plastersmile face. "Smile and salute to your superior officer." she sent forcefully to Kenoki as she waited for what would undoubtedly be a unique briefing. It's true that she had served under David in the 17th Kasairyuu, but Natsuko was just plain upset over the quick crew shuffles as well as the removal of Xanatos from Chouteisha.

Ai followed in behind, bowing before doing a salute. She didn't know which was prefered in the UOC peacekeeper forces at the moment, or which David preferred, so she just did both.

"Cadet Kitano Ai reporting," she said less than enthusiastically.

Why smile if it’s fake? Wasn’t honesty a virtue or something? If you lie about how you feel, who are you really lying to? Kenoki knew the difference between a real smile and a fake one, and she figured any good officer-- rare though she thought they existed-- should be able to tell too. So who was Natsuko lying to? The Lieutenant Commander or herself?

Kenoki saluted, but her expression was unchanged except for an added hardness to her eyes that said quite simply, “I’ll smile when I feel like smiling.”

David noded his head to the four new arrivals. "At ease. I apologize for the shuffling about but this shall be the last shift for the perceivable future." David picked up a data pad and looked back at the group assembled in front of him. "Our plans have changed slightly. We are going to make a jump to Kennewes which, as a few of you may know, is a hot bed of violence and war. Our job is to see if we might be able to bring any semblance of peace to this world or some small part of it." David placed the data pad back down and scratched his beard slightly. "I know that these shifts have caused a lot of annoyance and anger to bred inside you but I will tell you this. If each one of you do your job in a satisfactory manner then when we return I will be allowing leave for every one. You have just enough time to get a quick meal from them mess hall before suiting up; I would suggest doing so. You are dismissed."

"Just us sir? Huh..crazy. How'll we do that? Can this ship really blow up that much stuff? Ohhh..I should see the weapons console." Ashlyn chimed in after stepping from ranks. The thought of what amounted to a lot of explosions from a long distance appealed to her, moreso the thought of leave.

"...wait suiting up? Oh YES!"

With that she almost blurred her way to the mess hall, the faster she ate the faster the specialist could be back in a power armour. Things were suddenly right again.

Natsuko saluted wordlessly before leaving. It was unfair for her to be so cold to David, who didn't play a major part in any of the shuffling that was occurring, but at this point the neko didn't care. She was angry, hurt, confused, and sad all at the same time. In between the short time from when she had left the Kibou and when she had returned to it, her anger had festered and grown. Angrily she glanced over at Kenoki, Stupid recruit....couldn't even keep herself from getting drunk at first. And what's with the attitude, who's she think she's fooling. Natsuko thought as she stalked angrily down the halls toward the mess hall.

Once she arrived Natsuko randomly picked something off of the menu, once her food was ready she grabbed it and slammed her tray down on the table and began to angrily eat.

Bringing peace to a whole world with just a few? It was bold, tenacious and certifiably crazy. Kenoki liked it.

Now she smiled. A challenging smile that bared her teeth and dared the whole universe to try to take her on.

As bad-luck had it that was exactly when Natsuko glanced at her angrily. Kenoki’s challenging smile fell. Damn what’s her problem? She watched as Natsuko stormed away. Hesitating for a moment then remembering to solute to the Lieutenant Commander before heading off after Natsuko.

Kenoki took a little more time selecting what to eat, picking a simple meat and cheese sandwich then sat across from Natsuko, “What is with you?”

[OOC: edit because part of the post got cut off because of lack of sleep]

After the others had gone, Ai also wandered out into the hallways. The major difference was that she didn't head to the mess hall. She didn't feel hungry, nor even the desire to eat even for the heck of it. Instead, she headed back to the power armor bay, sitting down and leaned against the wall. At least this time, she was clear headed enough not to go off talking to a PA.

David took a minute to put away his data pad and tidy up the few thinks he had put out on the table. He then made his way to the armour bay while reviewing the latest intelligence reports about Kennewes that he could get his hands on. The situation had leveled out a bit but there was still a good amount of fighting. Before he entered the armour bay he had his armour taken out and waiting for him for inspection. He entered room and walked over to his armour and sent the tech Sentry that had retrieved his armour on her way and then picked up the helmet and looked into it's eyes. "And with this I lose an old friend and gain a new steed..."

David dropped the helmet back on it's mount. David turned around and looked around the bay with his hands on his hips. There were several other people in the bay with him but he only knew a few of them including one of the cadets that was leaning up against to wall. "When we left Yamatai too form this 'Beacon of Order and Stability" we were forced to give back all of the equipment that we had grown accustomed to using and were given these in place. No diversity, no stealth, new armour." David wasn't talking to anyone directly but his words were projected mostly in Ai's direction.

Sukai's eyes widened and blinked in shock, and he gave a speechless salute to the Lieutenant before looking about for the mess hall or armor bay or wherever he was headed. Severely disoriented, he trundled through the ship looking to find some place to stow his belongings, eventually locating the crew cabins on the far-off third deck. He let fall his extra equipment, unnecessary for the moment, in an out-of-the-way corner.

"Gods-damn, not a moment to breathe," he muttered. Double-checking that he had everything he needed with him, Sukai rushed to the mess hall, hoping to catch a quick bite to eat before being taken to Kennewes, that war-torn planet he'd heard of only in rumors and vague news reports.

Upon reaching the mess-hall, he fumbled with the menu, eventually settling on a meat and cheese sandwich. As his meal arrived he felt slight pang of guilt for eating some innocent animal. Then again, there's no telling if this is real meat or some synthetic chemical nonsense... He took a bite while looking around for a place to sit. Seeing two women, a Neko and a fierce-looking Jiyuuian who'd been present at the bridge meeting, he sat near them, not interrupting their conversation but glancing over occasionally, contemplating his new assignment and the task ahead all the while.

Natsuko bit down into her food, trying to ignore Kenoki. The flavor came back however, made her glance angrily at the dish. Natto. Natsuko thought as she grumpily continued to eat it. After a few mere seconds however, the Cadet found herself unable to ignore Kenoki any longer.

"What's with me?" Natsuko asked as she looked back at Kenoki, "Don't ask that question. You seem to think you're pretty hot stuff, but you wanna know a secret?" Natsuko's voice dropped to a raspy whisper, "Don't let anyone close to you, and it'll never hurt. Drop your gaurd once....and BANG!" Natsuko almost shouted the word at the top of her lungs and simultaneously threw the rest of her natto at Kenoki before standing up. "It'll hurt forever." The neko said as she started to walk out the door.

Ashlyn caught up with Natsuko in the hall, and used all of her stealth expertise..to give her a hug. "It's not so bad, is it? Come on we have a mission soon, just focus on that." She had finished quickly, then to avoid some of that wrath she darted on ahead to the armour bay.

"Hi! So what are these things? I need something sneaky..so..where are those?" She sighed at David, smiling still happy to see him but she managed not to hug him to show it since he had that look on his face again.

Sukai found himself once again staring in shock, but shook himself before he started gaping. He noticed he still had a mouthful of food and gulped it down.

What in hell was that?

He sat, flustered, for a moment before quickly getting up and scanning the mess hall. Hurriedly grabbing some coarse napkins from a pile nearby, he turned to the woman who'd just been splattered with soybeans,

"Uhm, would you like a- a napkin or something?" He held the crumpled bunch of napkins in offering.

Kenoki sat motionless, stunned by Natsuko’s anger and hurt by the words more than the dish splattered all over her. Here eyes were wide, unblinking and tears formed in the corners. “That…” She whispered, “That’s not true…”

She swept away her own plate and the remains of Natsuko’s meal then collapsed her head into her arms. She began to sob, Its not true, if one of you die now, before I even have a chance to become your friend, it’ll hurt just the same…

That wasn’t quite true either. When she was a Neko, how many of her kind died anonymously, how many lives snatched away when she was forced to scrub filth because some highborn officer didn’t like her attitude. How much time did she spend alone in the dark recesses of some starship, wanting to join her sisters, to know them, their fears and joys, to love and be loved. What she wanted, all that she wanted was to know she was important to someone. That she wasn’t alone.

Her sobbing subsided as a memory slowly trickled through her mind. A memory of a friend now gone from the universe, a friend who taught her a kind of strength Kenoki hadn’t known before, a strength born not from anger or spite, but love. “Ryzuha…” She whispered the name, and with it came the strength to go on. “Damn it Natsuko, you’re wrong. I won’t give up.” Kenoki started to rise, her legs still trembled slightly but she stood anyway. She looked down at her uniform then took the offered napkin, “I need to get changed.”

Sukai looked away while the woman cried, half from politeness, half from awkwardness. After she took the napkins he offered, he cocked his head to the side, gazing on concernedly and confusedly. He couldn't fathom what'd happened, but couldn't help but feel some empathy for the tears.

Sukai glanced at the door for a second, wondering whether to just leave the girl to herself, but decided against the antisocial urge, returning his attention to Kenoki.

"Oh dear, are you all right? Uhm. Andoru Sukai, pleased to make your acquaintance." He made an odd sort of saluting wave before scratching his head sheepishly.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Natsuko heard the Jiyuuian's soft sobs as she walked away, and trembled as she left. Natsuko pushed her way out of Ashlyn's grasp, and went into the closest room she could find. "Damn it!" Natsuko turned and pounded her closed fist on the wall closest to the door. The neko's eyes squinted shut as tears formed at their edges. Natsuko sat down with her back against the cool wall and pulled her legs up to her chest.

It still hurts them... the neko thought sadly remembering the look of shock on Kenoki's face, and the soft sobs that shortly followed. But it hurts more to lose them. the Neko couldn't help but think of her sisters that had died, of Xanatos, of what would happen if she let Kenoki get close, of what could happen with Ai. "Damn it." Natsuko whispered as she cried herself to sleep in the darkened laundry room.