RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 2

"Ok ma'am."

The destruction of the enemy unit calmed him down a little, but his trepidation returned when the two passed over the charred remains of Nyton's unit.

Yeah... I think I'm done with this.

"L, let's finish this."

"Thank you Juni. Appreciate it. Perhaps we could compare notes later." Nyton replied as the feed from James's Armor began to enter his helmet via another window. Nyton recorded everything as it played out to better understand just how the mission went awry. I wasn't too far off from my previous theory. In a sense Kotori even provided me with an answer to critical situations. We'll have to make sure we can keep a backup spacy armor for heavy firepower. I doubt Kotori can be our pilot but there has to be a way to reserve a pilot for this role. he thought as he adopted his thinking pose. I certainly hope I can get a chance to get everyone's feedback on this sim. It certainly has been a difficult one.

Panting within her helmet, the young warrant officer couldn't help but feel embarassed over her silly emotions. This was just a simulation, there was absolutely no need for such emotions over the loss of one person. Especially when they were safe inside a simulator armor in the real world. Slowly floating towards the ground, she flew towards Nytons previous position to look for his armor.

Only, there was very little there. A piece of armor here, a piece of armor there, but nothing substantial. "I believe we can go, Ketsurui-Taii," Masako spoke to her CO. "All that's left of Nyton's Daisy are small pieces strewn across rubble," the young neko said as she flew up towards Kotori's Mindy. "Dige-Hei? Are you still able to move? I could carry Kamiyama-Hei if you are getting weary." she sent to the young man, though she couldn't exactly see him anywhere.

James settled gently next to the remains of Nyton's armor, wordlessly offering Morita's armor to Masako.

"I can make it the rest of the way."

Losing a man in a simulation was nothing new to him. In fact, looking at the rubble only filled him with a light sense of numbed sorrow and rage. Nyton had 'died' so that others might live. Always an admirable way to go.

"I'm going to gather as much as I can of Claymere-Juni's armor. He's leaving with us."

"Dige-Hei, we are on the battlefield. The living deserve more consideration than the dead." Kotori coolly replied. "If you want to honor Claymere-Juni-" she shot down the next flurry of missiles headed their way, "-then, you owe it to him to make it out of this conflict alive. Do not delay."

Handling Morita's unconcious form with care, Masako held her tongue as Kotori berated the young enlisted man. Assigning her tactical drones to continue anti-missile operations, the young neko turned towards the rendevous point. "Dige-Hei, I know you mean well, but please follow orders and head to the rendevous point," the warrant officer commanded as she sped towards their destination.

James shrugged and placed the pieces he had gathered back on the ground. He felt an arguement bubbling up, but he held it in check. This was not the time and it was not his place to debate ethics and morality on the battlefield.

"Aye-aye, ma'am."

He boosted after Masako, hoping that the rest of them would survive.

Yukari gently touched down in the parking lot, setting Tom down quickly before sweeping the area with her rifle and pistol.

"No sign of further hostilities present at the extraction point," she sent to Kotori. "I believe it is clear."

Tom surveyed the area as well, keeping his rifle in front of him.

"Not picking up anything. Hopefully, this time it's a good sign."

I really need to take a shower. I bet I stink like a pig in this thing.

( OoC: I don't think we need to drag this on any further, so, I'll be fast forwarding things a bit. )

"Good." Kotori's Mindy warily floated toward the extraction point: the artillery bombing was starting to lessen - there probably was a limit to how much ammo the Diamondback hovertanks could throw at them at such range.

The noose tightened about the group as they took a defensive position in the parking lot. Two Ocelot units had entered sensor range and were closing in fast. However, the Hoshi shed its active cloak, blurring into visibility just ten meters above the ground, one of its launch bay doors sliding open. In groups of one or two, the powered armors made their way into the ship.

The Ocelots didn't make it to effective weapon range before the Hoshi bounded up in the sky and stealthed from sight.

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The view in their helmets went dark except for their armor diagram, system diagnostic and a "Mission Success" appearing in the middle. With a hiss the bulky simulation suits opened up, once again exposing them to the harsh chill of the room - a particularly biting chill to those whom were not nekovalkyrja, as not only were they more susceptible to cold but also were drenched with sweat.

Two enlisted nekos were already there to pry a comatose Morita out of his simulation suit. Kotori, taking care to properly extract her long hair out of the suit she had occupied, gave the unconscious cook at frown as he was carried out, but her attention shifted to the Juni officer whom had arranged the simulation for them. The neko with the curly brown hair came in with a enlisted nepleslian following close behind.

The Juni gave Kotori a respectful nod and gestured to Leutre. "Taii, this is Leutre Veressis. He's apparently one of yours." She then pointed down the corridor. "If you would all please follow me, I have refreshments in our lounge as well as a debriefing of your performance waiting."

Shivering a little from the cold, Yukari gently floated from her simulation suit and touched the floor with her feet. Her hair was stringy from the sweat and her jumpsuit clung to her. Her eyes stung just a little. She had realized too late that she should have kept her guns outisde of the sim, for they had pressed into her thighs and hips. She felt bruised.

Not to mention her stomach, which growled loudly at the mention of refreshments. The sound made a healthy echo in the room. Despite her clammy skin her cheeks warmed some. "Gomen," she said quietly before following the Juni and Kotori slowly. Her brain seemed to be processing each step.

She didn't look at Nyton, not wanting to be reminded of his unfortunate luck. But she stole a glance at Tom. The new individual barely registered -- she needed food before she could be polite.

With a long drawn out sigh, the young warrant officer slowly removed her helmet and shook her shoulder-length, black hair out. She noticed a chill in the air, but didn't actually shiver until her armor opened up to allow the air to touch her body. Slowly pulling herself out of the simulator armor, she witness the unconcious Kamiyama Hei being carried off. She then looked over at Nyton, as if to see if she all that convincing that she had been in a simulator was all for nought.

Noticing a new enlisted man amoung them, she listened to the Juni's explaination quietly. "Greetings, Veressis-Hei," Masako said as she walked up to the new crewmate following the end of the Juni's explaination, her jumpsuit clinging to her lithe body as she bowed her head politely to him and began to follow the Taii's direction towards where the refreshments were. An empty feeling in her belly calling her to move forward.

"Just a moment. Just let me finish this page." Leutre quietly mumbled to himself as he followed the group. After a few moments he finally dog-earred the page and slipped the book back into his pocket. Finally looking up at the group, he smiled apologetically, "Ah, do forgive me. I was reading a fascinating recipe for how to brew intoxicating drinks out of cleaning chemicals."

Fixing his collar, he nodded to each of his companions. "So, nice to meet you, boss, comrades. I'm the new techhead straight from the Capital. Feel free to call me Leutre, or handsome. Either works for me. I do hope we get along well. Dried blood and brain matter is ever so hard to get out of the crevices of cutting tools and bolt drivers. In find bathing them in a light acid for an hour or so cleans and sterilizes the darn things for the most part. Makes good for removing finger prints and DNA samples as well." Leutre gave them a serious-looking glance, but quickly broke out in a wicked grin. "I'm just kidding! Well, not really, but yeah. Y'know? Going to be my first time on a Yamataian star ship. I don't want to black mark my record. Not yet, in any case. So let's be the best of friends! Though, I'm afraid I didn't catch your names. What're they again?"

Nyton cooly stepped out from his simulator and nodded to everyone as they looked at him. "That was an exciting clash there, don't you think? I got to continue watching the battle from an observation only point so I have to admit I was quite touched by everyone's concern at my passing." he said. "Just for the record though, if I should happen to die in a real world situation, please check to see if my head is intact. The memory recorder in my head would survive me so when I get ST'd into a new body I can pick up my memories up to before I died." Nyton said with a serious expression.

As the new crewmember made his own introduction Nyton decided not to ignore the attempts at pleasantries and turned to face Leutre. "I am Nito Juni Nyton Claymere. Good to have you joining our crew." Nyton quickly said before he faced the others. "Well, let's be sure to compare some notes during our debrief. This will go some ways to help in shaping our Armor wing."

James shuddered from the cold as he extracted himself from the simulation suit. Rubbing his eyes to ward off the suddenly too bright lights, he watched the officers move towards the refreshments before nodding to Leutre.

"Santô Hei James Dige. A pleasure to meet you, as long as you're not planning on using that book on us."

He rubbed the back of his head at the mention of debriefing. He was sure the senior members would have some things to say to them, especially about close-combat.

Tom quickly wriggled out of his sardine-can-fitting suit when it opened and immediately ran his hands through his hair, throwing bits of sweat behind him.

The coldness of the room struck his sweat-drenched body, his clothes clinging rather uncomfortably to him. The Yamataian didn't shiver so much as smile from the sensation.

"Whew! That'll wake you up!" Feels just like when I went swimming that one winter.

He took a moment to give a thumbs up to Yukari when she glanced at him. His lips mouthed "Mission accomplished."

Tom then turned his attention to the Nepleslian and his introduction speech. He grinned and chuckled, reminded of middle-school.

"Heya there, Leutre! The name's Tom Freeman! Call me Tom." His wave matched the cheer of his voice.

That emotion soured a little when he noticed two Nekos taking an unconcious Morita out of his suit. Hope he's ok.

He looked at the simulation suit and frowned a moment before following the group.

Yukari managed a small, shy smile Tom's way before being interrupted by Leutre's ... introduction.

She blinked. Pulling her datapad out of a damp pocket, she consulted Scorpio Base's KAMI before responding. The second after she read Leutre's species and history, only one word came to mind: Shimattaaaa ...

"Chui Suzuka Yukari," she said in a roughly polite tone, though not directly at the blond-haired man. And he was very tall too -- everyone was very tall, it seemed. Taller than her, at least. She did not expect him to bow; he seemed too busy talking.

Stop that, she scolded herself. He is a crewmate; if the Star Army trusts him to wear the uniform, he deserves your respect.

The nekovalkyrja closest to the curly haired receptionist turned to eye Leutre with her golden eyes. "I am Ketsurui-Taii, the Miharu's commanding officer." She said, idly stroking a black lock of hair that fell in front of her shoulder. The Taii seemed to appraise the glib Leutre with disconcerting intensity.

( OoC: Kotori made a quiet pause after speaking, as if expecting Leutre to do something )

Leutre paused for a moment and blinked, then reached into his pocket and withdrew another small book. "Hmm... Ah, here it is. Let's see... Introduce one's self, ask his or her name, ask about the weather... No, that isn't right... request for... no, that's not it. Where is it? When greeting an officer... Oh, right!"

Leutre quickly snapped his feet together, stood up straight, and made a crisp salute, "Santô Hei Leutre Veressis, reporting!" He froze in that stance for a few seconds before he took out his book once more. "Do forgive me, I hope I haven't forgotten anything else." He began to flip through the pages and scan the passages again, "I'm quite new to Yamataian culture. My few weeks in Yamatai have been spent in the accelerated education program at the academy, so I haven't had much of an opportunity to learn the culture and customs. Please let me know if I unintentionally offend you somehow. My Da always said there's really no point in needlessly offending anyone unless you're planning to kill them soon." He looked up from his book and gave the Taii a shrug. "Let me know if I miss anything else."

Kotori titled her head slightly to one side. He was trying; she felt like being charitable. "Star Army of Yamatai military courtesy dictates that nodding to other enlisted, bowing to warrant officers or grey paneled officers and giving a deep bow to white pannel officers would be what you have to do when you introduce yourself. Also, you should not interrupt conversations of superior officers and only a higher-ranking officer can end a conversation with you." She smiled. "You seem talkative, so, you'll have to watch yourself. Finally, red-paneled soldiers should speak only when addressed in presence of a white-paneled officer unless directed to."

The Taii placed one long fingered, nailless hand on the side of her hip. "I recommend you review the Military Code of the Star Army of Yamatai when you get the chance. Until then, you'll at least have to introduce yourself properly. Try again."

( OoC: Kotori is a white-panel officer, Yukari is a grey-panel, Masako and Nyton are warrant officers. )