RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 3

"You know... Suzuka-Chui just happens to be out in the corridor. You could talk to her yourself." The Miharu pointed out to the science officer.

Indeed, at that moment Yukari was touching down to the main deck, waiting for Nyton to catch up with her.

Wryly reflecting that science was involving a good deal more walking than she'd expected, Tomi quickly proceeded out of the sensor dome, catching up with Yukari and Nyton after several seconds. Bowing to the two of them, she turned to address Yukari. "Mara-san suggested that it might be a good idea to get the rest of the crew their backups while we have the opportunity. With your permission, I'd like to take care of everybody that you don't need for offloading the cargo now... or, er, we can get the cargo first. It's up to you."

She mentally kicked herself. Of course it's up to her, she's the ranking officer on the ship right now. She briefly considered saying such, but decided she'd already made enough of a fool of herself. Resigning herself to her fate, she stood quietly and awaited the response.

Nyton had followed Yukari and was only a few steps behind her when Tomi caught up. Upon hearing her suggestion Nyton looked over to Yukari. "It's your call. We don't need everyone right away and it does not take very long for the backup procedure to be completed." he said with an easy going tone to his voice.

Yukari thought a moment, hand on her cheek. Then, she nodded. "Mm. I will defer to your judgment, Saito-Hei. Claymere-Juni should be first, as he is of higher rank. Then, Freeman-Heisho and Dige-Hei. Kurohoshi-Juni and Veressis-Hei can assist me for now."

She looked to Nyton. "Join us when you are done?"

Leutre took a glance around the room before he stepped out. He didn't understand the need to computerize everything. Sure it was convenient, but a digital readout wasn't always as reliable as using touch and hearing to check equipment. "But to each their own, I suppose."

Throwing one last look over his shoulder, Leutre made his way down the hall to where the others were conversing. Did I someone say assisting with something? Assisting usually meant work, something he was not fond of.

Pausing to give Yukari a slight bow, he looked up and gave her a curious look. "Do forgive me, but did you say my name just a moment ago? My imagination sometimes gets the best of me, so I can never be too certain."

"Sure thing Yukari Chui." Nyton replied and he walked over to Saito. "And you heard right Veressis. Don't worry about the details, just follow the Chui and Kurohoshi and don't get lost." he said with an unseen grin as he looked away from them and towards the med bay. "By your lead Saito-Hei."

"I do believe she did, Veressis-Hei," Masako spoke calmly as she looked at the young enlisted man with a small smile. "This means we're going down to help with the supplies." the young neko replied before looking directly into the Nepleslian's eyes. "What's wrong with a little manual labor now and then?"

Tomi led Nyton over the short distance to the medical lab. Gesturing at the ST table, she said, "And now for the question of the day- do you want something for the pain, or not?"

Sigurd walked up to Yukari. "I stand ready to assist, Chui."

Yukari smiled at the two and nodded. "Let us see what supplies await us." She nearly crashed into Sigurd, who had managed to creep up on her in that way only he could. "Ah -- thank you, Sigurd-san ... let us go."

She led the way to the large port multi-function bay. Looking over the stairs, she saw how full the bay was -- it was tightly packed with cargo containers and the second shuttle. Rubbing her arm a little, she walked down the stairs.

The bay's platform in the middle of its floor was missing, as it was hovering out of the way to let 5th XF Lamia armors carrying cargo back and forth unimpeded. The conveyered floor was taking the small boxes and supplies back into the cargo room, where mechanical arms were putting it here and there -- they obviously hadn't been fully calibrated yet. Yukari sighed and shook her head; Miharu had other things to worry about.

"Hai," she said. "Kurohoshi-Juni, please attend to the port bay. Sigurd will help you. Organize the cargo in the storage holds; the arms are not properly calibrated. Veressis-Hei, will you assist me?"

Tom had been following Tomi and Nyton, quietly thinking to himself.

We're in space now. That means the mission has started. No more break time. What're we doing... I don't know, it feels... different than last time.

He shifted uncomfortably in the medbay as he watched Tomi do her job.

"I'm sure you know how much this hurts, Nyton," Tom said lightly, with a smirk. "You've had your fair share of them, right?"

Thank goodness I'm getting my backup done now...

"I've managed to keep up on these. Eventually you just get used to them." Nyton replied. As he climbed onto the table he shook his head to Tomi. "As for the pain killer, I will pass. I like to have a clear head when I do this. Besides its just pain. You learn to develop mental tricks to ignore it." he said before he lay down.

Nyton eased his breathing and then said his rehearsed line he usually said before his backup was made. "I want my cybernetics replaced if I actually do end up getting killed. Plus if it can be salvaged I want the data on my memory recorder copied onto the new one so I can review everything up to and including my own death."

"You may proceed whenever you wish, Saito-Hei." With that he relaxed and readied himself for the process.

"Wha?" Leutre looked away from the scene before him. Nodding, he said, "Oh, sure. I'm good with loaders. I remember when we'd place bets and use loading arms and mecha to fight one another. Of course, we didn't do it too often as repairs between duels were usually quite time consuming."

Leutre began to make his way over to take a closer look, but paused and looked back at Yukari, "If you don't mind me asking, what have we got in these crates? Anything illegal, immoral, or fattening?"

Tomi lowered the device onto Nyton's head. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who doesn't trust solely ST backups with my information... She tapped out a short series of commands on its interface, beginning the process. After checking to make sure that it wasn't encountering any errors she leaned on the table, turning to address Tom.

"I suppose it's a good time to ask this, while we're setting up contingencies for our deaths... do you know what our mission is? My orders said nothing more than to report here for duty."

James had tagged along behind, pondering a question of his own.

"Saito-Hei, since the Restriction orders just came out, I was wondering if I could go last and also get transferred into a Yamataian body."

Yukari had to smile. The man did have interesting stories, there was no doubt of that.

"I do not know. The last is most likely, but Star Army vessels are rarely provided with such foods." The Chui crossed over the deck, hopping on one of the conveyor belts, which took her to the storage hold. She sighed at the misplaced boxes, so she picked a small one up and examined its label. "Ammunition, Type 28 SMG," it said.

Looking around the hold, she saw things were strapped to different sections of the hold, or put in secure shelving. She walked down the hold until she found ammunition, which had been behind her when she entered. She put the box with the others labeled the same way, then picked up another box. "Ammunition, Type 28 SMG," it said. Yukari frowned and put it with the other one.

Another one: "Ammunition, Type 29 NSP." There is a lot of ammunition.

Another one: "Dorsal mounts, Mindy II." Yukari put it with the spare parts.

"Shoulder mounts, Mindy II." She certainly was getting a work out.

She snatched a box up before a wandering robotic arm could steal it. "Type 29 Communicators." Eh?

"Veressis-Hei, could you come here for a moment?"

"Anou..." Tomi considered the question for a few moments. "It should be possible, yes. Let me see..." She walked over to the reconstruction tubes, activating one and browsing through its options for a few moments.

"It looks like they're online and functional, yes. Do you want to make any changes to your appearance? Perhaps some hair..." She quickly tapped on the tube's interface again, grinning wickedly. A quick mock-up of James popped up in the display, complete with waist-long bubblegum pink hair. She left it up just long enough for him to get a good look at it- and to save a copy of it to her secondary memory for future use- and then reverted the model back to his current form. "So, any changes you want?"

Nyton continued to relax as the ST backup process began to proceed. The familiar sensations were present and he continued to breath deeply and evenly. If he felt any pain he would mentally shunt it down to his left arm where his muscle gave the smallest twitch. Then as it reached his cybernetic forearm it seemed to dissipate and he felt relief. All he had to do was compare this pain to that which he felt when he first lost his arm and his mind just proportioned it away until it became a distant memory.

"Hai, Suzuka-Chui," Masako replied as she looked up at the Custodian with wide eyes. Though she knew she saw him up in the wardroom, this was the first time the young neko was up close and personal with a Custodian Android. She had never heard of one until this day either. And being this close to him, she had to practically crane her neck to look at his face. Why does everyone masculine-looking have to be so tall. the young neko thought out of curiousity.

"Well then, Sigurd-san. If you would be kind enough to assist me," the raven-haired neko asked with a smile as she motioned him to follow her as she made her way towards the portside bay. Entering the large room, she frown at the unorganized lot. "This won't do at all...no one will be able to find anything if things stay like this." she mumbled as she looked at the closest box. It was different from the majority of those around, but there were a few around. Looking at the label, her face contorted to a mixture of disturbed and annoyance. The very first box she laid eyes on just had to be labeled: Explosives: Fragmentation Grenades. The reason why it was different from the rest was to properly and safely contain the explosives for transport. "Mou...why am I the one who has to get the store room with explosives." the young neko mumbled as she hefted the container up with a grunt. Quickly looking around the hold, she walked around until she found the explosives locker. Unlike the rest of the equipment found in the hold, this was an actual locker. "At least they guard against accidents," the young neko said as she opened the locker and gently pushed the container in before closing it again.

"Sigurd-san...could you handle the rest of those boxes marked Explosive?" the young warrant officer asked as she went to the next container closest to her. This one was marked Shields: Daisy. "Better," she mumbled before stooping down to pick it up. This time, she had a bit more difficulty lifting it. "Mou...what I wouldn't give being back in my old body right about now," she grunted as she moved this box towards the spare parts section.