RP: YSS Miharu Prologue, Day 3

Nyton entered the room and surveyed those who had already gathered while he took a seat near Kotori and Yukari. There's our passenger. I guess we shall be making introductions soon then. he thought to himself. With a look over at Leutre he just mentally shrugged. I'll just have to talk with him later after the briefing.

"Looks like I was fumbling with my communicator for longer then I had thought." Nyton remarked as he sat down. "Personalizing the settings and all."

Right after Nyton, came the raven-hair warrant officer, her face red with the embarassment of taking so long to get there. Quietly bowing to the Taii in wordless apology, the young woman took a seat. It was quite a surprise when she received a brand new communicator with earpiece and manual in an out of the blue fashion. In fact, she hadn't even heard of the new communicators until she saw her own black one for the first time. A neat little gadget that had made her lose her way for a moment as she had stared at it, thus leading to her lateness. The most embarassing part was that she should have been here sooner, in her own opinion, because she was a warrant officer and she had to at least set some example for the enlisted.

James wandered in, idly twirling the brand-spanking new communicator around as he inspected it during his jaunt inside. Noting the presence of the others, he quickly dropped it back in its carrying case and bowed deeply.

Seeing that Kotori was getting ready to start, he picked out a seat next to Nyton and quietly sat down.

"Quite fancy gadgets, these. I'm suprised it doesn't store recipes and wash clothes."

Tom walked around silently, examining his new communication device.

Cool... this thing looks pretty high tech...

The headache had subsided by now, and the Yamataian was starting to return to his chipper, normal mode.

"Okie dokie! Let's rock!"

After a polite bow, he slid into a nearby chair and awaited the briefing.

Once everyone was seated, Kotori fussed over her uniform for a second and then moved to stand in front of them, the holographic emitter platform at her back.

"I will now begin the mission briefing for the Miharu's assignment. Know that while bearing a registry tying it to the First Expeditionary Fleet, we are to engage into independant operations. We answer to SAINT, Ketsurui Yui-Taisho and Emperor Uesu, but otherwise, our operations are independant of actual fleet activities unless necessary."

"Firstly, since we have new personnel on board, I will insure everyone is on the same level regarding the threats presented to the Yamatai Star Empire, that we - the Star Army of Yamatai - currently face. Our primary enemy since YE 26 until now are the Mishhuvurthyar. The Mishhuvurthyar's military is called the Sfrarabla Mishhuvurthyar Xhrafuklurp, but it is often shortened to 'SMX' or just generalized as 'the Mishhu' by Star Army Personnel."

The lightning dimmed and the holoprojector came online with a rotating three-dimensional image of a Mishhuvurthyar, displaying a bony head resting of slimy tissue from which extended down several dozen ribbed tentacles. Each of the two eyesockets had a pair of eyes and the back of the main body's bony structure extended out into large pointed earlobes.

The display then branched into several other holowindows displaying information on the many variants SAINT had recorded of the Mishhuvurthyar, from the most common Type 1 to the newly discovered bug-like Type 10.

"The SMX, as a military, act to further the ambitions of the Mishhuvurthyar into expanding their dominion over known space. The Mishhu are often qualified as cruel for their tendency to enslave other races. They have a penchant for manipulation and torture and are especially adept at it due to their unique physionomy and their potent psionic capabilities. The Miharu can provide you with more detailed references on them, but I expect you to be familiar with the material by tomorrow."

The projection changed to a starfield display with labeled star systems. "The SMX flexed their muscles in more than a few conflicts thus far, chief among them being the Battle of Nepleslia, the destruction of Rafalris, the Xyainbor campaign, the conflict over Tami and the Battle of Hoshi no Iori. Then, there was a significant lull in the fighting when the Star Army managed to retake Hoshi no Iori and then rampaged through Mishhuvurthyar space..." The display on the map changed to display how things had eventually resolved themselves in YE 28. "until finally driving them back more than 30 light years away from Yamatai."

The map changed again to display the current situation. "Well, that was until early YE 29, when the Mishhuvurthyar came back once again, apparently better off than us despite the previous conflicts, boasting several new ship designs and displaying much a better intelligence network with significantly improved fleet organisation and operational tactics."

Nyton leaned back onto his chair and folded his hands on the table. A more thoughtful expression gradually appeared on his face as he listened to the background of the Misshu.

All this history and yet our intel on the various types of Misshu out there still doesn't fill out. Instead we only get new kinds and more mysteries. I haven't even heard anything new regarding some of those variants for over a year. Are they mutating or just genetically engineering themselves? Nyton thought to himself as he went over the file on the Misshu types again for what must have been his hundredth time. He finally decided that he may as well ask the question.

"Excuse me Ketsurui Taii, regarding the different kinds of Misshu, just how is it that there are so many variants? Have we determined that they are using genetic manipulation? Can they mutate themselves? Or are there different 'races' of Misshu within the race itself?" Nyton asked when Kotori paused.

"Hybridization, budding, metamorphism, implantation and parasitism seem to be how they go at it." Kotori answered. "I will come to this in more pertinent detail a bit later in the briefing."

Yukari kept her curiousity in check. She wanted all of the information Kotori had to offer before interrupting.

James frowned and studied the hologram of the Mishhu, keeping his thoughts to himself.

So these are the things that challenge the Star Army? Those tentacles look deadly. If we're really going up against them staying at range is going to be critical.

Mizuho watched idly. This basic information in the briefing really wasnt anything new. However, the mention of new ships struck a note of curiosity. And Mizuho, after a moment's ponderance, raised her voice. She even tried her best to sound formal and polite! Not that her best was all that impressive, but the effort was there.

"Kotori-san... you mentioned new ships. Are there any exceptional examples I should focus on? I also take it these, as far as they are known, can be reviewed through Miharu along with Mishhu variants? I am somewhat behind in most regards with Mishhu." As far behind as can be expected, following near-death in a suicide assault against them, fueled by depression and an overwhelming sense of failure at last affirmed by Star Army. Suicide assaults, unfortunately, arent the most effective of manners to brief oneself on enemy ability, though. "When I was aboard Nozomi, Yui-san mentioned restructuring fleets, which I presume was a largely economic move. Have Mishhu tactics changed significantly since my discharge? Are suicide assaults still norm?"

A wan smile. "And again, I can find this information for review from Miharu, yes?"

"Oh, before I forget." Kotori smiled. "Everyone, the violet-haired nekovalkyrja sitting with us is Yukisato Mizuho, a former Star Army officer whom I hired as a tactical consultant."

She took a breath and continued. "The Miharu should have access to the information we are sure about. Since the SMX intelligence network is actually a match for ours now, we're having a great deal of difficulty getting the crispy details, if you take my meaning." Kotori placed one hand to the side of her hips. "The Mishhuvurthyar went for a light fleet configuration like we have with our own fleets, except their fleets seem divided in broad slices of 500 warships. Then, the units seem divided into skirmish battlegroups of around thirty vessels."

As the Taii spoke, displays appeared behind her showing aspect silhouettes and specs listing for the few models of Mishhuvurthyar vessels the Star Army knew about.

"Each battlegroups seem composed of one battleship, four carriers, nine of the newer gunships and sixteen destroyers. SMX vessels were big and ponderous, but bristled with weaponry and were usually much bigger than their Star Army counterparts, incidentally being able to carry greater amounts of their attack pods. However, the Mishhuvurthyar's recent technological advances seem to make their newer designs lean more on smaller, faster ships with few but very potent weapons."

One of the holoimages increased its size fourthfold to be more visible. "The new gunship, the Xianthrafruglu, is one of the best examples for that. 250 000c speed, energy shielding, small armor complement and three weapons which would each serve as a main gun for a destroyer makes it a good match for the non-capital ships we have. It's also the first mishhu vessel aside to possess an anti-fleet weapon."

Another window came into evidence. "The boxy humanoid mecha there bristling with weapons is their new elite pod unit, the Ripper. I don't have firsthand information on it, but I've been told that the destructive payload it boasts and combative abilities are pretty damn close to that new samurai-exclusive power armor Ketsurui Fleet Yard recently developped."

The displays faded back into the background and Kotori brushed her other hand through her hair. "Rumor goes that there is a new scoutship and a giant battleship design also being fielded, though I haven't obtained any hard information concerning those. what is more obvious, though, is that the Mishhuvurthyar are beginning to use more and more of our own technology such as the combined field systems and the legacy cannons... while we reverse engineered their tunneling cannons. In a way, they grow more and more like us and we become like them too."

"That's what I can reasonably cover with you at the moment." The ship's commander shook her head and she turned her eyes from Mizuho to Nyton for a moment. "You might want to talk with my tactical officer about this at length. He's had an interest in the newer mishhuvurthyar ships as well."

Nyton listened to the other's questions Kotori continue her brief and introduced Mizuho to everyone. His eyebrow quirked and at the mention of Mizuho's role as a tactical consultant. So her purpose is to to be a tactical consultant. I'll have to see if I can review her records to get a better idea on her background experience. Hopefully we can fill in each other's gaps and work together. I don't want to find myself in a pissing match regarding tactical direction. he thought to himself. He spared a quick glance at Mizuho from the corner of his eye. She must be good for Kotori to have come all the way out here to retrieve her. I should be grateful for having someone along with more experience at this field since I've only just recently been given this role. Still.... I suppose I can't help but feel a little bit threatened in regards to having to 'share' the tactical role with this being my first time. I just need to make the best of it and learn what I can. he thought again as he sized up the neko.

After Kotori pointed out Nyton to Mizuho he then turned to face her and gave bowed his head slightly to her. "Nito Juni Nyton Claymere. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Mizuho-san." he said. "After the brief or whenever you wish to discuss the Misshu ships I should be available. I look forward to working with you." he said politely.

Tom sat quietly with his arms crossed. He frowned during the briefing, the rather in-depth description of the SMX and their forces reminding him of the not-so-pleasant encounter he experienced with them on the YSS Mikomi.

Still, at least they weren't drones. Anything but drones.

Not having any questions in his mind, he didn't open his mouth to ask any. However, the Yamataian stole a glance at Yukari, who seemed so focused.

He turned to look at the newcomer as well and nodded. Any extra hand was a good addition to the crew in his mind, and the lady looked like she had done her time in the Star Army. Kotori's personal selection only helped enhance his feeling of confidence in the newcomer's abilities.

Tomi nodded along with the briefing, somewhat inattentively in the second half. Fleet configuration wasn't really her area of interest. The variants, however, were. Fairly certain that the Taii wouldn't know the information she wanted offhand, she made a mental note to download all of the information the Miharu had on Mishhu anatomy, reproduction, and biochemistry after the briefing. It wasn't likely that there was anything useful in there that hadn't already been noticed by some more competent scientist, but it couldn't hurt to know what made one's enemies tick.

New vessel types ... new tactics ... Yukari frowned. The engineering prowess of the Mishhu was not to be underestimated -- production alone defined them as efficient juggernauts on the same level as Yamatai. But their ranks had gone without revision for years, compared to Yamatai's near-constant improvment over itself.

Black Spiral. They have been given Black Spiral. Yukari clearly remembered the black-colored vessel, a Nozomi-class. Even if Black Spiral were now on its own, or destroyed, or back into the shadows, it had already transferred the technology on to the SMX. Yukari wondered if the new enormous battleship rumored to exist relied on the technological advances of late, or if they simply built a bigger Ooghlrashithagg.

She sighed mentally. Yamatai needed an edge now ... a sharp cutting edge to slice through the disgusting Mishhu fleets. Yukari was sure the Miharu, using torpedoes, was not it. But what was?

Her eyes wandered up from her lap and across the other people there, finally resting on Tom. She wished she could control her blush, as her eyes found his lips, but she couldn't. She looked back at the holowindows.

"Now, to address what concerns us more directly." Kotori waved a hand above to dismiss the present holographic windows, which were instead replaced with the slowly rotating picture of a black-hulled Sakura-class gunship. The usual Star Army color scheme was blue and silver gray, indicating this was a SAINT secret ops vessel - the black-painted vessels more commonly referred to as 'spook ships'.

"About seven weeks ago, a SAINT Sakura-class gunship disappeared in the southern frontier. This gunship was crewed by a force known as Black Spiral, a section of SAINT responsible for monitoring alien progress on genetic research. These were Nekovalkyrja trained by both the Star Army and by PNUgen, that used some of the cutting-edge Nekovalkyrja models like the NH-18 and NH-27, along with a large number of experimental types. Our records indicated that these vessels had been destroyed in a unfortunate skirmish against the Mishhuvurthyar."

"Reason was later found to investigate those records in more details and they didn't add up. Evidence came up that the Black Spiral had been involved in obscure affairs in the past, from viruses to secret peace and trade talks with the Mishhuvurthyar," Kotori continued. "That included experimentation with Mishhu Egg development along with nekovalkyrja hosts. What's more, evidence was discovered that Black Spiral vessels had splintered off SAINT to assist the Mishhuvurthyar. The two appear to be closely tied together, you see... Six years ago, the PNUgen Corporation began work on a new species of genetic weapon, looking to outgrow the limitations of the human form."

"This weapon would have a Nekovalkyrja mind in a powerful, larger, more mobile body. The shape was to be something like a central main body with a wide variety of custom hemosynth-based tentacles. It would be armored, flying, and highly telepathic..." Kotori's smile was grim. "The Black Spiral was assigned to assist the project by taking the test weapons to various battlefronts and fighting them."

"This, of course, became the onset of a conflict with considerably larger repercussions." Kotori added, not quite giving the time to let the people present put two and two together but rather assembling the pieces of the puzzle for them. "At some point, the tests went wrong, and the Mishhuvurthyar began to develop their own culture, language, and starships, as well as a strong distaste for the Star Army. It was suspected that there may had been some interference with the testing, by either traitorous factions or even unknown aliens. As the situation worsened and the Mishhuvurthyar spread, Black Spiral was used as a link between us and them, but they didn't seem to have much success. Now we pretty much know why: the Black spiral have been getting support from the Mishhuvurthyar, and vice versa, into opposing the Empire to bring it to its knees."

"The most delightful victory over any foe is to persuade her right hand to hack off her left," Leutre muttered under his breath. But this time things didn't go according to plan. The right hand was fighting back, and with an entire armada at it's disposal.

'This is why one must avoid politics,' he thought. 'Things can get quite messy, just like a bowl of beef stroganoff.' On the other hand, war was always a good way for third parties to make money. Salvage, mercenary work, munition sales, and if given the opportunity, even espionage.

'Of course, it's never good to dwell on such topics. One can never tell if anyone nearby is a skilled telepath.' Glancing around the room, Leutre quickly turned his thoughts back to the topic of beef stroganoff.

Nyton had leaned forward as Kotori was explaining. By the end of her history of the PNUgen/Black Spiral/Misshu conspiracy he had leaned back into his chair and adopted his thinking pose. With vivid clarity his mind resurfaced the memories of his first encounter with the Black Spiral's shadow. The incident on Lor. The Kotori clone. The sociable Misshu hatchlings. The new hybrids and why the Misshu keep 'changing' themselves. Further speculation led him to wonder just how far the connection went.

"Then PNUgen is responsible for creating the Misshuvurthyar with the Black Spiral group fielding them until the bioweapon became a faction into itself. When the SMX became the more desireable faction to side with, the Black Spiral turned and began to aide them. They were so secret a faction that we did not even realize they had turned until too late. It's amazing we even know that much despite the fact that this whole debacle began six years ago." Nyton said flatly. "However there are still holes in this plot and this brings to mind many questions. The reason why the experiment went wrong, who or what tampered with it, what was done to make the experiement so hositle towards us. But this in itself could be the wrong line of reasoning. What if the mistake was actually planned for and done on purpose under the guise of an accident or tampering? Where did the influence of PNUgen end and where did Black Spiral's begin? Maybe there never was an end to their involvement and PNUgen continues to be involved just as secretly as Black Spiral was. Where does it all end or lead to?"

Nyton shook his head and gave a morbid grin. "As fun as it is to continue on this train of speculation, it does not do anything to help the current situation. Basically for the sake of our survival we need to find out just what is their next move and counter that." Another trace of thought crossed Nyton's face and he no longer smiled. "It's so convoluted that even in defeat they might find victory. That may even have been the case considering their history of assault and retreat. I'm beginning to wonder if we can find victory through conventional military means. Not with the current intel we have."

James hunched forward, chin resting on the backs of his hands. Being a new recruit, this information was new to him and the sheer complexity was enough to make his mind spin.

"Faction upon faction upon faction," he mused, rubbing his eyes. "Not only do we have an apparently internally-engineered alien bioweapon to fight, but we also have well-equipped, well-funded entities with agendas of their own behind the scenes."

Folding his arms, James let his eyes wander to the ceiling.

Kotori listened to the comments made, privately surprised that they all took the fact that the Mishhu had been partly engineered by the Empire so well.

"Several recent events are actually closely tied to the activities of the YSS Sakura." She began. "In YE 28, the Hoshi no Iori circumstellar ring was captured by the Mishhuvurthyar - it was a battle the gunship had been present to and proved a significant event later on."

"The Sakura also came to find a stealthed cargoship bound for Mishhuvurthyar space crewed by many nekovalkyrja and yamataians. When it was captured, Mishhuvurthyar vessels soon made their appearances and a battle was joined. The Sakura managed to disable one and have them submit to them thanks to their NH-28 NIWS unit and boarded the ship to investigate, free what slaves they could and find out what was the Mishhu connection with the cargo ship - what they found..."

Kotori pointed up, where a picture of a neon-colored nekovalkyrja with her lower body sporting an expansive 'skirt' of hemosynthetic tentacles much like the Mishhuvurthyar had. "...Was the first Type 9 Nekovalkyrja/Mishhuvurthyar Hybrid. Also reffered to as the Pumpkin Type, given that this was the hybrid's name. The Hybrid was taken into custody of the Sakura's crew for examination and questioning."

The Taii placed one hand over the breastbone. "I came to be personally involved in the later events since the next period marked my first posting while the Sakura was trying to make first contact overtures with the Lorath race. I was newly out of SARA training and my first action was when the Hybrid escaped confinement and stole one of the Sakura's Mindy power armors to then wreak havoc through the ship. We lost our computer system, lost power in engineering and even the NIWS was destroyed in the escape. I was one of the few whom managed to reach my Mindy before the armor bay was exposed to vacuum due to the bay's atmospheric field failing and managed to rip the hybrid out of her suit to bring her back to one of the medlab's containment cells."

Kotori paused. She really didn't want to cover the matter of Hanako's death or the lorath whom had been involved in the situation - there was enough lorath hate around for her not to contribute to that fire. "We tried talking to Pumpkin a bit over what her goals were afterwards, but all we got were ramblings about the age of mankind being over and that the true nekovalkyrja empire would soon rise." She shook her head. "Little progress had been made before a group of black-garbed NH-27 nekos showed up demanding custody of the hybrid."

The golden-eyed commander crossed her arms. "These nekos had infiltrated the Sakura on the authority of the Empress Yuumi, a person considered dead for many years. Seeing that we found that suspicious, the black-dressed nekos - whom Pumpkin apparently knew - seized her by force and began withdrawing back to their ship, whom was docked on the Sakura's ventral hatch."

"Despite me managing to get suited up in a Mindy and five ketsurui samurai from the Oniyuri making their appearance to help us, they managed to escape thanks to three suicide bombers. I, myself, was unable to capture Pumpkin in time: she had resisted several blasts from my Mindy's scalar cannon by then and I wasn't able to keep hold of her in the commotion. The crippled Sakura, the Azalea and the Oniguri were unable to catch up with the black Sakura before she folded away."

Kotori gave a shrug. "That was our first contact with the Black Spiral, though we really didn't know whom they were at the time."