RP: LSDF Akahar [Prologue] - From Dark

"This is a mystery to me too, otherwise we wouldn't be discussing it. If this were as simple as it looked, which I can virtually guarantee you, it isn't." Keib then loaded the clip that everyone was requesting. The last moments of the Mok'Ro.

The call was quick and somewhat frenzied. The captain of the recognisably Lorath ship was giving out some sort of distress signal.

"...I'm in the Tange System, orbiting Tange VII one hundred and sixty degrees from the main Star, requesting immediate help. We-" The message then cut out, almost as abruptly as it came...

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"And yes, this all reeks to hell, but for better or worse..." He cleared his throat and puffed out his chest with his fists on his hips, "It is my Duty as a Sub-Lieutenant to the Glorious Matriarchy."

His tone was clearly taking the mickey out of it as his exaggerated lip movements and ceiling stare indicated, "To investigate this matter, as it has landed in my lap." His tone fell back to as normal as he could muster, "So, yeah. This is either an elaborate plot to get rid of me and Hakahn creatively, or this is exactly what it appears to be on face value: A stranded ship out in the middle of nowhere, deep in unknown and contested territory, with the possibility of us being hit by something while we're out searching, be it Pirates, Occhestians, the NMX, unruly Yamataians or Gnomes."

He then sighed. "I had a ship in a bottle." Greg nodded in agreement and pointed to its superior. It then shook his head and tapped its tail against the ground to hammer this point home: Keib definitely had a ship in a bottle. "And apparently you had a suggestion." He gave a raised eyebrow to Aiesu.

"Well..." the artificial began. "signal forensics, pattern tracking and triangulation could be useful."

She peered about, quiet for a moment as she mulled her idea into simpler words, noticing she'd lost her audience.

"There are a lot of sounds beyond our hearing still in the signal we could retrace. If we were really creative and assuming its a five-point standard sound input, we should also be able to triangulate the sound... Sort of like how satellites and positioning systems work. Sonar on steroids. The picture won't be great but the more post-processing we do, the clearer it'll be." she rambled. "Though there'll be no color, just depth and position, like old black and white volumetrics used to be" she continued, quite excited, slowing as she came to a crushing realization.

"But it would probably take a long time"

Keib rubbed his chin, guessing that the civilian did have something to share after all, despite how rude she could be: "I don't think distress calls can get five point-surround sound, it's too large a codec for a message that's meant to be sent quickly and urgently through all but the simplest mediums, even a transistor radio running AM and FM. But..."

He snapped his fingers and nodded as the gears turned in his brain, "For the personal weekly logs, those could definitely have the luxury of a standard five-point microphone. It'd take a couple of weeks, and if you've got Computing Cycles and runtimes to spare..." He wiggled his eyebrows at the synthetic.

Greg then looked at Aiesu, then back at Keib with a mumble, then received a reply from its superior: "She does have a point, and we will have time to kill en-route to Tange." He then turned to the others, "Any more questions, Soldiers?"

Gough raised his hand, and Keib motioned for him to speak. "Are you sure the Gnomes aren't involved?" He coarsely replied, then started chuckling. Yar'Mak and Al'ris started grinning too.

Keib looked over to Hakahn with a smile and then stated with a straight face, "It's a possibility I haven't ruled out." He then gave a headlong glance to his superior, who long ago quashed the idea of little green men in space.

Aiesu grimaced. Computing cycles to spare? Either he was calling her stupid or making a death-threat since there was no promise she'd be re-activated and she'd certainly have no memory of everything prior to leaving the box if she was shut down. For that reason, she held her tongue.

She made a quiet note somewhere in the back of her mind to get some form of revenge.

"As if you don't have plenty of spare cycles yourself, you idiot" she muttered under her breath.

OsakanOne said:

"I've a project for you later, if you don't mind, that is" Aiesu grinned, her manners falling in line with her child-like appearance. There was some dissonance between this and who she had been but moments ago.

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"Yeah, sure. You stub a toe?" Merril asked playfully, not even noticing the change in demeanor for the girl.

waylan16 said:

What was even funnier to Horizon, however, was the conversation between Aiesu and Soft Touch. A minute ago Aiesu seemed so haughty and self important, and now she and the Llmanel medic chattered on like school girls. This amused him greatly, and with a big grin, he asked the two women sitting next to him, "You two are new around here, right?."

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"Mhm. Served on the Ki'ala before its crash," Merril responded, finally resuming the waving motion with her fingers, though this was much smaller than before.

As the conversations went on, she found herself staring off into space. All the tech talk bored her to tears, so she opted out of listening.

"Wait, so you were in a crash?" he asked Merril. This was exponentially more interesting than the conversation his superiors and the civilian were having. Vathr'dal didn't care what they were talking about, so long as it didn't concern his flying. Plus, he had never seen this Lmanel woman before. She seemed nice, so he decided to continue on with the conversation and introduce himself.

"Yeah. engine failure. Lot of people were killed on impact. Couple more died of injuries. We crashed on some jungle world. I did what I can to save the survivors. The remnants of the ship helped for shelter, but we still had to forage for food. That was fun and a half, let me tell you. Climbing those damn trees for fruits, only to find out half of 'em were toxic. It was a whole week before rescue came. You'd be amazed at how quickly that time passed, with all the salvaging and sewing and ev'rything else."

Merril rubbed her throat slightly.

"Bleh, now I need a glass of water.

"Wow, I'm really sorry that your ship crashed. It must've been awful. My service hasn't been anywhere near as exciting. I used to serve on a bigger class warship for the LSDF, flying whatever they needed me too. It was pretty fun, but monotonous. Then one of my wingmen decided it would be a good choice to get drunk and play cards. Naturally, he lost, and accused me of cheating or rigging the match or somethin', I dot know. Next thing I do know is he has a knife out and is coming at me. I shot him. I'm not proud of it, but I don't regret it either. Then the LSDF wanted to push that stain into a dark corner, so they sent me here. I don't mind it though. Always keeps you on your feet." He added in a smile just to try and relieve some of the tension in their conversation about bad memories.

"I'm Vathr'dal, by the way, or Horizon. Whichever you like. Now how about I get you that glass of water?" he offered.

Moogle said:

"Yeah, sure. You stub a toe?" Merril asked playfully, not even noticing the change in demeanor for the girl.

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"I need to make some corrections to something" she said with a hushed smile. "Though, I need to familiarize myself with the layout of the ship first."

Four-Six figited with her cap, wondering just what it was about the cloth that irritated her ears so much. They were beginning to itch.

Of course, she had sensitive hearing, but she didn't need it to overhear the sidebar conversation between Meril and Vathr'dal, where they were happily, and blatantly ignoring the situation at hand in favor of talking about Softtouch's life before her new orders. At first, Four-Six didn't care; all this technical talk was entirely above her head, and paygrade, and she wondered why it was that, if Keib and Aiesu were going to have geek orgasms, they weren't doing it somewhere in private.

But then, a phrase came to mind that worked its way into her vocal chords, and popped out her lips unbidden.

"Hey, lock it up," Four-Six said towards where Meril and Vathr'dal had seated themselves in the ready room, where they were now engaged in what apparently was a lively and very friendly conversation as a sidebar to the actual briefing. "Socialize later; pay attention, now."

She eased back into her seat - the seat that normally a pilot would be in, and re-focused on Keib and Aiesu, tail twitching uncomfortably beneath her uniform shirt as the potential ramifications of saying that to them slowly settled onto her prospects regarding the future. Four-Six would have to find somewhere to hide, after this.

"Sorry sir."

The artificial noted the way in which Four struggled, giving her a particular stare she hoped would leave her jumpy as she began making mental notes about the uniform.

Vathr'dal looked at Four Six, obviously very surprised. He realized he had been totally off track, due to his boredom in the conversation that the others were having. He hadn't meant to disturb the others that were trying to pay attention. Horizon wasn't worried about getting in trouble, though. He doubted the officers would take offense at his lack of concern. Keib, more so than Hakahn.

He turned to Four Six, gave her an apologetic look, and said, "Oh...Sorry. I didn't mean to distract you from the briefing. My bad."

waylan16 said:

". . . how about I get you that glass of water?" he offered.

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Merril listened to Horizon's story with interest, smirking a little at the last addendum. "I woulda just broken his arm. He wouldn't-"

OsakanOne said:

"I need to make some corrections to something" she said with a hushed smile. "Though, I need to familiarize myself with the layout of the ship first."

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The wildcat just gave a thumbs up to Aiesu.

Gallant said:

"Hey, lock it up," Four-Six said towards where Meril and Vathr'dal had seated themselves in the ready room, where they were now engaged in what apparently was a lively and very friendly conversation as a sidebar to the actual briefing. "Socialize later; pay attention, now."

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Merril shot an evil look at Four-Six, Horizon's body conveniently blocking the glare from Kieb and Hakahn's views. As much as she wanted to smack the girl, now was not the time to make a scene. She'd only just gotten onto the ship after all.

Aiesu gave Four Six a knowing glare that said silently 'know your place' that would entail punishment if Four Six tried again.

A Helashio telling another Llmanel what to do? As much as we were supposed to deal with those unwashed pack animals, the mere thought that she'd even dare suggest she could tell Merril what to do was far too close to the idea that Four could soon be barking orders at Aiesu herself - a thing Aiesu's simply astute high-class upbringing simply would never allow.

She could almost hear her mother taunting her for even tolerating such an exchange. In her place, her mother would have already dispatched the Helashio in question so for this reason, Aiesu considered herself quite lenient and forgiving compared to some.

She clicked her tongue distastefully at the thought of what her mother would say, giving her random act of kindness to come second thoughts.

Masakaji had his arms somewhat crossed against his chest. All this talk about 5 point microphones and primitive volumetrics was somewhat over his head. He had some idea what the thing was talking about, but he had nothing to add.

He looked around at the exchanges of looks after Four Six told the two Llmanels to shut it. What did I get myself into... Masakaji thought to himself as he kept his face neutral.

"Anyways..." Hakahn spoke, his voice at a level above the noise which had risen in the room. The look on his face spoke volumes... he was... displeased at what he'd witnessed in his recent arrivals so far.... and some of his old hands... it was a briefing not a social event.

Once sure that no one else would speak out of turn the Fyunnen continued, "Each of you will be given a copy of these logs to study.. find anything of interest to our mission either good or bad... and you shall be rewarded... in the mean time.. take to your quarters and your tasks... you are all dismissed." He then turned to Keib, "We have things to discuss...once they leave of course.." He said loud enough for the entire compartment to hear... a decent hint.

Four-Six snapped the button on her sidearm's holster over the hammer, came to attention, saluted, and then promptly left by way of the starboard walk, purposely trying to juggle keeping a low profile with getting out of the briefing expediently.

Once safely in the hallway, with a bulkhead seperating her from the other soldiers, she had time to wonder if she'd just committed some sort of suicide. Shoving her hands in her pockets, she scurried off towards the messdeck, brushing past a couple of confused Llmanel sailors at a jog and then ducking into a side passageway, where she knew a hatch instead of a stair would take her up another level. Someone would be after her.

It would be that Aiesu woman, or another soldier, but it didn't matter - her survival instinct was alert and on guard, and regardless of what was behind her, it had sharp teeth and a taste for Helashio. She had overstepped her station; even in the military, she was only a soldier, the lowest of low ranks.

But that bothered her. And that made her head hurt like a devil.

"You heard the big man: Wrap it up and get your thinking caps on. We're going to be a while until we reach Tange since we're flying under the radar," He put his hands on his hips and made a last evaluation of the troops before him: "So take up your duties as usual and get comfy. Once again, you're all dismissed." Keib addressed his peers before returning their salutes.

Once the soldiers were out of the room, he turned to Aiesu and stared into her eyes. "Heads up, sunshine: Greg is a Registered Helashio servant and Four-Six's registration was approved yesterday. They're protected by basic freedoms afforded to all citizens of the Lorath Matriarchy, despite how I loathe their other policies."

Keib's voice droned into Aiesu's digital mind, echoing. His face, meanwhile had a casual smile on it. "I saw your knuckles clench when you got talked down by Four Six. It gratifies you when you have control, doesn't it? Well I have news: You're a civilian and despite myself, I'm a Sub-Lieutenant of the LSDF. That means you answer to ME." The deeper you looked into his eyes, the more you'd see his past misgivings and cruelties hiding beneath a growing layer of redemption and self reflection. His ability to read people wasn't something that was a spur of the moment insight, but something he'd been honing like a blade's edge for a long time.

"So, if you try anything funny to my Helashio, or try to take over my ship in the name of your Consortium again I'll have you adding extra cycles to this primitive radar idea of yours whether you like it... or not." Those last words slipped out of his mouth rather than his mind, but his point was made abundantly clear to the construct. Something in his voice just screamed that he'd done something like this before without hesitation, and he could do it without batting an eyelid. Perhaps it was the trailing 'not', or the hoarse, throaty chuckle he made afterwards.

He then turned back to his superior and gave Aiesu an ungainly push out of the Ready room to check if her machinery had gyroscopes to make her maintain her balance. "Ah yes, there's much to discuss indeed. Motley bunch, wouldn't you think?" He walked and talked with his superior, his tone having changed completely, "I think we've gotten a decent team for the job, unless you want to discuss specifics later on."

Once Aiesu was out of earshot, he then said: "Oh, I have Aiesu partially figured out. Not a big surprise."

The construct peeked back at the door closed behind her, maroon eyes curiously somber and detatched but something else swelled behind them. It was an unfathomable warmth, one that made her cheeks shine just a little - eyes burning with the tightness of water behind them.

Her messy leaking carriage of decaying biologics that wouldn't last more than a year and the cradle of limited lifespan that strung her thoughts together in construct were betraying her.

The inconsistencies and imperfections came with the lower resolution of construct she'd requested in exchange for the faster execution that she thought she'd need: Maybe she did have spare cycles after-all. But it was chump-change compared to the weaknesses it had left her with.

She swallowed, finding her mouth was watering and gave a quiet laugh to herself as pale hands dusted off her borrowed attire. It wasn't all bleak, however; Aiesu made her way down the corridor with what could be called an unusual amount of enthusiasm for someone who'd just received a death-threat, made ever sweeter by the fact that the man might even act upon it. It was intoxicating. Not that she'd dare share this with him, of course.

Making her way through the ship, she memorized the layout and the locations of different crew-members, doing several laps about the ship. Aiesu liked the novelty of feeling of ground beneath her new feet. It wasn't something she'd felt in a long, long time.

Merril was out as soon as the meeting was over, unwilling to stay in a boring briefing any longer than she had to. Her overall impression of her two superiors was somewhat positive, cosidering neither seemed to care about the more. . . rigid rules of the LSDF.

She made her way in the direction she believed the gym was at so the medic could pummel a bag mercilessly, when she bumped into the civilian whose quips she enjoyed so much, Aiesu.

"Hey, spunky girl!" Merril greeted, giving her a whack on the back.