RP: SNV Gam'trosha [Prologue] The Gathering, and Launch?

He knew he was late. The message from the landing pad meant he should have been here a while ago. However, his shuttle had been delayed quite a bit. Sloppy, very sloppy time mananagement indeed. This would have never happened in Sasa'ne.

Oh well, he had no control over the failings of others. It was just something that occurred now and then. So he arrived at the Seu'vuria Garden quite a bit behind schedule after leaving his luggage with the the appropriate people to load it. Then another message at the door. To the top floor he said. A social meet with the crew. Was that all this was? A social meeting before the ceremony? Maybe it was good luck he arrived late after all. The wait had at least given the Laibe some time to groom his midnight black fur and look presentable. And by presentable, C'Baruce Ro'sario Erm'olai meant that his fur was perfectly groomed and his uniform cleaned and worn to the highest of standards. Only a Q'Abrenal could have worn something so wonderfully well-tailored. Even if Erm'olai was a mere C'Baruce, he felt it important to be well-dressed for any occasion.

The Lift ride gave the Laibe enough time to glance over himself with his ice-blue eyes once more, making sure everything was situated the way he had assured it to be a mere hectra ago. The lift doors opened to allow Erm'olai onto the appropriate floor and in plain view of a rather motley crew of Daur --- and one Myleke. Oh well, it wasn't as if Laibe were the majority of the population. But it was, quite frankly, disturbing that he was the only one of his kin that seemed to be in the crew of such an auspicious vessel.

Keeping his mannerisms indifferent, rather than show any hint of discomfort, Erm'olai closed in upon the table and stopped a meter or so from them. And in time to hear the last comment.

Shar said:

"I also hopes that if we are supposed to look fo bombs and other threats, that personal belongings of the crew will be searched too. Especially things owned by Laibe's."

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"I would hope you did," Erm'olai suddenly spoke up from behind the Daur, his tone almost indifferent as his mannerisms. He didn't even seem touchy over her emphasis on Laibes for her search. "It would only be appropriate for a Marine to do her duty." he continued in a matter-of-fact tone, though that last bit seemed to have some subtle emphasis.

His piercing eyes roved around the table until they rested upon Sa'kira and her rank. "Sah. C'Baruce Ro'sario Erm'olai, reporting as Software Engineer to the ship," he stated as he gave her the appropriate military courtesies.

When Sa'kira heard the door she turned toward it, a wave of the hand by the Bar-tender made her aware of the newest addition to her crew. When the soldier had walked up to the table, Sa'kira gave him a quick look over, well dressed, almost as if he was going for an inspection - she liked that.

"Welcome," spoke Sa'kira calmly. The crew roster did mention a Laibe, though she wasn't entirely certain when he'd arrive. "We are gathered here just waiting for the message to head to the ceremony. Go ahead and relax for the time being, get yourself something to drink or eat, and well, get to know your fellow crewmen - as they will be watching your back and you watching there's," she said though she had to wonder if the Laibe would do just that, given how she's worked with them in the past but she had meet some pretty good Laibe, and had meet some pretty bad ones, only time would tell where this Laibe fell into.

Then she turned to address Shar's comment. "Actually all soldiers would get their cabins searched, with the exception of the Shipmaster, due to classified information possibly being stored in the cabin. Shipmaster quarters are typically searched by a ships XO or by an officer-ranked soldier, but then in the event of a bombing we'd have to return to port 'anyway' for repairs," she stopped and rubbed her chin, she knew that with the way protocal was that most enlisted wouldn't like that arrangement, it opened up to much of a possibility for a ships Shipmaster to be the person to cause damage to their own ship but because of the rules, marines weren't allowed to search a Shipmasters quarters, unless they were an officer that is.

"Anyway, your fellow crewmen were asking me questions about their jobs and assignments, but we were also getting to know one another - our goals, what we hoped to accomplish. So, feel free to chim in, ask questions, or even answer those the crew ask. It's not an order, merely a bit of socializing for the time being,"

Def'leor was guarded with her reaction to Shar's statement of 'Especially things owned by Laibes.' She was also concerned by the commanders talk about possible sabotage. Why would anyone want to stop the space program. It had so much potential for all their people. It was insane.

When she heard a new voice, she turned and looked at who it belonged to. She took a moment to regard the Laibe. Def'Leor knew that she would have to deal with Laibe's in the military, although she would have preferred later to sooner. She took note of his appearance, his fur without a hair out of place. I wonder how long he spends brushing his coat in the morning. she thought with a mental chuckle.

She remained silent as she listened to him talk to the other Marine, and then the commander.

"Ahah" Keri'cruen said with his wide, boyish grin once again prominent upon his features. He was glad that the new arrival hadn't taken offense at what he'd managed to hear of their ongoing conversation -- the kit would've hated for their first get-together to descend into some kind of racial argument.

"Nice to see I won't be the only techie aboard." The young platinum-furred nobleman gently inclined his head toward the Laibe and casually re-introduced himself for Erm'olai's benefit. "C'Baruce Se'verem Keri'cruen. Hardware Engineer. It looks like I'll be seeing you around the engineering bay fairly often... so let's try to get along." Keri hoped that Erm'olai would be easy to work with.

Keri had Laibe friends amongst the nobility and from his schooling -- admittedly not that many -- but once you managed to work past that seemingly inherent arrogance many of them possessed, they could be surprisingly interesting characters that were fun to be around. Keri's only negative thought was that they could learn to loosen themselves up a little more -- unfortunately, most tended to take themselves far too seriously.

Nodding to the Shipmaster, Erm'olai moved momentarily to the bartender. "Spiced rykent tea, hot with mi'yon," he ordered the rather strange drink. The bitter tea was normally considered a typical drink for times between lunch and dinner, though it normally wasn't garnished with a sour fruit like mi'yon and it certainly wasn't served hot when it was usually ordered. However, Erm'olai received his order anyway, after a bit more of a delay than he would have wished, and returned to the table to take a seat.

It was at that point, Keri'cruen spoke to him. Those piercing blue eyes once again focused on an individual sitting at the table. This new speaker seemed little more than a kit, most likely the V'kaste's Legion. Erm'olai couldn't help but wonder how far the kit was into his training. Would he have to cover for him if the need arose? The Laibe certainly hoped not, he'd rather work with the computers than down in engineering. Of course, one must be ready to be disappointed.

"I'm sure we will, Se'verem," he replied. "And maybe we shall learn from one another," the Laibe continued, though he truely meant that the kit would learn more from him than the other way around.

Turning to Sa'kira, the midnight-furred Laibe seemed to tilt his head to the side and ponder any questions he might have --- and only one came to mind. "Will I be the only Software Engineer onboard, Sah?" he asked.

Sa'kira gave a nod at Erm'olai's question, "for now yes, you and Keri are our only specialized engineers. We have an additional engineer but she's not specialized in any one field, so I'll be relying on the two of you to keep the ship in top running form," she said and grabbed her glass and emptied its contents.

She held the glass in her hand, pondering what more to say, but as she was about to speak two display windows suddenly appeared in the restruant, their outlines red to indicate an important message.

~All Emergency Personnel are to report to hanger two, we have a badly damaged ship inbound. Repeat, all emergency personnel are to report to hanger two for fire surpression and rescue operations~

The message was on a loop, to the lower left the crew of the Gam'trosha would notice an overhead layout of the base along with a green flashing triangle heading in from the east.

If anyone had looked out of the eastern window, they'd notice a ship inbound with faint flickers of light but it wasn't easy to tell what it was exactly due to the distance, they'd have to wait until it got closer.

Damaged ship? Where? Tite'Yanus' head whipped around, glancing through the windows to see if he would be able to the see the damaged ship. Noticing the flickers of light coming through the east window, he stood and rushed over. Bringing his face near the glass, he looked up at the incoming ship. Rescue operations? The only time I've heard of catastrophes this bad were from sabotage, which is highly unlikely since they were in space. Unless, maybe, they've been infiltrating the Navy...

As the thought of terrorists within he Navy cropped into his head, Tite'Yanus looked back towards the table of crew members, his eyes seeming to linger on the Laibe.

At the mention of the damaged ship, Def'leor was out of her seat and at the window as swiftly as she could without shoving people or bumping into things.

She looked around until finally spotting the craft. Def wondered why kind of craft it was, and more importantly what happened. The commander had mentioned sabotage, but could it have been something else? That was nonsense. So far there was no indication of any intelligent life forms in this region of space. So it was either some sort of accident or sabotage. Not exactly an auspicious event right before their own launch.

Shar did gave a newcomer look of complete uninterest. So there will be a Laibe on the ship. Shar already expected so much and did not really care. She had nothing against Laibes. She had something against assholes and those can be of any race. So until it should prove that this Laibe would be a bastard she won't really care. It already seemed he was arrogant, but there are many people like that.

When report of the damaged ship came trough, Shar just lifted a head, but did not say anything. Not like she could do anything. Rescue operation will be done by people who knows what to do and she and others would be just in their way. So Shar just lighted another ciggarete and did not say anything, neither she showed any interest.

As some of his crew mates strained their eyes to witness the damaged vessel, Erm'olai stayed in his seat. In fact, his mannerisms seemed indifferent to the entire situation. "I see," he replied to his Shipmaster, the commented directed towards the fact he was the only trained professional for maintaining the computer system and artificial intelligence.

Leaning back in his seat, the Laibe crosses his legs and sipped his tea. "I wonder if the ceremony will be delayed," he pondered aloud.

"I should hope so, bloody ceremony." Shar responded with a chuckle. She shoved her pack of ciggaretes toward the laibe, who now sat at the table. "Want one?" She asked with grin on her face.

Initially all people could hear was the ships engines laboring, struggling to keep the approaching ship aloft, but once it was closure to the garden, it was plane to see that the ship was a complete mess.

The first thing people would notice visually was that half of the forward part of the ship was ablaze, the portside section that once housed two anti-star fighter turrets were gone, replaced by fire and smoke and jagged metal that protruded outward. Running from the forward section toward the rear were cracks along the hull with thick black smoke pouring outward, some of these cracks were wide enough that fire could be seen while others weren't.

Toward the rear, fires belched from both sides of the ship, its portside anti-starship cannons were completely gone, replaced by a broken hull with fire spewing out. The ship’s cargo hold, which protruded out of the ships lower section, had a large gaping hole that ran from the middle half of the bay all the way to where it's ramp once was. Black smoke was pouring out of this section of the ship and was accompanied by fire that came out with it.

Those who were still in the restaurant were awe struck at the damage; Sa'kira herself was amazed the ship was still flying given the damage she was seeing. She folded her arms over her chest as she watched it slowly pass by the garden, not more than a hundred feet above the building, close enough to cause the windows to rattle.

When Tite'Yanus saw the extent of the damage to the ship, his jaw dropped. As far as he knew, a military vessel hadn't gotten damage that badly since the Colonization. He watched as it streaked over the restaurant, his head following it as it moved.

"I don't mean to sound paranoid or anything, but that did not look like sabotage." He turned his head to face the other crew members at the window. "Do you how many accomplices one would need to do that much damage?"

Def'leor stood awestruck by the visage of the dying ship. "It is a miracle that her crew is keeping her aloft with that much damage. That they are making for the shipyard and not putting her down outside of the city in the wilderness. Either there is some one important or they have some information of some sort they feel is worth the risk." she said.

Even the Laibe engineer, who had seemed rather indifferent to everything, seemed ---curious as the flaming wreck moved overhead. His ears moved forward, though still flat, as he watched the spectacle.

As the ship finally passed, the Engineer glanced back down at his tea and took another sip. He was silent compared to the others, but his tail, which had been still before, started to twitch now and then.

Upon being offered a cigarette, Erm'olai sniffed mildly and held up a paw. "No thank you," he stated loft-fully. "I'd prefer to keep my lungs as clean as possible."

Shar looked at the ship flying overhead. It was flying very low, if that contolled fall could be called flying. Her yes narrowed. Those damaged looked very nasty, more as if it was attacked by other ship. Of course there might have been several sabotages on board but still.... it was just strange. Laibe engineer speaking to her, broke her chaing of thought though.

"You want to live forever?" She asked him with smirk as she turned back ot him and pulled her ciggaretes back. She then looked at Shipmaster. "I know it is not our place, but we might head towards the ship. If it manages to land we can still be of some help. If anything I we can keep the civilians back. There will be annoying idiots rushing there I bet." She said with a shrug.

Keri'cruen like many of those in the Seu'vuria Garden watched in a kind of horrified fascination as the gutted She’tanora descended from the heaven's. The teenage kits blue-green eyes tracked the vessels movement, mentally cataloging the vast amount of structural damage. Due to the ships proximity, Keri could witness the faint reverberations caused by its gravimetric engines in the glass walls of the Garden -- it was nothing short of miraculous that the ship was still in the air with that much damage.

"From the looks of it both the main batteries and point-defense turrets on the port-side have been completely blown away... the cargo bays wide-open.... and look at all those smaller fissures in the crynatorium plating. Either those are battle-scars from a pretty heavy skirmish or there were multiple explosions throughout the interior of the ship across all decks -- if it was sabotage of some kind they must have placed bombs throughout the entire ship. If that's the case and he or she's still alive, I'd hate to be in the boots of whoever is responsible for that ship's security." The young silver-haired engineer winced slightly and turned his gaze away from the looming wreck.

Sa'kira gave a node of agreement with Keri, and watched as the ship disappeared beyond several buildings in the distance, behind it was another She'tan'ora class vessel but this one only had one piece of damage to it and that was on the ships extreme starboard rear section and the damage appeared to be light in comparison, with only small bits of the hull removed.

"While I share your concern about civilians possibly getting the way, I doubt we'll have that issue since this is a military base, now if we'd been at a civilian spaceport then we'd be obligated to run over and help but in this case we can really only assist if requested. Also, I doubt it'll interfere with our launching ceremony," Sa'kira finally said in response to Shar's concern and Erm'ola's question.

"Besides, we still have time before the ceremony," as she said this the display in front of her suddenly dimmed for a moment before the screen changed to show a text message - although originally she had requested to speak to someone about an important matter but this was probably the best she was going to get considering what just happened.

She read the message and let out a sigh at its contents, not what she was hoping for but given what she had just seen she could understand why command had just done this, still it meant that the schedule she had was now destroyed. "Ok, change of plans," she spoke as she tapped the display which caused it to disappear.

"It appears given the situation, that command wants us in the air sooner than we thought. Originally our ceremony wasn't going to be for another two hectras, but since the ship is already prepared and ready for us, they've decided to go ahead and move up the ceremony. We leave in fifteen mitura's for hanger seventeen." She sighed and glanced off to the left with a hand on her hip. So much for the cake I had planned, guess I'll have the bakers deliver it to the Gam'trosha the next time we are in port. A bit late, but still

Thinking for a moment, she turned back to her crew and said. “Finish off your drinks, maybe socialize a bit more, but then we are off. Also, after the ceremony we’ll have our ship and combat trials, you’ll get a set of instructions after launch, but suffice it to say it’ll probably be a few days before we actually leave the system to explore. So, make the most of the next fifteen, because we probably won’t be back to port for awhile.” She then walked over to the bar and got herself a glass of juice before walking back over to the table to wait out the next fifteen, or to see if anyone would ask her anymore questions.

Outside, the distant clouds were illuminated by the fires of the ship that had passed them by just a short while ago, and below on the streets were MP's quickly making their way to the hangers to help prevent people from possibly getting in the way. It was still raining, however, and the rain was starting to come down harder.

Erm'olai sniffed mildly at the Marine's comment. "Not forever, but just long enough with a full set of working organs," the Laibe commented as his tail began to move even more at the entire situation. A rushed ceremony normally ended in disaster --- in his opinion anyway.

He glanced at his tea once more and continued to sip. Rushing through it would just ruin the flavor as well as his palette. "Do we have some transportation available?" the black-furred Laibe asked as he glanced out the window at the ever increasing downpour.

Def'leor found herself more interested in the events occurring outside than the prospect of a ceremony.

"Ma'am, with the talk of sabotage and all. Is rushing the launch really a practical decision. I can see getting aboard quickly, but shouldn't we have the marines sweep the ship for any explosive devices, while the rest of us check for any possible sabotage to the primary systems?" She inquired.