HALNA SYSTEM
The YSS Resurgence and a Star Army Nibasha-class freighter, YSS Oceanus, slowed as they approached The Black Moon, a shadowy planetoid in orbit of a planet called Graveyard, which was described as "Infernal, Suffocating, Lethally Toxic, and Corrosive." The Black Moon was a former mining colony that had become a popular port of call for some of the Kikyo Sector's most notable criminal organizations, because it was a safe haven in Yamataian space that Yamatai defended, yet didn't care enough about to take control of. As such, the Star Army ships were unsual guests that were not normally welcome.
Resurgence and its allied cargo ship slowly descended to into an old mining shaft not much larger than the ship's length, and shortly afterward they were both resting on decrepit-looking landing pads in "Shaft Beta" with the Resurgence being near the surface and the Oceanus on the level below, where it began to open its large cbay doors for unloading cargo containers. The Resurgence was connected to a flexible docking arm that provided a safe passage to one of the Black Moon's many decrepit terminals.
Koyama rubbed at her forehead, feeling as if she had just unleashed a bunch of children armed to the teeth into the jaws of a pirate moon. Granted by the quirk of Nekovalkyrja aging and lifespans, she was quite possibly physically the youngest out of them. Albeit she felt like the oldest. Not many of her kind could boast of having lived for so long without being revived at least once.
She managed to find the Elysian scientist, sighing with her arms crossed, "Decided to stay behind?" asking him and wondering if it had been ideal to leave Thad to his own devices with a recently brought back Mia.
Mochi nodded from where he was relaxing against one wall of the room. "I could go down with them, but if we've been told not to look too threatening, maybe less bodies is better." The scientist explained, "I'll be available to drop and support if they need it, but until then a science drone should do fine."
Koyama looked over her shoulder toward the route she had come from, "That would make two of us then if they need their fat saved from the fire." murmuring and shook her head, "I do worry about the more... volatile members. But I hope the Taii keeps them in line, I reviewed everything from Valaad." the XO mentioned, motioning for him to follow as she began walking again toward the bridge.
"Hoshi-hei has potential, but her temper is short, Sterling-hei should have known better to say such a thing to you as well." with a sigh, her eyes glanced to the datapad she had, had tucked under her arm. "Granted for once I am glad to not be going on an away mission."
The Elysian scratched his chin, pushing off, ready to follow Koyama to the Bridge if she wished to depart. "I like going on the away missions, but it'll be a nice change to stay in reserves." Mochi glanced back to the other team, then to Koyama once more. "If a Giretsu officer can't keep them in line, I think we have problems." He chuckled quietly, making sure the others couldn't hear.
Koyama tapped at the pad as she walked, not bothering to look up, "I do as well sometimes. But I am 'built' more for the stars than planetside, or stations. The last few away missions I have been on have been decidedly less... life threatening than what I am used to." the schematics for science drones had appeared on the pad's touch screen of their own volition.
"My first nearly ended in disaster, quite literally. Since then I have been on edge every time I go on one." she admitted with a little laugh, "So I much prefer the impersonal view of a world from a ship than on the ground."
Mochi trailed behind the XO, a little bit of a lazy swagger in his step, rightly earned from being in his role and aboard this type of ship for so long. "These missions have been little compared to the Kuvexian war. Hell, I think I have.. three war ribbons at this point? The NMX are something else."
Power Armor Bay
"It sound like we're here," Cassie smiled. "So I guess other than the recon role I guess maybe we should have discussed whether or not we're supposed to make sure the loot is divided up evenly among the factions here?" she wondered aloud, "Or is Star Army Logistics doing that? Anyway, I'm eager to get out there and look around. Nobody's going to mess with us but we're going to get a lot of side-eye in these power armors," she predicted.
Akira looked towards Cassie and then to the rest of the group. "You won't have to worry too much about the side-eye there Cassie-hei, your task is to take your team and patrol around the terminal. If you want to interact with the locals, go ahead. Maybe some of them might be talkitive about their views on the Empire."
She then looked over at Hoshi and Yayoi. "Your jobs are to get a feel of the local criminal organizations and gather what intelligence you can get. Even better if he can figure who is the most likely organization to swipe the supplies we are giving out, where, and how they are going to exploit the non-criminals located here. Think SAINT, but better."
"It's not exactly the Kyoto Tower Hotel here. Pretty sure this place has a non-zero chance of stepping in human feces," Cassie hummed, putting on her Mindy helmet. She nodded to Akira and headed up to the main docking hatch on Deck 3. "Haha. Does she think we're cops or something?" Cassie laughed after she was at the hatch to the Black Moon.
Sanda smiled and punched Yayoi on the shoulder. "That sounds right up our alley." Now this is the stuff Sanda joined the army for. Having received her Type 41 Rifle from Norita, she set it on its strap so that it could dangle hands free if she needed it to.
Yayoi simply nodded her head at Akira's orders and looked over at Sanda as her shoulder was punched and allowed herself to smirk a little. "yes it does" She agreed with her fellow Ranger. It also felt like she was back on Hanako's world, she knew she could do this, it felt easy to her.
Akira donned her helmet and slung her rifle so it was hanging from her right shoulders. "Yayoi, Cassie; check in with me every 30 minutes and enjoy yourselves." Akira said as she went over to watch the supplies be unloaded and sorted in the concourse. She could watch to see if they try to steal them right in the open or just watch the local's reactions to the presence of the Star Army. But to get there, she would need to go out like everyone else.
Yayoi nodded "Hai, Understood ma'am" she said as she attempted to control her emotions. She liked Akira, and couldn't wait to see how she operated even more.
Sanda drew her camo cloak over her head so that it covered her helmet. "Let's go Blade." Sanda said to Yayoi.
Cassie led the way though the docking arm and out into the concourse area, which was a large, open warehouse-like compartment carved into the dock. Dozens of rusted support columns filled the room and the floor was covered in a rubbery interlocking mats. There was scattered trash along some of the walls and a small seating area with about old 50 seats in a dated YE 20s style. The concourse actually had a decent number of people present to gawk at the Star Army personnel, and immediately a dude came up to Cassie and started telling him a sad story and how he just needed a little cash for starship fuel.
Delmira followed behind Cassie, the short neko not so short in her power armor looked around the room they where in now. Delmira walked up behind Cassie as the stranger approached and gave his sob story. Normally the neko would be empathetic but after recent events she didn't care so she stood as tall and imposeing as she could.
"Look, I don't carry cash on me in power armor, man," Cassie tried to explain, which only caused the guy to start going on about the ease of electronic fund transfers, and how his kids were depending on him.
Akira looked at the man. "How long has you been here?"
"Oh hey," the beggar smiled at Akira. "My name's Benthony Jethpersson, I been here about a year just trying to make ends meet, you know what I mean? The Yamataian government messed up my citizen packet so I can't get no citizenship or benefits, so I've been stuck out here waiting for them to get back to me and it's been so long I done run out of savings. Shit's hard, you know?"
"Mr. Jethpersson you say you have been here a year and that your citizen packet got messed up, correct? Why would you need money for starship fuel?" Delmira asked the man.
Akira nods her head towards Delmira. "That is indeed a good question there." Akira took the moment to try to connect with the Fuji's MEGAMI and request a query with Yamatai Immigration Databases to see if Mr. Jethpersson was at least being honest with that part of his scam story.
"Look I done told you I ran out of savings," Benthony explained, "If I had some fuel for my ship I can go gas mining and make some money. If you don't help me I'm gonna have to take a loan from the Black Syndicate and they're gonna want favors that are gonna get me in trouble."
Delmira looked at Akira then walked up to the man and spoke to him as quiet as she could. "I might be convinced to buy some intel off you, we are newcomers and information on the big players here would be worth something." The short neko tried to position herself so what she was saying was directed away from the others.
"Yeah, okay, but I ain't a snitch either," Benthony told Delmira. "You want to go someplace like a restaurant?"
"You got a datapad?" Delmira asked and then looked at the rest of the squad.
Akira linked digitally with Delmira securely. "Learned something from him?"
Yayoi drew her own camo cloak, and nodded her head at Sanda. She was ready to go, as she felt herself focusing on the task at hand.
Almost as soon as she left the ship, Sanda melted into the shadows. She avoided the crowds and took a moment to make sure she had not been noticed before moving on. Sticking to shadows she was able to move down support columns to where the YSS Oceanus was being unloaded.
Yayoi was silent as she stepped off and immediately melted into shadows, nothing betrayed her. No sounds of footsteps, nothing sparkled. She went a different route to the YSS Oceanus and found herself hiding in a structure that provided a good view of things from where she was. Silence and shadows hid the butcher of Hanako as she waited for her prey to approach. These weren't Kuvexians or the bugs, so she thought it should be easier.
Sanda smiled as she tried to locate Yayoi in the shadows. She could make a guess as to where might be a good place to hide, but she couldn't see the Neko Ranger anywhere. The girl was just as good as she was. It was reasuring, knowing that Yayoi was out there even if she couldn't see her.
Sanda used her cyborg eye to zoom in on the cargo being unloaded. Things seemed to be going without any problems, although there were a group of onlookers who were huddled together and pointing to at the various containers that looked suspicious.
The Oceanus was on a level below the Resurgence. The concourse there was significantly more packed with people. The On'nin Ikemen, Black Syndicate, and the Nepleslian Reds had all sent teams to collect their share of the supplies, and were looking in the containers, which appeared to contain large amounts of food, starship electronics, medical supplies, body armor and power armors, manufacturing equipment, combat robots, torpedoes, missiles, heavy ship weapons, batteries, and ammunition crates. It essentially looked like each of the groups got similar packages of security assistance, enough to supply a military unit for a month of warfare. There were also plainclothes SAINT advisors on site providing intelligence on Kuvexian remnant activities and giving brief trainings on using some of the weaponry.
Sanda whistled as she saw what was in some of the cargo containers. "Maldita sea. ¿Que estamos haciendo? ¡Financiando un ejército!" She said quietly. That was an awful lot of heavy firepower. No wonder Akira wanted them to keep an eye on this stuff.
Yayoi watched and observed the crowd of people, and to focus on the crates she took note of the cargo, but she made no sound, a habit of her Hanako Resistance dance. Her red and yellow eyes shifted towards the people, taking out any detail that dignifies whom or rather which gang those down below were a part of. Almost immediately she took note of the numbers. I wish we had most of those in the Resistance She thought silently as she did as she was ordered to.
Sanda touched her ear piece and messaged Yayoi. "Thunder to Blade. You got eyes on? There's quite a few groups down there. We might have to split up if any of them go for one of the containers."
Akira radio'd in with Yayoi. "Anything to report?"
Hallway of Destiny
Thad had finally ran into Mia. He had been told, warned even that she was looking for him. Him hope was that she was looking for a hug and not a place to insert the knife.
"Hold me, Thad," Mia cooed. "I'm back. I just, I just got stressed the fuck out. I need some stability here," she told him. "I just want to be held."
Thad reached up and rubbed the back of his head for a moment. "Sure, hugs I can offer. Just next when you need to let off some stress, please try fighting in the VR room. Tends to be a lot better for your health." He stepped forward and put his arm around her. Though he kept his hand on his hip still, near his weapon.
"The fuck?" Mia said as Thad gave her this half-assed hug with one arm. She looked at him with suspicion. "Are you for real?"
"Cut me a break here, just a moment ago you was in a goo tank. Was unsure if you'd make it back and now here you are right as rain." He decided to give her a full hug, be damned what happen. "Glad your back, ship was getting lonely with you gone."
Mia seemed to calm down some. "I heard they instantly replaced me with another caretaker," Mia told Thad. "Though I guess we needed a night shift one."
"Aye, seems like they had one lined up ahead of time. Most likely since your expecting and be going on leave." He leaned in closer to Mia. "You'll always be my caretaker, won't you?"
- - - -
OOC: JP by Wes, Demibear, Ajax, Charaa,Soresu, Cowboy, Miko, Ethereal, ShadowWalker