Ship's lounge
Yayoi was silent as she waited in the lounge. She was well aware she hadn't gone in to see the new medic or get a check up, but she knew she'll need to back herself up soon.
Nalini was reading quietly in the lounge. She looked up and smiled at Yayoi.
Yayoi noticed Nalini smiling at her, and she nodded her head in greeting to her. "enjoying what your reading?' she asked finally.
"A comparative analysis of galactic statistical methods. A little light reading, it's interesting to compare how people can arrive at similar mathematical truths in different ways." Nalini responded with a smile. "What are you waiting for?" She asked.
Yayoi nodded her head in understanding. Though it appeared that Yayoi herself had never read that book before. "Not waiting for much, just lounging and people watching,
Nalini nodded, "I also enjoy people watching. Seeing how their lives unfold, what decisions they make, perhaps nudging them in the right direction from time to time. There is such variety even in common decisions. Like how best to make eggs. Some prefer them scrambled, some prefer them sunny-side up, others hard-boiled. A microcosm of thier choices." Nalini said appreciatively.
Yayoi listened politely as Nalini spoke already she could tell Nalini was more of a thinker, which only made her curious about why she was on a starship such as this. "indeed.. i mean i like scrambled eggs myself, with sugar, or salt sprinkled they taste better, at least to me they did. " She said.
Nalini's data glasses jumped as she changed what she was looking at. "Fascinating, so how much sugar do you like on your eggs? Wet or dry?"
Mia came into the lounge with a basket of chocolates and offered some to Yayoi and Nalini. "Can I get you two anything to drink, perhaps a tea or a juice?" she asked. "Also do you want to meet the baby?"
Yayoi thought about it "not too much, at least not enough that the eggs turn white, i do like them a little more dry, probably closer to the dry side between wet and dry." She said before Mia arrives. Yayoi accepted the chocolates being offered, and spoke "apple juice, for me" she said then nodded "i'd love to see them"
Nalini carefully noted down Yayoi's preferences and saved them to a new file. She took the chocolate bar and munched on it. "Nothing for me at the moment."
"Sure thing," Mia smiled, grabbing a glass from her nearby drink station and pulling some apple juice out of a humming beverage fridge. She handed it to Yayoi shortly thereafter. The glass had the ship's emblem laser etched into the side. There was nothing quite like a nice cold glass of apple juice.
Yayoi accepted the drink, before she received Sanda's message. "ahh, looks like i'm being summoned, heh, It was nice to see you, Mia, and Nalini, i enjoyed our brief talk, maybe we could do it again sometime." She said
""Bye!" Nalini said to Yayoi.
"Okay!" Mia said with a wave goodbye.
Medbay
Vec sat back and rubbed his temples. Time for more coffee. He didn't think he'd handled that last patient that well. Sure, she'd had a bit of a chip on her shouder, but that wasn't the whole of it. Vec was pulling up a manual on his datapad about approaching soldiers with PTSD when his next appointment arived.
Cheilith arrived in the medbay, exactly on time for her regularly scheduled check up. "Hey Poppy!" She said with a smile.
"Hi!" Poppy waved at Cheilith. "I feel like I haven't seen you much lately. How are you?" the pink-haired medic asked in a warm tone, giving Cheilith a friendly grin.
"Pretty good, like last shore leave I had to get my truck fixed, which was an adventure. I figure not seeing you much here is probably a good thing." She said with a small laugh.
Vec put aside the datapad face down. If he looked at it too long, he'd have to face his own issues. "No offense, Hei," Vec said putting on a grin, "But you're right. If you see too much of us, that's usually a problem."
"So I'm here for my five hundred thousand kilometer checkup. Hopefully, I do better than my poor truck." Cheilith said with a slight teasing tone.
Retrieving his pad, Vec excited out of the manual without looking at it. "Let's hope. I'm going to start with a battery of standard questions. Then Poppy'll get your vitals and set you up for a a backup. Got any questions for me?"
She shook her head, "Nope, fire away!"
Poppy gave Cheilith an encouraging thumbs-up.
"Hua, Quetion one, do you drink reguarly?" Vec asked pulling up her patient file. He secretly thanked the star's she hadn't sir'ed him. He found it much easier to deal with Cheilith or Hoshi's more casual maners. They reminded him of his old unit where they'd mostly just used callsigns.
"Not really, I mean like if we're going out or something. But that's not very regularly." She shrugged.
"What about smoking? I won't tell the MPs if you don't," Vec said marking down her responce to his last question.
Cheilith laughed, "Who does that? No."
"Good good, I've just gotta check," Vec said with a half smile, "Nobody wants an infantryman who can't breath. No judgement on this next one but I've got to ask. If you're sexually active you're using precautions right? Ya know, regular tests and all that. I know STI's are rare for Nekos, but Murphy's law and all." He realized he was rambling but he was still feeling a bit out of sorts from his encounter with his last patient.
"I'm not sexually active, haven't really met anyone I'm interested enough in for it. I figure I've got enough on my plate without joining the love boat." She responded.
"Fair enough," Vec said making a note, "You're not missing out on much. Ok so last question before I hand you off to Poppy. How have you been sleeping? Do you have odd dreams? Wake up half way through the night?" He probed cautiously.
"Pretty normally, no weird dreams or waking up halfway through the night. Though I did have this one dream where I was a butterfly in a field of swords stuck into the ground, flitting from one to the other." She offered.
I don't know what to do with that, I'm not a street corner mystic, a bemused Vec thought. "Okay, so that's odd but finding symbolism in dreams is outside my MOS. Your record here says you were at Glimmergold, and the Res as seen a deal of action. I just want to know how you're holding up."
Cheilith shrugged, "Providing violence is my job right now. It wouldn't be very fun if I got traumatized by it. I figure in a year or so my contract will be up and I might think about doing something else."
"Any thoughts?" Vec probed.
"A dream's just a dream," Poppy shrugged.
"About what? I'm about as average of a Neko as they make."
"What you want to do after the army," Vec clarified, "Don't be me I've been here for nearly two decades. Then again, I don't really know what I'd do on the outside."
Cheilith shrugged, "I don't really know what I want to do. Seeing Yamatai on the Resurgence has been something that's made me different, unique. Part of me wants to stay on her until our mission is done. Another part wants to just push out into the galaxy and see what is beyond."
A genuine smile crept across Vec's face, "Well, kid, the galaxy's yours once your contracts up. Until then we're her majesty's property." The last part came out sligly more bitter than he intended.
"Do you want out?" She asked Vec.
"Nah, I just-- I'm not sure. A lot of people have friends and family on the outside. A lot of people my age have kids. Thing is, I kinda like the life-- The danger." Realizing he'd been candid to the point of unprofessionalism with an enlisted, he began making notes on his pad as an excuse to stop talking.
Cheilith nodded, "Most of my friends on the outside are part of the salvage trade groups I'm a part of. I think that's a reason a lot of Nekos reenlist, all of their friends are in the millitary. What else are they going to do? It's not like swinging a giant sword translates to much out there. Who do you have that's outside the military?"
"Who is or isn't a veteran themselves?" Vec said letting himself be drawn back into the conversation.
"Let's go with isn't. Someone who's just been a civilian most of their life."
A rueful look crossing his face, Vec said, "Nobody I've talked to in the last decaded." Why is this so embarassing? I'm just your average lifer.
Cheilith nodded, "Perhaps next planet we get to, we should go out and see if we can rustle some up." She offered.
"Meeting people isn't the problem, well sometimes it is," Vec said thinking back to his leave before his current posting. "Keeping in touch is the problem. What do you talk about with people who've never strapped on power armor. How do you explain to them that you like it?"
"I don't, not unless they ask. I find things that we're both interested in. So I love getting in on those random salvage giveaways. It's an adventure to see what you've got and how you move it. We talk about cool bits of salvage and hot tips on where to sell something particularly interesting or awkward. Rarely about what I do in the military. So what do you like outside of sewing people up?"
"I hear there will be one at the time of the Candy Festival this year," Poppy mentioned. "The only problem is I spend so much time away from home in Star Army service that I never get a chance to tinker with what I win," she laughed.
Cheilith nodded, "I only have my truck, so I can't keep much. Part of the adventure is figuring out exactly what you are going to do with a giant shipping container filled with gold figurines, or some other such nonsense."
"I learned how to play guitar," Vec mused, "but that was mostly to pass the time. I do enjoy music, the weirder the better. That and hiking and finding markets. Before I reported here, I'd taken a ton of banked leave and gone backpacking. I guess next time we've got some shore leave, we should find a flee market or something."
"Sounds like a deal Doc." Cheilith said, sliding through the doors to grab her back up with Poppy.
"Hey, Poppy, once she's finished, let's get the shop cleaned up and grab a bite, okay?" Vec said remembering he'd barely had time to get settled on the ship.
"Sure," Poppy nodded, helping Cheilith get under the brain scanner. "Just in case!" she smiled, giving it a gentle pat.
Wardroom
Cassie arrived at Sanda's request to discuss equipment and gear.
Delmira arrived shortly after her appointment with Vec. She would smile at Cassie and give her a wave.
Sanda nodded to Cassie and Del as they entered the Wardroom. She was hoping that Koyama and Mochi would be able to make it too but the XO and cheif science officer were probably busy on the Bridge. Well, they would just have to do the best they could. She did sent a quick messgage to Yayoi. Hermana, you're presence is required.
"Hopefully the others will be able to join us soon. Let's go ahead and get started. Our last mission did not go the way I think any of us would have wanted it." Sanda said.
Yayoi arrived with apple juie in hand, and she took a seat. "got that right" she thought in reply to Sanda's words.
Sanda smiled as Yayoi entered, glad her fellow Ranger was here. She continued. "A lot of that was down to the fact that we had no idea what those things were capable of but some of. But I also think that we could have been better organized."
Yayoi nodded as she quietly sipped her drink. "agreed, and on a personal note, perhaps better weapons or something that could be more effective." She said remembering how itheir weapons hadn't quite been able to destroy the robots at least from what her screens were showing.
Thad was out on his normal walk of the ship. Mainly looking to see what trouble he could get himself into and over heard crew in the wardroom. He poked his head in curious to see what all was going on. "Ohh, was there a meeting call I missed?" Thad said to everyone in the room.
Sanda glanced at Maximus in annoyance. "Not really. I wanted to discuss some things with our Heishos about the last mission."
"Let's talk about using some sort of gravity gun to keep these things from touching us by pushing them away," Cassie immediately suggested.
"I can sit in orbit and provide oirbital fire support, i did put in a request to get some Orchestra grav systems to test on my Ryoko." Delmira said
"Could also go in battle naked. They can't take over what we don't have on." Thad said as he fully walked into the room. "Have we considered an EMP type weapon? Gravity is great to keep them away but thinking we need a way to disable also."
Sanda glaired at Maxious. "Maximus-hei. We are having a serious discussion about our last mission and don't need your childish comments. Why don't you go find your baby-moma and leave the planning to us."
Yayoi glanced at Thad sternly, while she did know of some Neko's that had went into battle naked, without power armor, during the Hanako resistance, she didn't think that would be effective. "As i recall certain weapons won't work without power armor, Thad, so i highly doubt that would be appropriate. I will admit, Cassie's idea is interesting. So is a EMP weapon. Also, I left Mia in the ship's lounge, Thad if you want to go to her."
"The adults are talking Thad." Delmira said looking at Thad. "That being said i need to double check but I think my 200mm railgun has a EMP shell." She said and looked at the others before pulling the information up in her mind.
Sanda shook her head. "We're looking for a machine planet. I doubt using EMPs anywhere near it would have a positive effect. We want the planet intact. A gravity weapon might be useful for keeping creatures like what we fought before at bay, but we need to come up with something to finish them off once they're stuck."
Yayoi nodded in agreement with Sanda. A machine planet was huge, they'd need something larger to be effective, and she wasn't sure they had anything like that.
"I don't know Sanda I would guess that not all parts of the planet would be effected the same, but I cant say anything since I just aim at what I'm told to and pull the trigger, I leave sciences like that up to people like Mochi." She looked around at the assembled group. "What if we use non-powered body armor and standard hand helds, at least until we can get some sort of a countermeasure to the hijacking?"
"That sounds like a way to get chopped up," Cassie frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't know about that."
Sanda nodded her agreement to the points both Del and Cassie had. "Unfortunately, it might come down to us not using PA. That might be our only option. But I hope we can figure some kind of defense against them for our PA."
Frank winced at the comments that boiled down to 'shut up Thad' before piping up. "Hey go easy on Thad guys no reason to treat him like a red headed step neko."
"If it comes down to that I will sit in orbit and provide fire support with my rail guns and beam cannon. I actualy have an idea I want to try out but it may not work without power armor systems. What I want to do is sync the team to the Res and get elementary data so I can see where you are in real time on the ground and adjust." Delmira said looking proud of hersef.
Yayoi glanced to Sanda and Cassie, as they responded on the topicof not using armor. She wasn't sure she liked the idea, especially since some weapons especially Gravity based weapons needed Power armor. She glanced to Frank "redheaded step neko?" she asked in confusion. Her head turned to Delmira as she spoke of her idea.
Thad wasn't about to leave when talk of new possible weapons was taking place. "What about a weapon that can cause them to rust? They are machines after all so maybe they can be slowed and or stopped by having parts bind up.
"We could use emp or stun weapons to overload and kill the robots easier." Frank suggested
before looking at Thad "Thats Species-ist, Thad not all robots are the same."
Sanda closed her eyes a moment and sighed in frustration. This was the reason she had only sent a message to the Heishos and the two officers she trusted. There were way to many people here giving their opinions and not thinking. Sanda addressed Maximus "Do you not remember the creatures we fought before, where Frank died? Did those creatures look like they could rust?"
"Frank a EMP was suggested but vetoed, to many unknowns." Delmira said simply.
Frank nodded at Del's explanation. "Yes Sanda I remember and honestly they remind me a lot of nanoswarm tech from my time in Psychopomp and where they don't rust the usual counter to them was extremely high or low temperatures, explosives or shocking weapons."
Yayoi leaned back as she sipped her juice as conversation happened around her.
"Oh I know...what if we made a big shredder type weapon. Like what they have at a junk yard to destroy old cars," he said with a big smile on his face. "Sanda does make a point, they don't seem to rust not that we have done deep testing."
Delmira sighed. "Thad seriously stop, we are not making anything new we have to use what we have on this ship. Be serious for like 20 minutes please."
"I am being serious, take me like an hour to put together a bot munching machine. Just need a few gears, aether reactor and tape. This isn't astroscience after all."
Frank sighed at the two of them bickering. "Del don't stoop to his level, Thad why don't you go make one of your devices while we talk about a plan."
Yayoi sighed, and placed her drink in her left hand then slammed her hand down hard on the table. "Enough! both of you!" The slamming, allowed a loud but dull sound as it happened. "Now, did we get images of the creatures we fought?' she asked Cassie.
Delmira opened her mouth but closed it quickly when Yayoi slammed her hand on the table.
Sanda hid a smile at Yayoi's outburst. About time you started acting like a Heisho, Hermana. Sanda thought to herself.
"Fine, I wont pick a fight with Del. But my point stands that the more advanced the tech is the more dangerous this will be to have around them. Low tech on the other hand would remove said risk." Thad started to draw on his notepad concept of the idea he was thinking.
"All i know is that I'm going to be in orbit providing fire support for you all." Delmira said and looked at the others. "I wish we had another Ryoko on the ship or at least the grav systems I requested to make this a lot easier."
Frank shut his mouth after the loud outburst before looking back at Thad. "Look if worst comes to worse we have backups and I'm sure we can use the ship guns but hopefully wait next time you fire those so that Del doesn't look like a cooked peice of meat after you fire the guns." Standing up straight he then added. "On another note Thad, Star army is currently the best technoligy in the galaxy compared to the dirtball other Neps come from so I have a problem understanding your comment of low tech, the only one with Theoretically better tech would be Psychopomp and its branches in terms of Robotics and gene minipulation."
Sanda just shook her head at Maximus. What the hell was he talking about 'low tech'? This was the bloody Star Army. They had the highest grade tech in the galaxy. What ever contraption he wanted to design would be far a tech far below whatever they already had. At Frank's comment about backups Sanda scowled and muttered under her breath. "Las copias de seguridad pueden estar bien para algunas personas. Pero no para mí."
"End of the day maybe we can just send wave after wave of robots for them to munch on. At some point they would run out of memory if the kill count gets high enough. Nothing like a good old stack overload to blue screen a deadly robot." He completed his drawing and slid it across the table. The drawing was professionally done and looked like a modified aether blade which had been replaced with a chainsaw type blade.
Yayoi listened once more allowing her annoyance to subside. She glanced through everyone in the meeting with her yellow, and red eyes. They caught the sight of the artwork that Thad had drawn. Her eyebrows raised as she saw the weapon, then leaned back again to allow others to take a look if they wanted. Frank's comment reminded her she needed to get backed up which also reminded her of the check up, and subtly grimaced. She remembered the last time, she had a check up before being retrieved by Sanda and the Resurgence.
"So out of curiosity do we all need to go get a check up?" Frank asked folding his arms across his chest.
Delmira looked over at Sanda and gave a shrug.
Sanda didn't even glance at Maximus' drawling. "Maximus-hei." She said very slowly and clearly, as if she was speaking to a child. "We don't have an army of robots on the Resurgence. We have us. That's it. So please. Keep your unrealistic comments to yourself or leave."
"I have 200mm electron shells I can use on this mission." Delmira said and looked from Sanda to Thad and then Frank. "My 200mm railgun can carry 25 rounds however. The beam cannon is effectivly unlimited but it has a slow charge rate."
"Hey Del, After the mission you up for a double date Cassie and me with You and Kinie" Frank asked
"Not the time or place Frank, we can talk later." Delmira said
"Sterling-Hei. This is not the time or place for this kind of discussion!" Sanda snapped at Frank. It was bad enough having to try to keep Maximus in line. She didn't need Frank adding too it.
"Sorry Sanda, But I'm probably just gonna die again anyway fighting the robots but you seem to have the discussion under control I'm going to go Drawn something before" Frank caught himself and took a breath. "I'm going to step away Excuse me." He stated before walking away.
"Well then maybe you should pay attention so that you don't get killed." Sanda began but typical Frank, got up and walked away before she could finish speaking.
Delmira sighed and put her head in her hands and leaned back.
Walking away Frank flipped Sanda the bird, "I would say pay attention as well so you dont suffer a sniper to the back by Del again."
"Frank now that's going to far I don't care about verbal words but you don't need to give the bird. But both of you need to leave and cool off." Delmira said looking at both Frank and Sanda. "Thad you my as well leave as well and come up with an idea using what we have on our ship." She fixed Thad with a look. "I know you mean well but we have limited resources to work with."
Bridge
Standing at the mission operations station, Tachiko pored over maps from the last time the crew was at one of these machine planets, reviewing action logs and watching simulations of the participants. She'd tried to make small talk with the captain, but thought it best to look busy until he'd replied. She also just wanted something to hide in after bringing up Frank.
Captain Aoba went over to stand by Tachiko, glancing at her work for a moment. "I think the First Expeditionary Fleet was doing the work of the First Fleet for a long time so it's not that dissimilar. The First Expeditionary Fleet was Yui's favorite for many years so we got a lot of interesting missions. I approve of being in the First Fleet because it is the most active fleet of the Star Army, in terms of mission count and mission profiles, and it gets the most work done. I feel this high-demand environment is where I am best suited."
Tachiko smiled wryly. "Moth-er- the Taishō, I mean, tended to forget I was an infantry medic who survived Taiie. She really liked to keep me safely below decks in the First Expeditionary. I feel like I was always missing everything. I really want to get some things done here, Captain."
"I do too," Aoba said. "Right now I think our list of machine planets is short, and there are three ways to expand it. First we can look for it ourselves. Second, we can find out about through intelligence such as SAINT reports and other ships' logs. Third, we can ask people likely to know. And I think that means the Kuvexian remnants, who might be willing to share something if they think it will help them or protect them from Yamatai's anger."
"I will start cross-referencing now. I'll bring up anything from the mission logs I can find about this sort of planet." Tachiko nodded after she spoke, pressing virtual buttons on the display with purpose. "My, ah, friend who is the CSO of the YSS Kōun recently made contact with a remnant faction. The one that was at the IRC."
"Was that at Sood Zadra?" Aoba asked. "I think we should head there and trying asking around."
Tachiko nodded once more. "Yeah, that's the place."
- - -
OOC: JP by Wes, Ajax, Charaa, Cowboy, Soresu, Soban, Spaceeye, Shadowwalker, and Ethereal, Yuuki, Zanven, Locke
