On Saturday, the 13th of Gogatsu, Resurgence left Sood Zadra minutes after midnight Yamatai time, and that morning the crew woke up to a day of traveling as Resurgence moved through hyperspace at her best speed, starting an unusually long journey towards Kuvexian space based on the intel the empire had purchased from Soon Bardoon. The day started with typical exercise, breakfast, and cleaning, which different parts of the crew did in various orders, and Aoba had, through first officer Koyama, asked the crew to do some debriefings on the happenings of the previous day while they had time. The trip also gave everyone a chance to kind of slow down and get to know the newest crew members better during the downtime.
YSS RESURGENCE MEDBAY
As she walked towards the medical lab, Thia clicked her jaw to open a communication line to the CMO. "Vec, you in the medbay? XO said we should debrief."
"Go for Vec," the Doctor said as he finished closing things down in the medical lab, "Yeah, I heard, I'll be down there ASAP." Debriefings could be a pain, but they were necessary. So were briefings, but they'd already crossed that hill.
Seeing Vec walk from the medical lab, Thia offered him a warm smile and tilted her head in the direction of the wardroom. "Going my way?"
"Smells like breakfast that way, so I guess," he said falling in step beside the counselor. "So, how're you settling in?"
"I was more at home at first when everything was happening all at once," Thia confessed. "The lulls get me itching for something to happen. I guess that doesn't answer your question. I'm settling in okay, but looking forward to the next adventure."
"Enjoy the down time, check your ammo, and... I don't know, this metaphor got away from me," Vec said before stepping into the zero-g passage and letting himself drift down a level.
Thia followed along, seemingly half asleep. She shook her head when they reached the next level. "Have you scheduled some time with me yet?" Thia asked, knowing the answer was easy to look up in her cybernetic memory but asking anyway. "You seemed stressed when I first saw you."
Savoring the brief moments of zero g, Vec let his feet touch Deck 4. "Just steal some of my down time," he said with a shrug. "I'm not dodging it, just after the other day I needed to catch up on sleep." And steel myself to get chewed out most likely, he added internally.
"Hmm," Thia hummed before pointing. "Looks like we found the Wardroom."
"Yeah, it's a sneaky bastard," Vec added, "Last time I went looking it was on the bridge." He headed inside ready to grab some chow and a seat.
WARDROOM - DECK 5
Mia hung out with her baby Aiden, feeding him a bottle while Julia, the other caretaker, went around pouring hot coffee to any takers. The rich, salty aroma of fresh bacon mixed with waffle-scented steam and enveloped the room. In one corner Pidole and nearly the entire engineering staff were seated shoulder to shoulder in their red-paneled uniforms.There were definitely more techs than there used to be.
Yayoi was silent contemplative as she listened to the debriefing in-front of her. It had been surprising, returning to the ship to find new crew members, also surprising to hear that there was some drama in the Medlab as well. She glanced to Sanda, a moment, as she recalled she'd been in a bad mood the night before. She'd accepted water from Julia, and munched on waffles as her eyes shifted to the others.
Sanda had been in an awful mood when when she had returned to the ship the night before. Even though they had achieved their mission of finding a lead to a machine world, Sanda felt the mission had been a compleate tirada de dados. Upon returning to the ship she had gone straight to her room and did something she rarely did. Get very drunk. This morning she felt a little better for the comatos sleep she had had, although she still wasn't very happy with some of her crewmates.
Cheilith got a plate of waffles from Nalini, with plenty of honey and butter. She headed over to a table to have her breakfast. She smiled at Yayoi, "Morning!" She said brightly.
Delmira yawned as she entered the wardroom. The previous day had been full of surprises, Frank was her room mate which was surprising and best of all her friend Thia was on the ship now. There was lots of purring and hugs when Del spotted her friend. She made a b line to the coffee and poured herself a cup before heading over to stand in line for food giving a bank sack jawed zombie like stare as she did.
Yayoi nodded to Cheilith with an almost smile at her.
"So, how are you doing?" She asked Yayoi as she sat down and began mixing the honey and butter together.
Cassie pounced into the wardroom with a big grin, still in her exercise uniform from a workout. She spotted the other infantry crew and gave them all a big warm hug, one after the other, starting with Yayoi, then Sanda, and Cheilith, and then Delmira. "Good morning!" she greeted them. "Nothing like getting to relax after a long night of guard duty."
Yayoi glanced over to Cheilith"fine, you?' she asked as she noticed Cassie's arrival, and a bulge in her exercise uniform, but her focus was on Cassie giving her a hug. "agreed: She said in agreement of Cassie's words, she hadn't resisted the hug.
Cheilith returned Cassie's hug, "It's easier when I know there is a nest at the end of it, rather than sleeping on rocks."
Sanda allowed herself to be hugged by Cassie, but didn't return it. She was not a physical contact kind of girl. Nursing a cup of coffee she took a page out of Yayoi's playbook and just sat silently watching the others. She particularly eyed Chiasa, who was supposedly her and Yayoi's new roommate. A fact she was not very happy about. She liked having a Rangers Only room and wasn't happy about having some non-com join in.
Delmira let out a zombie like groan and gave Cassie a one armed hug. She will grab her plate laden with food and go sit down to eat it.
Thad finally made it to the wardroom. It took him longer than expected having spent all night with Mia. After being away for awhile, it was safe to say she missed him as much as he missed her. Though he did have to explain why there was smell of another woman on his clothes. Curse these super solders with super smell.
"Greetings, sorry for the delay. I had to put my body back together." He said grinning ear to ear. He then walked over and gave Mia a pat on the head.
"Hi Thad," Mia replied with a little wave to Thad, looking in a good mood and very enamored with her little baby, who was quietly looking around at everyone with interest. "You know, I was thinking this trip might be a great time for some caretaker-led crew bonding exercises, for morale," she said, bouncing this idea off him before she decided to give it to the captain.
Frank would walk into the wardroom rubbing his eyes. "Morning everyone." he stated not knowing what time it really was.
Yayoi thought about Chiasa and indeed the topic came to their cabin as well, but unlike Sanda she hadn't been bothered by her presence. Medics were important after all just as much as Rangers.
Tachiko came later to breakfast, as she'd spent at least an hour or two since waking in exercises and martial arts training. Then, after hygiene, that extra-quadruple check over everything on her uniform in the mirror. She sniffed the air and made a face. The 1XF had traditional Yamataian breakfast more often. Still, bacon was bacon, and cats were cats.
Tachiko received her tray then waved at Mia with a smile. "Barber-hei, I would like some coffee, please!"
Thad let out a small laugh. "We do anymore of the bonding and will end up with more troubles running around Mia." He took his hip and bumped into her playfully. He then looked over and gave a wave to Frank. "Hey buddy, been up to no good like always?"
Medical Table
It had certainly been a strange way for Chiasa to get introduced to her new roommates, a pair of hardened Rangers who seemed to view her with a mix of ambivalence and distrust. Not to to mention, seeing Sanda immediately get drunk during Chiasa's first night on the Resurgence was awkward, especially when she had been studying for class at the time. Regardless, the tiny Nekovalkyrja could at the very least tolerate their presence. When it came to room assignments, that was enough.
Entering the wardroom, Chiasa grabbed a plate of waffles, in addition to some syrup and bacon, before taking a seat at the informal 'medical table', anticipating that Poppy, Thia, and Vec would arrive soon!
Thia entered the wardroom and looked around at the crowd. She gave Delmira, Pidole, and Cassie each warm smiles and waves before walking over and sitting next to Chiasa. "How are you, honey?"
Chiasa's face lit up with a smile upon seeing the Counselor. It had been a long night of studying for her, preparing for her next series of exams. Fortunately, the nature of the accelerated program meant that it wouldn't be long before she finished and was certified as a Pharmacy Specialist, one of the Star Army's first to be formally designated as such.
"Thia!" The tiny Nekovalkyrja piped up. "Sorry I missed the meeting last night, class had me." She replied. "But otherwise, I'm doing fine. Just keeping up with class and all." She finished.
Vec split off from the counselor to snag coffee. Noticing Ohara holding a table, he grabbed cups for her and Thia. Grabbing a fourth in case Pink decided to join them, he made his way back, gripping a pair of mugs by the handle in each hand.
Thia turned as Vec approached with the coffee and smiled, taking two of the mugs from his hands and passing one to Chiasa. "Thanks, sugar," she winked at Vec before turning back to Chiasa. "Class had you? It's important to keep up with your studies, of course. But it's a shame," Thia sipped her coffee. "I could've had you instead."
It was almost as if Chiasa's body knew that Thia was going to tease her! And yet still the blush came rushing onto her cheeks, unbidden and unwanted, before the Counselor had even said the words that triggered it!
Vec simply shrugged, unsure if he'd get used to the Counselor's casual pet names pr her casual flirtation.
"Thanks for the coffee, sir." Chiasa said as she took the offered mug, a bashful smile coming over her features in the process.
"On a different note, I don't think my roomates like me all that much." She added, attempting to break up the awkwardness.
"What makes you say that, honey?" Thia frowned, clearly deeply concerned.
"Why's that?" Vec asked looking up from the black depths of his coffee.
"Well, Hoshi-Hei got drunk during my first night, but I just kind of ignored her while I was studying in VCE. But the other one seems fine. I don't think they wanted someone who wasn't a Ranger in their room." She added with a frown.
"Hmm," Vec tried to catch Thia's eye. Drinking after a shitty mission was pretty common, but not healthy. "Yeah, I can imagine, I don't know Hoshi that well, but I do know rangers, they can be a bit type-A."
"I thought I could get with Type A people, but I just feel out of place in there." Chiasa added, before shifting her attention up to the front of the room, where Sanda had addressed the group
Speak of the devil, Chiasa transmitted to Thia, before taking a deep breath as she listened to the Ranger's address.
Poppy limped into the wardroom holding an ice pack on her cheek. "Good morning," she greeted everyone, getting in the buffet line.
"You look as bad as i feel." Delmira said to Poppy looking at her friend as she came in. "What happened?"
"It's nothing," Poppy laughed. "I tried some sparring with Sakuko this morning for PT and I guess I overestimated myself. She hits like a truck and bent me into a pretzel, and not in the fun way. On the third round she managed to knock me out cold," the medic explained.
Thad spoke up. "Poppy is for sure a great medic but dodging must be a little out of reach." He said with a chuckle.
Delmira chuckled. "I would bet, hey when you have time we should scehdule a meeting with Thia since shes going to take over therapy sessions and should probally fill her in on what we have been talking about."
"Right," Poppy nodded to Delmira.
"You don't move your head enough, Pink-hei. And when you do, it's too rhythmic." Tachiko smiled at her. "You're doing much, much better every day, though. Ganbatte-yo!"
"She would make a good infantry soldier," Poppy shrugged. "It might be all that crate moving she does. And I'm pretty sure she's some kind of black belt."
Yayoi blinked as she listened to Poppy explain her injuries, and she began to think that she herself would want to spar with Sakuko too.
"Also we should spar sometime, Tachiko." Delmira said turning to face the other woman.
Tachiko practically beamed at the idea she was wanted. "Hai, I am always practicing and training. If you ever need anything I am always there."
"Count me in if your needing a sparing buddy." Thad said in reply. "I am always up for a good workout and who knows, you might even beat me." Thad then dropped into a power pose and flexed his chest.
Frank looked to Thad, "I mean if you wanna spar big guy im up for it."
Sanda listened to the various conversations going on. She had been waiting for someone to begin the debrief. Koyama or Aoba himself after all that had happened the day before. She didn't see any of the senior officers present and it didn't look like the Heishos were going to start anything. She finished her coffee and stood up.
In a loud enough voice to be heard over the various conversations, Sanda said, "Excuse me. Since we are all here together it would be a good time to discuss what went on yesterday. We should discuss what went wrong so that we can be better prepared in the future."
Kalena arrived, as the representative from the officers, just in time, and gave Sanda an approving nod, happy to see the display of leadership. She grabbed a plate and listened as she picked up some fresh fruit and one of the waffles.
Yayoi looked over, she'd about to say the same thing but Sanda was quicker it seemed.
Thad paused his pose and looked around for a moment. "Oh yes, that is right. I have a new crew to meet with. I believe they is someone who will help take my demons away." He then looked to Mia and the little one. "Though good luck getting it away from mama Mia." He laughed, amused at his crappy dad joke.
Yayoi opened her mouth to make a comment but she didnt think it was polite to do so.
Frank looked to Sanda "I mean that is a simple answer you werent leading it. That's why it went wrong."
Sanda gave Frank a hard look. She was only a Joto Hei, she had no authority on this ship. She ignored the comment though and listend to see if anyone had any real solutions.
"Let's start with a review of what we wanted to happen, what actually happened, and then we can get some sustains and some improves," Kalena-Chui suggested, grabbing an open seat next to Euikoshi and Kinie.
Yayoi glanced at Frank, though it was true that Sanda was more leadership than she was.
Delmira brought a hand up to Franks mouth. "shhhhhhhhh."
Sanda nodded to the Chui, grateful that the officer had come and spoken up. "With your permission Ma'am. I can give a summery."
"I met a really nice hybrid girl and this awesome engineer lady. I was being too much of a fan boy to get many details but I did get her number num..." Thad stopped and slowly turned to Mia who he had not shared this news with. Oh my, it was about to get real.
"Sorry hun." Frank stated to Del.
Mia gave Thad this kind of narrow-eyed angry face that looked like she'd just found him taking a dump in public. Did Poppy still leave her gun laying around?
Delmira sighed and sipped her coffee. "I think we all should let Sanda start."
Yayoi nodded to Sanda, as she was fine with her giving the report but then Thad had to open his mouth. She turned her head to watch and prepared herself to move if things got bad.
Vec, sighed bracing for impact. Too many working at cross purposes in too small of a space for his liking.
Thia looked around at the chaos, and suddenly felt much more comfortable. Thia stood and looked around at whomever was speaking, her cybernetic eye pulsing with light as she compared faces of those she'd never met with a list of names and faces she recalled. Clicking her jaw, she sent a short message to Thad over SYNC asking him to make an appointment at his soonest convenience.
Thad quickly tossed his hands into the air. "Was strictly business, nothing happen. Promise, I have witnesses."
"I would like to hear it from rest of the away team," Kalena told Sanda. She raised her voice and asked the crew, "Who can tell me what the objective was yesterday?"
As the ranking officer during the away mission, Vec raised his hand. "Find intel on the machine world," he said without adding that he thought there should have been a more indepth briefing before hand.
"Right, and was this supposed to be a combat operation or peaceful?" Kalena followed up.
Thad had to speak up after that question. "Knowing this team, stealth is always optional."
"Respectfully, wishes and reality don't always line up," Vec said holding his ground. There wasn't any point pointing fingers, but he wasn't going to shift blame for his screw ups.
Chiasa remained silent, but raised a single white eyebrow at the blue-haired Chui's question, which seemed targeted towards Vec! Having reviewed the mission logs during the previous night, she had an idea of what had occurred in Sood Zadra and was aware of the fact that Vec had shot and killed the ID-SOL before the body found its way to the medical bay. Regardless, the CMO seemed to hold his stance and didn't let the pressure break his poise, which drew out a relieved sigh from the tiny Nekovalkyrja's lips.
Yayoi opened her mouth and suddenly spoke "peaceful, just go in and get intel, unfortunately a situation happened that changed it temporaily. " She said meaning the situation with Vec and Cheilith being followed, and she had to go in to save them, only for Vec to kill someone.
Tachiko, the hapless Mission Operator, could only look at her fellow Chūi with a pained expression hidden unsuccessfully with a forced, polite smile.
"El sigilo nunca es opcional". Sanda muttered under her breath.
"Friedlich wie ein Stier im Porzellanladen" Frank stated with a hushed wisper. "It was supposed to be peace,,,," Frank trailed off looking at Thad. "Dude tact isnt your strong suit is it?" Frank would give Del his cup off coffee and instead opted to shock his systems to wake him up.
"Fuck." Delmira said when Thad opened his big dumb mouth. She was to tired to deal with him and so busied herself with eating her breakfast.
Thia's eyes fell to Del, for whom she needed no list of faces and names to remember from that night in the Honeymoon Suite in Ternifac. She had never seen anyone eat breakfast so angrily before, which made her frown and send another invitation to make an appointment, this time to Del.
"Ooh!" Kinie said, making eye contact with Thia. I remember her.
Thia suddenly noticed Kinie from across the room and gave her a warm smile and a wave. She sent Kinie a direct message: "How are you, black bean?"
Vec let his jaw relax. A debriefing was one thing, a damn navigator with the same number of stripes on her sleeves as him pointing fingers was another.
"You dont remember me being excited when we got back to the ship?" Delmira asked Kinie. She looked at the mug that Frank put in front of her and eyed suspeciously before taking a sip.
"Regardless, things did go wrong out there. I know I would have prefered a little more direction from command before going out and a plan should have been made between the various away groups before we set out." Said Sanda.
"Thank you for your insght, Hoshi," Vec said, "You're right, as the highest rankign officer out there, I should have taken a moment to make sure the team was up on their PerSec and devised some contingencies before we went dirt side."
"Can I ask a question?" Poppy said, "Why were those locals brought onto the ship?"
Sanda wasn't sure it had been Vec's job to plan those sort of details. Mostly because in her mind there were two types of people, combatants and non combatants and medical fell under non combatants. But she didn't voice that. Instead she said to Poppy, "After we tangled with the locals, we reported to the ship what had transpired. We were ordered to bring them back for questioning. I am unsure exactly who on the ship gave the order."
"With all due respect, I did think there was a safety issue in that Senator Iemochi kept wandering off alone," Euikoshi added.
When poppy asked about the locals Frank piped up."Because Vec shot a IDSOL and me and him had to carry them to the ship." Frank stated.
This sounded like a shit show to Delmira granted she messed up in her part of the mission and caused uninteded harm in her own way. "Wait wait there were locals on board the ship?"
Thad had to speak up concerning his friend. "I was near the senator most of the time. Anything gone side ways I'd been near to help."
Based on the way she heard the crew talk about Thad and her own review of the mission logs, Chiasa somehow doubted that the dark-haired half ID-SOL would have been as capable of protecting Senator Iemochi as he said he was. Regardless, in spite of the Infantry Nepleslian's reputation, the tiny Nekovalkyrja couldn't help to admit that he was extremely handsome!
"I didn't see you with him," Euikoshi countered. "I did see him go into a Kuvexian shop alone. Poppy and I joined up with him after that so he wasn't alone."
This was becomming a shit show. Vec stood. "Everybody, let's go one at a time, this is becoming an absolute cluster fuck. Hoshi, continue your assessment." In a somewhat less firm voice he added, "Please."
Thad tipped his head to one side. "Most of the time and its not like he can't handle himself. Need I remind the fact he stopped a pack of blood thirsty pack roaches by himself."
"He nearly died," Poppy reminded Thad. She'd saved the Elysian's life after that incident.
He has a point, Chiasa mused as she gazed in the good-looking half-ID-SOL's direction, perhaps for a little too long! However, from what she knew of the Senator's experiments with creating a new Elysian supersoldier body, he could handle himself just fine! With the capabilites of his new body, in theory, the Senator could survive being decapitated.
Yayoi nodded. "Vec's correct, lets all wait our turns," she said in a stern Heisho tone of voice.
Thia turned in time to see Chiasa staring at Thad and gave her a lopsided grin and a direct message: "Like what you see, honey?"
Thad lifted a finger into the air. "Almost, but instead came back stronger, faster." He said as a matter of fact.
Vec thought he could feel a vein twitching in his temple, it was like dealing with a room full of children. No, at least Fuji's kids knew when to shut up. He shot Asakura a sympethetic look. What he wouldn't give to be surving on a boat full of rangers.
"Thad shut your mouth for once in your life." Delmira snapped looking at him. "Lets get this briefing going and we all get a turn."
Thad simply stuck his tongue out at her. Followed by slipping said tongue into Mia's mouth who he was standing near.
Frank patted Dels head "Del be the bigger....Be the better neko."
"Delmira, kitten," Thia addressed Del across the room, her deep, feminine voice cutting through the chatter like a quiet growl from a big cat. "He's clearly trying to get a rise out of you. Don't indulge him."
"Some locals tried to approach the landed Resurgence and we had to turn them away repeatedly," Cassie contributed for the portion of the debrief about what happened. She noticed no one had explained the firefight yet so she waited patiently for that. She was feeling a little lost on what part of the briefing they were on.
"Delmira kitten?" Frank repeated looking down at Del. quizically
Sanda sighed then said, "The simple fact is that we were not prepared for an away mission. There was no designated point person making sure that the away groups were all on the same page. This is not the first time this has happenend. We need better comunication between the ship and the away teams." Sanda glanced at Yayoi and Cassie almost apologeticly then said, "We need Heishos that can communicate the officer's orders to the enlisted so that everyone is on the same page. Knowing who is the point person to find information instead of guess and getting mixed messages."
Scanning the room, Vec had the sinking feeling that half the crew would ignore the ranger's statement. Next time, even if nobody else carred to follow through, he'd do his best to, by hook or crook.
Chiasa pulled her gaze away from Thad upon receiving the Counselor's transmission, blush coming over her cheeks as she did. She lent a brief consideration to the half-ID-SOL's reputation and his ongoing behavior, specifically towards Delmira and by extension, everyone else in the briefing. Then, she frowned.
On second thought, I actually don't like what I see, Chiasa transmitted back to Thia in response, a regretful scowl crossing her features as she did. She could only hope that he hadn't seen her staring!
Delmira side eyed Frank before she raised her hand to get Kalena's attention.
Kalena pointed at Delmira using all her fingers.
Delmira stood up so she could be seen better. "There was no centralized plan, it was pretty much go out get information and I think a few of us, myself included, treated it more as shore leave instead of an actual mission. I however echo Sanda's thoughts on communication. Somewhere along the way communication broke down and thus expectations where not communicated cleary." She finished and sat down before looking at Frank. "I will tell you later."
Tachiko just blinked several times. Never stopped politely smiling for even a moment, however.
Poppy raised her hand and Kalena let her talk for a moment, "Go around and talking to a few people is what we typically have done on the previous survey missions. Usually it's pretty straightfroward to chat with the locals and it doesn't typically require any planning. It's literally just speaking...but I didn't really get enough time to even meet anyone before we were rushed back to the ship," she said.
Vec also believed the ship could use a captain who was more communicative with his officers, but Vec kept his own counsel on that. "Yeah, but there's always room for things to go wrong, Pink. Routine doesn't exist. If there aren't contingencies for hostile locals or things such as kidnapping attempts, or anything else that might threaten crew safety, then we're dropping the ball. I'm not going to shy away from it, I let down the enlisted who went out there with me." He decided to take his seet again, since things seemed to be getting back on track.
Sanda nodded to Poppy. "Yes, but so far we have been in Yamatai space. This time we were not. We should have been more alert and less careless because this isn't Yamatai."
Thad did the impossible, he raised his hand for a change.
Delmira choked on her coffee seeing Thad raise his hand.
Sanda saw Thad raise his hand, and though she seriously doubted that anything intelegent would come out of his mouth she nodded to him and she said, "Yes Maximus?"
"After Hoshi finishes, Maximus, your turn," Vec said trying to keep the momentum up.
Frank checked his own pulse. "Nope I'm still alive meanig Thad did just raise his hand."
Thad perked up seeing how effective this worked. "Yes, things could have been better but we did get the intel we were after. And no one died so it feels like a success in my book."
"But there's always room to learn, to get better, Maximus. Just accepting good enough is how people get killed," Vec said, feeling like he was explaining things to a child.
Thad rolled his eyes slightly, as Vec was starting to sound more like Sanda than he'd like. Yeah he got it, always be better. Still, given this crews record, this was a nice outcome either way.
This time, both eyebrows shot up on Chiasa's forehead. Thad didn't just roll his eyes at a superior officer, did he?!
Frank Raised his hand.
"Sterling," Vec said addressing the giant Minkan.
"Maybe we could do team building exercises to get everyone on the same page and more organized." Suggested Frank.
"I dig it, what do you have in mind?" Vec said, perking up. He considered some of the exercise they did back in the 171st, but he wanted to encourage initiative.
"I Dont know sir heading to the pit for PT, maybe some wargames or just straight sitting round a circle and letting each other know what we like and dislike about each other and how to fix it." Frank suggested.
"What about a dare party?" Mia grinned mischievously.
"We could hit the VR room. Ruck some, shoot some, maybe shoot the shit around a 'campfire'," Vec offered following up on Sterling's suggestion.
Sanda sighed and sat back down. Looked like the meeting was over. Maybe she could convince Koyama and Yayoi to transfer to another ship?
