"Unfortunately, darling, the other teams will not be cleared to arrive until we're certain that this pirate business is all settled." Daziel replied to Sapphire with a grim look, now stowing his book completely. Now, he stood up seeing that everyone except Franklin had arrived-- and he knew where Franklin was. Behind him, the large viewscreen on the wall blinked to life and Daziel walked alongside it. Sylphie floated up to join him, finding a perch on top of the business-Neko's head.
What appeared on the screen was a woman's face. She was a pale woman, with a pair of bushy, curly poofs of mixed brown-blonde hair on either side of her head. Red LEDs were her pupils and steel shutters were here eyelids. In the arrest-processing photograph, she'd been roughed up a little by the police and a stream of blood escaped from the edge of a sharp-toothed sideways grin.
"This lovely creature is Syvlia Chelenez. As you can see, she bears some small similarity to our spritely new friend, Sylphie." Daziel explained, indicating the tiny sprite he was wearing as a hat. "She is the captain of the registered cargo vessel,
ISC Haunted House, and is most likely our primary foe. The ship we were attacked by today is hers, and our unfortunates in the med-bay and laid out in the sand are among her known associates. Famously, she's a hacker and an inventor first, a pirate only to fund her development. We've got every reason to suspect that she hasn't left the planet, because we've recieved no word from Dawn Station about it. That said: they managed to somehow get here undetected so nothing is etched upon stone, now is it?"
Daziel frowned a little. He looked around at everyone and sighed, admitting, "I must regretfully admit that this shall not be easy. We must be under constant guard from these roving privateers, but we must also work in the meantime to solve the mystery we find ourselves faced with and throw these intruders from our rock using ingenuity instead of brute force-- which we find ourselves lacking in."
To break this grim moment, Daziel clapped his hands and then spread his arms to the table. "Well, here we are. All of you have the next ten hours to yourselves to prepare for your jobs tomorrow. The night is short here on the equator, but the sun will soon set. I'm opening the floor to questions from the table-- you will find your assignments and pairings in a datapad aslipped into the envelope behind your chair."
The assignments for the next day were as follows:
- Sapphire and Alice were tasked with recording the medical treatment of the prisoners. Alice would treat them, and Sapphire would set up recording devices to monitor both their progress and anything they said. Alice would also be kept on hand while Franklin interrogated the two prisoners in case he was forced to use more aggressive interrogation techniques. Then, after Franklin left on his own assignment, Alice would be responsible for preparing the med-bay for trauma or surgery-- helping the crew prepare for combat. Sapphire, aside from tending to the monitoring devices, was to assist her every step of the way. If time permitted, Alice was also to check on Niel and monitor the progress of his healing wounds.
- Franklin and Seiji were meant to investigate a series of caves in the distant mountains, in an attempt to locate the platinum ore that the last team had been mining and look for clues as to the whereabouts of the last team. Taking the recently liberated GP-ORV and some mining equipment, the two of them would ride into the desert and visit each cave, scan it, survey the surrounding land, and then return to camp to process the data of the day's find. Seiji would gather the equipment and prepare the truck while Franklin interrogated the prisoners.
- Mako and Akemi were assigned to scouting duty. They would fly north, in the last known heading of the ISC Haunted House and locate the crashed pirate vessel. After some observation, they would report back to base with the location and status of the vessel. If possible, the two of them would be tasked with hiding monitoring devices as well, but if this put them at risk of being spotted by the pirates, their orders were to avoid such a gamble.
- Yori's task was, with Niel's supervision, to examine all data pertaining to the remotely-accessible systems of Akemi and Mako's power armor and attempt to figure out and close off any vulnerabilities in their software. If neccesary, designing new armor components would be provided for from the ships' stock of replacement parts. Sylphie's assistance would be critical to this endeavor, as she likely had been given some abilities similar to her master. Optionally, there was the additional task of, if the means of Syvlia's hacking ingress could be isolated and replicated on equipment used by the pirates. The two of them would have access to the pirates' belonging for this endeavor.
- Coordinating all of this was Daziel. He would appear upon request for closer guidance to the pairs who stayed in camp, and regularly check for updates from those who'd left-- departing to assist them if needed. His communicator code was provided at the bottom of each datapad.
"So, everyone take a teensy glimpse at your various tasks." Daziel instructed, smiling at them, "And direct any questions to me presently."
