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RP: Terraforming Ake [Terraforming Ake] P1 - Dust Bowl Children

Alice was not exactly happy about the answer she got from the foreman of this expedition. "Well if you say, so but don't come crying on my shoulders if I find that we have some stuff missing." Her head then turned to the scaredy science officer. One proper security was not enough. And that so called Akemi was more interested in tits than the expedition. Alice would not expect much of anything from the other security guard, mainly cause she only couple of inches tall. Sure Mako could still operate computers sensors and look around, but should some big beast or pirates appear, there is not a much a mini-neko can do without her specialised power-armour.

Alice was pretty glad, she decided to take all her guns with her. Her past as a marine in UOC Peacekeeper forces might pay out here. Still she did not say anything, it was not like security was her job. Their health was her job. Sure she will have her guns nearby, but her main focus will be on keeping them alive.
 
Yori glanced around the group that would soon be heading down to the planet with her. She did not know any of them and couldn't really judge how they would perform, but even though she knew the strength and abilities of Neko she was not too confident that one so small could offer the same security. But at the same time Origin wouldn't send them under staffed to a dangerous environment. Besides the planet was toxic, how much could be alive down on the surface anyway, the guns were probably just a precaution.

After coming to that conclusion she took another drink from the bottle, relaxing while she had the chance.
 
Sapphire took the time to look over the rest of the group. Her eyes widen at seeing the pint sized person. If minature woman stayed still, she would could easily pass for a doll. She watched Mako float and drinking her drink.

Sapphire eyes twinkled in merriment at a thought. ~~ She could easily take a bath in that drink of hers.~~
She hid her smile under the guise of taking a drink from the bottle of beer. As she watched the little person float there. Only thing was missing was a set of dragonfly wings to complete the Fea appearance.

She started to laugh and ended up choking, spraying her beer all over the table in front of her. She turned bright red from embarrassment and knowing she would be ribbed mercilessly about this. She quickly recovered as she grabbed a few of the table napkins to wiped up her mess she made.
 
Mako glanced around as she sipped her drink, her little eyes catching their looks. Of course she knew they were looking at her. She was used to it, mini neko's wetr not terribly common. She also knew some of them doubted her capabilities, she could especially see in the face of the other, bigger security officer.

She did not let it phase her though. She knew what she was capable of and that she was a war veterin with substantial combat experience under her belt, both in and out of power armor. This planet could throw whatever it had at her.
 
"Oh, now-now, there-there." Daziel immediately began doting on the October girl. With a look of softly amused concern, the supervisor whipped a handkerchief out of one pocket or another and swept around behind Sapphire. One hand straightened down her hair reassuringly while the other took to mopping up the mess of beer that she'd just made. "No need to get excited, every one. As I said: we will all be fine. Both of our security officers are decorated veterans who've served in combat roles before. Why, Miss Koga even has a Special Forces background."

Franklin, on the other hand, was not taking Seiji's complaints too well. The old man took this opportunity to wrap a thick, leathery hand around the scientists' upper-arm and firmly pull the boy close to himself. With the brim of his hat scraping against the scientist's forehead, Franklin muttered to Seiji harshly, "Now listen here, boy. I can surmise quite easily that you would'a backed out of this first chance you had if you had any choice in the matter-- so clearly you got no choice in the matter. I don't know whose coffee y' pissed in, son, but you can either quit the company and go home with your dick up your ass and a ruined career or your can swallow yer fuckin' whiny tongue and learn how to be a man for a minute, you soft-skinned Yammie baby."

Ignoring the glaring almost-assault-level racism going on just beneath his nose, Daziel clapped his hands again and said, "Now, I think we've had the necessary discussion prerequisite to our journey, so let's all finish our drinks and be on our way. We depart in..."

The same way bankers in Western movies have pocket-watches in their ticket-pocket, Mister Burton kept a communicator which he now held in his upturned palm.

"Thirty minutes. Do be on time, please."
 
Alice finished her drink and set the glass on top of the counter. She then moved to pick up her coat. "All right, I still have to pick up few things. I will see you all there." She said, as she put the boat on, swiped her card to pay he drinks. She then gave Franklin a nod and left. She needed to visit her hotel, pick up her things, which she made sure to be pre-packed and get to the point of departure on time. Outside she hailed a robo-taxi, got in and left.
 
Sapphire seeing that the group was breaking up to head to the assigned docking place that held their ship. She grabbed her stuff, finishing off the last of the beer. setting the bottle on the table and properly fortified with liquid courage. She stood up and left the bar, making her way to the docking platform.

Sapphire did a quickstop at the bank to check on her funds to date to see if her parents were upholding their promice not to dip into her account as they had set it up for her when they as a family joined the Terraforming group. She scowled at balance and took note that her parents been dipping quite heavily into it. She scowled at having her account a joint account. Already her college funds had been spent to get this far with family and to be selected as part of the group. Now they was siphoning off her hard earned money to persue what?

She begged and received permission to use the bank's public phone. She called the number her parents were using. When they answered, at least mom did. She seamed pleased at the call, but looked very stressed out and unkempt.

Sapphire sighed softly and told them how her first meeting went and then gotten an earfull from her mother for not fighting harder to stay with her brothers like a respectiful daughter should be. She just made all the proper sounds and hung up when she heard her father yell drunkenly in the background for her mother to go out to get more booze and food for him and Grandmother

She went to see the banker and asked them if they could take her parents off the account to deny them access to her money. They was probaly welching off her brothers as well till the time for them come to the planet when it was safer to do so.

Scince she was an official employee of the Terraforming Ake, and was concidered an adult, Sapphire showed her excellent forged ID that got her into the Terraforming Group. She quickly changed the access to her account to her alone. With the company's ID to back up the forged ID. It was a matter of signing a few documents, giving instructions and changing access codes to restrict unwanted withdrawels. She even got a new Credit/Debit card for the account that was solely hers now.

Designated Ship (28 minutes later)

Even though the station was hugemongus and a stop at the bank, Sapphire made it to the docking place a few minutes to spare and a few credit less. She stowed her carry-on gear that she carried with her. She wondered if Kitten and Doggy would survive the trip as she had left behind some of her much needed change of clothing, parred down to the bare minimum. If she needed anything, she could easily order more stuff through the communications systems if there wasn't a priority messages first to out.

Even though she was scared and excited of heading out to the unknown, Sapphire hid it under her training and the wearing off the liquid courage as she went about getting ready for the trip ahead to a toxic world that was in the beginning of being terraformed.
 
Seiji was obviously flustered with the strong arm grabbing him. The whole idea that someone would dare put a hand on him a foreign concept.


“ B.. Baby?! Listen here you uneducated underdeveloped thug. I dont know how desperate the company was to hire a barbarian such as yourself, but you can unhand me this instant” Seiji tried to wrench his arm free as he continued “ I dont care what backwater pit they dug you out of but your clearly here to fill out some sort of colorful quota that HR has felt inclined to do for better publicity. If you put your hands on me again we will see who still has a career when we are done here.”
 
Yori moved her attention over to Neil once Daziel had dismissed them all. She did not have much she wanted to do, all the things she needed were already packed and ready to go so she wanted to find out some more first. Well that and she didn't want to walk past Seiji and Franklin who were looking like they were about to fight, already struggling with each other a bit.

"Mr.Strellan? Can we go over some of the designs of the APS? Particularly assembly so that when we get down there it can be set up quickly?" She tried not to look nervous as she spoke, other engineers had told her rumors, that thugs can smell fear and that if she looked afraid they'd come right for her.
 
Ignoring the others as was becoming usual for Akemi, she turned to the barmaids with arms crossed and spoke slightly more seriously. "Alright ladies, you heard the man. We've got 30 minutes. And when I say we I mean you. Let's hop to it. See how much you can earn in that amount of time. Clock 's ticking. Better get undressed as you move unless you want to try to prove Daziel wrong. I guess you could. I don't know much about Abwehran physiology and you've got the glasses to spare."
 
Mako siphoned up the last of her soda through the collapsible straw and packed it back up and cleaned it with a napkin before pocketing the straw. She stretched and floated up a little as the others started to go. She had a few travel cases to pick up and such, then she would head to the meeting place on the ship. She wondered if she could put in a requisition for an M4 Sylph. Even a demilitarized one would give her a lot more substantial fighting power if it came down to it.

She accessed the net and filed that request in, hopefully it would get approved, assuming there was still one floating around in these parts in some warehouse or cargo bay or something. She was not sure of that, but it was worth a shot.

Departing, she went back to where she had spent the last few days, quickly packing her things up. She shouldered her tiny backpack, grabbed her suitcase and kicked on the anti gravity on her little 'rolling case' and tugged it behind her as she coasted out of her small hotel room and made for the ship.

Mako made it there within twenty minutes of the end of the briefing, Unlike the others, she could pretty bring however much she wanted, since what she could bring would still be less than even the smallest of cases the others might bring. She was a little floating mass of luggage that moved to the airlock and paused, a tiny head swiveling about as her little eyes took in the sights and read volumetric signs and posted instructions.
 
While the barmaids led Akemi to their small apartment across the street from the bar, Daziel packed up his datapads and wordlessly shot out the door after depositing a fifty DA bill with the bartender. He had several requests from so many people to hear, fulfill, ignore, or just plain sign-off upon. Thirty minutes may not have honestly been enough for a regular Nepleslian with no computerized brain to handle such a workload.

While Seiji tried to throw off Franklin's grip, he would find that the ring around his arm formed by the old man's leathery hand tightened almost impossibly. Spencer was more than capable of holding the Yamataian scientist completely still and the less-than-apologetic words coming from the young man enkindled such a desire in his older companion.

"Now you listen here, you little shit--" Franklin kept yanking and pulled Seiji so close that he could smell the beer on the old man's breath. His voice was a gravelly, hollow, and fast whisper grating into the scientist. "This is fer yer own good, y' hear? When we get down on that fucking dirt and you cry little bitch tears every second of the day you're gonna find out real quick just how little this company gives two upside-down trannies about you and your fucking complaints. You are here because you fucked up somewhere, you little ingrate, and Burton is gonna give you a chance to fix yer shit-- and if you don't walk away from this right now you'll either fix it or you'll be dead."

With a quick shove to release the boy's arm, Franklin distanced himself from the scientist and pressed his hat over his head. He cracked his neck a few time and licked his bulldog lips before tossing an even more generous that Daziel's tip on the bar and turning to the researcher one more time to add, "By the way, y' aint smart t' insult a man's intelligence when you ain't seen it demonstrated, boy."

This, he said on his way out, not even listening to the no-doubt lengthy threats to his career and person. In fact, he didn't even flinch. In fact, one could say that he maintained all of his fucks for himself during the entire exit.

Niel and Yori had a much more pleasant exchange by comparison. The battered old shipwright was glad someone had taken an interest in his creation, and moreso that they were willing to assemble it to his parameters. Deciding to spend the time discussing it, Strellan settled his tab with the bar and spread his arms to illustrate, starting out with, "Well, it's kinda simple, really. What I've had loaded into the cargo bay is really basic. Two parts: an expanding telescopic base, and a series of intake tubes. We'll pull the intake tubes out to the edge of the landing area and then hook them up to the base, which will telescope on its own once activated. You see, I've used hydraulics and Type Thirty S-bars to..."

Because this conversation is very boring if you're not an actual engineer and also because I don't know what an S-bar actually is, I'm going to just let this part fade out. A good spot, too, because we've the future to think about. But first...

-----
Planet Mimei

This time of year, the third planet of the Ake system is on the other side of the sun from planet Ake and Dawn Station. It's a thick, grey gas giant whose depths inspired the name Mimei, meaning 'grey of dawn' from Yamatai-go. Buried beneath the swirling density of this gaseous form was a ship. Pitch black hull with white, bony art painted on the wings, this Geshrin Light Freighter was home to a band of marauders. The ISC Haunted House typically plied the Yugumo cluster for vulnerable and wayward ships, but the recent political atmosphere in that part of space had sent them looking for other endeavors.

"The hidden sensor bouys picked up three vessels heading for the surface again, ma'am." A tender-sounding voice echoed through the darkened bridge as a projection of the Mules making their way to Ake cast a dim light across the metallic bulhead. A clean-looking young man in a smart-looking business suit was reporting the news.

"Looks like another surface team, eh skipper?" Said the young man's less-well-kept twin. Both men had short black hair, but this one kept his in a mess around his head, and his suit was wrinkled, the shirt untucked and the tie long-missing.

A pair of red lights shining in the rear of the bridge moved forward to examine the projection. Momentarily, a toothy smile spread beneath them. A woman's voice echoed in the confines of the darkened bridge from beneath those haunting cybernetic globes.

"Close enough for a full scan? Anybody interesting on board?" She asked, tapping away at the arm of her chair with metallic fingers from a skeletal prosthesis.

"Three nekos, and a bunch of normies. The Yamataians for the most part don't seem to have military upgrades." Reported the better-kept half of the twins. "Lots of weapons on board this time. Another one of those funny, big machines."

"Seems manageable." Commented the less well-kept twin.

The captain stood up and walked her way between them, coming into the dim light of the projection. She was a tall, narrow woman with an easy smirk and curly orange-red hair pulled into a pair of puffs, one on each side of her head. She wore gothic attire, leggins of horizontal stripes of black and white-- beneath a skirt with pointy strands hanging down beyond her knees. Her flowing black blouse had been torn away on one side to reveal the skeletal durandium left arm which'd kept getting snagged on the loose and sheer fabric. Standing there in the light, she rustled the hair on the head of both men. The well-dressed one immediately withdrew a comb and began straightening it out while his captain told them, "Okay, tell Crazy Jane to get the boys and the stuff together and set us a stealthy course for the dark side of that planet. We've got some more pillaging to do."

-----

The ships that had been observed by the Haunted House were none other than the ships that belonged to the terraforming team. Origin had elected, due to the power demands of the APS, to send down three small ships instead of one larger one for these expeditions. In this case, the Mule Ultralight Freighter made for a good choice. It's expansive cargo bay and individual living quarters suited it for such endeavors.

Like the famous voyage by Columbus, these three ships had their own names and their own unique quirks. The first ship was Sister Sara. She was the flagship of the miniature fleet. Daziel's quarters were aboard this vessel, as were the team's weapons and armor. The cargo bay had been set up as a commons area where the crew could interact with one another during their down time. A large, ten-seat conference table was arranged to one side. Across from it was racks full of rifles, handguns, and mining charges. Also, three power armors had been brought along. Yori's personal PA, a souped-up Impulse for Akemi with the default settings from her Star Army days considerately copied over to the new AI, and a battered Sylph drawn from some military surplus store on Dawn Station. Although he'd never make it publicly known, this was a purchase made personally by Daziel. The phased pulse projectors and drone launcher had been removed by Star Army before the sensitive technology was sold. For the sake of evening the playing field for Mako, Daziel saw fit to acquire a wing pack for the tiny Neko's power armor; and he had the technicians install a pair of Origin's powerful HGRs into the suits integrated weapon hardpoints. Adding a simple kitchen and workbench made Sister Sara the perfect home for the terraforming team as they traveled abroad.

The other two ships, Elijah and Joacim were outfitted as science and agricultural vessels, respectively. Inside the Elijah was a medical bay fit to make a medical ship blush. It was amazing just how much could be fit into such a small space. The storage unit had a frozen segment filled to the brim with drugs and chemicals. A canister of hemosynth had been acquired for the on-board Nekos. In dry stock was every point, shiny, metallic impliment of person-helping that'd been left in use with modern medical advances. Prudently, although perhaps best left unmentioned were the numerous packaged cybernetics for the Nepleslian patients that Doctor Mason would no doubt see during her stay on the surface. There were replacements for every limb and organ aboard with some to spare. Alice would also find lengthy medical dossiers for each member of the crew beneath a box full of blood-pressure medication for Spencer-- along with a warning that he wouldn't take it no matter what she did.

Joacim was the Agricultural vessel. While the responsibilities of taking care of the beasts within its belly were left to every member of the crew; it was home to Spencer and the two security Nekos. It held space for twelve animals total, and with the exception of two eternally bored-looking donkeys they were all cows. Bred for toughness on Nepleslia Prime, these bovine members of the crew were massive, muscular things which would in time prove to be as hardy and resilient as the Neko members of the crew. A stock of seeds were also held with the creature's feed in the cargo bay of the Joacim. On all three ships, there were breathing masks everywhere. Emrys Industries' EM-G4-e2, Advanced Model to be precise. Such a bulk of them had been purchased that they hung on every wall in the ship. They were present in pairs on every bed, they hung by the tens on any free wall space, crates of the things were on each bridge and filters were placed in boxes on every surface. These masks, being considered the most important part of the ships' equipment were all tested and sized. There were even quite a few present to fit Mako, though the filter being the same size would ensure that if she ever wore one the tiny neko would essentially have to float about riding the filter like an adorable little flying saucer.

As this is an awful lot to read, there is a helpful illustration of it all in the OOC thread. Now, let's get back to stuff that's actually interesting.
When this veritable wagon-train of ships left Dawn Station with everyone aboard their respective ships, they blasted a quick arc around Ake and came down next to one of the many equatorial crater-lakes that dotted this planet's surface. By syncing the AI of all three ships, Daziel was able to pilot all three at once, though Spencer and Seiji were placed in the pilot-seats of the other two in case anything were to go wrong. Once on the surface, they landed in a triangular formation with the cargo doors of each vessel facing inwards. Niel took Yori and set to work with the two of them in masks putting assembling the APS from where it was stored in the cargo hold of the Elijah. A volumetric field was soon set up around the three vessels and every crewmember's personal device instructed them get settled in and then report to Sister Sara's conference table for the first of many meetings on the troubled rock.

When they arrived, they'd find Daziel already waiting for them, sipping some coffee whilst reading something or another; his jaunty headscarf replaced by a silken bandana with his hair and ears neatly tucked in to allow the supervisor to get some real gruntwork done.
 
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Yori had paid careful attention to how Niel said to set the APS up before so the set up was fairly easy and there wasn't much difficulty. Because the meeting was called so abruptly she did not have time to get changed before hand and simply came as she was. Hair done up in a bun, and in a green jumpsuit with black shoulders, the upper portion was tied around her waist and only a black T-shirt covered her chest. Though she looked a bit of a mess with grease on her outfit and hands and face, she looked more comfortable like this. In fact there was a bit of a glow to her if people didn't know she had just come from assembling the APS, they might think she had just come from a late night rendezvous.

She moved to sit down at her seat for the meeting, stretching lightly and waiting for the other's to arrive. She felt like Daziel was out of place, even his work clothes looked expensive and fancy, though she wasn't one to judge she wasn't even sure if she was ready for this kind of work.
 
Sapphire, once the ships were settled, was busy at work in the main ship's communication center, setting up the links with Dawn station when it came out of the 'Blind Spot" of having the systems sun between them. She looked over the various consoles and their readouts. She was busy setting up a schedule for all three ships crew to have time to send initial messages back to Dawn Station for either continuance farther on or end at Dawn Station recipients.

She may be green around the ears in the computer business, but she was gifted with the understanding of computer programming, plus the nighttime sublimal education scince she could read and write and type on a computer. It gave her an advantage over a lot of other canidates vying for her slot. Plus she was good at it. With unfamiliar equipment and the latest in programming she would have to learn fast and on the job.

As she was putting the finishing touches to the latest batch of schedules for computer usage and access to the community's main computer database. The call came for everyone to gather in the conference room. She scowled at the interruption as she was into the 'Zone' of computers and her work.

She stood up and stretched muscles, feeling her back pop in several places from sitting at the consoles for long periods of time and semi-bad posture. ~~I wonder where I can run a few miles...~~ She thought as she made her way to the conference room, pausing at the kitchenette as she called it to fix herself a light snack and drink to take with her.

Sapphire entered the conference room wearing what she rode down in. The standard Origin Coveralls, spotless and still had the creases in it, except where it came in contact with the chair. Hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing non prescription sunglasses she got into the habit of wearing to protect her eyes from the screen's harmful radiation. She nodded to those present in the room as she took her seat, setting the glass of juice before her as she took another bite of her sandwich.
 
After visiting her room and haphazardly dumping her belongings wherever seemed most convenient, Akemi quickly headed to the conference room and began scanning for cute life forms. Nearly instantaneously locking on to Sapphire, the Neko made a beeline for the girl and swiftly slipped into a seat beside her. Her preferred spot secured she began to stare obnoxiously at the teen while leaning forward and resting her head on an upheld fist. "So, like food huh?"
 
Sapphire looked at the Yamataian Neko, she nodded as she hurriedly swallowed the mouthful she already had chomped on a bit. "I was hungery and missed meals in setting up the schedules for the computer usage along with communications for the crews here on the planet."

Sapphire figeted a bit under the stare of the Neko. She spoke a bit shyly with a hint of teenage boldness. "I'm Sap-Sapphire October. You are?" Not making eye contact with Akemi, but still looking at her.
 
"Name's Akemi Koga," the Neko replied smoothly and slowly, still subjecting her coworker to an intense fish-eyed gaze. It was as if she was staring right through her or somehow into her. She sat perfectly still. Her lips parted slightly as the tip of her tongue emerged to gradually slide its way across the top of her mouth. "You eat often?"
 
"Only when I need to," Sapphire fidgeted even more under the stare of Akemi. "Why are you so concerned?" A bit of teenage rebellion rose against perceived authority. Unsure what to think of the actions of Akemi.

She wondered if the showing of the tongue was in a childish behavior as to get another riled up or something else entirely. "Want a piece of my sandwich?" Getting ready to tear the remainder in half. She wished Akemi would would turn her attention to someone else. She was glad to be wearing her sunglasses for it hid a lot of what she was feeliong at the moment. ~~Was she one of those perverts that her grandma had warned her about that preyed on minors?~~ the thought drifted through her mind
 
Unable to keep her halfhearted act up anymore, Akemi's poker face broke into a bright smile as a little laugh escaped it. "I was just messing with you," she said, now sitting upright. "I wasn't sure how I'd approach you so I figured I'd fool around a bit to break ice and have a little fun seeing how you'd react. Thanks for the offer, but I'm alright. So, how's it going?" Unbeknownst to Sapphire, her suspicion was dead on, but hey, perverts were people too!
 
Franklin would have been right, the threats would have been lengthy and used likely excellent diction, but Seiji had come across enough of Franklin's kind in his career that he did not bother, his eyes just burning a hole in the man's back as he stepped out. A furious Seiji paid his tab , a tip and marched out of the bar to get ready, its not like he had much choice.


One thing you could say about Seiji was that he understood being punctual. A piece of boring brown luggage stepped through the door, the equally boring man followed it, arms warped around the piece as if he where giving it a hug, between his teeth was a near perfectly warmed piece of toast, no butter , jam or jelly to be seen. Muttering to himself under his breath he managed to get his way to his assigned living quarters and started to clean up and sort out his personal effects, he couldn't help but feel this was going to be a very long mission.
 
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