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[Yggdrasil] Like Old Times

K

Kylen Phylar

Inactive Member
Ken smiled, hitting some buttons as he flew closer to the salvage location. "How are the scanners looking, my overtly smart aquatic friend?" he asked out loud, stretching a little in the slightly cramped piloting area. The blue haired and eared catlike guy looked at home behind those controls as he leaned back, looking over to the sensor station.

There, a penguin named Kurio nodded. "All clear so far. Any NMX that were here are dead or gone, or better at hiding then our sensors are at finding. I'm not getting anything besides the usual salvage signals. No weapon level heat signs, or anything that suggests something hiding on purpose." He reports back. The pilot nods, ear twitching. "Well, Boss, sounds like the field is clear for now, but you never know when someone might show up. Requesting permission to start salvage so we can get out of here." he said into his headset, which was broadcasting to his base ship.
 


Toshiro sipped a drink from the bridge of the Yggdrasill, as it held position until the conclusion of the scan. Yggdrasill's sentient computer confirmed the results as the 21 year old, little changed, put the well-sealed container in a cupholder attached to the captain's chair's armrest. This wasn't the only upgrade the ship has received, the humble-appearing green ship sporting various new technologies such as a Yamataium hull, a UOC-made CDD/CFS, better power and weaponry, and other upgrades making the old Vampire more formidible.

The Yggdrasill's grapplers extended as the ship spoke. "Confirming the all clear to start, father. "

"Alright Ygg, Kylen, listen up. We're going to both fill up, then stock on the Leviathan, then repeat until she's full. Then we'll stock up on stuff ourselves. Remember to keep an eye open for restricted technology or stuff we can sell back to the Army for a nice profit."
 
"Aye aye." Ken replied, the grappler arm extending to start sorting through the rubble and wreckage. "Sheesh..I wonder how many SAoY ships got generally destroyed in this fight." he wondered outloud as he loaded up on armor pieces. He noticed one of the bodies, gently grabbing it and putting it on top of one of his stacks. "Got a body, human."

"Becareful, guys. Lots of antimatter in the area...wait..i think I see something moving independently." the penguin said into the transmitter, looking around out of the window for what may have been moving about.
 
(JP with Kylen)

Toshiro looked around, and saw movement as the ship raised its shields and readied for combat. "Be careful Kylen, they might be hostiles!" He said, as a pair of Mindy 2 units appeared, charging toward the Yggdrasill as it readied its weapons.

"Well son of a bitch." Ken bit out as he swung around to catch them in his view port, grapple moving into a defensive position. "Kurio, make sure the shields are ready, and watch out for any more of those units showing up." he growled, keeping his distance for the moment.

The Mindies were maneuverable, and moved quickly around the ship before they opened fire...the weapons they were using seemed fairly weak, thankfully, the upgrade shields of the Yggdrasill not even reaching their threshold. Toshiro smiled as the CFS beams came online, surprising the enemy units with a technology usually reserved for military vessels. The Mindies dodged as best they could, though they were up against starships without support. Even the most powerful Power Armor had its limits, and these Mindy 2 units weren't equipped for Anti-Ship combat.

Doing the smart thing and staying back, Ken and Kurio continued to sweep for more power armors. "I'm getting one or two more readings, but they don't seem to be on." the penguin said, Ken nodding grimly. "We'll let these two wear themselves out then. Obviously they see the Yggdrasill as a bigger threat."

"Good. We can handle this...they may be newer models, but they seem loaded for Anti-Armor assault. They could still do some damage to a ship like the Alucard though." As he said this, the Semiconductor Mobile Gun Turrets deployed, assisting the CFS with even more Anti-Power Armor cover. One of the Mindies was struck by the Semiconductor Turrets in the head, killing its pilot instantly. The other started to charge forward, intent on plowing through to attack the bridge...

The pilot winced. "Please fail, please fail." he pleaded, hoping that either the guns would eliminate the PA, or that the shields would hold against the assault it was about to attempt. "I know the Yggdrasill is much more upgraded, but this could hurt."

It did fail, epically. The Yggdrasill was far more adaptable than the pilot expected, her arm and leg being successfully shot to pieces as the streaked toward the ship, before her machine took a fatal hit. Its engines stopped and its Aether generator exploded -- the parts of the Power Armor bouncing off the upgraded shields and shaking the ship, but holding. "Phew...lucky those things weren't fitted with Anti Ship capabilities...they must have been stranded after some battle...The shields took most of the damage, though it pushed them beyond their threshold...they're down to 70%."

"Probably whatever battle that caused this mess." the Yamataian replied, nodding to himself as he continued to salvage. "Got some more bodies, and I think I see some fairly intact, and very OFF PAs belonging to someone here." he transmitted.

"Well, I'm grabbing these Mindy 2 parts. Let me know if you spot the head of the one that just blew up." He said, letting down his shields to extend the grapplers and grab the Mindy 2 whose head was blown off. It was a very sick sight, really, red mist streaming from the neck of the headless pilot inside...

"Aye sir. I'll have Kurio keep a look out for it. Lots of armor so far though." He said, finishing his load and heading to the larger Leviathan ship to unload. "We're definitely going to be calling people over a good chunk of this stuff. I'm hoping several families will be happy to have bodies at least."

"Yeah...it's gory, but we have to keep that in mind. It helps if you think of the confirmation of their death as allowing them to be revived sooner with Soul Transfer..." Toshiro continued to salvage, fishing some containers full of SAoY uniforms out of space with the grapplers.

"Of course. It makes things easier on everyone for every body we bring back. And I know the SAoY probably wants some of it's toys back." the pilot said, taking his time to unload his cargo carefully. "Then again, all the armor that's sitting around can be profitable some how."

Toshiro smiled, finding a series of uniform blips on his sensors. "There's a uniformity over there in the debris size and shape I'm detecting...looks like a bunch of containers of something. Can you check it out?" Toshiro said, as he checked out a slightly larger blip, expecting to find a large armor chunk or something.

Setting back out, nice and empty, Ken nods. "Aye. I'm coming up on it slowly now. Being careful in case it decides to lash out at me." he said, slight humor on his voice.

What Ken found wasn't debris, but what looked to be a large assortment of containers...he couldn't tell what was inside, but it was military grade, and had a "flammable" label on it...they seemed to be safe for transport though. "Hey, Ken! There's a small Space Station here! It's old and adrift, but it looks serviceable!" The salvager said over the radio.

"That's pretty cool. If we get to keep it, we could probably find something to do with it, if not just get some cash by renting it." he said, sighing a little. "I've got a crop of flammable somethings, but it all looks good to move." the pilot announced. "Hell, they might even be mislabeled."

"Well, let's get them onboard -- we have a lot more to salvage! He said, the grappler grabbing something else as it drifted by. The Ygg's Dynamic Thruster Drive engaged, to stop its momentum. "...Holy crap...this is the top-rear quarter of an old Irim! It's just a Type 26, but if the SAoY Doesn't want this thing, it's got some nice STL engines!"

"Oh, good catch!" the salvage pilot replied, grinning softly as he carefully brought in the canisters. "Goddamn, all of this looks military grade. We're definitely gonna have to check this stuff out."

"Yeah...even if we aren't allowed to keep it, we should get a major payday!" He said, smiling as he noted some escape pods drifting nearby, and grabbed them too before going to the Leviathan with the haul. "Keep looking for more good stuff! It looks like we might just be the first salvagers here!"

Ken gave a small laugh. "Nothing like first dibs. Hey..I think we have a still intact...well, I'm not sure, but it looks like a small scale warship." he replied, having finished with the canisters and moving on slowly.

"...Wow! Do you know what this IS?" He asked, coming back from the Leviathan after unloading. "It's a Plumeria-class! And look! There's another one!" He said, spotting another nearby. The ships looked deactivated, but operable...had the Mishhu tried to board them, only for the forces to mutually annihilate each other? Even if the crew won, the relatively small holes in the hull looked like enough to decompress the ships. "Harsh...but they might still have the Soul Savior Pods intact...don't go trying to move them. We'll call the SAoY and let them deal with it."

"Well, we should at least bring it to the Leviathan instead of just leaving it here for worse people then us." he said, checking about the ship from a bit away, while looking for other salvage and putting it on board.

"Well...okay. Graviton Beam Projectors only though, and no closer than 2,000 kilometers." He said, setting a limit. "I don't want Mishhu to cross space and get to our ships."

"Yes sir." he replied, using his projectors to tow the first ship closer to the larger carrier. "Here's hoping there's nothing nasty in here."

"You and me both..." He said, dragging the other Plumeria over to the same spot. "They won't let us keep these, but the reward for them is pretty good. I remember one of my first runs, where I found a Nozomi...hey, since you're done, can you grab those Aether generators over there?" He asked, indicating a pair of generators he was passing as he towed.

"Sure. I've got just enough space to top off with those." he stated, dashing over to where the generators where to grab them. "Anything else grab worthy here?"

"I see a couple ship's armories over there...wow this stuff is close together..." Toshiro said, amazed it hadn't drifted further away yet.

"That kinda worries me, Toshiro. It means the battle wasn't all that long ago, meaning we should finish up and head out before something that DOESN'T like us shows up." the pilot said, sounding a little worried about it. "I mean, some of this stuff looks newer then most of our salvage."

"Yeah...those might have been Mishhu who we fought for all I know...let's just grab stuff, make sure nothing's hitching a ride on it, and FTL-tow these Plumeria out of here before re-enforcements show up..."

"Sounds like a stable plan to me." Ken returned, grabbing what he could after doing several through, yet quick scans and hauling it back. "Alright, Alucard is full up."

"Dump it on Leviathan, repeat close by the ship until it's full, then fill up and let's get out of here."

Giving Toshiro a positive, Ken continued to salvage what he could, as fast as he could, without hurting anything. "Lots of pods...bodies...crap tons of antimatter...and those mystery containers."

Toshiro did the same, using his ship's better speed and sensors to move to further targets...he brought back a huge water filtration system, armor chunks, a couple shuttlecraft, and various ship parts. "We can take a better look once we've loaded all this stuff on, alright?"

"Done and done. I think your load will finish off the Leviathan, and then we're full up after that." Ken replied, sighing a little. "God, it feels so good to be the first salvagers on the scene for once."

"Yeah, I'll just fill up the Ygg with one more load before we go -- you can hang back if you like though." Toshiro said, as the ship docked with the Leviathan and a flurry of industrial grapplers emptied the cargo bay until the sentient computer's watchful eye.
 
With a nod, Ken smoothly piloted his salvage ship back to the larger one, docking with it gently. "Job well done. Here's hoping those fairly intact ships have nothing bad on them." he said, relaxing a bit for now.
 
"Ken can you look around what we've salvaged? Maybe check what's in those containers, the armories, and stuff like that? We need to know exactly what we need to report to the Star Army that we have." Toshiro asked, as he continued to salvage.
 
"Right. I already know we have at least 4 somewhat intact bodies we gotta report, but I'll make sure if there's anything else." he said, moving into the cargo bay once it was airsealed, going straight for the containers, doing a quick overview of everything else. The first thing he did was tap on the sides lightly, to see if anything tried tapping back.
 
Nothing tapped back, and the containers' text was now visible. All of the containers contained military-grade napalm...He didn't find any signs of life, though there was what seemed like rhythmic banging from one of the escape pods...
 
Having stopped tapping, Ken nodded to himself, deciding there wasn't anything in these canisters other then what they had on the label, as he took out his pistol and scanned the pod, slowly going over and tapping on the window if there was one. Who or whatever was in there tapped back weakly. With a nod to himself, he opened up the pod, a yamataian stumbling out, gasping. Her uniform was in tatters.

Keeping his distance, he watched a bit as he radioed Toshiro. "We have a survivor. Unsure if infected, but she's on the beat up side." he said, eyes watching her for anything suspicious.
 
The woman's body was resiliant, having recovered from most of the minor damage she took, but her uniform was in pieces here and there...she had short raven hair and deep purple eyes, and had the rank of Itto Juni...the grey-paneled uniform indicated her to be a Starship Operator of some sort.

Her lips were parched as she shuddered, stumbling weakly out of the pod. Its stasis function had evidently been damaged, and the poor girl had been left to suffer in space alone...having no one with her in the pod had extended her food and water, but evidently barely enough to get to this point. The air was stale too as it emerged with her, and there was the distinct smell of smoke from the fried systems.

"...Mizu...Onegai...Mizu..." The woman weakly begged for some water as she gasped at the relatively fresh air...


Toshiro radioed back. "Give her what medical care you can, I'm enroute."
 
Ken nodded, giving a short call on the radio for Kurio to bring some water and medical supplies. The Penguin soon showed, and handed her the water and the pilot the medical supplies. The Yamataian quickly brought out a bio-scanner and started scanning to the best of his abilities. "How far back was the battle? You seem to be the only survivor so far." he told her, waiting for anything bad to ping back on the scanner as the penguin watched and waited.
 
"T...Three months...I've been living on Ration Pills......but the water...container and stasis systems were damaged..." She said between gulps. She didn't seem to know which her body needed more -- water or smoke-free air.

The scanner didn't detect anything that she couldn't recover from on her own; with food, water, and rest. After a few moments, as the Yggdrasill docked to the Leviathan, the woman introduced herself. "I'm Itto Juni Hanamiya Fumika...thank you for finding me..."

Toshiro was continually briefed on the conversation by Yggdrasill's monitoring of the Leviathan's internal systems, and before long appeared on the scene.

"How is she, Ken?"
 
"Well, scans are showing she's dehydrated and sore, but she's clean. All she needs is some water, a real meal, and some rest. Probably transport back to Yamatai as well." he says, standing and offering to help the survivor up. "Here, I'll help you to the med bay. We can do a more through job of checking you there. Just want to make sure you aren't carrying something that will eat our faces." he said, giving her a gentle smile. Kurio smiled, taking the empty glass to go get some more, giving her body some time to absorb the water at a proper rate.
 
While Ken did so, Toshiro contacted Yamatai, and had the Leviathan and both ships docked to it move away from Anisa and back toward Yamatai to rendezvous with a Star Army patrol to be sent out of Pisces.

"Arigatou Gozaimasu..." She said in thanks, leaning on Ken as he helped her to that med-bay. She was a bit top-heavy, and toppled over onto Ken a few times, but they eventually made it to the medbay.
 
He notices the weight, but doesn't seem to mind, helping her into the room and onto the bed, while Kurio gets more water for her. "Well, it's nice to meet and help you, but I unfortunately must leave you in the wonderful care of my boss, but will probably see you again before you must leave our company for home." he says, bowing softly to her and smiling. "With that, I turn you to his care, and will be back later." he says, walking off back to the airlock to get into the Alucard and launching, barring Toshiro stopping him.

The penguin followed behind, leaving a large water jug behind, should she still be dehydrated before following after soon enough to be on the ship.
 
After Ken left, a pair of ships from the 3rd XF arrived to claim the warships, restricted technologies, the dead, and their surviving comrade. It was a fairly major payday, with some interesting results...

They were a total 440,000 KS richer, 96,000 of which went to Ken for his Power Armor and Power Armor limb finds, in addition to the bonus from Toshiro's finds. Ken also got a Small broken nuclear reactor, a Large viewscreen, some scratches but mostly okay, and a Sound-powered telephone for his pre-agreed upon 5 items.
 
Soon enough, Ken would have arrived back on ship, looking quite refreshed and stretching. "Alright boss. Saw the SA ships on their way out...so is our next move to hit the same spot again, see if we can get anything more, or are we going to high tail it somewhere new?" he asked, leaning against a wall as he looked at Toshiro. "While I wouldn't mind looking over that yard again, I'm personally not too sure how much more we could get out of it, and we're already pretty close to the action by my counts."
 
"I think we'll go back to the Shipyard at Kenichi's Star and sort out the salvage." Toshiro said, scratching his head a bit.

"After that, I'm not quite sure...maybe explore Northern space for a new location for the Shipyard. I don't like how close the Mishhu are creeping toward us. It's still safe for now, and we can still send mining ships there, but I want to move the shipyard as a precaution. We've grown a lot of Yamataium there over the years, after all...we might become a target of opportunity."

Large Yamataium Chunks they'd gotten from salvage in YE 29 and 30 had been put into the shipyard, split in special ways, pulled apart, and allowed to regrow. In two years, this method had given them a sizable supply, even though they technically lacked the ability to produce it and had kept it more or less a secret. However, even Yggdrasill's hull and frame had been "seeded" and gradually replaced with the wonder-metal.
 
Ken nodded. "Wouldn't be a bad idea. Better to lose a mining drone or two then the whole yard." He said, sitting down in a seat if they are in the cockpit. "And exploring north sounds like fun. Nothing like finding new worlds and salvage opportunities.
 
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