RP [YSS Azalea II] Episode 1: Fresh Water

Kari visibly tensed, clearly yanked from the depths of thought when Yujin spoke. "Oh, yes. I am Kari Sunde, Nitô Hei. It is very nice to meet you," she recited a clearly well-practiced introduction, a little faster than she naturally spoke. Pressing her feet against the bottom of the hot springs, she stood, revealing her upper body down to just below her belly button. At the same time, her tail lifted out of the water behind her and acted as a counterbalance as she leaned forward to offer Yujin a respectful bow.

"Please forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. If you haven't already met," Kari lifted her hand and gestured with an open palm towards Pierre. "The one giving me so much food for thought is Pierre."

Pierre stuck out their tongue slightly and gave a jaunty peace sign and a wink. "Chui Pierre Ruike, nice to meet you again. How's the ship treating you so far?" Pierre asked the diminutive pilot. "Everything's all a bit too clean and too cramped for my liking." And hopefully we all get along because there's not really any avoiding people on a crew of less than 50 people living in basically a tube in space...

Yujin blinks as Kari jerked from his words and then smiles as she moved to bow as he said "It is ok, nice to meet you officially!" Yujin would smile and stand up to return the bow slightly deeper than hers. After the bow was done he would look over toward Pierre and laugh at the peace sign jester and then says " Yep, I am doing well." then looks back over toward Kari, " yep we meet back in the hangar I think it was."

Dropping back into the water to relax as he says "Yea it is crowded in this ship, but there are a few freighters that I flew that were more cramped. Yea I hope that also would be the same as conflict among crew members is not good for teamwork. If there are differences I hope that they can be set aside."

"Oh," Kari seemed surprised as she just started to shiver before she sat back down into the warm water. It wasn't that she was cold, exactly. It was more that she didn't like the feeling of being wet outside of the water. "Perhaps the ship is cramped, but I find my quarters too big and empty. With an entire nest to myself, I find myself yearning for the evenings following a hard day's training, when my batch sisters and I would curl up together."

Pierre opened their mouth and closed it before they could make an ill-advised offer to curl up with her. Instead, they said, "I guess I'm just used to life planet side, sure you might be on a base with tens if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers but there's a lot more space. The crew of this ship could just disappear into somewhere like RB Fujiko." They pulled themself out of the water to sit on the edge of the pool. Their body was becoming too acclimated to the hot water. Looking down at the others, they continued, "Rikugun troops do get crammed in a lot worse when we're being shipped around but those are short stints or when we're in barracks, but then you at least can get up and go somewhere and see something that isn't a wall or a volumetric window. "

Asami smirked a bit and smiled at Kari. "Oh i'm sure there would be people who would love to curl up with you in your neko nest." Asami stayed in the water enjoying the feeling of the heat around her. "Life on a ship is good when you get used to it however."

Kari nodded slowly, thinking about what each of Yujin, Pierre, and Asami had said. With each nod, she descended deeper into the water. Even as she saw Pierre retreating from the warmth, she embraced it. Glancing around the spring, she drew a mental model before closing her eyes and finally plunging the rest of her head underneath. Once submerged, she drew upon the mental model of the space as she stretched out sideways, sprawling out her limbs as she enjoyed the sensation of floating. Before long, she realized that even with lungs full of air, she was still slightly denser than water so in fact, she began to sink towards the bottom of the spring, where she lied peacefully as she continued to think.

After some time, she opened her eyes and looked up at her fellow bathers before she pushed herself up to breach the water's surface. When she did, she found the same unpleasant sensation of being wet outside of the water, so she kept herself mostly submerged.

"Were you stationed at RB Fujiko, Pierre?" Kari asked, calling back to something they had said. "What was it like? I have only ever lived aboard ships while I've been active and in a Kyoto micro-apartment while I was in the reserves. I think I lack the context to know what you mean about the ship being cramped."

A smile grew on Pierre's face as they watched the medic submerge herself. Eventually, she surfaced for air and more questions.
"Cold," Pierre answered. It was the first thing that came to mind about Fujiko. "The entire planet's cold as hell with an atmosphere so dense that if you go to the lowlands it's functionally a liquid. They even keep most of the base pretty cold to avoid issues from thawing ice. But yeah, that's where my unit is based. The main base itself is like a city all to itself, there are admin buildings, a spaceport, maintenance facilities, and housing and entertainment. But you can also go outside the main cantonment and go hiking in the mountains or catch a train down to Sunny and Cheerful Palms, the neighboring town, and just do town stuff. You can just go look at the horizon, or step on a leaf. Did you ever go out to the countryside while you lived on Yamatai?" With the talk of RB Fujiko and its frozen countryside, Pierre decided their body was no longer too acclimated to the pool to enjoy the heat. They slid back into the pool with water up to their chin.

Hearing that the other was alone in their room got Yujin thinking about his quarters and how he was the only one in there, he was kind of ok with it as he was used to being alone at home. Then hearing Asami's words he would smile some. seeing the Neko submerge herself for a while and leans back as he relaxes in the warmth of the water. Seeing Pierre talk some about his home base and then slide into the water once more he wondered some more about what he was going to be going within the Star Army and looked forward to it.

Submerging herself again so her eyes were only barely above the water's surface, Kari watched and listened to Pierre patiently while blowing bubbles. When they were finished, Kari kept blowing bubbles for some time, feeling in no great hurry to reply. Just then, an idea occurred to her. It was visible on her face as her eyes went slightly wider, then narrowed as she began concentrating.

After a moment of focus, Kari projected a holographic image that turned the unsubmerged part of her head invisible, then she did the same with the rest of her body, but the water distorted the image wherever it moved around her. As still as she could hold herself, there was always an unnatural ripple effect where her body was. After another moment, she dropped the hologram and surfaced enough that her mouth was out of the water so she could speak.

"I went to a mountain village called Shingō where I'd heard rumours about a samurai training with nothing but a knife. Once I was there, I heard different rumours about a ghost in the wilderness helping people who became lost, leaving them rations and directions back to town," Kari explained, gesturing to the volumetric projection of the town in the valley beneath the onsen. "I think it may have been one and the same, but I never confirmed it. I went for some running hikes in the snow. Maybe my problem was that I never got lost. Were there any ghost stories like that at Fujiko?"

YSS Azalea II
Bridge

“Captain on the bridge!” A voice called out as Sasaki floated her way towards the CO Station and down into the seat.

“At ease.” The Chui answered. “Comms, send word to Aquarius that we are ready for launch. Helm, verify systems integrity and begin pre-flight checks.” Sasaki directed, her directions answered with a chorus of Hais. At that point, the newly-minted Captain could only take a deep breath and wait. So much work had gone into this moment, so she could only hope that the first flight went smoothly. At the very least, the ex-training instructor hoped that she might be able to take her fortune as a sign of good tidings.

Before long, Aquarius Control transmitted their response via a secure data packet. The communications specialist gave her verification and quickly decrypted it, before voicing confirmation.

“We’re clear for launch, Chui!” The communications specialist called out.

“All systems are clear and nominal.” The Helm operator added.

“Good. Helm, take us out.”

Space

The large, arrow-like form of the Azalea II roared to life as the pilot willed the vessel life, Soon, the warship lurched into motion, slowly traversing the hangar deck’s force field to enter the void of space. At that point, the Integrated CFS was energized, the hull shimmering with its activation as the warship suddenly propelled itself ahead with seemingly impossible acceleration enabled by technological sorcery. From there, it didn’t take long for the Azalea II to reach its cruising speed, at which point the warship moved of its own volition, carried forward by its own momentum.

Interior

All the while, as the Azalea II set off into space, the shipwide intercom crackled to life.

“All hands, this is your Captain speaking. Please assemble in the wardroom for mission briefing.”

YSS Azalea II
Bridge

Eun-kyung stood at attention when the Captain's presence was announced to the bridge. Seeing how the ship had a comms specialist and the station only had one seat, she opted to just stand over her colleague. She watched as they completed their task with communicating with the station. Once that was done, she then leaned over and switched to a diagram for all the standard communication main channels that ship would be using.

"Commence a test signal to every power armor, fighter, and Ryoko assigned to this ship."

Hearing first and then feeling the shudder as Azalea II roared to life and started to move Yujin sits up straight and tilts his head some then saying moments before the announcement " I think we are heading out, I can feel the gentle vibrations of the craft no longer in harddock."

Then the Plumeria-class frame shuddered as the sudden acceleration can be felt as Yujin smiles looking at those around him and then stated. "Well this is interesting was never on a ship that left dock while I was on the bath. I was the one at the helm or copilot seat."

Standing up after the announcement he says " ok welp the fun is over, time to get to work I guess." The short Minkin offers a hand toward Asami to help her up and then turns to head off to shower, dry off, and then get dressed.

YSS Azalea II
Wardroom

Sasaki waited in relative silence as the crew filed into the wardroom, her attention elsewhere as she went over the details of the briefing in her digital mind. Theirs was an important assignment, one that would demand competence, precision, discipline, and more than a little bravery at every step. She had no intention of letting Star Army Command down, but the newly-minted Captain was more than aware of the fact that this was perhaps the biggest challenge of her career.

Before long, Sasaki cleared her throat and floated up from her chair, before taking a deep breath.

“Welcome, crew of the Azalea II.” Sasaki began. “This is an important day preceding an important task—one that will hopefully end with peace, stability, and prosperity in the regions of space we are traveling to. Those regions are the former territories of the Interstellar Kingdom of Kuvexia, which we will be engaged with for some time. First, I’d like to thank all of you for being here, no matter how you arrived at this juncture. As I already said, this is a momentous task that could very well decide the future of trillions—not only in the regions of space we are heading to, but far beyond. It is not a weight that any of us can bear alone, which is why we will have each other for love and support as sisters in arms, along with the blessing of the greatest nation to grace the multiverse behind us.” The Captain began.

Suddenly, a volumetric projection manifested at the head of the room, displaying a three-dimensional model of a particularly watery world.

“This is Kujo.” Sasaki continued, after a short pause. “An aquatic world with heavy volcanic activity and home to a particularly valuable resource which forms the basis of Kuvexian food replication technology—Kujinium. In simple terms, our objective will be to destroy the largest Kujinium refinery on the planet. This site is protected by a large, city-sized shield, anti-starship weapon emplacements, and a full military garrison. As such, achieving our objective will require a two-pronged assault. The infantry complement will be tasked with teleporting inside the refinery to disable the shield generator. Once the shield is down, our fighter wing will move in to destroy the facility from the air.”

Then, a pause.

“Before I go on, are there any questions?”

Softly raising her hand, Spark finally stood straight. "With all possible due respect, ma'am, my understanding is that the Kuvexian government we were at war with collapsed at the Battle of Glimmergold. Did the war not end there? Cause if it did, this would be continuation of hostilities against a civilian target that has been subdued."

The sergeant seemed confused, standing next to her lieutenant's faun like small form. "So what threat do the Kuvexian remnants pose to Yamatai and her allies at this time that would justify attacking a target like this?"

As the details of the mission were being told Yujin felt a burn down in the pit of his stomach. something did not feel right why are they attacking what seems to him a civilian target? If this is the main food supply to the Kuvexian people, and the government collapsed after the battle of Glimmergold which was another attack on a soft target aka the banking planet that supported the Kuvexian government by means of holding all the currency. Seeing that Spark stood up after holding up her hand he would stand up also and speak.

"Sorry to interrupt, Ma'am. But I share her thoughts in this manner if this is a food plant that supports the people of Kuvexian could this be taken as a terrorist attack?" pauses a little then goes on "What would SAOY do if one of our food production plants were hit by someone that we were at war with in the past?

Is there more going on at this refinery than meets the eye, something that we can not see or need to know at this moment?"

Yujin moves to take his seat once more but looks at the volumetric projection once more trying to see something that he did not at first.

YSS Azalea II
Wardroom

Ancilla-in-colleague Stood beside Spark, observing the scene before her, listening to the debrief. Like Spark, she had misgivings as she listened but it was Spark who voiced her thoughts too. She was of the opinion that the war was over, and that the Kuvexian remnants weren't attacking them anymore. Since they spoke her thoughts, she remained silent, her arms crossed over her volumetric and metal chest. Ancilla had to admit it felt odd, to stand beside Spark, shoulder to shoulder, when normally they’d be in their shared armor, or she’d be a tiny little thing on a datadisk.

YSS Azalea II
Wardroom

The twins examined the map and battle plan. "It's guarded by soldiers and is likely supplying the pirate forces in the area. It's a legitimate target." Aoi said. "Yhea! It's not like we weren't at Glimmergold. Lot more destruction there." Akane added.

Nas​

Nas's grin slipped as she listened to the briefing, and she mouthed, What the fuck. She was admittedly too junior to have a grasp on the political situation, but an unprovoked attack on a foreign power's food production seemed a little illegal and very cringe.

Pierre​

"How so?" Pierre asked, addressing the blue-skinned pilot. They folded their arms, an uncharacteristic scowl on their face, "Seems like we're picking a fight in the worst way for no reason. Kicking the Kuvexians while their down at that. If we were pirate hunting, we'd be attacking an airfield, or hideout, maybe doing a bit of scouting. My guess is that somebody's trying to keep some remnant faction or other from getting too strong." Turning to face the Captain, they said, "Can we get some more context? Who's authorizing this strike? Just asking because this is dangerously close to an unlawful order and I'd like to know why we're starting a diplomatic incident."

Asami screwed her face up hearing this information. She was already forming a ground strike loadout in her mind but then looked around and gave Nas a gentle squeeze on the arm to reassure her.

"I second the questions presented. For clarification sake that is."