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RP [YSS Koun] Mission One: The Haunting Past

Miko

🎖️ Game Master
RP Date
44.7.1
RP Location
YSS Koun
YSS Koun
YE 44.7.1

Enroute to Glimmergold

Wardroom


Alastair stood among the crew at the head of the wardroom. He has been given final permission to under take the first official mission for Star Army on the Koun. They had been tasked to provide support during salverage operations around the battlefield of Glimmergold. This was the battle which turned the tide of the Kuvexian war. Littered all over would be the remains of ships from both sides. Many thousand of ships joined this battle, many of which never made it home. There was much sorrow on this battlefield.

In months leading up to this mission much had taken place on the Koun. Between misunderstandings which led to Alastair being charged with being AWOL. Crew getting comfortable on the ship. Some of which were learning to control new powers. Through it all they managed to get to this point. Far away from Yamatai he hoped it would allow the crew to spread their wings.

“Hello crew, and thank you for joining me on this mission. While it has been listed as low risk, take heed that some enemy forces might be in the area. Our primary mission is to protect the salvage ships in the area. Given the size of area needed to be covered we have many different factions joining in this operation.”

He took a few steps in front of all the crew. “Does anyone have questions regarding the mission details?” He stood at attention and placed his hands behind his back as he waited for possible questions.
 
Wardroom, YSS Koun

Tutala sat sipping on a cup of tea in the mission brief; taking notes on the captain's speech mentally, and observing the demeanor he seemed to have. Given their proximity to the CIN, this would be interesting for certain. Lots of restricted technology the SAoY would not want the CIN getting their hands on, despite both's relatively high level of technological advancement. As she nodded along, she quickly made an inquiry, as to their proximity to a rather particular nation,

"As we are realatively close to the Core, is it at all possible that Kuvexian remnants may be present in the area? I'm aware of some Kuvexian minority groups in the URF. Would those be any cause for concern?"

Tutala said, leaning back in their chair and continuing to sip on the tea. A lot had happened, Aliset had been demoted, the crew was getting used to the various people onboard with psionic abilities, and Tutala had slapped a woman. Most of all, it was fascinating to her that the captain was so laid back about this, and a sense of relief filled her knowing she was much closer to home than she normally would be. It was entirely possible that they'd encounter a Random Alien ship or two out here, likely from the third or fifth fleet.

Taking the final sip of her tea, she set down her cup and commented, "I'm actually looking forward to seeing what is in store for us."
 
"This is where one of my husbands died. A lot of people did, and not all of them could simply be revived. There are pieces of my Ginga out here. But I remember when we pulled out. You know, one time one of my cousins survived six months on a shipwreck. He was on a scrap tug that got called out to a Second Mishhu War battlefield. Turned out some pirates followed them and jumped the cruiser. The Senti got forced back and it took six months for him to get a beacon going." Looking over the map of the debris field, Aliset looked especially for any wreck that could, even by slim chance, hold survivors. She itched at her implant, pushing with some portion of her mind at the immovable wall blocking much of her senses. But she knew that because of it, her mind was clear.

"People like that are who I'm worried about. Any survivors out here will be cold, hungry, and probably very sick. Good chance they're out of suit power. And expect to find the Corruption, here. You know how Aether reactors with bad shielding can allow things from that universe through, and how it corrupts life? It's the entire reason you will never find Aether in a Flotilla's Reactor Tree, and why we tend to decommission any we find for other fuel sources. Any other potential threats out here?"
 
As the Koun came into the outer area of Glimmergold, sensors would show a huge debris field in front of the ship. Within was ships from many different factions and races littered the openness of space. Crew did their best not to run into anything as the ship moved deeper into the field. However a ship of this size could only do so much to dodge the scrap metal all around them. The most disturbing was the bodies of the fallen hitting the ship like bugs into a windshield.

Alastair looked towards Tutala. "It is possible we might run into Kuvexian something out here. We shall keep a sharp eye out for them." He then looked towards Aliset. "From early intel, there have been few survivors found. But yes, any that are out here are more than likely in bad shape." Alastair pulled up a large map of the area to give the crew an idea the scale of how big this battle was. He zoomed out away from the ship, zooming out further still. The battlefield covered an entire solar system sized area. It was estimated to be filled with thousand if not tens of thousands of ship from the battle.

"As shared, our mission is to explore the area and keep a watchful eye on the salvage teams. Though we will also be sending out teams when near ships which look to be more intact. We can also provide information to the salvage groups of possible good finds." He took a step forward. "Anything you find of value you are welcome to keep. Though I doubt we will find very much. Anymore questions?" He paused for a moment. "If not you are free to decide what action you wish to take in support of the mission. For example getting together a small Mindy team."
 
"To be honest, sir, I'm not Mindy trained. Not well. I actually don't have one." Aliset pursed her lips, double checking the course to avoid larger debris while maintaining a good scan range. "I mean... I have my Shuristan suit, but... Yeah."

Remembering her experiences in basic, she shook her head, having not scored very high on the power armor ability scores. Come to think of it, she had always sucked using a Senit hull runner, too. She pulled her own copy of the debris field map, noting the locations of salvage crews, her fingers flying with practiced ease across the board as she plotted a course. "I'll hold position on the bridge, unless I am needed out there with my suppressed psionic abilities."

With her snarky comment out of the way, she turned, stepping out of the wardroom and directly to the bridge where she dove back into her work. Quickly plotting orbital paths of larger debris and nearby objects, identifying salvage teams and other escort vessels of other factions. She quickly hijacked the comm station's secondary board, starting to coordinate and spread out the sensor feeds across the fleet, allowing better granularity by sharing sensor data and the talents of other navigators and controllers.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Salvage Team Alpha, this is Aliset of the YSS Koun, I'm building a distributed process to keep you folks from catching any surprises out there by tracking and predicting debris movement. Please allow me access to your sensor networks, and we'll see what we can do about going home with everybody. I don't need to remind you about the force a fleck of paint at eight kilometers per second can inflict, so let's try to see it coming and be up on our dodge game. Alright, thank you much, I'm getting telemetry from Mindy crews across the system, and feeding into the prediction matrices. Your combat controller will give green light."

It was like a dance, across and through the threads of data, weaving layers into the debris field map that hadn't been seen since this system had been other than a graveyard. Hulks that could be identified quickly popped up, and drift patterns started color coding individual pieces of debris, allowing other hulks to be identified based on formations and damage from recent records, several holograms starting to fill the Koun's bridge with fragmented starships pulled together as a time slider seemed scrolled back, before exploding again and joining the swirling debris. This wasn't Aliset's work alone, no, this was dozens of navigators and sensor technicians working in parallel, with the support of their ships and the EVA teams already out there.
 
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YSS Kōun
Wardroom


While power armor piloting wasn’t her specialty, by virtue of the fact that she was a Nekovalkyrja, Akahana knew that she would be asked to join the Mindy team. Unfortunately, since so many of the crew were not Star Army personnel or rather, were the captain’s concubines, that left Akahana as one of the few qualified Mindy pilots, a realization which drew a frown across her alabaster features. Nevertheless, like every NH-33, Mindy operation came by instinct to her, even if it wasn’t the focus of her skills. While it went without saying that she’d much rather be working on the bridge, someone had to go out there and she was one of the best choices.

As expected, a notification popped up in her digital mind, requesting that she join the Mindy team. Not wanting to shirk her duty, Akahana immediately accepted, though she still had a question to raise with the captain before suiting up. And so, the Snowy Neko raised her hand, before speaking once Alastair gave her the go-ahead.

“Sir, do we have permission to go weapons hot upon sighting Kuvexian remnants, should we encounter them?”

The Snowy Neko decided that if she wasn’t going to be working on the bridge or an analysis station like she preferred, she might as well have some fun and kill something while she was out in the void.
 
"The Kuvexian's use of similar materials to Star Army vessels, including Zesuaium and Yamataium, is complicating sensor analysis." Sayako tweaked controls both with her hands playing over the console, and her SPINE interface wirelessly communicating her will to the ship. "That results in a density similarity that makes gravimetric sorting unreliable. I have MEGAMI going over visual analysis from the telescopes, but even adding my own spare processing cycles, that's a lot to sort. Some of this we're going to have to handle the hard way. Most of these wrecks don't even have active emergency beacons anymore, or they're pieces that are just too small."

"Kanzaki-Hei will recall that this ship and crew established the first friendly postwar contact with a remnant faction, as was in your onboarding briefing. Quallox Vaibal will be present in this theater conducting salvage and rescue operations on their side, although they did not have any ships in the battle. As you might imagine that factors heavily into the friendy-neutral status of relations. Nonetheless, they will clearly identify themselves to us."

"Not only that," Sayako paused, then added, "Hostile remnants tend to shoot first."
 
Haruka blinked into life nearby, from unseen projectors. She saluted Alastair with a traditional Yamataian bow, but it was rigid in a way that made it obvious she didn't like giving them. The gothlike logistics specialist straightened, holding her pale hands behind her back as her fluffy black ears wiggled. "Cargo is all squared away, Belmont-shosa." She spoke in an efficient manner, but her big yellow eyes were looking everywhere on the Bridge rather than at the Captain, as if looking for something interesting to settle upon. "Let me know if you need anything." Haruka was new to the infomorph life, having switched over relatively recently. Her Type 33A body was still in storage on the ship, but short of something interesting like needing to run damage control, it was far easier to do her job when she could see everything and be everywhere. She never really fancied leaving the ship anyways - the Away Teams always got action, but she needed to make sure her precious cargo was intact and nobody fucked with it. "I'd like to recommend an increase in readiness levels if we're expecting any trouble, just so the support staff like me know where we stand without being on the Bridge." The tall, holographic Neko advised, before bowing again and disappearing out of existence.
 
Wardroom

Alastair looked towards Aliset with a smile. "Very good to know you have room to grow with the mindy armors. When the time comes we shall ensure you have a suit which fits perfectly." He paused for a moment and leaned to the side to glace at her back side. "Yes, perfectly indeed." He said with a small chuckle. "For now you can keep over watch to ensure the crew who do go out into the black do not get smash by all the debris."

A team of neko stepped forward, the leader speaking for the group. "We are ready to deploy, will two teams of five be enough?" Alastair looked over the team who volunteered. Several where seasons Mindy pilots having come from other ships within the fleet. None the less, two thirds of them were fairly new. His attention was then drawn towards Akahana asking a question. A smile came across his face as he recalled their last encounter. He knew his crew liked going above and beyond but kissing on the lips seemed a little much. "Akahana without a doubt we are weapons hot. Though be mindful as we might come across survivors who are kuvvies. We are not at war so unless hostile, we are to rescue who we can."

Alastair took in the report from Sayako of the clear dangers. "We are more or less going in blind for this. Mindy team might even be required to move large debris so we can continue. Use of our main weapons will be high restricted since this could lead to a cascade of bad." He took a step towards Sayako. "Keep up doing your scanning thing." He said as he reached out and gave her a pat on the head.

As Haruka blinked to life, Alastair took a short hop backwards. "For the love of the Empress, warn a person will ya." He was still getting use to her just popping out of the woodwork like that. He collected his thoughts and tugged at his uniform. "Very good. Have the support team working on making space for possible cargo. We might find treasures out among the ships." And with that Alastair dismissed the crew and also raised the readiness level since things were going to get rough.

Bridge


"Alright team, I hope you like pinball machines cause we are going to be giving cover to the mindy teams." As Alastair finished talking, the sound of metal scrapping across the shields could be heard within the ship. "Aliset, do your best to keep us clear but if needed, give the trash a nudge with the ship." More scrapping sound could be heard, his eye twitching for every second. While it wasn't the hull, it was still too close for comfort.

Mindy Bay

Alastair called down to the team who were preparing. "Feel free to do mixed armaments' for the deployment. We do not have hostiles, however we are getting odd energy spikes on sensors. We shall update if more details come through."
 
"Fourteen years flying something three times as wide and twice the decks, with no shields and no weapons. I've thrown bigger ships through tighter debris fields," Aliset spoke softly, her fingers still dancing along the controls and inputs. Then, she acknowledged the Captain's words. "Hai, sir! I'm feeding telemetry from the salvage crews and our own power armor squads' sensors through our mapping. We shouldn't even scratch the paint, long as we don't find a turkey nut at escape velocity. By the way, if anybody finds a meganut out there, intact, dibs. Or a can of Conclave Cola or Plasma Jet or any of those weird Duskerian brews."

As she saw Sayako's gravimetrics map come up on one of her screens, Ali keyed the comms again, "Say, your gravimetric data is a lifesaver as always. I'm adding in the magnetic resonance data from the glimmergold star and tracking debris by Browning motion as well. Thank you for your support. Haruka, you got free reign over my feeds, go ahead and highlight objects of interest. Look especially for debris that doesn't match the spread patterns. It could indicate survivors. So far, it doesn't look like local Senti have been through here."
 
YSS Kōun
Wardroom -> Power Armor Bay


Sayako told her one thing, then Alastair another.

Regardless, Akahana was more scared of the gynoid than she was the captain, who had allowed her to kiss him in a moment of weakness which she regretted. As such, she was deferred to the Science Officer, but didn’t let Alastair’s words go unacknowledged, as well.

“Thank you for reminding me, Takeda-Shoi.” Akahana began in a deferential tone. “You won’t have a problem with me shooting first, sama.” The Snowy Neko resolved, before shifting her attention towards Alastair.

“Understood, Captain. I’ll stay on the lookout for trouble.”

Then, Akahana floated off towards the power armor bay and stripped down before suiting up in her Mindy. The Analyst had initially not planned on taking anything but the stock loadout as she wasn’t a power armor specialist, but upon seeing the katana and shotgun in the weapon racks, she made a split-second decision to check them out for the mission.

“This is Kanzaki-Hei. Suited up and ready.” Akahana said as she racked the shotgun, which gave a satisfying clack as she did!
 
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Haruka groaned in her non-existence as the Captain told her to rearrange the cargo she had just got how she wanted. What a drag. Just before she switched her attention to the task, their cute Senti crewmate asked for some help. Out of curiosity, she stepped through the ship's systems and popped up on Aliset's screen as a chibi of herself. Big yellow eyes, floofy black foxlike ears, orange-panelled bodysuit and pale skin.

Her cute cartoonified self eyed up the data alongside Aliset, waving her little hand to send little sparkles across the screen. When they hit a number on the readout, it switched to a bright yellow to highlight it to the Senti. Haruka wasn't very good with people, so she didn't seem to say anything while she worked, but found it kind of soothing to just look for patterns in data for a bit.

One of Haruka's ears twitched for a second as she worked, the logistician dividing her attention up with the loading equipment in her cargo bay and this. It was kind of hard to split focus, but she had a sort of natural affinity for it. Before she made the switch, the Neko would often play video games or listen to music while operating heavy machinery without any problem. It was definitely against regs, but she always somehow managed to get the logi tasks done in record time and without incident anyways.

Somewhere below them, forklifts were moving around her beautifully laid out design into one a bit more compact. She hated the extra effort, but then again she hated all effort. Still, at least she had Aliset's minigame to distract her.
 
Since nobody had yet to make her move, Saga sat ensconced at the liaison station pouring through sensor data mirrored from the science station. She scratched at the nicotine patch on her arm. The adhesive was beginning to itch. Damn Yamatians and their no smoking laws. Sure, she couldn’t smoke on the bridge, but every post she’d had back home had designated smoking areas.

She didn’t fully know what she was looking for, but that was for the best. Her sergeant at basic always told them not to get so focused looking for the enemy that you fall in a hole. She believed that wholeheartedly, but wandering aimlessly was also a problem. Sitting hunched over her station with short black hair and chewed nails, Saga looked more like a malnourished bat than a Nepleslian Marine. A Corp, even a Nepleslian one needed people with her specific skills, and judging by Yamatai accepting her exchange request, they also thought she could be of use.

An idea popped into her head. “Hey away team,” she said opening a comm, “If you manage to get power to any of the ship’s systems, I can try to get in and make your lives a bit easier. I’ve got a data stick in my bunk with a rootkit on it, let me run it down to you.” She was already standing and headed towards the bridge’s door as she closed the comm.
 
YSS Kōun
Power Armor Bay


“Thank you, Private Lindqvist. I’ll meet you outside of the bay for the data stick.” Akahana answered as she placed her shotgun in its place on her back, before deactivating her Mindy's CFS. The Analyst figured that the cybersecurity specialist’s device might allow her to do some part of her job while she was out, in spite of the fact that she wouldn’t be doing it from her normal station on the bridge, but rather, in armor and with a turbo aether shotgun in her hands.

Upon reaching the outside of the armor bay, the scrawny goth hacker would be met by a comparatively stacked Nekovalkyrja, her shape apparent even through the sleek lines of her Mindy, which had been scanned to fit her busty frame. Her helmet was off, displaying a mane of white hair and two orbs of luminescent cyan which seemed to bore into the Nepleslian’s features. However, Akahana’s gaze didn’t falter as she reached out a hand to accept the woman’s data stick, but her expression quickly shifted to something more open upon receiving the device.

“Thank you again.” Akahana spoke up, as she quickly scanned the device, her digital mind learning its operation within a millisecond processing cycle. “I anticipate this will be of great use to us.” She added, before placing the data stick in her butt pack.

“I’ll stay in touch over comms.” The Snowy Neko finished, before sealing her helmet over her head and turning to float back into the armor bay.
 
YSS Kōun
Power Armor Bay


Saga scratched at her arm, accidentally dislodging the nicotine patch. Her eyes flitted to the woman’s frankly ostentatious curves and off to the side. She hugged the ancient isolated computer pad in front of her and grunted out a quick, “Oorah.”

Without another word, the young marine was sprinting back towards the bridge. Without a word to anybody she propped up her pad on her station. She’d use it to penetrate the systems of any ship with power the away team managed to breach. If she picked up any malware, she could chuck the air gapped device out an airlock (or simply try to wipe it) and the Kōun would be fine. On the Liaison Station proper, saga pulled up her analyst from another planet’s helmet feed. With that done, she only had one more preparation to make. Saga rolled up her sleeve and affixed another nicotine patch.



edited for clarity
 
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YSS Kōun
Bridge


The ship and crew had moved deeper into the field of death. There was what seemed to be an unlimited amount of ships, part of ships and even crew floating around. It was eerily calm given it was not long ago this location was host to a huge battle. There was no shortage of salvage and Alastair made it a point to highlight this to the crew. If they found something here of interest then feel free to take it. Least it would find better use than being left behind in a graveyard.

Alastair was doing his rounds to the different stations when his first officer Akino waved Alastair over to her. "Sir, I might just be seeing things but what do you make of the sensor scans." Alastair looked at the active scans and every so often, almost like a glitch, would flicker for only a moment. He looked to Akino, "Yes, I see what you mean. It would seem the trash field is messing with our sensors worse than expected." He could tell by the distressed look on her face that she was thinking there was more to this story. "Haruka," Alastair yelled out, "Can you take a look at our sensor grid. Things are acting weird. Oh and have Saga give a hand as well."

After looking at the scans for a moment more he could tell they were repeating. Comms also reported a signal coming from off in the distance. It wasn't a distress beacon but was for sure something. Alastair called down to his Mindy team to give them a brief. "Team, head out and see what you can learn of these odd signals. No sign of hostiles but none the less keep your wits about you." He then sent details on where they could start their search. Out by a large cluster of ships not too far from the current position of the Koun.
 
“Fuck,” the scrawny marine muttered as she turned her attention back to the sensor data. The whole scan seemed to glitch out ever so often. It must have started when she’d dropped off the data stick.

It was time to be systematic. She started by running a system diagnostic to see if it was a hardware issue or some other issue with the Kōun. While that process ran, she set the MEGAMI to look for patterns in the flickers. They might be picking up a transmission of sorts. Whether they were meant to find it, however, was another matter.

Flicking the edge of one of her screens, she said, “Hey, Haruka, did I miss anything?”
 
While chibi Haruka still played 'spot the anomaly' on Aliset's monitor and forklift Haruka raced at frankly reckless speeds around the cargo bay, another lifesized copy of the tall Neko would materialize beside Alastair as he called her.

After listening to his request, she gave lazy salute. "Aye aye, Captain." She murmured, eyes rolling as she turned and blinked out, to go have a look at the sensors and see Saga. While outwardly she was reluctant, internally she was almost enjoying this new ability to multitask.

Often, when she was doing work in her physical form, Haruka had always needed to be doing something with her hands as well, or something like listening to an audiobook. Being able to channel that into something useful was kind of a thrilling possibility.

Bounding as data through the ship's systems, Haruka looked around for the ship's sensors. It was kind of disorienting, flowing through wires and circuits as data. Eventually, Haruka found the sensors and began poking and prodding at their digital representations, looking for anything weird.

Splitting off another slither of herself to go down to Saga, Haruka felt a little dizzy. "Damn.." She murmured, big fluffy data-ears flicking in her electric world, all of her copies pausing for a second as she got her bearings back. Being in four places at once would need some getting used to, but given how quickly she'd taken to this, Haruka was confident.

Another chibi of the logistician soon popped up onto Saga's console when she was called, right about where Saga had flicked it. The digi-Neko slid down the side of the monitor gracefully until she reached the corner. Haruka was dressed in her uniform on screen and her glowing yellow eyes regarded Saga for a moment before she turned as if to look at what Saga had on screen. She would have said something, but her attention was too divided to try and strike up a proper conversation.

The small cartoon plopped down to sit on the bottom edge of the screen, black cat tail swishing to and fro. After a few seconds of careful study, Haruka leaned back to look at Saga and wordlessly shook her head in dismay. It wasn't clear what was causing this just yet.
 
"I've got the glitch, sirs." Aliset waved Akino and Alastair over as she centered her scans on the flickering mass of debris, overlaying the standard sensor pings with a gravimetric scan, and then directed MEGAMI to use the star's magnetic field as a baseline reading for an MRI of the glitch.

Combined that with the multi viewpoint panorama of sensors from the rest of the fleet, several vessels having far more powerful sensors than the Koun did and a splash of Senti cooperative AI algorithms, and the glitch's defenses were peeled apart as though Aliset were working her way through their defenses, herself. "I don't know what it is, just yet, but we will in just a moment. The debris over there's a real meat grinder, so I'd be hesitant to send anybody over there."

While her programs chewed on that data, she used Haruka playing whackamole to send points of interest to Mindy teams, another automated routine assigning tow points to drag vessels back to Yamataian space and shipyards for repairs and salvage.
 
Power Armor Bay -> Debris Field

“Deploying now, Shosa!”

Stowing her weapons in their hardpoints on her back and waist, Akahana launched into a sequence of acrobatic tumbles, a series of high-flying somersaults, flips, cartwheels, and rotations, culminating in a dive as she traversed the force field barrier separating the power armor bay from the void of space. Upon crossing, the Snowy Neko willed her Mindy’s CFS to life, generating a series of distortions in the continuum that immediately propelled her forward at a sub-relativistic speed, leaving the Kōun behind in her wake.

“Is there a source of radiation or electromagnetic activity that we can hone in on?” Akahana transmitted back, eager to assist with the analysis even though she wasn’t in her usual place on the bridge. “Point me in a direction and I’ll go to investigate.” She added.

All the while, Akahana pulled her shotgun from its place on her back, before doing another analysis of her armor’s sensors. Idly, she reflected on how blind she felt out here, as compared to the plethora of data that would have been available to her on the bridge. Out in the void, she only had knowledge of what was in her semi-immediate vicinity, since the range of a power armor’s sensors were quite limited compared to those of a capital warship like the Kōun. As such, that meant she had trust those on the bridge to be her eyes and ears.

However, as it pertained to trust, questions still lingered in the Snowy Neko’s digital mind, especially after what had occurred between her and Aliset in the wardroom. How much could she cede away trust, before it became unpalatable even to her?
 
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