RP: YSS Mikomi [YSS Mikomi] Mission 2: The Lost Fleet

Mizuho sat up quietly from her place on the floor.

"Be seated if you wish, Kestral."

She carefully stowed her pens, her notebook, her loose papers into various random-looking places about her, a distant look in her eyes, then slipped the letter from within her sleeve, and passed it to Kestral with an ill-concealed yawn.

"This was for you. It explains why, where, and when I will be leaving. It is painful to speak of."

She laughed, drew her sidearm, inspecting it with a forlorn look.

"Granted. You didn't need permission. We're not on alert. I'm not an officer, anyways." she retorted. The Geshrin subdued the urge to walk on the celing of the armor bay, and waited to hear what Techard had to say.

Kato stayed on the bridge and stared into the deepness of space watching bits of ship or maybe even people floating around. He let out no sigh or any other notable thing since he had pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally he just gave into his thoughts shook his thread and lowly spoke to whoever was on the bridge with him, if no one then at least Suzi would hear him.

"What have we gone and gotten ourselves into now... I hope your doing better then I Sassy..."

Despite everything his young sister had thought of him and how she thought she shouldn't be treated how she was... he had never done anything that bad. Just a brother trying to toughen his sister up to be prepared for the cold hard truth of the worlds.. but even something like this wasn't one of those things you could prepare for... not until you've been through it does it really sink in.

Natalie went out the MINDY bay, completely dissapointed. She only wanted to fight, as plain as that. A deep sigh relieved her a little, as she was halfway to her room. "Well, i guess we´re still waiting for something... Coming to think about it, i haven´t eaten anything since i got here... since that cat incident... She turned back and headed to eat something.

Kestral sat in the chair, taking the letter out of its envelope. He slowly unfolded the paper, and brought it to eye level. He read through it slowly, and then re-read it. He was slightly shocked but understood what she was saying. "I understand Mizuho, however I would just like you to know that it was our lives, or theres. I don't want you to feel anger towards me for the orders I had to make." He smiled, and stood up. Moving over to her to give her a hug.

"As for the new ship, I hope you get it and have great adventures. The likes of which I would like to have...and hopefully will after the training." He smiled again. "When do you think you will be leaving?" He wanted her to stay, but what could he do.

"I disagree. It may have been our lives or theres, but only because we chose to make it that way." She yawned, leveled the pistol against her temple. "We are fragile creatures, Kestral. Fragile, unstable creatures given the power to kill at a whim."

She lowered the weapon after a long pause, her finger twitching irritably on the trigger. A flick of her wrist, and she cast it aside, not watching where it landed.

"Rebellion is an act of desperation. The fault can never be layed fully on the rebel. Rarely can it be layed even in part on the rebel."

Mizuho had that glassy-eyed look that she sometimes got, when she delved into her memories of Elysia, or when she felt helpless or remorseful.

"Thank you for you hospitality, Kestral. We will not meet again. I have no intention of returning."

Kestral nodded politely. Choosing to not argue, as he was still so tired. He stood up, shook her hand and as he walked out called out. "It's been great having you. I hope to see you in the near future. Please tell Suzi when you are leaving."

He began his walk to his quarters. He must have been up for at least forty-eight hours straight now. "Suzi I am going to be. No need to reply, but make sure you tell me if anything happens. Just as he finished he reached his own quarters, opened the door and flung h8imself onto the big, kicking the door closed while in the air. His thought's where mainly on what Mizuho had just said, though he didn't think he had much choice on what he did, he had done it and it was now in the past. Then there was the training and..... he was out, fast asleep.

Suzi watched over all the surrounding objects and debris that lay around the ship. They still had their shields up, and weapons operational, just in case of an attack. However everything was much more relaxed, a lot different from just half and hour before. All the crew where still ready, but nothing much was happening, she didn't really expect it to be either. Suzi just observed what was happening like a king looking over his kingdom.

Mizuho yawned, and returned to her writing, glancing on occasion at the transcript of the transmissions sent between her own computer and Star Army command. She had a ship waiting for her, but as of yet no crew. Ah, well. All things took time. She would return to Yamatai as soon as she could manage - and part of managing meant asking the AI for something, which she hated doing.

So instead, she penned two letters further, then typed them rapidly, sending one to an Arild Bard, the other to one Eikan Minato. And thus ended her very short list of friendly acquaintances. She smiled inwardly, noting how very few people she trusted and how very many she despised in this massive military juggernaut.

"Mikomi, what will be the quickest way for me to return to Yamatai? I would like to leave within the hour, if possible."

She carefully, meticulously carefully, organized her papers and notebooks in a number of folders, stowed them in a small binder. Collected what meager posessions in the chamber were actually hers - the sidearm, the projectile pistol (though she left the spare ammo, the weapon having only a single round loaded), the tau kien she had not drawn in more than two years, the rest of her civilian clothes. Like the ammo, she left her discarded uniforms behind, still refusing to wear them.

Having grown tired of standing outside the bridge in phalanx armor, and having heard that the battle was suddenly over, Tom stepped out of his suit.

"Looks like more people died..." he muttered to himself.

Tom returned to the bridge and took a seat at his console. He was surprised that the bridge was so empty, the captain not being there.

"Suzi, can you please run some diagnostics and report the condition of the ship? Did we take any damage?"

Tom said:

"Suzi, can you please run some diagnostics and report the condition of the ship? Did we take any damage?"

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"We are fine I have her watching for anything unusual that might cause troubles for us."

Kato had to answer before Suzi since he was on the bridge and was acting as the engineer during the short encounter while Tom was suiting up and walking around. "But you think I would be allowed to make a request transmission to the..." He seemed to be scanning his thoughts for something then it hit him. "To the Akuro. They have something I would like to get my hands on while we are here. What do you think Suzi? Can you open a communications with the Akuro?"

Suzi turned to Kato with a knowing look. "I do not think now is the best time for this question that you want to ask. As we and they are still under alert, and they have to fix their fleet. I suggest a different time." Suzi smiled to herself. Kestral was in bed, she could do anything. Of course she wouldn't, but she liked the thought anyhow.

"Then may I suggest since we have not taken any damage we offer our assistance to speed up any repairs they may need? Well I do not speak for Tom but I am willing to offer my skills where needed." He smiled not looking at Suzi but at the on board screen of space.

"And besides the best way to get something I want is to assist in something that they need. And as of now they need repairs issued." He thought to himself as he held the smile.

Suzi smiled again, but a bigger grin this time. "I do not think they need our help as they have not asked for it. Also for me to make a offer to them I would have to ask Kestral and he is asleep. I would not like to awake him as he has been very busy recently." Suzi smiled again. He can't get through this one.

"I don't think we need to wake him. It's not like there is anything wrong we are just talking about helping our comrades out. I think there are enough awake members of the crew with a sufficient rank to ask if the Akuro or any other ships in the area are in need of our assistance. Even though they have not asked maybe that could be because they can not or maybe they think we are in need of our own repairs and can't help. Or they can't contact us and thus they need our help. But any ways what do you think Tom? Should we at least offer it to them?"

He keyed something on the counsel in front of him opening a communications link to Saeki Aya. "First Sergeant Saeki Aya do you think it a proper thing to offer our assistance to those aboard the Akuro and other ships that may need maintenance since we are not damaged and have the resources to help?" He fell silent and looked at Tom while waiting for both his and Saeki's thoughts on the matter.

"It's not our role to engage in unapproved communications. We're here to keep the ship in one piece. Our ranks do not give us the priviledge to make these kinds of decisions. Besides, this is something Kestral would want to know about and, honestly, he deserves his sleep. We've been through a lot in the last week..."

Tom reclined in his chair.

"That's the official, technical answer. So hey, how's it going? I don't think we've actually met before, mr?"

Roken took a moment to think about what he was going to say, he was a little curious about the crew and the ship and since she seems to have been with them before she might give him a little info about the crew, he would eventually find out more about them but it helped pass the time. "I was just wondering what the crew was like," roken said he paused for a moment "im just asking just to pass the time, seeing how we wont be seeing any action anytime soon," roken was going over the suit systems when he asked just sitting doing nothing made him a little nervous he was a soldier and his purpose was combat.

He remembered what it was like back home with the gangs, it was never a dull moment if it wasnt the rivals to deal with it was the crazy cops or vigilanties that made life on the street more difficult, he shook the thought from his mind and waited for her to answer his question.

The first thing that came to mind was to call Tom a slacker just wanting to get out of a little work on a ship but then again he didn't know what they've been through so held back on saying anything ill tempered. He was after all just trying to get over there to get something he wanted but since he wasn't going to get the new toy to tinker with this way let off a light sigh.

"I don't expect you to know me. And please don't call me mister I'm not all that old yet nor do I even like the sound of Mister. I know you though Tom Freeman at least by file. The name's Kato Tanaka, Sergeant Kato Tanaka though I'm more of a scientist I guess I'm also an engineer." This pinky on his right hand rose up to his head and he stuffed it into one of his neko ears scratching at the inside of it since there was a loose strained of hair tickling the inside of it. That was the only problem he seemed to have with the ears but he seemed to like his hair long so he'd just have to live with it. "I guess they don't need another crew over there to speed up repairs. I just kinda feel useless over here we weren't even in the thick of anything. You seemed to be fine after a few thousand or so people just died, how do you pull that off."

It almost seemed as if he was challenging Tom to the question. It was a double edged sword if he answered one way he'd seem like a cold hearted monster, If he answered the other way he'd just sound like another stooge of the military who's just working for the money not caring whats going on around him.

Tom thought carefully about the question, swirling his chair to face Kato Tanaka. He knew the nature of the question, the sarcastic edge it seemed to carry.

"When I was a Santo Hei about a week ago, I came fresh out of the Yamatai training facilities. I didn't really know how... serious things were out here in space. I guess you could say I was all into the romanticized image of the soldier. You know, the one where our army is invincible, fighting for the just cause against enemies that roll over to our might."

The Geshrin sighed deeply, flashes of the battle over Tami running through his mind.

"I was partially right in my beliefs. We were fighting the good fight against the Mishu... but we sure as hell weren't invincible. You could imagine my terror when I saw the carnage of fleet combat, when the Mishu boarded our ship, when we crash landed on Tami.. when Lori died and I had to prepare the remains. It was eye-opening to say the least."

He looked down, his fists clenched in his lap.

"When there are weapons that can wipe starships, if not planets out of existence in one terrible moment, a lot of it comes down to chance. We could've easily been one of the thousands of ships destroyed in the first wave. Somehow, we managed to survive, but next time we may not be so lucky. I haven't resigned myself to anything, but one can't say that fate doesn't play a huge role in our survival. We could be dead tomorrow."

Bringing his hands up, Tom ran them through his spiky yellow hair as a sort of calming motion, returning to his reclining position, a melancholy smile on his face.

"Of course I feel for everyone who died. It tears at me if I think about it. I've got to remain positive, no matter what happens. It's how I cope."

"Confidentially..the only person I knew in the least was Sergeant Claymere, and he's off at an NCO Academy. I've hardly spent any time with them since I've arrived. I saw them all the first day of my deployment, but that was it." the Geshrin paused. "After our first mission I went shopping with my mother to some of the victory sales.." Eve trailed off, not being able to answer the man's questions further.

And so the combat was finished, not a single casualty, not a single bruised toe. Ghi felt as if that was a rather wasted time. "You have proven to be useless again. No one gives you anything to do, you are useless, and they ignore you. Pathetic." The voice recited.

Ghi shut off her data pad, research was good, and she now knew a surprising amount about explosives. "Yes, a pointless piece of research that you will never put into use. Pointless. You've wasted your time." The voice hissed.