RP: YSS Wakaba [YSS Wakaba] Episode Two: We ain't in Yamatai No More

Corridor to Upper Engineering

The Captain being down did not phase Hiroshiko at all, she was still scared shitless that she was going to finally die on a kami-forsaken Sharie. "If I ever survive this, I will never step foot on this death machines ever again!!" she thought to herself. Her previously unknown mental occupant promptly reminded her that she had Yuri on top of her.

Rolling the science person off of her now freed but very pained body somewhat forcibly, she tried to connect mentally to the ship's network to figure what is going on. She still had not gotten any directions on what needed to be focused on.

Bridge

Inaho picked herself up and shook her head. "Now I know what a piñata feels like." New damage reports and requests for orders were overwhelming the still struggling coms system. Two things stood out. They had been attacked by a still unknown enemy and the Captain and XO were currently out of commission. That meant she had command. "Hurray for me." She said rather dryly.

First thing to do was to regain so some control. The ship needed guidance. She overrode the alarms and made a ship wide announcement. "All hands to battle stations. Repeat, all hands to battle stations. Damage control teams to Decks 5 through 11. Get those fires under control." That would help get the ship in general moving.

With that done, and more detail info coming to her through the ship's MEGA. She send a message to Yukiko. "Are you still alive dear?" She asked though she already knew she was. "We need those engines up and running asap. Runa can take over the turret repairs, for once engines comes first." She then located Doctor Fletcher near Upper Engineering. "Doctor, report to the Med bay stat. Taisa Motoyoshi is seriously wounded and needs to be stabilized at all costs."

With another sign Inaho looked around the bridge. This place was going to need some serious cleaning once they were out of this mess. She spotted little Momosumi and said, "Momosumi, were you able to get any reading or photo's of what attacked us?"

Corridor to Upper Engineering

Although the connection was somewhat spotty, Hiroshiko would be able to the ship's network. The ship's MEGA had been quite shaken by the event that had sent the Wakaba to where ever the hell they were now and had needed to do several reboots to get itself working properly. The recent attack had also messed with many of it's data receivers but it had finally been able to pinpoint the damaged router. It directed Hiroshiko to deck 12 and repair or replace it's routers so that communication could be restored to the Wakaba.

Corridor to Upper Engineering

Fletcher nodded, he was needed elsewhere. "Ok, we've stabilized her, so get her to sickbay. You'll need to take it slower than I'm going to do." He said to the Neko who was with the wounded he was currently treating. Then began to head back towards the medical bay.

Medbay

Fletcher strode into the medbay, heading straight to the surgery where he would need to work. "What's the situation with Taisa Motoyoshi?" He asked.

"We're putting hemosynth into her, but it's coming out just as fast. Her vitals are bad." A nurse responded as they moved into Surgery.

Fletcher looked first to the readouts, "Ok, we need to stop the bleeding. Get me a scanner so I can see through all this blood." He said, trying to work out exactly the plan was going to be, but acting like he had one already for everyone else's sake.

YSS Wakaba
Deck 24

Calandri was knocked down by the sudden explosions and shook her head as she tried to regain her footing and started to stand up, hearing a scream behind and a shout. She turned around to find the XO down after being hit by shrapnel from the explosion as she swore in her native tongue. Now this was a terrible first mission, she shook her head and came over to the woman and the XO with a sigh as she kneels down with them "okay, what I am going to need, is him out of the armour, I believe I can carry him down to the Medical Facilities." She looked down at the armour, in all her training the armours that the yamataians used where always the most confusing thing to open up.

YSS Wakaba
Deck 24
“Join the military, you will! They say! I’m in a gang, I say! Oh, honey, we know it’s a club, not a gang! They say! Parents, I swear!” Runa grumbled as she got to work on her previous orders. “Now I am stuck in Yui knows where and none of my people are with me” She smiled as she thought of what she might do to her parents when they returned. Now her task was completed she rode on her drake back for new orders.

She spotted the XO and the others. ‘Ma’am task is complete. Anything I can do to help?” She asked, thinking she’ll have to play nice for now since she needed them for her survival.

Bridge
The tiny robot was still in shock. The captain she had been talking to before was now down. Was she dead? Was she coming back? She shook her head and paid attention to Inaho's question. "Not entirely clear," Momosumi admitted, "but it's big." She sent a private message to Inaho, explaining "I susoect it could be related to the SMX pod. It seems there was some sort of attack here before, and I'm guessing it has to do with them." This time, Momosumi attempted to use the scanners to identify if the type of damage dealt to the previous ships unfortunate enough to arrive here was similar to the damage the Wakaba had just taken. She also cross-checked available databases to see if there were any known weapons that would cause this damage pattern.

YSS Wakaba
Deck 24

The young Minkan girl seemed to settle down some. Calandri's calm dementor helped. The girl, a caretaker, looked down at the XO's Daisy suit. It was part of basic training, learning how to put these things on and take them off. Any idiot with half a brain should be able to figure it out. "Come on, think!" She muttered to herself. There! That was the release switch. The armor unlocked itself allowing them to remove it. But as they were removing the right leg guard they must have accidently bumped it because the XO temporarily regained consciousness and began screaming in pain. The poor Minkan girl screamed as well and dropped the leg, causing it to hit the deck. The shock was too much and the XO again went out.

MedBay

Santo Hei Valdia Masao entered the surgery and began to assist the Fletcher. She had to float up to the table because the 7'1" doctor naturally raised the operating table to a height that was most comfterble for him to work. Even though she was about two feet shorter than him, with her Neko ability she didn't even notice the difference. She liked working with Doctor Fletcher and had already learned a great deal from him working aboard the Wakaba. While the nurse was assisting him in trying to stop the bleeding, Valdia ran some other scans to see what the extent of the damage was. She frowned at her readout. That couldn't be right. A Neko's body was full of nanomachines that helped repair serous trauma. But according to her scans, the nanomachines weren't repairing. In fact, they seemed to be doing the opposite. "Doctor Fletcher. We have a problem."

Bridge

Momosumi search would reveal a 90% match to weapons used by the SMX and NMX. Energy readings and damage indicated heavy capital ship weapons. The computer was still processing images being uploaded from the ships scanners and the Mindy suits surrounding the Wakaba. Results were still inconclusive. Inaho was silent for a moment as she took in what Momosumi said. "Keep at it. We need to know what we're up against."

MedBay

Fletcher looked across at the screen to where the Nanomachine display was located. It took him a moment to digest the information. There were a few possible options, none of them good. "Are they subverting her nanomachines or are they invaders?" He asked, watching the screen himself and calculating their options. Hemosynth and it's nano-machines were very well protected. If they were being subverted, then something was worse than wrong. Sacrificing the whole ship and it's entire crew would be a cheap price to get the information back to Star Army research level bad. That was the worse case because it meant every single Neko in all of Yamatai was vulnerable to having their own defenders turned against them. Invaders were still bad, but he could fight them even as they replicated inside her body. Bolster the number of defenders with more Hemosynth, identify how the nanomachines could target the invaders, and other techniques.

YSS Wakaba
Deck 24

After Calandri recovered from the screams of the XO and the girl's screams as well. She knelt beside the XO and wrapped her two left arms around the body, one just under the shoulders and the other on his lower back as she lifts him up. She used her two right arms to help lift him up into a more comfortable position for both of them, as she held onto his his waist with her two left arms and her two right held his legs to stop and jostling or bouncing, especially if he woke up. Gently and slowly she rose back to standing tall, with a small nod to the girl that helped "thank you, sorry for the scare at the end but he should be okay now, I can take it from here." As she turned she saw Runa that and she smiled calmly "well if you need something to do, follow me I guess, make sure I am not bashing the XO against anything and warn me if he wakes again, I would rather be prepared for a scream or activity that will happen."

With that Calandri started to walk, she knew it was better to with the ship shaking and stuff falling. She made her way towards the Medical Bay, only being there a few times before, mostly to chat with the medical staff, about her biology, it may of been more awkward than she realised but it had to be done at the time. She knew the way and prayed to her goddess of healing and life that the XO would survive this "Kavva nostari filnura."

YSS Wakaba
Deck 24

Before her, one of the two smallest crewmembers saw Calandri pick up their XO as if it was nothing. A benefit for a huge body, the drake rider figured. Runa simply nodded her head and followed the supergirl. Her Drake also kept watching on the situation as they flew, especially concerned whether its mistress was alright healthwise considering she’d been knocked unconscious previously. As they neared the medical bay, Exyrus chirped, thinking that not only could their XO get help but maybe Runa could get a check-up.

YSS Wakaba
Med bay

Valdia ran her scans again and again, growing more frustrated with each result. She couldn't get two test to come back with the same reading. One minute the Taisa's body is doing what it's suppose to do, next it's doing the exact opposite. She quickly called for a different scanner to be brought over. Within minutes one was wheeled into the room and Valdia ran a scan. This scan showed that while the Nanomachines were not working against the Taisa's body as originally feared, it wasn't working very well if at all. She quickly did another scan and got similar, but not quite the same results. "Doctor, it might just be our equipment. I can't seem to get a good reading. The equipment seems to be working fine, but I can't be sure."

A nurse stuck her head into the surgery. "Doctor, the XO has been injured. They are bringing him in now." Valdia looked up at the giant doctor and said, "I can see to him." She quickly removed her gloves and headed back out into the general med bay.

Valdia came out while putting on new gloves right as Calandri carried in Chusa Canterbury. A nurse had a gurney table ready to take the XO. "Set him down here please, carefully." Valdia began her examination. "What happened?" She asked. She continued to work as she listened to Calandri's tale. Thomas's head had a nasty cut and it looked like he had suffered a concussion. His leg was even worse. The bone of his right leg was sticking out and it looked like it had become gangrenous. The leg was going to have to come off and now. She glanced up the tall Calandri and asked, "Are you squeamish? I need you to hold him down. Hold his legs and his shoulders down. Don't let him jerk."

Valdia took an amputation tool and quickly began cutting. There was some blood splatter but not much. She quickly had the leg off just below the knee. Blood began to flow, which was a good sign she wouldn't have to cut more above the knee. Valdia did an inspection that there weren't any foreign particles in the leg then set the leg into a machine that began to securing blood vessels and nerve ends. It was an automated thing, in about an hour the leg would be ready to have a prosthetic replacement put on. Not your fancy cybernetic one, that would require some more specialized surgery and customization but they could get a let on that worked almost as good as the one lost.

Thomas was strapped to the gurney so he wouldn't accidently move while the machine did it's thing and a nurse began to clean up his other injuries while doing a brain scan to check for damage there. The XO was still unconscious. Valdia removed her bloody gloves and tossed them into an overflowing waist bin. It never seemed to end. She glanced at Calandri and the mini Neko that had brought in the XO. "Are you two good? Do you need checked over as well?" She asked.

YSS Wakaba
Med bay

Calandri was taken back by the quickness of the medical team, she wasn't really prepared for the sudden surge of activity that she had become a part of but continued with the task at hand. She nodded as she moved to the gurney table and using her four armies, slowly moved the XO off her shoulder and onto the table, careful not to bash or knock the higher ranking crewmate. She breathed out as she thinks back to what happened "We were at deck 24, repairing the engines, when the explosions happened, I didn't see what happened to the XO, but I assumed he got hit by loose debris or shrapnel from the ship." As she spoke she watched the woman work on examining the body and was asked a question she had never been asked before. She knew of the word as she shook her head "Was raised a hunter, skinned animals and helped when people got attack, I'll be okay." With a short breath out as she leaned over the unconscious man as she moved her arms to the pin him to the table as they began work and Calandri breathed a sigh of relief that the man didn't wake up throughout that ordeal.

After the straps were put in place, Calandri removed her arms and looks at the man on the table, he looked peaceful here, unlike she had seem him since coming on the ship, it was almost a different person. Calandri paused as she was asked if she was injured and she gave the medical staff a shrug "I am not sure, I got some pain in my shoulder and ribs, from being thrown about the ship, but I have felt worse so I think it is okay." She rotates her lower left arm and winces a little "Hock nalvi Groi?" She bowed a little as she then looked at the stares of those around and took a moment to realise "oh sorry, can I help you in anyway?"

Corridor to Upper Engineering

Hiroshiko's concerns about the state of the ship's Chief Engineer were only heightened when she got the orders from the ship's MEGAMI. It took some digging in the digital metadata, but she was definitely sure the MEGAMI was the source of it. "Order acknowledged, making my way to deck 12." she replied back digitally to the AI. She was thankful that her original specialization as a Sensors Technician required her to have a rather through knowledge set on maintenance of MEGAMI's network systems.

She nodded to the Science girl, grabbed her deluxe repair kit, and limped her way to the nearest Zero-G corridor. When she arrived, she she climbed up to pull an environmental suit from one of the hidden compartments. Undressing and redressing herself in the Zero-G environment, she stuffed her uniform into a buttpack and began get climb up to Deck 12.

Deck 12 Maintenance Conduits

Arriving at the location of the routers at fault within the deck's maintenance conduits, she was greeted with an utter mess of shrapnel and twisted supports. She begun inspecting the structural integrity of the conduit and that section of the ship by flashing a light to get a clear look. The explosion did not seem to leave a lasting effect in that regard which allowed her to slightly smile in relief so long as that area of that side of the ship did not take any heavy kinetic strikes too many times. The repair would be a minimum a 4 man job.

Turning her attention to the panel that was supposed to protect the sensitive electronics within. Seeing the multitude of small holes going through it, it was confirmed that the door had failed at it's intended job when she was greeted with shredded routers. "Now that is some serious bad luck." the male voice within Hiroshiko's mind spoke to her.

"That is what replacement routers are for. The shopping in storage wasn't for fun now." she responded silently back to "herself". She begun digging out the ruined pieces of the 3 routers and switches so she could inspect the power/data connections. So long as they were intact and largely undamaged, it will be a simple swap.

YSS Wakaba
Med bay

Fletcher let himself step back from the problem, detaching himself to consider the alternatives for a moment. "Give me a nanite panel." He decided, the neko nurse nodding and running it quickly as Fletcher tried to sew the captain back up. When it returned, he frowned. There did seem to be some sort of strange nanites, but they seemed weirdly ephemeral, but responded to cold. He made a couple of mental calculations. He made a decision, "Put the captain in a nanite bag and then into cold storage. We'll have to deal with this when we return to Yamatai."

He scrubbed, making sure that there weren't any foreign nanites on anyone or in the operating theater. He walked out to see the XO, unconcious. "Who's in command?" he asked, not knowing what parts of the command staff were dead. He hoped he hadn't just been promoted to commanding officer present on the ship, there were a lot of wounded. It wouldn't be the first time, but it wasn't something you ever really wanted to have happen.

Out in Space, Wakaba picket line

As the destructive energy beam hit the ship, Setsunu Meiosei sprang into action. Her calm and authoritative voice cut through the panic chatter and got her picket line reformed. When more shots didn't come Setsunu took a half dozen of her best fighters, Katana trained Giretsus, and teleported 100 klicks in the direction the attack had come from. They found nothing. Nothing visually and nothing on their scopes. The enemy had vanished. As soon as their teleporters had recharged, Setsunu and her fighters teleported back.

That attack had really shook everyone up. The fact that the enemy had completely disappeared had everyone on edge if it would suddenly show up again. Setsunu set a rotation, so that those on patrol could take a break and get some rest. It was critical to keep people at their best. Several of her fighters protested, saying they didn't need a rest but Setsunu would hear no complaint. She even took the first rest rotation to show her people how important it was, even though she didn't want to come off the line either.

Aboard ship

Setsunu got out of her Mindy for the first time in what felt like days. She unbraided her long green hair and ran her fingers through it. Connection to the ships AI was still spotty but she was able to bring herself up to date with what had been going on inside the ship. She was quite startled to learned that both the Captain and XO had been incapacitated during that last attack. Setsunu immediately made her way towards the Med bay. As she left, she grabbed her Aether spear and strapped it to her back.

Med Bay

The Med Bay was overflowing but Setsunu was finally able to locate Thomas. The XO was still strapped to a gurney table and unconscious. Setsunu looked over her dearest friend and thanked the stars that he wasn't more seriously hurt. She gently took his hand in hers and brushed a the hair out of his eye.

Valdia smiled at the tall four armed woman. "Probably would be a good idea to get you checked out anyway. We wouldn't want something minor to get worse because it wasn't checked out." Valdia took a hand scanner and ran it over Calandri. The hand held beeped twice then showed it's results. Valdia nodded. "Just some bruising. Nothing serious." Valdia looked around when Calandri asked if there was anything else she could do to help. "Well, I guess we could use some help moving people who have already been treated elsewhere. Give us some more room to work in here." She was about to go on when she saw Doctor Fletcher come out of surgery. "Excuse me."

Valdia headed straight over to the Fletcher. "How is the Captain?" She asked. She nodded her agreement as Fletcher filled her in. "I concur Doctor. Taisa Motoyoshi is very important to her clan. She should be ok until we return." She paused and looked around the room. If we return she thought to herself. Fletcher's inquiry about who had acting command now brought her around. "I don't know sir. I believe you are. Even if Chusa Canterbury were to wake up right now, you would still have acting command. He's had a concussion and as per regulations, he wouldn't be cleared to return to command for at least 6 hours after he regains consciousness."

Thomas' eyes opened and for a moment he couldn't figure out where he was or what he was doing. His eyes wouldn't focus. "It's ok." He heard a soft familiar voice say. "You've been wounded, but are being treated." His eyes were finally able to focus on the person standing over him. He recognized the beautiful dark skinned face and dark green hair. "Hey Sets. How are things going?" Setsunu smiled. "Same as always." Thomas returned the smile. "That bad hu? Well I suppose Taisa Kazue has things under control." The smile disappeared from her face. She looked around and noticed Doctor Fletcher. "Shosa Fletcher. Chusa Canterbury has regained consciousness. I thought it best if you inform him as to the condition of the ship and her Captain."

Deck 12 Maintenance Conduits

Hiroshiko continued with her repairs of the damaged routers. She cursed in Yamataigo as she continued pulling out the ruined routers and supporting equipment. The twisted and melted metal were making the job difficult as she would need to dedicate more time to cutting it with a cutting torch. The good news was that the power and data connections had been sufficiently shielded from the bulk of the damage. The power switch was also undamaged, allowing her to do this work in the first place. The bad news was she eventually she came to the realization that the entire section was a lost cause that needed to be removed and emptied

Once all of the ruined materials were thrown out of the nearest hatch into the nearby corridor, he took the time to inspect the scorch marks. Judging by them and the dispersion pattern, she figured it was the plasma conduits for the ship's CFS that ran parallel to the maintenance conduit was the likely reason for the damage. She always hated dealing with them do to much they tended to explode. She sighed again and started to jury jig the new routers and switches into the now empty space.
While the mess of cables, molecure tape, and equipment would not win her any master technician competitions, but it would do the job it was required of for the time being.

With the physical side of the job complete, she turned on the power switch. Not seeing anything explode or seeing any magic smoke, she wirelessly jacked herself into the routers and opened the test port with the ship's MEGAMI to begin testing and configuring the routers.

"Heh, not bad kid... not bad at all." the voice chuckled a bit in Hiroshiko's head.

Out in the Darkness

The NMX Titan ship had moved away from the Wakaba but was still hunting the wounded ship. For a ship so massive, it moved completely silent and undetectable in the debris field. The Lord Mishhuvurthyar sat at his command station eyeing the readouts. One of it's tentacles gently taping the armrest of his chair as he deliberated how best to toy with his prey. Standing off to the side were two Nekovalkyrja. They had been summoned by the Lord Mishhuvurthyar but as of yet hadn't been spoken to. So they remained silent and unmoving as they waited to be acknowledged.

The Lord finally spoke. "Master Overseer." Cydu Yge, a pale skinned Nekovalkyrja with black hair cut in a hime style knelt, "My Lord?" The other, a tall true Neko with dark blue hair that was buzzed cut on one side and long tied into a braid on the other remained standing, seeming uninterested in what was going on around her. Her rank insignia marked her as a Master Elite, the equivalent of a Joto Heisho. "I know your warriors have been growing board as of late. I have decided to let them have some sport with our prey." "I have plans of attack already drawn up my Lord." Cydu smiled. It was not a nice smile. It was a twisted evil looking smile. The Lord Mishhuvurthyar smiled as well and said, "Then I leave it in your hands Master Overseer. Go." Cydu stood and turned to leave. The tall Master Elite turned to follow her superior officer.

"Warrior. A moment." The Lord said. Both woman stopped. Cydu glanced at the NCO and scowled but dared not comment. After a moments hesitation, she left the bridge. The Master Elite turned and looked the Lord Mishhuvurthyar. Her face seemed uninterested in the whole affair. The Lord watched her closely. He knew her story, every few on the ship did though. The woman, who was know only as Warrior, was a Neko originally of the Star Army. She had defected to the NMX years ago and had fought for them ever since. She refused to acknowledge any rank or name other than Warrior. The Lord Mishhuvurthyar had seen few people on the battlefield who fought as hard or enjoyed combat more than Warrior. It was the only thing she lived for. Combat. Not only was she amazingly skilled on the battle field, she had a superior technical mind. Indeed, she was a better strategist than Cydu, but she refused to lead. "Are you ready to fight against the Star Army again?" The Lord Mishhuvurthyar almost teased. "These ones seem to have teeth." Warrior bared her own teeth, reveling that her canines had been filed down into fangs.

"Good. I know you will enjoy the fight more than anyone. As such I have a gift for you. The armors have been working on it for some time now. A Mindy suit, like you used to pilot." Warrior made a noise in her throat, almost like a growl. She did not like to be reminded of her old life. The Lord Mishhuvurthyar smiled again. "It has been changed especially for you. Go and have it fitted for you before the battle. I expect it to come back covered with the blood of your foes." Warrior seemed to smiled then hurried to see this new armor. The Lord turned his attention back to his displays. Very soon, the trap would be sprung upon his prey.

Med Bay

Calandri never liked the things Yamataian's used to check her body turning her head away so she didn't have to watch, it felt too invasive, though it did help with making sure everything was okay with her body. She shook it off after the scan and was thankful it was just some bruising and she wasn't going to serious risk her life by helping anyone here. She turned back to the woman and nodded "well there is the Crew Lounge, if it isn't completely destroyed there is enough room to keep people rested and looked after, if it would be okay we could also bring one medical personel to look after them and just let them stay rested."

She thought it was best to check before she would start bringing people to the ward room, as she was about to leave the Chusa had woken up, without saying anything since she knew that there were more serious things. She waited for him to look over and gave him a small smile and nod as she runs out. She had that feeling of something was going to happened "trussa kalia." (Recover fast).

Crew Lounge

When the woman reached the lounge, she could see that she woud need to fix some things to make sure it was okay for the people that were going to come over. She knew it was take a while but it would be better to make sure that the injured where more comfortable than laying on rubble and broken furniture. She pushed stuff to the sides of the room and grunted as she could feel the burn on her arms and legs. She wanted to help the people who took her in as part of their clan or family, atleast that is how she thought of it. Like she would of done before she was taken from her planet, the clan takes care of each other.

Back to Med Bay

It took her awhile to more anything and she had sweat dripping from her now as she ran back to the Med Bay, panting as she entered "Lounge is cleared for people to get taken over...." She panted more as she looked at the people "I can carry two at one time, if there is anyone that is able to walk, they can follow me and...." She leaned against the wall as she tried to breath and slowly regained her composure and tried again "Okay I cleared out the Lounge so anyone that has already been treated can go there and rest up, if you need help getting there, I will assist you and please make it orderly, I don't need you all to be hurting yourselves again while we head to recovery." She nodded to Valdia as she saw the woman and didn't want to interupt anything going on with the Chusa at the moment "if I could steal someone as well, if there is enough medical personel left, it may help the recovery, in case someone needs something."

YSS WAKABA
Deck 12 Maintenance Conduits

As Hiroshiko threw the switch all the lights switched over to emergency lighting. Not just where she was, but all over the ship. People stopped what they were doing and looked around. For a heartbeat no one dared to even breath. Then the lights came back on. But not just the lights, the MEGAMI itself seemed to have woken up after it's shocking damage. Communication throughout the ship seemed to be restored, crew were able to sync with the MEGAMI and get faster and more accurate updates. Moral all over the ship seemed to improve.

The MEGAMI's avatar, a hologram projection of a Samurai warrior, appeared before Hiroshiko. "Thank you Itto Hei Hiroshiko. That certainly helped with communication. However, I require further maintenance. I've tracked the damaged area to Deck 8 but it appears to have been breached. You will need an environment suit before you can complete the repairs."

MED BAY

Chusa Thomas Canterbury laid back down resigned. After a long talk with Dr. Fletcher, Thomas gave up. He knew the good doctor had a point. Medical regulations were there for a reason for everyone's safety, but Thomas wasn't happy about it. The Captain was out of commission, Which made him acting Captain. Lying on his back was not the way he had wanted to take command of his ship. Medical Regs be damned, they needed every available man and woman helping if the ship was to survive. He also couldn't help shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Restless he sat up on the bed again and looked around. Setsunu had been there a moment ago. But she seemed to have disappeared. He looked at his leg. It was still strapped to the machine but looked like it would be ready soon.

"Sir?" Thomas looked up to see Setsunu. She had a knowing smile on her face. "I thought you'd want a change of uniform." She nodded at his sliced up pants. Thomas smiled. She knew him so well. "I do. As soon as this confounded machine...." At that moment the machine started beeping. Valdia came over and pushed some buttons on it and released it from Thomas's leg. "It's finished Sir. We'll need to wait an hour or so before we can run a test to make sure your nerve endings are still in order. We can't do that while there's any anesthesia in your system, even if its just the local we gave you." Thomas nodded. "Thank you doctor."

As soon as Valdia had gone Thomas looked over at Setsunu. "Give me those pants." Setsunu just smiled. She helped him get into the pants then rolled up the right pant leg up over the knee. "Now I just need my..." Before he could finish Setsunu was holding out a service belt. But just any service belt, his belt. His two plasma revolvers and Straight Silver knife were attached to it. "You'll get a metal for this you know." Thomas said as he hitched the belt around his hips. Thomas wore his holsters lower than standard and reversed. This way he could draw either weapon with either hand. And of course no Canterbury went anywhere with out his silver blade. The weight of his weapons around his hips was a huge comfort to Thomas. Setsunu then held up another holster. This was a double shoulder holster with two type 33 service pistols in them. Thomas looked at the holster questionly. Setsunu ran a hand through her long dark green hair. "I've got that feeling." She said simply. Thomas knew exactly what 'that feeling' was. He had it himself. He took the shoulder holsters and put them on as well.

It was at that moment that Calandri back came in and announced that she had cleared some room in a nearby lounge. Thomas glanced around the Med bay. It did look like it was overflowing. Getting to his feet... his foot anyway and leaning on Setsunu, Thomas said, "Excelent work Valtok-hei. Doctor Valdia, lets get any walking wounded or any patient that is not in serious danger moved over to the lounge to allow you more room to work."

Those that were not too seriously injured began to get to their feet and help each other move to the lounge. Setsunu helped Thomas over to a gurney table where he could lean against and push it along with just his one leg while ship helped pick up a stretcher and carry them out. While Thomas pushed he caught sight of Rune Seo riding her Drake. Thomas was quite curious about the Drake. The Dragon, a close cousin of the Drake was his family crest after all and was tattooed on his right cheek. "How are you and your drake holding up?" Thomas asked.

BRIDGE

Momosumi was finally having some luck identifying the ship that had attacked them. The computer had taken the captive images from the Mindys on the picket line and the ship's cameras and had come up with a rendering. Adding in details from the weapon that had hit the Wakaba and comparing damage to other ships in the area, the puzzle was becoming more and more clear. Whatever had attacked them was big. Very big. The computer estimated that it had to be Battleship class or greater. Momosumi's station began to ping with contacts, but the computer couldn't get a clear lock on anything.

MED BAY

The tiny girl looked at the acting captain. A part of her wanted to scowl at him as if he believed a member of the world-famous (or at least famous in her neighborhood) The Flying Hellians could ever be hurt, but he was being nice, so at least she could try to be polite, which she realized would be a good idea. “Exyrus seems to be fine. I’ll check up on her later when I am in my part of my quarters. I have the proper tools there. As for me, I am fine-Exyrus! I’m-Exyrus!” She sighed. As the tiny Neko started to say that she was fine, Exyrus chirped loudly. She didn’t believe that Runa was fine. The drake knew her mistress’s stubborn streak.

Runa sighed and tried to change the subject. “More importantly, that tattoo on your cheek. Is that a Dragon?” She asked, and remembered how her gang of friends had stolen the design from a family crest a while ago. They used it for their sign too, and now a part of her was fearful that he knew about it. What if he’d make trouble? She figured she could out stubborn him, but as a pilot, she might be needed so she needed to trust them.