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+--- Thread: At a certain workshop (/showthread.php?tid=166689)
At a certain workshop - WesternPeregrine - 12-18-2018
Another day, another second shift in Hope's Watch, Pennsylvania System. At a sizeable hangar, several ships laid in wait for service and maintenance. Some had returned from sorties and training gigs, others had flown from several corners of known space after the Forlorn Hope reactivation or at the end of long assignments, and now returned to the nest for rest and recovery with their pilots.
Edmond Foch was dealing with his latest customer. He had heard from Nick Stenn that he was to take role of maintaining the ships of a handful of knights, among them a few Kusarians and Gallics that had turned up at Forlorn Hope door and made a name for themselves. However, his mind was running on overdrive trying to come up to a realistic solution to the scene that had presented to himself on this shift.
For some reason, a Crayterian Nyx fighter was at the station he was manning, and the details of the craft did indicate it belonged to Sanada Junko, one of the pilots he had been tasked with...
"Que diable est-ce?" - he muttered to himself, checking the ship details sheet and the inventory that had been dropped for its maintenance. He had only indirectly heard of the Crayter Republic exploits, most of those from few Samura pilots assigned to Shinkaku station, and flight stories from KNF pilots at the bars and pubs in New Tokyo and around. But now a true Crayter vessel had been slapped right in the middle of his work for the day.
His repair stock hinted at some needed maintenance at the power distribution system. A curious quantity of Kishiro generic engine and power system parts made most of the inventory of parts, and only one relay component had markings that he would assume originated from the original producers of the vessel in question.
Realizing he had took enough time daydreaming about the circumstances of the craft, he put on his work gloves, and armed with the first part and tools, climbed to the fuselage near the main engine, checking the quality of the armor and starting to check under the hood.
In the power relay he was beginning the maintenance, he was surprised to find not some sort of exotic linking system with non-standard parts as he dreaded, but rather a power relay of clear Gallic navy origins which had burnt out his last spark.
"Hmmm, so not only they mimicked other systems to increase standardization, they even made it compatible enough for it to use salvaged parts sourced from the enemy assets?" - he observed with amusement.
Edmond started decoupling the worn out relay when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. While the hangar was not particularly deserted, with other ships and the maintenance crew doing their rounds, someone was decisively heading to his station, eyeing the Nyx and himself. By the looks of the person, he was starting to get an idea on who it would be, but he continued his operation, waiting for the person to come close before deciding to stop...
RE: At a certain workshop - Yaoquizque - 12-18-2018
Foch heard a feminine voice ponder in a drawling tone : "You are Foch-san?"
That was a girl dressed in garish colors, like the privileged youth of New Tokyo wealthiest spires would. Pink hair organized in a complex haircut, neon green electro tights that displayed complex and hypnotic motives all over the legs; puffy white skirt ending in a profusion of exquisite laces and a black suit perfectly cut to the silhouette of the lady.
"Qu'est ce que..." uttered, Edmond, bewildered by this apparition. Like what the hell? How did that girl even get to board the place?
He didn't get to finish though. The girl, actually busy looking at an antiquated device presently - some sort of datapad? - said in a piercing voice:
"And that must be the ship Junko asked me to look after! So how bad is it?"
That's only then she raised her eyes to look at the wreck Foch was currently tending to.
"Yare yare... Might at well just buy a new one Fufufu~" She then looked mockingly at him "You really think you can fix that up, aha? Like.. Just look at it! My! Junko really performed outstandingly on that one Ahaha~".
The girl was now merrily busy taking selfies in front of the wreck, taking silly poses. "I will send that to my friends" she then soliloquized.
Foch didn't know what to reply or do at that point, his face showing his total disbelief about what the hell was happening right now. The girl eventually caught up on that frown of perplexity, his left eyebrow being now risen in a near impossible manner.
The girl burst out laughing while pointing her finger at him.
"If.... Ahahah~ If you could see your face right now! Ahahaha~ Oh wait..."
The girl turned around and proceeded with taking more selfies with Foch's still puzzled face behind her.
"I'm already getting likes!"
RE: At a certain workshop - Nick Stenn - 12-21-2018
"What the fuck."
Stenn had entered the hanger into the middle of the kusarians antics, and honestly, he was confused and upset. He didn't recognize her, nor did he remember giving them access to the hanger.
"Foch. Is this one of yours?"
Stenn had been coming to brief Foch on all the modifications they had applied to the Nyx fighters in their current fleet, bringing a detailed blueprint of his own that the others had been based off of. Instead, he had found this.
RE: At a certain workshop - WesternPeregrine - 12-21-2018
Foch did take some time to recompose himself from the bizarre spectacle that was going on with the weird kusarian. The girl genki attitude and loudness had attracted the attention of some of the other mechanics passing by, wondering what he had gotten into. That only added to the slight sensation of embarrassment that he was getting from the scene.
"Ee-to, pardon miss, but who are you? How did you get here?" - he asked first in his acquired mix of kusarian and gallic, before recomposing himself to speak in standard.
He didn't want to make assumptions, but his past experiences had made his mind start running several assumptions on who would the woman be. Could be a spoiled child of some top brass executive on the station, or of an important guest. There was a tendency for such cases during his period at Samura, usually followed by the appearance of an exasperated secretary and security detail. The jury was still out on that ruling.
Could be some really eccentric knight, although this was too much of a wild guess. Maintenance hangars were not proper and clean enough for some fashionista to be prancing around in puffy skirts and frilly laces. That was bound to get dirty sooner or later. Plus, there were no mecha in that hangar, so it couldn't be a "special children" pilot... What did the Kusarians called them?... Newtype?
Could be one of the observers, he feared. He knew that there would be people keeping tabs on him if he tried to run away from his assigned task, but it was unlikely they would make contact with him about that so openly. Nevertheless, he was wary of this unexpected presence.
The only thing he could confirm was that she wasn't Sanada Junko. Foch hadn't seen Sanada in person yet, but the way she didn't addressed the vessel as "my ship", or that the outlandish clothes and demeanor ran in the opposite direction of what he expected from the Sanada indicated that it wasn't her.
That this assumption was confirmed by the arrival of a pissed off Nick Stenn did not bring comfort to the poor mechanic.
"Ah? Mais non, Commandant. Je ne sais pas who this person is!" - he replied while coming down the wing of the ship. "I don't know who is she, but she knows my name, and was looking for Sanada vessel, I think."
Maintaining a cautious distance from the odd miss, he asked Stenn while taking off the gloves and wiping his hands. "Perhaps Sanada-san would know?" He wondered where Sanada would be at that time...
RE: At a certain workshop - Yaoquizque - 12-23-2018
"Ohhh ..?" emitted the girl when she heard Foch mention his name "You are Stenn-sama..?! Kyoko desu! Yoroshiku Oneigaishimasu~" she said, extending her arm as to let him the opportunity to salute her with some fine hand kissing.
But as nothing was coming - Nick only giving her his 'I-will-shoot-you-down-in-the-face-and-collect-those-charming-little-teeth-of-yours-to-make-a-necklace-I-will-be-proudly-wearing-all-my-life' sort of face - the girl pouted and span on herself to show them her back, crossing her arms in disdain.
"Waaah~ What a stupid baka..! Nobody taught him some manners?!" She eventually turned her head to give him a side look "I wonder what Junko is seeing in you ... You look like an uneducated barbarian!"
A mischievous smile showed up on her face as she massaged her chin thoughtfully.
"But now I think about it, she always had an awful taste for boys anyway.. You should have seen her Ex, Fufufu~".
"Who the fuck are you." eventually asked Nick, obviously growing tired of this shit "More importantly, how the hell did you get access to this facility."
"Ah..? It speaks!" shouted the girl before grinning widely at him "Well... It's not like this place is very well secured, you know... Like.. Did you know you still use revision forty-three dot five in this Ageira cluster of yours? It's vulnerable to the Euler-McPershon harmonics based challenge attacks. They patched it three months ago but it still has those funny back doors Ageira puts into everything and which are still reachable once you dive past Inter-gate level five... Which has a documented flaw in its rights granting mechanics..."
The girl was making gestures in the air now, as if she was interacting with some sort of interface only her could see... Haptics..?
"... The fuck are you talking about." emitted Nick, wondering what the hell that girl was spouting now.
The girl looked back at him, stopping to do whatever she was doing, and sighed. Raising her hand, she counted on her fingers while talking slowly, as if she was explaining something to a child :"
1) I analyzed Junko's transponder and mimicked it.
2) I tricked your automated defenses system into letting me in... Junko gave me a freebee but eh.." The girl smiled "It was funnier that way.
3) I started to monitor NeuralNet when I put a foot on that station - very dirty by the way, you guys never cleanup? - taking a census of the security flaws I found - funny how people always think a centralized node is safer, Fufufu~
4) I did some magic and now I can do this!"
The girl snapped her fingers and the lights of the hangar turned off.
"Mais qu'est ce que...?" pondered Foch as the girl was seemingly turning on and off the lights again "So funny!"
"Alright miss, we got it. You have my attention. You can stop now. Fucking stop it!" said Nick as the girl kept on turning on and off the lights.
He sighed.
Just why? Why did he have to cope with that shit today?
Finally resigning himself to get this over with, he asked:
"So... Junko sent you?"
The girl didn't reply but extended her arm to pick a letter from a pocket of her suit "Hai... This is for you~"
The letter read:
Sean-san,
Please accept my since apologies, something happened that forced me to stay in House Bretonia for a little while longer.
I'm grateful you accepted to take care of my ship and hope it's not too much of a chore for that Gallic friend of yours. From what I could see, the damages were extensive and I don't expect it to be flight ready before a long while. A lot of parts will need to be replaced, I'd wager.
Speaking of which... I asked a friend to help me out improving the ship capabilities. She has helped me in the past and is very talented at... Erh... Tech stuffs.
You might want to use her while you're at it. I know nobody else more skilled in Information Technologies warfare. Might as well take a look at the knights fleet and see if our optronics could be made more resilient and smaller.
Just... Make sure you have locked well any sensitive data before you give her access to your internal network. "Too late~" could hear Stenn as he reached that very line.
So yeah... I'm sending her over, now.
Enjoy.
The girl was talking to herself when he raised his head from that read.
"I already reached Inter-gate level seven... Wah~ Nick Stenn's secret diary... Last chapter, my Lynx romanz. Aya~ Must be an interesting read..."
RE: At a certain workshop - Nick Stenn - 01-19-2019
Stenn sighs. This was about par for the course at this stage. If Sanada was busy, fair enough, but clearly there was going to be a show first.
"Foch. Pay attention. Our guest has visual and audio implants. Because you don't you're not going to experience this as vividly, but her reactions should draw enough of the picture."
It was unique to use his implants for this reason, but as the girl focused back on real space, her mouth fell open slightly as she saw multiple Nick Stenns wandering around the hanger, talking to each other. "If you're going to be cute, you might as well ensure that you know what you're dealing with. Sanada says you're the best information warfare specialist she's met, and that either means she's only met you, or you're playing dumb on purpose." The voice was inside her head, as she watched reality alter around her.
"Of course, if you didn't have these implants I couldn't do this, but can you deactivate your implants before I'm done bending your mind?" Turning to Foch, Nick continues, leaving his ghost versions to toy with the girl. "Her name is Kyoko. She is actually probably better than most people at cyber warfare than anyone I've met. That said, the Vergil implants I have are beyond her knowledge, or experience. She'll be stuck in a reality of several me's yelling at her for a few minutes. At least thats how long I think she'll take to lock me out."
Gesturing back at the ships Nick continues. "Give me a rundown on the ships. My own Nyx is working at 100% so you'll be allowed access to it's own unique systems to get these back up to speed if you need. Additionally, we still have some of the rarer parts we originally used to fix these up in storage."
Behind him Kyoko could be seen turning around in confusion.
RE: At a certain workshop - Yaoquizque - 01-26-2019
"N...Nani..?" uttered the girl while frantically looking around, her eyes wide opened "W..What did you do...? Oh..."
She smiled and started to jump around as if she was trying to catch the Stenns one by one.
The scenery lasted for a while but, inevitably, she ended up grasping the right one round the waist as he was discussing with Foch. The girl raised her head to look into the eyes of her catch, a wide beam on her face "Gotcha!"
Said catch stared back at her.
Foch couldn't have made up his mind right now about whether these cold eyes meant "I will kill you all" or "Please kill me".
RE: At a certain workshop - WesternPeregrine - 01-26-2019
Edmond Foch, Gallic mechanical engineer, on service to the Forlorn Hope command, shook his head in a mx of disapproval and disbelief, at the scene that unfolded. He had heard the explanation, he had understood a bit more of the circumstances, but still seemed rather far fetched the amount of absurdity that was happening on the workshop he was working in.
Nick had mentioned something about implants and information manipulation, but he only saw that something was happening to Kyoko, at least after she started flailing around like a headless chicken. Most of his tools had no connection to any network. His neural net wrist band was displaying a "service unavailable" notice though...
"So, parts and ships, right." - Foch replied to Stenn as he was hugged by the kusarian woman with a jovial and smug expression.
"That Nyx has some fried heat sinks and engine vents. I guess I can do with what we have, and be finished in some 3 hours or so.
As for the rest, I have yet to start monsieur Wofford's Falchion, and the Warans of monsieur Springs and madame Roos. " - he continued, motioning to a line of ships that other mechanics were handling.
"Commandant, I'll do my job and surely the mademoiselle can do hers, but let me be clear that as long as I'm handling the repairs of a ship, I don't want her touching the same ship. Don't want no incidents of remote startups or accidental weapons targeting while I'm just calibrating an engine power flow. She can do her IT and electronics wizardy when I'm done dealing with the patient.
Or she could start somewhere else, there's lot of work to be done..."
As he was saying that, the elevator to the main hangar flashed his lights and began activity, revealing a new arrival to the ever cramped workshop. Yet another odd customer had arrived, this time a... bretonian fighter of sleek design, and lots of laser marks.
Curious as to why his workload was increasing without foreword, he addressed the technician who was accompanying the Anaconda.
"What's this? Where is this going?"
"Spot 5, next to the Nyx. It's Knight said her other ships were already here for maintenance so she asked me to hand this one to you as well." The technician said, recognizing Foch as the section chief and handing over the panel with the data about the ship.
"Oh for the love of Dieu, this.... This, it says it's from Sanada?" - realizing that Junko had just arrived on the thing to the base mere moments ago according to the data.