Junsa Saburou Kenta wandered slowly into the recreational area of the barracks, grabbing some sake from a passing trolley as he dandered past. He went past a desk, swiping his data-slate from the top as he went by.
He collapsed into a chair, and flicked the pad on, wondering what he'd be bombarded with today.
The screen slowly brightened to white as the cells warmed up, and then what appeared to be an explosion in a fireworks factory, but what was actually numerous amounts of spam, relatively unimportant paperwork and other documents lit up his screen, almost detaching his retinas.
Furious at this optical assault, he shook the pad, clearing half of the messages instantly. He frowned, and shook the pad again. All of the remaining messages then disappeared, except for one. Putting his very frowny face on, he shook the pad one last time. The message stayed where it was, motionless. Saburou swore that it even got a little brighter and more stubborn looking. He flipped the pad over, then flipped it back. The message still wouldn't leave him alone, and it seemed to be getting impatient. A little red bar in the top right of the window began pulsing urgently, while the pad began beeping with an infuriating tone.
"BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP"
He turned the pad off, and then turned it back on, hoping that maybe it was just a software bug. After the screen had reset, he picked up the pad happily, thinking that everything would be quiet again.
"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP"
He sighed and finally acknowledged the message. The beeping noise stopped, which he was thankful for, but after he'd finished reading the document, he wondered whether he was being had.
"Mutilated exploding bomb-cows on Kyushu? Go there and investigate?" he muttered to himself. "Well, I suppose it makes a change from handing out parking fines in low New Tokyo orbit. Guess I'd better get on my way."
He walked out of the barracks, tossing the slate back onto the desk where it would be filed away, and lifting his Wyrm activator chip on the way as he headed for the launch bay...
"Mister Kumero, you have a Visitor." The Nurse stated.
"Hai... s..send them in."
Laying in a full body-cast, suspended by wires, face scarred and bruised by the blast and debris, the farmer, known as Kumero Hachiro, was none-the-less alive... if only barely. As he lay on his bed, he could neither move his head or see the person entering the room. The light footsteps tapped into the doorway, and something dropped to the floor.
This was followed by a soft, feminine voice...
"F...father?"
The Girl, clearly the Farmer's daughter, ran over to his side, beginning to cry at the sight.
"Manami? Is that you?"
"Father!? What happened!?!? They came, took me to the Police station, and said an accident occured. And you were injured, I... I never expected... I tried to call..."
*cough* "It was no accident... *wheeze* I'm just glad to see you're still safe..."
"Father, wh... I... I..." the girl was speechless, nearly blinded by tears. Still shaking, having been up until now, deprived of all information.
"Manami, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. But listen to me... you need to do something important. You need to go back to the House, take my portable computer and datapads. Also, open up my files, look for everything labled 'Miura' and 'Price'."
"F...father, what are you talking about!? Are we in some kind of danger!?!?!" The girl asked, now terrified as the realization began to hit.
"Be brave, Manami! The State Police will protect you. But you NEED to get those files. Everything. And you need to keep them safe."
"Is somebody after them? Who is it?! What if they find me!??!?!"
"Manami... please... I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't trust your safety. Nobody's after you, it's just a Precaution. Get the files, and go to Aunt Hina's. The Police will protect you."
"I... I..." Manami studdered, the whole situation was surreal to her. Waves of fear, sorrow, and confusion played through her. But eventually, she gulped it down and stood strong. "I'll do it."
"That's my girl. Brave as a true warrior. I'll have some of my friends get in touch with you once I can. They'll help look after you."
Manami stayed silent, and bowed. She knew that the best thing she could do for her father was to follow his wishes and get his files. She stepped outside the room, looking distraught, before walking again down the hallway to the Lobby. Waiting there, were several Kusari Police officers. Likely there to speak to her and her father.
"Ko..Konba-wa, Officers. F..father, Kumero Hachiro, said to talk to you. He said to ask for your protection and to go recover something from home..."
(//any KSP players can step in here)
***
On the Darak-Ti, Kyushu orbit
"<::Whiskey 5-4, we're in position. Commencing hit and run attack on the Depots. Out. *chirp*"
"<::Confirmed. Start your attack."
Minutes passed, the Darak-Ti's bridge lights had darkened, now lit only by the myriad of holo-displays and panels on board. The crew watched the holo displays, as the comm taps displayed audio feeds. Right on cue, the distress call from Tsushima blaired over the comms.
Shortly thereafter, the red dot with a trapazoid representing the Kusari Destroyer moved. And moved into the Tradelane to Tsushima.
"<::It's working, 5-4. They're coming, pull off toward the Gas Planet and lure them away. Oxide, out."
"<::Affirmative, we're breaking engagement and falling back. Shields at 50%, one escort down."
The Ship Coordinator, going only by the callsign 'Oxide', turned his attention to his own crew.
"<::Alright, operation is a go. Move us to the Planet. Prepare to deploy shock team. They'll coordinate with Blackwatch units already planetside and move in."
"<::Copy, firing thrusters. Cold drift into orbital position. Stealth Systems online, non-essential systems powering down..."
A short pulse from the Darak-Ti's thruster array backlit the vessel as it boosted out of the Seiran cloud, before it's engines and most of it's active energy emission systems went dark. Slowly and silently, the Destroyer drifted it's way toward the Planet...
---
In the Detention block
"I think I have an idea.."
"Oh?" Steve asked, seemingly confused.
To him, 'An idea' didn't bode well. He grappled with the thoughts of what possibilities he had. As he looked at Takahashi, the thought clicked.
"My Neurocyte? It's been disconnected from the network... y...you want to try to send a message to the KNF?" He asked. Quickly reeling from the thoughts of that prospect.
"Impossible! I... can't... do... that..." He said, clearly grappling with the pros and cons of what amounted to outright betrayal. Something that had not once occured in the Consortium's ranks.
"A...and even if we could, the ship's comm jammers would pick it up and..."
Steve was interrupted as the ship's interior lights went down. Indicating the ship was in a powerdown mode for some reason.
"...oh, there we are. The ship must be in stealth mode, it's jammers and transmission detectors are offline." Steve stated, smiling and looking at Takahashi.
In the holding cells, onboard the Darak-Ti:
Though it seemed the torture would have to wait: pain lanced through mikako's body, as she slowly drew a long, blood-coated wire from beneath the synthetic-flesh of her left arm; barely suppressing the reflex to vomit: she slowly leaned towards the slumped form of Steve, his head turned down to present his neural-jack. She kissed the back of his head:
"I'm sorry if this hurts Steve, I'm going to attempt a connection...” she whispered the words as she lifted the wire to the exposed jack. A quick burst and a spark showed her mistake, as Steve jolted and voiced a surprised protest.
"O Shiz! Sorry Steve...” she said as she gently held his head. "I'm going to try again though: one moment...” mikako grimaced as she reached once more into her own forearm, tinkering for a few seconds;
"O.k.: I think I've got it" Steve tensed slightly as she touched the wire to his head again. No spark; a brief smile flashed and was stolen from mikako's features as she held the wire in place and began tinkering with her arm again.
"Alright - I'm trying a few frequencies; all's I can manage is a simple s.o.s and approximate co-ord's; but you probably already know that. I have no idea who will hear this; I still think it's our best chance". The signal crept out across the black...
It's been a while since Takahashi sent her last report, something not surprising as her conduct indictates. At his chambers, Hiroito, with the navigation maps on his desk, a simulated battle is flashing on in the screen, just as it was about war. There is shade on his face, probably caused by the tenuous lights, or could be caused by the concern about one of his best officers, [color=#33CCFF]"something must happened to her" is what he is thinking right now, "She knew about our operation, she wouldn't be taking so long to get here". A coffee cup is grazing his fingers... "Be damned, why does she do these kind of things... she could be a Daisa by now... she..." Throws the cup to the door, and it leaves a little mark on it, Hiroito looks at the stain of coffee while the pieces of cup keep falling to the ground "She has so good timing..."
At the command deck
"Chusa Kokori!!! we are getting a signal... looks like an emergency message."
[color=#66FFFF]"Where is it from, Daii?"
"Give me a second, we are decoding it right now, it's not anywhere near here, that's for sure... it looks like it comes from... Kyushu!"
"Kyushu? Why would someone send an emergency signal from Kyushu to us?... What does it say?"
"There's nothing much in the message... it's just an S.O.S."
Myuki (Kokori) rubs her nose, behind the glasses it finds two deep brown eyes, interpreting the situation, and the current question, Why us?
"Make me a copy of that, I'll give it to the Chujo"
Back at Hiroito's chambers
Two resounding hits get Hiroito's attention, an unusual event in this battleship, he doesn't use to get visitors to his chambers, even more when he asks to don't be disturbed.
[color=#33CCFF]"Come in, stop making so much noise"
She bows to his commanding officer, knowing how annoying she is being.
"Sir, my apologizes for bothering you, but we got a weird S.O.S. signal from Kyushu"
"Kyushu, why would anyone call us here from Kyushu?"
"That's the same I asked myself, sir. And I know you are worried about Takahashi, I'm worried too, I know her since the academy, and I though this.... it will sound silly, but I though this message could be from her"
"There is nothing we can do from here, you know about the coming attack, we are going to strike the Bretonians hard, and the main fleet is here already, we cannot go back, not even for her, I cannot risk this operation, not for her, not for anyone. And it's not sure that it could be her, could be anyone, even a damn Privateer trying to get some of us there, and set up a trap."
"And I know that sir, I know that we can't jump to every S.O.S. that we got, but, I probably should have said it before... I sent... someone that I know to find out anything about Taka. It looks like she was dragged out of this plane, or that was what I though until last night. One of my informers tells me, that she was saw last time in New Tokyo, in space, near a ship recently docked at Roppongi. No one knows what was said there, but she went on direction to Hokkaido. And, I can't be really sure, but, I have the feeling that she has something to do with this signal. She might sent it to us on purpose, knowing that I am here, or..."
"It's fine, be quiet a second."
Both of the officers look eachother, wondering what's behind those eyes.
"For some kind of reason, I trust you enough to follow your feelings, but, we are not here to be heroes, and we are not movie legends, we have a job to do, a duty to fulfit, even when I feel it's true what you are saying, this operation is more important than anything else right now."
Myuki got depressed, you can tell it from her face, the sadness in her eyes, and almost a tear falling from one of them, thinking on how mean could her Chujo be.
"However, there is something we can do about it."
Myuki heads up, and look surprised to Hiroito, while a tiny smile appear on his face.
"Recently there have been two additions to our forces, they are not ready yet, not even ready for patroling, but in this situation, they will do the job. I'm talking about two gunboats, recently built by Kishiro. They are at Kure shipyard being finished, their weapondry is not the best, but... it's all what we got at the moment... with this, I'm ordering you to grab a Wyrm, fly to Kusari, get to Kure and tell them, that I order the Isehara to be deployed under your command."
"S-sir! This is.... Hai, sir! Right away!!"
She turns back, and walk to the door, when she's opening it up, she turns back, look at the man sitting on the chair.
*Lycone landed on kyushu's docking bay and quickly jumped out of his cockpit. There is supposed to be a injured man in the medical center, so it was probably best to check with him first, just to see if he knows anything...* "Sir, would you like to keep your ship here? We do have other people waiting to dock at this time, we could use the space...."
*Lycone thought for a second...*
"Keep my ship out, I might need it. Also keep an eye out, there might be other KSP units who will need to land."
"But sir?"
"Haven't you heard? There is an investigation going on, it is currently top priority got it?"
"Yes sir!"
*Heading into an land transport, it wasn't far to the medical center...thank god. Lycone thought back to the transmission from Tachiko-san. If the Consortium was to attack a farmer, they must of had a good reason...The transport came to a halt and Lycone walked out and entered the medical center. One of the officers, apparently a sergeant came to get him informed.*
"Konnichiwa, Officer Lycone."
"Konnichiwa! What do we have?"
"We have a girl here who claims to need something very important and needs a transport, Her father is the man who was in the blast be the medical staff won't let us talk to him yet. HE seems to be recovering slowly..."
"Hmm, I'll talk with the girl, you keep me informed alright?"
"Yes sir!"
*Lycone approached the girl who must be scared as hell. He could understand her current position. He sat down next to her and tried to get her comfortable.*
"So, you are?"
"My...name?"
"Yes your name..."
"My name is Manami, I need to get to my father's house...immediately..."
"I'll see what I can do. Why do you need to go back there exactly?"
"I need to recover some important things, please we must go now!"
"Alright, alright relax, let me see what I can do..."
*Lycone got up and went over to the sergeant again.*
"Arrange for two transports, and some escorts. This girl needs something important. But don't ask her what needs to be picked up ok?"
"Yes sir! I'll get right on it, but two transports?"
"It'll work out just trust me ok?"
"Yes sir!"
*With two transports this girl will be protected even better...if that information is worth anything, she will be targeted...and we cannot lose that information...*
Manami was clearly quite worried as the Transports sped along the Kyushu countryside, twiddling her thumbs and twitching awkwardly, looking around timidly. The heavy police presence only made her feel more and more like she was intended as a target.
Her thoughts raced as the transports pulled up to the home, and her and the KSP guards stepped out.
"This is it... please, this way." She timidly said, the Police establishing a perimeter around the house.
Manami strolled inside the darkened building, a guard close behind. She walked into the open door of the darkened house. A problem soon presented itself as Minami tried to flick on the lightswitch... to no avail.
"The power is out..." She looked around, the whole inside of the house was pitch black. "Maybe dad forgot to pay the power bill..."
One of the KSP bodyguards handed her a flashlight, and the rest activated their own. Manami made her way into the kitchen, she'd need power to be able to access her father's computer.
"There's a generator in the basement. I'll go turn it on." She said, walking through the kitchen and down an adjacent flight of stairs. She soon found what she was looking for, a small fuel-cell generator. As she rummaged around for a set of cells, she was startled by a noise. Waving her flashlight around, she searched for whatever the source could be...
... then suddenly, something dropped ontop of her head, something ALIVE. Minami screamed and dropped her flashlight. Immedietly, several of the KSP entered the room, guns drawn, their flashlights quickly illuminating Minami's assailant...
"Meow :3"
...a Cat.
"Oh... it's just you Aoi. You scared me!" Manami petted the cat and picked it up, holding it in one arm as a KSP officer assisted her in activating the Generator, causing the lights to come back on in the house.
Manami and the officers proceeded back upstairs into her father's office. Manami immedietly went to the computer, and initiated the transfer of several files onto a flash drive. She then went and rummaged around her father's file cabinets, gathering several sets of documents, folders, and datapads. Placing them all in a briefcase. She had been taught from a young age, that if anything ever happened, what documents to get and what files to save.
Assembling everything in the briefcase, she turned to the computer.
<::Download 25% Complete::>
"Meooow" The cat looked up at her, rubbing against her leg.
"Oh, you must be hungry! That's right, it's been a few days hasn't it. Let's get you something to eat while this finishes, shall we?"
***
several kilometers overhead
"<::Sundown team, get ready to hit the breaks. Set your timers, we're going into the comm-deadzone."
Several dozen tiny re-entry capsules streaked overhead, falling toward the surface of Kyushu, enshrouded in white hot plasma as they hit the planet's upper atmosphere.
The occupants of the pods, squads of heavily armed and equipped soldiers, gracefully inputted commands into the pod's descend controllers, and set the timers to activate the retro-rockets. Most of the functions were controlled by the on-board computer system, which calculated a vector of descent in real time.
Powerful and accurate thrusts set the pods on course to avoid sensor sweeps and possible surface-to-air intercept. The formation descended at the maximum safe velocity to evade possible intercept.
"<::One Minute."
Despite the inertial dampers on the pods, it was a bumpy ride for the crew inside. The soldiers checked their weapons and ammo as the pods descended through several cumulonimbus cloud-layers before arcing in the direction of the target continent.
"<::Thirty Seconds."
The pods' retro-thrusters activated full blast. Sonic booms rippling out as the pods decelerated.
"<::Fifteen Seconds."
Finally, the pods' paracutes opened, with their latteral thrusters firing to guide the pods precisely into a relatively flat clearing, on a forested hillside, several miles from the nearest settlements.
"<::Five, four, three, two, one, go."
The pods gently touched down, one after another, in a relatively close proximity. Almost before they did, the hatched popped open, and the soldiers inside dismounted, weapons raised. Like well drilled professionals, they exited in formation and sought cover, putting eyes in all directions.
"<::Oxide-Actual, Sundown team is on point."
"<::Alright, Sundown. Five minuets. The location of the objective is being forwarded to you. Get there."
"<::Copy that, you heard the man. Five minutes, get your gear and check your weapons. We need to get to the objective ASAP. Double time."
Lycone sat back in his wyrm. He loved his ship, it was sleek and agile. Nothing beats that...opening up the cockpit, one of the officers stood outside to give him a sit-rep.
"Sir, she is collecting the data as we speak."
"Thanks good, have you set up a perimeter?"
"Hai sir, are we to expect anything?"
"Possibly...see if you can get a squad of KNF down here too?"
"They are all busy with other things sir, remember we are fighting a war..."
"Mmm...alright then, how man officers here?"
"Fifteen sir."
"Mmm...alright, keep the transports on mild alert...make sure they are spilt one for each side, if we do come under attack I want to be able to safely move the girl and the data away from the battle..."
"You seem very suspicious sir, you must know something..."
"Yeah...we have a farmer attacked for no reason and he lived...nothing taken that we have noticed....something don't seem right..."
"We should be able to fend off anything smaller then us..."
"Yeah, I'll go check on the girl keep everyone on top of things for me will you?"
"Hai sir!"
Lycone stepped out of his wyrm and walked inside the building, nothing unusual but all the officers had their eye's open...that make Lycone feel a little better. Walking into the kitchen he found the girl feeding her cat.
"His name is Aoi, he is a really good cat..."
"That's good."
"Oh right the download, can you get one of your officers to check it please?"
"Don't worry...we have all the time in the world..."
"<::Sundown one, check. We're at the forward position. Moving into concealment."
"<::Is the UAV ready yet?"
"<::Still getting it out of the box, sir. Give us five minuites."
"<::You have one."
"<::Oxide; Kelasset. We're armed and ready to go, ambush positions down the road, either side of the driveway to the house. If they head this way, we'll have them. Shasta, got those Launchers ready?"
"<::Ready as they'll ever be..."
***
"Here you go, Aoi-chan."Manami set down a small plate of food for the cat. Kneeling at a nearby table, watching it eat.
"So... police man... umm, I don't remember your name. Do you have any idea who attacked my father yet... or is it still 'under investigation'?"She asked. Glancing down at the floor."I know... what he was doing was putting himself at risk... he always said it was for the good of Kusari. And that there are lots of people out there who would try to hurt him... I... I guess I'm more afraid for his sake then mine... ever since mom..."
A loud beep from the adjacent room indicated the download was complete. Manami was interrupted mid sentence, but seemingly not wanting talk further, stood up and went into the room briskly, quickly disconnecting the portable data-modules and bringing them into the kitchen.
"Here, it's done."
She picked up the data-module and folders under one arm, and Aoi under the other, and walked out the door.
"So where do we go now? Back to the station?"
"Mraw? :<"Aoi pawed at Manami, looking up in the sky. She looked up as well, seeing what appeared to be an unusually large bird at a distance, flying overhead...
With the data loaded, Lycone and the rest of the officers proceeded to leave. With nothing in sight it seemed like an easy pickup mission.
KSP Officer: "I cannot wait to head back for some tea!"
Lycone: "Forget that! Water all the way!"
KSP Officer: "Your an unusual one Lycone..."
Lycone: "Thanks!"
Everyone filed out of the house and started climbing in their ships.
Sergeant: "Lycone sir!"
Lycone: "Hmm what is it sergeant?"
Sergeant: "Everything looks clear, are you sure you weren't being a bit paranoid?"
Lycone: "You didn't come all the way over here just for that did you?"
Sergeant: "No sir, what I meant is transport one is having some technical difficulties..."
Lycone: "Oh? Is it important?"
Sergeant: "I think you should come and see for yourself..."
Lycone: "Very well..."
Lycone followed the sergeant into the armored transport. It was a bit cramped with the few officers already sitting and waiting, their firearms sitting in a rack and sorted out nicely.
Sergeant: "In here..."
Inside the cockpit now, Lycone looked inside and expected a whole bunch of weapons to be pointing at him, but sadly there wasn't any...
Sergeant: "The driver claims the communications receiver is messed up..."
Lycone: "Again your calling me for this?"
Sergeant: "No listen..."
Lycone walked into the cockpit and sat still listening to the scrambled mess that was just barely noticeable...
Lycone: "Strange...we cannot contact anyone?"
Sergeant: "No sir..."
Lycone: "RIGHT! Full alert to everyone!"
Sergeant: "For a messed up comms receiver?"
Lycone: "Nah I was just kidding, we can use the other transport to call in our departure, simple fix. As for this transport we can get it fixed once we are home..."
Sergeant: "Hai!"
Lycone: "Wait where is the girl?"
Lycone looked around and noticed the girl staring up into the sky.
Lycone: "Hmm..wonder what has her so captivated.."
Sergeant: "We are on Kyushu...it has a beautiful sky.."
A small sound caught Lycone's attention, it started low and got louder until...*VSSSSSBAK!* A large dust cloud nearly blinded them all, wasting no time lycone ran outside to see what had happened. Everything looked fine outside and some of the officers were knocked back from the blast. Lycone ran to protect the girl.
Lycone: "Are you ok manami?!"
Manami: "My ears...they hurt.."
Lycone looked over to check on the other transport....instead...there wasn't one. As everyone scrambled to get their equipment out again, shots from all directions started appearing from no where...they were trapped..
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