Ametheliana
Well-known member
YSS Kaiyō II
Medical Center Containment Cells
A well-worn and patched-over mustard jumper and grey coveralls were neatly folded and on the far exam table of the main treatment room. Even further into the medical room lay the containment cells and on the wall furthest from the med bay's entrance. Charbon's gray ears lay flat against her even duller hair that was shorn messily short. Under the scutinizing light of the medical bay's fluorescents and no longer in the heat of battle or an unsuspecting victim in the halls of Urtullan, she looked relaxed in her pink prisoner garb. As if this was her first time practicing meditation, she was sitting with her legs crossed on the floor and eyes closed. Her contentedness looked recent, though, as deep bags clung under her eyes and her cheek bones struck out from her face like mountain ridges raising up out of the sunken earth.
It'd been a few hours since the Kaiyō's skirmish on Rabaal. Enough time for the captive NMX Overseer to witness the ship's wounded file in for treatment right before her eyes and then leave her in silence again. Imprisoned here in containment, she picked up on little more than that; it was unclear to her if the ship had even left its place hovering above the cove where the Mishhuvurthyar base was located.
The Kaiyō had, of course, departed — left cleanup of Charbon's former comrades to a black hulled Plumeria-class gunship from SAINT — and was off to trace the Mishhuvurthyar ship that had fled Rabaal. Or at least would be imminently if Charbon told her Star Army captors what they needed to know. No one had yet spoken to the Overseer beyond ordering her around. But that was soon to change, for the Kaiyō had taken on new crew in their passing with Star Army Intelligence.
In through the med center's sliding hatchway walked a tall man dressed in the black uniform of a Star Army spy. The door's hiss and the snapping thunk of his boots against the deck broke the silence of Charbon's meditation as he stepped around peering from side-to-side as if to check the medbay for any intruders. Quickly satisfied, he stood upright and beckoned someone else with two fingers pulled toward him.
"All clear," the SAINT operative said. He had black hair and emerald green eyes. Tall and well-built in the way an agile martial artist was, he had a handsome look to his face. "Prisoner's where she should be. Don't you still have samurai to do these security sweeps?"
On his word, Chusa Kitsurugi Aiko entered next. Her uniform was, as always, immaculate in its white and otherwise unadorned except for the red Order of the Blazing Sun medal hung from her neck. She carried in her left hand a katana with ivory, gold, and red fittings, and moved with a statuesque elegance.
"Their duties do not include witnessing Star Army Intelligence business," Aiko said, walking straight toward Charbon's cell with a determined gait. "You are still a fine yojimbo, Saiga-sensei."
The man, Taisa Nicholas Saiga, rolled his eyes but followed flanking the Imperial princess as she proceeded.
"You know I still outrank you, right?" Saiga retorted.
Aiko stopped in front of the NMX Overseer's cell and peered over her left shoulder at Saiga.
"And I am in command of this vessel," she said back. "Show due respect in front of the prisoner, Taisa."
Aiko grinned at him. But only on the side of her face that Saiga could see, and then she turned back to regard their captive.
"Overseer Charbon," Aiko said respectfully enough, though she had a cold grin on her lips. "My soldiers have said you will help us find Captain Hoshi. The captain's expressions of trust for you are all that keep me from ending you slowly even considering the apparent help you have provided us already. This operative is Saiga-san from Star Army Intelligence," the princess added, introducing the new officer. "His questions will assist you, I am sure. You should know he is Hoshi's mate."
Saiga tread forward, already looking a little exasperated with Aiko's enthusiasm. He put a hand on the princess' shoulder when he passed her.
"C'mon, Chusa, she doesn't need all that weight on her shoulders right now," Saiga said apologetically. "She's pretty intense, huh?" he added with a look over to Charbon. "Just worried about Hoshi is all. All of us are. Probably the entire Star Army when they find out she's gone."
The operative hopped away and pulled up a shiny-looking medical examination stool and then placed it just outside of the containment field that kept Charbon confined.
"Got anything to say before we begin?" Saiga asked. He sat down and crossed his arms. "I can start asking what I want to know if that's easier."
Charbon's sunken eyes followed Aiko predominantly, watching her like the princess was a serpent readying to strike. That was until Aiko introduced Saiga and his personal interest.
"I have been trying to," Charbon had taken a moment to find the words she was looking for. "To collaborate with Yamatai for a long time. I can say I was successful only in the most graceless fashion. I had come to trust Taiyou Hoshi and ensured my fate to her alone. Now I am here and she is where I escaped from. Either we are star-crossed or I am just unlucky."
The haggard NMX Neko sighed all of her breath out before she looked to Saiga squarely. "Your mate was brought to the XSS Brakkamorggil. From there, I don't know for sure if she would stay aboard or be transferred within the fleet making attempts on the Northern Territories of yours. The Brakka is like this ship. It is of enough renown that she could very well be utilized out of it alone."
"Where are the Mishhuvurthyar operating out of in the North?" the SAINT operative pushed. "Was this Brakkamorggil the ship that fled orbit above Rabaal? We're already following its hyperspace vector, but I need more from you right now. Is there some sort of temporary base in-sector that was used to launch the current wave of raids simultaneous with the strike at Elysia?"
"Yes, that is the Brakka. Our forces--" she stopped herself. "Their forces were able to dig in up there like they could not on Rabaal. The destinations for subsequent attacks were compartmentalized after the Kaiyō's team rifled through the battle plans. Though nobody really appreciated how much they knew."
Saiga's eyebrows crinkled in toward his nose at the answer.
"I asked where," he reiterated, not shifting his tone toward anger but maintaining the same composure he'd started with. "You say 'northern territories' and 'up there.' But we need to know the names of these systems where your old friends are hanging around. If they're not on our maps then are these places somewhere uncharted or unknown to Yamatai?"
"I said they didn't share that information," Charbon shifted her shoulders. "I don't know your star maps as well as you'd think an Overseer would. A lot is need-to-know if you're not a Mishhuvurthyar. But the words Himmel and [/i]Star's Crossroads[/i] were often paired together in placement orders for starships in Warlord Yaggorahurl's fleet. If those are places, I wouldn't 't know. I'm not in his fleet—wasn't, that is. I served under Prinflarvirinth."
"Huh, Abwehran," Saiga muttered to himself, contemplating what Charbon was saying. He did his best to ignore some of the contradictions. NMX Nekovalkyrja had, after all, been immersed in the brutal lifestyle of Mishhuvurthyar service, and often spoke less directly than they believed.
"Someone that you killed." Charbon's gaze shot towards Aiko and for the first time during the interrogation, she seemed genuinely upset as her lips curled to speak. "At Venushhurl. Prinflarvirinth was one of the Mishhuvurthyar fighting for us to pull out of another war of prostration with Yamatai. That nearly shook his resolve."
Charbon said, "Nearly broke every reason I would have to be here. At least, of my own will."
"Yet here you are, Overseer," Aiko said. She didn't seem to pay any mind to concerns with what monsters she had or hadn't killed in the past. "Deep within every Nekovalkyrja lies the tenacity to reject any Mishhuvurthyar's domination."
"Was the Brakkamorggil part of Prinflarvirinth's fleet or another?" Saiga asked before anything more could be said between the two women. He wanted to keep on track. "It was here with your formation. What is its area of operations?"
"The Brakkamorggil is operating under special orders under to conduct field research," Charbon replied. "It is under Yaggorahurl's fleet, though. The research pertains to subjugating my kind further. It is why I could take no other actionns from within the NMX," she continued. "The Warlords have seen the loss of millions of NMX Neko. Not to death, the most commonplace cause before. No—turncoats. NMX that heard your pretty princess say things like she just has.
'"Deep within every Nekovalkyrja lies the tenacity to reject any Mishhuvurthyar's domination,"' Charbon quoted Aiko. "They hear that and they leave with you, princess. Too many times. Every time."
Charbon continued, "So what if every piece of equipment a Neko held, and every Mishhuvurthyar they slept next to or took orders from caused fanaticism verging on psychopathy? The Mishhu Overlords would have no more lost NMX Nekovalkyrja."
"What better test subject than a Star Army captain, huh?" Saiga shot with a grin, though he was far from happy to make the conclusion. "We'll have to make sure they don't nab you, too, Karasuhime."
His gaze crawled over to Aiko when he said it, regarding Yamatai's mightiest warrior with some concern. Saiga wouldn't say it but part of him wished they'd captured her instead of Hoshi for too many reasons to count. The princess met his eyes with her own determined stare, and he could tell that she perhaps agreed with him.
"All right then," Saiga said. He looked back to Overseer Charbon. "Let's go over some more details."
((JP by raz and Ametheliana))
Medical Center Containment Cells
A well-worn and patched-over mustard jumper and grey coveralls were neatly folded and on the far exam table of the main treatment room. Even further into the medical room lay the containment cells and on the wall furthest from the med bay's entrance. Charbon's gray ears lay flat against her even duller hair that was shorn messily short. Under the scutinizing light of the medical bay's fluorescents and no longer in the heat of battle or an unsuspecting victim in the halls of Urtullan, she looked relaxed in her pink prisoner garb. As if this was her first time practicing meditation, she was sitting with her legs crossed on the floor and eyes closed. Her contentedness looked recent, though, as deep bags clung under her eyes and her cheek bones struck out from her face like mountain ridges raising up out of the sunken earth.
It'd been a few hours since the Kaiyō's skirmish on Rabaal. Enough time for the captive NMX Overseer to witness the ship's wounded file in for treatment right before her eyes and then leave her in silence again. Imprisoned here in containment, she picked up on little more than that; it was unclear to her if the ship had even left its place hovering above the cove where the Mishhuvurthyar base was located.
The Kaiyō had, of course, departed — left cleanup of Charbon's former comrades to a black hulled Plumeria-class gunship from SAINT — and was off to trace the Mishhuvurthyar ship that had fled Rabaal. Or at least would be imminently if Charbon told her Star Army captors what they needed to know. No one had yet spoken to the Overseer beyond ordering her around. But that was soon to change, for the Kaiyō had taken on new crew in their passing with Star Army Intelligence.
In through the med center's sliding hatchway walked a tall man dressed in the black uniform of a Star Army spy. The door's hiss and the snapping thunk of his boots against the deck broke the silence of Charbon's meditation as he stepped around peering from side-to-side as if to check the medbay for any intruders. Quickly satisfied, he stood upright and beckoned someone else with two fingers pulled toward him.
"All clear," the SAINT operative said. He had black hair and emerald green eyes. Tall and well-built in the way an agile martial artist was, he had a handsome look to his face. "Prisoner's where she should be. Don't you still have samurai to do these security sweeps?"
On his word, Chusa Kitsurugi Aiko entered next. Her uniform was, as always, immaculate in its white and otherwise unadorned except for the red Order of the Blazing Sun medal hung from her neck. She carried in her left hand a katana with ivory, gold, and red fittings, and moved with a statuesque elegance.
"Their duties do not include witnessing Star Army Intelligence business," Aiko said, walking straight toward Charbon's cell with a determined gait. "You are still a fine yojimbo, Saiga-sensei."
The man, Taisa Nicholas Saiga, rolled his eyes but followed flanking the Imperial princess as she proceeded.
"You know I still outrank you, right?" Saiga retorted.
Aiko stopped in front of the NMX Overseer's cell and peered over her left shoulder at Saiga.
"And I am in command of this vessel," she said back. "Show due respect in front of the prisoner, Taisa."
Aiko grinned at him. But only on the side of her face that Saiga could see, and then she turned back to regard their captive.
"Overseer Charbon," Aiko said respectfully enough, though she had a cold grin on her lips. "My soldiers have said you will help us find Captain Hoshi. The captain's expressions of trust for you are all that keep me from ending you slowly even considering the apparent help you have provided us already. This operative is Saiga-san from Star Army Intelligence," the princess added, introducing the new officer. "His questions will assist you, I am sure. You should know he is Hoshi's mate."
Saiga tread forward, already looking a little exasperated with Aiko's enthusiasm. He put a hand on the princess' shoulder when he passed her.
"C'mon, Chusa, she doesn't need all that weight on her shoulders right now," Saiga said apologetically. "She's pretty intense, huh?" he added with a look over to Charbon. "Just worried about Hoshi is all. All of us are. Probably the entire Star Army when they find out she's gone."
The operative hopped away and pulled up a shiny-looking medical examination stool and then placed it just outside of the containment field that kept Charbon confined.
"Got anything to say before we begin?" Saiga asked. He sat down and crossed his arms. "I can start asking what I want to know if that's easier."
Charbon's sunken eyes followed Aiko predominantly, watching her like the princess was a serpent readying to strike. That was until Aiko introduced Saiga and his personal interest.
"I have been trying to," Charbon had taken a moment to find the words she was looking for. "To collaborate with Yamatai for a long time. I can say I was successful only in the most graceless fashion. I had come to trust Taiyou Hoshi and ensured my fate to her alone. Now I am here and she is where I escaped from. Either we are star-crossed or I am just unlucky."
The haggard NMX Neko sighed all of her breath out before she looked to Saiga squarely. "Your mate was brought to the XSS Brakkamorggil. From there, I don't know for sure if she would stay aboard or be transferred within the fleet making attempts on the Northern Territories of yours. The Brakka is like this ship. It is of enough renown that she could very well be utilized out of it alone."
"Where are the Mishhuvurthyar operating out of in the North?" the SAINT operative pushed. "Was this Brakkamorggil the ship that fled orbit above Rabaal? We're already following its hyperspace vector, but I need more from you right now. Is there some sort of temporary base in-sector that was used to launch the current wave of raids simultaneous with the strike at Elysia?"
"Yes, that is the Brakka. Our forces--" she stopped herself. "Their forces were able to dig in up there like they could not on Rabaal. The destinations for subsequent attacks were compartmentalized after the Kaiyō's team rifled through the battle plans. Though nobody really appreciated how much they knew."
Saiga's eyebrows crinkled in toward his nose at the answer.
"I asked where," he reiterated, not shifting his tone toward anger but maintaining the same composure he'd started with. "You say 'northern territories' and 'up there.' But we need to know the names of these systems where your old friends are hanging around. If they're not on our maps then are these places somewhere uncharted or unknown to Yamatai?"
"I said they didn't share that information," Charbon shifted her shoulders. "I don't know your star maps as well as you'd think an Overseer would. A lot is need-to-know if you're not a Mishhuvurthyar. But the words Himmel and [/i]Star's Crossroads[/i] were often paired together in placement orders for starships in Warlord Yaggorahurl's fleet. If those are places, I wouldn't 't know. I'm not in his fleet—wasn't, that is. I served under Prinflarvirinth."
"Huh, Abwehran," Saiga muttered to himself, contemplating what Charbon was saying. He did his best to ignore some of the contradictions. NMX Nekovalkyrja had, after all, been immersed in the brutal lifestyle of Mishhuvurthyar service, and often spoke less directly than they believed.
"Someone that you killed." Charbon's gaze shot towards Aiko and for the first time during the interrogation, she seemed genuinely upset as her lips curled to speak. "At Venushhurl. Prinflarvirinth was one of the Mishhuvurthyar fighting for us to pull out of another war of prostration with Yamatai. That nearly shook his resolve."
Charbon said, "Nearly broke every reason I would have to be here. At least, of my own will."
"Yet here you are, Overseer," Aiko said. She didn't seem to pay any mind to concerns with what monsters she had or hadn't killed in the past. "Deep within every Nekovalkyrja lies the tenacity to reject any Mishhuvurthyar's domination."
"Was the Brakkamorggil part of Prinflarvirinth's fleet or another?" Saiga asked before anything more could be said between the two women. He wanted to keep on track. "It was here with your formation. What is its area of operations?"
"The Brakkamorggil is operating under special orders under to conduct field research," Charbon replied. "It is under Yaggorahurl's fleet, though. The research pertains to subjugating my kind further. It is why I could take no other actionns from within the NMX," she continued. "The Warlords have seen the loss of millions of NMX Neko. Not to death, the most commonplace cause before. No—turncoats. NMX that heard your pretty princess say things like she just has.
'"Deep within every Nekovalkyrja lies the tenacity to reject any Mishhuvurthyar's domination,"' Charbon quoted Aiko. "They hear that and they leave with you, princess. Too many times. Every time."
Charbon continued, "So what if every piece of equipment a Neko held, and every Mishhuvurthyar they slept next to or took orders from caused fanaticism verging on psychopathy? The Mishhu Overlords would have no more lost NMX Nekovalkyrja."
"What better test subject than a Star Army captain, huh?" Saiga shot with a grin, though he was far from happy to make the conclusion. "We'll have to make sure they don't nab you, too, Karasuhime."
His gaze crawled over to Aiko when he said it, regarding Yamatai's mightiest warrior with some concern. Saiga wouldn't say it but part of him wished they'd captured her instead of Hoshi for too many reasons to count. The princess met his eyes with her own determined stare, and he could tell that she perhaps agreed with him.
"All right then," Saiga said. He looked back to Overseer Charbon. "Let's go over some more details."
((JP by raz and Ametheliana))