2022-10-08: Derelict 083-SCH
- Cast: Banagher Links, Eisen Daiwel, Liam 7-020, Seolla Schweizer, Murrue Ramius
- Where: Side 5
- Date: U.C. 0096 10 08
- Summary: Following the disappearance of Ouka Nagisa, and others, a recently missing School logistics vessel emerges from a debris cloud near Side 5. Badly damaged by collisions and low on power, the ship represents a risky endeavor to any would-be explorers. But for those looking into The School, or one of the vanished individuals, perhaps the final hours of 083-SCH holds the key?
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
083-SCH
Even before its recent fate, it wasnt a particularly attractive ship. Built from surplus OYW tech, the modular hull is designed to be easily modified to serve a multitude of roles. This transport was designed to serve primarily as a logistics transport its modest hangar and modules not large enough to house a serious strike force. Prior to its sudden disappearance its stated manifest and route indicated a routine resupply mission up to Luna II. However, its derelict state, and the fact it ended up within a debris field near Side 5, seems to indicate some unstated plans.
Upon approach the utilitarian vessel has clearly suffered poorly from its trip through the debris field. Large gouges have been torn through the outer hull plating, and an entire atmospheric re-entry wing has been reduced to a twisted, skeletal tangle by a presumable impact with a heavy object. Based on the shape of the vessel and its slow uncontrolled tumble, it is likely that the internal structure of the vessel is suffering torsion stresses and without intervention it will begin twisting itself apart in following days. Transponder data indicate the primary reactor and auxiliary generator are offline, and the emergency batteries are nearly depleted. Life support is at critical with artificial gravity disabled and the atmosphere in the aft section is a thin mixture largely of nitrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfides. The fore compartments have faired better but it still might be best to keep your helmet on.
When it comes to entry points there are only a few options. The dorsal mounted launch hangar is blown open and a mess of broken storage containers and debris. Meanwhile there is one intact airlock equipped with a docking ring on the midline, port side. Several larger gashes could also serve as entry points for a brave soul equipped with space worthy EVA suits. Even with the ships slow tumble though, it might be risky
On approach to the vessel, the electromagnetic interference from the nearby debris cloud makes itself known. While it doesnt interfere with navigation does make it harder to be sure what is out there. Ghost radar signatures, radio static, and more make a manual approach safer than automated piloting. In the vastness of space though that means one might not know another ship is even there at least not until youre almost on top of it! That said given the fragile state of the vessel its perhaps best not a good idea to engage in a pitched space battle nearby as attractive a notion as that may seem.
But the race may be on scavengers, pirates, enemy forces? In contested space like this there are few pleasant options. And for those looking to find clues regarding The School or the whereabouts of its pilots this may be the only chance youll have to find them.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
It hadn't been a pleasant moment, when Banagher's communicator lit with the Captain's special ringtone. Stepping out of Leina's hospital room to take the call, he could feel the stares of both Ashta siblings on his back. One concerned, and one... hostile. There was no way Banagher would break his promise to Leina. He couldn't just leave the Captain hanging, either.
And it was a good thing he picked up. Captain Zinnerman of the Garencieres was calling to tell Banagher the news of Ouka's School. It took the young man a minute to take it all in. How could this have happened, with Ouka's dedication to her people? He doesn't know much about them, but all the same, this felt wrong. With a promise to the Captain that he would check it out, Banagher goes back to Leina. Gentle explanations are offered, and thankfully, he gets his girlfriend's blessing, and a warning. Remember Full Frontal would be tracking him -- and probably others. Banagher nods, grimly.
After hitching a ride with his erstwhile-Captain, Banagher and the Unicorn Gundam soar through space. It's a thrilling, healing feeling. Memories replay in his mind -- simpler days. Back when things made more sense. Starlight touches the young pilot's heart, and he manages a smile.
"I'm sorry I left you alone for a while." Banagher says, within the cockpit. "I'm not mad at you. We both did all we could. Leina isn't mad, either. Or Callisto." A pause, a comfortable sort of quiet. "Ouka's my friend, and -- even if its a longshot, I want to be there for her, if I can. So please lend me your strength." As if in response, the Unicorn lets out another burst of speed, trailing blue starlight. An exhilirated laugh tears from Banagher's lips.
Maybe this is where they belong.
Banagher's peaceful mood quickly ebbs away at the sight of what must have been Ouka's vessel. It's... What could even do something like this? Thankfully, the young man finds a hangar big enough for the Unicorn to land in safely. Armed with only a flashlight, Banagher makes his way out of the Unicorn and proceeds to the ship's interior. For a spacenoid, this type of movement is natural, at least. But he still feels unsettled. What happened here..? Could Ouka even still be ali-- no. He won't think about that. She's a tough lady. He'll find her.
"Ouka?" Banagher calls, making his way through the ship. The beam of his flashlight is wide, searching for any signs of life. "Is anyone in here?"
Despite his efforts to remain positive, anyone even a little psychically sensitive could feel Banagher's hope is only surface-deep. Beneath it is a storm of grief and guilt, confusion and pain. There are dark circles beneath his eyes. He's clearly not been sleeping well, if at all. The pilot of the Unicorn is in a bad way.
<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.
Silently in the lack of a medium for sound to announce it's arrival, the Archangel slips into the local region with the grace of a really graceful thing being utterly graceful. An orca in the ocean, a falcon in the air. She makes a slow rotation that causes the sun to glance brightly for a moment off of some of the trim. Would have been a great shot for a poster.
On the bridge, Murrue Ramius moves around the obvious Captain's chair, to take her place in it. After the (almost from scratch) rebuild to as much of her specification as she was allowed, she has no room to complain. Her hands input some figures into the console on one of the arms, before fixing her gaze forward.
"SYS, gimme 1MC."
"1MC Captain" comes a synthesized feminine voice followed by a whistle tone that announces a ship wide broadcast.
"Good Evening, I hope you all got some rest. We are coming up on the ship, it hasn't moved from where we picked it up form tracking stations. SYS hasn't detected anything, and we have no signs of enemy mobile suits. Still, we're gonna do this by EVA. I don't wanna risk any decompression with a docking collar. Everyone get into suits, make sure you pack a transponder for emergencies. Go armed, we don't know what you will find inside. I've launched Mobile Suits to stand watch, and I will have a shuttle on standby for backup egress. You know what teams you are on."
There is a pause, and a sip can be heard from which you could assume, Murrue like most captains, is drinking the lifeblood that is caffiene.
"The docking entry is still accepting codes, that's Alpha team. Bravo team, should come up from the other end, where there is damage large enough to get in with suits. Any questions, now's the time. We will be in position... in 3 minutes."
Murrue stands up and walks from the chair, to the front of the bridge. She looks at the derelict through the windows. She shudders looking at the damage, but shuts down the feelings of loss, and anger that tempt to draw her in. This is why she worked so hard to automate as much as possible during the rebuild. She is tired of losing people, good or not. Lives matter.
"If you are here, we will find you."
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
There's a lot of searching to do. With the information coming out from Yuka's house and the information release from the GGG team in regards to the strange Kaiju appearance - there's still one thing left to look into. And that is the matter of Ouka. Had it been a miss on the School's side, or was this a matter connected with it all?
As the Archangel approaches, the youth adjusts his helmet and light-EVA suit one more time. The dark colored suit with green accent markers coming to life as he turns on the shoulder-mounted light. At his right side is a small pistol made for use in zero gravity, and on his left a small heat-knife. The same kind that he'd given Shinji months ago now.
He's keeping them on his hips, as he needs his hands free. A case that looks like it's meant to carry mechanic tools in his left hand. In his right hand, a strange looking 'flashlight'. His back covered with a very small set of air-thrusters along with oxygen tanks.
The young man is grinning a bit. The idea of a 'ghost-ship' like this is rather attractive to him. And he tries to get in fairly quickly when the approach sequence finishes.
However, he isn't with the others.
<"Thank you, Captain Ramius."> Eisen speaks over the comms. <"We're going to have a lot of trouble communicating once we get inside if we split up."> Which they are already. <"I recommend a loud retreat signal if enemies are encountered.">
He then waits for the gate to be clear, before opening the lock door to the outside, and...
Nausea immediately hits him, as he sees the ship before him, but also the vastness of space. It is easier to handle when inside of Carestia. But here, in this suit, being exposed like this, his excitement quickly turns into an icy cold fear in his veins.
He licks his lips and takes a deep breath.
Fearing space isn't cool.
So, he pushes himself, and quickly relies on the EVA suit's thrusters before he even needed to. Just to give him that little sense of control. Moving towards the <<LARGE GASHES>>.
His right eye immediately shifts, whirring as the cybernetically augmented device opens up, and starts to take in heat-readings on approach. At the same time, the 'flashlight' in his right hand turns on, shining a purple light over the area. Intending to see if any biological matter has survived in space, and is at all attached to those gashes.
Looking to hover first, and maybe get some scrapings after getting a visual. With words of a Kaiju being involved now, he's more alert.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Impossibly heavy. Impossibly weightless. Impossibly heavy. Impossibly weightless. focusSNAPfocusSNAPfocusSNAP i just want to crack apartfocusSNAPfocusSNAPfocusSNAP But I have to do this. I have to find out more about what happened. I have to. I have to. I have to it's impossibleWHO MADE THIS HAPPEN
oh that's right. i read the report. i know exactly who to blame((It's too heavy to move.))
focus c r a c k >_Bronzo-27. Every single time anything happens to one you get attached to, it's always such a ridiculously pathetic sight. There's far too much work to do for you to gfocuset like this. If you do not pull yourself together, you know what will hSHATTERappen >_YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN "...no...not now!! Not when I have to do something as risky as this!!! Stop it, STOP- >_You know what your emergency resort is.I need it now now now now now now now where is it where where where
It's somewhere in her supplies. She has to find it. Right now. They're docking any second now. where is it
It's glimmering like a treasure. Such a beautifully violet swirl behind that glass. Such an immaculately polished needle. It's always been there at the worst moments.
Just jab it right in the inside of the elbow- and PLUNGE-
And just like that, the skies are clear again!
So blue. Above and below. How amazing!
From the hold of the Archangel, the room that a heavy and staggering Seolla Schweizer lurched her way into opens up, and out bounds a light as air, breezier Seolla Schweizer. Eyes wide and encouraging everyone around her, she's zipping maybe irresponsibly quickly towards the airlocks, soaring through zero-gravity like a bird who's lived in it all her life.
Clad in a much tighter and more form-fitting normal suit, Seolla clicks her helmet into place, and radios in, "Alright, Seolla here. I'm ready to set out ASAP once we're docked. Good luck to everyone in there, and be careful! Wrecked ships are nasty to navigate - stay real real far away from anything broken, especially with the puffier normal suits they've given to most people. If you need someone to head in first, I'll take point - I've had lots of training for exactly these kinds of ops!"
She's as ready as she could possibly be. Flashlights on both forearms. A compact bullpup-type space-use SMG hugged tight to one hip - a multitool for undoing locks, jams, and wreckage on the other, and a number of quick-seal capsules arranged as a bandolier across her waists just in case anyone's suit does risk depressurization.
Just ignore the blankness in her gaze - and the way she is squirrely about looking directly at anyone for more than half a second.
>_After all, it is extremely vital that you not focus too long on any people for the ensuing 6 hours.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam wants to believe that Ouka escaped her cruel captors of her own free will, and is now searching for a safe haven--and a way to free her siblings. He suspects that something far worse has happened. The only way to find out is to get aboard that ship, and see what was left behind. With luck, there will be security footage, or unpurged logs. Liam needs to know what happened. For Seolla and Arado, as well as himself.
The cyborg managed to secure a heavier EVA suit, mostly because it was one of the only ones on the Archangel that fit. It's built for a boarding action, with plates built to resist small-arms fire as well as puncturing dmage from debris and spall. As he approaches the Archangel's airlock, armored magnetic boots clanking on the deckplates, he looks very much the action-movie space marine--distant, ancient cousin of the action-movie Mobile Suit pilot. An SMG rests in a sling at his hip, opposite a sheathed heat knife. A plasma torch takes up most of the space on his back.
"Understood," Liam says, as Seolla bounds into view. His face is hard to read. He's been holding his helmet, and now sets it into place, twists and pushes to activate the seals. Hissing fills his ears as the suit's computer calculates optimal pressure. He runs down the SPOTS checks: Seals, Pressure, Oxygen, Tether, Sealant.
"Captain Ramius, Pilot 7-020 reports EVA readiness," he says. "Prepared to board the derelict on your signal.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
The docking ring doesnt light up as youd expect after docking is initiated, and its clear the ships computer is struggling under the power restraints of its dying emergency batteries. The result is sporadic at best guidance. The magnetic interlocks of the docking ring do activate normally however, thanks to the fact that they dont require much in the way of power and are designed for operation in emergency situations. Once a vessel is attached and powers down its a relatively simple matter of disembarking aboard the vessel.
~*~ PORT AIRLOCK CORRIDOR ~*~
The environment aboard the ship is perhaps just as unpleasant as one might expect, looking from the outside. At least toward the midline of the ship (where the airlock is located) the gravity produced by the slow tumble of the ship is minimal. The downside of this does mean that those with sensitive inner ears may feel a bit green around the gills. Meanwhile the surroundings are typical of those of an aging industrial logistics ship: Bare metal wall panels, recessed lighting (useful for not getting in the way, a pain to s when they go out not that any are on at the moment), handholds for zero-gravity maneuvering in various stages of coming undone from the wall. At least under the glare of flashlights the corridor appears to be mostly clean.
A wall panel flickers to life, and a localized automated message is broadcast to everyones communicators:
Ww-welcome to 0-0-083-SC-C-C-H, w-we are ex-x-periencing emergen-ge-ge-cy co-containment proce-ce-dures p-p-p-p-PLEase follow t-t-track lightning to th-th-the f-fo-fore security s-station.
Light blue track lighting pulses along the floor, leading toward the fore of the ship. However there is another track rust color marks, one clinging to a loose maneuvering handhold, others leaving heel shaped tracks on the floor, the occasional handprint, all moving from the aft part of the ship. It looks like blood though dried due to exposure to vacuum. Whether the blood came from the individual, or from something located toward the aft, can only be answered by pursuing that direction.
meanwhile a rumble cannot be heard, but FELT through the structure of the ship
~*~ 083-SCH Auxiliary Hangar Loading Bay ~*~
While the main dorsal hangar is in a bad way, the starboard side loading bay is still open enough for a single mobile suit to make its way in. Barely. The hangar doors lack any power and are bent outwards just enough that they can only be forced open just enough to squeeze through. The hangar itself is a mess: Broken open parts containers, unexploded ordinance, and loading cranes that have snapped from their moorings and smashed into nearby walls. There are no bodies at least . . . but given the hangars state, its likely any bodies that would be there would have ended up being spaced.
Moving from the destroyed hangar into the cramped pilots ready room, its at that point that if Banagher hasnt felt their thoughts it would likely he could feel the faint vibrations of movement traveling through the thin paneling of the aging vessel. The doorway leading to the port airlock corridor is slightly ajar, and shafts of light can be seen from flashlights through that slit. A choice must be made to make ones presence known, attempt to trail the mystery ship explorers or even to go in the opposite direction of where they choose to explore once they choose it.
~*~ 083-SCH Exterior ~*~
For the brave soul maneuvering around the derelict in open space, its quite natural to be scared. Space IS a scary place, where a wrong move might be your last and the first and last noise you hear are pieces of debris slicing through the layers of your space suit. Heat scans on the exterior of the vessel are relatively uniform there are a few visible plumes of still escaping gas rising from some of the newer tears in the ships skin. Said tears show no real signs of biological activity. No kaiju slobber, no broken off teeth or bits of torn claw. Instead, its clear that some of the material buried within the gashes are composed of metal not native to the Schools logistics vessel.
Speaking of metal not native to the Schools logistics vessel, as it continues to tumble the skeletal, broken atmospheric fin suddenly begins twisting free of its mooring! Shards of broken metal begin to rain down towards Eisens position, and its clear that before long the entire fin may break free and end up making staying on the outside of the ship a much, much less pleasant option in the long run
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
The light scans the surface, trying to get any glimpse of odd colors. But all he finds are metals. More metals. Taking his EVA suit a bit closer, Eisen tries to get a better look from up close. Without any notable heat markers looking unusual, his eye shifts back into standard view mode. He could scan some other bands, but he believes most of the other bands would not get him anything useful against a metalic backdrop... and space.
A bit closer, he mentally records the situation of the carvings. There's metal that doesn't belong here. That's however also when some of the metal begins to twist free. As the broken metal begins to rain towards his position, he immediately overcorrects and launches himself out of the way, towards the hull.
Magnetic boots immediately activate as shards rain away from him. Someo f them having gotten too close for comfort. So instead, he uses his eye to take a quick shot of the fin, before he begins to slowly walk the hull towards the Auxiliary Hangar Loading Bay - which will take a while. He doesn't want to risk approaching the fin with that much loose metal around.
On the way to the loading bay, he keeps his eyes down towards the hull. Looking 'up' will just make him feel like he is falling. So this is easier on the groundborn one.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Banagher gasps as his communicator glows with a message, moments before the track lighting comes to life as well. A path to follow... one that reveals another. Banagher's flashlight illuminates the rusty trail. There's no mistaking what that could be. His heart sinks in distress.
Thinking back to the day he met Ouka, Banagher stares at the bloody trail. If it hadn't been for Marida's interference, Ouka could've killed him with her bare hands. She was certainly capable of leaving a trail like this, if she had to. Steeling himself, Banagher prepares himself for whatever he might find along the way, when --
The ship rumbles. Crying out in distress, he crashes against a nearby wall. Whatever is going to happen here, it needs to happen soon, before this entire ship falls apart!
As he's still recovering, Banagher feels the presence of other humans. One somewhat familiar, but the others are unknown. Stories of space pirates flit through his memory, and the sight of unknown flashlights bobbing in the distance brings a chill to his heart. Could that familiar sensation be Ouka? Breathing out softly, he reaches out... no. It isn't her. Unable to work out who it is, Banagher clicks his flashlight off. Whichever way these unknown explorers go, he'll take the opposite path. Hopefully, nobody will find him before then.
Being caught without a weapon would be bad enough. But being caught with the Unicorn nearby? That could lead to another tragedy.
<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.
Murrue nods though no one can see it in affirmation of Eisen's signal.
"I have you guys set up for optical flares, comms and a three 'tone' vibration pattern to be pulsed through the hull to cover the bases. Good looking out Daiwel. Remember comms will go out without repeaters online in the ship, but I will have your fix via the beacons you should all have. We're thirty seconds out, and in final position for station keeping. I'll keep the lights on for all of you. Bonne chance."
"OPERATION BEGINS IN FIVE..."
"FOUR..."
"THREE...
"TWO..."
"ONE..."
"MARK"
There is a mid range tone signaling the beginning, and a timer begins running on a large clock hanging from the top of the bridge. Murrue walks back to her seat and settles in. She plays along her consoles on both arms, queueing up the displays. With a gesture she tosses the 'screens' and they appear floating in enlarged versions in the middle of the bridge.
Murrue Ramius adjusts her cap, and takes another drink. She tries not to thinks about what Ouka might be going through, or those who care for her that have come this far. She does think about the fact that she filed the mission and came without waiting for authorition. She smirks at that, and takes another sip.
One of the beacons flickers only for the briefest, corner of your eyes moment.
"Banagher." Murrue says to herself and watches his signal for a moment. When nothing else happens, she resumes her overwatch.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Seolla's wrist-lights are pointed in firm, tight arcs in routine directions, briefly following the trail of emergency lights...before she catches the tracks of dried blood. There's just a touch of vertigo from the spinning in play - luckily, she can stabilize with the brief 'zzp' of magnetizing boots, letting her stick to the flooring a little better. She's oh so careful, ensuring the next few meters are thoroughly tracked and analyzed before each step.
When the ship starts to ~rumble~, Seolla's arm quickly shoots out to signal the following company, especially Liam and Banagher, to come to a stop, re-assessing her surroundings...then letting out a long, deep sigh of relief when things aren't tearing apart immediately.
"Well, the guide lights aren't what we're after. That just tells us what the crew was meant to do. It's the blood that gets us on our trail, so let's investigate in that direction, yes?" She's leading the charge right towards the grisliest scene of the crime... "Also, make sure our rear is covered - we need a clear and concise escape route the instant anything goes south. Always be ready to use emergency micro-verniers to shoot back the way you came, yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Protocol acknowledged, Captain." The Archangel matches course and speed with the tumbling derelict--no small feat--and for a few, crucial minutes, the airlocks connect. Liam crouched in the shipside end of the Archangel's airlock, legs beneath him, coiled like a spring. The moment the airlock opens, he glances forward, scanning for threats. Seolla moves in first. Liam deactivates his magnetic boots, shoves off the floor, and into the derelict's airlock. His hand grips the side of the hatch, and he heaves himself into the corridor. A dull CLUNK-CLUNK reverberates through the hull as he reattaches. Distantly, he hears the Archangel decouple, and proceed to minimum safe distance.
If there is a safe distance, Liam thinks, ruefully, as the derelict rumbles beneath him.
"Acknowledged and understood, Seolla," Liam says. "Keep visual contact." As she sets off to follow the trail, Liam follows after... only to frown as the onboard IR sensor picks up... something. "Someone's here." The slow, heavy rhythm of his footsteps changes direction, slightly. "I think they're..." He steps away from the trail, and stops in the entrance of the ready room. In armor, his frame blocks the door almost entirely. He toggles his comm to an open frequency, and speaks, one hand edging toward his knife.
"...Who's there?" Liam says. If this were a movie, this would be where the alien lunges at him, and he and Seolla match claws with knives and gunfire.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Following the blood trail instead of the light tracks does lead one toward the aft of the ship... and a sealed door. Without power, and without the locks engaged, it's a rather trivial matter to pull it open by snapping out the manual override handles and pulling it open. You don't even need some sort of kinesis module to manage it!
~*~ Fore-Aft Umbilical Corridor ~*~
It doesn't take long to find the blood, though the answer is still a bit vague. The corridor near the recently opened door way is splattered with dried blood. Most of it shows the oddly equidistant splatter pattern of a spray in microgravity. However there are a few points of concentration. One, in particular, is a dome-shaped hole in the relatively thin corridor plating. Shards of broken glass... no, faceplate are still embedded in the all. Coated in dry and flaking blood. Another grisly echo of the events that happened there is a thick wire panel - embedded several inches into the wall above the door frame, and with a thick line of dried blood running down the middle.
Of bodies though... there are none. Meanwhile on the other side of the corridor, and oddly at a place where there is almost no blood to be seen, there is the densest cluster of bullet holes. It looks like this is where the last ditch effort to maintain containment took place.
At a wall panel blinks indicating that a message is ready to be played. Simply touching the panel is enough to play the message. A older Britannian man's face is seen on screen, his face red with fury... and strain.
"... ou bastards, I know you can he... me. Let us... air... open ... damn door!"
The screen fades to static, but when it comes back in there's an image of a familiar young woman floating through the other side of the room on the video. The man, and others in the room, are clearly struggling to breathe ... but still manage to look at her with fear even as they suffocate. The audio on this part is dead - indicating either a power failure in the recorder, or that the air was too thin to reliably pick up sound. Aurum-1 ignores the dying engineers around her. Instead she pries a familiar looking wire panel on a nearby wall. Her hand then reaches inside the. She grips something, twists, pulls, and suddenly there is a bright flash! She recording ends with her silhouette cast in sharp relief by the electrical discharge - the possible reason for the power outage?
Meanwhile... towards the direction of the track lighting.
~*~Fore Security Station~*~
When the door to the front of the ship opens, there is a sudden hiss of air escaping from a section of the ship which still has atmosphere! Worse a figure in a spacesuit unexpectedly /lunges/ through the opening created by the doorway. After a brief panic though it's quite obvious the space suit's owner has long since past. The helmet she wears has been crushed in an obscene fashion - the shattered face plate having been buried into her own face.
The room is full of the corpses missing from the other end of the ship. Most of them have been secured to the walls with hooked tethers attached to the back of their space suits. It appears that the one that 'attacked' when the door open had managed to break free, and simply got pulled along with the escaping air.
Furthermore inside the security terminal is still active, despite the lower power of the ship. Likely considered a priority. The terminal indicates that while the primary reactor and auxiliary generator are online there is no damage to the internal power systems. The power just needs to be reactivated from the bridge. Furthermore there is another video - this one of a soldier's personal camera.
It shows a chaotic scene of the soldiers attempting to hold the line against the aggressor: A coiling cloud of dark green hair, and bright gold eyes at the end of the corridor. The camera turns when there is a sudden blur, and into the field of vision it shows one of their fellow soldiers with a wiring panel sticking out of where the suit's neck used to be.
The rest of the film is staticky and chaotic, with the last image of the owner of the video being held up by and staring into the emotionless gaze of a blood splattered Aurum-1. Through the static: "kh... bitch." and the sound of a crushing snap followed by faint gurgling.
It's a simple matter to select the track lighting to direct any would-be explorers to the bridge. Perhaps if you can restore power, you can prevent the vessel from breaking apart before you're done exploring... or even restore some of the damaged video logs? It's clear Ouka did in fact rebel... but where /did/ she go?
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Pressing himself back against the wall, Banagher's frightened breathing is loud in his helmet. The familiar-feeling person is coming closer, and they're not alone. The sheer size of Liam's armored spacesuit brings Banagher to the verge of panic. And those -- Londo Bell colors. The Federation. Glancing around, Banagher can't see a way to escape quickly enough.
The voice coming through his comms is... familiar as well. Familiar enough that the young man takes a half-step forward. "My name is Banagher Links." That's... really all he can offer. He doesn't have a ship he belongs to, or even a home, really. And he's not going to give away the Unicorn if he can help it. "I'm here looking for my friend. She's in trouble."
It's clear the young man is unarmed. There's an unlit flashlight in his hand, but that's it. It's almost pathetic how helpless he is, and he seems to know it, obvious fear in his voice.
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
As Eisen enters the destroyed hangar, he lets out a sound of relief. While this ship is clearly not in a great state, it's safer than out there with the piece of fin that wants to dislodge itself. Patting his chest a few times, letting the case and light float for a moment, he lets out a long sigh... then poses.
"The Mad Scientist, braving space, and exploring the unknown!"
Which, thanks to space not transmitting sound, just means that there's a lit up shade of a man posturing as if he is some kind of tekkaman villain or something. Putting his hands at his hips and taking a moment to stand there, looking like he's cackling.
He then grabs the floating equipment again and activates his heat sensor once more in his eye, and begins to move deeper in. Sweeping the area with his light. Noting the unexploded ordinance and the snapped loading cranes, it truly looks like there was an interaction here between a mobile suit and this vessel. Or perhaps a mobile armor.
"Okay, so, no power. We need sensor-records plucked from the internal computers. Since it looks like there are no survivors here except for us." He's talking to himself, going over a mental list. "Bridge." He decides, and begins to move.
Which means stepping right past Liam and Banagher. But with Liam at the front, Eisen just kind of leaves him to his own devices. Which means that to Banagher, a man passes by almost like a ghost. A presence that feels subtly 'warped' to a NewType. A man that passes by, with a green glowing eye facing their direction.
Soon, the door to the front of the vessel opens, and air escapes immediately. With the heat-sensor on his eye, it actually takes Eisen a moment to realize something is happening. The spacesuit falling out towards him has him instinctively grab it.
It's only when he realizes that the suit isn't just an /empty suit/, but contains a corpse, that Eisen lets out a momentary hiss of anger. A subtle anger at himself as his heart skips a beat. It takes him a moment to recover.
"Calm down Eisen. You've seen plenty of corpses before." He mumbles to himself. Looking at the crushed helmet. "Though not quite like this..." He glances back and then puts the corpsicle to the side for someone else to get startled by.
Using a grip on the wall, he floats through the security station itself. Noticing the security terminal, he stops for a moment. It's the terminal indication he cares about, more-so than the video. He's going to leave that to the others. He's trying to make time to the bridge.
So he pushes through, skipping the Port Airlock Corridor, Eisen tries to get to the bridge. 'Dropping' the blacklight in the hallway for now, letting it point towards the corpse. That way he has a hand properly free.
He intends to open his little case, interface with the sensor console, and reactivate the power from the bridge so that he can get the data without having to unmount the entire unit.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The enormous soldier takes a step into the ready room, his foot landing and attaching with the solid 'clunk' of a mag-lock. His head tilts down, and Banagher's reflection glimmers dimly against the golden background of his visor.
"...Banagher?" Liam raises his hands to shoulder height, and opens them. "It's me. Liam. Are you hurt?" He glances back at Seolla, and flashes her the 'OK' hand signal. "...So are we. We might be looking for /her/," too. Liam's eyes hood behind his visor as he brings his impressions of Ouka to the forefront: stoic, unnerving, self-sacrificing, gentle, ruthless. Not a steel hand inside a velvet glove, but a hand with properties of both. "Stay close. This ship is structurally unsafe."
Eisen passes by behind him, his beacon lighting up on Liam's sensors. He turns to the side, slightly, watching him go by. "Seolla went this way. Come on."
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
The moment a familiar face pops up on the video feeds, Seolla is transfixed. She's desperately looking over every inch of both playbacks, trying to put together a track for where Ouka might have gone. It helps to look mostly at the walls and fixtures - at the damage Ouka did, moreso than Ouka herself in this footage.
don't pay attention to how much it looks like she's twisting and bending out of place. don't look too hard in her eyes no matter how much you miss them.
As long as she doesn't look, it's easy enough to push corpses aside. So bolstered is Seolla's resolve that when the door parts and a corpse flies right in her face- her first response is a high-arcing kick that hurtles that body skyward, followed by a secure cocking of her gun...which is lowered once she realizes it's not moving, just pushed along by the gust of air re-positioning.
"...It's easy to be on edge, Liam, but...there's no sign of a kaiju attack, and no prior incidents of zombies in space, somehow. Closest I can think of is stuff the Devil Gundam could do...but if there's still DG Cells out there, and they're on this ship, we're in deeper shit than the disappearance of one person."
"...if that is the case, though...I wonder if Ouka did all this to save us."
Seolla pivots on her heel, back the way she came, and pauses- "Wasn't there...someone else with us? Damn it, people running off already...splitting up is such a bad call in a place like this!! ...tch...maybe...I'll do what I can about some of these frayed power lines, but we can't linger in one place for long. Hell knows how long this ship has in it before falling apart..." Wherever she can, Seolla gets out that multitool, with a little limited-use zero-atmosphere welding torch to try and fix up what wires she can match wherever they're exposed - though it seems likely a very thick and reinforced main power supply was damaged. She does breathe a sigh of relief when Liam nudges their third and fourth guest closer... "...You two...this is a much less organized operation than I'd hope. Having limited contact with Captain Ramius is a bit nerve-wracking..."
<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.
"...ing...in now t...ere...be...eadi...ng...me?"
The voice of the Captain breaks through a mess of static. It's sudden and could be startling, but the resolution gets better and Murrue can be heard in the bursts.
"...hould be coming in now. Alpha and Bravo teams are y...eading me?"
Murrue stands over the shoulder of the only other person on the bridge. They work (argue) about modulation and cross frequency attentuation, trying to reconnect with those outside the Archangel.
"I've attached a tow cable between the ship and the Archangel, and wired it to use as a high gain, UHF antenna. You should be able to hear me now."
Murrue clenches a fist, impatiently waiting for a response. She wasn't happy with the peculiarities she was getting with Banagher's signal, so she had come up with a way to re-establish comms. Or so she hopes. Now she waits for a reply... She always hated waiting.
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
~*~083-SCH Bridge~*~
Moving from the fore security station to the bridge is a relatively simple matter. The security lockdown that was in effect before relied on... well... powered door locks. Now that the emergency power is winding down though, everything is being poured into keep rudimentry computer systems and life support online. When the door opens though ... perhaps something far less pleasant appears.
There are less bodies in the rooms than the one before it. That said the corpses which lay strapped to their pilot's chairs ... clearly did not die quickly. Their faces are covered in burns, bruises, their mouth agape with broken teeth. Unlike the bodies of those before, who were clearly killed in an exceptionally brutal and swift fashion, these bodies were killed in just as brutal... but a far less swift fashion.
Someone wanted information out of them. And then, from the bullet wound located at each one's temple, they finished them off once they were done.
Once he reaches the bridge console though the main trick is to unlock the console. It requires a pilot's hand print ... which is, well, easy enough to acquire with a bit of knife work to saw through a rope. Once the system is unlocked, camera feeds throughout the ship activate allowing Eisen to watch the status of the other team. Two obvious options are available - one is the bridge's radio logs, and the other is to restart the auxiliary generator.
"... she escaped... blew out the air lock... going... no... heading wrong... not Earth... oxygen reserves low... send help"
~*~Aft Crew Quarters~*~
Meanwhile, on the other end of the ship, Seolla, Liam, and Banagher make their way to the crew quarters following Ouka's trail. There is less blood to follow at this point - but the remains of several crew members can be seen. None of them died by Ouka's hand at least - but many of them died struggling to breathe. It's also clear that many of the storage bays have been emptied... unless they never had anything there at all?
Finally towards the end of the corridor is a crew quarters that is still open. When walking inside they find it empty. Empty save for an odd sight - an RX-78-2 plushie, floating in mid air just slightly over the top of the covers of the bed. Presumably, Ouka's bed. It would seem this is where she began her rebellion. Is there a clue to the trigger here?
Should one take the RX-78-2 in hand though they'll feel something off about it. It feels like alongside its normal stuffing, something else has been left inside the plushie.
Who should take it, who should keep it?
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
"Liam?" Banagher's voice is soft. "Oh -- I'm so glad -- I thought --" With a thankful sigh, the young man rushes forward, pressing his helmet into Liam's suit, wrapping his arms around the taller man. It's not a planned action, clearly, just the reaction of an overwhelmed young man getting a bit of comfort. "Sorry." He steps back, and nods, a little embarrassed at himself. "I'm okay."
Liam's message comes through clear and strong, and Banagher manages a smile, clear in his voice. "I'm with you. Between the two of us, I'm sure --" Cutting himself off as the 'ghost' passes by, he simply stares at Eisen. "What is --" He looks back at Liam as the strange presence leaves. "Who was that?" It wasn't a real ghost, right? Something about them made Banagher feel on edge, their energy feeling strange enough that Banagher does not want to go in the same direction.
All the same, Banagher follows after Liam. The larger man means safety, and this place is way spookier than the young pilot ever imagined it would be.
Banagher does not cope as well with being presented with a corpse as his companions. He lets out a short yell, raising his hands to shield his face. As Seolla kicks it away, Banagher is thankful to be behind Liam. It's incredibly unnerving to watch the corpse ragdoll into a wall, and he shudders. Desperately frightened, the young man is practically deaf to anything but his own heartbeat and breathing, only capable of trailing behind Liam.
"That's her!" Banagher announces, pointing at the video feed. "That's my friend!" The relief of knowing Ouka was here mixes with horror at her actions. What had driven her to act so -- brutally? It's difficult to watch, but he hangs in there, rewarded with only the sound of a snapping neck. He looks away, focusing very hard on his breathing. Throwing up in a space suit was an experience he does not need to have. "To... save us?" He echoes after Seolla, confusion in his voice. "From what?"
At the mention of power lines, Banagher speaks up. "I can help with that. I'm -- I was in school for engineering. Just let me know what you need."
Before he can do much to back up his claim, the voice of an unknown woman comes through Banagher's comms. He glances around. Who is -- oh. Someone on a ship. "Hello. I can hear you. My name is Banagher Links." Again, a short introduction. Sayla's instruction has clearly sunk in -- Banagher isn't giving away anything, if he can help it.
More corpses. Banagher tries not to look at them. Suffocating... A horrible death. One all too familiar to those who spend their lives in space. Almost inaudibly, the young man murmurs "I'm sorry." as he passes by.
Of course, Banagher goes for the RX-78-2 plushie. He grabs it from the air, pulling it close to his chest. "This is Ouka's. I gave it to her." He looks back to Seolla and Liam, puzzled. "I thought she really liked it, but --" Clutching the little plush Gundam close, Banagher feels the presence of another item. "Something else is in here, I think."
'Sitting' just above what must've been Ouka's bed, the young man tries to work the plushie open, unless one of his companions protest.
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
Eisen glances at the bodies a he passes them by. In a ways, his time at NERV and his particular profession has dulled him a bit to these bodies. He wonders for a moment, if this is what people worry about when he speaks. Perhaps the others aren't quite so... desensitized to seeing this kind of thing.
~Or perhaps~ - the thought occurs - ~there's simply something wrong with me~
The youth's flow brings him to the console and he begins to investigate it. Unlocking it after applying a dead corpse's print to it along with warming it a bit using the torch on his shoulder. When it unlocks and activates, he sees the rest of the team moving through the ship.
Listening to the radio log, he continues its play while he works on <<restarting the auxiliary generator>> in order to try and get the sensor systems going and getting the <<Sensor Logs>>.
"So you didn't go to earth. So... where did you go, Ouka?" He glances back, making sure nobody can hear him, before he mumbles; "Your sister is worried, you idiot."
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Seolla can't help but peer oh so dubiously at Banagher - his nervousness, his proclivity to wander off, his slighter stature... "...Hey. You." Seolla's a little bit bossier here, stopping for a bit mid-transit to hold a hand out at Banagher's forehead level - though her face remains pointed elsewhere. (She's fairly big and robust too, despite first appearances...)
"Alright, but really, what's your story here? Are you sure it's safe for you to be here? You don't seem like proper military material or anything. I don't think there's any actively hostile danger-" Seolla says, probably with a skull-battered corpse floating behind her- "-but this is still a really treacherous operation, and having to escort or bail someone out can be the difference between life or death. ...If you insist on coming along, be careful."
They reach the dorm room, and Seolla...is a bit choked up, but her injection's doing well enough to suppress anything like that. "...cute plushie. I guess I get why you came along, if you know Ouka well enough to give her a gift. No idea what she'd hide in that..."
When Murrue's signal starts coming in clearer thanks to the more secure physical connection, Seolla quickly patches in, "Yes, all of us are fine so far in here. It's kinda gruesome in here, and I'm worried about this Banagher kid. Me and Liam are a-okay...not sure where Eisen exactly went off to, but he gives me the feeling that if he went hurtling off into space, he'd somehow lasso himself back to safety..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam grunts faintly as Banagher hugs him, stiffening up; a flash of panic-fear-freeze shoots through his brain, followed immediately by a more conscious thought, weighted and measured. Banagher is not a threat. Slowly, Liam begins to relax. "I'm glad," he says. He glances over his shoulder in the direction Eisen went, noting the unease in Banagher's body language. "That's Eisen," Liam says. "One of the Eva pilots, and a technician. He's looking for--"
"Eisen," Liam says, transmitting openly. "Are you looking for the black box?"
The corpses. A spike of fear shoots through Liam's mind as the body floats past. He reaches out to touch it, gently guiding it aside. He doesn't want it to touch Banagher. He doesn't let any of them touch Banagher.
The video. Liam watches with a sort of disjointed calm, his eyes confirming what he hoped was true. His hands clench tightly. His heart aches, faintly, at the loss of life, but...
If these were Ouka's captors, and knew they were transporting an abused, dehumanized young woman...
Anger boils off Liam's body. He can't stop it. Even after the command ship patches through, it takes a good few minutes for Captain Ramius' transmission to force the anger back into its tightly-latched box.
"Understood," Liam says, his voice hollow. "Seolla and Banagher obtained object of interest. Plush doll of RX-78-2. Origin uncertain."
<Pose Tracker> Murrue Ramius has posed.
"Yes, all of us are fine so far in here. It's kinda gruesome in here, and I'm worried about this Banagher kid. Me and Liam are a-okay...not sure where Eisen exactly went off to, but he gives me the feeling that if he went hurtling off into space, he'd somehow lasso himself back to safety..."
Murrue eases herself upright. A relief that everyone is alright. From this end it looks as though things are coming back online as well. Daiwel is Daiwel. Seolla, sounds in check. Liam is said to be ok...
Banagher.
"Understood. I am going to leave this comm open, so we can monitor from here. We've got backup on Stand By. Banagher. I will have quarters prepared so you can join us, if you like."
Captain Ramius, moves back to her chair. A quick call to the appropriate Quartermaster and said preparations are underway. She begins preparations in the hangar as well.
"Cardeas Vist. Seems so long ago after everything. Paths cross now, I wonder if they will align for a time."
"I'm sorry Captain. I did not catch that."
"Talking to myself SYS, disregard."
"Aye Captain."
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Once the zipper is pulled down on the plushie, it reveals a small notepad. On the paper, in a shakey hand, is written a message:
Latune is alive. She's waiting for me. If it's a lie, it doesn't matter. I must go. I must go. I must go.
Then at the bottom of the page is scrawled a diagram - a circle with a dot in in the center, a circle with a cross inside of it, and then several lines being drawn from the circle with the cross in it pointing to two small labels - one is LII, and the other is I7. Finally lines are drawn from the circle with the cross in it, LII, and I7 to a circled character combination 'L7'.
... and then the lights start to flicker on.
~*~ Back on the Bridge ~*~
As the auxiliary generator kicks back on, the primary reactor begins its ignition sequence. Meanwhile the radio log continues playing:
"The bridge crew had nothing useful to share. The ship drifted into an EMF field shortly after Aurum-1 took off. Hold on... looks like we found the encoder. It was in her assigned quarters. I think that's all we're going to get here."
"Understood recovery team. And I to assume there's no survivors?" The wisened voice of an old man reply. To those familiar with him, it is clearly that of Administrator Koch.
"Affirmative. Aft crew asphyxiated, containment squad was liquidated by Aurum-1 near the port side airlock, and we just finished interrogating the bridge crew. We've offloaded all the supplies intact parts. Are we clear to scuttle the vessel?"
"Hm... I have a better idea.
WARNING: CRITICAL REACTOR FAULT DETECTED. CONTROL RODS LOCKED. RUNAWAY REACTION IMMINENT
"... we've been suffering too much lately with a certain nosey Colonel's meddling. He'll probably send a few of his favored spies before long. Leave ... a nice present for them. Even if he doesn't find it... well... it's community service to clean the spaceways of pirates and scavengers, isn't it?"
Immediately the ship rumbles violently. Surges of uncontrolled electricity run through the systems, causing the screens to crackle and hiss. Recorded videos and audio of the recent logs play in spastic, random combinations, as warning klaxons flash throughout the ship! The dull rumble of the engines starting up can be felt, slowly pushing the ship into a more aggressive spin.
... Time to Leave.
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
Feeling the panic and fear from Liam, Banagher freezes as well, glancing around in fright. After a moment, he connects the dots -- Liam doesn't like being touched suddenly. "Sorry." Banagher says, again. "I won't do that again." His gaze follows Liam's, looking at the distant figure of Eisen. An Eva pilot... A rare type of person, to be sure. Maybe that's why he felt... off.
Liam's care is noticed. Even though the corpse frightens him, too, he protects Banagher. The young man can't help but tear up a little, watching the larger man's broad shoulders. How kind, for someone he's only met twice. Not only to notice, but shield him from this horror... Banagher sniffles softly, blinking away his tears.
Banagher stops, looking at Seolla's hand. "I'm not in the military. I just want to help my friend. I heard she was in trouble, and I came." There's no lie in his voice, though the answer is simplistic. "I won't get in the way, I promise." And he keeps his word as best he can, staying in Liam's shadow.
There's a flare of emotion from Seolla. Banagher locks onto it, staring at the woman. "Are you okay, miss?" He looks down at the plushie he's trying to tear into. "Would it make you feel better to hold this, once I figure it out? It was a simple gift, but Ouka kept it all this time." He smiles a little, looking down at the soft Gundam.
Anger from Liam, sadness from Seolla. These people must truly care about Ouka. It's enough to put the young man at ease around them, despite how fierce Liam's emotions burn. "We'll find her." Banagher murmurs, looking up to the other man. "No matter what. We'll make sure she's okay. Ouka's strong."
Banagher doesn't react to Seolla telling the mystery woman she's worried about him. That's pretty typical -- everyone's usually upset about his presence in one way or another. He keeps fussing with the plushie.
The voice on the comms offers Banagher a room. He blinks, surprised out of his messing with the plushie. "...who is that?" He asks, looking between Liam and Seolla. There's a wary note to his voice. He's very aware it could be a trap for the Unicorn -- and without being able to emotionally read the owner of the mystery voice, he doesn't know how to react. "Why is she offering me quarters?" It's impossible to ask the questions he needs to ask without giving anything away -- does she know who I am? Does she know about the Unicorn, and Laplace's Box?
Zip. Banagher tugs out the notepad, reading the note aloud, then offers it to Liam and Seolla. "There's a bunch of symbols here. That one's the sun." Banagher taps the circle with a dot in the center. "And that one's Earth." He taps the one with a cross in the center. "I'm not sure about the others. What do you guys make of--"
Another rumble of the ship, and Banagher startles. "What is that?" The klaxons go off, and he 'stands', floating back to his companions. "We -- need to go. I can get us out of here! We need to get back to my Gundam, in the hangar!"
All the thoughts of keeping the Unicorn a secret are gone from his mind. All that matters now is saving these people. After their journey back to the hangar, a beautiful site awaits them -- a pure-white mobile suit with a single horn extending from its head. Banagher makes a beeline for it, reaching out with one hand, the other carefully holding the plushie. Ouka would want it back.
Seemingly of its own accord, the Unicorn's cockpit opens as soon as they're close to it. Banagher clambers into the pilot seat. The interior of the Gundam is, thankfully, quite large -- with passenger along the two side walls. It might be a tight fit for Liam, but this is an emergency! "Try to hold on." Banagher says, one hand touching a screen before him. Cameras come to life, displaying the ship around them in a 360 degree view. Banagher murmurs something under his breath, grabbing the controls, and the Unicorn moves forward.
The journey out of the destroyed hangar is slow and careful, but once they're outside, the Unicorn seems to charge forward. Starlight trails behind it as the Gundam races away from the doomed ship. It's terribly fast. Not enough to do any damage, but if this is what its capable of without transforming...
"Where do I take you guys?" Banagher asks, looking between his passengers, the Unicorn arcing into a graceful turn once they're far enough away. They look back at the ship, and Banagher takes his helmet off. Brown, fluffy hair floats in all directons.
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
As the radio-log begins to play, Eisen flips the controls on the communications, so that /everyone/ on board can hear the audio-recording. Or at least, the crackling attempts at doing so.
<"I, the Mad Scientist Eisen, have turned on the reactor! Behold, for there is light!"> Pause. <"I'm trying to pull more data - Liam."> Eisen replies as he continues trying to get sensor logs. <"Where did you go..."> At least to get some kind of direction. What unit did she use? Probably that new Gundam looking one.
All while listening to the recordings when...
"What do they mean a better ide~ FUCK." Eisen's head snaps, immediately trying to shut down the reactor. But it's too late. It's locked in!
<"The Devils have pulled a Zero on us! We have to go! We have to go NOW!"> As the youth drops everything except for any data he managed to retrieve, and just takes off down the hall, using his EVA suit to /thrust/ down the hallway. Bumping into the walls here and there, bruising his body. Reaching out for the turn near the security office to try and swing himself towards the hangar entrance he'd come through!
As he watches the Gundam come back to life, with Banagher getting on board.
<"Is that the Satan of Torrington?"> Eisen shouts out to Liam, as he sees Liam board it, trying to reach the vessel and get to safety. This is not a time to be picky about boarding machines that are painted pure white.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
There isn't much air left in the ship to carry sound. Everything at a distance is felt more than heard, and it's unsettling. But Eisen getting the comms working--however haltingly--gives some valuable insight.
"Thanks, Eisen," Liam transmits, and he listens. The audio is a little patchy, but he can tell the voices apart, and he sets his jaw. Anger pulses through his body as he realizes who these must be: a wetworks team sent here by Ouka's handlers.
Which means, Liam realizes, a spark of fear racing down his spine, that they had full access to the ship's systems. They would be idiots if they just let it keep drifting with valuable data aboard.
The alarm confirms Liam's worst fears. He barely processed what Banagher said.
"Alpha to Archangel," Liam barks out, "detach! Detach immediately, it's going to blow!" How are they supposed to get clear? The airlock's nearby; if he activates his EVA jets, he /might/ be able to get clear in time. He'd be cutting it close if he had Banagher or Seolla with him, even moreso if he had both.
But Banagher has his Gundam. "Lead the way," Liam says.
The supersoldier follows Banagher, every movement precise and forceful. He ricochets off the walls like a handball in a controlled careen, only stopping once he's reached the Unicorn. He's never been this close to it, but he grabs onto a handrail and hauls himself up anyway. "Not the time, Eisen!" Liam snaps, as he straps himself in. It's a tight fit with all the armor, but he manages. And he can endure it if it will save lives.
Liam does not relax until everyone is aboard, and the vessel is in the Unicorn's rearview cameras. "Our ship is nearby," Liam says. "The Archangel. Its captain was overseeing things."
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
"It is always the time." Eisen answers Liam, quick to oppose the idea that giving people awesome nicknames somehow should wait. He latches himself on the other side of Banagher's seat, while considering the technology involved within the cockpit of this particular machine.
"Is this a medical device?" He mumbles, seeing some of the internals of the machine even though they do not seem visible to Liam and Banagher. Almost like he's seeing through reality itself. He's looking at some of the moving parts of the NT-D cockpit system. As the cockpit closes, it seems that Eisen's entire focus immediately attaches to the technology around him.
It's rather abrupt.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
A chill works over Seolla's heart. Latune? Alive? No way...so were three of the Argents...and possibly the Hierros...how many of them might have-
It's enough of a sudden bolt to send her slightly staggering, testing just how well that little supporting drug of hers can hold up. Lightly, Seolla bites her tongue to stay on task - and quickly flashes four or five photos of that mysterious diagram. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's...some sort of lagrange point diagram, but deciphering it on the fly's a bad idea, when we've gotta keep-"
She's oh so cut off when everything starts going utterly to shit. The instant klaxons start firing off, Seolla is extremely fast to hoist Banagher under her arm to get back to the rendezvous point with the Unicorn faster, looking over her shoulder for just a moment to make sure Liam's on the same page and not getting caught by anything. She's recklessly hurtling through the hallways, impacting the walls with her feet hard enough to slightly buckle them. When Eisen's jetting his way back as well, she might try to lunge out and make sure he's not careening off into the unknown- safer to have the whole team in one place. (The mama bear instincts are very strong with this one in a pinch-)
The sight of a mobile suit cockpit waiting, open, and roomy enough is always welcoming, and Seolla does well to make herself small in the back rear corner - she's fairly flexible in her choice of rubbery single layer space suit too, so it's not hard to pack her in. ...Once she's there though, the combination of fading adrenaline and the effects of her 'reinforcement' wearing off...
...In the slightly more emotionally resonant space within the Unicorn, Banagher can almost definitely feel the distinctly turbulent...coldness, yet wriggliness, fuming off of Seolla. After all that taking charge and forcefulness, she's a bit unresponsive inside here, staring off into space to try and process it all in a most aggressive shutting-down.
Being cramped in here with three other people is also giving her nowhere else to look besides them - ...and their forms are still shifting, swirling, contorting before them. She doesn't have the energy to glance away, to focus on anything else - right now, all she can do is put up with watching it, getting nauseous from the sight.
"...y...you three. I'm...I'm really relying on you...for all this. It's always tough on my own...I'm glad Ouka has friends who are...more reliable than me..."
<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.
"Wha--?!"
Banagher is hoisted! He doesn't quite seem to know what to do with this situation. Seolla is much faster than he is, so -- maybe this is for the best? Keeping his arms and legs tucked in as best as he can, the young man practically flies through the hallways under Seolla's arm. It's so absurd, after everything -- he just clings to the notepad and the plushie.
"Is that the Satan of Torrington?"
Banagher reacts as if struck, recoiling away from Eisen. Were people really calling the Unicorn that? Clinging to the Unicorn's controls as they fly away, Banagher tries to push Eisen's words from his mind. They'll return soon enough, but for now, he has to focus.
It's somewhat of an easy task, with how distracting the young man's presence is. Eisen's aura is conflicted yet certain all at once. Banagher doesn't know what to make of it. It's uncomfortable. With the Unicorn adding to his sensitivity, Banagher resolves to try and get this strange person out of his Gundam as soon as he can.
Eisen is looking too closely at the Unicorn. Anxiety wells up in Banagher's heart, and he glances back. This person... if he asks Eisen to leave it alone, he's only going to look more closely. "It's -- complicated." The young man keeps his eyes carefully ahead, trying to give nothing away with his reactions.
Don't look too deeply, Eisen. You might see more than you intended.
Close on the heels of the worries Eisen brings comes... Something. Again, something strange. He looks to Seolla with immediate worry, reaching out with one hand as the Unicorn comes to a stop in space. "Miss? Are you alright?"
It gets worse. Strange sounds and colors swirl up and around the woman's form, making Banagher's eyes widen. "Miss! Something's wrong!" It doesn't seem like Liam's reacting, so -- it must be some kind of energetic disturbance. "We're almost there. Please hang on! Ouka needs you, too!"
Resisting the urge to swat at the distressing spirals of color, Banagher grits his teeth. "Was that the woman talking to us?" Banagher asks Liam, eager for a distraction. "The Captain of the Archangel?"
No matter what the answer is, that's where his passengers need to go, so -- to the Archangel it is. The Unicorn is beautiful in its natural environment, soaring between the stars. It approaches the Archangel in a straight path, slowing from its gleeful charge. Banagher is nervous. A Federation ship. They want the Unicorn just as much as the Sleeves do.
It doesn't matter. The Unicorn touches down on the Archangel and the cockpit opens, releasing its inhabitants. Banagher stays in the pilot seat, looking frightened. Is he going to be safe here? Will the Unicorn be safe?
<Pose Tracker> Ouka Nagisa has posed.
Derelict 083-SCH
It wasn't a particularly nice ship. Nor a particularly important ship. Throughout its long history of service it has acted primarily as a logistics and convoy ship, having its internal compartments regularly swapped out to fulfill roles during the One Year and Impact wars. When the ship fell behind technologically, it was saved from the scrap heap by being resold on the cheap to The School. The School wasn't the sort of organization to strongly desire the newest and best in safety and comfort for its logistics staff, after all, and while the vessel was old it was still able to deliver its cargo and crew safely.
... until one of its cargo woke up, and decided to tear the crew apart with her bare hands.
Now towards the end of its life, its reactor has been sabotaged so that once the ignition cycle began the control rods could slide open... but the mechanism to move them back into place to help moderate the reaction was damaged. The result was a rapid power surges as the cooling system and reactor shield tried in vain to contain the building reaction within its core. That combined with the change in gravity from the increased spin of the craft made the act of leaving the ship behind.
Were it team of human spies, scavengers, or pirates who had made their way aboard the trip and triggered the trap it would have likely spelled their end. For this crew though, while escape was not assured... a narrow escape but an escape nonetheless. As the Archangel and Unicorn depart from the derelict, its sputtering engines continue to push it into more and more aggressive of a spin. Before long, large pieces of its own structure begin to wrench free - the remaining atmospheric fin is sent spiraling back into the debris field, the neck connecting the bridge to the transport bends and snaps to briefly float free before is smashed into out of the aft cargo compartments!
By the time the reaction finally reaches criticality, the ship barely even resembles itself anymore. Only the fore security station, the auxiliary hangar, and the port airlock corridor remain reasonably intact, while it is surrounded by an increasingly large field of broken and shattered debris. Then just as suddenly the remains are consumed in a ball of light and heat!
When the light and heat fades away, all that remains of the ship is a burnt out hulk, warped and cooling from the event. Any evidence remaining, if there was any, would certainly be lost now.
But some questions are answered now:
They let Arado and Seolla out because they knew that Ouka wasn't heading to Earth, after all.
Ouka is convinced that Latune is alive. But where does she think she is? Could the Lagrange Diagram help figure that out?
At least against all odds, those who were hurt by her sudden disappearance have found each other. At the very least they could cling together and support each other. Whether or not they can find the missing Aurum - and if, in fact the Aurum needs saving at all - are some questions to consider for the future.
<Pose Tracker> Eisen Daiwel has posed.
"Don't count yourself down so easily, Switzerland." Eisen rumbles to Seolla, having been helped by her earlier to get to the Unicorn's cockpit. "When it comes to tearing apart the Eldritch chains upon Ouka, I am certain there isn't anyone more qualified than you, her kin."
Eisen is doing his best to be supportive. Which is... certainly /a change/ from how he usually operates. But perhaps the more notably statement; "Besides, how reliable am I really, if I managed to turn on a self-destruct sequence by not being more thoughtful on my approach?" Of course, it's still about /him/. Of course, that seems to be all she's getting from him, as the youth's attention-span rubber-bands back to his original interest when Banagher answers him.
Saying 'it is complicated' is actually exactly what makes Eisen more intrigued. "Oho? Complicated you say! Intriguing. So, then that must mean it is perhaps responsible for that strange effect witnessed on the ground while facing the Luciferian?" The youth licks his lips, looking around more. But unfortunately, that 'special sight' he has isn't as special as it sometimes seems.
As the Unicorn lifts off and begins to move them to the Archangel, the youth straps in. Just in case shrapnel could pierce the hull of the Unicorn. But his gaze remains upon the internals.
Luckily for Banagher, Psycoframe and NewType research fall enormously outside of his wheelhouse.
And as the detonation goes off 'without a hitch' for them, and they get back to the Archangel, Banagher will be glad to know that Eisen won't linger... long.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
Just barely, Seolla does manage to crane her neck towards some of the monitors displaying the exploding derelict. Hah. Narrow escape from a ball of fire. How cliche. It almost cracks a smile from her.
Banagher's...intense concern is almost alien to Seolla, when that shell of spines and ice is always so present. It makes the Bad Vibes actually /flare up/ for a moment, like an armadillo retreating into its shell - before slowly, carefully, and experimentally relaxing. "I have to hang on. Don't you...worry about me. ...and don't you worry...about the Archangel. Their captain's...a good one. You wouldn't hurt a fly, I can tell - and so she wouldn't hurt you."
"...and Eisen. Don't call me that. My name's Seolla, damn it. It's...the one thing...I've kept all this time." A slight weary cough - not one of disease, but just of...stress, really. "...you're a weird one, but...I'm used to dealing with weirdos. I know what you mean. ...don't worry. I've already made my decision. I'm willing to do whatever it takes."
"...and I'm more than happy to kill whoever's responsible in case anyone else can't deal with the trigger."