2022-12-12: Extradimensional Distress Call! Rescue The Girl From The Other World!
- Log: 2022-12-12: Extradimensional Distress Call! Rescue The Girl From The Other World!
- Cast: Ako Furuma, Himeyuri Oono, Calas Zelinn, Shiho Hahnenfuss, Michiru Tenjou
- Where: Near Tsutsujidai PLANT
- OOC - IC Date: December 8, 0096
- Summary: The Socrates, monitoring something on mysterious orders, receives a distress call.
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
"Flight log - December 9th, 0096. YMS-15AF Grand Gyan is flight-capable. Weapons minimal - sword and shield, as well as fancy cape things - with extra fuel canisters at ready for the trek back to Tsutsujidai."
The pilot of the high-speed Gyan is dressed in a scavenged pilot suit, in an equally scavenged-but-tuned up Gyan. It took weeks of reading manuals, pushing forth effort, and also, honestly, having a mostly-intact frame to start off, otherwise it'd be impossible.
Normally, Ako Furuma retreats from the overwhelming. But she has something only she can do.
The Gyan starts doing flips in space, testing control and speed. It's fast.
Testing is almost done.
Ako's hungry. She needs MacNuggets, fast, and also Ramo time. Tell her all about what happened! She'll be scared for her, but...
This is what Ako has to do.
And then, as she turns back to face Tsutsujidai, having broached further into PLANT space than she planned...
The world goes wrong.
A massive dimensional instability, in the near distance, rips her world away and in moments before Ako's ever-widening eyes, has consumed Tsutsujidai's PLANT and left nothing but space behind.
Ako's Gyan doesn't move. She doesn't move. For several long seconds, she pretends it never happened.
And then, when it finally clicks...
"RAMO!"
She begins screaming.
Fuel's running low. She's been trying to radio the ship that she hired-slash-convinced to give her a flight. No luck - they went with the 100km radius.
As Ako's tears stain her face, only barely separated from her home possibly forever, she screams once more.
She looks to the open-comm button. It's not safe. It's not safe in this world. Leina told her that.
But even so...
Click.
"SOS! SOS! Mayday, mayday! Ako Furuma of T-Tsutsujidai High School, in the Tsutsujidai PLANT...seeking assistance! IFF YMS-15AF Grand Gyan! Please! I'm going to die out here...help me!"
She's sobbing between practically every word. She can't give into apathy and give up, though.
What would Ramo think if she did?
<Pose Tracker> Himeyuri Oono has posed.
The orders that had the Socrates sitting in an asteroid belt a safe distance from the Tsutsujidai PLANT were... unorthodox. They were properly authorized, but the wording was odd, and signed by one Haruki Kusakabe. The Socrates was to monitor the PLANT, and report back.
The orders to the Captain had been to monitor the dimensional instability and compare what is occurring to a chulip and boson jumping. Himeyuri had been happy to- this was proper work for a woman like her. Batta, strategically placed in dummy asteroids, have been monitoring for a while, and the streams of data come to her laptop while she notes her own observations in her rapidly filling notebook. "Remaining steady at 0.11b, no change detected by instruments."
She sits near the external window of the bridge, having given XO Zelinn control so she could work. Her water bottle floats next to her, practically untouched. Her voice has a slight... monotone quality to it.
And then it happens, and Himeyuri's eyes seem to glaze over and she starts writing twice as fast while typing with her left. "Obs 1, Obs 2, Obs 3 contact lost, last readings at 0.53b. 1.22l, -0.03j. No boson particles detected." Mathematical formulas burst onto the page, Himeyuri's pen soaring. "Obs 4-7, lost. 0.42b, -0.10 j. Obs 9 lost, 0.70b, 1.86l."
"XO, there's a distress call!" Comms Officer Milton, a young man with a round face and a patchy beard. "IFF is a Sleeves style unit, but not in our register. Playing to your station now." The Collapse continues, and the captain remains in her strange state. It's unnerving many of the crew. "Remain obs units reporting no further changes. Results... Inconclusive."
She snaps out of it just in time to hear a distressed girl shoved into a Mobile Suit. How cruel...! She looks up to the XO. As easily as she can give the order herself, Mrs Zelinn is a much more authorative figure. And she hasn't returned the bridge yet.
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
Calas Zelinn has seen a lot of thnigs in her time, but this kind of dimensional nonsense is not particulrly within her whelehouse. Then again, that's part of the Hime's expertise, it would seem. With current control over the bridge, Zelinn observes thoughtfully when the distress call is played to her station. The crew...
The crew is unnerved, and that's all the more reason for Calas to speak up. "Bring in the unit. Have medical assistance ready."
They're not going to leave a high schooler to die for no reason, after all. In fact...
"Ask her if she's in condition to answer questions. If so, have her brought to the bridge. If not, have her taken to Medical for a checkup."
"...Someone from inside the distortion," Calas reasons, "Could give us some useful data."
<Pose Tracker> Shiho Hahnenfuss has posed.
When the order comes to bring the Grand Gyan in, Shiho nods and immediately moves to sortie. At this point, she's gotten good at rapid deployment -- she's out and on the way within two minutes.
"Furuma, was it?" Shiho transmits to the Gyan, taking a deep breath in. The last couple years have done a lot of damage to whatever nurturing urges she's had, but... "Shiho Hahnenfuss, combat engineering attache to the Socrates. Relax. I'm going to bring your unit in."
She magnetically locks the CGUE's arms to Ako's machine via the hand plugs, then begins slowly but surely easing it toward the hangar. Easy does it. "You said you were a high schooler?" An awkward pause, before she asks, "... are you a Coordinator?" She assumes yes, because -- well -- for all its weirdness, Tsutsujidai is a PLANT. But it's worth asking.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Tenjou has posed.
Once they arrive at the hangar, they're helped with the entry by a pretty normal ZnO. Well, normal aside from the galactic blue paint job. It's an aquatic suit, sure, but Michiru asked to have one brought to the Socrates as a standby unit for her. Something nice to have just in case. Its long, clawed arms look dangerous, but it's quite good for precise handling and guiding the units in.
Once they get inside and the hangar is closed again, Michiru disembarks her side-machine, to do her other job right now. As guard duty, or in this case, escorting the stray pilot to whatever location she's determined to be headed for. She is... not carrying a gun anywhere on her person. Notably. In case Ako winds up looking for any such thing. "Welcome to the Socrates." As always, hearing Michiru speak is a bit of a disorienting experience. Her accent sounds like it's straight out of some OLD tv shows or novels. It's definitely not the typical kind of thing one hears from ZAFT pilots.
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
A ZAFT ship...? That's the only thing it could be. Ako, as they approach, sits quietly. Are they going to help her...?
They do.
As Shiho comes forth, helping comfort her as she speaks even if there's not much nurture.
"Y-yeah. Seventeen..." She chokes out, still tearing.
"I...you know, I'm not quite sure anymore?" What a weird answer. But seeing what just happened to Tsutsujidai...the fact of who made it...
Does it matter?
Michiru gets a nod, and with her helmet off, Ako reveals her blonde hair with blue undertones, obviously dyed and done herself.
Once she's brought up to the bridge...
"W-what was that? Is everyone...? A-Ako Furuma, Tsutsujidai civilian, seventeen. That Gyan's a personal. I got it out of a junkyard, was hoping to f-finish some test flights, when..."
She tries to look out to the space, and begins tearing up again.
<Pose Tracker> Himeyuri Oono has posed.
On hearing that the rescuee would be coming to the bridge, the Captain ran off down a hallway- Mrs Zelinn would be able to keep things under control. She needed to be a good hostess, and- well the girl might be older than her but as Captain that gives her onee-chan duties. It's what Captain Laura would do.
"Thank you Michi, Shiho-chan." Himeyuri gets back onto the bridge with a tray and a cup of cocoa- she's been rationing her last care package carefully- with some packets of sugar if it's too bitter.
"Here," she offers the drink to Ako. Something to calm her down. "Ako-chan, right? I'm Captain Himeyuri Oono, but it's okay if you call me Hime." She kept looped into the comms. She's keeping a calm face, but her eyes track to the poor girl's hair. What did they *do* to her? Some sort of bullying? If she had to go out in a junkyard robot... "You're safe here, I promise."
Hime still can't help but feel her heart drop on the girl's behalf, seeing her tear up at the hole in the stars. "We don't know yet. Our ship is here to find out." She looks up at Calas. "My XO thought you might be able to help us work it out."
<Pose Tracker> Shiho Hahnenfuss has posed.
Shiho remains mostly quiet while things happen on the bridge; she's there, but she doesn't want to press too hard on the situation. She's well-suited to this type of background role.
... There's something better for her to do, anyway. "I'll go assess her Gyan, ma'am," she says, before moving to do that.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Tenjou has posed.
Once she's certain Hime-hime and the new arrival are both fine here, Michiru bows to them. "I'll be back shortly. If you need anything in particular, I'm sure I'll be able to help. And Hime-hime can contact me." She's going to bake a few little desserts. Something easy and quick, to show the new arrival how she cares. That she's here and willing to do anything within her power. And she's also... if she's being honest, feeling a little peckish. So she wants a few sweets herself right about now.
She doesn't think it will take long. And really, these two are the ones who need to talk. Not Michi.
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
Ako takes the drink after a few seconds of caution with a nod, sipping it to calm. "Okay, Captain Hime..." She cuts in the middle - it'd be rude to not call her Captain!
"I'll...I'll help the best I can. Ramo is there...we were supposed to get nuggets..." It sounds like a dumb fixation.
It's grief.
"It's...not a normal PLANT. From what I understand, it wasn't even always a PLANT, whatever that means...? There's weird stuff going on. I shouldn't have left...stupid...stupid."
<Pose Tracker> Himeyuri Oono has posed.
The cocoa is of excellent quality. Almost the quality of Tsutsujidai at it's best. Shiho and Michi return to other duties, and Mrs Zelinn has the bridge in hand. "Good work. I'll take care of our guest." And poor Ako-chan is so willing to help...
Still... The way she talks about 'nuggets'... So full of sadness and grief... "This was a promise, wasn't it, Ako-chan?"
It reminds her of an offer to go to the beach.
"It wasn't even a PLANT? How odd. Still.. there'll be time to talk when you're calmed down. Let's... hmm. I think we can find you a room of your own, while you get sorted out. Worst case, I'm sure Michi will let you use hers, we'll work something out. She won't mind bunking with me."
She moves to gently guide Ako down the halls. "Don't you worry. I'm sure we'll find a way to get you back with your boyfriend and not having to pilot again. We don't leave PLANTS- or parted sweethearts- behind!" Himeyuri says this with such energy and joy that you could almost, almost ignore the conversational bar she just banged her head into.
<Pose Tracker> Ako Furuma has posed.
"Yeah, it was a promise...I told-" Wait, boyfriend...? Ako 'smoothly' glides over her skip, half-realizing that, uh. She has no way of doing this while saving face or causing a snafu. And she's in such a foggy mind she just...
"Y-yeah. I told them I'd be back...but...I guess we're not getting dinner anytime soon..."
Well, this will be awkward when Ako corrects later. But for now, she's too busy trying to wipe her tears away and finish her coca.
"Thank you. Anything I can do to help, I will...just let me know."
<Pose Tracker> Himeyuri Oono has posed.
Hime's eyes shine with intensity, realizing she was right. She doesn't even realize the skip as anything wrong, Ako-chan must be a shy girl. She can't blame her. A strange ship, and she doesn't really understand, stuffed in an old suit from one of the Earth's many wars... Poor, poor thing.
"Thank you, Ako-chan. Your help will be invaluable, I'm sure." Himeyuri's voice is so sweet, so supportive, so gentle. "If there's a way to get you back home, I'll find it. I'm a scientist as well as a captain, after all." She moves to face Ako, and put a hand on her shoulder.
"In the meantime, this ship will look after you. Michi, Shiho and Mrs Zelinn will be able to help in their own ways, but if you need someone to talk to, or a shoulder to cry on..." She smiles, a smile that has won thousands and thousands of Jovian hearts through propaganda posters alone. "Just think of me as your onee-chan, okay?"
This girl needs a good supportive influence. She can still be saved from the Earthling's horrid brainwashing. Maybe she won't even need... adjustments.