get your soldiers, tell 'em I ain't layin' low (part CXXII)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXXII.)

Dejah reached a hand out to gently touch Justine's shoulder. "I was not down there long. But there was no readily seen body...if I had a BRAIN in my head, I would have asked the Water if she bore anything of Earth fresh-foundered."

"Okay...here is what I propose." offered Zack. "Admiral, try to see about stopping the engines and investigate this ship. Deebs, you stay with Justine and help her regain control of her senses. I will go into the water and investigate to see if I can find anything."

Dejah mutters something under their breath. "Good. That will be good..."

"Oh, thank you, Zack," Justine managed, inclining her head to Dejah, listening and nodding. The golden skinned woman stood and headed back to New Alexandria, leaving her boat on the shore.

Zack stood, taking a deep breath. Closing his eyes for a moment, he undressed completely until naked and shapeshifted to his seahorse form.

The admiral looked up at the craft. "I'm gonna find a way to stop those engines," he said, walking away as Zack descended into the water.



"The engines are on fire, it seems."

Justine lifted her head, looking at Daniel. "There must be a fire suppression system installed, I just haven't found it yet."

Daniel climbed back into the cockpit, and examined the controls of the Liberator. He located the fire suppression system and extinguish the flames in the burning jet engines.

"We'll get a crew to remove the jet to the hangar for inspection," Justine said.

Zack comes back and sits down panting from exhaustion. "No sign of the Duke...underwater either.. I'm sorry..."

Justine sat down next to him, a hand on his shoulder, "Thanks for looking, Zack."

Zack kept panting a bit, closing his eyes and tightening his fists, grunting as if in terrible pain. "It always hurts to shapeshift...urg...but at least this once...my animorph genes were useful."

"More than useful, Zack." She stood back up again. "I need to get the flight recorder to the computer lab and find out what happened."

Daniel nodded, rejoining them. "We need to determine if the Liberator was shot down or crashed due to a malfunction."

"I suppose...the engineers of the fleet will be able to see through it, Admiral?"

Justine nods. "I'm hoping the flight recorder will tell us that. In the meantime, I'll get the drones to continue a search for a pilot."

"If you ever find any signs of life, give me a call. I'll take care of the rescue and healing part."

"Yep. Will do. Thank you, Zack," she replied, distractedly, inwardly focused as she sent instructions out on the feed. "Wide area full search for any life signs, or trace evidence of a pilot. Remove damaged aircraft to Armada flight deck for analysis...confirm."

**Instructions confirmed.**
"I will bring back the Varyag close to the clinic. We won't be needing it for now, anymore." Zack tries to stand up, his face twisting, making him growl from the pain.

Justine nods. "Ok. Thanks, Zack."

*****

Elsewhere, the Duchess had heard the call, and had been unable to respond, fretting. But as soon as she could, she flew to Gearhaven, landing behind the stables, and running for the bay. She stopped cold when she saw the downed ship.

Daniel nó Eglantine, the commander of their military forces, was standing on the rise above, looking it over. He turned to her as she walked forward.

"Hello!" she called out as she drew closer.

"Hello, Duchess Emilly," he said soberly. "I'm still trying to identify the reason this Liberator crashed."

She nodded. "We are too." She looked at the fire gouting from the engine vanes. "Though when it was found, there was a much larger fire, apparently? Deebs did--something. Not entirely sure what. But it went out, or--away? One of those."

He nodded. "I have a gut feeling this aircraft was shot down."

She widened her eyes, turning back to him. "Shot down??"

"Maybe a hostile aircraft took the Liberator out of the skies...It's just a feeling I have." He looked back at the ship. "We need to see the flight recorder data the crashed Liberator has."

"That would be a good next step."

"As for the pilot, their status is unknown," he said.

She thought about that. "I do hope it wasn’t Hiro..."

"Me too."

She contemplated Hiro being hurt again, and swallowed. "All right. I'll ask STAN if there are any saved records. We'll figure this out. And thank you."

Her comm pinged, and she sighed. Off to the next call. "Tch, needed elsewhere. Good to see you!"

She saw him nod absently, his attention returning to the ship, as she ran to her shuttle.

Her next stop was Tannhäuser. She ran to the elevator from the landing bay, punched for the second floor, and opened the iris doors to the command deck--into space. Thankfully, the resultant whoosh of vacuum just pulled her into the passage beyond, and she was able to close the door again, but walking to the other side, the door was half-occluded by intruding architecture. It took a bit, but she finally fought her way through and went to the nearest terminal.

She typed as she spoke: "STAN: Request information on pilot of downed Liberator, Gearhaven Bay. Is medical assistance needed? Are there any records reporting something bringing it down?"

She watched the words scroll up on the screen.

STAN:
Downed ship: Registered to Duke Hiro Shatner of Medici branch of the House of AiNeko. Went missing in Common Era 180. Last sighted in the Tanelorn Station. Mission objective: REDACTED

She sighed. Well. That seemed to be that. She signed off the console and made her way back to her shuttle, shaking her head. Hopefully they'd get more information soon.

(Continued in part CXXIII.)