Blades of Autumn

[ellipsis]

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Meanwhile, a lone Chrysanthemum spends her time chilling around in Morioka. She lingers in the bar, chatting up and bantering with her fellow sisters while getting just a tiny bit wasted. She gets a bit more crazy than usual when she's drunk, so the other sisters find her quite entertaining to hang with. She's about to head for her last drink when the bartender decides to talk her up. Boss, as they call her, is a short but tough looking middle aged lady who lost her sword arm in a traditional duel, katana to katana, with a KNF officer who was her friend, long before she joined the Chrysanthemums. It's since been replaced with a robotic arm that's even stronger than its human counterpart.

"Yo, Boss~! Just one more drink! Gimme a matcha hai, I need somethin' simple." She said, slightly slurring her words.

"Another one? Don'tcha think you've had enough tonight, Tomoe-kun? If you drink too much, you might lose your focus in a firefight. I don't want you getting killed just 'cause I gave you one too many." Boss said this with slight concern. Half to rile her up, but she couldn't help seeing herself in Tomoe.

"Urusei! If I wanted a naggin', I'd go back and find my white collar oyaji on New Tokyo! Alcohol is my fuel! Now c'mon, I want that drink! Hayaku~!" She dropped her fist on the table lightly, feigning anger.

"Fine, fine... Who am I to get between a girl and her drink. Just don't say I didn't warn you when you can't shoot straight. One matcha hai coming up." Boss mixes the drink with unparalleled precision and dexterity. A matcha hai consists of mostly club soda, mixed with shochu, lemon juice, and matcha tea powder. She enjoys showing off her mixing skills by juggling the shaker, or throwing it behind her back. Soon enough, the drink is done, poured out into a tall glass, and slid over to Tomoe, who catches it without a spill.

"Finally! Sweet, sweet matcha. Come to mama~!" She immediately starts chugging the drink, but only manages to get half of it down before she chokes and has to set the drink down. "Ugh. Might'a rushed too much there, damn. Losin' my touch! Whatever... Oi, Boss. Got any crap spinnin' 'round the block? I'm gonna need somethin' to do after this caffeine gets in my blood."

"Hrm... actually, there is something I heard about recently." She ponders, idly cleaning glasses as she talks. Our recon scouts using prototype designs for a new fighter have caught neural footprints, a digital trail. Our more hack-savvy sisters deciphered the raw data and determined that it's the possible signs of a naval cruiser. Evidently, it's en route to Fuchu Prison here in Shikoku sometime soon, but we don't have its exact route, nor the exact reasoning as to why. Whether it's just gonna fly through the lanes or curve behind Seto and Junyo to evade potential threats, we don't know.

"Alright, you've got me interested... But damn, hurry up! Ya like to yap on sometimes, maybe too much." Tomoe voices her concern, now only sipping at her drink.

"Chill, I'm getting to it. There are some girls who've disappeared recently, and we suspect that some of them are being held on that cruiser, possibly in temporary holding cells. The Naval Forces don't like to play fair with us. We'll never get them back if it makes it to Fuchu. They've only got two ways to go, so rustle up some of our babes and get a search party going. I'll slide you a datachip with the tracking information, I trust you'll use your hacking smarts to get some real worth out of it." Boss finishes cleaning the dirty glasses for the time being, and leans on the table with her arm. She digs through her pocket and picks out a large datachip held in a protective case.

"Well, if none o' our girls are there, it'll still be fun to just bust the crap outta that thing! See ya around, Boss~!" She finishes her drink and slams it down on the table. She takes the chip from the Boss, and with an odd alcoholic gait, she leaves the bar.

Time to deploy. She takes a few friends to tag along, and takes equipment used for boarding vessels. With everything in play, she boards her Tridente gunboat, the Jisuberi, and leaves Morioka with her wingladies to scout for the liner. Tomoe removes the datachip boss gave her and feeds it into the navmap chipslot, which then deconstructs the airtight casing around the chip and plugs it in. The computer displays a map of the Shikoku system to the group, and the estimated fields of movement for the cruiser.

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The Rose Dragons

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