-

The issued travel bans certainly were a nuisance to some, but most of their worries paled in comparison to that of General Creft and his entourage. The group consisted of four exoframe clad Scroungers, namely Creft himself, his sister Captain Vropda and two of the general's bodyguards, with the addition of the the blue skinned fleet head medic who had asked to join on the first diplomatic mission in ages. Problem was, they had not exactly got to negotiate anything yet, given the special circumstances and now they couldn't even head home to Universal Nova to wait for a better time.

"Ishol f'akh arrann!" Creft swore loudly, as the staff of flight centre refused to allow them access to their own vessel. As much as the general wanted to argue that they were not under their jurisdiction as diplomats from another civilisation, ACASIAS had reminded him that as long as they had not yet had their first meeting this "UFP" or whatever they called themselves would not recognise Ragnarov Fleet as a sovereign entity and thus his status as a diplomat would be null and void.

"I do believe we are stuck for the time being", the General stated the obvious. "What a way to make a first impression." He was truly disappointed in how the situation had been handled. While an attack by unknown forces was a state of emergency, Ragnarov Fleet had never had to resort to shenanigans such as stopping all traffic. Couldn't they just use their scanners to check the signature of each ship and shoot down those with invalid ones? Or were they too lazy to keep a consistent log?

"Well, since we will be here for a while anyway, could as well get back to where diplomats are received. No use wasting our time by mingling with the common folk", he finally suggested, sending his exoframe on a mission to move him back to the place from whence he had already returned. Third time on the same path might well be the charm.

Despite the general negative reception of fast moving news of the travel bans, Gavin finds the ban not too problematic for him in the long run. He has only been in the current city for a couple of weeks and plans to stay for a few more weeks. Gavin spends most of the time learning the complexities of the foriegn economy and society structure. Progress has been slow but Gavin has made some major progress in the last few days. Pherhaps after the travel bans have been lifted, Gavin could give one of the other planets a try.

Besides, Gavin has other things to think about before he could think about travelling to another planet. Gavin is going over his to-do list on his datapad while moving though one of the more congested parts of the city. Due to his training, he is able to navigate without a hitch. He close his datapad and puts it in one of his pants pockets.

While on a route to no place in particular, Gavin notices an odd group of mechanized beings which peaks his interest. Gavin makes an effort to caught up to them and askes the group in general. "I am sorry to be a nuisance and I am sure that you have a busy schedule but is it possible if I ask you all a few quick questions? You are the first new kind of species that I have seen in a while."

@Hekazu

The sight of the azure-skinned woman among a quartet of mechas was an odd one, to say the least. Perhaps as surprising was the wide grin on the woman's face as she peered around at all the sights. The nearby area was certainly not one of unparalleled beauty, but this woman seemed to treat it as such. However, at the General's angry mutterings, she lifted her singsong voice in a playful rebuke. "Watch your language, General," she chided, a chuckle barely contained. "We don't want to have parents mute their childrens' translators, after all. On the positive side, we can enjoy the natural beauty this world has to offer. Aahhh, sunshine."

Despite the fact that the exoframes hid their pilots' bodies completely, Ceraun could nearly feel the frustration from some of them as she walked ahead, letting out a quiet giggle. There were several reasons that she enjoyed these trips, and nagging the General was often a most entertaining venture. However, it was soon clear that they would not be traveling alone, as another humanoid soon joined them. "As long as you're okay walking with us, ask away," Ceraun replied. "My friends might be a little grumpy that they're kept off the ship for a while, but I would be glad to answer some of your questions. As long as you aren't a reporter." Her hand moved to her hip where she kept a couple of medicinal vials, and her expression darkened. "You aren't a reporter, are you?" she asked, her eyes narrowing before she burst out in laughter. "I'm just playing with you. What did you want to know?"

@fer1323@Hekazu

While on their way, the group was approached by a thoroughly forgettable looking fellow. Not that the Scroungers would be too good at remembering details of other species yet, especially those who did not really have contacts in their Fleet. Before the man had covered half the distance they needed to cover, the other of the two bodyguards reached behind their back, their backpack module letting out a click and a silent hiss of gas being released. Creft heard this and raised his arm to signal the guard to hold his fire. It would have been quite provoking to go opening fire at local populace for simply approaching.

The General listened to the request of the man and waved the hand he had been holding up to the right, away from that person. Another click emanated from the backpack as the weapon locked back into the slot and the group continued on their way without much of a hassle, what with Ceraun answering the questions. "Vropda, sister, please do see she does not go too far in her explanation. Not to the classified stuff and all. I'll keep our guards in check."

@fer1323@Gordian Nought

Only now noticing that the azure-skinned woman is with the mechanized beings, Gavin says nonchalantly to the proposal of questions on the go. "I find it easier to focus while I am in motion so it is not a problem." Gavin smiles at the azure-skinned woman's playful attempt to intimidate him as well as making a mental note to tread lightly with these beings. On closer inspection, Gavin can see that these mechanized being are potentially heavily armed and are highly train in combat. The azure-skinned woman is not as heavily armed but still seems to be quite capable if they are all part of one group.

"You could call me a scholar of sorts. Before we start the questions, I would like to retrieve something." Gavin takes out his Datapad and opens it up. Only after a few quick swipes on the datapad does Gavin start his questioning. "First round of questions, what is the prefered name of each of your species if not the same? Place of origin is a must-know if that is on the table. How does it feel to be so far from home?."

@JBRam2002@Hekazu@Gordian Nought

-

"… Sister, please do see she does not go too far in her explanation. Not to the classified stuff and all. I'll keep our guards in check."

The Captain scrutinized her cerulean compatriot and the scholastic Aeon, naturally attracted to the conversation cuddled between the duo. Her frenetic visors ensnared the glint of orbiting satellites, stranded by the intergalactic sanctions, until she was within recorder-shot. Before much data was exchanged, Vropda interjected her Exoframe, obscuring his vision and obstructing his interrogation.

Not satisfied by her initial physical assessment of Gavin, he offered a verbal salve, to satiate the curious wound in the sage’s question.

“Witness this, young humanoid. We are the Scroungers. Nothing less or more. Know, though, our name is not our own. Our ancestors borrowed this moniker from rumors. Our honor is not our own. We plundered this prize from our descendants.”

Vropda inspected again the computing devices hosting tubes running along her upper extremities, circulating bodily fluids to and fro, for nutrition, suppression, and provocation.

“Our blood is not our own. It is a gift and a curse of generations, yet unborn and birthed. We now carry this zeal with devotion. We come to exchange heritage and legacy. Death smirks at everyone. We are only here, on Vasishka, to smile back. That is all.”

The titanium skull stared at the man with the Datapad, whilst Vropda’s hidden frown concealed itself under the myriad of digital screens, flashing messages and numbers outside her inner helmet. Swiveling to the Doc, her metallic voice irked out more whispered tones, suggesting diplomacy and discretion should pervade their delicate dialogue.

“Lady Farohm, in efforts to topographically chart the geodesy of this Hub Planet, my suit’s sensors confirmed his field. Three times. I trust your tact, but if these calculations serve us correctly, the inquisitive one before you is emitting a rather strong gravitational potential.”

@fer1323@Hekazu@JBRam2002

"Travel ban? yay! Now they will have to listen to me!" Ereso tells Hovers as he takes a seat at a nearby cafe despite having no means which to even drink. Ereso had came here before the travel ban and had begun handling out flyers with videos he made of the benefits of posthumanism to lots of rejection. Shame so many don't want to hear the good news of post humanism for everyone being a feasible reality. Ereso, feeling the need for a break decided to go to a local cafe for a brief breather. At that cafe, a waitress comes by and asks his digital face "What drink shall it be? On Patriot's Day, coming next week the stimulus drinks are half off."

"Just water please, lots of water. A gallon of water." Ereso tells her, despite not really being able to drink water. Hovers meanwhile finds itself interested in the activities of the metallic beings who identify themselves as 'scroungers'. Hovers does a poor job concealing itself and rapidly repositions back to Ereso's location, where Hovers watches as Ereso pours a liter of water into his facial screen that just drips over his machine body. A waiter immediately comes to clean it up.

"Oh sorry. I'll give an extra tip for the mess." Ereso assures the waiter before the waiter starts wiping the table.

Hovers than catches Ereso's attention and tells Hovers what just happened.

"Oh doodles Hovers, forgot my mouth component back on the spaceship and got water all over myself. It's okay, the sensation of water running on my skin is just as good."

Hovers however, is not terribly happy and if anything, in a panic state. Saying in a monotonous, neutral voice "[We] must leave [we] must leave."

"Why now? We just started." Ereso tells Hovers.

"[Vasiska] to be [strip mined] by [evil aliens]" It states, buzzing in terror as it does so, a fact obscured by the monotony of its speech.

Ereso's digital face shifts to a annoyed face as he tells Hovers with disdain "Eh, that's why it is best everyone here becomes a post human. When you are a post human, strip mining is just an annoyance. Besides the fed will murder em, this is a fed world you know."

"[evil aliens] are [powerful]" Hovers tells Ereso, worried but unable to express worry through that monotonous droning of a voicebox.

"But the fed is [powerfuller]" Ereso responds while switching to a smiling face mode once more.

Ereso however is just not really sure why Hovers would be scared of whoever is here. There's nothing that can possibly go wrong, it's a federation protected world. Right..?

-

"We're sorry, sir, but you can't..." the lady attendant at the spaceport sighed, framing air quotes with her hands, '...'go for a joyride' until the travel ban is lifted. What part about 'the spaceport is closed until further notice' did you not understand?" "Sir," the weary woman added belatedly. Sivvy was not even phased by her fatigue. "Oh okay, mahn, that is all cool! I come back latah!" In reality, the attendant had been dealing with him for over fifteen minutes now and had been on the brink of calling security. She would have but he had not turned violent....just exasperatingly effervescent.

As he walked away, ever-present megaphone at his side, Sivvy quite literally skipped his merry way down the main street of town. The nearly six foot tall dark-skinned human waved and grinned at people whom he passed. It seemed Vasishka was not quite ready for the arrival of someone quite so different as Siven Jeyer. People, namely gardeners and stay-at-home mothers, hurried inside at the sight of this man's unusual gaiety. Other passersby merely turned their heads in bewilderment at the skipping man.

Not eight minutes later, Sivvy heard a commotion just as he was about to enter his favorite pub, which was separated from the normal tavern district by a score of other squat buildings. His black-maned head turned to the left to find four imposing robot-looking things with a blue-skinned woman among them. Sivvy raised his megaphone in their direction with his left hand, yelled "I DIDN'T DO IT!" and sprinted off in the other direction at full speed. He turned a corner down an alley to the left, not daring to look over his shoulder. A playful smirk played itself out on his face as he ran through the narrow alley and made as if to dash out across another main arterial to a ladder he spied leading up a building to the rooftops across the street. Why was he running? He had no idea. The travel ban had bored him to the point that he just felt it was the right thing to do. His mind constantly niggled at him that there were things he should probably remember, but that just made Sivvy pump his arms and legs all the harder....

"Well, that was more information than I was planning to share," Ceraun replied to Vropda, a grin evident on her face. She shrugged towards their General, as if saying "what can ya do?" before turning back to the scholar. "Perhaps I should ask you the same questions, seeing that we are new in this quadrant. I do not know of many races that manipulate the very forces of gravity. Impressive! As for myself, my name is Ceraun, one of the last of my race. My origins matter little, as my world has since fallen to its end, a fate that we should have seen coming for eons. Our foolishness destroyed us, and there is little left.

"I am Oujavu. Pleased to meet you."

Ceraun gave a short bow, one hand placed on her forehead perpendicularly, a sign of respect from her people. The insinuation was likely clear to a researcher, and Ceraun hoped this piece of culture would add to his collection. However, her bow was interrupted by a shout in the distance. "I DIDN'T DO IT!" came the interruption, and Ceraun straightened before glancing in his direction, barely catching a glimpse of the man darting around a corner. "I see little reason to give chase," she spoke up. "Unless you say otherwise, General. My jetpack is fueled and at the ready."

@fer1323@Hekazu@Gordian Nought@Mistiel

Creft listened to the conversation going on behind him while keeping an eye on the streets before him. Vropda shared knowledge of their past, possibly a little more than the man had been expecting, but it was he who had asked. Ceraun's face showed she would have showed more restraint than Vropda did in her answer, but Creft merely shrugged back. IT was nothing he would mind the outside world knowing. The Scroungers were not known to hide their story, even if it was one of the rare things they really put out there in the open.

If it was not the third time going through this street today, this walk might have gone by faster. But now with most of what there was to be seen already seen, Creft could only find something to occupy his mind in the events of the street. In a cafe nearby, some metal creature of other species poured water all over itself, winning a disappointed shake of the generals head as a prize for their actions. As that gesture was finishing up, a loud sound blared from behind, kicking in the automatic audio dampeners of his exoframe. All sounds dulled down for a moment as a simple algorithm lowered the intake volume for as long as the shout lasted. The message came through clear, however: "I didn't do it!"

"Gradot, take front as your sector", Creft instructed the bodyguard next to him as he turned around to face Ceraun once more. Her report to him was simple: Nothing to be worried about. "Indeed, if whoever shouted that did do nothing, there should not be anything to be worried about. Let us carry on, there is no use going running in these streets we don't know. Who knows what sort of an ambush there may lay." With those words, he relieved guardsman Gradot from his multi-sector lookout duty and resumed the walk forward.

@JBRam2002@Gordian Nought@fer1323 - Members of active discussion
@Mistiel - Gave the order to ignore the interference
@Arawak - Noted their inability to consume beverages, through a window

Gavin was taken aback that such a quick assessment of his abilities was taken and as well as the grim monologue from the of the group. The militaristic style of the group reminds him a bit of his militia training. Gavin recovers after a weird outcry from a pedestrian and starts to think about the best response to give to his new acquaintances while making some notes. "Well, I forgo my name. I go by Gavin 'Gravitas' Librom but you can call me Gav for short. As for my race, I can say I am not a native as well but I have been here for a while. Also gravity is just one of the many forces that my race can manipulate. As for my origins, let us say that it is a fair distance away. It is a pleasure to be in your presence."

@Gordian Nought@Hekazu@JBRam2002

As Ceraun readied her jetpack, plugging the cord into the base of her neck, she had an ulterior motive. As soon as the connection was established, she was encoding a message to her General even as she announced her intent to fly away.


The conversation lasted merely seconds, and Ceraun withdrew the attachment from her node nonchalantly. "Well, if there's no reason to fly away..." she muttered before turning towards their new friend. "Gav, was it? I would like to propose a trade. Back on our vessel, we have records of thousands of races that may be of specific interest to you. In return, I would love to experience and study your particular talents. Gravitational manipulation is an intriguing field of science and magic. I give you my personal guarantee as a doctor that no harm will come to you." She smiled broadly and extended her hand out towards Gav. "Do we have a deal?"

@Hekazu@fer1323@Gordian Nought

Hovers, already paranoid as is completely began to slowly go into overload with that shouting that's been going on. Ereso meanwhile gets out of the cafe (after giving a generous tip, of course) since all he ordered was water and so he decides to continue his recruiting efforts for the posthuman agenda. He sees some purple woman, probably some alien or someone who loves body paint- hard to tell in this part of the galaxy- and decides she would be the perfect candidate for recruiting. He notices that she is accompanied by what seem to be alien cyborgs and that she converses with them. Weird that is- a purple woman in the flesh who knows post-fleshers and still is biology? Maybe she just hasn't done it yet.

Ereso, not content with purple and her cyborg pals begins to look elsewhere even as Hovers continues to try to listen in on their conversations due to believing they are about to kill everyone. Ereso kinda forgets about hovers for a bit as hovers makes itself way too damn obvious.

Ereso walks a bit and than finds himself in some primitive place with bricks and thatch roofs. Ereso's a bit unfamiliar with this, but continues onwards. Ereso sees lots of people to recruit here, however. Lots of good people who deserve posthumanism who need to hear the good news. So Ereso begins to go door-door, trying to talk to people used to a magocratic society about the wonders of cybernetic posthumanism and mind uploading. The first person he meets has no damn clue what he is rambling on about and just hands him some weird stick, the second one just ignores what he is saying and just rubs his arm for some weird reason, the third person, some elf ignores Ereso's blathering and subsisututes it with its own about how technological advancement has degenerated modern civilization or whatever and finally he speaks to an orc who is just completely horrified by implications what Ereso is saying and just runs away.

Eh, could've been worse.

Still, Ereso continues his efforts in this land where surely there is someone who will see the greatness of posthumanism. And he than notices a man with a cowboy hat in some bar ordering drinks. Oh boy, another bar. Taverns and bars are all over this damn planet, some flyer Ereso recalls claimed there's a million of them on this planet alone. A bit dubious, but believable.

Even though Ereso just had a gallon of water, sort of, he enters the bar and takes a seat by Nic/the cowboy with that clunky mechanical horse to tell this man of how great mind uploading is too.

And so, Ereso without even asking begans his spiel to Nic, saying "Hello there cowboy hat man. I am Captain Ereso and I am here to ask you how miserable do you feel? Do you find your body limitting your potential? Theres's a solution for that, it's called mind uploading! Mind uploading is why I am basically like, immortal since if I get killed in this avatar body, I have a back up on my spaceship that I can wake up inside. However, you can't do this without having your mind uploaded to a computer. Now, you don't need to suck your brain out- thta is a myth, you just need to upload your mind which makes a copy mind that you can add to at your leisure, and just hook yourself up with a computer chip so that you are streaming your mind all the time. If your body dies, your mind doesn't! You just get transferred to a cybernetic body instead. You can be whatever body you want- I prefer being a humanoid since I was a human before I was stored into a computer chip and just like being a humanoid, you know. We all like being humanoids. So you don't need to stop being a humanoid even once you fully become posthuman. Don't you deserve better than your body?"

@0Z

-

Gavin thinks about the offer a few times over. It is indeed a great opportunity to greatly aid his mission but he has to be wary to not get carried away when teaching the secrets of his abilities. Gavin decides that it is more good than harm as long as he keeps his wits about him. He takes Ceruan's hand and smiles back. "I would love to teach you what I know. I guess I am welcome aboard when the travel ban is lifted."

After breaking the handshake, Gavin askes Ceruan. "So you are a doctor. Can I assume al medical one? I see very little flesh and bones to look after." It intrigues Gavin that a medical doctor is in the presence of mechanical beings. Perhaps there is more to this group than meets the eye and Gavin may keep a very open eye to properly judge them.

@Gordian Nought@Hekazu@JBRam2002

"I would love to teach you what I know. I guess I am welcome aboard when the travel ban is lifted."

A fleet of thoughts boomed effortlessly within the cybernetically enhanced cerebrum. The sister to General Creft drooled momentarily over the immense possibilities and applications, but the underlying scientific derivations and schemes troubled her slightly.

Spawned from the concept of relativistic physics, spatial geometry, inseminated with local mass-energy, breeds gravity, the altitudinal influence which aligns all weighty phenomena. Similar to the attractive pull of Coulombic forces within electromagnetism, the macrocosmic enlargement of these orbiting iotas is presumed to subsist by consistent and persistent alterations to the weave of the universe, the very golf course of galaxies and black holes. These theories embrace that the distorted shape of the interstellar cosmos, deformed by interspersed, massive objects, causes what Gavin innately mandates at will, gravity, which theoretically has been assumed to be a property of contorted space rather than capitulating a true dynamism.

Until now.

Although the equations which Vropda endlessly scrutinized over, again and again on her many visors, could never normally produce an Escheresque topology, mathematicians alike cheated exhausting weightless counters to unravel the riddle. For these same reckonings do not, of themselves, rule out the existence of negative mass, but statistically decree its improbability. However, this Aeon’s bold stance and confirmation defied her conceptual grasp of the pervasive assembly of the Standard Model. Both general relativity and classical mechanics predict that a massless particle could easily produce a repulsive geodetics. Obviously, every Scrounger drone realized that a negative gravitational mass, combined with negative inertial mass, simultaneously complies with the strong equivalence principle and the laws of conservation of linear momentum and energy. Bondi himself demonstrated the singularity free solutions for those relativity equations, many millennia ago.

Negative mass is inherently attracted to any matter, since although the gravitational force is assumed to be universally repulsive, the amalgamated effect accelerates it into the opposite direction of the imposed force. This same, normal mass, on the other hand, will fall away from the negative matter.

Yet, this very Trinity scout remained poised, after the disintegrity of their graceful palm grasping.

How?
Possibly through gravitational shielding?
Impossible! That would be an obscene violation of the equivalence principle.

It implies extreme mass variance at null velocities, a conflict with Hamiltonian pertubations. Antimatter, under the laws of charge/parity/time reversal symmetry, dances to the groove of Lorentz invariance within local quantum fields. They, too, carry the burden of stress-energy tensors, constraints of space-time for the ubiquitous solar traveler.

Unless he inherently possesses magic, to which edification on the subject would be all for naught. The master engineer hoped that this Gav scientifically manipulates this power, like dark energy, the fifth power that would unite the four fundamental forces and their complete interactions. String theory’s current brand forecasts that gravity and electromagnetism unify in hidden branes and that extremely short photons can enter those dimensions.

Glorified magnetic centrifuge?
Maybe cryogenic superconductors?
Or was this a glorified gyroscopic Coriolis?
Via parabolic buoyancy, mechanistically driven by gravitoelectric coupling?

After their handshake, her deliberations finally ceased with Librom’s final proclamation. “I see very little flesh and bones to look after."

The smaller Exoframe interjected.

“I cannot speak for our doctor. With meager pulp to tire or resolve to falter, our mutual disclosure will bear fruit from sweat and tears. This morning was the altar of unspoken promises. Now is the propitiation of knowledge, where we will share our two worlds, reaping a harvest to marry both our paradigms. Come, friend!”

With that, the R&D Lead pivoted completely towards her brother, obscuring a smile, once more, motioning their new ally into their formation.

@fer1323@Hekazu@JBRam2002

Sivvy took one hand off the ladder up the building he was climbing to see if anyone was chasing him. He casually dangled by one arm and one foot, each on their respective rungs, about thirty feet above the concrete alleyway. After a minute or so, he realized no one was in pursuit. Oh well, he shrugged, guess the bigwigs didn't want exercise right now; maybe later. He smiled to himself as he loped down the ladder, swinging widely with his arms like some sort of overgrown monkey, his legs never touching the rungs beneath him.

Once descended, Siven unclipped his megaphone from where'd he'd kept it on his belt for the climb. Walking down the street with his favorite toy in hand, he entered the nearest cantina establishment. Spying an empty seat at the bar near two men covered in metal, Sivvy snatched up a seat and casually ordered a Sluxian ale on the rocks. His megaphone sat atop the wooden bar cone pointing downwards, handle towards Sivvy. He looked over at the men having a conversation next to him, something about pickles, and waved. "Eyy mahn!" he said jovially after one of the men reached for his shot glass.