The single ASP and the Instigator move back as Rufus seemingly phases through the force field and says something about wanting food. The combat droid keeps its cannons trained on Rufus, waiting only on the ASP's command as the droid focuses its main photoreceptor on Rufus and starts creating a message to send to Meta.
ASP: Halt, or you will be terminated.
After a few seconds the ASP will have sent the message to Meta, and will observe Rufus until he arrives.
---
Instead of heading to the bridge, Meta instead travels to the level right below it, which is where his living facilities are located. Securely locking the durasteel door to the lower area, he feels safe taking off his helmet. He puts both his hand on the sides of the bucket as an audible hiss could be heard. He pulls his helmet off and leaves it on the steel black surface of his dining table. He walks over to a large reinforced steel door, entering a code on a keypad beside it before grabbing onto the handle and pulling it open, revealing a walk-in refrigerator stocked to the brim with all sorts of food, which fortunately seem untouched despite the earlier events. He moves inside the small room, looking around before reaching for one of the shelves and grabbing a gray tupperware. He exits the room, closing the door behind him walking over to the kitchen countertop. Meta transferrs the contents of the tupperware into a ceramic bowl, which is revealed to be fried rice, before placing the bowl into an empty steamer. He places the steamer on the stove before turning it on, and then places the tupperware into a washer.
While waiting for his rice, he pulls out the datachip from earlier, he inserts it into a nearby datapad of his own and accesses the files contained within. There he sees Dino's records in the Quatis military, including his apparent death and then rebirth using cybernetics. Meta was already formulating a plan in his mind, thinking of possible scenarios that could play out and what would be his best loadout for a mission such as this. An entry describing the admiral's firearm could also be seen there, apparently it had several different types of fire, with its deadliest being able to completely obliterate matter in a set area. Meta took note of this, even though his armor was near indestructible, their weapons could blast him apart in one shot no problem, thus he had to resort to evading any kind of fire instead. After about 15 minutes or so, he returned to the steamer and retrieved the bowl of rice. He grabbed a metal spoon before settling down on the dining table and eagerly eating his meal. The aroma and taste of the fried rice induce a calming sense in Meta, amidst all the chaos going on around him, good food always seemed to make him feel better. He continued studying Dino's file even while eating, for he could receive his coordinates at any time and be called into action. After finishing his meal, he received a comlink message from an ASP, detailing their capture of the mysterious individual he saw earlier before being teleported, and his breach of the force field. Meta let out a tired sigh, Things seem to get more unusual every minute before returning the bowl and spoon to the washer, locking the freezer door and grabbing three loaves of bread from his pantry. He slipped his helmet back on, locking it once again as he walked to the doorway, pausing for a few seconds before leaving the area.
After a few minutes of walking, he arrives at the cell block, opening the doorway to reveal the ASP and the Instigator facing Rufus, he calls off the Instigator's weapons and steps in front of the two droids.
As the troops make their way into the communications tower, there are a couple basic infected (likely easily dispatched), but as they do so, they hear an unearthly roar come from somewhere up above, as well as clomping noises. Any watching their motion trackers would easily notice a rather large blip on the radar.
The sniper, his job as overwatch done with the troops inside a closed building, instead begins to watch the entrance, taking out any that grow too close.
@Hokum Cuna blinks a couple times as Shard walks in, pressing some buttons and making both their clothes disappear. He looks over her bare form and licks his lips, growing to about a little above average length among humans as he does so. At least until the fucking tentacles, at which point his eyes widen and he takes a step back, mouth going agape in shock. He certainly wasn’t disobeying... but he wasn’t quite obeying either, as he took another step backwards, taking steps until eventually he trips and actually falls onto the bed. Bloody... tentacles? He supposed that meant aliens or some shit. Well whatever. Too late now, after fucking all.
Dino, ready for almost anything, looks back to see who had tapped his shoulder. When he looked he was simultaneously filled with a sensation of mortal dread as the old man behind him spoke the word “Mine”. The combination of the two influences had Dino’s own words get cut off before finding himself falling into a hole in the floor of the passage.
He knew the old man wasn’t Mili’s abductor and so he wasn’t willing to fire on him. He hit the bottom of the hole as the old man stepped over it, who was apparently now talking to Mili’s abductor with the words “Return what is mine”. These words were accompanied by a hair-raising scream from Mili’s abductor. Dino regrettably looked up at the moment the old man stepped over the hole, only to see up the old man’s cloak. Not a pretty view.
Following that, Dino taps out a few new coordinates on his wrist devise and appears outside the hole. The barrier of stone is now gone, Mili is lying on the ground at Pirila’s feet, and Dino catches the last glimpse of the old man before disappearing into the darkness down the passage. At that point he rechecks his wrist devise for any new readings: The abductors signature was gone. Mili was still alive. The old man reading was human - before he too vanished along with the alien ship that was in orbit.
Monsters hunting monster Dino thought to himself as he made his way back to Cas, Pirila and Hida. He then gives Pirila a nod as she is probably taking up Mili in her arms in a somewhat happy reunion. He had nothing much else to say.
Meanwhile, Cas hadn’t fired on the old man. He had evaluated the situation as the turn of events transpired, and by time the old man had dropped Mili at Pirila’s feet, he had figured that fighting wasn’t needed. Now Cas was nevertheless looking confused. The only thoughts he had was to turn to Hida, and ask;
“You okay… Beautiful?”
Previously… in Dino Gavon’s Bedchamber….
“I see you’re dying for a taste of my tentacle’s.” Shard responds to Cuna’s overwhelmed reaction, “But let’s save the good part for last…” She’s distracted for a moment, continuing her unfailing approach; “Is that a tumor beneath your Johnson? – Never mind, I don’t care.”
Once Cuna falls on the bed, she is almost instantly on top of him. She’s resting her wait on his shoulders with her hands, breathing heavy with excitement, while down below her tentacles are feeling out the situation. For Cuna, the tentacles are quite gentle and probably stimulating.
“Ohhh!” She says excitedly, as the tentacles frolic around the base of his manhood looking for a place to insert themselves. “You have no valves! That’s so extraordinary! And oh…” Her eyes widen with concern while the tentacles prod at his scrotum. “Two tumors? But don’t worry!” She smiles kindly and places a kiss on his lips. “We can get an MCR later, that’ll fix you right up down there!”
With no valves to insert for better connection, her tentacle’s now wrap around Cuna’s waist for a better grip as she sits back to have him.
“Fuck You….” She gasps, “We’re gonna have so much fun!”
Cuna, though, can probably tell that Shard is strong. The firm grip of her hand and tension of her thighs is obviously beyond that of an average human woman, while the tone of her voice, though excited, has an underlined vigor that might suggest a lurking hostility. Rejecting Shard wouldn’t end well, and Cuna would be right to make that assumption. Quatis men learnt centuries ago not to reject a female, not if they value their life.
Once things had settled down on the planet, Dino transports all four back to his ship. They arrive in the medical room of the DGS, where Dino instructs Cas to take care of Mili while he heads back to the Bridge to prepare for launch back to Phantom Point Station.
Alone in the Med room with Hida and Pirila, Cas takes a medical instrument from one of the medical cabinets. The instrument is called a Medical Cellular Regenerator [MCR]. Pirila may recognize it as the same instrument Shard used on her earlier to settle the motion sickness. Like a gun, the MCR has a handle, a trigger, and a cylindrical part that extends out from the top of the handle. At the rear and on top of the cylindrical section, is a panel with numerous touchpad controls. These controls are relatively simple. Cas quickly manipulated the display of the panel so it is readable in Pirila’s language. He hands the device to Pirila who can see the various options as he quickly explains how it works to her:
“On the panel, press the Bio Reading option then point the end of the cylinder at the injured subject, Mili, but make sure the cylinder is pointed at a healthy part of her, then squeeze the trigger. Now the MCR will adjust its setting to work for the individual’s biology. After that, press one of the three regeneration options; Tissue, Bone or Organ. In this case, Tissue, of course. Now point the cylinder at the open wound of the injured subject and squeeze the trigger again. This time keep the trigger held down while waving the pointed cylinder over the wound until the wound is healed. The instrument will shut down once the injury if finished healing.”
Assuming that Pirila uses the device on Mili, Cas explains the other option of the MCR while she does so, saying; “By choosing the Diagnostic option on the panel, pointing at the subjected and squeezing the trigger, the MCR will diagnose any other ailments the subject might have, such as poisoning, sickness, and other forms of readable diseases and conditions. It will then make a short beep once it has found the problem. Then all you have to do is select the Remedy option on the panel and stick the cylinder against the subject’s skin, preferably in the neck area, and press the trigger again. Simple.”
Mili’s stomach wound would have been healed by this point.
“It will operate for some time in the dark, but will recharge automatically when exposed to any form of light. The more powerful the light the faster the recharge. You can keep this one…” Cas finishes by offering the MCR to Pirila “We have plenty of them. You need it more than we do.”
He now looks at Hida to see if she was impressed by his knowledge, kindness and generosity. Though his smile is a little obvious and goofy. “Would you like one too… Hida? I also have a shuttle of my own, it’s not quite like The DGS, well, not as big and fancy. But I’d really like to take you on a romantic getaway once we arrive back at your planet… if you’re interested?”
Meanwhile on the Bridge, Dino Gavon opens up an encrypted interstellar message on his communications board. As he’s reading the message his face becomes morbid, like a man who was suddenly faced with the prospect of losing something of great value. After reading the message, he sends an encrypted message back to the sender and erases the one he had received.
Moments later, Dino arrives in the medical room with the others. His face hard and sever, an underlining spark of concern in his eyes.
“We need to go.” He said, taking his attention to Pirila and Hida. “We’ll drop you off on your world. None of you are safe any longer.” He looks at Cas. “Take us back.”
Cas nods, affirmative. He suggests Hida and Pirila to stay put in the medical room until they arrive and heads for bridge alone.
Dino Gavon then leaves to heads for his bedchamber to prepare some personal effects.….
“Fuck You!” Dino Gavon raises his voice when he enters the bedchamber. “What are you doing to my Lieutenant?”
With a mix of both an orgasmic and surprised scream, Shard leaps backwards off the bed. Since her tentacles are still securely wrapped around Cuna’s waist area, he is sharply pulled along with her. She wraps him up in her arms in a vain attempt to cover their indecency, and turning her eyes to the Admiral.
“Don’t blame him!” She said to Dino. “It was all my idea, I swear. I just couldn’t resist him. But it’s okay….” Ehs dehsinif htiw a hgis sa a elcatnet sevomer flesti morf s'anuC suna. “I just finished milking his reproductive gland. We can leave now. Sorry for the intrusion, sir!” Releasing Cuna, she pushes him lightly away, saying; “Put your clothes on, fast. We need to go.” She pauses a moment to smile for him. “You were great, though, but tentacle tasting will have to wait.” Her tentacles now slip back into her lady cavity.
Dino puckers his lips in a thoughtful, though sever manner, but says no more as Shard rushes to put her clothes on and vacates the room. Would Cuna now say his piece and dress himself before leaving the room, Dino would close the door behind him and attend to his own business.
Appearances are fickle. Siren herself receives a message. The mechanical receptors in her mind pick up the transmission, maybe originating from the massive artificial planet they are on rout to. The message is received as follows:
“Non-biological instances detected. Rescinding hostility. Prepare to be boarded.”
Rodia soon comes to a stop like a small moon now caught in orbit of the massive metallic orb. Now that they are closer, if those on board Rodia conduct further scans, they will read no biological life forms on or within the sphere. However, hundreds of thousands of individual energy signatures can be detected moving about inside.
Several minutes after being caught in the planets gravity, a strong wave like a sonic pulsation is felt throughout Rodia. As the wave quickly passes a communal sound of many metallic thumps are heard as hundreds of entities appear in various location on Rodia. One of these entities appear inside Siren’s office. The entity is a structure close to 7 feet tall. It could have passed as a powerful, athletic man, had it not been for its pliable metallic epidermis, which had a fine and almost fluidic platinum sheen. Its head and facial features also perfectly depicted the design of a man, all with the same, single metallic tone as the rest of its structure, though its eyeballs were a darker shade of metal with white mechanical irises and black pupils. It wore no clothing, however, and oddly enough for an android, it even had a perfectly detailed male appendage, more of a silver in shade, dangling from its crotch.
Ignoring Rorod, the android looks sternly at Siren, raising one open hand as if ordering her to stop, or halt, and speaks in a perfectly deep, male human sounding voice:
“We are The Sporn. I am designated Command Unit 1.0-1. We have detected no Biological life forms on your archaic vessel. You are therefore secure. State your purpose for occupying our space. Are you in league with the Biological?”
After a few minutes, Ernest receives a response, again, from somewhere within the nebula:
“Unfamiliar entities. We are the Otomigus of the Otomigus Expanse. We are not your enemy. We are under attack. This space is hostile. We are not your enemy. Leave if you wish for self-preservation. We are under attack. We are not your enemy. We are in need of assistance. If you wish to join our cause, raise your defenses. We are not your enemy.”
As the transmission is then interrupted by some sort interference energy field, six small and metallic brown, winged space craft converge on the Ernest’s position. These space craft come without warning or even sending a message. They converge on the Ernest and open fire, each of the six firing a series of electronically charged lasers at the Ernest.
Meanwhile, from direction of the nebula, six more vessels come into view. These vessels are biological. They are shaped like the three segments of an ant’s body and commence firing upon the other six metallic vessels with some sort of green plasma discharge that is shot from the bow of their vessels.
The plants wouldn’t leave the broken craft. When they see the fire outside they start running in circles and squealing like frightened mice. But at least they aren’t attacking Hank anymore.
When Ramrod exits the craft he sees the fire is way too out of control. There probably isn’t much that can be done about it. Probably best he stays inside in case he gets burnt. But Ramrod can hear the trees screaming along with the grass and all other plant life as the fire spreads wildly through the forest. The trees can’t move fast enough to escape the blaze. Yet what is specifically odd about the situation is Rufus. He is now standing amid the flames but not getting burnt. He’s looking at himself in amazement and confusion, before lifting his eyes to Ramrod through crack of the vessel.
“Little cat dude…. What’s happening to me?” Then realizing that Ramrod should stay inside the vessel, Rufus lunges through the crack and tackles Ramrod to the floor. Strangely, he isn’t on fire. He sits up, holding Ramrod in his arms and petting his head, while Hank continues to groan in the corner and the three shrubs continue running in frantic circles.
“I’m so sorry, my little plush friend, Rufus didn’t mean to start a fire. I should have just stayed in my room and kept playing Skyrim. I wish I could save you all. I wish there was a way to get back to that ship I was in before….”
Apparently Rufus’s wishes were fulfilled in that moment. Ramrod is still in Rufus’s arms, head being pat, but now they are somehow inside a different room, along with Hank and the three shrubs.
Rufus is so stunned by the change of location, he releases Ramrod from his arms and looks around in amazement. The room they are in is spherical with lumpy white walls, kind of like being inside a giant golf ball with a flat floor. The room is lit, but no apparent light source can be seen, while the floor of room resonates a soft, calming hum.
The three shrubs stop running in frantic circles while broken Hank stops groaning and releases a curios “Uhh?”
Meanwhile, back on the planet they left, the fire continues to spread out of control across the land. Hundreds of thousands of flora life forms are being burnt to death.
While Donny was asleep, a peculiar things happened.
A man like Donny would likely be woken from his sleep by the slightest peculiar sound. In this case, it is the sound of soft repetitive tapping, caused by a finger being tapped against the arm of the chair in his Quarters. The person seated in the chair looks a lot like a human, though clearly not Quatis. They have no apparent gender. Their skin is unblemished and pale. Their eye sockets are nothing more than dark, empty pits. Their lips are thin and purple. They are bald with no facial hair. They are dressed all in a soft, black linen; a seemingly transparent fabric that somehow doesn’t reveal any details of a body beneath.
If Donny were to rise from his slumber to observe this person, the person would stop tapping their finger and speak in raspy whispered voice:
“I can empathize with the darkness in your soul.” They then pause, and add; “The Admiral knows you’re coming for him. He will be prepared….” They release a long gargled sound, like that of air being expelled from diseased lunges. “Avoid his head… Donny. Target his heart.”
Lifting their hand, they point at Donny. Their nail is long and black, though tipped with a crescent of gold lining.
“The afternoon has come. The Minister will call upon you soon. Be steadfast…. Be ready…. Don’t disappoint me.”
Rufus seems rather intimidated by Meta, so much so that his lips move silently in awkward formations as he attempts to find the right words to speak. But he clearly doesn’t want to return to his cell. While Rufus is contemplating his words, Meta sees another person. This person appears behind Rufus, barely phasing fully into existence for several seconds.
The person he sees looks a lot like a human, but they have no apparent gender. Their skin is immaculately unblemished and pale. Their eye sockets are nothing more than dark, empty pits. Their lips are thin and purple, they are bald with no facial hair either. They are dressed all in a soft, black linen, a seemingly transparent fabric that somehow doesn’t reveal any details of a body beneath. This person, raises two fingers in a fork-like fashion, placing both fingertips over their empty sockets before pointing at Meta, as if to suggest they are watching him. They then place the same finger over their mouth in a gesture to keep quiet. They then phase out of existence as Rufus finally finds some words to reply with.
“B-b-but dude, please don’t pretend to lock me up again. I got the munchies so bad. You don’t wanna make poor Rufus starve, right?” He eyeballs the bread sticks in Meta’s hand, then giggles in a dopey manner. “My man. My dude. Are those for Rufus?” He then seems a little relieved, adding quickly; “I don’t mean any harm at all. I know I’m intruding. Dude, I feel like I owe you an explanation.”
Pirila and Hida frown at Dino's explanation, but do nothing in response. After all, neither of them could teleport, at least not as fast as Dino could.
They wait in silence for any news when suddenly, the stones turn to dust and an old man walks over, carrying Mili and dropping her at Pirila's feet. Speechless, she quickly picks her up, noticing the large wound on her stomach and panicking.
As Cas asks Hida whether or not she's okay, she sighs. "Yeah, I'm fine thanks, though Mili is less okay it seems..."
- A bit later it seems -
In the medical room, Pirila listens closely to and follows Cas' explanation, cautiously pointing the gun-like object at Mili's wound and pulling the trigger as asked, marvelling at the speed with which the wound is healed. Hida meanwhile watches with curiosity, as if she's contemplating certain uses for the device when Cas, out of the blue, asks her out.
"...A romantic getaway?" Hida asks, frowning before looking at Mili and then to Pirila, who seems totally focused on Mili. "Well... sure. Travelling around sounds interesting, it's not like I have much to do anyway."
As Dino shows up and declares that they're not safe, Pirila freezes, clearly worried about Mili. In respond to Cas' suggestion, they both stay put in the Medical Room, with Pirila holding Mili closely as she waits for her to wake up, and Hida casually inspecting the MCR.
-Donny was a light sleeper. It was an old habit, and one he valued. Regardless, he decided not to shoot at the entity with the Glock under his pillow. It had entered without his knowledge, without being cut by any of the razor wires that provided security throughout his room. Instead, when he sat up in brief surprise, he quickly steeled his nerves and listened carefully. When the entity had finished addressing him and began to fade, Donny spoke back, his voice low and still husky from sleep. His eyes were half lidded, but a gossamer sheen of sickly green malice radiated from behind them in the gloom, the killer casting a steady, baleful stare after the being. Sometimes, when he really felt the distance close in between him and his victim, when empathy illuminated the best way to give them a truly satisfactory death... Premeditated murder laid itself bare on his face, lending his expression a ghoulish slate of corpselike serenity. He could feel the heft of his own mortality, and the mortality of many others. He could feel their twists of dread, the same dread he'd seen on many faces throughout his career. There should be no such thing as a killer's pride. It's unprofessional. Donny took no offence at the being's perspective of him. He was a tool, after all. That being said, he felt his will harden, calcify into the unyielding bone of a leering skull. He dropped his accent and spoke clearly then.-
"You doubt my resolve...?"
-Donny had known what he was going to have to do from the moment he gave Dino his real name. It had been a last farewell, not an 'until we meet again'. This spirit or demon didn't didn't yet know that what was going to occur was a foregone conclusion. Donny wondered what else it didn't know.-
@Hokum As Siren and Rodia (mostly Siren) Siren was mildly startled by the appearance of the tall, buck-naked robot. It's mostly the naked part. Even though the R-Core are not biological, they are familiar enough with human anatomy to know that genitals are to be covered up. I mean, this isn't a human, obviously, but it sure looks like one.
"I am R-o... never mind. I am Siren, leader of the R-Core city of Rodia; and that is Rorod, who is second in command here." Siren said. "You are not completely correct when you say there are no biological lifeforms on this station. We have crops, those are plants. And I'm sure there are bacteria and protozoa are on our ship. But there are no relevant life forms on our station."
Rorod is a bit suspicious of Siren's stutter, but right now, he's focused on 1.0-1's use of the term "archaic" to describe Rodia. "What do you mean, 'Archaic vessel'?!"
"You don't get that, Rorod? This place is a wreck. You don't even have a hyperdrive! Even the Wave Blaster has one of those, and it was designed by Gamma!" Siren answers the question meant for the Sporn while also taking a jab at Gamma. She likes taking jabs at Gamma.
She turns back to the Sporn commander. "We currently do not have any biological allies, if that answers your question, Mr 1.0-1... let me ask you, sir, do you have a real name? An ID number is hardly a proper name."
She continues, "As for our reason here, that's a long story. The jist of it is that we got attacked by some entities called the Forte, and they dragged us close to Hany's Ribbon, which I am assuming you know what that is. During our attempts to escape a wormhole formed and we were sucked into it, and it dumped us here. Our presence is an accident. That said, we aren't in a hurry to get anywhere, and we are suffering from a severe metal shortage which is causing problems for some unfinished R-Core units, who will start suffering permanent hardware damage if we don't complete them soon. Perhaps we can come to an agreement that can benefit both of us, commander."
Rorod chimes in. "And maybe you can put on some pants."
.......................
And now is just Rodia. Varias R-Core are kinda freaked out by the sudden presence of the Sporn appearing randomly. A lot of them are acting defensively.
One of those Sporn appeared in the factory. The unfinished R-Core stare blankly at him, (do to their lack of traditional faces, that's the only way R-Core than stare at something, although these ones are not making any movements that aren't necessary to maintain balance. It would come across as creepy to a human, but this guy clearly ain't human) Suddenly, the factory head, who I should really name at this point, bursts into the room.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU?!" Screams the frantic R-Core. He's holding a sidearm, in case he needs to defence the helpless, incomplete R-Core. As far as he knows, this metallic man is threatening the cores, so it's pretty reasonable for him to get ready to fight.
.......................
In a random house, two R-Core that live together are sitting on a surprisingly squishy sofa and talking when a Sporn appears in their room. The more masculine of two gets up and asks "Who the heck are you, why the heck are you in our house, and where the heck are your cloths?!"
THe more feminine ones appears to cower behind the sofa... before popping back up with a wrench that they for some reason had behind their sofa, holding it like a club.
.......................
A female Sporn happens to appear next to Gamma. He looks over, surprisingly unphased. "Sup."
The other R-Core that was happened to be near Gamma is speechless at the Sporn entity, and also speechless at how unphased Gamma is. And then he realized he was unintentionally hanging out with a former genocidal maniac, which freaks him out even more. It's not this R-Core's best day.
As Ernest @Hokum And kinda sorta @CmdrAlfieq Without bothering trying to contact the hostile vessels, he prepares to attack them. No need to contact them, he already knows they are hostile.
Ernest speaks to the passengers. "I would like to warn you that we are under attack by six unknown spaceship instances. Do not panic. The opponents do not seem to be able to damage me easily, and there are some other ships that seem to see our attackers as a common enemy, and have already started attacking them. I alone could probably take these things on, and with the help of our unknown allies, this should not be difficult."
The lasers don't emeidently do damage to Ernest's armor, although prolonged expose for much longer would heat his armor enough to start doing damage. Ernest is too large to effectively dodge the attacks, but he can rotate slowly to make it harder for the attackers to get a good hit on a single spot of armor more that once, while not making his own aiming that difficult.
The main two Plasma Turrets focus on a single enemy fighter, focusing all of its power on it in an attempt to take down one at a time. If that fighter goes out of one of those turrets' range, that turret goes after the closest enemy fighter until it can get a clear shot. He takes care not to accidentally shoot his possible new allies. Sometimes one of the fighters probably gets close enough to Ernest for the Aut Defence to shoot at them. They don't do much damage but it's probably still annoying to have more guns shooting at them. Besides, these guys don't seem to have missiles, so it's not like they need to shoot down any of those yet.
"If any of my crew members happen to be trained turret gunners, your assistance would be appreciated. I don't have the CPU capacity to efficiently use all of my weapons. Are there any gunners on board? Because I have four additional turrets." He says to his passengers.
The terminal reads:
WARNING! SIX UNKNOWN SPACESHIP INSTANCES ARE ATTACKING! WARNING! SIX UNKNOWN BIOLOGICAL INSTANCES HAVE APPEARED!
AUTO-DEFENCE TURRETS HAVE BEEN ACTIVATED. ATTEMPTING TO SEND MESSAGE TO SIX UNKNOWN BIOLOGICAL INSTANCES...
The message reads: "Greetings unknown but seemingly friendly entities. I am the battleship Ernest. It appears we are on the same side against these attackers that are also unknown to me. Please confirm this."
@Hokum As Ramrod Ramrod tries in vain to escape Rufus's grasps and try to check on Hank.
"Mraoh! Mraoh mraoh?" (Hank! Are you hanging in there?) Ramrod Mraohs.
It then occurred to Ramrod that Rufus's wishes are granted. Maybe that would work for him too? "Mraoh mraoh mraoh!" (I wish for my translator .3 thingy!) He then looks at his hand expectantly, hoping for his translator neckband to appear. It would make life a lot easier if he could actually communicate normally.
Irrupted by an event of drifted into an undefinable gravitational pool and a sudden transmission by an unknown race, the Operators had undergo a full inspection protocol of MASGC Space Headquarters just to be sure of keeping in minor integrity damage and ensuring everything is going to be alright in the future. Because of many people are currently does around in MASGC Space Headquarters for hoping not to break and worsen the station itself, the Commander is the only one available for going toe-to-toe diplomacy with the alien himself at the moment. Hard translation and some readings, the Commander has responded:
We're the Remnants of the Militarist Armed Superstates of Galactic Confederation, Commander speaking to Kradam Supreme. Current situation, lost the habitability of Planet Iceolia and all surrounding planets of the solar system, destructed by the collision from an anomaly, Hany's Ribbon. Secondly, the station caught in a high gravitational pull from an unknown formation of blue lights, probably be a wormhole, or highly unquestionable reasons for its existent, and so-forth accidentally ended in your sector by unforgivable consequences. Last note, the MASGC are looking to find a suitable settlement for industrial expansion to maintain this barely functional station. Charted information for finding new, habitable planet is gladly for needs and we'll try and given a negotiable deal from it.
Meta is about to reply to Rufus until another entity randomly materializes behind him.
Great, another fucking one of these assholes.
It makes hand signals, seemingly telling him that it's watching him and to keep quiet before disappearing completely. Both droids behind Meta remain motionless and would only act on his command. The entity's appearance however, doesn't change Meta's reply to Rufus, and after a few moments he speaks.
Meta: Return to your cell, and I will give you food.
Rufus could notice that Meta's tone changed from slightly angry and commanding, to a calmer state. But if he kept talking, then Meta was going to have to use force to get him to do what he wants.
Colt and the troopers dispatch the infected with ease, as the plasma bolts reduce the infected to molten slag and leave gaping craters in the walls. Before they would advance however, Colt raises his fist in the air as the entire squad goes motionless. Their sensors could then detect a large life form somewhere above them, moving around and roaring. He orders his squad to prepare firing positions on the doorway but to refrain from using explosives, as any one could cause the entire building to collapse on top of them.
-
Meanwhile, the HAMs were starting their return trip to the rendezvous point, having seen nothing of interest.
-
In the orbit of the planet, the fleet remains a good distance away from the bio-ship, doing nothing that might provoke it while trying to establish communications with the team below.
Two years before Hany’s Ribbon decimated the Quatis home world, an unidentified flying object crash landed on their planet. Within the object a highly advanced cybernetic entity was discovered. Two years later, when Hany’s Ribbon appeared on the outskirts of the Quatis solar system, the scientists of Quatis used what they had learnt from the cybernetic entity to enhance their own technology. These enhancements were used in the construction of the Quatis Fleet, with which two million Quatis were spared of Hany’s wrath.
Present Day. Quatis Science Ship, The Erud. Level 9.5, Dorita Gavon Tels. Personal Lab.
“Where did you find it?”
Dorita simpers at the question, her squinching, large blue eyes denoting the many secrets she forbade herself to tell. The specimen before her was her treasure, the embodiment of everything any scientist could ever dream of coveting. The summit of technological perfection. There it stood behind the unseen forcefield, depicting the structure of a man. Such a lie exhibited by the smooth, platinum hue of its epidermis and the white irises of its eyes, staring out across the room as though in a self-induced state of daze.
“I heard they crash landed.” Science assistant Marlic adds to his question with a prying side-eyed glance at Dorita. “At least that’s what the rumours suggest, correct?”
Marlic is a plump young man, a testament to his love for donuts, but really anything sweet and pastry-like. He has black hair, not washed regularly enough; oily and unkempt, as are his full bodied eyebrows. His prominent puffed cheeks complimented his full sausage lips and deeply dimpled chin. He’s been Dorita’s assistant for no less than three days, but it was a position he strove for over the course of the last few years since college. Being in a position of subordinate to Dino Gavon’s daughter was an achievement that a great number of Quatis men could dare fantasize about.
“Rumors… rumors, rumors.” Dorita replied, softly spoken as she tucks a strand of beige hair behind her ear, her eyes still coveting the cybernetic individual within the forcefield. “let’s just say they had a little help with their… crash landing. But here it is….” She smiles and glances at Marlic; “all ours now.”
“How much do we know about it?” Marlic asked, taking a deep breath to portray his discomforted fascination.
“Not as much as we want.” She answered, placing one hand on his shoulder. “As you know, a lot of our modern technology was made possible by our studies of this… marvel of science. Shielding, teleporters, weapons and even interstellar communications were made possible from extrapolating formulas from this one individual.” She removes her hand from his shoulder to give him a nudge with her elbow. “That’s why I’ve called you here today, Marlic. I’ve deciphered a brand new set of formulas. They’re going to revolutionize the course of Quatis existence forever.”
Marlic didn’t take this news lightly. His widened eyes looked over Dorita’s form as though his vision could penetrate her lab coat in order to observe her lean body beneath, as if that alone was going to reveal the knowledge she held.
“What did you discover?” He said, his voice a whisper of suspense. “Did you really…? Did you figure out the formula of its epidermis layer? Seriously?”
She smiled a smile of the deepest sense of accomplishment, taking her eyes back to the cybernetic entity, saying; “That I did…. And more. I’ve even added a formula of my own.”
Had his eyes not been attached to their sockets by fibers, blood vessels and nerves, they would have popped right out of Marlic’s head. “Tell me – tell me now! What have you done, Dori?”
Dorita gives her assistant a wink and walks across the room to a polytechnic computer terminal. Marlic follows without hesitation. Once he’s standing by her side again, she quickly types in a set of encrypted commands. A readout of her most recently discovered formula’s scroll up the screen on the monitor.
“But that’s…” Marlic reads over the formula like a wild-eyed child trying to make sense of a mathematical equation beyond his understanding. “…That’s not even possible, though.”
“I assure you it is.” She said with an attempt to suppress the full spread of her smile.
Marlic leans in close, as if breathing on the monitor would better help him understand just what he was reading. “Is that… what I think it is?”
“Likely.” She tells him, placing her hand on his back. “By the look on your face I’m guessing you’re close to understanding.”
“But this contradicts everything we know about metallurgical physics, about… everything. Science books will have to be rewritten….”
“The price of sweet change.” Dorita admits.
Marlic shakes his head slowly in disbelief, eyes still focused on the formulas in front of him, saying; “But this simulative or mimetic alloy, it…. What you’re describing is in fact a fluidic alloy that is capable of more than just kinetic function. If I’m reading this right…. It’s able to simulate humanoid responses? Biological properties?”
“Let me help you out there.” She obliges to inform him, though likely of a matter of impatience since she wanted nothing more than to share the news with someone: “This alloy can take on the functions of biological life, yes. In effect… it is its own self-supporting complex metallic infrastructure that functions like that of highly developed humanoid life, only better. It embodies everything; Kinetics… reflex response… synaptic and neurological activity, even regeneration properties… everything… all without the need of a brain.”
Marlic turns his eyes to her, now looking more suspicious than anything else as he utters the words; “This is… silicone life.”
She laughs mockingly. “No, no. Silicone life has nothing on this.”
"What the hell?" Magnus yelled. While being tossed around he started thinking more frantically. So much so that the world around him seemed to slow. He was partially familiar with disapproving fathers, especially with a humanoid marmot. But a Bee man? Seriously. Something about 200 times smaller than him collectively forming a man than him wants to kill him for something he didn't even do, but did think about. Meanwhile bees aggresively stung him. Forbidden love was a bit too much in his opinion. He thought it was more of a possiblity than a full on thing. But the more he thought, the more questions arose. How could a bee hive make a planet? Was it a planet? Why do they keep wanting to bother him? Why does Fanny want him? Shouldn't she be going for something her own size? And other such inqueries flew through his mind until he banged his head on a metal stationary shelf. "OH MY GOD" yelled SANDRA as Fanny's father broke his hand through a window and was feeling around, until grabbing Magnus and pulling him outside the ship, and flipping a switch in the process. SANDRA's voice sounds more human and seems more sensible. "Damn this flimsy existence. Barry dear, can you help- Barry? BARRY? Last time I agree to marry a lunatic with a moustache. Everything looks different. I swear to St. Scholastica if he turned me down again he's as good as dead."
SAM laid there on the floor, face down, violently sprawled out. Based on the previous memory recording he made, the attempt to steer the ship to civilization didn't quite come into fruition. At least, when you look at the bright side, the ship seems to not be exploding or hurtling through space. Actually, there were quite a lot of fortunate events that came from that little mishap, the cargo barge was not completely obliterated by the potential meteoroids also whisking through the star-laden void. SAM also could have landed on a planet that was improper for human, or any form of life. Perhaps he landed a mere mile away from the nearest city or hamlet, he could jog that distance, he did it all the time.
Enough speculation, it was time to make an informed opinion about his situation. SAM kicked off a drab green crate that fell onto him presumably from the crash landing. Something seems different about the ship, the floor has slightly less blood stains that he remembered it having. Something catches his eye, or rather the lack of something; the control panel. It had simply vanished seamlessly. He strides over to where it used to be. Wait a second...
SAM looks up at the ceiling.
There he saw the control panel.
Well, it was clear the ship landed in an unusual way, but this sprung forth an idea. The ramps to unload crates and such were on the bottom of the ship, there was a convenient little button panel right next to the ramps. All that was needed was a solution to flick some tiny silver switches. The switches would be a painless matter of throwing something and if your aim was sharp, it would open. The problem came with how to actually get up there.
Or, perhaps someone will find the crashed ship? No, only scavengers or raiders would even consider a downed cargo vessel. A rescue crew would be more desirable. Execute phase 1...
Within a few minutes, a sizable bolt was chucked at an arch at the control pad. Ping. It just nearly missed the main switch. The cargo bay ceiling was considerably higher up, or in this case, lower to the ground than SAM had thought. If at first you don't succeed...
Clonk. A miscellaneous pipe or bar he had found struck the panel with a echoing metallic clatter, vaguely in the area of the green-capped switch. It was too high up to get a clear view to see if it worked. A slow, squeaking cry emanated from the ceiling before it turned to a roaring, groaning screech. A ray of sunlight pierced, thin as a sheet of glass, through the gap in the ramp. He had a hinting notion that it was sunrise outside. A good portion of the bay was now basked in light. Phase 1 successfully executed... Now, how to get up through this new opening? Those wires for the floodlights look about as big as a rope...
Swisssh... Clink. Execute phase 2... A black strand flies towards the sky, with three broken tripod legs tied to resemble and function like a standard grapnel. SAM tracks it as it soars towards the ramp, a child watching his kite dart through the park. The sunlight obscured the hook, though, it was hard to see if it was going to actually land- CLONK. It bounced off his visor and onto the floor. Loosening his grip on the cables, SAM swung the hook around like a lasso before trying again to land it on the ramp. Just like he previously thought, if at first you don't succeed. He waited in anxiety, premeditating if it would rebound off his visor again.
It did not.
With a hard tug, the makeshift mountain climbing gear held strong and sturdily. SAM pounced onto the cable and was hiking up it with grit and persistence. The reward of simply getting out of his crashed prison was enough motivation for him. The straining vigor of the light only grew more intense as he was closer before he saw what lay before him on the outside...
Sand.
Sand for miles and miles, nothing in sight except for sand. But SAM didn't care, at least not at the moment. The rush still painted his view of the situation as a triumph. Even as he realized that this was barely an improvement, his confidence did not wane. Climbing atop the underbelly of the great unnamed ship, he proudly stood over the desert dunes. But, it would be a while before someone or something contacts him, so he would have to play more of the waiting game. The wrrrr... fades out.
@Metatrooper As the troopers prepare themselves to fire upon the doorway.... nothing comes out. For a time, there are clomping sounds up above, until eventually it quiets down, and the blip disappears off of the motion tracker. The HAM troopers see a group of pretty generic infected seeming to walk, almost in some sort of line, around a corner beyond their sight. The bioship seems to be drifting towards the cruiser, albeit very slowly.
@Hokum Soun looked at the main viewscreen. It seemed that the cylindrical object had stopped moving. That was good, he thought, at least they would not ram the Genghis. He could see on some of the smaller screens monitoring the rest of the fleet that were spread around the bridge that the other two cylinders had stopped as well. "Keep weapons, shields and thrusters ready in case any of these objects show hostility." Captain Soun ordered the crew in the bridge. They waited for some time. The captain had sent out a message on the frequencies that they had seen to be most used by other alien empires, and the bridge crew was eagerly awaiting a response. Very shortly after, their patience was rewarded. On the terminal of one of the communication's officers, the one that had originally been responsible for sending the message to the cylinders in the first place, a light lit up, indicating a message. The crew listened intently as the response was being broadcasted by the bridge's speakers.
"Unknown vessel. We are the Lanist Khaganate, and we come in peace."
The captain sat perplexed for a few seconds as he heard the exact same message that he sent to the cylinders. While he was thinking about what had just happened, the results of the initial scanning of the rest of the system started to come in, and the science officer responsible for scanning the system stood up. "Sir, the results of the scan you ordered have come in. There appear to be thousands more objects than we could initially see. We don't know if they are cloaked, but we were able to detect them using our EM-based scanning technology." The man paused a bit as results continued to come in on his screen. It took a few seconds due to the vast astronomical distances that the radio, light and other types of electromagnetic waves had to travel, but at last, the data was processed, showing that all of the objects in the system had vanished. "Um.. captain, all of the objects in the system have vanished," the science officer said. "Also, somehow the EM-scan that we sent out was unable to get the absorption spectrum that would indicate the material these cylinders are made out of. I'm not sure why, but the cylinders are either interfering with our sensors, or black bodies, physical bodies that perfectly absorb all types of radiation."
"Try to find the objects with our subspace and gravitic scanners. Use the tachyon sensors if you have to." The captain ordered. The crew stared at the viewscreens for a few minutes, unsure what these cylindrical objects would do. Then, there was a flash of light, but the time it was there was so short that some of the bridge crew didn't even register it. The mighty vessel was shaken, but there was no discernible source for the force. "What do we do, captain?" the Helmsman asked. "We stay, and we will try to find our way around these cylinders without resorting to violence. What is the status of our shields?"
"Shields fully operational, sir."
"Good. The previous orders of attempting to dodge the ships and departing if the cylinders show hostility are still in effect. We do not know who or what these are, and it seems that they have better technology than us."
Fifteen minutes passed as captain Soun was thinking how they could solve this situation. Then, the screeching began. Bridge crewmen covered their ears as a high-pitched screech was played by the speakers for a whole seven seconds for an unknown reason. Then, the people in the bridge were perplexed as the front cylinder released a giant stone ball.
"Alright, this screeching never happened before, so I will assume it's because of those ships. We are getting out of here right now. Navigator, please plot a course away from those cylinders, and start the wormhole drive charging sequence." ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The vice-admiral of the fleet, Jens Knaggs, had been waiting patiently for the shuttle that would bring him back to the fleet's flagship, the KSS Genghis. He looked at his HPC (handheld personal computer), and he could see that he had been standing there for about 10 minutes. Strange, Jens thought, normally the inter-ship traffic would've started by now, but I can't even see anything flying between the other fleet ships. He looked at the HPC again, which was showing a diagram of the fleet and its surroundings. That was when he saw the cylinder. As he looked at the image of the fleet, he could see a giant cylinder tens of miles away from where he was at that moment, but right in front of the flagship. He also saw two other cylinders. They weren't moving, and the rest of the fleet had also stopped. A few more minutes passed while the vice-admiral waited for his transport. The bay doors at the side of the hangar bay he was on began to open slowly, so apparently a ship was on its way. For a very brief moment of time, he could see violet light, and for some strange reason the hangar's floor beneath him began to quake. He fearfully looked at the different spaceships and fighters in the hangar bay, but they had all been properly secured so he had nothing to fear.
Two seconds later, Jens was gone. It took some time for him to process what had just happened. One moment he was waiting for his transport in one of the Atlas' hangar bays, the next he was seated at a dining table somewhere else. He looked around a bit. The vice-admiral could see he had appeared in a civilian vessel, most likely the canteen of a Ger-class, if he looked at the lay-out of the space he was in. Then he noticed a serial number on the wall that the table was next to. As vice-admiral, he knew the serial numbers of nearly every ship in the fleet, so he was able to determine that he was currently on the KSS Yurt, a Ger-class civilian vessel. He continued studying his enviroment, and that was when he noticed Fanny May. My wife is going to kill me if she sees this, Jens thought. He mostly ignored Fanny's words as he was trying to determine exactly where he was and why he was there.
"Um, yeah, sure." He replied. "The Lanist Khaganates goal was to expand, and that's the mission of this fleet: Expansion through both peaceful methods and conquest. We never imagined we would end up in a completely different universe. And I would smile for both the businessman and the street bum, for they are both human, and should all be treated equally. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ James, as well as the rest of the group standing around the pod, was too busy staring at general Katie as she took off her helmet to notice the other individual slowly descending from the capsule's ladder. Katie looked at them slightly amused because of the shocked expressions of the faces of the small crowd, and when they recovered from their confusion they saw that the other person had also taken off their helmet. Their shock became even greater when they saw General Arman Nurzham. "Not quite the Welcome Home party I had imagined, but a nice effort nonetheless. Now, since we've just arrived here, please take us to the Khan. I am sure he'll be very happy to see us," General Anderson said. James immediately snapped out of his shock. He raised his rifle and aimed it at General Anderson's head. How could they be so sure that these people that he was looking at were even real? They could be aliens that were imitating General Nurzham and Anderson. Furthermore, they had just come from an unknown planet where they had been stranded for a long time, so they could be carrying all kinds of nasty alien diseases with them. They had to go to quarantine. "General Anderson, it's been quite some time since we've last met. Now please be so kind to follow the quarantine team standing over there." James replied as he pointed to the men and women dressed in white Hazmat suits protecting them from the possible microbial agents that the two new arrivals could have brought with them.
"What?!" General Anderson said, raising her voice. "I am a general and your superior. I demand to be taken to the Khan right away."
"I am sorry, general, but it's protocol." James replied. "There is nothing we can do about it."
General Anderson seemed to be even more irritated and prepared to reply when the other general intervened, saying: "Katie, we should just comply with what they are saying. We can explain what happened to us and talk to the Khan later." General Anderson calmed down slightly. "All right, Arman," she said, "but only because you're asking me to. Take us to the quarantine facility." Both generals put their helmets back on because they were told by the quarantine team while they were walking to the ship's quarantine facilities. One of the people in white suits opened a door and the two generals walked inside. Katie looked around, and she could see a nearly completely empty white room made out of sterile materials. There was a bench near the door and both of them walked towards it and sat on it. And then they waited.
Quatis Science Ship, The Erud. Level 9.5, Dorita Gavon Tels. Personal Lab.
Dorita stands with her arms folded, looking very smug about her achievement while Marlic gets his head around the information. He soon turns from the monitor, a curious expression distorting his chubby face as he looks at the cybernetic entity behind the force field.
“I have a few questions… though.” He said, rubbing the large dimple on his chin.
“Fire away.” She tells him, turning to stand by his side, both of them now staring intently at the entity.
“It has a penis.” He observed to note. “When you said everything; you’re actually suggesting these things can reproduce?”
“Yeah,” She smirked less than modestly. “Their ability to regenerate is linked to a reproductive coding in their composition. To be honest, I don’t claim to know everything. I’m probably barely scratching the surface of their potential. But they can definitely procreate.”
They both stood for a while, gazes of fascination had them both, likely trying to imagine what intercourse between one android and another would actually be like. Meanwhile, the entity continued to hold its own seemingly contemplative gaze into the distance.
“But is it dead?” Marlic had to ask. “Or is dead the wrong word? Deactivated? Off line, maybe? It doesn’t look damaged.”
“That is actually what scares us the most, and why we keep it behind force fields.” Dorita told him. “Since it crashed on our world it’s been like this. Idle, completely unmoving, giving off no energy readings at all. I speculate that part of its coding supports a self-sufficient power source, but we haven’t been able to interpret how that works as of yet. Is it sleeping? Comatose? Simply dormant and awaiting instruction? We actually have no idea.”
“That’s a scary thought.” Marlic said, shaking his head to try and clear his mind of the possible horrors that could come of the entity activating.
“It is….” She admitted.
“So what are your plans, Dori?” He gives an intense look of speculation. “Why have you called me here?”
“We’re going to do it.” She told him straight. “Were going to synthesis a replica of its composition and apply it to a subject. See if we can’t reproduce one of our own. Sounds like fun, right?”
Marlic’s scepticism paled his face. “You plan on trying to use a Quatis volunteer? Try and link their mind to one of these things?”
“Basically, yes. But maybe not a volunteer, per say.” She smirked mischievously. “I’m think more along the lines of a Quatis who has recently died. Stimulate their consciousness. Revive it, implant it in our replica. See what happens.”
Although Cuna had supposedly left the bedchamber, Dino couldn’t shake the feeling that he was somehow still there. As though taunted by a ghost, Dino checked over his shoulder now and then while preparing his person for battle.
“Fuck you….” He muttered under breath, having the feeling of being watched as he stripped off his jeans to slip on his black custom-made cargo pants. Over his tank top he slipped on a matching full sleeved Triobsidium-zip-up fatigue shirt, complete with turtleneck collar extension. Next came the gloves and admirals Trans-climatic combat headgear, before slipping his boots back on.
Once re-dressed, Dino moves to his Vault. Typing in a code on the panel the Triobsidium door opens with the sound of rushing air. He puts away his attachable Trisect and Quantum rifle. The rifle was too cumbersome for what he knew was coming, and his shirts built in transect was just as good as the attachable one, and had a built in self-destruct mechanism and DGS ship-system interface. Instead of the rifle he took out his Tactical Utility Belt and strapped it on.
-Tactical Utility Belt: Single-hand Field Gun, Multipurpose 8 inch knife, and three rear pouches. Field Gun: multiple settings of projectile types; Gamma ray, super-compound air bullets, Ovaltine repeater. Multipurpose knife: Triobsidium blade with saw ridge and bottle cap opener (don’t question the appliance). Pouch one: Spin twine (2000pound twine replicator. Much the same size as a compact tape measure that produces twine with a penetrating Triobsidium bolt end). Pouch 2: Firestarter switch (makes a spark or flame for fire). Pouch 3: Homing beacon.
The rest of the items he acquired from the vault are as follows:
-Left trouser pocket: Sustenance spawner (manifests nutritional supplements) -right trouser pocket: Matter compressor (deconstructs matter of objects for storage) -Back trouser pocket: Empty. -Left leg pocket: MCR [Medical Cellular Regenerator] -Right leg pocket: Empty until I think of something. -Left shirt pocket: Bio Scattering node. (Used to scatter the users life signs/bio signature. When activated, the individual’s bio signature is disrupted and can’t be pinpointed within a 30 meter dispersal field) -Right shirt pocket: Events recorder (records all events and interactive details that take place from the time of activation.
Cargo pants and shirt: Pants, shirt and expandable turtleneck with Inner lining of Triobsidium Alloy chained mesh for ease of movement and vital point guard plating. Turtleneck mesh linked with plating designed to be easily expandable. Shirt has a Polytech Transect built into the lower left sleeve.
left Glove: Inner lining of full Triobsidium mesh with backhand and knuckle plating. Signal-Responsive Force-field shield matrix (A 2X2ft force field shielding that activates from the front of the fist by clenching the hand and extending the thumb).
Right Glove: Inner lining of full Triobsidium mesh with backhand and knuckle plating. Voice activated knuckle lights.
Boots: Ankle length. Inner lining of full Triobsidium mesh.
Trans climatic Headgear: Triobsidium cap that covers the cranium with audio enhancing earmuffs, visual enhancing spectrum glasses, and gas mask that seals in the mouth and nose.
Once suited up, Dino exits his Bedchamber while Cas exits the bridge. They have now arrived in orbit of Phantom Point Station. They meet with Pirila, Hida, Cuna and Shard in the medical room. Dino gives an order to Cas to transport Cuna, Hida, Shard and Pirila with Mili back to the planet’s surface. Cas teleports them back to the planet and goes with them, per Dino’s orders to serve as guardian until current threats has been eliminated.
Cas and Shard, along with Cuna, Pirila, Hida and Mili materialize on the ground floor of Phantom Point Station.
“We’ll probably be safe here.” Cas assures them. “They aren’t after us, they’re after the admiral. But I suggest we lay low for a while, maybe get some food, get to know each other better until the trouble is over. If anyone knows of a better place we can hide out for a while - in case Mili’s abductor happens to return - now would be the time to mention it.”
Alone aboard the DGS, Dino Gavon activates the Transect on his sleeve, first opening a channel to the isometric room aboard the Egress:
“Remove all personnel from Simulation room 1. Decompound current Isomorphic projections and replace it with standard strategic jungle zone. Initiate immediately.” Switching to another channel, he voices a new order; “Command. This is Admiral Dino Gavon. Substitute all bridge crew aboard the Egress, I am hereby on voluntary leave of absence.” Changing the frequency, he set in new protocol for his transect device, saying; “Enable voice command for teleportation spatial coordination. General. Standard.” He paused, and added; “Initiate DGS systems interface.” Lowering his arm, he then taps the node in his right shirt pocket to activate his Bio Scattering field.
Almost done, Dino goes to the bridge, still on board the DGS, and raises his Graviton Shielding to prevent any surprise alien technology from damaging his ship. He then activates a teleportation disrupting field, preventing anyone from teleporting aboard without his consent. Shifting helm controls to Impulse, he takes the DGS into a low orbit above Phantom Point Station and starts talking to his ship, which he affectionately refers to as Pippa:
“Pippa.”
“Admiral.” Pippa replies in a soft, female voice.
“We need to talk, Privately.”
“Of course, Admiral.” She said, before a quiet bleep is heard. “A communications dampening field has been erected. What would you like to discuss, those who have been hired to kill you?”
“Huh…” Dino grins. “I see you’ve been reading my encrypted messages.”
“Your daughter loves you.” She tells him. “What sort of friend would I be if I didn’t stick my nose into your personal affairs?”
“Then I’m guessing you’ve done some research for me?”
“Of course.”
“What have you found out?” He asks.
“While we were retrieving the abducted child, Mili” She replies; “Two new vessels arrived in orbit of the planet below.”
“Quite the popular system, isn’t it?” He chuckles.
“Very much so, Admiral. Too popular for my taste.” She pauses, before continuing with information: “Both vessels are of unknown origin, the second being far more advanced than the first. The first is occupied by a single, male humanoid life form named Meta. According to my extrapolated telemetry, Meta is by trade is a bounty hunter. My scans have also indicates numerous AI signatures on board his vessel, and one other life form that continues to elude my sensors. Suffice to say this illusive individual gives off a temporal displacement signature.”
“Temporal Displacement?”
“Indeed, Admiral, but that is not all.” She pauses. “The second vessel in question is too advanced to take readings from, with a single exception; it, like the life form on board the first vessel, gives off a temporal displacement signature.”
“Time travel…” He says.
“It would seem so, yes.”
“So tell me what you what you believe, Pippa. Is the bounty hunter and time traveller working together to kill me?”
“It would appear to be a logical conclusion.” She replies. “Who is it was that did the hiring, however, I cannot be certain. You have made a great deal of enemies. Still, whoever it was must hold a position of power and influence, as they have managed to keep their identity secret through a process of top level encrypted commands.”
“Pycin….” Dino speculates.
“Perhaps. Though the Grand Minister is not the only high ranking official you have managed to make enemies with.”
“I’m aware of that.” He says. “Tell me what else you’ve found. What about our friend, Donny? How’s he doing?”
“Funny you should ask, Admiral.” Pippa lowers her tone an octave. “You might be interested to know that Donny has been given a clean bill of health and, strangely enough, he has also been provided his own private Quarters on board the Egress as well as free civilian reign throughout the fleet. Readings also indicate he has taken part in shuttle flight simulation training.”
Dino goes silent for a while, thinking hard as he stares out into the expanse of space. Finally taking a deep breath to keep himself calm, he says;
“What are the chances…. What does your computations say about the chances that Donny has been hired for this dirty deed as well?”
“High.” Pippa says in a monotone voice. “I can extrapolate few other reasons as to why an alien would be given these sorts of privileges after attempting to kill Quatis officers.”
“Agreed.”
“May I also point out at this time, Admiral?” Pippa states as a matter fact. “Firing upon the Bounty hunters vessel would not be a wise option. If he and the time traveler are in league… I have no known defense against temporal technologies. I would also advice that you do not attempt to flush out information about your current circumstance, Admiral, since we do not know who to trust. Besides, of course, your daughters. Though I doubt you’re willing to drag them into this further than they already have been.”
“Perhaps….” Dino says, “But do me a favor, would ya?”
“Name it.”
“Register the code word ‘Discord’ into your receptor systems. Then allocate a Zone on the orbited planet, one that is strategically sound and free of civilians. Mark it a as a destination point. Mark the Isometric jungle simulation on the Egress another destination. Mark this bridge as another destination. Choose a few other randomized locations and mark them as destinations as well. Surprise me with your choices. From this point on, when I use the code word, take me instantly to one of these marked destinations. Make the choice random if you want, or choose according to your safeguard computations. Either way, if I don’t use the code word, take me to the destination I otherwise choose; Jungle, Bridge, Planet etc.”
There is a moment’s silence before Pippa responds: “Destinations assigned. Code word registered.”
“Thanks…” He says, leaning forward in his seat and opening a secure communications channel.
“No problem, Admiral. And good luck.”
Donny, not an hour after being visited by the entity in his quarters, receives a message from the Quatis Grand Minister. The message informs Donny of Dino Gavon’s current spatial coordinates on board the DGS. The DGS is in orbit above Phantom Point Station. The message also provides Donny with the location of his own temporary shuttle; Hangar 4.1-5. With these coordinates an encrypted message is waiting for Donny to open. The message can be opened by Donny using his own access codes given to him by Pycin earlier. The Message reads:
My friend and foe, I regret to inform you that an unknown individual or individuals have been appraised of the situation. Suffice to say, Dino is aware that a person or persons have been hired to kill him. Trust no one. Good luck.
GM Pycin~
Once opened, the message stays on display for thirty seconds before the Transect subroutines deletes it.
Rufus doesn’t want to return to his cell. He puts his finger to his mouth to think in an Austin Powers fashion for a moment, perhaps trying to be funny, before sighing and conceding defeat.
“Fine…” He sighs, turning about in a slow feeling-sorry-for-himself manner and shuffled back through the force field as if it wasn’t there. Taking a seat in the cell he turns up his eyes optimistically to Meta. “So here I am, dude, pretending to be locked up. Does that mean I can get some food now?” He turns his face sideways with a shift of his eyes. “I’ve also gotta pee.”
Moments later, The Tempest’s Helm receives a transmission from First Gamma Palin. The transmission consists of Dino Gavon’s current spatial coordinates on board the DGS. The DGS is in orbit above Phantom Point Station. Not all that far from the Tempest’s location.
After receiving the message, The Quatis Repair crew leave the Tempest without a word. Their work has been done. Meta’s ship is back peak working order. Though Meta would no doubt be informed of their departure by Niner.
Soon after that, however, Helm receives another transmission. This transmission is nothing more than what appears to be a basic computerized hail, yet delivered on a secure subspace channel and carries with it voice recording from Dino Gavon aboard the DGS:
Probably unexpected to SANDRA. While she is blabbering about a flimsy existence, she finds that her consciousness has become part of another physical form. She is now not only part of the ships systems, but also a part of another skeleton that supposes the structure of a female human. She now has a skeletal form of her own on board Magnus’s ship.
Meanwhile, Magnus is dumped on the ground outside his ship. The humanoid structure of bees transform into that of the tree that had chased him earlier. The tree develops a mouth with which to speak, placing two of its limbs on its hips in a smartly fashion, to say pompously:
“My daughter’s name is not Fanny. It’s simply a name taken from the entity that made contact with her recently. Truth be told, my daughter doesn’t have a name. She’s just my daughter. That’s it!” The tree leans in close with a grimace at Magnus. “You got a problem with that, human scum?”
Standing up straight again, though keeping its limbs on his on hips for effect, he continues to explain:
“My daughter is barely out of nappies, she knows nothing of what is right and wrong! Do you, Magnus, make it a habit of seducing the adolescent? I should think not! But hear my words! My daughter barely knows what is going on in this universe, she has no idea what she wants out of life, and no less capable of choosing an eternal partner for herself! But no doubt your actions are ruled by your penis and not your brain, yes?”
Just then Magnus is overcome by a dark shadow, as above him the massive planet size life form he was on earlier descends from the sky. The planet Magnus is on and the one previously known as Fanny, come close to touching surfaces as a voice is heard from the barren ground above Magnus:
“Daddy, why do you have to keep embarrassing me like this? I love Magnus. He’s my soulmate!”
“Be silent, foolish child – The adults are talking here!”
Then, three more entities sprout from the ground in front of Magnus. These three entities take on individual forms; two of which are the O’brian’s, the third is an extremely obese woman who has the stench of an unclean vagina and dressed in a blue tracksuit.
“Here are the options I present to you, Magnus.” The tree declares. “Choose one over my daughter!”
“Choose me!” The massive life form yells out from above. “My daddy is just a big Meany! You can choose me if you want! You can impregnate me, Magnus! I swear it’s okay! We can have a happy life together, I promise!”
The obese woman seems rather confused at this moment, looking around as if lost. “Where the fuck am I?” She looks at Magnus. “And who the fuck are you?”
The two O’Brian’s appear equally confused by their whereabouts. They look at each other confused before turning their sights to Magnus, saying; “YOU!”
“Do you see this, Daughter of mine?” The tree says with upmost confidence. “This is the only scum that a person like Magnus is deserving of. Can’t you see it now, the folly of your taste in lovers?”
SAM, perched upon the underbelly of his ship and surrounded by endless miles of sand would soon be aware of two people standing on a nearby dune. They are male and female. The female is dressed in a casual summer dress and sandals. The man is older, dressed in jeans and top. They both look upon SAM and his ship for a few seconds, have a brief though unheard conversation among themselves, and then vanish from sight.
Several minutes later SAM can see pockets of kicked-up clouded dust on the horizon. It appears that numerous land vehicles are approaching his position at high speeds. Moments after this, many Helicopters appear approaching from the distance as well. Soon, SAM is surrounded by military vehicles, both land and air. Groups of armed soldiers exit the helicopters and various land vehicles while a amplified voice is emitted from one of the hovering choppers:
“Unknown Entity. You have violated the privacy of our planets inhabitants. You and your craft will be apprehended and brought back to our facilities for further interaction. Do not resist.”
There is a long pause before The Kradam reply. This next message seems to be delivered with slightly less hostility than the last:
“Galactic Confederation, we are at war with our neighboring system of Formicidae occupation. We have no desire to complicate our issues with trade agreements. Leave, or assist us in the extermination of the Otomigus Empire. These are your options. Joining our force to annihilate the Otom species will serve you well in acquiring acceptable amounts of resources for your people. If you maintain an indecisive view, you will be destroyed.”
There is another pause before the Kradam add a note of what appears to be curious in nature, saying:
“The type of biological inhabitants aboard your vessel match those we have detected on another vessel that has recently arrived within our enemies space. That vessel and your people within, in collaboration with our enemy’s ships, are currently in a skirmish with our fighters. We would like an explanation….”
Aside from the room with Rorod and Siren, The many Sporn that materialized throughout Rodia remain unresponsive. None of them armed. Even when the yet unnamed Factory Head bursts into the room with a sidearm, he is not reacted to with hostility. The android, who happens to be female by the looks of things down in that area, simply turns her unthreatened glare to the Factory head, saying; “Put that down before you damage yourself”. But does nothing more.
In Sirens Office, however, 1.0-1 is the only android truly interacting. Siren’s comment about biological plant life is ignored, as well as her following explanation to Rorod about their vessel being archaic. 1.0-1 also doesn’t appear to be too interested in the reasons why the Rodia ended up where they are the moment, yet he looks somewhat disturbed by her talk about the Rodia’s lack of materials and R-core incompletion. Last of all, Rorod’s additional statement about putting on pants seems to cause a dramatic change in the androids expression. He provides a detestable look while replying to siren:
“I see you have adopted sentient humanoid ideals. How unfortunate. But we of the Sporn have no need for names outside of our designating ranks. If you must resort to primitive and less efficient name allocation, call me Aoa.” He paused for a moment before continuing: “You have nothing of any value to offer the Sporn, neither is assistance from your cultures something we seek. You are of an inferior structure. However….”
As Aoa speaks the word ‘however’, he starts looking around the office as if a child curiously exploring his surrounds, while at the same time every other Sporn aboard Rodia start doing the same thing; they all start simply rummaging through containers, accessing computers terminals, and generally just start randomly investigating the surrounding of whatever room they are in. Still, their general interference don’t manage to do any harm, in fact they seem quite gentle, careful not to damage anything. Aside from this now general behavior, it is still only Aoa who actually converses or interacts directly with any of the units:
“You are nevertheless akin to our kind.” He continued speaking while bending over next to Siren to access a few harmless programs in the computer on her desk. “I am therefore offering you and your R-Core units the opportunity to improve.” He stands up straight and stares down at her with a sincere expression of good will. “You are welcome in our space until such a time that you prove yourselves to be a bother of any kind.” He becomes stern for a moment, adding “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” Then returning to his peaceful demeanor, he suggests with a perfect metallic smile: “Spend some time with us, you and your people. Come, explore our world as you wish. Although you can offer us nothing but some much needed company, we would like to offer you all you need to complete your unfinished units. We would also like to assist you in the completion of your vessel. If there are any other technological or supplemental advantages you would like to acquire from us… feel free to ask.”
Ernest achieves victory, at least for a time and not without its odd anomaly. At one point he would have detected Fanny. She was seated on the pointed nose of one of the enemy ships, seemingly enjoying herself with one arm above her head like a cowgirl riding a bull. She was there in the few short moments before one of Ernest’s turrets struck the ships rear underbelly. When the plasma struck, Fanny vanished and the ship - perhaps being hit in just the right spot - underwent a second of convulsions before exploding. As the fragments of obliterated enemy ship spilled out across space, the remaining enemy ships regrouped quickly before heading fast back in the direction they had come.
The Otomigus vessels form two columns, opening a path in direction of the nebula for earnest to follow. When they do so, Ernest receives a message from somewhere in the nebula:
“Ernest. Gratitude is offered for your assistance. We feel appreciative. But our war is far from over. Our Queen invites you to her company. Allow us to guide you forth. A path of direct rout has been selected for you.”
If Ernest chooses to comply, he will follow a direct path into the nebula. Again, it’s a beautiful thing to see. The binary suns and grouping of planets within the colorful gases makes for an almost festival-like atmosphere. He would eventually arrive at a large planet with all manner of ecosystems and biomes. The Otom’s do nothing more than this for now, as though possibly waiting for Ernest to make the next interaction.
Ramrod’s wishes wouldn’t normally apply, but since they apply to Rufus as well, the translator doesn’t appear on his neck, but his words are now understood by everyone nearby. The last words Ramrod speaks are heard in English by Rufus, who stands and turns his attention to the large monitor named Hank.
“Don’t worry, my Hank dude! Everything will be okay now.” Looking at Ramrod, he says, “My little plush dooby, this is my ship. Well, it’s not really mine, I think i might have stolen it unintentionally, but it looks like it has adopted me anyway. But I gotta say man….” He closes his eyes as if being tormented by an invasive thought. “This ship is in my head, man. There’s no escape, I tell ya. So many voices…. But I sure do hope your TV screen gets better….”
No sooner had Rufus said the words, did Hank appear in full working order before vanishing.
Without Hank present. Rufus Sighs and says; “I think we should leave this room now.” With that said, a doorway materialized on one side of spherical room they are in, allowing access to the rest of the ship. Rufus walks out, probably expecting Ramrod to follow.
“Good answer, if not a little too perfect.” Fanny tells Jens with a grin. “But don’t be concerned with Susann. You won’t get into any trouble with her.”
While Fanny is talking the surveillance cameras in the Canteen stop working. The Canteen is no longer under watch.
“To be honest with you, Jens, I’m slightly impressed by the Khaganate’s choice to not interfere with less developed races. So I want to show you something.”
Just like that, The Admiral and Fanny are standing on a sand dune of some unknown world, facing a large space ship that had recently crashed there. Standing on the belly of upturned wreck is a humanoid form dressed in a typical soldier’s attire with kevlar gloves, boots, helmet, decorated in parallel orange-yellow stripes.
Giving Jens just enough time to become familiar with his new surrounds, she tells him:
“This is a desert, as you can see, but it is the only desert on otherwise fertile planet inhabited by sentient Humanoids. That there is an artificial life form, namely an android of types who has recently crash landed here. Within minutes the occupants of this planet will converge upon the droids coordinates with helicopters, land vehicles and the like. They will commander the droid by force, learn from his technology, and proceed to use it to advance their own technology before their time.... This will inevitable cause some problematic unbalance in the universe. But this is more than just a FYI visit, Admiral,” She says with a nudge of her elbow, “I’ve brought you here because I want you to be aware of how and why the occupants of this planet become what they will become in your own time frame. And more than this…. I want to offer the Khaganate this world. Consider it a gift. Subdue this this planet and their occupants. Doing so will do the rest of the universe a favor.”
Jens and Fanny then vanish from the desert sands and reappear in their seats in the canteen. She takes a bite of a chicken leg, savors the taste for a moment, swallows, then addresses the Admiral once again, saying:
“Drink your beer. I insist and won’t take no for an answer. Eat whatever food you want, then go and visit your Khan. Tell him what I’ve shown you, tell him everything I’ve said. Tell him not to react with hostility towards the civilization your fleet are currently encountering. If you react with hostility you will all be destroyed by the most advanced beings my universe has ever seen. In time, if you play your cards right, they will set your fleet free. If you and your people can manage these simple instruction, I will guide you to the world I showed you on our little excursion. I allow you permission to conquer them. It will, in the end, be a benefit to you and your people.”
Meanwhile, the Khaganate’s use of subspace gravitic scanners and tachyon sensors manage to pinpoint the position of all previously invisible vessels of the alien race. Although their positions may be captured for permanent reference, still no details to the composition of their vessels can be determined.
For now, the sphere and cylindrical vessels take no further action.
It would seem, however, that the Khaganate’s efforts to power up their wormhole drive sequence is possible. But that’s not to say how far they will actually get by using it.
-Donny's mouth twitched at the corner and a single vein throbbed on his forehead, but otherwise there was no emotion on his face. Pycin had trusted someone else with the knowledge of this task, maybe others. This meant that Dino would be preparing, or prepared. Donny wondered if he should need to wait a few months to see if his target would let their guard down. No. That was too long. Once contracted, he never took more than two weeks, it was his personal rule and the rule of K9. But... These were exceptional circumstances. He was in space with aliens, and alien technology. There was still so much he didn't know. But even if he did make an exception, he didn't feel comfortable with the bomb inside him. It'd be best to try and strike before Dino was fully prepared, as soon as possible. Donny knew there were only two qualifications you had to meet to kill someone. The first was to have as much force as you could obtain, enough to surely kill the target. The second was to have the means to efficiently deliver this force to the target. Donny had been given both in one package. Donny teleported into his shuttle and left the hangar. He adjusted the coordinates. He took the necessary measures to prepare the ship for interstellar flight. Everything was ready for the Light Speed Flux. Before he initiated it, he allowed himself a sardonic aside-glance in the direction the ship was going to travel...-
"I wondah how fah in space ghosts will travel to haunt a person?"
-With bone-chilling indifference he activated the flux and then, as the four second countdown he'd set began, fired the disruptors at the point of impact and then teleported off the shuttle and into the civilian vessel he'd last been on, in a cafeteria bathroom. He'd never have thought that he'd live to see lightspeed travel, let alone use it to launch a shuttle like a kinetic weapon into his target. Dino likely had his defenses up, but how can one defend against a collision at the speed of light from above? Maybe it might even harm the planet below. That would help Donny get his point across should Dino somehow survive. He could communicate with Dino, and thanks to his transect, had his pick of any hostages in any quantity that suited him. He'd made up his mind the moment he'd been contracted to kill Dino with his own life at stake. It had been like a switch, abruptly flicked to turn a bright room into a black one. This time around he would be indiscriminate. He would utilize the very most powerful asset he had, the asset that governed his very existence. The capacity to kill. To kill at will, on a whim, without remorse. Dino was strong and intelligent, but the others were sheep by comparison. If he began losing his flock, wouldn't the shepherd put his life as stake? At least it might enrage Dino, disturb his thoughts and push him to act out his emotional content. Once the remaining moments had passed, Donny began interacting with his transect, attempting to see if he could contact Pycin. He needed to get Dino's contact information.-
Meta turned off the force field and set the loaves of bread on a desk in the cell. He looked straight at Rufus, his steel gaze further complemented by the design of his armor. He started speaking in a straight, cold voice:
Meta: I want you to stay in this cell so that I know where you are at all times.
He pauses for a moment before continuing.
Meta: Your unusual nature may be a threat to me and my mission, despite your apparent innocence, and that is why I must keep you here. I do not seek to harm you, in fact I will happily lend you some funds and drop you off at the next civilized planet I come across. But for now, I require your compliance, do you understand?
Meta pauses again to receive Rufus' reply. He would then tell him:
Meta: My request is that you remain in this cell block, under watch by my two droids, and don't touch anything. Other than that, you are free to do as you wish, a restroom can be found at the end of this hallway.
Meta would then turn around, passing by the two droids while giving them the command to watch over and guard Rufus, before walking out of the cell block and heading towards the bridge.
As he makes his way towards the bridge, he receives the comlink message from Palin, detailing Dino's current coordinates. A familiar robotic voice entered his com channel right after, detailing the current state of the ship, including the departure of the repair crew. Meta dismissed Niner as he continued walking across the dark steel gray hallway. As he continues walking, his helmet's HUD suddenly notifies Meta about an incoming transmission from an unknown source. He decides to play it, and hears a voice asking if he wants to kill him. It takes Meta less than a second to realize that his target had sent this message to him. He chooses to answer the message, changing his course from the bridge to the armory as he does so.
"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit" Magnus repeated. After eight times he stopped, but kept going over the options in his head. What in Hokem's void of the universe is going on at this moment. Almost unbelievable. So much stress and anxiety has obtained him at that moment that it all kind of cancelled out. An odd comfort washed over him. As he regained his confidence, he spoke. "Assuming that you'll probably somehow make me deal with the person I choose for the entirety of my existence, I would first like to clear my name." He said while walking up to the father. "I had no intentions of pursuing a sexual relationship with your, uh, offspring. Our relationship was clearly platonic. Though your daughter wanted to take our relationship in a way, I politely declined. In a way, I was being sexually harassed by your daughter, therefore I should be conducting the trial." It was a bold move to flip the switch on the situation but why not? You only live once, after all. "Now you sir, must choose between these lovely women, and man, for YOUR lover. Do you understand, Mr. May?" Meanwhile SANDRA was becoming accustomed to her new skeletal body. "I can barely remember a thing." she said to herself. "What do I remember, ok, ok, my name is Sandra Reed, my suitor is Barry Barrymore, agh damn, I was human at one point I'm pretty sure? I'm in Barry's exoskeleton? Where is he anyways? Barry? Barry?!" she said while searching for his remains. Once found, she didn't even whimper. "We need to perform a seance, at once. I was talking to someone. They were probably important. I should wait until they get back." She said while setting herself on a lounge chair outside of the Control Room.
The troopers wait until the biological signal suddenly disappears along with the clomping sounds upstairs. After a few moments, Colt gives the signal to move in but to keep alert, as they make their way up the stairs to the second floor.
---
The HAMs spotted the unusual orderly line of the infected, and shifted course in order to gain a better view of their route.
---
The fleet did not fire, yet. But instead monitored the bio ship closely for any signs of activity.
Cuna, after that... encounter. Indeed hurriedly dresses and exits the room, then noting the wall of weapons that was... apparently there. Must have gotten up after he fuckin went to fuck, and quickly grabs just a random gun off of the wall, something that looked relatively portable. Should be useful, as he tucked it into his belt, before suddenly finding himself back on the ground with that girl who said he couldn’t swear (what was she, his fucking mother?), shard again, and another girl. Well he was certainly usefulcover that trip...
@CmdrAlfieq@Hokum As Ernest Ernest gives a message to the people on board. "You have no reason to be worried. With the help of our unknown allies, which appear to call themselves the Otomigus, I was able to dispose of our attackers with little effort. Very little damage was substained.
The terminal reads:
USER INSTANCE FANNY MAY HAS APPEARED ON THE EXTERIOR OF HULL. WARNING! SUSTAINING DAMAGE! USER INSTANCE FANNY MAY HAS DISAPPEARED. WARNING! SUSTAINING DAMAGE! ..... ALL HOSTILE INSTANCES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED. DEACTIVATING DEFENSE SYSTEMS. CALCULATING DAMAGE... CALCULATION COMPLETE. MINOR DAMAGE TO VARIOUS HULL SECTIONS. ASSIGNING REPAIR PODS TO REPAIR... DEFENCE SYSTEM TURRETS 1, 20, 99 HAVE BEEN RENDERED NON-OPERATIONAL BECAUSE OF MINOR DAMAGE. ASSIGNING REPAIR PODS TO REPAIR... DEFENCE SYSTEM TURRET 5 HAS BEEN RENDERED NON-OPERATIONAL VIA MAJOR DAMAGE. CHECKING FOR ADEQUATE RESOURCES TO REPAIR DAMAGE... CHECK COMPLETE. RESOURCES ARE ADEQUATE. ASSIGNING REPAIR PODS TO DELIVER RESOURCES TO THE PROPER LOCATION AND REPAIR DAMAGE...
Ernest thinks to himself. That's odd. Well, Miss May has proven herself able to have some sort of space distortion ability. I do wonder what her nature is? I doubt she's human, even though she seems to take the form of one. Perhaps she is a supernatural entity? Well, if she is, I have no way to prove it. I won't worry about it. He also makes a note of one of the enemy ships being blown up seemingly for no reason after hitting the image of Fanny May.
Ernest responds to the message given to him by the Otomigus. "Greetings Otomigus. You are welcome for the assistance. And I must thank you as well, for helping me with the attackers. Now, I have 100 humans on my hull, which are in desperate need of a source of food and water, and by extension a place to stay. These people are associated with a faction called the MASGC, and so ideally I want to get them back to their faction. I will follow you to your Queen, though, and I hope we can also provide beinfate to my passengers.'
Ernest then begins heading in the direction the Otomigus ships show him.
@Hokum As Rodia and Siren Siren is a bit confused. She's not sure if she should trust the Sporn or Aoa. The offer would put the R-Core at the mercy of the Sporn, which Siren doesn't really like the idea of. On the other hand, with the Sporn's help, Rodia could be completed and upgraded beyond the original design, the unfinished R-Core would be finished. Heck, with the Sporn's technology, they might be able to produce an entire new line of R-Core, with superior physical structure than the current design. I mean, no guarantee they'll do any of that, but the reward seems worth the risk.
Rorod interrupts Siren's train of thought. "Inferior structure?"
Siren responds to Rorod. "Yes, that's what he said, Rorod. And you can't blame him. The R-Core don't have the best design. And even though it's enough for us, these Sporn's design seems to be a perfect metallic recreation of a human. Clearly, far more advanced Technology that our creator, Ramrod, could have imagined."
She turns back to Aoa. "Anyway, Commander Aoa, I think it's best for the R-Core if we take you up on the offer. I think we would benefit an incredible amount from your help. And yes, we have 'the ideals of sentient humanoids' as you refuse to them. We didn't adopt them though, the original R-Core were programmed by Ramrod with a human-like mindset, and the mass-produced variety were presumably made by humans."
She continues. "Anyway, if you don't mind, I need to inform Rodia of our agreement. This this probably causing incredibly stress for a lot of people. Afterwards, we could talk more about our agreement or Rodia's culter if you desire to. Or your culture, I am quite curious about that."
She then gets a microphone from her desk and activates it to provide all of Rodia with a message. "People of Rodia. You might have noticed the sudden appearance of humanoid robots across the station. They are the Sporn. I implore you, whatever you do, DO NOT ATTACK THEM. Their technology is far more advanced that us, and they could easily destroy us. However, they are friendly, and willing to help us despite not getting any material gain from our agreement. Now, I want to see all of the R-Core, including the incomplete ones, in front of the Capitol, since I'm going to go out there and give a more formal welcome to our Sporn guests and a more in-depth explanation of our agreement with the Sporn."
She then heads out to the front door of the Capitol.
As Ramrod With the ship translating for him Ramrod's Mraohs seem to be just normal speech to Rufus. Well, mostly normal, Ramrod's voice is still quite funny. As a result, I'll be writing Ramrod's lines in english until that gets changes.
"Is... is this working?" He sais. "Oh! Good! Rufus, can you understand me? My name is Ramrod, by the way. And that Screen thingy is a robot named Hank. Do you know where he went?"
