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RP It's cold out here ((1v1))

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Edto Xar'Sivaree

Edto Xar'Sivaree

Lizard Freak!
Inactive Member
For weeks, there has been a single ship floating through space. A simple, unassuming single pilot ship. No thermals, no power signature, nothing to indicate any sign of life other than a distress beacon. For weeks, this beacon has been trying to draw attention to the ship, playing an audio frequency pattern that went from upwards 100,000Hrz, down to 5Hrz. It completed a pattern every 30 seconds and recycled. It has been floating through space for what seemed like quite some time, but perhaps someone interested in the Distress Beacon will find her before the battery runs out.
 
The local star was a bright, blue flare in the distance, flickering ominously as a multitude of specks began to cross in front of it; split second silhouettes. The derelict vessel had been drawing closer and closer to the asteroid belt that looped around the blue sun, gradually pulled into the depths of the field of rock as the weeks passed by. For another week there was silence, but after this, there was activity!
A small, spherical probe coated with fine, metal antennae, nestled on one of the larger asteroids, detected the drifting vessel and alerted its masters. It then began transmitting a barrage of commands at the ship, in every language its data banks held.
The general message was as follows:
STOP
STOP
GO AWAY
LEAVE
WE KILL YOU​
After a few hours of broadcasting the simplistic, threatening warning, to no avail, the probe sent a final message, back to the mining fleet it belonged to. In the depths of the asteroid fleet was a gargantuan ship: The Thoot Processing Mothership. Roughly shaped like a rectangular prism, it was lined with jagged, ridged beams that protected its hull from impacts. A large docking bay yawned on the bottom face of the ship, aglow with lights and abuzz with activity as smaller mining vessels dragged hunks of rock into its maw.
Surrounding the Processor was a modest fleet of defensive vessels, each roughly 1/20th of the size of their parent vessel, along with an array of defence platforms: Spiked, cuboid structures equipped with tractor beams. The message reached the Mothership about a minute after it was sent, and after another minute of silent, unseen activity, one of the large escort vessels broke away from the formation, the prongs along its aft side crackling as its exotic particle engine flared into life, with a flight of tiny mining tugs following it.

---​
Sally Ee'ith was pressed up against the cold, transparent cockpit shield that stood between her and the void of space, her antennae twitching nervously as their three hundredth attempt to contact the derelict went unanswered. "Maybe dead?", she asked in a synthesised, human voice to her sister Yui, trying to practice her alien speech. Yui, Sally's sister, was spread out over the control console on her 'stomach', her clawed limbs carefully manipulating lever, button and switch, maneuvering their small craft closer to the alien vessel. "Maybe.", Yui conceded, begrudgingly speaking back to her sister in the alien language.
The Ee'ith ambassadors were piloting a tiny, spherical craft, with its only outcroppings being the communications antennae protruding from the front, between the two cockpit windows, and the drive prongs at the rear. With a dull thud, their ship bumped up against the derelict, almost knocking Sally off her feet, as if to wake the inhabitants that way.
"We can't get in, anyway. The ship is not designed to board others.", Sally lamented to herself with a sad whine leaking from her abdomen, sounding almost like a deflating balloon. A splash of beautiful light appeared from the nearby asteroids; arcing currents of red, green and yellow that vapourised the asteroids before it.
"Thoot are here.", Yui remarked in a monotone as the large, escort vessel loomed out from the dissipating flash of particles, cruising smoothly into position above the two smaller ships while a small group of mining tugs streamed from its docking bays. Swarming around ambassador and derelict alike, they clamped their clawed arms onto whatever they could grasp, even burrowing in using their jack-hammers to get better grip, and dragged both up into the gleaming light of the Thoot warship.

---​
Sally stood in the hanger bay beneath the derelict alien vessel, engaged in a heated conversation with one of her Thoot relatives. To an outsider, it was a rapid exchange of squeaks, throaty huffing and puffing, stridulating and hissing. Her sister, Yui, ever pessimistic but ever faithful, stood guard in front of the derelict's main airlock (already half pried open by its captors), the chain-fed gun held in her upper arms levelled at an angry crowd of Thoot miners. The stand-off had gone on for almost an hour now, with little progress made on either side. The Thoot family in its entirety was intent on breaking into the intruding alien craft and killing everything inside, and only a pair of Ee'ith ambassadors stood between the two. If it weren't for the innate kinship the two families shared, Sally and Yui would already be dead.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity trying to explain her motives and plan to the Thoot, Sally was allowed to explore the interior of the craft. Dressed in her EVA suit, she waited until Yui had finished cutting the way inside, then entered the small craft to see what was inside.
 
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Once Sally entered the ship, she would clearly see frost clinging to every edge within the ship. It was quite cramped and dark. Several passages that looked more like crawl throughs than actual halls filled the hatch like a hub. Open the hatch, enter a passage, and the hatch closes. Four crawl throughs were available for use, with symbols that could only be described as chicken scratch. All symbols were underlined by a squiggly line, akin to the lines sound waves would make. As you crawl through the ship, taking the turns your feel are best you find yourself in a domed room. It looked like a crew quarters, and this was the only location on the ship that seemed to have any real light source. A few very dim lights ran, but most importantly was what appeared to be a very large heat lamp over a bed that had turned on with the power returning.

There was four new crawlspaces but none of them seem that big. The room was gradually getting quite hot and humid, the ice clinging to the walls starting to melt rapidly. The ship that was however once fully and completely dead of all sound was now being filled with a skittering sound. The sound primarily seemed to be coming from above. It gradually moved around until Sally could see what looked to be two eyes staring back at her from the darkness of one of the Crawl throughs. Sally could also hear a high pitched ringing, gradually going lower similar that to the distress beacon. The Pattern did vary though.
 
Sally was glad for her short stature in such a cramped ship, scrabbling and worming her body through the serpentine tunnels, occasionally getting snagged in corners. Her EVA suit was full-body, with a helmet that domed out at the front to give her antennae some breathing room while still keeping them within the internal environment, and two clear viewing screens that encompassed her compound eyes on either side of her head. Her abdomen was wrapped snugly in insulation, with a set of eight tubes attached to each breathing spiracle, curling beneath her abdomen where they merged into one, thick tube. This breathing tube led to her air regulator and supply, strapped against her thorax, in between her legs.
It'd be easier going if she didn't have all the extra gear, but she'd been taught at length about the potential bio-hazards that came with alien contact. She'd been crawling for some time, paying no real attention to which tunnel she took, since she intended on worming her way through the bowels of the vessel several times over just to be sure, when she heard scratching.

The squat, wasp-like alien stopped in her tracks, listening quietly to the somewhat muffled sound. Soon after, it stopped, and Sally kept still, trying her best to listen for the sound. Distracted as she was, it took her a moment to notice something ahead of her in the darkness. Her body tensed up, antennae quivering nervously within her suit. Was it an alien? Her first alien? Was it alive? She hoped it was. Maybe they could be friends?
Not quite sure what else to do in her current position, wedged inside a tunnel, she relaxed her body down against the floor beneath her, resting her head down on her forelimbs. She stretched her front legs out in front of her, like a sitting cat, claws facing downward, trying to make herself look as small and harmless as possible.
 
The stare off lasted for at least a minute before the "Alien" started to move. Slowly, as if it were bogged down by something it moved forward. As it walked into the light, the scales and horns were the first things to come into view at this point. Icicles could be seen slowly melting off her body, frost still caked to the parts of her body furthest from the heat lamp. The Alien stared at Sally, taking very quickly glances at the bed with the hot heating lamp pointing at it. Slowly it opened it's mouth, making a deep, guttural groan. It's teeth glinted in saliva, the jaw seeming to unhinge to perform this.

It was wearing a simple underlayer for what could only be described as a pilot's suit. It also had a few items placed on the belt. Finally, its left horn had an intricate carving in it as well as three golden bands. It could be assumed this creature was, in fact, the pilot of this ship. The EVA suit stopped you from getting any further sensory notes about the creature, but it seemed she was breathing.
 
Though the alien couldn't see, or even comprehend an I'ee's emotional displays, Sally was quivering with excitement. She should say something! But she hadn't been taught about a creature such as this during her training... Would it understand the languages she knew? Did it have a language? Was that possible? Sally caught herself before she was lost in her musings, still sitting still in the entrance to the room. The ambassador had made sure her speaker was on the outside of her suit, so she felt she ought to at least try and communicate.

"Hello! My name is Sally.", her voice crackled from the speaker, filling the otherwise silent room with Trade speech.
"Hello! My name is Sally.', she repeated again, now in Yamataigo, then in Abwehran, then Lorath, Seraphim... every language she knew, she spoke a greeting, trying to sound pleasant and welcoming.
 
The creature froze as your speaker started to play sounds. Slowly, it tilted its head and moved closer. It seemed to understand and opened its mouth. It went through a range of sounds, before suddenly repeating the words being spoken in the languages as the speaker cycled through the languages. She even sounded like the voice the software used in translation. Every time it cycled, she would repeat the words. The longer they stood there, the faster and easier it seemed to be for her to repeat the words. She also seemed to be quite a bit livelier than she was when they first made contact. The heat must have been helping it.

Eventually, she stood up on her back legs. She easily took a Bipedal stance from her original quadruped stance, and even looked natural doing it. She looked you over, tapping on one of the bulbs protecting your eyes. She was trying to figure you out but seemed well aware that you were wearing a suit. She was actually pretty thorough with looking you over. She had stopped repeating the translator, in turn of making a log string of sounds of different frequency. She also throws in guttural barks and snarls here and there, but her stance never seemed aggressive. Despite having a firearm, though, she never made an active move for it. She just had one of her hands resting on it as she "spoke".
 
Throughout all of the creature's careful examination and repetition, Sally made sure to remain still, only moving her limbs slightly to communicate that she was indeed alive. Finally, when the creature began uttering sounds, presumably in its own language, the I'ee carefully crawled out of the tunnel and into the room with it, standing at the opposite end from where the alien was.
Taking a bit of a risk, she carefully released the seals on her helmet, making sure to be slow as she hooked her claws into the seam and pulled it open; letting it drop neatly to the ground in two pieces. Her antennae immediately sensed everything in a rush of sensation and scent, causing her to wobble a little on her feet as she plucked her speaker off the helmet and clipped it to the side of her head, just beneath her left eye.

"Hello! My name is Sally!", she said, back in Trade language now, and extended her greeting. "I am an I'ee." If she were more used to alien clothing, Sally would say that she were flying by the seat of her pants, awed by the experience.
 
Edtoto stared at the creature as the helmet came off. It was like the creature was in another suit! She reached own and picked up the helmet, and tapped on it with a claw before reaching over and tapping the broad forehead of the creature before her. It was bizarre. She ran her claw down the face, expecting to feel the bump of scales, but was met with nothing. Just another armoured shell. This race obviously took safety seriously to send someone in with two suits on.

She looked over the creatures movements as it spoke again and nodded. "Hello! My name is Sally!" She said, once again mimicking the sound of the translator. However this time she stuck out her hand. "I am an I'ee" She contiued. She recognized it as a greeting though, but she simply repeated everything you were saying. Then she pointed to the helmet still in her hand, reverting back to her own language. She placed it down and ran into the the crawlspace she came out of ad seemed to be rummaging about over the dome.

When she came back down, she was also wearing a suit, with a helmet under her arm. She pointed at the helmet, then pointed at yours. She seemed to be going ballistic with words, before her voice stopped being audible. She started walking around the room, showing things to the insectoid. She never seemed to give enough time to fully gauge the item she was holding before she had switched to another item. She eventually came back, showing the helmet to you. SHe had gone bac down to an audible frequency, making the same sound over and over again.
 
The I'ee quivered nervously when Edtoto tapped at her head, twitching an antenna and trying to remain as still as possible. She was still reeling with excitement, noticing the alien's outstretched limb a little too late to attempt to return the gesture, and almost let out a sad whine when it disappeared into the tunnel. Did she scare it off? It didn't look scared...

Sally squeaked happily as Edtoto came back into the room with a suit and helmet, clasping her foreclaws together with excitement. "Helmet!", she stated, pointing to her helmet as Edtoto did the same with her own. The ambassador listened carefully to her new acquaintance's vocalisations, examining the helmet as she listened carefully to that specific sound that seemed to be associated with it. Concentrating, she imagined the sound in her mind and projected it out using her translator, mimicking Edtoto's 'word' whilst pointing to the helmet.
 
Edtoto smiled, which looked more like a snarl as she heard Sally say helmet. "Helmet... Helmet... Helmet" She said, repeating the word over and over. This gave a perfect opportunity to notice that her oral hygiene seemed to be absolutely devastating. The smell was quickly starting to overwhelm the old scent of recycled, stagnant air. The only thing that seemed remotely ok were her actual teeth, which were quite monstrous in size and look. Her gums were all sorts of screwed up by the look of it, and the rest would need a further examination. Her incisors were about twice as long as any other tooth n her mouth by the looks of it, and when her mouth closed she had quite the snaggletoothed appearance.
 
The sudden rush of putrid breath made Sally twitch her antennae, trying to resist the urge to shudder, still repeating after Edtoto as best she could. Finally, unable to take much more, she raised a claw in hopes of silencing her alien friend, then pointed to her own helmet. "Helmet.", she stated in Trade, hoping to gain a short respite against the bad breath.
 
Edtoto nodded, closing her mouth as the claw was presented. She seemed to understand that motion too. When Sally spoke, pointing at her Helmet, Edtoto nodded, pointing at her own helmet. "Helmet," She said simply, before looking around. Something seemed to bother her, and her entire stance seemed to grow a little more aggressive. Her mane seemed to grow slightly frazzled, giving her a wild appearance. Before Sally could say or do anything, the Lizard woman vanished into another Crawlspace.
 
Yui was having more and more trouble controlling the crowd of Thoot workers. There were... about fifty? She couldn't quite tell. She opened her jaws wide, hissing at the crowd and spreading her decorated wings in an effort to cow them away. Something must have happened inside, since Sally had yet to report back. Yui needed to check on her, but this army of angry relatives was getting too much to contain, even at gun-point. It's not like Yui wanted to shoot them, anyway. All that'd do is get both her and Sally killed. With the crowed pressing closer, hissing angrily, Yui dropped her gun and its ammunition, scurrying into the alien vessel's depths.
---
Sally let out a sad whimper when she saw Edtoto suddenly become upset. They had been making such good progress! Did Sally say or do something wrong? Then the alien was gone, vanishing into the depths of the vessel. She soon found out why. Dull, rapid thudding began to reverberate throughout the hull of the ship, and the distinct scent of the I'ee's attack pheromones spread throughout it. Sally could tell that it was the Thoot's temper finally going out of control. Yui!
Almost on cue, her sister squirmed out into the entrance tunnel she had originally entered through, and began a fast, frantic conversation with Sally in their native language. The Thoot were tearing the ship apart around them and Sally had met a friendly alien that she couldn't properly communicate with. Yui was all for leaving the alien crew member to the Thoot in order to sate their blood-lust and save Sally's life, but Sally would gladly give her own for the alien's. In the span of about a minute, these details had all been exchanged between the two I'ee workers, and now they bickered senselessly over their individual directives.
Yui's advantage was her strength: Sally kicked, flapped and squealed for her alien friend even as her sister dragged her to safety. The Thoot let the two Ee'ith workers pass as they left the vessel, and three angry Thoot went inside in their stead. Meanwhile, an array of mining equipment had been arranged around the ship such as giant jackhammers, drills and other devices; all pounding and tearing at the metal of the alien vessel in an effort to destroy it utterly.

The sound was awful, and it only made Sally squirm harder.
 
Edtoto scrambled through the ship, getting to her little personal armoury. All ships on her mission were sent out with a side arm and a Primary for just such an occasion. She ever thought she would actually have to use it. Her ship was being attacked and things were moving around fast in the ship. After loading her SMG and putting her combat goggles on she dove into a passage just in time to miss a Thoot worker who was currently hunting her down. It did not take long for her to dispatch the three Thoot on her ship. She knew the terrain better than they did and their main advantage against her was removed. However, she did have a problem when her ships hull was torn open. She quickly decided that her ship was lost and found one of the now many breaches in the hull to escape out of.

When she finally managed to get out of the ship, her chances of escape were growing smaller. Even with the bright lights polarizing her googles, she could clearly see the creature she was talking to previously getting dragged away by another of the creatures. She lifted her smg and fired a short burst at them, barely missing Yui ad shooting another poor I'ee who had joined in the riot. It eventually turned into a spray and pray. She ran out of ammo for her smg rather quickly, only to pull out her side arm and started ending the Thoots waspy lives.
 
The Thoot, even without armour, were quite resilient, and required several bullets to the head to properly incapacitate. It didn't take long for three twitching, writhing Thoot to be all that remained inside of the vessel, leaking blood from their wounds. The atmosphere outside of Edtoto's vessel was one of seething, angry anticipation, but that changed almost immediately as soon as she climbed out of one of the many breaches in her ship.
Angry hissing and squealing, along with an ominous buzzing, filled the spacious hangar bay. The industrial equipment was left idling as its operators, along with the crowd, all began climbing to reach Edtoto. Each insectoid face looked the same to Edtoto, each with their jaws open wide.
---
Yui had been keeping half an eye (or perhaps more) on the alien ship as the Thoot swarmed upon it. She heard gunfire, projectiles ricocheting around her, and hugged Sally close; shielding her sister. For once, Sally stopped squirming and hugged her back, begging her sister to help in their native tongue. "It's friendly, Yui. We were communicating. Please. We can save it.", she chattered and squeaked as fast as she could. Yui still had her jaws open wide out of instinct, but she forced them shut. "Start the ship. I won't be long."
---
Another Thoot worker fell back into the crowd, squirming and hissing as fluids welled up from various holes punched through her exoskeleton. One of them reached the top of the ruined ship, rushing at Edtoto, then stiffened as a projectile penetrated her brain, crumpling down into a twitching mess on the metal beneath her. The Vekimen's final bullet was spent; shot into yet another angry insectoid alien.
Glancing about, she could see the friendly alien, still clad in her suit, running for a small, slightly beaten looking vessel. The one that had been dragging her was approaching the crowd, her armour and ornate wing decorations glinting in the painfully bright light as she scooped up a pair of objects from the ground. It looked like there was no other way but down... into that swarming, angry mass.
---
The guardian sister checked her weapon, then its ammunition. All good. She hoped this alien would be clever enough to make use of her distraction, leveling the barrel at the crowd of her relatives. An uncontrolled thunder filled the room as Yui fired the weapon, grinding her mandibles together, using all her strength to keep the unwieldy firearm aimed at the Thoot. Scores of the angry I'ee were falling to the ground, shot from behind or the side, but their sisters hardly noticed. The barrel of Yui's weapon was white hot, its rate of fire doing more damage to itself than its targets.
She saw Edtoto fall into the crowd, an angry worker I'ee on top of her, and hissed with frustration, focusing her fire on the Thoot around where they landed.
 
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Edtoto grunted loudly as she slammed against the hangar deck. She was surrounded by angry creatures trying to kill her for some unknown reason. Well, she wasn't going to go down without a fight. One I'ee however, was apparently quite interested in tasting her fight. She felt the thing jump on top of her, and the two started to fight on the ground. The I'ee certainly had the limb advantage on Edto, as her tail was trapped between herself and the deck. That didn't mean she couldn't still really ruin this fuckers day. With as much strength as she could muster, she kicked her talons up and into the pod sticking out of the creature. Edtoto could feel it scream, and she pushed it off only to have another one slam said pod down on her stomach.

The pain was blinding, causing her to scream at a mind numbing volume. It sounded like you were standing next to a digital fire alarm from several yards away. Many of the I'ee couldn't quite handle the sudden audio assault, and they fell back. The ones who could were, stunned just enough for an opening to be created.
 
The Thoot whose stinger had been lodged in Edtoto's stomach had a brief, short lived sense of victory until she received the ear-piercing scream in full force. The sensory overload made the worker twitch and flail her limbs uncontrollably, anchored to the Vekimen by her abdomen. The others staggered backwards, some falling to the ground clutching at their antennae and faces, most simply fainting on the spot.
Yui staggered, glancing dazedly down at her weapon to find that its barrel had melted off. She tossed it to one side, finally realising that the deafening sound had been the alien, kick-starting her into action. The guardian charged forward, sinking down onto all six legs. Those still standing, she tugged or nudged off balance with her jaws, sending them sprawling onto the metal floor. Finally, she reached her quarry, tugging the stunned aggressor off and examining the wound left by the stinger before gathering Edtoto up in her four arms and dragging her as fast as she could towards Sally's ship.
---
In the cockpit, Sally was transfixed for some time, watching her sister and the alien battle with her rabid Thoot relatives. When she saw Yui at last returning with the alien in tow, she jumped into motion, laying herself down over the control console and setting to work. The prongs at the rear of her craft quivered, then glowed a golden yellow, sparks crackling along their length as the particle drive warmed up.
 
Edtoto was too blinded by the pain to even realize what was going on. She was useless, but the assault either stopped, or this was what death was like. She certainly hoped it was the former because she wouldn't be able to handle this for very much longer. After what seemed like an eternity, she realized that she was being carried by one of the creatures! She didn't have the time to think about what she was doing. With a scary amount of speed, Edtoto snapped her head to the side and sunk her incisors into the one carrying her. She took a quick look around to see that they were inside a different ship, and quickly tried to scurry off and find somewhere dark and hidden to lay low for a bit, but her limbs refused to function.

After maybe three of four steps towards the aft section of the ship, she collapsed in a heap on the ground, unable to move her body. Yui, however, would experience a different show. As she was right now, she would feel uncomfortable. The bite wouldn't hurt so much as be a shock. It did have a throbbing, hot feeling the place she bit down.
 
The hangar bay was blaring back into life as Yui dragged Edtoto up the ramp into their ship, a screeching alarm klaxon sounding while what seemed like a whole platoon of armoured, warrior I'ee charged in. Yui felt something clamp down hard on her left forelimb, hissing in pain and tossing Edtoto onto the cushioned bedding at the aft end of the ship's cabin. Sally already had the hatch closed behind them, lifting the spherical vessel gently up off the hangar floor and charging the Alcubierre drive.
"Yui, man the controls!", Sally shouted back to her sister in Trade speak. "I want to check the alien." Yui responded in the negative; both she and the alien were wounded. The ambassador's concentration faltered, causing their ship to wobble to one side. Another small swarm of Thoot workers were beneath them now, both warrior and miner alike, and the hanger's airlock hatch, set in the floor, was sealed tight. Glancing over her shoulder, Sally looked at her sister as she examined the wound on her arm, then at her alien friend, weakly twitching and squirming against the cushions she lay upon.
For once, Sally felt a bit of anger welling up inside of her. The Ee'ith family was dedicated to obtaining and preserving peaceful relations with alien species. She wasn't going to let her relatives ruin this. After a moment of thought, she maneuvered her ship so that the bow was facing the ceiling, angling the engine prongs down towards the hatch. Then she hit the brakes and set the throttle to full.
---
The few Thoot that didn't get out of the way were bombarded with exotic particles, evaporating, melting or exploding soon after. Soon the metal hatch began to blacken and groan, buckling in several places. A certain clever Thoot worker had commandeered the hangar bay's cargo cranes, moving them in an attempt to knock Sally's ship aside or grasp it. A hole had appeared in the now-white hot metal of the airlock hatch, and a different alarm klaxon sounded in the hangar. As the Thoot scrambled to safety, sealing the door's behind them, Sally turned the ship around, a newly made dent in its nose from where it had bumped against the ceiling, and blasted forward, narrowly entering the airlock as its emergency lockdown shield was lowered.
The was a muffled squeal of air being sucked out of the airlock, followed by silence, then the second hatch opened wide. The Thoot were letting them go! Sally almost squeaked with joy, her engines sparking with energy as they propelled the tiny ship out into open space.
---
The entire mining fleet was there to greet them. Ramming prongs and coil-guns were aimed squarely at the tiny Ee'ith craft, and a host of weapons' platforms were locking their tractor beams onto their heat signature. Sally froze up in the cockpit. They were going to kill her. They were going to kill all of them. Kill her new friend.
A low, chiming tone sounded as the Alcubierre drive finished charging. Sally slammed her claws down onto the release control, and her ship disappeared in a blur of speed, narrowly missing asteroid and space-craft alike.
 
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