RP: 188604 [AdVenture Capital] 1: Nath Tower

The gynoid stood, bowing to the 'spacer. She murmured, "Thank you for your efforts."

She moved over closer to Aashi, keeping back slightly beside the Iroma magnate. She hmmmed thoughtfully at what the Freespacer had said about the planet. Of course it made sense; 188 seemed to be nothing but sand and more sand, especially around Osman City. The poor souls who had struggled on this ball of silicate for hundreds of years had never dreamed of a project this large. Perhaps there was some greater lesson to that.

"Which floor, ma'am?" she asked, hand hovering over the button panel.

Werner's Suite: Nath Building

When the Nath Building was constructed, Aashi saw fit to giver Werner his own suite on the 12th floor. It was a nicely furnished suite with a living room, kitchen, and Master bedroom. Ulysses smiled as he finished hanging the last of the decorations. Today was Aashi's birthday and he was going to suprise her. She hadn't informed him or made a fuss, but Werner was all too happy to make one for her. He went out and found the best baker in Ragnacity and had a cake made for her. He even made some snacks and things for her as well. And best of all were the four presents that Werner had stacked up on his coffee table. He looked at the huge banner spanning the room and all the streamers and ballons and nodded, satisfied with all the work he had done and sent her a text.

*To: Aashi

Hey Aashi, I left my glasses in my suite. Would you mind grabbing them? I'll meet ya in the lobby.
~Werner

He moved and turned off all the light and hid in his bedroom. "Time to play the waiting game then..." He said to himself.

Aashi had just received a shipment of certain goods the day before from Second Chance Salvage Company and had begun making arrangements to get Ulysses' present ready and waiting for him outside of the hotel. She stepped towards the hotel and walked past the promenade and into the foyer and to the lift. She went up to the 12th floor solemnly, not expecting Ulysses to be waiting to ambush her. When the bell dinged and she stepped out of the elevator, she made her way to his suite and opened it with her key card, finding him, the decorations, and the presents waiting for her! She was astounded and stepped back a few times before gaining her footing and stepping forward, nearly running, to hug Ulysses.

"Oh, you knew, you always know..." Aashi said to him ecstatically.

Werner smiled as he caught Aashi and returned the hug. "Happy birthday Aashi." He said with a huge smile. "I figured you weren't gonna make a big deal, so I decided I would." He said gesturing to the room.

"This is quite the big deal!" Aashi commented. "I like that there's not too many people, either. I just want to spend time with you, after all."

He gave her a quick kiss on the check and led her to the couch and handed her the first of the four presents. "Here, let's start with your presents." He added.

She smirked at him as she sat down and then took the present graciously. "Thank you, Ulysses Werner. You're too kind, for getting me whatever this may be."

She opened it to find within it a perfectly crisp new dress, waiting for her to feast her eyes on it. She picked up the soft fabric in her hands and stretched it out to look at it fully before dropping it and looking at him pointedly. "It's perfect. I love it and I haven't even worn it, yet.."

Werner handed her the other two boxes, one being a new set of earrings and the other being a new pair of high heels to go with her new dress. He smiled and grabbed the last one. "And last but not least..." He handed her a much smaller box. As she opened it she found a paintbrush that seemed to have seen a lot of use. There was even dried paint on it still. Her confusion just made Werner all the more happy. "Well?" He asked with a smirk.

"I... thank you. Thank, Ulysses. It's just what I always wanted!" she wrapped her arms around him in a hug with a bright smile.

Werner laughed deeply. He returned the hug and looked to her. "I wanted to see what your reaction was. Come see." He said standing and taking her hand, leading her back to the elevator. She held some of her presents in her arms and he took the rest before the lift took them down to the lobby, which had a new addition in it. While Aashi was upstairs opening her other presents, Werner's engineering team had rushed in and installed the final gift. A full size portrait of Aashi was in the center of the wall facing the entrance of the lobby. She nearly dropped her other presents that she carried in surprise.

"U-... Ulysses!" she stuttered. "What is this?!"

He moved behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I thought the Nath building should have a portrait of its patron." He said softly.

The painting was of Aashi, in her blue dress, sitting against a tree in a huge grassy field. Her portrait looked up towards the sky with a soft smile, holding out her hand, stretching a finger towards her Sky Manta, A, as she glided by. The sun setting off in the background, showering the scene in various hues.

"It is so..." Aashi trailed off. "It is so..." she didn't know what to say. Describing a portrait of herself as beautiful was a little sparse on humility, but it was what she wanted to say. Instead, she simply turned and hugged Ulysses. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I could have never imagined such a wonderful present! But..." she disengaged from the hug and held the paintbrush, "why this?"

He held her and smiled. "Well that's because it is my paint brush." He said looking back at the painting. "I think it came out good if I do say so myself." he added.

"It came out... from your paintbrush?" Aashi asked, astounded. "You did this? Oh, ulysses, you have such talent!"

He shruged. "I have dabbled in it from time to time." He admitted. "I don't just sit around, commanding a starship all day." He teased.

"What are you doing commanding a starship when you should be putting these talents to use!" Aashi said ecstatically. "I love it, I really really love everything you got me."Aashi motioned to the porter, who took the presents out of her hands.

He said, "To your rooms, Miss Nath?"

She nodded to him, letting him know they should go to her room. "Time for your present! I know it's not your birthday, but I just got the shipment in." She brought him out the front doors of the hotel, holding his hand, and said as he laid eyes on his present, "There you go!"

He jaw nearly dropped as he saw his present. It was a luxury skycar. A light, almost metallic silver color, with white inlay for the details. along the side, his last name was stenciled tastefully into the white detaling on the driver side door. He looked to Aashi, still having trouble forming words. He couldn't have ever dreamed of owning such an expensive car. He scooped her up in his arm and hugged her. He held her there and looked into her eyes. "Aashi...how...?"

"I have my ways..." Aashi said with a sly smile. "Want to try out the new i'ee-built roads?"

He kissed her on the cheek. "Of course!" He said almost running to the passenger side door to open it for Aashi. She stepped over and into it and put her hand against the dashboard idly as she waited for him to get in.

Werner jumped into the driver seat and ran his hands over the dash and smiled like a child. He pushed the starter and the engine roared to life. Werner chuckled. "Oh this is to good..." He said. With a jolt he threw it into drive and took off... Making his new toy go from 0 to 60 in about 3 seconds. Aashi held onto her Matai Skyfish familiar close to the chest and smiled as he whipped the skycar into action.

He took off down the new road, gliding just above the street. The accelerator steadily climbed as he drove along a straight away. As he neared a turn he smiled mischievously. "Hold on!" He said as he clutched the shifter and threw it down, causing the car to start drifting around the turn. As he reached the other side he punched the accelerator and took off again. He laughed with pure enjoyment.

Aashi, too, laughed as she held on to her familiar and Ulysses took the car for spins and turns. She liked the thrill of it, the danger. It reminded her of her past life, her pirate life, in a lot of ways.

-----------

After an hour or so of driving, he brought them back to Werner's suite. He hugged Aashi again. "Thank you so much Aashi." he said with a smile. "Now for the last thing." He brought Aashi into the kitchen and lit the candles on the cake. He turned off the lights, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and began to sing. "Happy birthday to you..."

Aashi blushed deeply as he sang to her and swayed with him as he sang, covering her mouth with her hands as he did. She giggled and smiled like a little girl when he was done and blew out the candles on the cake.

Werner kissed her on the cheek and smiled. "Happy birthday Aashi."

Penthouse

Once Nath and 46 had left, Groundbreaker Eight-Four was alone with her work. She tossed her rolled-up tent into an open area of floor and gave it the command to inflate. While that was in progress, she opened the outer flap of the equipment airlock and dropped her cases inside, set up her microbot hive plugged into a power outlet through the needed adapters, and returned to the front entrance with her bedding and supplies.

After she stepped inside, she waited a few minutes for the cleansing foam to wash over her and drain away, then stepped through the inner flap. The tent was holding up nicely in the somewhat thin and dry atmosphere of the desert planet. Inside, it was far more comfortable. The tent's nanocatalytic systems worked to create an ideal gas mix of pure, fresh air.

Soon enough, she'd be able to remove her breath mask to do the same, even outside. She hadn't tasted the air of this planet with her own mouth, but it wasn't the sort of experience she was looking for. From the readings, it should have been quite like the air on a ship whose life support systems had failed a day or two earlier, and she was familiar enough with that experience.

She removed her helmet, laid down her bedroll, stripped down her Voidwalker suit to the undergarments, and laid down to decompress for a few minutes before rolling over to open the inner flap of the equipment airlock and take her heat-sterilized gear inside. She had a whole night ahead, and her work for the day wasn't quite done. While she used her suitcase laboratory and tinkered with her kit on autopilot, Queenie's thoughts went into the VR design of the new palace, making thousands upon thousands of edits until what seemed like five to ten seconds later, when the little mental alarm she'd set told her two hours had passed, and she directed herself to prepare her evening meal-tube.

As she chewed, she sent a message for Aashi, again. "I've updated the new design. The basement includes a vehicle bay--two stories tall, for military and delivery vehicles--cold storage chambers, and room for recycling systems. The empty space could be used to connect it to a vacc-train tunnel, later on, or for a panic room.

"In the center of the first floor will be the old palace, still ruined, but made into the centerpiece of a tropical garden, greenhouse, or park reserve. The interior can be made into a museum, sanatorium, prison, or whatever else seems appropriate. The floors from the lobby and up should be suited for offices, conference rooms, small businesses, stature gardens and art galleries, or whatever else this place needs. I wouldn't recommend using this new palace as a place of residence, but perhaps the upper floors directly above the old palace would provide some comfort to those worthy of staying here.

"The upper floors, the open space around the old palace, and the four quarters of the lower levels will all be divided by pressure doors that can slam shut in the case of emergency, as requested, and preserve the atmosphere seperately. The front entrance and the vehicle bay will both have extensive airlocks with optional decontamination systems, which may come in useful in case of plague, fallout, or other NBC hazards that may inflict the city. The building is not currently designed to withstand a direct attack more severe than the rebels have mustered in the past, however. It will resist bullets, not cannons.

"I'll adjust this design in response to any new design requirements. 'Goodnight', as they say in these parts."

After she swallowed her dark green goo, Queenie slid into bed and shut down for the night, trying to ignore the gravity well she was caught in.

[Before AdVenture Capital]
It's High Noon

It was about mid-way through the day when Aashi waltzed down from her room, dressed in the elegant dress she had been given for her recent birthday, passing the massive portrait of herself and her familiar, which hung back a moment to study it. The matai skyfish hurried itself along as Aashi swept forward, into the lounge of the lobby with its deep recessed couches and chairs in the floor of the center of the room. Splattering the edges of those were high tables and barstools as well as chaise lounges and ottomans. On the tables were drink coasters and hoookah water pipes and after she looked to make sure all of the coals were lit and hot, ready, she turned her attention to the stewards that stood there.

They had serving trays filled with of all different flora she had recently picked up. There were differing flavors of barra leaf, for those inclined to get the smooth and mild taste of the herbal staple to the Iromakuanhe. It was a light, mild effect that stuck with the user for less than an hour and could be described as "easy on the mind."

They also had on their serving trays different strains of salcra leaf to be smoked and slajatki-on, which was in little baggies separate from the weed and leaves. The servers had been told to instruct the patrons in using slajatki-on by putting the portioned amount on the tongue and to let it dissolve to increase energy, motor-function, euphoria, and, last but not least of which, sexuality.

She nodded when all was prepared and went to the large windows that showed the pool, decorated with streamers and balloons with the numbers of the coming year. The hot tub was bubbling and alive and the soft light sparkled off of the ripples on the pool's surface.

This was a New Years party in the works, if only she didn't have to wait for guests to arrive to breathe life into it.

Figuring it'd help guarantee people came to Aashi's party Akemi mentally messaged his fellow Space dudes that they could come meet Lycosidae and talk about building a storm defense system at it instead of hosting the talk at The Cockpit. He did this while lazily lying down on a Nath Tower couch.

"Hey Groundbreaker, Arccos, Vier and Uso, you guys wanna come to Aashi's party to meet Lycosidae and talk about how to set up some type of system to detect and neutralize or redirect the killer sandstorms now that the mountain 's been blown up and isn't providing the protection it used to? I was thinking maybe we could rig the Lighthouse sensors to detect when storms form and maybe we could modify whatever broadcasting device it has to shoot beams or waves or whatever that could kill storms. Whatever we settle on I figured it'd be good to get all the brains here. It'd be nice if you came too Truffleclub and Jason. Even if you only come to relax that'd sure be nice for Aashi and it'd be nice for Lyco to get better acquainted with all of you now that she's had some time to get more relaxed."

A towering shadow passed through the lounge as an impossibly lanky figure made it's way towards the interior proper. The locals seemed, if anything, more afraid of Truffleclub now that they chose to wear a custom tailored three piece suit, with a red cloak and a tophat bejangled by dried lemons. Maybe it was the rusted and sandblasted 'shield' of their mushroom visage, still waiting on that chrome job which was continually being put off.

The real purpose of them levitating all the way into the building, however, was to help their distinctly short passenger get up the front stairs. Lycosidae's brown combat body had the head rollcage and robust track unit as always, but her torso was also wrapped in a massively oversized red knit jumper for the occasion, bundling up particularly around the neck and waist.

After placing her down before Akemi, Cloudee ceremoniously bowed to him, and then unceremoniously produced a syringe to jab into the tank girl's upper belly. Another silent bow later, and the giant was off to explore the building again, clearly distracted by the vast glassy construct. Certainly made sense given their current farming obsessions.

"So... Stairs, tall stools, and a massive open tank of water. Three of my favorite things!" Lyco just remarked sarcastically next to the couch, still wincing, rubbing her gut, and fixing her jumper once more. "Oh, and you've met the orange robot, you said? I'm paying them to keep my health in order by sorting out some of those automata bits they got for... That yuletide thing? Whatever that was. Says they are some kind of siblings to it... Parts were all kinds of ages and states, so don't blame them for being confused where to start."

Arccos the Killjoy:

A series of odd replies came to Akemi's message:

Sounds like some sort of trick to me, and I have work to do.

-A23

Click to expand...

Besides, the lighthouse is a communications hub, not a weather machine. None of that will worlksdsagiioag

-grump

Click to expand...

A good ten minutes after the last message a final one came;

Fuckguts, we'll be there in 20.

Click to expand...

About 30 minutes later, the crash of engines outside roared past the towers of the planet, doing a full spin before coming around to the roof of Nath tower. Before long, the room with the party was intruded on by a small automata that looked roughly like a child. Albeit one with a large satellite dish in place of their head. It tottered around looking left and right, making little chirping noises, saying something or other in Sixcog before making a sound like a triumphant bugle toot.

Soon after a procession of about five Freespacers started to file in, several in sealed vacc-suits and only the most cybernetically modified specimens daring the planet's atmosphere. Arccos at the head of them was looking dire, wearing a form-fitting black bodysuit under a dull black coat adorned with brass buckles, and carrying a hefty computer rigged with straps to be carried like a briefcase. A short vac-suit clad 'spacer wearing a patched and re-stitched bomber coat over the whole mess walked alongside her. A cyborg with a blank white metal plate for a face moved along beside them, with another in a suit slumped over her shoulder who was using both the faceless one and an arm crutch for support. The last one seemed to be a tall, marionette-like cyborg dressed in body armor and a straightjacket slung over their shoulders like a cloak; the presence of weaponry in their person seemed to indicate this was probably the retinue's bodyguard of choice.

"Alright. I'm here." Arccos said as much to Aashi and the others, as she did to the people she came with. Her little group starting to split apart and make minor nuisances of themselves.

"My suggestion is that everyone leaves the planet and moves to space. Or lives in a big bubble under the sea." Arccos looked around, eying the various hookahs and baggies, "I was told this was a business meeting."

Corgan didn't get the memo that they were having a party, so he had no idea what was going on. He might not even have shown up if not for the strange sight of Truffleclub carrying the tank girl. Like usual Corgan was hanging out in a bar, chatting with locals and other Ragnarok guys including his Lieutenant. The tall blonde woman was flirting with a handsome local, clearly a noble from his ridiculous colored outfit. The guy looked like a bird he'd heard of a few times that used brightly colored feathers to attract a mate.

Several locals ran into the building talking about a giant mushroom man wearing a suit and a tophat carrying a little girl away. "What the hell have you been drinking?" Corgan called to the two frightened men.

One of the men shook his head no. "Sir, I've not an ounce of booze in me."

After inspecting the man a little more closely, Corgan nodded. "This mushroom you mentioned, was it orange?"

A nod. "Indeed, sir, as orange as the little girl's hair!"

He grinned. "Alright, I think I know what it was. I'll check it out just in case. Which way did you say they were they headed?"

"Toward the tower into the heavens. Is it going to take her away to give to your gods?"

Corgan rolled his eyes. "You locals and your damn superstitions. There are no gods. I guess some of us may look like it to you, but even we are mortal. Anyway, the "mushroom man" is harmless, probably just helping her out." He stood up from his seat at the bar and whistled.

Lieutenant O'Brien turned her head immediately. He pointed outside and motioned for her to gather the men. She nodded and cleared her throat. "Reavers! CO says time's up. Pay for your drinks and let's move out." The woman yelled, her voice cutting through the din of dozens of loud conversations. Even the half drunken soldiers jumped up and saluted sloppily. Not that the sober ones did much better.

Corgan nodded. "That will do, but I expect improvement. We aren't a bunch of thugs, we're part of Ragnarok and USO. It's probably nothing but they spotted Truffleclub carrying a girl. These locals expect us to protect them. Now, follow me."

He walked out the door with O'Brien and twenty soldiers in street clothes trailing behind. The walk to Nath Tower took about thirty minutes. Everyone kept their weapons holstered.

Corgan walked up the stairs to the door and motioned for the Reavers to stay put. "Right, I'm just going through to go in and see what's happening. Don't want to alarm anyone with a bunch of soldiers storming in." He opened the door and walked into the building.

Spotting the decorations, then Truffleclub and the tank girl, he started laughing. He sent O'Brien a message.


A few seconds later they all practically charged into the building and went off in all directions. Corgan sighed and walked up to Arccos and the others. "Being a leader is fucking exhausting." He complained. "Please tell me they have some good shit that'll relax me."

Werner stepped out of the elevator, looking quite different than normal. His normal attire would have consisted of dress blues, beret, and his trenchcoat. Yet today he made a change...

He stepped out the elevator wearing nice formal cloths. A black tuxedo, black tie, white dress shirt, all provided by Aashi on their last trip off world. He didn't even wear his beret, his bald head exposed to the world. All he wore on his face was his square rimmed glasses.

He walked up to Aashi with a slight smile, his cold and calculating demeanor softening as he approached. "Good day Ms.Nath. Like the dress?" He asked as he moved to stand next to her. As her familar glided by, Ulysses held out a hand, letting his finger tips gently brush the manta's back.

It was Groundbreaker Eight-Four's impulse not to attend the party, and if she did attend it, to wear her Voidwalker suit and her helmet, even though enough work had been done in the past month that this was no longer a technical requirement.

Against her better judgement, she'd restrained both impulses. Over her bodysuit, she was wearing a locally-made, undyed, rough-spun cowl dress to avoid making a fashion statement, and wore a medium blue veil over her lower face, the cloth-like garment containing all the microscopic filtration and respiration equipment to breathe easily on this planet, even at such an inconvenient event. Thanks to her cybereyes, she had no need to wear goggles with it. They glittered blue-green, with their pinhole pupils, a rough facsimile of human eyes.

Still, she'd never been equipped to look low-key here, and even in local fashions, her untameable, three-foot long electric blue synthetic hair, glittering silvery skin, the antenna-like ears that sprouted out of the sides of her head in the place of ears with their carbon black finish, and the overall way in which she was built like an aging, athletic supermodel told the story she hadn't wanted to tell this occasion: Groundbreaker Eight-Four, also known as 'Queenie' was an elite member of a very foreign society, and did not have a history of being ashamed to show it.

This wasn't her scene, and the cowl dress, at least, sent the message she was under no pretense of making it so. She moved swiftly to join up with Arccos, as soon as she could make the beeline. She briefly broadcast her full name and identification, to skip the introductions. "It's a social event," she begun to explain, "the local custom is for such things to be 'multi-purpose'.

"I have a somewhat less expensive proposal than mass exodus, or building an undersea civilization."

Nath Tower Lounge

With the party's din growing as more and more entered, Aashi lingered over the festivities with a welcoming smile. She glided a hand over her hip and let it rest atop it as one of her friends approached her.

"I love it," Aashi replied to Ulysses as she studied him in his ensemble. "You are looking as dashing as ever, Ullysses Werner. Is there anybody that you recognize that you'd like to talk to?"

Looking over at Corgan, then to one of her Freespacer companions and then to the various Iromakuanhe goodies loaded around; Arccos gave a sigh. "Well, I'm not your dealer but... If I recall correctly from back when these people were helping us..."

Arccos pointed out to the various drugs on offer. One compound to the next, her voice wavering slightly as she didn't seem exactly sure herself as it had just been so long since this stuff was available to the Free State at large. Her accent saying anything Saalsari was atrocious "There's... Burrah, which is your downer. Slarj-att-kel-on... Something, which is your upper. And Suckra which is your funky drug. I could run sim drugs but if this is a social occasion, most flukes don't like it when you space out at a social venue..."

Turning to Groundbreaker, and giving an appraising up and down of her outfit, Arccos gave a tiny nod of approval.

"I wasn't particularly serious about the solving the problem thing. Most other places on this planet just have to deal with the storms. I don't see why this place is so special as to require any more or less protection than the rest of the world."

Groundbreaker nodded. It was a sign of the times that when someone said something outlandish, she had no way to gauge if they were being serious, here on 188604. She decided to try to explain.

"I'm certain that, as described, the motivation is more to demonstrate power than for any practical purpose. From that angle, this place is only special because it's the imperial seat. Aside from that, though, it is a center of culture and politics, Uso aside, and has a relatively high density of population, industrial development, and attractions for off-world visitors.

Turning her attention away from Arccos, she turned to everyone else involved in the project. "So, if we can get over the impulse to beat the sky into submission, it shouldn't be too difficult to prevent most economic losses caused by the sandstorms in the area, which stem from their adverse effect on willingness to go outside or come to the city at all, as well as wear and tear on local infrastructure and mechanical systems."

"I'm glad you and Truffleclub have already established a good mutually beneficial relationship. At least we've got couches." While Akemi he spoke he reached out to gently rub Lyco's tummy for her.

"I intended a practical purpose," Akemi said as he stood up to float over to Groundbreaker after thoroughly checking out the Freespacers to assess their hotness. "I was also thinking maybe we could do planet wide coverage if we wanted or cover everywhere Uso's and our stuff is. I figure the Lighthouse sounds real powerful so I imagined it could give us wide coverage and just position itself to zap any problems with microwaves or lasers or whatever. Anyway, I gotta say you are smoking hot Celibacybreaker. The things I would do to break ground in that ass. Mmm!" The Neko's words were of course punctuated with a very satisfied smile at the Spacer. He clearly greatly appreciated being in her presence.

Groundbreaker Eight-Four quickly set up a filter that established Akemi as a transparent, vaguely humanoid shadow across her vision, whose words were unintelligible murmurings to her ears. It wasn't his advances that brought this on, as this defence was in place as soon as he started arguing in favour of his original idea, and she was talking over him before he was finished. "No, I don't think so."

Her slave program would let her know if he managed to drift back onto the topic at hand; for now, she turned her attention to the others. "Weather control may show up in a hundred year plan for more land-based agriculture, but what we need now is a defence from sandstorms. This is a much simpler matter."

Lycosidae examined the new spacers cautiously before making her approach. A small smirk was gained over Akemi's physical contact, but this was turning out to be a real potential enemy nest. Dual laser-hand right arm was equipped today due to paranoia as it was. She even had it when hanging around at his place still.

"Is... That you, Codebreaker Arccos?" She asked with a pause, giving both the dish-headed body and the silver-skinned lass in a dress a good looking over. Eventually the ginger-haired thing found it easier just to boot up her mindware briefly to check device identification numbers. "Totally agree with you about planets being a stupid idea. There is just so much pre-existing mess down here. However..."

"Well, any dirt-breathing capitalist primitive can change his atmosphere with enough fossil fuels dumped into the atmosphere. It wouldn't actually be that hard with our tech level, I think, through caramel cat boy's plan needs a couple of extra components." She produced both an audio visual sensory graphic in VR, as well as a more basic diagram written on a loom of paper, for the benefit of the uncyborgized. Boxy track legs annoyingly made it impossible to find a surface low enough to put it down on, through. "Something like the lighthouse which simply dumps microwave heat in the atmosphere is one stage, but what we really need is something that creates clouds, changes the opacity of the sky, on demand. We need areas of cold just as much as heat, and cloud cover is necessary for keeping the heat in the planet anyway."

"Airborne microbes, that is my recommendation. Simple nano devices that self replicate, with a transmitter switch for turning off and on. Call it a voidwalker sun visor, but for the whole planet."

Didn't give out her name just yet. She'd like to know if there were any astral locksmiths in the room at the very least. That woman with the antenna was awfully silver...

Queenie smiled and nodded to Lycosidae, though reviewing her plan for the planet made her very anxious. She shook her head a few times before she was ready to answer consciously. "I... am not getting involved with any efforts to terraform an inhabited planet. I was merely going to suggest we set up a force screen dome over the city that allows the atmosphere to pass through unhindered, but deflects away grit and dust particles. The power requirements for such a large bubble screen would be significant, but much less than for weather control, and the side effects should be minimal, even in case of malfunction."

She'd been hoping to wait for someone to ask about her plan, but... from the sound of it, there could be millions of deaths on her head if she left things be.

"Ah, it's nice you can contribute," Akemi said happily. "Your plan sounds cool. I'm glad you don't think we need to wait a hundred years. We could always do your thing and the force field thing. The way I see it zapping things from space wouldn't require all that much power as we could just get the energy from the sun or whatever and the Lighthouse would just float up there. Plus it's already been made. It shouldn't take a hundred years to modify. The question is whether Arccos would let us use it. But hey, we'd be sticking a giant death ray on it and making it better. I figured we'd help the most people my way. I'm not advocating controlling the weather in general, just detecting and stopping storms instead of trying to endure them."

While everyone spoke Akemi recorded the dialog so he could feed it to Uso and Vier electronically. He also held out his communicator so the two of them could talk through it if they wanted. They could also make themselves seen if they wished as it had volumetric projection capabilities.

"Well, it's nice to know we think alike. Filtering is the key. The problem with that is ease of sabotage, through. Too much reliance on seriously big power plants." Lyco responded to the woman in the blue veil first. Poly port ident wasn't coming up from any organisations she knew of. "What is your name, if you don't mind me asking? What fleet are you from?"

Distracted by the barra leaf. Not being tall enough to reach it was really annoying.

"As for you..." Turning back to Akemi. "How do you suggest we cool things off? This is like, a desert planet. Heating things up is only half the job, isn't it?"

At Akemi's mere existence, Arccos looked to the Freespacer in the tattered bomber-coat and just indicated the Nekovalkyrja as if giving an example, or indicating some sort of scientific specimen of a rare STD. They crossed their arms, before Arccos rolled her eyes. Something going on over a Polysentience connection elicited a jovial slap a cross the arm from them. Through this little Polysentience exchange Arccos spared a moment to look Lycosidae in the eye and give her a nod, confirming that this was indeed Arccos. If not in person, then in proxy.

Of course, all these ideas were different in their own way. Arccos herself was caught on a lot of the implications of them all, a lot of moving gears ticking over in her head before she raised a single finger.

She pointed first to Groundbreaker: "Best idea. Power is more plentiful than raw materials and manufacturing facilities right now."
Second to Lycosidae: "Expensive, but workable with the right materials, nanoforge and precautions. We probably need more meteorological data, though. I doubt you or anyone we know has such expertise."
Third to Akemi: "Shut up."

And at that, Arccos turned on her heel and walked away... And over to Aashi.

"Sorry for crashing your party, Akemi indicated there was some business to attend to but it's been wrapped up; what little there was. Thank you for your hospitality: I'll be taking my people away and leaving you in peace."