RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 1] Welcome to Cloud Nine

Tweak had buried her head behind her knees, folding her arms over top of them and closing her eyes.

Even with all of that, her body was still aware of what was going on around her and her Tactical Operating System was whispering in the back of her mind. Keid and Dream were tagged as "unknown" since her TOS had no log of Freespacers or their affiliations in its database. But friend or foe, it watched everyone. And it was ready to fight them at a moments notice. Tweak let her conscious mind fade and did her best to ignore the TOS and calm herself down.

Dream's story didn't do much to help her. Although it was meant to encourage, all Tweak could think about was that she would be feared and hated wherever people recognized her.

No, that wasn't true. Valen, the officer on the Banning, was kind to her, and he knew what she was. The same went for Kokuten, the medic she had met on the Alliance, and Trey Penton too. Both of them had greeted her as if her species didn't matter. So...if she wasn't attacking them, there were people who didn't care what she was, didn't care what she could do to them as long as she didn't.

The neko smiled to herself and relaxed. Alright. That would be what she would do. She would help people, so then they wouldn't fear her.

Koenig808 said:

Lumbering over to the Freespacer, it bent down, and reached to Tweak with a clenched fist, and...
...Opened it, to poke tweak in the shoulder and reveal a handful of multicolored LEDs. "Take some." It said plainly.

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She lifted her head to see Keid's face appear in front of her as he held out the LEDs. Tweak's dark red eyes seemed to float in the air while the rest of her was invisible to thermal and visible light scanners. Slowly, she released her cloak and faded back into view, reaching out to take a green light and a red light, her lips curling into a half-smile at the large automata, but remained with her knees held against her chest. She didn't want to interact quite yet, but she was feeling a little better.

"Thank you, Keid."

"Oh, she's back online." Dream noted, spinning around in zero-g and trying to get her coat and sleeves, which were all floating in mid-air.

"Damnit, even lightspeed is too slow!" She said then, slamming a weak punch into a wall, practically oozing enthusiasm. "Faster, faster! I wanna be already there! I've got a ton of things to do and a bajillion ideas to work on!" She turned around to face her two passengers. "What are you people going to do on the Cirrus, anyway?"

After passing the initial clearance checks for station docking, the Rucky Stah and the Resplendent Herald of the Star-Winged Smile both drew into the docking bays and were greeted by an excessive amount of harnessing equipment and cargo machinery. Both ships were given a broadcast from the dock control to begin letting their passengers disembark, as many other ships already on the large, extremely busy loading bay were already in the process of accomplishing.

The docking bay was filled with all sorts of colorful individuals working at equally colorful jobs; most of the lighter cargo was being handled by large machine automata, the Cirrus Station’s symbol emblazoned onto their metallic surfaces, while larger, more complex jobs were being handled by uniformed men and women (and others) from every corner of Nepleslia, operating the landing and transport equipment with determined fervor.

Each passenger of the two vessels was ushered off their ships and towards a small terminal kiosk near the entranceway deeper into the massive Cirrus Station. Behind the rather plain white kiosk stood a delightful looking young woman, dressed in simple skirt uniform (also sporting the increasingly common Cirrus Station logo). Her face was very friendly and oddly…generic. Honey-colored hair that fell to her shoulders framing a small face and blue-green eyes. As the soldiers, Freespacers, scientists and other passengers reached her little neck of the woods, she smiled at them and bowed her head slightly.

“Welcome to the Cirrus Research Station! Please, leave your luggage at your feet; we will have them delivered to your quarters. Your ships have arrived slightly behind schedule, as Head Administrator Cassefin Montreal has already begun her orientation to the newly arrived science crew. Do not worry, however,” the young woman beamed at the worried looks on the scientists present in the group. “You have not missed anything too important, and the Security team orientation is schedules for after the scientist’s orientation.”

“So, if you would all please follow me,” she said, stepping out of the kiosk and clacking briskly on her white heeled shoes, “we shall get you all on your way to the betterment of Nepleslia and her allies.”

"I'm...um...not really sure, actually," replied Tweak to Dream's question. "I was given the transfer but the didn't assign me to any specific project, I don't think. Nothing that is in my notes, at least..."

At that moment the ship docked. It appeared that Dream's complaint about light speed being too slow made it speed up...

"Ok, good. You're in MY project now." Said Dream as the door opened. It wasn't a request, nor it was an order. It was a statement, just like saying "tomorrow space will be black, with white stars all over it".

She jumped out, overenthusiastic. "Let's go, people! Destiny awaits!" She shouted.

With the shouting on Dream's part, Keid was once again "awoken" from inactivity, curled up slightly in the corner of the shuttle while they traveled to the Cirrus. With his LED lights pulsing from color to color to signify his systems starting up, the heavy Automata picked up it's bag of supplies and walked through the door, taking note to tear a piece of hair out of the prime candidates in the area.

Picking up the kiosk-designated woman's words, the Automata simply bent down, picked up Dream and Tweak and placed them on it's shoulders and hurried as fast as it could towards the main group, stepping on several feet and knocking several people over in it's way.

Lucius stood promptly, hefting a large green knapsack over his shoulder. He started to exit the craft and as he passes Stromm he stopped, one or two people running into his back. He gave a quick glance back at them and scowled, the majority of them backing up. He returned his gaze to Stromm. His face was a little stony as he stared at the huge man.

"Chill."

He said simply and quietly before heading out. As the person at the counter spoke to everyone he sat idly and glanced around, not seeming to pay much attention. He just needed to know where to go and when. As she instructed them to leave their luggage, Lucius completely ignored it, keeping his knapsack over his shoulder. When the woman started down the hallway, Lucius quickly followed, elbowing a few of the slower witted prospective scientists and security guards out of the way.

Cyril breathed a sigh of relief when the Stah set down in the docking bay without further incident. Apparently, the truculent sergeant decided that Cyril's fellow FNG was below his notice. For which Cyril was very grateful.

Hoisting his bag to his shoulder with his mechendrite, Cyril joined the stream of soldiery slowly shuffling to the exits. Chatting aimlessly with his now fellow station dwellers, he made steady progress toward the lock with judicious application of elbow and tentacle. Reaching the top of the boarding stair, Cyril savoured the change from the dense fug of so many people crammed into a small space to the faintly metallic tang of station air.

As he was carried along in the throng, making slow headway through truculent marines and rather more malleable scientists, Cyril took in the cavernous docking bay. The space was larger then even the main docking bay back home, and only one of several, as he understood it. And whereas the bay at HH Hab-3 hadn’t seen an overhaul in decades, this space had, to him at least, an almost palpable sense of ‘newness’ to it.

Edging past an absolute junker of a starship landed next to his transport and dodging around a group of stevedores arguing furiously over an overturned pallet of something-or-other, he found himself shoulder to shoulder with the Tech. Sentry who had almost caused the spot of bother on the Rucky Stah. Reaching around with his mechendrite to prod one of the eggheads in front of him into motion, he spoke up to the woman.

“Nice o’ you to try’n stand up to tha sarge like that, but, eh, don’t try that again anytime soon, yeh?”

The sergeant ignored her. He had to have heard her, but he never turned around. Slowly, Keziah uncoiled, relaxing her self and easing back into her seat. But no sooner had she sat down that the docking announcement sounded. She grabbed her duffel from the lap of the marine she had shoved it into, and waited silently as the transport docked and everyone started going off. She got off last, not counting the marine with the impacted nose.

Slinging her bag across her back, she gripped the strap at her shoulder and shrugged along with the rest of the new arrivals. Her eyes curiously wandered for a moment, but all the movement reminded her of every port she had ever been in--except for the large number of automata, she had seen one or two before, but never so many in one place.

The Freespacer shuttle that had docked nearby was... recognizable as a 'Spacer craft. If only because there wasn't any way, at all, it could be mass-produced. The shuffle of bodies kept her moving, and she only had a passing glimpse of the craft when a man's voice cut through to her ears.

She kept walking, but focused on the Tech with the... tail. "I'm not afraid of a broken nose," she said, shifting her duffel around. "Not right that he should get away with it."

James exited the shuttle and walked along with everybody else through the unimaginably huge docking bay. He felt like cattle being forced to the slaughter. He wasn't sure why his analogy was so ominous, but the entire place definitely had that sort of feel about it. It was as if the marines were nameless masses that had arrived to serve one dark and foreboding purpose.

But James' wasn't paid to speculate, he was paid to fight, or work, depending on what the situation called for. Either way, he was intent on doing whatever he needed to do to get through this.

After a few yards James and the other marines and automata came to an abrupt stop in front of a small kiosk that resembled a check-in station. The woman standing there welcomed them and ordered the marines to leave their luggage where it was. James' did so willingly, but several others refused and apparently decided that it would be better to lug it around until they found their quarters.

The woman at the kiosk then left the kiosk and motioned for everybody to follow her towards what he assumed would be briefing. James muttered silently to himself,

"This will be interesting"

Cyril flashed the other Tech a grin as they advanced through the mob. It looked like they were coming to wherever it was that they were suppose to be going right now, judging from the number of people milling around aimlessly in front of them.

"Oh, aye, he shan’t in a just galaxy. But two important considerations. One, going at it alone is just gonna make more work for the rest o' us, an' Two, t'ain't exactly a just galaxy in my experience."

Cyril came to a halt toward the back of the mob, the young woman at the kiosk little more then a blond head floating over the troopers ahead of him. Cyril nudged the marine infront of him to the side with his free hand and tried to get a better look.

“To my way o’ thinking, the way to go about it is to make some friends ‘ere, wait for him to get some leave, and then have the posse follow along and beat the shit out of him dirtside.”

He glanced over from their host, just beginning to speak, and extended her a chromed hand.

“Name’s Sevyn by the way. Cyril Sevyn, Tech Sentry, Third Class.”

His accent was interesting. Hard to place, but somewhat familiar. It was refreshing to the clipped military tongues she had been listening to for years. Easy to listen to amidst the chatter around them, and the soft shuffle of feet.

She gripped his obviously metal hand with her camouflaged one, giving him half a smile. "Keziah Dells. Third class tech." Her eyes snapped away from him to the greeting woman, her smile gone.

"You're not serious, are you?" She pulled her duffel higher up her shoulder, using the movement to drop his hand and take a subtle half-step backwards. "Wait." The corners of her mouth started to inch upwards. "You thought I was going to hit him?"

"Neh?"

Tweak was puzzled by Dream's statement (and wondering what sort of project Dream was planning on making), but she didn't have much time to ponder those mysteries before she found herself grabbed around the waist one moment and astride the shoulder of the Warmonger the next. She barely had enough time to snatch her duffel from the pipe on which it had weathered the journey before Keid began his attempt at parting the sea of incoming personnel in the docking bay.

Once she was sure that she had her duffel in her possession once more, Tweak checked her bandanna to make sure her ears were hidden before relaxing a little bit. The neko's natural balance kept her from falling, and, once she was settled, her dark red eyes took the opportunity to get a sense of her new environment. From atop the massive automata Tweak could see over the numerous heads around her and her Freespacer friends, and couldn't help but smile from her advantageous vantage point.

So this is Cirrus, she thought, fervently hoping that she could find something that would be worthwhile to do here.

"YEE-HAW!" Shouted Dream from atop Keid's shoulders, waving her fist around over-enthusiastically, just like a little kid playing. "HERE WE COME!!"

Cheza watched as everyone unloaded onto the Shuttle Bay and even though she was dieing to get off the shuttle she waited for most everyone to leave before existing herself. Once out of the shuttle she glanced around at everyone talking while other worked, she barely even noticed the young woman infront of them until she started talking. 'Interesting' she thought, 'what a cute uniform.'

Leaving her luggage at her feet she stood and awaited orders ... or at least something to do. She wasn't one to talk to those she didn't know. Looking around for a little while longer she took note of how many Marines there were. 'Hmm, most be some important stuff on this Station if they need this many of us for a Science Fair.'

Cyril raised an eyebrow as he shrugged his duffel to the ground. He fell in beside Kaziah as the crowd began moving again. He hadn't really caught what the woman had said, but he had gotten enough cues from what he did hear, and what the marines and scientists around him were doing, to figure out what they were supposed to be doing. He did dip into his pack with his mechendrite to pull out a slightly battered pack of Nepelisian Greens.

"You weren't? Mad Prophet take me, I'd never've guessed. Too much a yard-dog I suppose."

He took the pack of cigarettes from his tail and stuffed them in his trouser pocket.

"No offense meant, mind. If'n you don't mind me asking, what were you planning?"

A part of her wanted to obey orders and leave her duffel on the ground, along with everyone else's. Except, she had no identifiers on her stuff. Except for the golden Dells stitched onto one side, but she doubted that she was the only one named Dells on the entire station. And she knew just how easily things got lost in transit, perfection of machinery and scanning equipment or not, things always went missing.

So she kept it on her shoulder and lugged it forward, keeping up with the rest of the crew and keeping Cyril at her side.

"I dunno." She tilted her head to the side. "Depends on how he would've reacted." She looked down at him, her head barely moving. "If he hit me like the other marine, I wouldn't have ran, that's for sure."

As the young uniformed lady led them through the bleach-white corridors, she remained relatively silent, save for a few questions some of the newly-arrived scientists were querying her with. As a few moments of travel passed, however, the hallway’s left wall broke and formed a large, elaborate open doorway, which the young woman stopped at momentarily and ordered all of the pre-appointed scientists into with a calm gesture and delicate smile.

Any marine who could’ve peered through the doorway would’ve caught a grand sight. The doorway opened into the Main Station’s Grand Atrium…and it was indeed grand, in all sense of the word. A large, circular room, multi-tiered with rings of railed walkways circling around the center, while long colorful banners bearing the flags of several different species hung freely from the ceiling dome, cascading downwards. The railways walkways and walls were decorated lavishly with a green shrubbery and vegetation maintained in neat little growth areas, adding a sense of serenity in contrast to the start white walls and walkways.

The upper walkways that ringed the Grand Atrium were absolutely packed with white-coated scientists, clamoring silently as they nudged for better views of the center of the room, which was occupied from top to bottom by a large volumetric image-display system. Suddenly, a female voice could be heard loudly above the crowd, no doubt continuing a rousing speech being given to all of the scientist staff. Currently, the image on the screen was an elaborate inside-view of what had to be a Five-Star Hotel suite, complete with fireplace, lounge sofas and enormous videoscreens.

“You and your peers will enjoy luxurious living accommodations, with all the comforts of home and more, each room hand-tailored to fit your requirements for maximum efficiency. At Cirrus Research Station, we care about you and your well-being, as you are the ones who will be shaking the known world, creating and discovering, building and learning!”

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Quite suddenly, an object flew in and out of visual perception from the Nepleslian soldiers, obscured by the end of the doorway. The volumetric display continued to change, matching the strong-willed voice of the speaker as she pressed on.

“Your stay here on Cirrus Research Station will save lives, ladies and gentlemen. We will uncover great things here that will aid in the prosperity for all nations and people. Through you-“

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Before any more could be heard, however, the young woman in the lovely white and blue uniform coughed to grab their attention, bowing lightly as the group turned their attention to her again. With the scientists gone, their numbers had greatly dwindled.

“The person speaking to our esteemed guests is Head Administrator Cassefin Montreal. She has prepared a special presentation for you all, as you will be handling a much more important area of the station. If you would please follow me, Miss Montreal will be giving you this presentation a few decks below.”

The honey-blonde haired woman smiled softly, waiting a moment to make sure everyone understand, then turned and pressed on to the elevator systems.

"Whaaaat?" Moaned Dream, still perched atop Keid's shoulders, pulling a long face. "This is boooooooooooooring. Can't you just tell us what we need to know without all this walking around and wasting time and stuff?"

The uniformed lady turned and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, ma'am...but Head Administrator Cassefin Montreal wished to personally address you and your peers, to explain your very important positions in detail, and to answer any questions you might have. It is only a short walk to the designated debriefing area...please bear with me a moment long."