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RP Expanding Horizons: Nephis Nights

Whisper

Retired Staff
RP Date
Late YE41
RP Location
SX-02 "Nephis" System
Third planet, Daichi
Arcadia


The burgeoning settlement of Arcadia had been established swiftly by the new colonists. Their ships had landed, repurposed, and stripped for parts and supplies over the first few days. It was clear that improvements to the colonization process were in order - the settlement was hardly efficient with all the time spent entering and exiting ship hulls, running thick conduits from one ship to the other, and the general mess of trying to get things sorted out.

Still, it was a new home with new opportunities. The colonists proved to be a hardy, resourceful bunch that were eager to establish a toehold on the planet. Daichi welcomed them in, lacking the massive beasts and harsh environs that Sirris VI was known for. Lush plant life, a pleasant atmosphere, and abundant fresh water added to the settlers' optimism.

All in all, things had been going better than expected.

***
Part research squad, part hunting party, the group of three men and women had been carefully making their way through the forest near Arcadia for the last few hours. Tensions were much lower than they had been the first few times the trip had been made. There had been no poisonous plants or terrifying beasts so far and it seemed as though it was going to remain that way.

"Just when I was getting used to all the orange foliage back on Sirris VI," muttered one of the men.

A playful shove from one of the group's two women got a smile in response. "If you can get used to orange, then I'm sure you can handle green and blue."

"I guess," replied the man. He reached out, taking gentle hold of a large frond in one gloved hand. Faint lines of blue seemed to be etched into its surface, sparkling as they caught the light. He released it and they continued to walk.

"What's on the list for today?" asked the woman.

They all had access, but the others recognized the question for the conversation starter it was meant to be. The other woman pulled it up with her Geist, setting the text in the periphery of her vision.

"Looks like they want one of the small ground birds we've spotted, as well as a sapling of one of the larger trees. Both intact and healthy, if possible. Domestication experiments, maybe?"

"Maybe," replied the woman who had asked. The small birds were chubby things that seemed ill able to protect themselves from harm. The planet's distinct lack of larger predator species seemed to be working in their favor. A quiet rumble from the woman's stomach brought a sheepish grin to her face. "Just wondering if they taste like chicken."

"Alright, alright. Let's find a game trail and see what we can do. Mary, do your thing. Sweet, you're on watch."

"I told you I don't like that nickname," muttered the man.

The woman grinned at him. 'Sweet' had gotten covered in about twenty pounds of water and sugar during the battle in the Vale system. Sweet just shook his head at her and returned to watching the woods near them for any signs of a threat.

***
Hathen Tral, the colony's current 'mayor', was addressing the NDC's collected military force. It was mostly minor updates of the day's activities.

"... setting up power generation continues to move at a snail's pace. Our engineers recommend that we look into setting up some kind of prefab housing unit for future colonization efforts, instead of relying on ship dismantling. It works, but is very time consuming. Even with the lessons learned from setting up Obsidian City."

He shuffled his papers, coming to the next item.

"Inspections of the local flora and fauna are going well. The colonists are doing well to stay inside the quarantine zone until we've had a chance to confirm that the local woods are safe. That said, people are starting to get antsy to explore. Reports keep coming back about how safe things are and it's getting harder to tell people that it's in their best interests to stay within the perimeter."

Hathen rubbed at his short beard, looking up to consider the NDC forces present. The majority of the military was stationed in the skies above, so Hathen knew that these few men and women were largely here to keep them safe and maintain order. With the lack of external threats, he worried that they might be withdrawing soon.

"Well, that's about it. Any questions?"
 
Thorn considered the information, her ship currently in a low polar orbit photographing and mapping the surface, looking for any indication they weren't alone. "Please tell me the local fauna's better tasting than Sirrus pack roaches. Got to admit, this is a pretty world. Oracle's gathering all the information it can. Should be coming to your comms as soon as she gets it. I'll see if I can get somebody to swing you folks some more satellite coverage, if you need it."
 
Third planet, Daichi
Arcadia

Nyx soared across the skies, her quad wings working and causing her to hear something akin to a heartbeat as the wings flapped keeping the Gynoid airborne as she scouted around keeping her mechanical eyes open to look for danger. Already she could see a lack of massive creatures, making Daichi an ideal planet to settle on.

The material of her body was picked up by various scanners, especially Oracles. The Gynoid princess crossed the area where a member of the Mining Guild was located, scanning a rock formation with their Mineral scanner. She could see the assigned soldiers guarding them and her Geist picked up on the signal. Already the Mineral Scanner was picking up on metal ore, and some gems.

“I can easily tell you that, I took a bite out of one of the cooked Fauna, and that thing was loads more delicious than a pack roach. I tried it with and without seasoning and sauce. Tell them you want Sample-1833, that’s the one.” she replied to Thorn. She then switched to all comms. “This is Nyx Pine, so far I have not seen or even heard any sight of the massive creatures that inhabit Sirris VI But I am still keeping a lookout. “ She said wanting to report in.
 
Third planet, Daichi

"Nomad to all, no signs of any massive predators down here, at least land bound. Waterwise, might be a different story, we may want to get some good scans in the oceans, maybe ROVs if we can. Might be interesting to see what they pick up..."

Aztec had been assigned with a small survey party that had gone to most of the lakes and rivers nearby the colonist's settlement.

"The fishing though, I've gotta say, i'm officially jealous. Wait until you get a mouthful of some of the samples we're bringing back!" he finished, a bit of laughter and a faint "hell yeah!" could be heard in the background, as the vehicle had a more powerful transmitter than Aztec's armor's comm.

S6S- Valiant
In orbit above Daichi


They were avoiding her. Katja sighed as she climbed out of the simulator. She, like everyone of the surviving pilots, had been reassigned to another squadron to replace their losses. While Talon wasn't the only squadron that took losses during the fight to clear out the pirates, it was the only one that had been wiped out during it. Well, all except her, obviously.

And because of that "sole survivor" stigma, she'd been avoided by the other surviving pilots, as if associating with her would somehow lead to their demise. Her ears flattened in annoyance at that thought. What kind of nonsense was that, anyway?

Throughout Hydra's practice's debrief, she could feel it, from the way none of her new squadmates sat next to her, to how they mostly avoided her comments, to how quickly they cleared out of the squadroom afterward....inside, it hurt. What could she have possibly done to change what had happened?

The equine pilot changed out of her flightsuit, hanging it in her locker under her helmet, changing into a sport top and shorts, heading out toward the gym. If nothing else, she'd be able to work out her frustrations.....
 
To many the wilderness was a realm of primordial, unknown things but to Zvraciek it was as familiar and welcoming as concrete roads and air conditioned rooms. It simpy played by a different set of rules for a different kind of person. Civilization, at least as how these people understood it, was a tiring and oftentimes illusory thing draped in too many layers of obligation and mechanization. For all the machinery both living and synthetic within his dense carapace, he did not feel much of it as he crept along the muddy leaf-covered ground, instead focusing on the teeming realm of boneless and swarming life forms creeping over and under his body and the rancid, borderline suffocating reek of accumulating decay and rot in the marsh. Every scent was its own pathway, trailing through the reeds, murk, and mud to the promise of potential prey or to the various crevices and burrows his numerous eyes viewed as mere repositories and hideouts waiting to be taken.

As an officer in the NDC, he had his privileges and connecting with instincts and needs unknown to his comrades is part of what kept his mind sharpened in conflict. Taking his designated time off to stalk the local wildlife was his form of "extracurricular" training. Already he had made his mark known, wresting carcasses from the large flat-bodied arthropods and stealing another from some six legged furry mammal. His own internal colonies of augmentative organisms would be the ones doing the tasting and analysing however, breaking down and digesting skin, hair, innards, and fluids in order to relay the chemo-nutritional composition to the various little nanomachine networks and cognition-organs throughout his body. He was as much a vile predator of this murky realm as he was an honest scientist with his laboratory being the stomachs of the denizens occupying his towering form.

Slowly, he slid into the water and all that was left of his traces were lengthy trench-cuts in the ground from his pointed limbs and curving claws.
 
Sam listened half-heartedly to the Mayor's speel from atop a nearby, hastily-erected, guard tower. His shift was over but the pale beauty had decided he may as well stay up here a few more minutes while the armed forces were updated, his thankful replacement handing the slim hired gun a bolt-action rifle with a low-power, scout-style scope. That rifle though laid rested up against the inside of Samuel's little perch as he opted to fiddle with his empty sidearm, flicking the mechanism open and shut a few times to ensure he'd cleaned it correctly and that there'd be no malfunctions should he need to use it.

It was good news, boring news but good news. He was getting paid even if nothing rushed out of the undergrowth with its claws and fangs bared, and honestly he should have been happy but the idle work let his mind wander to dark places...

Sam snapped himself back to the present, the slim man rolling his shoulders and rested a hand on his left one, gently pushing those slender fingers into his back to soothe the dull, throbbing pain that had returned with his memories. Mr Castor was not a man of faith nor superstition, but bad things tended to follow when he felt this way.

"Fresh food sounds good~" he muttered to no-one in particular, Sam reaching for his hat before the ushanka was dropped lazily onto that dirty-platinum hair.

"Not food that has been kept fresh... but actually fresh food, you know?" Sam shrugged before loading up his revolver, snapping it shut and shoving the compact thing deep into its holster, rugged little thing situated on the left side of his vest's abdomen for quick access.

Maybe a storm was just brewing on the horizon~
 
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Freethinker Toji 13-1732-3472 or just "Toji" was part of the science team, specifically in the area of geology. As much as flora and fauna had to be cataloged, the rocks and earth had to be monitored as well. It'd be pretty awful to settle on top of potential sinkholes, and mining couldn't be a reality without someone finding the ores. Toji and his three other bodies had wandered off from the group, if there even was a group, to explore something that caught his interest.

If the rock was even remotely shiny, he'd stow it away in a small pouch. If it was too big, he'd chisel a small chunk off. All the while he would mapping everything using his handy-dandy device, as well as using an ore scanner to mark any found veins on his map. He also had his long-range comms tuned to any open frequencies. If something exciting was to be found, he was going to be first. Well... second. Maybe third.

Despite wandering off, he wasn't too concerned. He had... some... weapons. Enough to fend off any stray wild animals at least. Besides, he could easily find his way home.
 
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The mayor laughed good naturedly at the question about the food and the other's response. He nodded. "I've been hearing the same. Good food, abundant resources.. it sounds like we're very fortunate!"

He clasped his hands and looked about. "Please, everyone, do enjoy what we're bringing in! Fill those bellies. Arcadia is happy to have you and your support."

With that, he dismissed the crowd. The colonists who had come to see what the fuss was about went their various ways got back to work.

As the group dispersed, a few hunters could be overheard chatting to themselves.

"All the beasts 'round here are downright docile. I don't think they've ever seen a predator."

The others agreed. One of them was frowning, which prompted a question from the others.

"Well, normally I'd agree - but I came across one of the shaggy, docile ones up river. Something seemed off about it and when we got close it went crazy. Not like - territorial, you know? And then ..."

The others patted him on the shoulder and they began to wander off, continuing the conversation as they went.

"Barbecue!" called out one of the colony's cooks. A bell was rung, announcing to all that food was ready. In the pleasant weather, tables had been setup next to a large pit fire. Plates of pulled and sliced meat were laid out for any who wanted to partake, with a handful of sauces that the entrepreneurial chefs had put together from ration pouches and basic cleaning supplies.

***
Toji's initial research yielded mostly normal results. His ore scanner helped him identify a number of nearby mineral veins in the hills and mountains nearby. A large number of caves and underwater rivers wormed their way through the ground and occasionally opened to the surface. The caves seemed to be filled with something that wasn't ore, but the scanner wasn't familiar enough to give a confident reading.

Faint electronic noise in the atmosphere caused static to play dully across his open comms. Many of the other settlers had taken to filtering it out by this point, assuming that it was a byproduct of the planet's aurora borealis-like light shows that lit up the night sky periodically.

***
Mary, Sweet, and the other explorer continued to wander through the woods, taking notes of what they saw.

"Do you think this is a young planet, maybe?" Mary mused, watching a trio of the chubby bird things walk by without giving them a second glance. "Most everything we've seen so far is either a scavenger or an herbivore."

Sweet reached out and lifted one of the birds, which gave him an annoyed look and tried to keep walking mid-air. "Could be," he said, watching the creature for a moment before setting it down. It waddled its way over to its friends, who had been waiting for it, and together they disappeared between the trees. "Maybe they're just not sure what to make of us? Everything on Sirris VI is out to kill you, but they're also out to kill each other. We're just one more thing on the menu. I think we just don't register as threats to any of the creatures on Nephis, yet."

"Maybe we can keep it that way?" said the unnamed woman. The other two nodded in response.

"That would be nice. Imagine not having to worry about the kids getting snapped up by a -"

There was a tumble as Sweet fell into a small crevice. Fallen limbs and thick leaves had covered the rocky crack in the ground; if he'd been paying more attention he likely would have seen it.

"Sweet?!" the other two yelled, rushing over to where he had disappeared.

A man's groaning voice could be heard, along with a sound like digging your hands through a bucket of Legos. "I'm alright! I'm not sure if my body or my ego is more bruised, but I'm alright. I think I did a number on the inside of this hole though."

The other two exchanged a look as they pulled back the leaves. As light entered the crevice, it hit thousands of small crystals of every color. Rainbows lit up the rocky surface and the body of Sweet as he tried to stand back up without doing any more damage to the beautiful scene within.

They helped him get out of the hole after he'd had a chance to take some samples and pluck out the crystals that had been lodged into the skin of his hands and cheeks during the tumble. Mary laughed at him, saying that it looked like he'd had a bad shave, but they all agreed that he was fortunate not to be more hurt.

"Maybe we should start calling you 'Crystal', Sweet?" teased one.

The man groaned. The last thing he needed was a new name based on something else he'd been covered in. "If I have to pick? I'll stick with Sweet."
 
Toji didn't bother trying to filter out the static on the comms. If anything, it was a clue to the nature of the planet. Would it increase or decrease depending on his position? Was there a source beyond the colors in the sky? Was this just a total waste of time? Either way, Toji tried as best he could to keep track of any variance within the static, though between not being equipped to measure such a phenomenon and his constant distractions, it wouldn't be surprising if he didn't find anything useful.

The caves were of most interest to Toji. He made sure to take what samples he could of the mystery material, along with a few pictures. He couldn't resist posing in a few of them, even stacking himself with his other bodies in one picture. It did strike Toji odd that the ore scanner couldn't get a solid reading on... whatever this was. He briefly wondered if this was even natural. After all, most precious metals were the same planet to planet, as everything once was forged within the heart of a star. Was this a new phenomenon, or was someone here before? Or was he just an idiot? Er... preferably not the last one.

Toji wasn't sure how deep the caves went, or if he would lose radio contact within, so he made sure to send out a cheery message and his coordinates before he went deeper in.

"This is Freethinker Toji, your local geologist. Heading inside a mysterious cave with unknown materials. If I don't respond within an hour, I am probably dead. Please send someone to pick up my pieces. Thaaanks!"

Then he marked the entrance of the cave on his map, clicked on a light, and began to delve deeper into the dark.
 
"Loud and clear, Freethinker. I have you on sensors." Thorn's voice gave its curt response. "Lemme know what you find while I try to figure out this static."

Now came Thorn playing signal analyst, separating out the static and analyzing it to see if it was an intrusive signal or something more benign.
 
Zeke was standing by as he overlooked the field of freighters turned colony ships being disassembled for their parts. Most would be used to build infrastructure, while whatever was left, would be used to put together important structures and limited housing. However, with the NDC's technology, wooden structures of various purposes could be rapidly built with relative ease. It was soft, and easily processed, and plentiful. Stone could even be used to help make more important structures, such as meeting halls, meal halls, long houses, and maybe if he was lucky...a mead hall. A place these stressed colonists could gather to drink, celebrate, unwind, and remeber those lost at Vale.

He would be more then glad to help these people, his chain straight on his mech sufficient to harvest wood, his M3's weapons probably overkill for the average wildlife here. Maybe there was still a chance of pirates though, this system indeed, had been left unattended for a decent period of time. That all being said, it had a bright future ahead for it under the NDC. With everything quiet, the spikey blonde flyboy kicked his boots up on his control console, his geist could handle any minor controls he needed to do probably. He wasn't a slouch, but being tense only slows you down when it counts in his experience.


Meanwhile, having just arrived on the valiant from her transport before it landed with the others, Seara shouldered her rucksack. The mercenary blonde had her long blonde locks in a ponytail, something that made her giggle given her betroved. Given things were quiet, Seara had a good idea where her love would be, and that was the gym. Dressed in a tanktop with her plate carrier vest over it, a hoodie worn on top of it all. Her BDU pants quietly swished against her boots, the battery packs and pistol mags clinking lightly on her webbing and vest. She sat the supplies laiden pack down by the door with a thud as she entered. Fixing her hoodie from riding over the medical buttpack on the back of her waist that her long knife hung in it's sheath from.

Seara walked up, whatever equipment Katja was using being a bit louder then her, just taking the oppurtunity to lean against the wall in view where she would be seen. Seara gave her pony girl a wink, "Hey flygirl, the kids are missing their mother, got Sonia to look after them. Heard there was some action at Vale, I miss anything good?"
 
Nyx smiled as she heard over the radio from her comrades and the colonists. “Delicious fish Nomad, you better be telling the truth here, I’m going to start craving because of the hype. “ The N3 said through the radio though her voice was joking in tone. Her flight took her over to the explorers where she saw one fell into a hole. This forced her to land to see if she needed to help, but he appeared to be alive, nothing threatening. “Sweet isn’t his last name?” she asked for confirmation from the tone of the other explorers, as she tried to help the others to get him out of the hole, before she looked at the crystal, and noted some appeared beautiful.

She heard Toji on the radio, and since everything seemed fine in this area, she took off flying. The explorers can mark the location of the crystals for later. Freespacers weren’t in abundance so she was worried about his safety. She’d also heard from the Mining Guild rep who’d also found a cave, and had gone in. Maybe if these caves were connected the rep and freethinker would meet up.

She landed close by Zeke. “Hello Uncle Zeke,” she said not at all breathless as some Elysians might have been having flown quite a bit by that moment. her voice in the communications devices he’d have close by.
 
S6S Valiant
Isabelle waited in the bridge of the Valiant, mostly overseeing the ship and making sure the colonization was going well. She had still been pondering about the attack, wondering if the pirates might come back and try to retaliate later. The colonists were probably safe from them for now, at least.

Third planet, Daichi
Arcadia

Chlorate stood on the ground in her android body, looking up to the sky. The electronic noise coming from the planet's atmosphere was odd. She'd been standing there for quite a while like a car in park or a deactivated machine, because she wasn't sure what else to do. She wanted to investigate the strange interference. Her servos whirred and her feet clanked as she started to walk, their metal soles having left firm imprints in the ground where they were standing from being there so long. Using her sensors, she attempted to find out where the noise was coming from by moving and detecting in which direction it was getting ever so slightly more intense.
 
S6S Valiant
Katja lost herself in her routine, letting her stress bleed out as she ran, though her ears perked at a very familiar voice. Her eyes lit up as she saw Seara across the gym, a big grin splitting her muzzle. "Seara!" she cried, genuinely overjoyed at seeing her lover here. She hopped off the treadmill, crossing the gym floor, giving Seara an enthuastic bear hug. "Equus, it's great to see you! I've missed you all as well, I hope to get home soon. When did you get here?" the equine pilot asked, clearly overjoyed at seeing the mercenary.

Third planet, Dachi
Aztec

"Believe me, the hype is real! It's going to absolutely ruin what little is left of pack roach for you though, fair warning!" Aztec joked. After the initial clearing out of the pirates, the time since had become one of those rare moments, the kind where trouble takes a backseat, where hope becomes an almost tangible thing. This was what the "good times" from that old saying were, and the veteran soldier knew from experience, you held onto them as long as you could.

Rihanna
Building a settlement from nothing was a novel experience for her, Rihanna mused. While it fortunately didn't have the desperation of keeping failing machines and life support systems running with scrap in no better condition than the parts they were replacing, the construction brought a new set of challenges on its own. As Serenity was meant to be a mostly self contained ship, it had served a key part of the early expansion from the initial colony ship's landing area, serving as everything from a power generator to a shelter, in addition to her normal repair work. As had her owner, the past few cycles had seen her almost as much in demand as her ship.

Now, though there was no shortage of work ahead, her schedule had somewhat normalized, and Rihanna had found herself with some downtime, as the converter job she'd helped set up had taken a lot less time to finish than she'd expected. The dark haired mare was seated in the shade of Serenity's main bay, mug of hot tea in one hand, taking in the view of the growing settlement of Arcadia
 
Third Planet, Daichi
Sweet would feel the sting of all these little pricks, but nothing painful, his gear keeping him mostly protected. The crystals were so small to being like barely even slivers in the small vial he placed them in as he extracted them with a bit of help from Mary, the other woman only giggling at his mishap still. It took a few minutes, but all seemed to be pulled, Mary dropping her tweasers into the vial in case that needed to be looked at too. "Thanks, and great, now my face and hands are going to sting like paper cuts all day.", Sweet groaned as he gave another examination of his hands.

"Oh stop your whining ya big baby, besides, you've had much worse while we've been out hunting before.", Mary replied with a thumb to his forehead, eliciting yet another giggle from their third member. The no named, gave Sweet a firm pat on the back before continuing to walk, "Come on, we're burning daylight, and I want to see if you find any more holes."

Sweet gave a grumble to both of them, "Gee thanks."


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The colonist began to feast on the meat of the locally hunted wildlife, the people marry and enjoying the almost paradise world they seemed to have found. To think Yamatai had given up such a pristine world, was almost funny, but made sense as the war had gone on in the sector. Despite the fact it was now uninhabited save for the wildlife and recently arrived NDC colonist, there were bound to be a couple abandoned settlements somewhere. With the months that followed their abandonment, there was no telling what this world had seen in the absence of a higher power.


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Toji would find the cave peaceful, even in this tucked away opening to the deeper world, small bat like creatures hanging from the ceiling and stalagcites in groups and bundles, snoozing. As he made his way further in however, the same crystals that Sweet and his compatriots came across, would begin to be seen in increasing number. They sparkled somehow even down here, as if lighting the darkened path ahead for the little freespacer, a rainbow of specks embedded in the walls. Some were even beginning to form into almost slight veins in the rock even, rarely peaking from the surface layer in a few spots.


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Zeke gave a little hum until Nyx perched herself on his mech, giving a slight smile to hear from his sort of niece. "Hello Nyx, they got you running around doing errands for the colonists? Don't overwork yourself like your old man kiddo, or like your uncle here either haha.", Zeke answered keying the comm the old fashion way, just enjoying to press buttons sometimes instead of easying it all with his implant. A mechanized hand raised to give a two finger salute to the princess with his mech Onyx, the black and red machine standing sigil with weapons that would prove useful for helping build the colony here.


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NDV-VALIANT
"About an hour ago, arrived on a Hammer transport. Here to help earn some more pay, gotta pay the bills and feed the kids. Sonia and Adi can definitely look after the kids for a week, or two. Besides, I can not stay sitting in that apartment all day, just empty without you with me and the kids. Plus you know me, I get stir crazy, figure I might as well do my job and have an excuse to come see you.", Seara answered as she embraced her fiance in kind, squeezing the equestrian woman before copping a quick rear feel with a wink. She gave that pegasus of a woman a deep kiss that showed just how much she missed her. "I'm glad everything must have turned out okay at Vale, I heard there was an engagement and I got worried."
 
Caves
Mining Guild Representative
Nicola Walker

Nicola walked through the caves, calmly her light shining the way as she did to give some illumination though she needn’t do so soon by the crystal’s light. “Fascinating was the only thing she’d say periodically as her Mineral Scanner scanned the walls and the crystals for the composite make up. She turned a corner where she’d ended up encountering Toji. She blinked in surprise, and nodded to him. “this place is fascinating, the crystals emit light, I’d love to do some extensive scans when we return>’ said the artificial human.
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Zeke’s Onyx Mech
The Gynoid Princess
Nyx Pine

Nyx grinned at her uncle, and nodded her head, she agreed though she was a Gynoid, overworking was still a concern for her as well as anyone. “I’ve mostly been flying around, checking up on people, one guy fell into a hole, He seemed fine, but he was a little injured, but not too terribly. And I saw one Mining Guild Representative enter some caves, and Toji, had also entered another cave, he reported time will tell if the two caves are connected. I heard everyone say that they are going to call the settlement Arcadia, I like the name, and I like the ideas they plan to use to build their colony.
 
"OOoooo!" would be Toji's response to the increasing frequency of crystals. He made sure to take pictures, even the bat-like creatures despite not being a biologist. Someone would probably want to know, and hey, maybe they were cute. Best to leave them alone however. Toji tried his best to collect the crystals, trying to pick away at it if necessary, though opting to go for the small samples.

When Nicola turned the corner, Toji was stacked at the top of his three other bodies, trying to get a better look at the veins that were beginning to show themselves, and wasn't paying strict attention to her. Startled, he let out a cry as he tipped over along with the whole stack which came crashing down, a few of the drones kicking the air with their legs as they tried to right themselves.

"Oh! Hello! I didn't see you there," he shook his head, banging the cap a few times with his little arm, "yeah, crystals are kinda weird, aren't they? Real pretty though. Wait, aren't colorful things in nature usually a warning? You know there was this one crystal that actually was-" Toji trailed off, looking deeper in the cave and up at the small veins, "Hey, do you think there's some kind of like, core in there? Or motherlode? Like... a TON of crystals. Why don't we check it out?"

Toji bounced around before a moment of shock hit him, "Wait wait wait, I never asked your name. I'm Toji! Well specifically Freethinker Toji 13-1732-3472, but that's waaay too long. What's yours?"
 
Nicola gasped which echoed in the cave they were in at the sight of him not only on the bodies stacked but everything falling. She hurried to his side to make sure he was alright but she noticed his appearance namely the Freespacer body he was using which told her he should be fine. “I apologize for startling you,” she told him before he answered her statement about the crystals. “I’d love to hear the Mining Guild’s, as well as the NDC’s geologists, talk about it, maybe it might be possible to harness their ability to project light, make it so we don’t need to use power to do so for ourselves. “ She said then blinked at his question” hmm well that’s usually animals, but maybe for these crystals too? there is a lot we don’t know about this world.”

She told him before she too looked in the caves she’d just met him from before looking at the other tunnels. “My Mineral Scanner says so, would be great to see them, huh?’ she asked before they both remembered they didn’t know each others names.

“Ah, a Freespacer, nice to meet you Toji, I am Nicola Walker, I’m the representative of the Mining Guild, and according to the talks I might be placed in charge of the chapter here, are you a member of the Mining Guild?’ she asked because his name wasn’t as familiar to her.
 
Arcadia on Daichi

Arria had to stifle a yawn as the mayor's speech finally concluded. News reports were nice, but the way the guy talked just... bored the shortstack Elysian. But at least it was good to hear that the planet wasn't trying to kill them yet - plenty of those can be found somewhere else. She'd actually have preferred to be out on the exploration teams, but she was better off here - at least according to her current boss and shift-lead. Speaking of, where'd that man wander off to... Eh. Ol' Patches will turn up eventually. That or he'll find me, Arria thought to herself as she meandered through the dispersing crowd on foot. Heh. Marines.

Checking her phone, Arria reviewed her current work order - issued this morning before the speech. Seems that they were done with the ISS Ubiquitous Siren, and her group of salvagers had been assigned to the ISS Waste of Ammo, a cargo hauler. In an effort to preserve resources, most of the ships which had been badly damaged were being scrapped with priority over undamaged ships that made it through the battle previous, and this was no exception. The bulky, yet not terribly large hull of the freighter was scarred and in some places shattered, but considering it managed to fly down to the planet's surface in this state, it had at least lived up to its name.
 
Arcadia on Daichi

Sam finished paying the Nepleslian woman her requested price in DA before shaking her hand and letting the raven-haired cyborg be on her way, her leaving behind a Nepleslian TV Remote that looked well-used but also looked after as well as a few 8-gauge shells to go with it. Legally questionable firearms trade out of the way now the slim, pale man had something with a bit more punch to get himself out of a sticky situation, his revolver was nice and all but Samuel wasn't exactly a crack shot... so the double-barreled shottie should serve him well.

Hopefully it doesn't dislocate his elbow in the process but yeah~ Maybe he could find something to fashion a stock out of and run the risk of being called a pussy, he had a reason to want to lessen the perceived recoil but Neppers were usually a hot-headed bunch.

Looking down at his lap... Sam realized he hadn't actually asked the shotgun's previous owner how the hell he reloaded it, fuck, that was another thing to figure out... later~

Sam slid the short-barelled thing down onto his lap and stuffed the shells into a mostly-empty pouch on his vest before returning to his meal, not putting too much thought into what exactly the meat on the end of his fork might have come from, it tasted damn good.
 
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