RP: Galactic Horizon [HEF] Second Expedition - A Greener Future

Skyhawk Leader INT

Finally, the dragging was ending, iriss thought it would never end and she couldn’t help but wonder how excitable and energetic the other members were? She figured that Argus, being a Venis Separa’shan would likely not be as energetic the Calanthe she wasn’t sure of so she knew she couldn’t make an opinion yet.

She looked to the two as they asked their question together. “I have sseen a few who were green like me, and there wass one who’ss green coloring wass so dark I could have ssworn that they were a black sscaled Ssepara’shan. It iss possible that it has been mostly the red-scaled Ssepara’shan that chose to come here. “ She told the two she figured that she knew the next question which was why did she make an emphasis on the S letters and she knew the answer to that, it was because of the cloning technique, and the stereotype education the pirates had given her.

She turned her head when the mechanical voice spoke up, alerting them to the fact they were lifting off. That meant that now was the beginning of her new life. She had thought of asking them about Argus but she debated whether she should or not.

Ms Lexi, sure, Lexi had no qualms with that if that is what Trash Panda saw zher as today - admittedly their choice of underwear was a bit more feminine today, it was weird how some things worked out like that. "Oh uhm my bad, sorry - Dad is a Nepper actually, I just don't think I've ever met one quite like yourself, Trash Panda," the ginger half-elf smirked, shaking the accepted paw with two fingers and a thumb before making zher way over to their aerial transport, clambering in and making sure to strap into a seat before it took off.

"I'm a botanist by trade actually, fresh out of the Osman uni and eager to do my bit - this place had decent enough pay and I managed to get in fairly easily so that was that," the half-elf explained, hugging zher large backpack close to zher flat chest as the ship began to fly over the snowy landscape, Lexi's vividly green eyes going to the two Separas across the way with a small readjustment of those round-lensed glasses before offering a smile.

"I met big grumpy Mr Zepheris when I sliced my finger open not too long ago but I don't recall meeting you two?" Lexi spoke warmly, a certain pep and chirp behind the genderqueer half-elf's friendly facade as they observed Iriss and Calanthe - never really having met the snake-like race before moving here a question of if they were all one big family was sitting on the edge of the ginger halfbreed's tongue but zhe decided to hold onto that for now for fear of potentially sounding racist somehow if zhe was wrong, choosing to instead tie zher bright orange hair back into a quick ponytail.

Skyhawk

"Ah yes, Botany!" The fat uplifted mused as he too struggled into a seat and harness made for the general shape of a person and not the short round shape of he. "Quite important, yes-yes! All kinds of information regarding my own work is made easier through proper botanists. Mapping out flora patterns can help diversify a map and discover hidden water sources and water tables that can shape the depth and growth for miles through even the simplest of soil samples!" He continued to drone on more to himself than any of the other occupants of the craft as he popped a small bouillon cube into his mouth and worked it into his cheek to enjoy the long lasting salty chicken flavored treat.

And then he noticed the snake people further down and stopped himself to squint at them momentarily. Judging they where likely no harm to them he nodded and gave his usual introductions but with a little more apprehension. He had after all had a nasty run in with a Python one time who while good natured hadn't quite known the kind of restraint to use against someone as small has he and had nearly crushed Racc as easily as a bag of crisps before one of the partisans had given the Python a good bop on the head and fished him out of its coils to live another day.

"Trash Panda is my name. But many of my associates and close friends call me Racc." He repeated again for posterity.

Calanthe took place next to Argus, leaning towards him. Her ears twitched, trying to hear his voice over all the noise. She tried her best, but all she heard was the part about the odds of being first. ‘Sure thing, Ar..’ her gaze went to the other green-tailed Separa’Shan close to her. ‘..gus?’ She put her hand on her forehead, checking her temperature, and quickly pinched herself, just to make sure that this wasn’t some kind of feverdream. She tried ignoring the girl, maybe she would disappear so Calanthe wouldn’t make a fool of herself.

‘Hmm- Oh!’ Calanthe almost fell off her seat while the ship took off, nearly bumping into Iriss. ‘Sorry miss!’ She said, brushing her lap. As she wanted to ask about the strangely familiar girl, she noticed the ginger half-elf in front of her. She got back up and slightly arched her back, reaching out her hand towards the strangely feminine yet masculine person in front of her. ‘Excuse me ma’am, my name’s Calanthe Brongus, mind me asking for yours?’ Calanthe giggled, scratching the back of her head. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw the giant raccoon in front of her, but she decided to stay polite and smiled, baring her teeth. ‘Good to meet you too, mister!’ She quickly took his paw, and shook it firmly.

"Hey why do you talk with that weird accent on the S'?" Anna chirped at the clone/daughter of argus, listing intently to the way she seemed to speak like a cartoon villain. The twin sisters eagerly waited to hear more about this strange creature, while her exact relation to argus wasn't yet known to them they were just simply fascinated by her.

Meanwhile, Argus simply watched as Calanthe finally met some of the others on the Horizon crew, she was a little like a kid who'd never been outside before and was seeing everything for the first time. But after his companion acknowledged a few people he himself caught a glimpse of Iriss and froze for a moment, his already cold blood seeming to freeze in his veins. It could be a coincidence that she had identical colour and scale markings to him but his patchy past still held merit. "Excuse me but what was your name." Argus spoke somewhat coldly to Iriss, staring down the younger girl.

Below the trio of ships soaring through the air, the sprawling land of the planet sped past, eventually the tundras turned to forests and then to jungles and even a few patches of desert here and there. "And if you look down at your provided infopads you'll see the projected layout for the basecamp which we will be landing at in approximately 2 minutes, all passengers prepare to disembark." Unlike the synthetic voice of Dusk the very male and somewhat charming voice of their pilot rang through the passenger sitting space.

Iriss blinked at Ana as she asked her question “weird accent? Oh! er.. it, u,h was a part of my development, my instructors weren’t of the ssame race as I am, sso there might be some mistakes, unfortunately, I can’t correct it.” she said to Anna, she hoped that her past wouldn’t be brought up.

Fortunately, thanks to Calanthe’s encounter brought up a distraction. “Oh, no, not at all, are you alright?’ she asked the woman, who turned her attention to the ones in front f her, which Iriss took to mean that she was indeed alright. Then the young clone had encountered Argus, who spoke to her. He seemed cold, but then she was used to that from her own past. “My chosen name is Iriss,” she told him. before she realized his scales were green like hers were, and of course, he had some of the same markings too.

The sisters told her, that the other green scaled Separa’shan was Argus, and she hadn’t yet seen any other green scaled so that meant he was Argus. “Due to the fact that you have the ssame color as me, you are Arguss right? If you are, then I think I am supposed to be seeing you when we land for medical matterss” she told him.

She did get a check-up before they left, of course, but she’d refused her blood being taken, concerned that some machine could detect familiar matches and things like that. She wanted to be the one to tell him, not some machine, and she hoped that they were alone when she did.

She turned her head when a new voice spoke up, and she looked at the infopad she was provided. The land seemed decent to her, plenty of space to build she was certain, but she figured they would see it when they get there of course. She noted the location of the nearby tree’s they will need those for wood if they needed to use them. She went predator mode to see what was the defenses would be like.

Skyhawk

Quite polite, Quite. Racc mused as he took the proffered hand and shook it, Careful not to dig even the blunted clip of his nails that many a new acquaintance had remarked was quite strange a sensation.

He had nodded slightly to begin his usual tirade and extrovert questioning when the male green one had spoken. Racc was no prey animal and was a natural predetor himself some might say and could more than handle himself in a substantial scrap! But the tone the green separa exuded naturally grated on him as less than hospitable even if it where not necessarily directed at him but at the other green snake near him.

Chivalry was certainly not dead or even lost on the fat uplifted as he straightened himself to give the man quite the verbal lashing about manners and proper introductions when Iriss answered for herself and the machine tinned voice of the speaker drew his attention away just long enough for the topic to slip his mind.

How exciting!

Skyhawk

"Right, well then come to the medical tent once everything is set up." Argus said bluntly in response to Iris' question, moving to the rear of the craft as the ships began to descend towards the clear patch of grassland picked out as their basecamp location.

"All passengers are now free to disembark the shuttle."

Basecamp

As the cargo ramp of Hawk Leader finally touched down on the soft earth with a muffled thud, the landscape lying before the passengers on board was almost something from a postcard, lush greenery surrounded by tall trees and low shrubs, along with flowers and chirping animal sounds dotted around the place. The other two shuttles had already landed and the expeditionary members had setup the main tent, large enough to seat 50 people for meals or meetings and with an extra room attached for planning journeys into the unknown. A co-pilot from Hawk 2 waved them down from the ship, directing everyone to the main tent while the other engineers worked to establish the medical tent and a communications hub,

Argus, Anna and Bella each moved down towards the main tent as directed, Brin instead went to convene with the other security team leaders and establish a perimeter guard as well as shift rotations. The green separa looked around in mild distaste, definitely not his preferred working environment but a tent was better than open elements of nature he supposed. Anna and Bella had each managed to find Iris once more and were playfully pushing her towards the main tent, laughing and shoving each other in the process.

"Expedition briefing in the main tent, all expeditionary members are required, non-essential personnel are to continue setting up the base camp and provisioning for the first expedition." The orders were yelled out across the clearing by another member of the security force stood atop a crate.

Skyhawk to Basecamp

Iriss remembered how the Venis species of their race had chosen to keep a tight hold over their emotions, so she knew the bluntness and the previous coldness came from that or rather suspected it. It was rather difficult for her to keep to the training herself. She silently watched as the ships descended to the land that was chosen as their basecamp.

She heard the command ad immediately she prepared herself to disembark and soon she found herself off the ship, her right hand moved up to shield her eyes from the sun as she looked around her new home for the time being during this expedition. She couldn’t hold but wonder what they will find here before she was set upon by her new friends. These two were playful she noted probably not for the first time as she heard them laughing as they playfully pushing her and shoving each other.

She heard the next order as they had, to go to the main tent for a briefing. She knew would come next, they get set up and then she had an appointment with her male donor. In her mind, she practiced her speech she planned on making for him.

Skyhawk

After shaking Trash Panda’s paw, Calanthe’s hands went through her pockets and she found an old pack of gum, from at least a year ago. Despite it’s age it contained so much artificial ingredients that it would probably taste as good as ever. She gave a piece to Trash Panda and started chewing on some herself. She fidgeted with her side locks, listening to her fellow Separa’s: they were like exact copies of each other, although Argus could use some of Iriss’ sympathy. As she finally got the chance to talk to the girl, she took it without any hesitation. ‘Hey, again, sorry for bumping into ya. My name is Calanthe.’ While blowing a bubble, she also gave a piece to Iriss. ‘You’ll never know when it comes in handy.’

Basecamp

While slithering out of the ship, Calanthe felt the warm climate, which was way more reassuring and well-known to her than the cold climate at the GH building. Her tail happily bounced after her, as she moved to the main tent, next to Argus. ‘Man, it’s nice here..’ She laughed at her colleague’s face and pat his back. ‘I’m sure you’ll be just fine, Argus.’ She struck a pose with her gun. ‘If a scary beast even tries to touch ya I’ll take it right down for y-.. Wait just a sec.’ Calanthe hastily slithered towards pretty plants and took pictures with her infopad. She nodded as she checked all the pictures and slithered back towards the crowd, nearly slipping in the mud.

Basecamp

When all the Horizon personnel and hired extras had gathered inside the main tent Brin took to the stage to give them the briefing.

"Welcome all to Basecamp, and our collective home for the next few days at least, I'd first like to give a quick thanks to the team who got the basics set up in such a timely manner and to our skilled pilots for ferrying the lot of us out to the middle of this place. With those formalities out of the way it's time to start the briefing, as you all know I am Brin Bluestone, expedition leader and head of the security force for Galactic Horizon, for the duration of our journey I will be the immediate member in charge and all concerns should be brought to me above all else."

Brin took a breath and collected his thoughts briefly before moving on, he wanted to make this as short and informational as possible so they could get straight into the action and use this daylight while they still had it.

"We will have a single expeditionary team tasked with the longer and potentially more dangerous trecks into our surroundings, this will be comprised of several of the top security personnel along with our new help as that was the application and position you all filed for when signing up for this mission. The second team will work close to base studying the flora and fauna, cataloguing everything for future reference, this team is the majority of our science personnel backed up by the remainder of the security force who will also be protecting the base." Brin scanned the crowd, so far so good, didn't look like he was about to be booted off stage which meant everyone must have actually read the T's and C's before signing on.

"The main team will move out in 10, go and prepare yourselves and meet up outside this tent afterwards, all your infopads will have the map with our projected route loaded onto them, study up in that time if you like and make sure you have enough food and water to last at least 2 days, that should give our backup time to get here with the URSA unit."


Argus listened intently through the briefing, when calanthe had suggested protecting him he'd nearly scoffed at his poor colleague but somehow refrained from being a generally insulting individual for once and simply gave her a smile. For now she still didn't know of his less that clean track record in space but maybe he'd end up having to explain on this trip anyway. After Brin finished talking he slithered straight over to the medical tent and checked the inventory they had brought with them, plenty of supplies all round if they were careful and didn't waste anything, and if no one got hurt in stupid accidents. The green separa waited for Iriss to pay him a visit so they could sit down and discuss what was on both of their minds, he really hoped his personal nightmare hadn't come true but soon he would be able to question her.

Skyhawk

Calanthe seemed like a friendly girl, despite bumping into her, she apologized for it, which she felt was nice, and she discovered no animosity towards her. “Not at all, accidentss happen, Calanthe,” she said while finding her name to be a beautiful one.

Basecamp, then to Argus’s medical tent

Iriss listened as the man that she discovered was her Security leader began his briefing. She listened to the plan and how she was supposed to be there at 10 to go with the group. She checked the infopads mentioned and nodded her head silently to no one in particular. She felt pleased with the 10 timetable it meant she had time to prepare and she will be able to speak with Argus too. She knew that might take a while.

After the briefing, she was 2nd to leave while giving a small wave to her friends, and a silent promise of explanations later, She found her belongings and made sure she had enough food and water as recommended before she slithered to the Medical tent and used her hand to open it, revealing Argus. She took a deep breath and allowed the training to work on controlling her emotions before she entered. “Doctor,” she said since that was his title, and she hadn’t been given permission to call him father, probably not ever she wouldn’t be surprised.

She moved to take a seat and waited for him to be ready after all, this would be a conversation he might not want to be distracted for. “I wanted to be the one to tell you, not ssome message or ssecond hand, but I am a clone, half of my DNA has come from you, the other half from the sibling of Esssia’s Ssenator, I wass created by rivals of those you used to be around. But am not employed by them anymore, I am free.” She said pausing to let him process this information and to give him time to ask any questions he had, but there was one thing she wanted to say. “I don’t expect anything from you, other than of course medical care if I need it, I don’t expect to call you father either, whether in public or in private,” she said.

Basecamp

After all the introductions on the shuttle and the quick shuttle-ride over the team's genderqueer halfelf was itching to get to work but forced themself to remain calm and professional despite the whole prospect of seeing new plants and being careful to not poke them incase they were carnivorous - Lexi very much wanted to keep all zher fingers if that was at all possible, offering a small frown as some of the crew ferrying small cargo out of the ship blocked zher inside a few moments longer.

A few nods and grunts of agreement were given during the short monologue as Lexi's hands remained firmly gripped onto zher backpack, a few sniffles at all the new smells in the air, one in particular making zher nose scrunch up a little but it did nothing to stunt the botanist's excitement for it all - taking a few muddy steps over to Calanthe, who had been seen taking a few pictures of the wildlife already, Lexi decided to strike up some conversation.

"Took a bit of liking to your surroundings, have you?" zhe spoke with a friendly grin, a small spot of mud having ended up on the botanist's cheek already but Lexi was hardly phased by it as zhe checked over zher rifle one last time - pulling back the bolt and chambering a round, inspecting the chamber and then finally closing it back up.

"Don't blame you, they are nice to look at~"

Medical Tent

Argus narrowed his eyes and slithered forwards until he was poised right before Iriss, staring her dead in the eyes. "So, a half clone child. You say you were created by my old enemies? I'm assuming you know that I used to be a pirate then, so why should I believe that you don't work for them? Or that you're not being controlled by them still hmm?" The older green separa asked with a very critical look in his eyes as he assessed the alleged clone before him. "Show me your family markings, every Separa knows they're what defines us and even for criminals it's taboo to even consider altering or removing them. If your claims are true you should at least have part of my own markings."

Medical tent

She said her piece and then he was right there with his narrowed eyes. What would his actions be? A small part of her thought that stabbing might not be unheard of, obviously, people would be worried when she said she was created by pirates. She hoped her honesty helped her though rather than hurt her. “yess I had heard from them you had been at the time,” she said, before adding “I am not controlled, how is it posssible to be controlled by ghosts?’ she asked him, before his request came, her hands moved up to undo her clothing, and allowed the male before her to see her markings.

Indeed, she had part of his family markings and also her mothers, which was the sister of the Senator of Essia in the Empire. If the tank that she emerged from added markings she didn’t know, since it wasn’t mentioned to her during her lessons on the Home World. There were no markings from the gang she was a part of though since they didn’t actually have a symbol.

Medical Tent

Argus inspected the combination of family markings, it definitely checked out compared with his own though the green separa allowed himself a small snicker. Seeing his family markings combined with the top political class of his home was a sight he never expected. "Hm, well there's nothing that seems out of place here, your story certainly explains your appearance compared to myself as well." Argus scratched his chin for a moment as he turned back to the desk he'd setup and slithered over behind it. "I will admit, I had wondered if someone would do something like this as a way to attack me using my emotions, though through all my work I learned to shed those entirely. They're nothing but weaknesses." He said, filling out a piece of paper on a clipboard he'd grabbed, an old fashioned way of taking information these days but he had his reasons.

"For now I have no choice but to keep my eye on you in the event you are attempting to deceive me. But I wont take you off of the team, it will probably be best if you don't refer to me as your father around other people. Personally, I am not sure exactly what to do with this information you've presented to me." The green snake man finished his writing and stuffed the paper into his pocket before approaching his newfound daughter of sorts and awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't expect me to act like your father, scientifically speaking you are less like my child and more like a sibling so know this. So long as you are not trying to harm me or my co-workers, I will also protect you and treat you like kin."

Moving towards the opening he stuck his head outside. "Doctor Brongus! I have a patient in here who needs a quick exam." Of course that was a slight lie but he needed to introduce Calanthe to the situation and make sure she knew what he expected her to do with the information.

Basecamp

‘Definitely! Weren’t you a botanist?’ Calanthe asked, noticing the dirt on Lexi’s face. ‘Cause you’ve got some dirt riiiight there.’ She took a handkerchief and quickly wiped it off their face, bumping her elbow onto their gun. ‘Hey! You’ve got a gun as well??’ As she wanted to show it off, she heard Argus calling her from the medical tent. ‘Sure thing!’ she replied loudly. `Ah man, well- I’ll see you later Lexi.’ Slithering off towards the tent, she waved at her redheaded colleague.


Medical Tent

‘Coming in.’ The brunette said, opening up the tent. ‘So, what’s up...?’ Her gaze went to barely clothed Iriss, then back to Argus. Quickly zipping the tent closed, she slithered to the girl and put a cloth around her shoulders. ‘This isn’t really an exam, is it, Argus?’ She put her briefcase down and rested her hands on her hips, her tail repeatedly tapping the ground. ‘Mind explaining to me what’s going on?’