RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude 3] - Highly Ambient Domains

[Moogle]

"Never spent any time in Lorath space, so I guess not. Maybe it was a commercial or something. . . sorry for wastin' your time, Lalah."

Seiren shrugged, flicking his hair back before tapping the slate again. Aiesu didn't even exist, as far as he was concerned, so he simply ignored all mention of the l'manel and went back to explaining his weapons.

"Back on topic. . . I worked out all the kinks with my sound weapons system. It won't overload unless you turn it to 11," he said, showing an graphic simulation of what exactly a wub-cannon would be on "11". "I had the guys in my design department whip up the animation. It's theoretically as strong as an aetheric pulse array, but my math isn't adding up on that."

He swiped again, flipping to something that looked very much like a tube-grenade launcher. "I've weaponized those limited edition Phoenix Energies, by the way. Lightning explosions. Should be good."

Another swipe, this time his BEWM came up. "I lightened the design by stripping out unnecessary parts, and upped the grenade shot capacity by two. Six grenades launched at once."

Now, a carbine-like gun with a glowing purple reservoir inside it, with a flush tank running along the bottom of it. "I'm still trying to fix this, but it's essentially a sucrose-based flechette gun."

He sighed, tapping a final time, showing a very toyetic gun. "Last, but not least, I also weaponized those Phoenix energy candies. Basically same principle as the other one, except it's more precise, better ranged, and there's a 10 second delay on shot explosion."

He turned the display off, shrugging.
"Don't really have proper cool names for any of these. But they all should be handy."

 

[miss_story]

Reeves winced when Nuk'Dukam responded in a flurry of words he had trouble understanding. It didn't help that the Towering VANDR made him feel like he had so much more to learn about technology. Everything about it was completely foreign. The potential chance of having a closer look at the Iroma's tech made his mind swim

["That's okay, I'll get him something"] He assured Kuzman that he would take care of it. Turning back towards David, Reeves raised his eyebrows at the camera on his comm. He walked briskly toward them giving him a little wave.

"Thanks for calling me out here David, I was wondering if you could do Myself and Kuzman here a favor. I told him we would help him with his frame on the rigs. Could you spare a drone to fly us out to the PSG rigs? I know things are already held up here, but I'll send it straight back once I'm done."

He gave Kuzman an encouraging thumbs up from across the room. As far as he could remember a thumbs up wasn't some sort of lewd gesture in their culture.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

The Rigs, RND Platform, Staff Room #6

Armored feet perturbed the floor plates of the small chamber, carrying a reverberating 'doo-kik' type sound down the adjoining corridor. A strange background noise, to the otherwise serene flowing waves, and light buffeting wind that carried the smell of the sea upwards. To those observing, a towering ivory mantis-like metal humanoid figure with long grey-blonde hair marched too and throw, ducking under the hatch doorway every few seconds to retrieve more books and trinkets from the multiple boxes waiting just outside.

Calico really had too much stuff. But it was always hard letting go. Cramming it mostly inside the locker would have to do, even if she had to sleep on top of her signed Hellbeasts Of Yar collection or her first edition Encyclopedia Of Space Parasites. Fortunately there were rooms on all of the rigs, which let her somehow swing a place that was close to the library, but there was no way she was leaving any of her precious babies out for just anyone to manhandle.

Sighing, the task finally completed, the glint from that almost-tropical Sargasso sun caught her eyes again from the adjacent corridor porthole. Uncomfortable, for a night-dwelling funky city creature like her, but had potential for drawing out a little inspiration yet…

…Wait, weren’t they supposed to be somewhere?...

The Rigs, RND Platform, Library

~“Criminals, mercenaries, and the descendants thereof, exiled to the bright and scorching moon.”~ A slightly raspy, wistful voice, speaking absent-mindedly just at Noppera’s back. ~”Little do the wardens know, the prison’s isolated and bored AI relates more to the troublemakers more than it does to the rank and file…”~

Mismatched blue and green eyes suddenly focused on the singular red camera that had now noticed them, causing the rest of the spindly cyborg form to snap to attention in response. A humanoid face, and bearing rolled-up regulation coveralls upon it’s torso, but otherwise a body that was all sorts of aggressively robotic and weird. Her salute was low-swinging and awkward, massive hands arced timidly inwards, no doubt the result of paranoia over hitting others sidelong or knocking over a table, given their tremendous inhuman reach. They still loomed a full foot taller than the reserved mocha-skinned soldier before them, even hunching over a bit.

“Pleased to see you again Echelon, sir-ma’am!” An awkward blurted response, seemingly caught off guard, as they none the less warmly received the colorful mechanical Freespacer’s company with a glint of pure enthusiasm. “There was something about languages you wanted me to attend? I’m at your disposal!”

 

[Luca]

The Rigs, Delta Platform, Library
Echelon was delighted to see another of the more trans-human Nepleslians amidst the PSG's crew, and she recognised them immediately. "4H, C4LLY, HULL0! GL4D Y0U C0ULD DR0P BY. TH0UGHT Y0U'D B3 0F 4SS1ST4NC3." She outlined. "W3'V3 G0T S0M3 L0R4TH 0V3R TH3R3 CUR10US 4B0UT N3PL3SL14N F1CT10N. TH3Y SP34K 4 B1T 0F TR4D3, S0 WHY N0T S4Y H1?"

The four Lorath mentioned were sitting around a table, waving hello and nodding for Noppera and Calico to come sit with them. A gentle (read: firm) nudge from Echelon against Noppera's back. Damn, it was almost too close, a little lower and they might've touched the SPINE nodes. "Y0U T00. G0 0N!"

The four of them introduced themselves to the group as being ex-LSDF personnel together who started exploring the universe after honourable discharge, and became private security for Origin Industries. Then they moved here to work with the PSG. "Tell us story." The Fyunnen of the group said, waiting on Calico's words.

"Can you speak Ly'thir?" A New Tur'lista asked. "Or subtitle story? Trans-late?"


The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Command and Control Centre
Luca looked over to Lalah, conscious of his words around Seiren, "I'll come down in a bit to inspect them." He said after a pause. "Do what you must in the meantime." Lalah nodded and dismissed herself, clutching onto her datapad. Onto closer-ranged issues, Luca now inspected Seiren's plans for streamlining BEWM, which he nodded at with raised eyebrows, and the strange looking sugar gun.

It caught his eye the most, not because it was practical in any shape, but because he hadn't seen anything like it. "Huh. Spikes of condensed sugar?" He asked as he swiped back to the strange looking weapon and flipped it around a few times in space. "What's this sugar spiker's fire rate like in tests?"

As for the Phoenix Energy! candy and drink, Luca nodded along. "I've seen videos of people shaking up the cans, opening them, and blowing their rooms up or making an instant lightning strike in a park." He nodded as he rubbed his chin, looking at the can and the little bon-bon. "Could you make it more like a grenade? Lighting grenades? The can's almost grenade shaped, but I suppose you could make it easier to grasp with a fragmented exterior. Could be good for disabling robots."

He did commend that the kid had some good ideas every now and again, and he wanted to capitalise on what appealed to him. "I was actually thinking of getting the lab boys to look into producing a set of hand grenades, why not give them a yell?" He looked over to the intercom and let Seiren take the lead on this.


Sargasso, Spaceport
"Oh, er, not a problem," David put his communicator down and scanned the skyline for any cargo drones, quickly swapping away from the video recording software on his communicator to the drone control software after spotting one, he got to work. He just had to see what the identification number for it was, singling it out to come closer and stopping above the fallen mecha.

A few button presses later, and he nodded with a smile. "All yours. Send it back to the depot and it'll resume normal operation, as usual." David said as Reeves had control of the cargo drone. It was large enough to transport a standard SSCC Medium full of stuff, so it'd make short work of grabbing the VANDR and carrying it out across the sea to the Rigs. It was just waiting for Reeves' commands ... and Kuzman and Nuk'Dukam's cooperation.

David, meanwhile, hopped on his bicycle and started pedalling madly towards the community radio station while the event was fresh in his mind. As he was leaving, he saw a blue fox walking by. The blue fox saw a man on a mission to report something, willing to use a pushbike on Sargasso's bike-unfriendly conditions. Said fox was also able push past the now dispersing crowd. Some of the people in the back had gotten sick of standing on their tippy toes or on planter boxes to see what was going on and went back to getting on with their normal business.

 

[The Real Bames Jond]

Delta Platform, Library

Noppera winced when the Freespacer bumped into her back. A little lower and she would have hit the nodes. Maybe she wouldn't have realized it and nothing would have come of it, or maybe she would have and the former NMX insurgent would have found herself at the mercy of the lynch and mob justice. When she looked back at Echelon she . . . realized that it was really hard to "read" that red mono-eye, and that shouldn't have caught her off-guard. She gave her best poker-face to the 'Spacer and looked over the newcomer who had managed to sneak up behind her despite having the arms of a gorilla stuck on somebody so tall that Noppera had to crane her neck to see their face. Which she did.

She whistled and threw on her usual rural twang, "Well shit, sweetheart. What armory did they pull you out of?"

Even if she hadn't been out of training for very long, Noppera had never seen the woman around before, and she would have remembered even a passing glance. The girl looked like she was a 20mm cannon shy of being a Nepleslian wet-dream. It wasn't all acting and deep cover that had Noppera mesmerized wondering just what kind of trouble she could get into with that sort of physique. So she gave the other woman - if she could even be called just a woman - a motion towards the waiting Lorath at the table that were already waving her over.

She smiled, "Looks like we've got somebody waiting on us, war-machine. Lets go help 'em out."

Noppera started for the table and reached into a pocket of her uniform to feel the outline of the cigarettes she kept on her almost all the time. The damnable thing about being a neko was her scent. Or her lack of a scent, really, if she remembered hearing right. Sensitive enough noses would notice that her kind didn't sweat or have any real odor unique to them and since Nepleslians weren't so lucky Noppera had to make sure she could mask that shortcoming. So cigarettes and cigars were the answer. In a slow day she could end up burning through the better part of a pack so that if somebody got close enough they'd smell the nicotine on her fingers and in her breath and even on her clothes.

She fished the pack out and tapped out a cigarette to tuck behind her ear by the time she was at the table-side.

"Howdy, friends. How's it going, today?" She gave the Lorath at the table a smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder to the New Tur'lista who asked after subtitles.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Delta Platform, Library

"I would be happy to!" The ungainly thing responded to both Echelon and the seated Lorath at the same time, turning her head and raising a hand presentably, so that they all got the message.

"Oh, I'm Calico, by the way! Calico Monoceros!" A moment was given to addressing the smaller 'nepleslian' as they walked, one hand now pressing against her chest as if to gesture towards her heart. The other was held out perpendicular to it, eyebrows raised, suggesting some kind of handshake should perhaps take place. "What is your name? You sound local, but I guess there must be something irregular about you, if you decided to join up with this lot... Erm, I mean that in a good way! If you're home grown and super skilled, no reason you couldn't have just joined the D-I-O-N... You don't look super old or torn up to me!"

Her smiling mouth opened again as if she could just keep talking and talking forever, but the elongated thing thankfully seemed to sense that she was already digging too deep, and left it up to the rather sultry coffee-shaded soldier what they were actually going to answer.

Instead, their attentions changed back to the seated personnel that the two of them intended to join, finding a chair to perch upon for herself. Her datajockey was immediately out, and connected to both a speech recognition app, and a dodgy-looking Lorath translation page on the interNEP that could apparently transliterate out loud.

"Hey'ya'll new folks, I'm Calico! Sorry, but Trade is the only thing I speak." After the simple repeated introduction, the heterochromatic living action figure lowered her head for a moment, ecru-beige hair freely flowing around her features as her eyes closed, and dug deep into her mental reserves of strange off-kilter yarns. What sort of story was suitable for inflicting upon such eager hopefuls, who did not speak the lingo?

"Have you ever heard this one?" Resetting her glasses with a newly malicious gaze, the metallic lady now regarded them in-character, narrowed eyes and crooked smile suddenly twisting her features into a considerably more unwholesome visage. The blurt of the Lorath auto-vocalizer now seemed to have been specifically chosen because it was hoarse and raspy. "A man bolted through the darkness, hailstones the size of bullets clattering around his feet. No choice but to find shelter in the old ship junkyard. It made vague sense to him that some hobo had chosen to hang up their art collection in the only shuttle that lacked holes, but not why every canvas seemed to be a dementedly skewed face... Given the alternatives, he was stuck sleeping there either way."

"The problem was, he found no painted canvases in the morning. Only windows."

 

[OsakanOne]

The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Medical Area - Rebeka's Ward
Aiesu busied herself. Thin white altex gloves. Medical green apron. She sat with the large round amber hub of what was taken from Rebeka's skull cavity, running a damp cloth over it, removing tubings plugged into drilled holes - cleaning them of a strange accumiulated white powder and then plugging them in.

She'd apparently done this before, the act though mindless, caring as it absorbed her and let her mind go nowhere. Sometimes, she decided, it was good not to have thoughts. That they were addictive, that prior she couldn't not have thoughts. All the time, where she was, what she was doing, what she thought of it and never really being in the moment.

And there, under her hands, someone who'd made the little boy who constantly pestered the captain with his escapades of sugar smile was no longer. It was her fault and she had to unthink that fact.


The Rigs, Alpha Platform, LSDF Research Team Accommodations
♫ UFO: Enemy Unknown - Battlescape (OPL2 Version) ♫

Elsewhere, Lalah sat in a folding chair in a dim room - having let herself into the locked space of police-tape and warning signs with a keycard. White lashes half way over amber eyes, dark dark brown of Indian Summer flushed with tiredness as she sat in her uniform slumped over a metal table. Washboard front over the metal, arms crossed, eyes steady on the metal case that spent most of its time chained to her superior's arm - now chained to a pipe via handcuffs.

She eyed the IH-NoN and the faint holographic image it projected of whatever tasks or jobs she had lined up. Finger rasping along her back-swept horns with a small piercing that she'd never been brave enough to use that hung on a silvery chain sliver to her left wrist. The communicator sat idle, ticking down a rest-time she remained. Time she should be sleeping, but something wouldn't let her.

Thoughts poured out of her in quiet whisper, a finger extended to run over something of impossible description in the metal case. It sat in shaped foam, half covered like some expensive rifle: A perfect sphere of dark dark black the size of a human heart. Galaxies of colour and shape in its darkness so deep it swallowed light and stories from the room appearing almost to be a hole in space itself, to drink sight and swallow it voraciously.

And yet it was solid, vivid, and matter. Still and glassy as she ran a fingernail over it and her piercing, watching the way it swung, changing in pendulum as she spoke. Clockwise. Counter-clockwise.

More thoughts poured. More words.

Of Ouroboros. Of SAINT. Of pain. All to the inanimate bauble, as if it were the only friend she had in the universe.

 

[Eistheid]

Sargasso, Starport

On her way into the local starport to investigate disturbance, Tamamo was a little surprised to spot one of Sargasso's four proprietors leaving. Something truly interesting must have occurred, especially since the amateur cryptozoologist didn't even pause to fawn over her. Slipping into the crowd Tamamo flitted amongst the people a vague shadow in the masses as she hunted for the source of her multi-kilometer journey. Admittedly she hadn't expected what she found.

Under normal circumstances Tamamo would have come up with a blank as to what she was looking at, however her pastime of trawling through the archives and message boards had provided piecemeal information on the entity before her, though she didn't have a name for the entity. One of the aliens who had been involved in an incident on Asura that so far as she could tell had been largely covered up by the Yamatai, seemed to have fallen out of the sky and into Sargasso... Along with a lovely piece of foreign technology. Under less visible circumstances she would have been hard pressed to restrain the urge to reverse engineer it, after all it was not often that something so valuable ended up in her hands, or near to them anyway.

Licking her lips and swallowing, Tamamo hovered a short distance away not wanting to interrupt Reeves' interaction with the seemingly friendly entity. She would watch for now, but she was loathe to let the vehicle out of her sight. So many opportunities had made themselves possible, all she had to do for the moment was remain amicable.

 

[Phe0n1x]

Kuzman nodded in thanks as an odd vehicle showed up to pick up Nuk'Dukam. He assured his VANDR that these people seemed to be here to help. Which all things considered was great seeing as Nuk'Dukam was essentially AI with scrap attached at this point. He hopped on back and sat at an odd angle in the remnants of the cockpit for Reeves' next move.

 

[Moogle]

The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Command and Control Centre
Luca looked over to Lalah, conscious of his words around Seiren, "I'll come down in a bit to inspect them." He said after a pause. "Do what you must in the meantime." Lalah nodded and dismissed herself, clutching onto her datapad. Onto closer-ranged issues, Luca now inspected Seiren's plans for streamlining BEWM, which he nodded at with raised eyebrows, and the strange looking sugar gun.

It caught his eye the most, not because it was practical in any shape, but because he hadn't seen anything like it. "Huh. Spikes of condensed sugar?" He asked as he swiped back to the strange looking weapon and flipped it around a few times in space. "What's this sugar spiker's fire rate like in tests?"

As for the Phoenix Energy! candy and drink, Luca nodded along. "I've seen videos of people shaking up the cans, opening them, and blowing their rooms up or making an instant lightning strike in a park." He nodded as he rubbed his chin, looking at the can and the little bon-bon. "Could you make it more like a grenade? Lighting grenades? The can's almost grenade shaped, but I suppose you could make it easier to grasp with a fragmented exterior. Could be good for disabling robots."

He did commend that the kid had some good ideas every now and again, and he wanted to capitalise on what appealed to him. "I was actually thinking of getting the lab boys to look into producing a set of hand grenades, why not give them a yell?" He looked over to the intercom and let Seiren take the lead on this.

Seiren caught on to what Luca was avoiding saying finally and gave him side-eye for it, but said nothing. He tried not to hold these things against him, but people knew that he was the closest one to Rebeka, and this was to be expecting, this eggshell walking and talking around him.

"It fires twice per trigger pull. I haven't had anybody hit a maximum yet, but the tank has a capacity for eighty pulls, thanks to the shard size. It makes it a bit heavy, though, so I might strip it down so it only has twenty pulls worth."

Of course, at the request for the grenades, Seiren's face crunched up in irritation. "Do you know how volatile your drink is? I went through three lightning rods trying to get the first prototype launcher together! I just-"

Luca stuck the intercom in front of Seiren and the inventor glared, but then began to speak again. "Hey, the big boss wants you to turn his highly dangerous energy drink into grenade form. Do it right and he'll take you to Pac-CHOW - the NICE one. All expenses paid."

He smugly stared at his hero.

 

[ShotJon]

The Rigs, Delta Platform, Library

Zeta got shuffled a bit away from the group, talking with the tan nepleslian, that asked her about languages before. Zeta only spoke Trade and Yamatai-go, both languages pre-programmed into her when she was created. She never really thought about learning any new, especially not lorath, since they seemed sort of unimportant to her until lately. Now it seemed like it might not be such a bad idea.

Nodding the nepleslian, Zeta came back to Echelon and watched the freespacer and short-haired woman chatting about stuff with bunch of loraths listening and watching.

"So..." Zeta said quietly, leaning over to Echelon. "I just need to know one thing. We goot with Aiesu? No more trouble from that source?"

 

[Luca]

The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Command and Control Centre
The radio to the research and development guys answered Seiren quickly. "Come deliver it and we'll talk shop Mr. Isbala. We've been meaning to figure out mass production of disposable items." They were clearly fond of his expertise on the matter since he owned a candy factory. "We'd be happy to learn from you and see if we can apply your principles. Get over to Gamma platform and we'll begin."

The proposition seemed alright, and Seiren could walk across the bridge, float along on anti-grav, or take a jeep over to Delta platform. Maybe he could see how the zipline guys were doing as well, as some of the guys decided to imitate Sargasso and try putting Ziplines of their own into the PSG base. "Seems like you got their ears, kid." Luca said as he checked something on his IH-NoN. Keeping a track of all the information was difficult, and new tasks arose constantly.

He clicked his tongue. "You go on ahead, I'm being called somewhere. I'll join you at Pan-CHOW, just ping me when you're heading out, k?" With that, he bid Seiren adieu and started heading towards the medical facility within Alpha Platform. He could feel a sense of dread as he got closer and closer to the enclosure where the fallen Sourcian was being examined and treated...


The Rigs, Delta Platform, Library
Echelon stood up and led Zeta with her between some bookshelves in a quiet corner before answering the cyborg's question. "SH3'S W3DG3D W1TH US, Z3T4. SH3 C4N'T G0 B4CK T0 L4Z4RUS B3C4US3 SH3'LL B3 R3T1R3D BY M3 L34K1NG S0M3 V1T4L 1NF0RM4T10N SH3 BL4BB3R3D T0 M3 PUBL1C4LLY." They explained, not going into the specifics of the information.

"SH3 C4N'T B4CKST4B US B3C4US3 W3'V3 G0T PSG C0V3R1NG US 4ND L4Z4RUS W0N'T R3SP0ND T0 TH1S 0N3'S QU3R13S F0R 41D S1NC3 1 J41LBR0K3 H3R." Echelon sounded like they had all the bases covered. "3V3N 1F SH3 TR13D, SH3'D N0T H4V3 L0NG, H4V1NG P1SS3D 0FF T00 M4NY P30PL3 T0 C0UNT." The robot gave Zeta a pat on the shoulder. "JUST CH1LL. 1 G0T H3R T13D D0WN."

Meanwhile, the story Calico was weaving up and Noppera was audience to along with the enthralled Lorath came to a close. With the story said, they started cross-referencing the way the Lorath syntax was different to Trade syntax on their datapads. Individual sentences were broken down into easily packaged explanations of syntax. The sheer amount of wiggle room in both Trade and Ly'thir, both intended as casual dialogue in their respective countries made translating things like slang hard.

The two non-Lorath natives on the table were bombarded with an assortment of questions relating to their Trade homework, especially asking about the sentence structure being different, and what certain words like 'hailstones', 'hobo', 'demented' and 'skewed' meant. Out of turn, one of the Lorath asked: "Is there more?"


Sargasso, Rig Bight
The drone's grabbing arms attached themselves to the shoulders of the Mecha, and begun to lift it up slowly, straining a little to deal with the weight and lifting the pilot in the cockpit with it. Reeves barely noticed Tamamo's presence when she appeared, but Kuzman could see them standing next to the silver-haired waif and examining the frame while Reeves was determining where to take the Frame.

In addition, he could've hitched a ride on top of the cargo drone to make his trip to PSG a bit quicker if he didn't feel like taking a shuttle there. There were straps and belts on top of the drone for this express purpose despite the usual litany from OH&S, and Reeves could easily hop aboard with Tamamo on hand to lift him up.

 

[miss_story]

Reeves took over control of the drone on his com unit, using the same software that David had loaded up when he had transferred authority to him. "Sure thing David, I'll have it back as soon as we've finished up." Reeves reassured the man that he would send the cargo drone back home when he was finished. His chipped metallic nails skimmed over the touch screen on his comm as he walked back to tell Kuzman he was ready to get him out of the shipping bay.

["It's not far. I'll load your frame"] He told the Iroma slowly. He waited for the man to scale his way back up to his cocpit and strap himself in. Reeves' brow furrowed in concentration as he directed the drone to carefully lift the damaged Nuk'Dukam onto the drone's top platform.

The tech chewed his lip thoughtfully as the weight settled onto the transport drone. Not intending on letting the pair of strangers go to the Rigs on their own he quickly spied an area where there was room for himself to strap himself down. He set his comunicator into his pocket and rummaged through his bag, looking for a set of gloves that Seiren had given him the Yuletide before last. He pulled them on and was about to pull his skinny little frame up the side of the vehicle when he realized that he wasn't alone. "Tamomo... I didn't see you there. " he smiled, then glanced back towards Kuzman. He wondered silently how long the girl had been standing there staring at the situation. He hadn't seen her earlier but translating had taken up most of his attention. "I'm helping Kuzman here back to the Rigs so he can get some help with the damage to his frame. Maybe even speak to Luca about signing up too. If you aren't busy could I get some help securing it for the trip?" He explained before pointing at the straps he intended on securing to some of the damaged limbs so they wouldn't fly around dangerously during transit.

Being short he had to jump and kick his way up to the upper lip of the drone's platform before pulling himself up, rather gracelessly. ["It shouldn't take much longer"] He told the pair of 'aliens' ["I'll buckle you in for the ride"] Reeves pulled the first strap up and strapped the mecha down against the platform.

 

[Eistheid]

As she watched the odd pair of an alien and a small silver haired Nepleslian set to work, the cargo drone loading, and placing the bulk of the crippled frame onto its support surface Tamamo had for the moment forgotten that she was easily visible. Drawn out of her solitude by the sound of her name, she spoke up responding to the greeting, request, and statement of purpose with a trio of confirmations chirped in Yamatai-go before moving to leap up onto the cargo drone. Landing softly, the small girl moved to the opposite side of the frame and began working to strap down any loose components of the damaged vehicle, taking advantage of the ties built into the drone as she slowly made her way around the craft.

With her task done, Tamamo came to pause near Reeves, keeping herself close to the Nepleslian as she looked out toward the Rigs glad that it was another unpleasantly sunny day in the coastal town. It would have been marginally harder to keep the small Nepleslian on the cargo drone otherwise. At least this way it would be easy to keep him secured if need be. Settling into a relaxed stance, Tamamo gave a final look over the frame before signalling to Reeves that she was ready to go with a simple thumbs up. Once their chariot took to the air, she supposed she'd have to make a call to Echelon, Luca, and the people at platforms Beta and Gamma to let them know what they had in store.

 

[Phe0n1x]

Kuzman nodded his thanks at Reeves and assured Duk'Nukam that "the weird contraption they were attached to made him look even cooler" and that "no, he didn't know if the new person called 'Tamamo' could shoot lasers from their eyes." Kuzman himself was rather nervous, though he attempted not to show it. To be quite frank, he was overwhelmed. He was on an alien word full of supposedly helpful aliens and quite far from home. Probably even unreachable by his current standards of transportation. Specifically his beat up frame attached to a cargo hauler. Things were not looking up, he just hoped Reeves and the new person, Tamamo, had good intentions. It would be a shame if they did not, because he was essentially stranded on this planet and becoming a murderer would not be a good way to start a fresh beginning.

 

[Luca]

Sargasso, Spaceport
With Tamamo and Reeves safely on the drone and their cargo secure, the drone begun lifting the stricken VANDR into the air, overthrusting to make sure it was able to clear the ground, then clear the spaceport's top level. Once well above the hexagonal building, the craft started to hover lazily over the Rig Bight and towards the intended target.

Tamamo's call to Beta platform was met with a simple message back. "Understood, we'll designate a dropoff area on Beta Platform once we can confirm visual. Can you describe what you're dropping off in the meantime?" The drone was moving quick enough for the sharp-eyed cameras and binoculars of people on Alpha and Delta platforms to spot the large craft. "Tamamo, what is that...? We can't recognise the make. I'll consult Delta's intel."


The Rigs, Delta Platform, Library
Echelon got the call from Tamamo and paused for a moment as she was near Zeta. "4H. T4M4M0'S C0M1NG B4CK T0 TH3 R1GS W1TH..." She appeared to pause. "W41T. WH4T 1S TH4T?" She feared that she might have to cut her lesson short and let the soldiers figure it out for themselves. "Z3T4, S0M3TH1NG W31RD C0M3S TH1S W4Y. 1 N33D T0 G0 CH3CK 1T 0UT."

There was nothing stopping Zeta from following along to see what the fuss was, and indeed, some of the soldiers noticed Echelon's haste to exit the library, wondering what would come of the lesson. Some of them were content to keep studying, but those who'd either reached a reasonable end or were distracted got up and followed her, curious. The Lorath soldiers near Noppera and Calico watched a few people move past their table. "What's happening?" One of them asked, another of them got up, roused by the activity.

Upon the top deck of Delta Platform, they could see the cargo drone carrying the Iroma-made Frame towards the Rigs. Some of them grabbed binoculars to inspect who was controlling it. They could see three people. "HUH. WH4T D1D TH3 F0X DR4G 1N...?" Echelon wondered aloud as she spotted Tamamo, Reeves, and the unknown in the pilot's seat. As she watched them, she was plumbing the archives for anything that resembled the frame.

An incident on Asura a couple of years back provided some amateur photographs of silhouettes resembling that of the mecha, but she had no name for the thing or any idea of its capabilities as it was carried over the bridge between Alpha and Delta. The drone was starting to lower a little, and a figure holding marshalling wands could be seen on the top deck of Beta platform from a distance, waving the drone closer to an area marked with a hologram - into a landing bay inside of the platform.

Once the drone was hovering over the designated section, it started lowering itself gently, and laid the Mecha down inside of the platform. Support personnel were on standby, looking at the thing, exchanging glances, whispers, speculation as to what the thing was, or if they were even capable of fixing it. They'd never seen anything like it before. Reeves and Tamamo seemed to be the ones in control here, having brought it in.

 

[Eistheid]

The Rigs, Beta Platform

As they had flown in under Reeves' control, Tamamo had kept her eyes on their destination Beta Platform. While her eyes were visibly engaged, her other senses were free to wander largely the sound of wind, and the smell of sea spray, little things. Given that she was just a secondary companion to this whole operation, Tamamo was quick to set up some groundwork with the PSG, Luca, and Echelon once again broadcasting an encrypted digital message to all relevant parties.

"Lock down Aiesu immediately, and set checkpoints at all points of entry to Beta, all bridges leaving Alpha, and ready a guard detail for Beta's main building. We have an unknown Frame, belonging to an unrecognized species. Reeves seems friendly with them however... I believe that he can function as an interpreter. This is Reeves' find, and I think it would be best to let them handle it... I just happened upon the scene." There was a pause before Tamamo added, "I'll help secure the location at Beta until we have things sorted out."

Sighing softly as she finished her report, never having enjoyed playing the part of the soldier, Tamamo briefly glanced at Reeves before hopping down from the cargo drone and directing the onlooker's attention to Reeves indicating that he was in charge. Taking a few steps away from the drone, and nearing one of the walls, Tamamo turned so that she could watch most of the bay that they had landed in while presenting no opportunity for someone to come up behind her. This find was rather sensitive she supposed, it would be best if it was handled right... Preferably by someone who actually had authority or a sense of leadership.

 

[miss_story]

Sargasso Space Port -->Rigs Platform Beta

Reeves had systematically strapped his side of the mecha to the drone. Once all the passengers were secure on top of the OHand S nightmare of a drone, Reeves lifted off and began the journey to the rigs. He was honestly glad that Tamamo had happened upon them. That meant that She could handle most of the communications and get in touch with the PSG while he merely had to focus on driving the drone safely to their destination. His legs curled underneath themselves as he directed the drone to move using the application on his comm, so that was yet another reason for him to be happy for the extra help.

His bangs and loose strands of hair fluttered in front of his face as they moved briskly over the water. His lips were screwed up in a half concentrated smirk. When they finally reached the Rig he directed the drone to land, making sure to take any extra directions from the party of people who were waiting for them to land. Once they were stable again he unstrapped himself and removed the transport straps from Nuk'Dukam. ["No Worries, They just want to make sure we are safe"] Reeves told the pair softly, while he climbed over the frame's legs to get at the other side.

The little technician jumped down from the side of the drone and lowered the frame onto the landing area in front of the cargo transport drone. Reeves gave a little thumbs up to the members of the PSG that were securing the area. He understood these were necessary precautions, especially with all the rotten luck they have been having as a group lately. ["Are you okay?"] He asked trying to gauge the Iroma's state of mind.

 

[Phe0n1x]

Kuzman looked blankly at Reeves for a few, short moments. [[I honestly don't know. It's a lot to take in. So far from home.....]] he trailed off at the end, looking up at the sky.

In the mean time Duk'Nukam had picked up a few choice words to scare the locals for fun with phrases such as "FEAR ME", "I AMD THE ENDER OF DAYS", and "ALL YOUR PINK FLESH ARE BELONG TO US". Kuzman wondered if Duk'Nukam had manged to hack his way into some dictionary on a nearby device for new words as Kuzman didn't understand many of the phrases.

 

[Moogle]

As Luca went away, Seiren couldn't help but to feel like he hardly had his idol's attention. He tried not to let this get to him, but he could feel it in his weighing in his stomach as he went topside to jump platforms.

The inventor breathed deep. Took a running leap. His gauntlet formed over his hand, the disc in the middle spooling up - and then bounced him once, twice, three times over the large gap between the command and science rigs. He landed with a roll, and then miraculously upright - that device outstretched as he stood perfectly straight.

And then he descended into the labs, to teach some science scrubs how to really science their science.