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

PSG Headquarters - Combat Training Room

Soruk let out a long sigh, burying his face into his palm for a moment before regarding the rookie before him. The young Nepleslian averted his eyes, looking at the floor with a guilty expression. His sand-colored hair covered his emerald green eyes partially. On the floor between them was a training knife. It was still made of metal, but wasn’t very sharp.

Soruk gestured to the knife, “Come on, pick it up. You’ll learn eventually.” He was starting to regret offering his expertise to the PSG. He swore none of them had wielded a blade in their life, even something as small as a knife. They were all off at the ‘range’ firing guns. Soruk opted to practice on dummies or a partner, if there was someone willing. Still, on some days, some PSG trooper would ask for a lesson and they all ended up like this. Well, most of them.

Soruk crossed his arms, nodding, “We don’t have all day… Jack…Saumarez, right?” The Nepleslian called Jack nodded, leaning down to scoop the knife off the floor, “Yes sir, that’s me.” Jack held the knife with the blade pointing up, prompting another sigh from Soruk. “Well Jack, you aren’t going to do much if you hold it like that.” The gartagen reached for his right shoulder, unsheathing the knife resting there. He proceeded to flip the knife in his hand, pointing the blade outwards and slightly back, “If you hold it like that…” He nodded to Jack’s training knife, “... you can’t really do anything. That’s how you hold a longer blade… like a sword.”

Soruk strolled up to a dummy, proceeding to slash by driving his arm forward, then plunging the blade into the soft pillow, “That’s usually how you want to use a knife. Quick and clean.” Jack nodded enthusiastically, “Yes sir!” Soruk returned his blade to its sheathe, gesturing to the dummy, “You try.”

Jack proceeded to approach the dummy, taking a deep breath before mimicking Soruk’s demonstration. His form was a bit off, but that could be fixed. The blademaster nodded, “Much better. At least you didn’t drop it. Feel free to come back, if you want further instruction.” Jack nodded, offering his thanks before heading off to join a group of his fellows, launching into a upbeat conversation with them. Soruk took a seat on a bench, taking a break from practice and training, “He’ll get somewhere, some day.”

Reeves kept a soft smile on his lips, trying to make sure his guest wasn't horribly stressed. ["Okay ..."] He trailed off awkwardly. It was then when a mechanical voice rose up from Nuk'Dukam. A heat formed on the pale technician's face. He gritted his teeth together and took a deep breath. "Idiot, what are you doing?" he hissed slapping his hand down forcefully onto one of the loose plates of the frame's right leg. "I'll fetch you a proper dictionary if you stop that." his mismatched eyes bore into Nuk'Dukam not hiding his irritation with the AI's behavior. He didn't want to be blamed for any sort of panic or problem with the PSG. This was his find and he felt responsible for anything they did. At least until Luca or one of the higher ranked members of the Phoenix crew decided to step in.

The Rigs, Delta Platform, Library

Calico did her best to respond to the qualms of the Lorath personnel, but it was hard going trying to make a story interesting whilst cutting out all of the nuanced lingo. Explaining why a horror story was spooky was often akin to explaining why a joke was funny. It was self-defeating. The automatic translator was never going to help with words that didn't technically exist in other languages.

Leaning back. Looking up into the ceiling for a moment, whilst she pondered a more easily condensed bundle of answers.

The train of thought was interrupted suddenly by the distant sound of a hovering aircraft of some kind, along with the chatter and commotion of those in the room who had noticed it first. The cyborg opened her eyes again, but it clearly took a moment to discern what was a daydream and what wasn't, before she finally righted herself and stood up to get a gander out of the window for herself.

Some kind of... Giant human body?... Just a silhouette. Her mundane eyes weren't nearly good enough to make out any features.

A secret weapon of the PSG, mid-testing, perhaps?... No, Echelon seemed just as surprised as the rest of them. Unless there was some kind of secret organisation within the PSG, like one of those Yamatai giant robot team shows. But an independent military front for an independent military organisation seemed a little redundant, surely... Alien tech that they didn't what to share, maybe?...

A bloodhound-like urge to follow the narrative gripped her senses. Calico knew she had to avoid rocking the boat with her new employers by asking too many questions, but also had a deeply imbued desire to run off, and get to the bottom of the case.

"Echelon, Sir-Ma'am..." Another blurted address, also giving a vague respectful glance towards the other cyborg woman who now stood in vague proximity. "Would you mind me asking what that is? I don't recognize the configuration."

The Rigs, Delta Platform, Top Deck
"1TS S0M3 S0RT 0F 4L13N FR4M3," Echelon replied to Calico and a handful of other soldiers who were trying to piece together what was going on. "TH3 GUYS WH0 M4D3 1T 4R3 FR0M F4R 4W4Y, BUT TH3Y'V3 V1S1T3D H3R3 B3F0R3, 0NC3 0R TW1C3." She made no specific reference to the incident on Asura, but she had an idea of what went down there when she got the message from Tamamo to restrict Aiesu's movement. "S0L1D C0PY, T4M. SH3'S 1N M3DB4Y. 1'LL M4K3 SUR3 SH3 ST4YS - W41T, LUC4'S TH3R3."

The reports and footage Tamamo could view of Aiesu had shown she'd stayed almost exclusively on Alpha Platform since the Lorath research team had arrived, leaving only to 'sleep', eat the barest minimum of food, or answer summons from Luca or Echelon. Even then, this news of a VANDR on deck could sway her loyalty. With news that Luca was in the medbay keeping Aiesu busy though, that was an excellent distraction for the delivery of the VANDR. "Y34H, H3 G0T TH1S."

Echelon's answer didn't keep all the soldiers curiosities in line, with some of them breaking off to see what was going to happen on Delta platform, willing to jog all the way there across the bridges. This left the reading group's numbers gutted, but Echelon figured it was pretty close to wrapping up anyway. The learning session had been going for about four hours. "1'M S3ND1NG J0HN Y0UR W4Y W1TH Y0UR GU4RD D3T41L." She messaged to Tamamo privately.


The Rigs, Gamma Platform, Laboratory
Seiren could see the smartly casual or lab-coated PSG members at odds with each other over some new designs they were hashing out together. With the pint sized inventor's arrival, they both stood to attention and saluted him. "Ah. Mr. Isbala. We were expecting you," one of the technicians, a Nepleslian gunsmith from the Majestic system with little prior combat experience acknowledged the kid.

One of the other researchers, a Minkan who formerly worked in EOD for the police in Yamatai and got a taste of making the bombs himself when they went from bounty hunter outfit to outfit also approached. "What've you got in mind? This lightning problem's been stumping us for a bit."

A whiteboard off to one side was detailing their production process, and Seiren could scrutinise it or add some of his own details. Off to another side were computers, and a chemicals mixing table with a safety hood and other measures in it. For really sensitive chemicals, there was a transparent durandium box with a pair of rubber gloves leading inside of it. Empty grenade casings, quickly fabricated to get an idea of shape and size were laying around on a bench.

To Seiren, it was like being a kid in a candy store, with the shopkeepers following his orders.


The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it
The PSG soldiers were reluctant to approach the mecha, some of them even stepping away from the alien. Weirder still was Reeves - not the most physically imposing member of the Phoenix team - slapping the thing and telling it to shut up.

One of the soldiers stepped forward. "What are we supposed to do with this?" They asked, before looking at Kuzman. "And who is that?"

They didn't know what sort of being they were, where they came from, what their motivations were. Pretty much all the PSG team knew is that suddenly something that'd crash landed in Sargasso's spaceport was being put here. Even though it was Sargasso's problem, the service group appeared to be the cleanup team.

And, as it'd happen, the first contact for a poorly understood alien species too - but the soldiers were simply not trained for it. Some of the Support mechanics in the crowd looked at the VANDR, one of them wondering aloud: "How are we going to fix that? Do the materials even exist here?"
Another question: "How does it know Trade?"
Yet another: "Is it some sort of AI living in the mecha?"
"Does it know why soldiers go crazy for the taste of Antimatter-O's?"

The questions kept coming and cascaded over Reeves and Tamamo, becoming increasingly desperate until John arrived - a small contingent of armed soldiers at his back to guard the VANDR. "Order, order," he said, raising hands for calm as he looked over to Reeves and Tamamo, and the Iromakuanhe. "Care to tell me what's going on?" he asked, sizing the stricken frame up as he wondered why all the weird things came his way. He was half expecting the VANDR to give him a reply too.


-


The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Medical Room
Luca had to go through a series of plastic curtains to the cordoned off section of the medical facilities where his long-term patient was residing. Well, sort of residing, Luca didn't even know if they could feel anything, approximately eight or nine months after that clusterfuck on Kennewes. He kept an eye out for the LSDF researchers, and quietly hoped they had something...

Kaen was walking paces in his mind with eyes burned by coffee's days as he tapped numbers into a console at strange hours of the night still jetlagged by the differences in Nepleslian and Lorath days. During the time he'd gone to the trouble of shaving his head after a close scare with biomatter they only had a half understanding of.

Oh, it had grown back but he'd been left with a silver streak down one side and the experience had prematurely aged him fifteen years mentally. Hips lips, though flat were bent into a frown - eyes dented by heavy furrowed brows as he took a bite from Nepleslian jerky. From the looks of the mesh bin at his side, he'd developed a taste for it.

It took a moment for Kaen to lift his gaze, fatherly older features warm and quiet as he gave Luca a nod of recognition over the eclipsing rim of his console. "You rang?" Luca asked as he stayed by the doorframe into the quarantine area's innermost sanctum. He was eager for news, though his reserved body language didn't show it.

"Oh, right," Kaen said, trying to hurry the jerky - working his jaw. He hit the console, index thumping several keys before motioning for Luca to come closer. The captain approached and stood behind the researcher, looking at the console and waiting for the Lorath to point out what was the interesting part, since he couldn't interpret the imagery. Kaen's Trade had improved dramatically over the months.

"There's a fissure," he said, huffing a slow sigh with firm eyes as he skimmed through some photographs they'd taken hours ago, presenting an image from some sort of scanning system. It looked like a holographic x-ray - the angle of the photo affecting the image inside as if it had depth. There had been squiggles in pen over it that moved with the photograph of the marble's interior.

Like broken bones. Little black cracks: a tree of gap inside it.

"Here, here. You see that? It appeared a few hours ago." Luca leaned in and craned his neck, frowning. He recognised the cracked item: The Maesus. As Aiesu's documentation had explained, it was analogous to the brain, but he wasn't able to piece together much more than that.

Aiesu never touched on what happened if it broke - they both assumed Rebeka was invincible. "Any... changes from this?" Luca asked, drumming his fingers against the table nervously. "What happens if it breaks?"

"We don't know. It could be like snapping a circuit, it could be like amputation... We honestly don't know. So we're playing all this by ear. Snapping is inevitable, we just need to be ready to move it to a nutrient bath to recover. But, like a burn victim, we don't want to do it until we absolutely have to in an emergency - moving a hurt animal like this could do more damage than good."

Luca looked away from the console for a moment, towards where the patient was stored. "She's not an animal," he mumbled.

"Oh, I don't mean her. She's the combined product of three animals. Like... A relationship is two people together. She's a relationship. But that part of her, is a seperate animal with a seperate genome from the rest of her. Think of it as coral piloting a jellyfish full of micillium. That's maesus, pricora and structol. All different animals, but together a big thing, like one of those man o wars I've seen in the bay."

The explanation made Luca blink and his mind wondered over to where Aiesu was and if she'd decided to cut her losses at this point. A brief message in his ear from Echelon told him to keep her contained. "Where's Dr. Kalopsia and Dr. Ioru, just out of curiosity?" A hunch was telling him the two knew each other somehow - maybe the way Lalah wound up Aiesu.

"Ioru's burnt out. Kalopsia hasn't stopped in sixty one days. Round here, we call her the machine: No sleep, no nothing: do you know something about her that I don't? Whatever she's taking, I want some."

"You really don't." Luca stated firmly, shaking his head. "Keep Aiesu here, though-" he added as he glanced up from the desk and saw two sentries in place at the entrance of the quarantine gates. There wasn't any need for guards or armed security before, but something had obviously spooked the Service Group Kaen was working under. "Pay no mind. Since that attack from the Sunburns a while ago we're beefing up security." A convenient and convincing white lie.

He knew if Aiesu knew she was forbidden from doing something, it'd spur her on. With a little silence hanging in the air, Luca asked one last question. "So, can I see her?"

"Like you have to ask," Kaen said, rising slowly from his chair. He was soon fishing through a drawer for a large blue suit: loose and baggy. He tossed another, vacuum sealed and wrapped to Luca, already stepping into his own.

"We've got to take precautions for obvious reasons. Suit up." Luca took his jacket off and hung it up on the wall, revealing more of the articulated breastplate he wore under his jacket. Notably, the right arm of the jacket was rolled up to make more room for the Grapple Stunner. Of course, that was no longer visible once he got dressed in the hazmat gear, now seeing the world through a sheet of clear plastic, a skull cap resting on his head to ensure it remained balanced on his head.

Luca gave Kaen a nod once all the straps, zippers, and seals were in secure. The way he moved around it shown he'd worn a radiation suit at least once or twice in the past.

"She's been in there long enough to not need to detox. See, the threat isn't us; it's your friend. See, the guts of a person carry pathogens. You're immune to your own pathogens but other people's would kill you. Her pathogens are nothing like ours. Aiesu's ... Ah. Hello," he said through his clear bag like helmet, watching the doctor as he stepped through the cloudy zipock bag doorway.

They stood apart: Luca and Kaen in blue plastic suits with curled hoses connected to the ceiling pumping in air hissing loudly in positive pressure suits.

And Aiesu stood in nothing but casuals, plastic gloves and an apron - goggles riding her forehead like a visor.

Following the awkward silence, she spoke up:

"You're giving the medication speech"?

Kaen looked from Aiesu to Luca and back again.

"N--"

"My medication already negates pricora contamination or structol poisoning. It depends on what's called the heinflect response. Mine's one fourth yours and one sixtenth his. My immune system works faster than pricora can piggyback my cellular mytosis. Not that you care. So you finally grace us with your presence. Did you want something?"

Luca was doing the math really quickly, resisting the urge to count on his fingers. One fourth, one sixteenth ... eh, numbers. He groaned internally. "Patient checkup, I guess. Heard the Maesus cracked." He paused for a bit to adjust himself in the baggy blue suit, wondering how even Kaen could get comfortable in these. "Your prognosis?"

"You're asking me? You told him, didn't you?"

"Yes, of course I did."

"Just getting a second opinion from the rabbit's mouth." Luca said.

"Casual racism. Nice," Aiesu said, removing her gloves - eyes bolted square on Luca. "I see I'm rubbing off on you."

"You certainly rubbed off on her too, but we're trying to fix that, aren't we?" He said. By we, he meant just her, exclusively.

"You know how the brain of most mammals has white matter and gray matter? Stuff that does work, stuff that connects. She's making connective stuff where thinking stuff should be. If she's a country, she's undergoing a coup. We don't really know what it means, we just have to play by ear. Its wrapped around a pocket of new material that's been expanding for a while. Like cancer, but its thinking cancer - a brain within a brain."

"Given that the brain surrounding it has been smashed to bits, could it be a new brain, eating the old one for strength or something?"

"Well, the laws of entropy say you can't replicate the structures if you do that. That's like trying to backup a hard drive by over-writing your own hard drive."

Luca thought for a moment. He'd had a few encounters with reading and writing data, and knew a bit of it from Echelon. "What if they're not trying to replicate anything, and are building something similar, but not exactly the same?"

"Then the old stuff is going to die."

He drummed his fingers against his hip. "Have you examined the new stuff?"

"The stuctures don't resemble anything we're familiar with. Its white-matter equivalent. Connective gumf."

Rebeka doesn't resemble anything we're familiar with! Luca mumbled. "Gumf?" He wondered. "So you're saying that whatever lizard brain's in Rebeka, along with the critters in her is creating a completely new structure which isn't like what you've seen previously."

"Oh, we've seen it. Its the stuff connecting her brain to her body. It can't think, its just wiring, no switches. I'm debating removing it, but that's your call given she's legally in your custody."

He gave this some thought, standing there for a few minutes as he debated the possibilities of what could happen. On the one hand, something was regenerating. On the other hand, it could've been nothing. They paced around the room, looking out the plastic-wrapped, tinted window into the ocean. "Keep it." He declared. Luca wanted to see what came about of it.

"Why hasn't the boy visited?"

Luca turned around with a raised eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"The boy, Isbala," she wasn't happy. "He spent the most time with her."

"Keep him out of this." Luca frowned. "He's been avoiding the subject."

"He's the best shot at getting a response. Don't let him be selfish."

Luca had already sent them to Gamma platform though. "Next time he's on Alpha I'll get someone to nudge him over," he couldn't give away that Aiesu was under watch.

"Right. Well, functionally I can't leave this room. And nobody can come in here without your precautions. What was the noise earlier about?"

He looked over to Kaen and wondered if Aiesu still wore the pants around him. As for the noise, Luca treaded carefully. "Whole stack of deliveries came in. Just vehicles."

"So that wasn't gunfire? I haven't been able to get hold of you for months."

"Running this place is hard work. I had to oversee a recovery from when the Sunnies attacked us and write a whole lot of obituaries a couple of months back." Luca fast-talked her with everything he had been doing to cut her line of inquiry off, leaving out any mention of SAINT's involvement. "Plus, we're getting a lot of clients and jobs - we're barely on top of demand, but we've got cash and resources flowing out of our ears."

The same money was letting Aiesu and the LSDF research team do their job with a blank cheque, essentially. "Shame we didn't get a medical platform together at the start, but that's startup business for you. It's on the books next time we expand."

"Right. Well, I'm about half way through my operational life-span at this point. I've started keeping a diary, which you're welcome to go through. Given this one's life might depend on it, I don't think there's room for secrets anymore." she glanced aside, taking readings before writing something on a whiteboard and moving a sticky note.

Luca noticed something as she was writing and moving sticky notes around on the board. She had... a little more jiggle than usual. He perished the thought at first since it was plain unprofessional, but he couldn't ignore it after a while. She was a rake before, but now she had a bit of flesh on her. "Despite everything you've been doing, you look pretty healthy recently, Aiesu." It sounded more like an observation than a comment to the Lmanel's ears.

"I'm 6.2 inches taller too, but you didn't notice that," she said, dismissing him with a casual response. "A happy birthday would have been nice. The staffers here have taken to calling me Poe behind my back. They didn't know I'd noticed but someone like me has eyes and ears everywhere I work."

Kaen's lips tightened into a flat smile, eyes weak and apologetic like a dog expecting to be struck.

Aiesu regarded him for a moment, down the length of her nose.

"I've been experimenting with my aspectation to kill time. Very very small alterations I couldn't make if I were stock like the real thing. Poe'tis is a good balance, much to the disgust of the staffers who suspected it but didn't really know."

Poe'tis? Like, a Lorath greyhound/pig dog? Luca kept a grin under his hat. "Well, variety's the spice of life, right?"

"I guess that makes me limited edition. I think given the neurodivergence is far enough to barely pass OPSCURUS now, I'm practically my own person so why hold up an impression of someone I'll never meet?"

"There you go." Luca nodded. "That's what Echelon made ya. Your -own- person."

Kaen clearly had no working understanding of what the two were talking about.

"That's... Not Dr. Kalopsia? Mr. Palvone?"

"Pavone," she corrected. Luca was surprised that Aiesu had wrapped her head around the pronunciation. She always fumbled it.

"Its a very long story."

"Well, I'm Lorath. I love long stories." That wasn't the answer Luca wanted to hear, but he did pull up a chair and indulge them...

The Rigs, Delta Platform (Calico's mind)

It wasn't too hard to slip away from the others, taking a divergent route -away- from the scene of commotion and then playing monkey bars along the bottom of the bridge. The baroque but endearing ivory girl had to hold her breath, as salty sea air was forced into her lungs by the speed alone, but super human strength made the task a miraculously simple endeavor. She had performed the maneuver thousands of times on thousands of different covert operations, a success rate higher than any other agent.

Perhaps they would get in trouble for this little escapade, that was true. But the truth was something that lusted to be set free, and Calico Monoceros was a slave to that universal justice.

The myriad security cameras around the outside of the complex only served to catch a glimpse of her valkyrie-like flowing metal beauty, as she then darted up the side of the platform, and observed the true nature of the abomination that lurked within. Something from beyond the veil of sleep, something giant and evil, not meant for the eyes of mere unthinking mortals...

Calico Monoceros was then immediately arrested, and thrown into a anti-cyborg cell with EMP cuffs and plasteel walls three meters thick, seeing as all those cameras couldn't have failed to recognize the giant ass googly eyed thing resembling only a single person on their staff. Who was now acting remarkably like a spy.

The Rigs, Delta Platform (Reality)

Suddenly hiccuping and dropping her glasses for almost no apparent reason, Calico took a moment to clean them off before addressing her freespacer companion again.

"Far away, you say? Most perturbing." The strange and awkward looking composite woman just shrugged, a little jaded about not wanting to rock the boat so soon after being employed. "I'll see if anybody else has heard of any rumors for UFO sightings in the area recently..."

Half-truth. She told the remaining Lorath personnel and Noppera about where to find her cabin in case they wanted to pick this lesson up later, then made her way to the bridge to platform beta, mostly just following the crowds and commotion. Searching for adequate information began with questioning parties that were actually interested in such things, right?

The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it

Reprimand ignored, Reeves could almost feel the eye roll Nuk'Dukam gave to him. [[Well, if you insist. That would be easier than hacking the open frequencies out of boredom.]]

Kuzman glared at Nuk'Dukam before responding to Reeves, [[Thank you, since I'm here for the long haul, I'd like to learn more.]]

Kuzman was nearly overwhelmed by the distinct difference in technology and attire these "Nepleslians" possessed. While these folks were advanced in their own right, they were missing some of the more intricately advanced technology that the Iroma possessed. The questions being lobbed his direction were too quickly spoken for Kuzman to answer, let alone understand. He was warry of the military types standing around, but he assumed it was for his protection as well as any visitors. Understandably, he was a mite bit on edge with them around. Though from Reeves' demeanor towards them, he assumed the military types were safe enough.

The ego-centrist known colloquially as "Nuk'Dukam" was excited by all of the questions directed at him. Granted, he couldn't tell what these excited little creatures were saying as their speech pattern was far too quick for him as of yet and he had yet receive the dictionary from Reeves. However, he did understand John quite well. Nuk'Dukam's sensors seemed to flash in the light in an almost mysterious way before cheerfully blaring [[Me fall down, go boom!]] at John's question. Kuzman visibly grimaced at Nuk'Dukam's answer and sincerely hoped that Reeves could give a better summary of the situation than his frame.

Seiren surveyed the lab carefully. It was impressive what Luca and John had built in such a short time, turning abandoned rigs into a fully-fledged base of operations. Still, it wasn't like it was made for Seiren, so of course there were things that didn't quite suit his needs. But that was a stylistic preference, not anything he could fault the PSG for.

"Well, first of all. . ." the inventor said, walking up to the counter with all the grenades on it - grabbing a bin along the way. He calmly sweeped his arm along it and put all of the casings into the bin. "I can already tell you that these won't work. I already did all the math on this before, but. . . well, it's a pain in the ass. First of all, you need an electromagnet and gold wiring and a whole bunch of other expensive metals to keep the whole thing from exploding prematurely while it's being filled. And the shape of the thing can't be a like a regular grenade, because it'll just crack like an egg."

He set his datapad on the counter and turned it on, projecting a shape he then sculpted into a bevelled octahedron. "This'll do a better job, especially if the magnets are distributed onto each of the little diamonds."

The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it

"Just make sure things are secure in the hangar until I can talk to Luca or John, That's Kuzman. He is new to these parts. " He explained to the soldiers in his best, 'I've got this handled' voice.

The little Nepleslian forced a smile, despite the sour look he was giving the VANDR. At least they stopped spouting ludicrous threatening phrases. Reeves twisted his hair up into a bun, and chewed his lip in concentration as he accessed his personal files. He scanned through file-names on his data-pad pausing on a Trade/ dictionary table that he hadn't opened in over a year. It was buried deep among other linguistic files on his personal file server. Something he had stolen from an old shipmate. [["Can you take this wirelessly?"]] Reeves waved off the support mechanics' questions for now, because he either did not know all the answers or he was... no, he didn't know most of the answers.

Reeves looked thoroughly relieved when John arrived in the hangar. "David called me over to the port when these two appeared in one of his shipping bays. I'm not sure how they got there, but I don't think they really know either. " He looked back to the pair and gestured to them with an open palmed hand. "The Frame is Nuk'Dukam, and the horned fellow is Kuzman. He is Iromakuanhe, and as far as I know doesn't know a word of trade. I know a little of their language so I've been doing my best with speaking with him. He needs Nuk'Dukam repaired or repurposed, and is willing to work to get it done. I think he wants to get home." The small man looked a little out of breath when he finished talking. Today had more than enough social interaction for him. he had probably filled his quota ten times over by now. He turned to Kuzman and took a few more breaths to steady himself before talking again. [["Kuzman, this is John"]] The simple introductory phrase had two names in it, so Everyone listening in could probably understand what he was telling the horned male. "Please tell me we can help him."

The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it

With John's arrival and his call for order the voices of the curious and edgy PSG members had slowly quieted down. As they had done so toward the back of the room the faint sound of music could be heard. During the brief interactions between Reeves, the alien, the mech, and John it seemed that Tamamo had pulled out a communicator, and had set about playing a y-pop rhythm game. The cheerful voices sang out just loud enough for the song to carry but not quite enough to make out the lyrics, giving an odd background to the introductions while her small armoured fingertips tapped away at the screen.

That she hadn't been paying attention would have been a generous misinterpretation, one that she had happily supplied to all those present. They didn't need to know how closely she had been paying attention to the situation, nor did they need to know how much she had already pieced together. For now the small not-quite-a-Nekovalkyrja would content herself with the suggestion that she was occupied with a game. Then John could decide what to do, and Reeves could make proper introductions all around.

Hopefully things wouldn't get serious.

[[Scanning frequencies. Yes!]] "ALL YOUR SQUISHY PINK KNOWLEDGE--", Kuzman smacked the big red Mute Speakers button and nodded at Reeves. "Thank. You."

Kuzman pressed the mute button again [[Please, for once.....just don't spout random phrases and listen to the people in charge so we don't get our asses blown up due to your stupidity.]] Kuzman had had enough of his VANDR's attitude today after all that had happened. [[This is obviously someone at least moderately important. Maybe he can help us,]] he said to Nuk'Dukam who pouted and solemnly agreed.

"Hello. John. I Kuzman," he smiled nervously at the new arrival. He changed his mind, this man was quite a bit more than "moderately" in charge.

The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it
"Kuzman, pleased to meet you." John replied after a moment's hesitation with how to word what he was saying, nodding and looking over to the large, mouthy mecha with a hint of annoyance before turning attention back to the iromakuanhe. "This is the base of operations of the Phoenix Service Group, you're on a planet called Nepleslia Prime," he explained. Kuzman noticed that this Nepleslian was wearing sunglasses indoors, and looking through the polarised lenses, his eyes looked ... broken.

John initially neglected to tell the Iroma what they did, looking away for a moment to see where the Y-Pop was coming from before making a sharp 'oh' and filling the gap quickly. "We're mercenaries, but we can help you - we're very good at solving problems." He said, stopping short of lapsing into an advertising spiel. "Our leader's a bit busy at the moment but you'll meet him soon." He put his index fingers just above his ears, and made a sweep downwards following his jawline, mimicking sideburns. "Can't miss him."

Shortly after John wrapped up, Calico had come in, mulling over data about the Iromakuanhe. Unfortunately, she didn't have the clearance to see what Echelon was seeing regarding the Iroma, but she was able to find sporadic news reports about an incident at Asura. She was able to get some UFO reports from here and there in the Nepleslian colonies, but nothing concrete came about aside from blurry amateur video and phenomena that could've been doctored. All things considered though, she had the real thing standing right in front of her.

One of the PSG support crew approached Kuzman, a little more confident. "Fix?" He asked, pointing to the VANDR.


The Rigs, Gamma Platform, Laboratory
The designers and engineers were watching Seiren call the shots. One of them drew up the shape Seiren had proposed on a whiteboard, the bevelled octahedron. It was a very distinct shape. "Hmm, I suppose with some ribbing it'd be easy to hold this shape." She said, drawing some indentations into it, much like a regular fragmentation grenade. "Do we put the activation mechanism on one of the flat surfaces?"

Someone else was overlaying the positions of the magnets Seiren had proposed. "Hmm. I think these are going to be a fairly costly venture..." The Nepleslian thought aloud, tapping their foot. However, he was used to working in an environment with limited resources and funding. In PSG, he had more than he knew at his fingertips if the Phoenix's whim demanded it.

"Do you have any footage of what your proposed device does in action, Mr. Isbala?" The Yamataian asked. "It'd help if we had a visual."

Reeves didn't glance over at Tamamo as she played her rhythm game. If they needed her assistance she wouldn't be far away, but for now things were realatively quiet. Figuratively that is. With the crowd's murmurs and Nuk'Dukam's sporadic outbursts things were actually fairly loud.

He couldn't help smirking when Kuzman muted his VANDR. He managed to catch some of their conversation but, as usual unless they were deliberately talking to him slowly it was very difficult to translate. [["You are welcome"]] He gave Kuzman a little nod really hoping that the files he gave the pair would help them.

He let John explain the situation further, hoping that they understood what he was saying. Now that they had a proper dictionary they might be able to have Nuk'Dukam 'quietly' translate for him.

The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Top Deck
Returning from the wilderness around Mt. Sargasso, a shuttle with the PSG logo landed on the main pad, hatch opening upwards and outwards. Out stepped a handful of PSG soldiers carrying sniper rifles and Spotter Rifles, and covered in dirt stains, grass smears, loose leaves, and smelling like burnt cordite. With them was Melissa, who had overseen training the first generation of PSG Scouts.

Liberated from duty, Melissa dismissed the lot of them with a typical Delsaurian slur and lit up a cigarette on the top deck, near a door into a lounge. After a while, she took her hat off and gave her hair a rub, realising she needed a shower, and picking out a bug that'd snuck between her hair and her hat with a grumble of annoyance.

She hadn't heard about what was going on with the VANDR, but seeing people running around told her something was up. However, her desire to vege out and relax overrode her curiosity about what was going on.

Kuzman nodded his thanks at John before turning towards the PSG crew. "Fix" was not a word he knew. He hadn't had time to decipher the file sent by Reeves yet, so he had to make assumptions. The man pointed towards Nuk'Dukam who was busted. Kuzman made a wrench motion and responded with "Fix?" he glanced over a Reeves to make sure he was understanding correctly.

The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it

Looming over the assorted crowd with a supreme lack of stealth, Calico couldn't resist taking notes on her datajockey, even if somebody was bound to confront her over the chance she had taken pictures of something secret. There was just too much much inspiration on offer to simply stand idle.

Some kind of purple Nekovalkyrja was playing a reverberating Y-pop tune, which to the blonde giant's uncultured ears simply sounded like a backing track to the super robot anime currently taking place in real life. Had to gawk at that one and adjust their glasses, just to convince herself that this woman was not an official part of the proceedings, or some kind of pit crew...

Short white-haired boy was talking to some kind of shiny horned man. Genetically engineered? Communication problems.

Then of course there was the giant... thing...

Was it in bad shape? Was weird hanging tubes and burn marks what the species that made it actually looked like?

Calico took a quick look left and right, before her tremendous mitts opened up a primitive paint program, and began to perform what can only be called electronic finger painting. One might of have thought she was recording the image of the strange object for prosperity, but in actuality she was just doodling possible hideous blobs that she imagined the mecha's originators to look like.

"~Metallic tubemen from the broken planes of yarzog.~" A whisper, accompanied by a subtle macabre smile. "~From the deepest depths of the planet, it was a tomb the ancient ones had intended to be sealed for all time. Little did the crew know the true horror of the unholy construct they had unearthed...~"

Seiren sighed and shook his head at the scientists. Instead, he plugged his Slate into the room's main projector and began running two things simultaneously - one of video footage, one of theoretics and diagrams.

"This is NOT."

He pointed at a training dummy that was holding one of the grenade prototypes in the footage, which began to throw underhanded, but then was destroyed in a glorious burst of electricity.

"For throwing. Don't put ribbing on these."

Seiren showed another footage, this time of transferring the fluids from one of the cans to another grenade prototype, with indentations in the surface. But then the thing came apart at the seams and blasted outwards, filling half the room with static.

"It needs perfect surfaces in order to stay stable. Sort of. It's hard to explain. This is a launcher-only item."

He flicked to another footage, showing one of the cans being lobbed at a rusted car with shielding on it - the camera had obviously been modified to see the shields fully. The lightning ate through the barrier like it was cardboard, sizzling the air, the ground, and the car, melting and warping the area.

"It's highly volatile, highly dangerous, and under no circumstances should it be mishandled. With the magnets at least, it won't explode if you shake it."

The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Top Deck
Enzo had always loved playing dress-up. Something about transforming into another person or taking up a sudden role was enchanting, and a huge part of why the conman was in fact a conman. After ducking into a supply closet he'd pulled on a PSG jumpsuit and a pair of nice leather gloves, then hidden his face with one of the scarves and a slouch hat matched with a pair of goggles. Taking an ORV from platform-to-platform, he discovered that he was dressed as some sort of inter-platform delivery man. He even took a few packages to their intended destination, just relaxing and enjoying the hum of the motor and the rich sea air. After a fashion, however, Enzo got bored and started chucking boxes off the side of Alpha Platform. He found a six-pack of some kind of Phoenix-branded cola in one box and was halfway through drinking one when his 'superior' came across him and gave him the sternest talking to he'd had in his career as a PSG support technician.

This marked the end of Enzo's new life as a PSG operative, and he soon abandoned his antics and made for the roof-- where fortune alone found him watching Melissa. With a soft smile, he removed the hat and lowered the scarf as he approached her. A can of the stolen cola appeared in his hand as he sat next to her and produced a pack of cigarettes.

"Hey there, beautiful." He greeted, offering one of the cans to her with a boyish grin, "I ever tells yous how much I likes it when you get dirty?"

The Rigs, Alpha Platform, Top Deck
"'eya shitrag," Melissa replied to Enzo casually as she grabbed the can with gusto, popping it open. Swearing between the two was fairly commonplace, "all the time ya tell me. Gotta say this teachin' business ain't easy. A couple 'o the recruits looked down the barrels," she grumbled, taking a drag from her cigarette, but offering Enzo a light if he wanted another. She looked at some of the rushing soldiers - the commotion had died down but there was still a sense of unease.

"What's all the ruckus 'bout? I thought I saw a big thing flying towards 'ere through th' trees." She wondered aloud to Enzo, finishing her cigarette and putting it out on the butt of her rifle, then putting the butt into a metal tin with a folding lid. She didn't want to leave those behind recklessly when she was on the job, or out and about. "You got an ear about it? Can't be arsed going to Beta Platform."


The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it
The engineer watched the Iromakuanhe make the wrenching motion and they nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, fix!" he said, grabbing a monkey wrench from his tool belt to show that he was intending to do. "We fix things here." The engineer affirmed what he did with some confidence, but looking at Duk'nukam again, he was unsure of how to go about it initially.

"Show me how?" He asked, wanting firsthand information on how this thing was put together, so it could be put back together. "My name is Horace." The engineer introduced himself, pointing to himself with his thumb. "Horace Guilemot." They were a man of smaller stature than the average Nepleslian, blue eyed, blonde haired, and had a metal-wrapped wire running from under his ear into his neck, between the shoulder blades - evidence of some cybernetics.

One of the Yamataian staff standing near Calico could see what she was painting on the digital program, raising an eyebrow quizzically. When she looked back at the VANDR, then compared it to what Calico was producing, the Yamataian woman shrugged and produced a notepad and mechanical pencil, sketching the rough shape of the VANDR, mostly getting the shapes and form down in a hurry. They'd never seen a shape like it before.


The Rigs, Gamma Platform, Laboratory
The Nepleslian scientist raised an eyebrow at Seiren's creation. A shield melting grenade? The Yamataians would have killed for something this devastating, he thought. "So you need something with a 'perfect' geometric in order to keep the mixtures stable." He repeated what Seiren had outlined, writing his own notes down as he studied the schematics and diagrams.

The Yamataian woman rubbed her chin. "So the reason it stays stable in the cans is because the cylinder's a very simple shape." She pointed out with her pen at the cylinder test. "What about a sphere, or a spike?"

Some furious scribbling was heard from the Nepleslian, who stood up and trotted over to his desk. Seiren could spot Ogres and Oubliettes miniatures on it, and a scale model of War Wyvern with a Darkrider of Soth mounting it, brandishing a flaming axe. He pulled his desk draw open and grabbed a small metal container, opening it and emptying the contents on the desk. About a score and a half of polyhedral dice, including ones with odd numbers came tumbling out.

"These are all very basic geometric shapes, you can make them with algorithms rather than 3D models." He piped up, looking over to Seiren and his coworker, who was rolling her eyes. "Ideally the less edges you got the better," he pointed to the one hundred sided dice, which was essentially a sphere full of miniscule dimples. Obviously the final product would've been a perfect sphere, but it was close enough for the point he was raising.

Reeves gave Kuzman a little affirmative nod when they made a little wrench motion while asking about the word "Yes, [fix]" It was a word he knew fairly well in both languages because his primary task on his former ship assignment was fixing things. He pulled up his dictionary to find what he wanted to say. He searched up the word schematic and practiced saying it mentally before asking Kuzman a question. ["Do you have any schematics or data for Nuk'Dukam?"]

The short technician cracked his knuckles and approached the VANDR. His eye whirred as it focused on the damage done to their body. Despite the damage he couldn't help admiring the alien engineering. Hopefully him and the rest of the support from the PSG could help restore them to working order.

The Rigs, Beta Platform, Hangar with a VANDR in it

Kuzman paused a few while he searched for the right word in his new dictionary. "Yes. Please," he said to the PSG man. "Hello. Horace. I Kuzman. Meet you, nice." He knew he was butchering the language, but he hoped he got the message across. The structure was quite different, but he thought he could get a hang of it sometime soon.....ish.

He turned to Reeves, [[Yes, I'm an aspiring Frame mechanic. Wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid.]] Truth be told, he had quite a few schematics on his wrist device, but he wasn't too keen to share any but Nuk'Dukam's specs. While he trusted Reeves at least, he had no concept of trust towards the others or their leader yet. Better to hold the cards rather than spill the beans at once.

He cleared his throat and continued, slowly [[I don't think you have all the parts. In fact, I'm almost positive you won't. We can either substitute for local pieces or downsize the Frame to an armored suit. I might have ideas for that based on some tech I'm positive you don't have yet. Stand back.]]

He looked around and took a few steps back. He spoke as confidiently as he could, "Remember. I no harm." as he released his two long blades, Ruh and Galib, from the extend-type symbiotics his forearms arms. Ruh was the longer of the two with a dark, royal blue hue while Galib was around half the size with a jet black color. Symbols of his ancestral language were etched into each of them.

[[This tech.]] he said proudly. And as to be expected, Nuk'Dukam did not approve of being smaller.