RP: YSS Eucharis [Mission 20] Strangers (Essai Dreamworld)

Natsumi's group

Natsumi frowned at the mention of hallucinogens in the fog. "Not yet" she replied to Wovoy.

She took out her communicator and signaled Chieko and Kale who were a short distance ahead. "We're getting masks, come back to us or hold there until we can bring some to you two" she said, then started back for the ship at a quick jog.

They were still right close to the Eucharis so it took only a couple minutes to make her way back up the ramp into the cargo hold and procure the needed EM-G4-1 filter masks.

Natsumi soon returned with them and began handing them out to her group. She did not like the idea that the locals were flooding the air with hallucinogens.

"I wonder why they are using hallucinogens, are they trying to get some kind of control over the residents and visitors, or maybe trying to hide something?" Natsumi asked and frowned as she pulled her own mask on.

Team Cash For Smash

Misato was about to respond with her thoughts of a massive crystalline hard-drive, when the Insectoid came in to view. She had never seen anything of the like, maybe the Insectoid wasn't part of this planet. Unless it was a trapped memory of the being.

With a hand near her hip she walked up to the being and tuning on the translation system on the same watch thing that Mitsuko was using. "Hello... Are you part of this place or another traveler?"

Natsumi's Group

"I can not think of a good reason for them to use such chemicals. The only things that come to mind is to impair judgement, or perhaps with a strong enough dosage put them into an unconscious state. They did say that they trade in dreams. Perhaps hallucinations work just as well for them, and if the person can not resist if they are unconscious." Wovoy said in response to Natumi's question.

Dreamworld Market - Hanako's Group

Hanako nodded to Sune, and then made a wireless call to Chieko. "Koizumi-Santôhei, please analyze the drugs that the nanomachines have mixed into the fog cloud and deduce what their function is. It is likely they are related to this dream economy...and I feel like it has an aphrodisiac component too. We also could use countermeasures for Nekovalkyrja and for humans, in the form of a software patch and a hypo-spray injection, although the Nekovalkyrja bodies are already adapting to counter it. There should be plenty of the drug samples available since it is everywhere, including the dew." Next, Hanako called the ship and had Victory turn the air containment force field on at the cargo bay ramp. Then she messaged Natsumi: "Watch Sienna. As a human she could be especially vulnerable to be affected by the hallucinogens."


And them, the vendors continued their business, trading items from various and unknown parts of the galaxy.

"Shosho Hanako, this is Charisma," the Eucharis' AI called. "Victory has reconfigured the ship's fabrication bay to produce the Galaxy Standard Power Cell and we are starting to make them. I wanted to advise you that the data to make them was infected with a virus program which I was able to detect and remove first. It was quite well designed and is likely to be the work of another AI."

Hanako relayed that information to Lansky and Namach.

Team Cash Cab

Mitsuko finally let Misato's hand free with one final squeeze, as her communicator demanded her attention. Fumbling with the scanner, she managed to retrieve the other device as well. Her eyes widened behind her glasses at the message Sune had sent. "Suzume-chan..."

She was distracted for a moment, wincing at the light that hit her wide open eyes. Yet another alien. While her roommate walked up, she put her communicator away. Murakami checked the air with her own scanner, not taking long to come up with the same results. "Suzume-chan, Bors-Hei, we need to go. Now." It wasn't often that Mitsuko spoke this forcefully. "It's important." Glancing at the alien, she turned away, unable to resist the urge to cover her mouth with the back of her hand. She knew her body, and Misato's, should be filtering out the chemicals fairly well, but she couldn't help but worry. Especially about Riko.

Team Smash and grab

She heard the message too, on her communicator. With a sigh she took off her pack and pulled an AMES suit out. "Here for Bors.... I'm feeling fine... Mimi-chan how are you feeling.. honestly?"

She started thinking over the fact about the hallucinogens. It might explained the screwed up dreams, but the ship used its own air supply didn't it. she would have to talk to Takeyu when they got back. "If you two need to go back do so. i need to find out more about what is going on.

Team Natsumi

"I donno" Natsumi said to Wovoy as she finished getting her mask in place and turned on. She double checked it's indicators, making sure they were all green.

"Something about it doesn't sit well with me" she added and frowned. "Everyone got their masks set?"

Natsumi's Team

Seeing that everyone was still on their way, Chieko started taking a look at what the nanomachines were doing by checking the trace chemicals in proximity to them. Hanako's warning to get masks came in just as the list started to show up - a list that started reminding the scientist of her look at the YSE controlled substances database when Natsumi called her and Kale back. "Let's get back there and get a mask," she commented to the technician beside her, "I don't recall any of these being particularly good for a healthy person."

The academic started double-timing it back to the Eucharis to catch up with the rest of the group. She was not necessarily worried about those of them whom had engineered bodies; but the Qaktoro, as well as Sienna and Riko did come up as people to pay close attention to. The Minkan reached the ramp into the ship when Hanako's transmission came in.

"Understood, Shosho," Chieko replied, "I think I recognize a few of the substances from the Empire's 'Controlled and Prohibited Substances Database' in the list I just picked up, but I will start collecting samples once we all have our masks on. And affirmative on Sienna, she's also to be getting a mask presently."

The scientist grabbed a mask from Natsumi when it was offered. "It bothers me as well," Chieko commented, stepping into the conversation, then looked at Sienna and gave her a poke, "How are you managing?"

Dreamworld - Natsumi's Group

The uneasy feeling Sienna felt in her gut was slowly morphing into a faint buzzing sensation. It was strange; disquieting, yet at the same time mildly euphoric. She rubbed her temples and blinked a few times, trying to clear the invisible, barely noticable haze from her head. As the group walked, her stomach tightened a bit on hearing the team discussing something about hallucinogens in the fog around them. She maintained her aloof composure on the outside, but mild alarm was starting to set in. If what they were saying was true, it could explain the vivid nightmare, as well as why she felt so uncomfortable and... weird... around here.

A finger poking into her ribs made her slightly coil up defensively and take a quick step in the opposite direction on reflex, startled and displeased at the violation of her personal space. She held her eyes on the Minkan for a fleeting beat, then looked dismissively apologetic. "Sorry," she said quietly to Chieko, a nonchalant grin tugging at her lips. "Fine, all things considered."

She took the mask that was offered to her, and it didn't take her long to work out how to don and activate it. She didn't notice anything different about the air she was breathing immediately, but she had to trust that it was better than nothing. Whatever that nasty-looking buglike alien had told them was shaping up to be utter crap so far, but she couldn't even pretend to be surprised. She knew that whoever operated this planet-ship had designs of their own, and the evidence was starting to pile up. Hopefully someone amongst these Star Army kids would figure it out on their own before she had to say her I-told-you-so.

Fine-tuning the mask's calibration, she took a moment to better size up one of the cat-aliens tagging along with their group, looking it over from head to toe. She wondered if they had any idea what was going on, or if they were affected by the apparently dream-inducing dope in the air as well.

She blinked again, still trying to shake the strange sensation from her head, but did so as subtly as possible. She especially had no interest in one of the recent medic recruits or her new roommate getting too interested in analyzing her.

Natsumi's group

Deziarra put on the mask as soon as it was given to her.

"My mask is set," she replied as she read Shosho Hanako's message.

She looked over the data closely to see if she could discover any patterns. If a pattern could be dectected, the actions of the virus could be better predicted making it less effective.

"An AI created virus program," she remarked. "That would explain why so many of us had nightmares last night, even some of us did not actually go to the city."

She eyed Qaktoro suspiciously for a few seconds, then quickly turned her eyes away before it was noticed. This was not the time for random accusations, at least not without evidence. If her suspicions were correct, accusing them could backfire big time. She need a chance to discuss this possibility with the others, at a time when she would not be overheard.

Team Smash And Grab

As Misato got a closer look, it became obvious that the large insectoid wing was not, in fact, part of the creature she had encountered. Instead it was holding a detached wing in one hand, fanning itself slowly.

As she spoke it opened a golden, slit-pupiled eye that swiveled to her lazily. Then the rest of the alien turned. Its brown skin looked tough, and its hands and feet were clawed. It even wore clothes. Loose, airy clothes, shorts tied just above its backwards knees and a loose long sleeve shirt with a modest amount of lace at the collar.

Over its snout it appeared to wear some sort of filtering membrane, obviously it knew about the effects of the air as well. As Misato reached into her bag it tilted its head to one side quizzically. Three more heads poked over its shoulder in equal curiosity, then one of the heads scuttled forwards onto an arm to get closer to what must have seemed the alien Neko.

"Bores? I'm afraid I have none." It replied, obviously thinking Misato was still talking to it. "But aye, I am also a lost traveler, and I will leave this fevered dream of an alien mind soon, I hope."

It's head looked up to Misato's companions. "So, at last. I have seen some of the Manikin with my own eyes."

It covered one of its eyes in an obviously alien sign of respect. "I see you as if in a waking dream."

It lowered its hand nervously, and tilted its head as if considering its own statement. "I guess perhaps that is a little too close to the truth for comfort. Yes?"

Donning his mask Zain looked over the data tha the shosho had forwarded on. While the broad details were there he'd have to do a decompile and code scan to find out what the virus actually DID.

Porting across the virus to the compute pad he sat on a nearby rock and decompiled it.

"This could take a few minutes but if i can ge the source code I can figure out how to counter this properly next time."

'Decompile complete. Open file?' displayed on the small screen.

Upon opening the file he found it to be much more complex then he'd originally thought.

The code was written to adapt itself. Much like a biological virus. Changing its outer shell constantly in order to avoid detection. Scanning further in the code became gradually more desturbing. The virus was designe to work with neural transmitters of all types using them as a conduit to map the unconscious mind. Specifically analysing the parts pertaining to emotions. Of course scanning of this kind would cause dreams about the emotions being scanned.

The only way to find the reciever however would be to use the virus as a beacon and then actively trace the connection. This however could be dangerous as the code would require a living host, and a sleeping one at that.

Kale looked up from his screen at his comrades.

"This i bad. According to what I can tell we have to assume everyone with any form of neural transmitter is already infected. If thats the case? Well. they have all of our secrets already."

With his hands shaking slightly he sent off a report to the captain and to the ship.

Alien Market - Hanako's Group

"But it was sent to the ship and the ship was able to intercept it," Hanako pointed out to Zain. "Additionally it created patches for us. I think we are safe from it, for now; however, that raises another possibility: something invisible came aboard the ship last night through the cargo bay doors before they were closed and provoked the dreams itself. It's likely it was an agent of the Essai. I will have the ship do a sweep for intruders."

"This virus itself is a small AI. Either it or somthing similar could have been implanted into anyone who visited the city yesterday. All we know is that the one sent to the ship was stopped. Not any others that might have been sent." he sighed. "The polymorphic adaptability of it immense. I dont know if you can patch against it fully. A bit like the common cold really. We could do a medical scan on people when they return from this outing. Hopefully it comes to nothing. Best to be sure in any case."

Dreamworld - Natsumi's Group

Sienna listened to the exchange between Kale and Hanako, still trying to blink the haze away at first, but eventually finding herself growing used to it, and by the time they had finished, she had given up trying. She had her mask on, so at least she had that measure of protection now that they knew the fog was a delivery device for some kind of alien nanite drug. There was no telling how much of a dose they'd all received beforehand, but based on what the Nekos were discussing, their bodies would be able to adapt to it with minimal ill effects.

Except Sienna wasn't a Neko.

She shrugged to herself and looked around at the eerie environs again. She'd dealt with less than savory places before and faced all sorts of threats to her health, so this shouldn't be any different, she reasoned. She was young and resilient, and her immune system was robust. Why should she be concerned?

And speaking of good health, Sienna's eyes came back to rest on the gigantic wall of muscle that had recently joined the group. She wasn't much on his bald head, but the beard and insanely hypermasculine build of the ID-SOL had gradually caught her attention. The giant was the very definition of masculinity, even if he did look like a monument erected to a despot with an ego problem. He was hard to ignore, both in the obvious presence of his sheer bulk and in the other implications of his apparent strength and stamina.

Kale was finishing his dissertation on the airborne drug, and his voice drew her eyes back to him. He kept droning on and on about some artificial virus, which shouldn't come as any surprise, considering they were standing on an artificial planet, really. She found herself less and less interested in the discussion, particularly since they were all using a bunch of superfluous and unnecessarily long words to describe something that could be summed up in two simple words: space dope. She did find herself oddly interested in him now, however. He was smaller than she usually liked, slender and shorter than her by nearly a head, and that hairstyle didn't do much for her either on a man. But his lithe build still suggested some hidden--

She caught herself in this crazy line of thought and snapped herself out of it with a quick, gruff shake of her head and a hard blink. What the hell was wrong with her? She adjusted the mask's fit over her nose and mouth with one hand, checking that it was calibrated right. Even if it was, she was now starting to get a bit concerned that filtering the air around her might be a measure that was too little too late.

Softly clearing her throat, she opened her eyes wide and held them open for a second before relaxing them and trying to focus on what was going on.

Dreamworld Market - Hanako's Group

The merchant kept talking up his goods, shifting his posture to block Akane's path every time she inched one way or another. Trapping would-be patrons seemed to be one dance the merchant had mastered long ago.

Akane was tired of her circumstance. She turned, pointing to a oddly colored futon far away from where the merchant stood. "What about this one?" she asked.

As much as she wanted to pistol-whip the merchant, she restrained herself. Instead, she waited for the merchant to move closer to the oddly colored futon, then took a step behind him. When he started to pull the futon from the display, Akane stepped behind the merchant, then took off to rejoin the rest of the Shosho's group at a brisk pace.

Natsumi's Team

The scientist was not quite sure she believed Sienna; but before she could see the subtle indication that her suspicions were correct, an odd feeling came over her and she gave her head a shake. "Mazui," Chieko grunted sharply having never been in a good situation when such a feeling hit, then quickly put her mask on before getting carried away thinking of anything else. Donning the filter happened quickly enough, however she found herself needing to play with it more to get it perfectly snug.

Once done she tried to follow what Kale and Deziarra were talking about, but the a academic only understood enough to see their ideas as reasonable, having too limited knowledge to participate in a helpful manner. She sighed, recalling that she had her own work to do, only to notice Sienna shake her head slightly. Chieko's eyes narrowed as she wondered how long the Nepleslian was baring with it.

"Sienna," she spoke up, "Hold your hands out in front of you, palms up"

Dreamworld Market

Sune looked at Kale. "You really need to calm down. It is extremely unlikely that any of us are infected by the computer virus. Perhaps your judgement has been impaired by the hallucinogenic vapors. Our minds are not something that can be hacked into easily. As in the case to compromise our ship, they had to transmit the virus as a trojan. The aliens have not transmitted any data into our brains so they could not deliver a virus.

The concern about a possible intruder is more problematic. Though given the tech it is probably more likely that we are look at something small that could be easily overlooked. Something small enough to move the ventilation system and affect the crew. We should probably run blood work on the Taii, and the others on the ship. If it was chemically induced then his blood should show higher levels."

He picked up his communicator and called the Eucharis. "Jalen-Chusa to Eucharis. Have medical gather blood samples of all hands currently on the ship. Run a chemical analysis."

Dreamworld - Natsumi's Group

"Why?" Sienna asked Chieko, surprised at how little indignation or suspicion her own tone of voice carried, despite how she didn't care for what the scientist seemed to be implying. She had no interest in winding up on an exam table, nor did she want to be left out of finding whatever it was that potentially housed copies of her most personal and private thoughts, and erasing them.

Come to think of it, she didn't want to go back aboard the ship at all, at least for now. A puzzled look crossed her face before she realized she'd made it. In fact, once she realized her facial expression had betrayed her thoughts, she immediately realized she'd already obeyed Chieko and held out her hands with palms up just as she was asked.

Cabin 3

Izokia made a mental note of Takeyu's dream. She motioned for him to follow, "Oh you don't need to worry about that we will be running a few scans your limb will be all attached. But it's interesting that half of the dreams I've heard had been pleasant, like the kind that you wouldn't want to wake up from. The other dreams were hostile and caused a lot of emotions to come up very fast." She continued to ramble as the two went to the Med Lab.

Med Lab

Izokia stepped into the amazed at the speed in which Ayumi had set the lab for the test. Her eyes went to the needles she hadn't considered a blood test necessary but the idea of some kind of agent in the blood could be possible. "We should run a brain scan first to see if there are any irregularities. Afterwards if nothing shows on the scan we can try to do a blood test." She grabbed her scanner " Are you ready to begin?"