After touring Ketsurui Fleet Yards, Pidole Henitot and Kwabba-an said farewell to Eun-Hwa the KFY rep and headed back to the ship to pick up the scientists for the tour of the old PNUgen facilities. Kalena expertly landed the shuttle in the bay where Iemochi Seinosuke, Aradia Sivins, and Kawa Euikoshi were waiting. The door of the shuttle opened with a gentle hiss.
Kwabba-an stepped forward out of the shuttle, beaming with excitement. She didn't know anything about PNUgen but someone...was it Pidole? Someone had mentioned that it had to do with genetics in which, due to her background as effectively a lab-grown genetic experiment, she was deeply interested. When she caught sight of Euikoshi, she gave her an enthusiastic wave. Then she saw an elysian whom she recognized from the train station and the medical bay. The one with the red to yellow gradient coloured wings. Then she saw the other elysian to whom she had just introduced herself in the galley. She felt her breath catch at the people with pretty wings, giving them an awkward smile as she walked over to join them.
Cheilith was the next out, looking around the smiling at Mochi.
Seinosuke was flying solo on this particular outing, his family staying with Arbles as she was taking a big nap. He was sure they were all doing well, but scientific research - especially regarding DNA - was certainly his thing. Mochi hoped that he would be like being in a candy store, seeing all the new and exciting developments that had yet to become mainstream. His emerald eyes swept over the shuttle as it gracefully came into the dock, catching sight of its occupants. It seemed that in particular, Kwabba-an was glancing at his wings. Seino didn't mind at all, there was a reason he had chosen to make his subspecies so distinctive in its colouration after all.
Pidole stayed strapped in her seat along the side of the shuttle, not expecting a long stay on the ship, but she gave everyone a little wave as they got aboard. Her small blue beetle companion sat in her lap, its antennae moving around in the air with interest.
"Erm, hello Euikoshi, hummingbird, and...sir," Kwabba-an addressed the waiting group of scientists, mostly looking at Euikoshi whom she knew best and was least anxious about talking to. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. Are you ready to go? Pidole is strapped in and prepped."
The stormy silver-and-blue eyes fixated on Kwabba as the word "hummingbird" was, once again, mentioned.
"Though I do appreciate your notice of detail, Kwabba, please don't call me a hummingbird - my name is Aradia Sivins, or Aradia-Hei if we're going to be formal... Which, fair enough. Though, a bit of a note, many of us Elysians don't like to be referred to as birds. A bit like how many humans don't like to be referred to as apes."
"I'm ready! Er, do we need to bring power armor or any weapons?" Euikoshi asked.
When Aradia talked to her, Kwabba-an's face initially lit up and she turned to her, then she looked down and away as she realized she had made a mistake.
"I am sorry, Miss Aradia-Hei. People call me a bug all the time and I do not mind." The insectoid turned to Euikoshi. "I don't think so. I think PNUgen is on Yamatai which, as far as I know, is the safest place in the galaxy."
Mochi gave a welcoming smile to Kwabba-an as the rather curious anthro approached the two brightly toned Elysians. "Hello there." Seinosuke greeted the obviously nervous ant simply, "You didn't keep us waiting at all." The scientist would listen as Aradia explained some of the more niche social niceties to Kwabba-an, gently nudging the smaller birb with his elbow. "I'm sure she meant nothing by it, Arry. Just need some thicker skin, mhm?" Mochi chuckled in the dad-style that he had inadvertently picked up. "I can't wait to see what PNUgen is like, always wanted to visit, even in my university days."
"See where it all started. Yhea." Cheilith said.
Aradia took a moment to adjust her glasses when the tall phoenix gave her a teasing, reminding nudge. She cleared her throat and apologized,
"-Sorry. It's not something people talk about, so acidentally doing so isn't something to worry yourself about." Then, to change the subject,
"Though the biological is not my particular specialization - especially when Mochi himself is present, as he developed an entire species on his own - it's still something that can garner my interest from time to time."
Once everyone was aboard at the hatch was closed securely, Kalena gently lifted off from the shuttlebay floor and maneuvered the craft out of one of the shuttlebay doors and into the space above Yamatai, then angled down and began descent back towards Ketsurui no Iori again.
Cheilith tried to look out the windows as the ship flew thorugh space. "So why did you decide to design a whole new species?" She asked the scientist.
Safely strapped into a seat, albeit facing the wrong way because of her insect abdomen, Kwabba-an thought back to the tour she had taken deep below an old military base in Ketsurui no Iori where she had learned about the origins of the elysian species. She turned when she heard Cheilith asking a question, then looked to all the science officers and wondered who would answer.
At the mention of his name, Seinosuke would wave rather sheepishly to those immediately nearby who seemed to be following the conversation. "Well, *sub*species may be more accurate.." Mochi muttered, as if somehow embarassed. Looking over to Cheilith as the question was asked, a wry smirk touched the Neo-Caelisolian's lips. "Well, it's quite a story but if I dare say it, I did it for love." The green-panelled officer's smirk turned into a grin at the thought of his family. "My wife and I wanted to have Elysian children, so that they'd be accepted in Elysian space and be able to do whatever they wanted to. But I also never had much of any luck when I was a Minkan, only bad times from back then. A literal metamorphosis helped me put all that far behind me. Now I have two beautiful Elysian children and many more on the way." Seinosuke nodded wistfully, "It got me a nice job too!"
"Wow, so you designed the body you wanted. That's pretty cool. Did you have to get used to the wings?" Cheilith asked.
"Yeah, many more indeed," chimed in Aradia with a smirk.
It seemed like the shuttle was starting to slow down into the dock, so unfortunately the reminiscing would have to take a pause, as the crewmembers started to crane their necks to see the sight of PNUgen below. "Oh, definitely. I'm sure Arble has some pictures somewhere - I remember crash landing on a beach while everyone was having a break from duties. Flying is very tricky if you don't learn it growing up! Luckily, it seems like other Neos have had better luck adapting to their bodies - mine is sort of a prototype which had some.. bugs. Hehe." At Aradia's comment, Mochi just winked knowingly back to his cousin-in-law.
Kwabba-an perked up. Her antennae wiggled excitedly and her vestigial mandible chattered quietly within her human-looking mouth. "Bugs? I like bugs."
Cheilith laughed, "I think he means bugs as in glitches."
The insectoid shrugged with disappointment. "Oh, that makes sense." Then she turned to look at Bidole for reassurance that she wasn't the only actual bug around.
After a smooth ride back to the city of Ketsurui no Iori, the away team was able to walk to the former PNUgen facilty, where a sign out front, partially obscured by a tattered tarp still said "PNUgen Kitsurugi No Iori Research Base and Sales Center." The entrance was blocked by a fence and some Star Army security personnel, who let them into the closed facility. On the ground level, they entered into an elaborate lobby with polished green marble floors. There were three alcoves on each side, some of which had elevator banks and others had plush but dusty armchairs and bookshelves. There were long hallways in various directions that were lined with statues of Nekovalkyrja and notable Yamataians and Nepleslians. The lights were still on. The high vaulted ceiling of the main hall was painted and each frame of the ceiling depicted different species of planet Yamatai such as smiling nude Geshrin, Nekovalkryja and Elves. At the end of the entryway was a huge, empty reception desk.
Pidole immediately went to find a map at the reception desk, and was able to find an old phone directory that had some floor numbers for various departments and scientists. She brought it over to show Seinosuke since he was the ranking officer on this mission.
Kwabba-an followed closely behind Pidole until her wandering gaze found the depictions on the ceiling, at which point she stopped and stared upwards. It reminded her of the ceilings of the imperial palace, but rather than depicting battles that overwhelmed her, she found herself admiring the naked forms of the various peoples that were presumably developed here. She thought about what she would look like if she were a massive nude painting on the ceiling. She realized she would look very distinctly different from the others up there, but she felt she would look pretty good and give the series of paintings some variety.
"You can tell the people who built this were not worried about a budget," Euikoshi observed, holding a finger in the air pointing upward.
"PNUgen is where a lot of the Ketsurui got a lot of their wealth and power from. So they had a lot of pepole they want to show off to." Cheilith offered.
"And a lot of peoples they wanted to show off," Kwabba-an noted aloud, though her voice was somewhat distant and monotone as she remained transfixed on the imagery above.
"It's definitely very impressive. I wonder who the architect was that made all this.. You'd think the Star Army would have its own architectural division so we can have bases like this everywhere." Seinosuke breathed, obviously quite excited by their first impressions. Once Pidole came over with the phone directory, Mochi accepted it with a thankful smile, brushing some dust off of it. "Let's see here.. I suppose we just start from whatever's closest." The officer ran a finger across the letters and numbers.
"Hehe, maybe. Though I imagine that architects for constructions like this are commissioned privately. That being said, I don't see any signature plaque anywhere obvious..." The redhead Elysian mumbled semi-to herself, looking around the room. Internally, she rolled her eyes at the perverted artworks. Typical for Neko.
Kwabba-an looked down at Mochi as he mentioned architecture. "The parents of my friend Kozakura are architects, I think." Her voice revealed the fact that she missed her friend. "I don't think they are old enough to have designed this building, though."
According to the directory booklet, there were two parking levels below, one for company vehicles and one for staff, and below that was a security level and many, many basement sublevels -- at least 40. There were also 12 above-ground levels and rooftop starport for small ships. The names of managers were listed as being on levels A08, A10, and A11. A01 was a sales center for products and A03 was where the sales and PR departments used to work. It also listed 8 different dining facilities.
"I wonder who's been here the longest? Anyone who worked on the first ones?" Cheilith wondered.
"The Yamatai Star Empire is surprisingly young, all things considered. Combined with the advancements in Soul Transfer technology as well as, of course, the development and refinement of newer, better bodies to live in - it's very likely the architects are alive to this day. And they could look just as young as us," Aradia stated.
Kwabba-an walked over to Pidole and looked at the directory booklet she was holding. "This place is bigger than I can conceptualize. But if we are looking for managers, it looks like we have three levels to choose from. I suggest we start at A08 and work in increasing order of numbering." Kwabba-an tried not to reveal the fact that she wasn't sure if A08 to A11 was moving downwards or upwards.
"Fifteen or sixteen years have passed since this place was open," Euikoshi told Kwabba. "I wouldn't expect to run into many people in here. Honestly, I would love to see it used again."
"Oh," Kwabba-an replied. "What is our goal here, then?"
"I think we're here to see the state of the place as part of our survey, I suppose," Euikoshi said.
Mochi listed to the input of Kwabba-an, as well as the insights of his fellow crewmembers as to the state of this place and its employees. "As Euikoshi says, I imagine the reason the Captain has sent us here is so we can get an understanding of what this place was, and what's left of it." Seinosuke wished that they could have come here while everything was working - and he was actually slightly sketchy on how exactly PNUgen collapsed - but it would be interesting nonetheless. Tapping the directory a few times, the scientist glanced around for a map, "We can look around freely I imagine, as long as we don't get lost."
Kwabba-an blinked slowly as she processed what she had been told. "We are here to explore an abandoned facility?" Her face unexpectedly lit up. She seemed so happy she was almost crying. "We get to wander around a big space with wonderful acoustics without having to talk to strangers? This mission was made for me." She let out a cry that echoed through the huge empty space around them, bouncing off the far walls and ceiling. As the sound returned to her, she built up a rough mental model of the area.
"I wonder if they have some computers here or something we could connect to that might shead some light on what happened. Probably on the executive levels."
The flat-chested hummingbird seemed to get slightly more nervous at the mention of the word "explore". She tried to mask it with a queston, a practical one.
"Do we know where in this directory we are, right now? Making a reference of that will be useful for when it is time to leave."
"We can make automated maps with our mindware and share it telepathically," Pidole suggested. "I wonder if the elevators work," she said, approaching one. She pressed the button and a voice said "ACCESS DENIED."
"That would be a great idea, if... Everybody could interface with mindware. There are, however, limitations in that sense," Aradia mentioned aloud.
Kwabba-an watched Pidole walk over to the elevators. When the voice denied access, Kwabba-an walked over and tried to put all four of her hands into where the doors of the elevator met and tried to pry them apart by force. Though she wasn't as strong as a Nekovalkyrja, she was much stronger than a human.
The elevator doors really didn't want to budge. They were apparently made of some substantially thick starship armor material, as if the building was build to withstand orbital bombardments. Nevertheless, she was able to open them just a little bit, causing a horrible stench to fill the room as putrid air came rushing out of the elevator shaft. The robotic voice came over the intercom again and said "CONTAINMENT BREACH DETECTED. ATTENTION MAINTENANCE TEAM: REPORT TO LOBBY."
Kwabba-an was thrilled at first when she felt the doors pry apart even slightly, but then she recoiled and covered her delicate antennae, trying to block the odour she had unwittingly unleashed onto the group. "Oh no, that seems bad."
"Great, I wonder what horrors we accidently unleashed." Chelith said, looking around for something that she could put her hands on to do about the situation.
Seinosuke seemed to be pondering what Aradia had said, just as the elevator doors blared something fierce and a pungent stench suddenly swept through the room. The sudden nasal assault caused the scientist's wings to flare unhappily behind him as he turned to the source, bringing up a sleeve to his nose. "Oh my-" Mochi grimaced, "Let's.. hope that wasn't a mutagenic toxin and we start growing tumours with faces or something." Sein shook his head in dismay, remembering an unfortunate accident from his training days. "If anyone starts feeling bad..-" Mochi trailed off, before it dawned on him. "Well, we can always just use the equipment left behind to make sure we're alright. Whenever we find some."
"I think I found an access panel that will let us enter the elevator maintenance areas," Pidole chimed in. "There should be a ladder shaft we can go up and down with." She pulled a battery-operated automatic screwdriver from her RIKUPAT-pattern satchel bag.
Kwabba-an had a little trouble hearing with her antennae covered, so she released them. She nearly felt sick from the smell, but grimaced and tried to power through it. She looked first to Seinosuke and then to Pidole as they talked. "As long as we can reach the equipment."
Pidole's bug flew into the narrow gap in the elevator doors and its rear end lit up with a warm yellow glow, illuminating the elevator shaft and sure enough, there was a side cutout with maintenance ladders and platforms. When the red-haired technician opened the access panel hidden in the wall, the bug was waiting for her on the other side.
Kwabba-an watched with increasing adoration as the blue beetle flew around and helped them. "I must do the bug equivalent of buying your beetle a beer, Pidole."
"I can go first." Chelith said, stepping towards the elevator.
"I wonder if the rumors about the mutants are true," Euikoshi rubbed her chin.
"We'll find out!" Cheilith said with false cheer as she made her way down. "Anyone got a pistol with them?" She asked.
Kwabba-an shook her head. "I do not have a pistol with me." She thought back with longing for her experimental aether whip, though she wasn't convinced it would come in handy under the present circumstances.
"I've mine! Here you go," the mini-scientist responded quickly, handing the weapon - grip first - to Cheilith.
"Not so sure a mutant would survive down here without food of some kind, though. Guess we'll find out."
Cheilith took it and checked to make sure it had a charge, she at least felt better with it in her hands. "We'll let's just hope it's not the kind that feeds on Nekos." She held the pistol in one hand as she climbed down the ladder. Cheilith looked for where the smell was coming from as they climbed down.
"Do not be afraid, Cheilith. I have your back." With that, Kwabba-an followed behind the neko. At first, she climbed down using her four hands and two feet, but then she realized her clawed feet could grip the ladder adequately on their own, so she began vertically "walking" down the ladder after Cheilith. She let out another cry into the darkness of the elevator shaft, and listened as the sound ricocheted back to her from either end of the empty space.
Seinosuke was hanging back for now, a little wary of everyone diving headfirst into the unknown, before remembering they had literally *just* done their STs. May as well have some fun with it. "That bug's something special for sure!"
"M-hm! Kwabba-Hei has quite a few talents," Aradia murmured to Mochi. She took her time to get some space on the ladder before holding her breath and joining in the descent - wings occasionally twitching, brushing against the edges of the crawlspace.
"Maybe we should stop at levels B03 and B04, the directory said those were security," Pidole suggested, slowly floating down the shaft using her Minkan hovering ability. The elevator shaft was dark so she pulled out a type 32 floating flashlight from her bag and had it join the beetle in illuminating things.
Cheilith let go of the ladder and bloated next to B03. "Here we are, I'll cover you while you open up the door." She said to Pidole.
Kwabba-an remained affixed to the ladder as Pidole and Cheilith began to float. She grasped a pair of adjacent ladder rungs with her clawed feet and stood sideways in the elevator shaft, waiting for the others to open the door. Her pleated uniform skirt and her hair hung oddly from her horizontal body. She began to inspect her nails in the dim light as she waited.
OOC: JP by
@Soban @hyralt @Wes @Arbitrated @Ethereal
