@Raycaster
Landing Array Four
The
OIF Inquest touched down on the pad and the ramp lowered with a portentous hiss. From inside, the lights of the Big Cat hovercar were first visible through the steamy, vaporous fog of the balmy atmosphere inside the ship suddenly meeting the crisper air of UX-3 III. It's air that wasn't there before Quallox Vaibal began to terraform and introduce multicellular life to enrich the cold planet's thin atmosphere. This terraforming, of course, is why the Inquest was there.
Inside the green, Origin-liveried vehicle, the Inquest's Science Officer, Mimi Merkur, turned to her assistant. "
Chance, we're here to check on the state of the Kuveians' terraforming technology, and to analyze the out-of-sector life they've introduced." The autopilot took the hovercar down the ramp and out into the street, deftly avoiding the sargasso of ramshackle hoversleds piled up outside.
@Miko @Whisper @SirSkully @Primitive Polygon
The Laughing Nonapus
Soon Bardoon did note the presence of the slithering serpentine servitor, even though her attention was primarily fixed on the green-haired beauty, her blushing cheeks, carefully-choreographed manners, and, of course the contents of her case. "
Vasutara," she remarked, using the Kuvexian word for their own, very-closely-related material, "
We have much from salvage." It was true they had a lot of the substance, lying about, even taking steps to collect all they could find, but many of the factories and mills able to transmute and work it were casualties of war when the Yamataians and their allies had attacked the Kuvexian industrial base. She clicked her tongue as she thought of the waste of revenue generating assets. Without those factories, the more crude method of lathing pieces down to smaller ones with plasma was the only real option. Along with her blatantly appraising, borderline leering stare, the Baroness smiled widely, suggestively, even, at Remy, clearly enjoying her display whether or not she actually bought it. This was a human whose genes would be lovely to include, fused with her own, in a future Hybrid servant-child. "
How many?" This was her first question, not "how much," but at what scale such a useful device could be provided.
Meanwhile,
the twins, who'd introduced themselves as Koloon and Sodoon Bardoon, led Alastair and his delegation down into the spiraling, inverted-cylindrical-ziggurat that was under the domed surface building of the Laughing Nonapus. Each level was smaller, more dimly lit, and more richly appointed and sparsely populated than the last, and the patrons wealthier, more influential, and more amoral in their tastes than those above. Six levels deep, to the smallest, deepest level, where, at the bottom of the city, the Baroness held court among the uppermost rungs at the top of Sood Zadran society. Past where the draconic and ursine aliens sat at the bar, past the gold-armored guards who, parting to the side at the twins' passing, didn't even bother to question those in their retinue– or even bother to check their weapons. Honored guests were to be trusted, if one expected the same treatment in return, paying the listed price for reciprocation. After all, in Kuvexian society, profit is the only motive for treachery, and what profit was there in provoking one's richest and most powerful neighbor. And such rich and powerful nations don't send lone assassins and their support crew to waltz brazenly through the open front door of their enemies' businesses to be welcomed as guests. Trust engendered by mutual profit is perhaps the strongest form of it in the Kuvexian mind and their society.
"
Announcing, from the Yamatai delegation," began Koloon, the male twin.
Sodoon finished, "
Taisa Alastair Belmont."
@Damaske
Outside the Landing Array Six Transport Station
"
TIRE FLAT? LARRY! CHECK THAT DREK OUT, MANE," the hoversled didn't have tires, and was high enough off the ground it was shoulder level to the mantid.
Looking underneath, the one apparently named "Larry" bent down to check beneath the underside of the hoversled. "
YO WE DON'T HAVE TI–"
The bug's speech is cut off by a sucking "
whomp" followed by a sickeningly wet, slurping, grinding sound. Shortly thereafter, the hoversled rattles so hard the Rixxikor have to brace themselves onto the nearest gunwale for support, and the sled's exhaust belches forth a foul-smelling, green-black smoke that evokes burnt hair and rotten apples.
"
LARRY?"
The Laughing Nonapus
The ride, memorable for the occasional glitches in the heater, the foul scent of the Rixxikor operators' putrid spray, as nauseatingly noxious as their language was colorfully vulgar, and the possibly-intentional ramming of a food truck dealing in fried-bivalve-and-mushroom wraps which the Rixx gleefuly proclaimed "
FREE FOOD," eventually came to an end at the brightly-lit dome of the Laughing Nonapus. Obsequeously bowing and scraping to the full-blooded Kuvexians in signature gold armor standing at the entrance, they wheedled for their finder's fee for bringing potential contractors to the Baroness. After their credits were transferred, the fled the kicks and stun-wands of the guards shooing them away, back to the (relative) safety of their sled. They sped away, fishtailing with the uneven weight distribution of their improvised vehicle, sending some mailboxes and garbage bins flying as they performed rude gestures with their many appendages.
The guards present Lenna and Niki's data-displays with some paperwork, the same as the Kodian had given the Baroness. They admit the pair into the Nonapus and the doors shut behind them quickly to keep the cold out and the humid warmth inside.