Toxic

[Zack]

RP Date

YE 40

RP Location

SRSS Yggdrasill

SRSS Yggdrasill>
AKA: Toshiro's Ship

Crew Lounge

"Everyone, would you please come to the Lounge. We will start the mission briefing in ten minutes."

Green Thumb was already waiting in the lounge area of the ship. The nearly six and a half foot tall Nepleslian woman's broad shoulders and well toned body making the sofas look a bit small. She had on simple dark-blue slacks along with a black T-shirt and an open jacket... no shoes, happy to let her feet feel the ground, or at least the floor. Her long, kinda wavey, dark green hair flowed over her shoulders. Her dark green eyes and soft features giving her an air of femininity... even though she looked like she could lift the sofa up and break it in half.

Her Jacket had a yellow triangle patch on the shoulder. Something still in design, the little mark was supposed to represent the logo of USO's CBRN unit... though things had changed a lot over the last few days. The USO was getting short on ships that could handle these types of away missions. Shorter still on the elite soldiers that could be tasked with completing them on their own.

That was where Toshiro and his ship the SRSS Yggdrasill came in. They had been hired as transport for this particular mission. Other speciallists were also called in, some from the USO, some from other groups, even some spacers that were loosely affiliated with the whole thing.

 

[Zack]

Toshiro, of course, would come and investigate as the ship's captain. It felt strange to obey someone else's orders on his own ship, but they had been hired and someone was sent along to bolster their efforts. Arriving in only a few minutes, there was still some time before the meeting when he arrived. He gave Green Thumb a nod of greeting,

"Hello there. It's a bit odd listening to someone else's orders, especially someone of rank. I get that you're here to help out, though."

Green Thumb would stand as Toshiro entered the room... perhaps a bit of 'captain on deck' regardless of the confusing mix of ranks and organizations involved.

"Yes, I appologize for just... calling you down like this. I do not think we have had a formal introduction. Uso asked us to take on this assignment, and the payment was all arranged through Vier... and the individuals assigned to our group are a bit all over the place. Everyone has enough fresh faces that just getting in a room and talking will be helpful."

She reached out to shake his hand,

"Uso said you were ok, and 'kindof a cutie'... But other than your rescue of those girls I am not too familiar with you."

"Ah. Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Toshiro Yuki, and I've been salvaging and adventuring out here with this ship since YE 29. We've got two first contacts under our belt and various rescue missions, though we tend to salvage. The SRSS is an custom designation that means Search, Rescue, and Salvage Ship. That defines my intentions pretty well, but we can go outside the box sometimes." Toshiro explains, noting the comment about his being a 'cutie' with a tiny bit of surprise. It didn't throw him off too greatly though.

"I also try to be ethical about these things, so I tend to stay on the good sides of various factions because of that."

She nodded, "I think your crew will be familiar with you... but I may ask you to repeat that for my people in a bit. Did Uso bring you onboard for this because of your Rescue experience? You were the one that saved those girls we are trying to return today?"

"That's right." Toshiro said, with a nod of confirmation. "There's also the fact that the girls fear 'contamination' if touched by others due to religious concerns. This ship has a special sentient AI and can manifest itself through the ship's Power Armor as an avatar, allowing it to interact with them without such concerns. As such, the ship has that going for it as well." He elaborated, as the ship then chimed in.

"This is correct. Greetings. I am Yggdrasill, a Sourcian AI uploaded by the ship Maras and mapped to the ship's computer core." The room's intercom speaker rang.

 

[SageShooter]

"And I'm Serenity, and you can tell your boss "the cutie" is taken!"

Came a call from one of the halls leading to the room. The face to match the vkice soon appeared in the form of a Helashio. Slightly pale skin, hair long down past her butt that had shocks of red, white, blue, and green in it framed the yellow eyes that watched those assembled in the room. She wore a pair of oants that had heavy padding on the knees, green in color, and thickly reinforced boots as well as a sleevless shirt that had black smudges of grime. In her hand which rested over her shoulder, a thick spanner wrench thag she shifted a little.

She would walk in and over to Toshiro's side, watching those assembled like a hawk.

"Serenity yggdrasil, pleasure..." Her tone would give a hint to the distinct lack of pleasure. Seemed she was defensive of her captain.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

"Oh Wow!?- Good Golly!?- My Gravy!? So it's really you, Mister Yuki!?" A high pitched raspy voice exclaimed. A mostly blue and green insect-shaped machine creature used a back-mounted arm to vault over the couch opposite, then rolled along the floor with some kind of wheel-hand combination at the bottom of it's six robust mechanical legs. The spindly thing was wearing some kind of thick green bomb-proof jacket, distinctly mismatched with a gypsum cast poking out of one sleeve, and a straight up magnetic-launching grenade gun sticking out of the other. Fey organic head had long mechanical ears, bright pink glossy hair cut short and asymmetrical, and supremely pale skin. A bright red camera eye on the left, contrasting a bugging organic green one on the right. Their smile was extremely demented and missing at least two teeth, visible through hyperactive jumbled words. "By good plasmas, I thought the Wired had ditched me with some nobody, I did!"

"But-Yes-Golly-I am-I'm-My Goodness!"

"Are you one of those Hella-sheyos, miss? An't seen one of you in a while!-An' golly, you are quite a big lady, Miss Green Thumb!- I would never have guessed that- that- Neps- who now!??!- HAHAH!-- Hehaha!...URK...!"

The legs lurched, their incredibly rapid speech pattern only cutting out because the dense thing had managed to make itself light-headed.

Still smiling, regardless. Maybe it happened often?

"-I'm!- This person is- Hello! Very very nice to meet you!~ I am-!... I am-!" Wheezing, bracing their hand-and-gun together... "Designation Sanctifier Z-Nine Oh-Nine Four Two Eight One Nine Five Seven Eight!!!~"

"It's very very very nice to meet all you all! I hope we have a really amazing special time together!~"

Noisy. So damn noisy. This squeaky idiot spider thing was made of noise.

 

[Zack]

Crew Lounge

"I am certain we will Z-9." Green Thumb said, wincing a bit as Z-9's volume was briefly cranked up to 11 during her introduction. "I am excited to get to know you too! Just be careful with your volume. Getting that loud can damage fleshy-ears." She tapped her ears with a finger to make her point, still standing tall as she gave the spacer a reassuring nod.

She would turn her attention to Serenity next,

"I'll tell my boss that Toshi is all yours," She'd smile as she took a step back so she could better address the gathered crowd, "I'm not here to steal him away from you, but due to a lack of ships that can carry crew Uso did ask Toshiro to help us with this task..."

Green Thumb paused for a bit. "The task...Please hold on for one moment."

There was a bit of embarrassment on her face as she turned away so that she could check her data-pad.

"Are you going to be here soon?.......... uh huh...... yeah....... you lost her?..... ask the ship, it should know....uh, one moment,"

"Hey, Toshiro, what does Yggdrasill like to be called? Mr? Mrs? Ship?"

...

Before he could respond a silver hair'd neko would appear in the doorway of the crew lounge. She seemed to be entirely silent for the moment, her hands on the back of another girl who looked to be barely 18, blue eyes, blonde hair, and a face that was only just barely poking out above the top of her space suit. Her face and body completely enclosed in the puffy, white, outfit. It was clear the suit had seen a lot of damage, and had been patched with various materials.

"Um... Hi..." She said, the young girl quickly turning to go only for her Neko escort to kneel down infront of her. The two clearly talking....

...

*THUNK .. THUNK .. THUNK .. THUNK ..*

...

"HEY SORRY! I'M LATE! I FOUND QUARTZ THOUGH!" As all this was going on, another woman arrived having run full tilt to get here. Her body clad in a heavily angular yellow power armor that made her seem to stand nearly as tall as Green Thumb.

Green Thumb herself would turn her attention back towards the gathered group.

"Alright, that is the rest of our group: Silver and Green Horn.

Anyways, lets get to why we are here.

The young lady you see in the suit back there is named Quartz. Toshiro found her and her sisters adrift in a disabled ship during recovery operations after the battle near the NMX Megamishhu Breeding Grounds. We are going to help her and her sisters get back home!" Green Thumb put some emphasis on the last point, allowing for a dramatic pause afterward, "We know what planet her home is on, and about where her home is, but that is where it gets complicated."

Green Thumb would reach for the grape-sized beads around her wrist, plucking one off and tossing it in-front of her. The rest of the beads dropped off her wrist and followed suit, hovering in the center of the room and projecting a volumetric image of a planet. Swirling dark yellow clouds covered the entire surface, giant bolts of electricity occasionally snaked across the projection, and the occasional it was clear that more than just clouds were caught up in this planet's atmosphere.

"We call the planet Toxic, though that hardly scratches the surface. The atmosphere appears to be mostly storms and a variety of poison gasses. To cap it off, there are constant sandstorms that look to contain a variety of advanced metals in them such as Durandium, radar absorbent materials, ceramics, you name it.

Quartz and her sisters come from some facility under the surface of this world. She has not been very talkative, but we think there may be only a few hundred people there. They appear to take isolation from the outside world very seriously so lets show them that we are friendly!"

 

[SageShooter]

Serenity's ears wilted back a little as she took a step away from the freespacer. She had seen enough holos and run in to a few to know they were... erractic... but this one was just flat out strange and kinda creepy looking if she had to admit it. As she rubbed at her ear lightly she nodded to the...girl? And spoke albeit a little cautiously.

"Ye-yea. A Helashio. I'm a Helashio. That ok?" She asked the Freespacer before she looked to the Nepleslian woman, arms crossed again.

"So how do we get to the facility. I'm not gonna be happy if your boss just decided to use our ship cause she didn't want hers all busted up going through that atmosphere. I put alotta work into this tub to make it run like it does."

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Z-9 was all smiles for the host of new friends turning up, making a spree of new happy noises whilst examining the old space suit and the mechanised yellow humanoid.

"Not bad, not bad." They remarked about the hologram of the poison planetoid. "Reminds me of some fellas I knew who lived in a gas giant..."

"Oh hey didn't you all come with chom-muuni-kyators?" Switching emotional gears, the spindly thing made a belated, more direct response to Greenthumb, looking the woman up and down again, before darting their eyes to each sentient being in the room. "That's what you organics use to talk telly-phonically, isn't it?... Z-Nine's name is also their radio-talky address! Add me so I can send you all my really cute pics and deets!"

Somebody hired a physical chatbot with a gun on it... Who did this? Who is responsible?

Laughing again. Arms in the air. Then Serenity talked to her, and it was kind of like setting off one of those motion-detecting Yuletide decorations.

"Helashio and Deoradh had a really bad time, but then we liberated ourselves!" Serious subject matter or not, there was basically nothing that could stop their organic arm from trying to stroke that swirly tail. Question was still out on that gender, too. "So maybe we can understand each other, I guess!? Plus you are really cute! Can I pet your ~fluffy spine extension~ please!?"

 

[SageShooter]

The look of concern at the Freespacer, the thing which looked like a nightmare of the god made manifest, that crossed Serenity's face would be amusing as she tilted her head back and away just a touch. She didn't know whether it would be more beneficial to tell the...girl? No, or to let her and risk her tail being crushed or ripped off or whatever may happen. But she decided to risk it as the tail twitched slightly and made itself available for the girl to touch.

"Please just don't rip it off or anything? I'm kinda you know... attached to it if you catch my drift?" That said, she did in fact add in the communicator details into the her own which was tucked away in a small side pocket of her cargo pants.

 

[Zack]

Crew Lounge

"OH! MINE IS FNG#4923 ADD ME ON DATCORD!" Green Horn shouted, waving her arm above her head to get Z-9's attention

"... They uh... won't let me change that name yet..."

Inside of her helmet she was busy going back over the recording of the day to get Z-9's name, entering it in verbally, deaf to the continuing conversation as she spoke outloud.

"Invite: Zee. Nine. Oh. Nine. Four. Two. Eight. One Nine. Five. Seven. Eight."

Her attention seemed lost for a moment as she juggled her electronic invites, though soon she caught sight of Toshiro standing within the group, "Oh, Uso was right, he is a cuti--- *DING*

Z-9! Got your invite!"

Green Horn gave a quick thumbs-up. The volumetrics on her suit projecting a meter tall green up-arrow infront of her for just a few seconds, backed up by tiny fireworks.



"Focus on the task at hand," Silver said. Firmly. her voice not allowing for a response as Z-9 came up closer to look at the young Quartz and her space suit. She would start to back away from Z-9 as the distance between then started to lessen... which in turn caused Silver to back up until her back was against the wall. Her young charge seemed eager to get some distance between her and everyone else... causing Silver to put her hand on the plump space suit's shoulder, allowing her some freedom but not allowing her to get too far away. Of course once the suit'd girl was out of the way it was a bit easier to see what Silver had on. A baggy white robe-like top seemed to be paired with a loose fitting pair of blue pants. A belt that looked a little too tight was pulled closed around her waist to hold it all together, and a dark-silver choker was clinging to her neck. Also much like Green-Thumb she was not wearing shoes... making her look a bit like an off-brand samurai. The whole outfit seemed rather modist though from the brief hints of her arms and legs it was clear she had some strength to her.



"And try to keep the all-hands chat limited to mission-specific details. I don't want anything to get lost," Green-Thumb said as she watched the spacer move about. She had to run out of energy sometime right? Perhaps she needed to find a big open space... or take the spacer out for a run... or maybe there was some kind of park that one could take their spacer to go play with other spacers?

It would be something to consider.

OH right! Serenity had asked about the landing!

"Also, the ship's shields should be sufficient to protect us as we get near the surface. We also have a few drones that will assist with protecting us from the elements as we try and gain access to their facility. Due to prior engagements Uso is low on ships that can transport people comfortably."

 

[Toshiro]

Toshiro listened in and took note of Serenity's conduct. He was not considered her 'master' anymore, but they were a family to where she'd taken the ship's name. Toshiro and Yggdrasill were adding people to their own lists and recording the information. A purple Floater lazily drifted on through the room and past them, curiously noting the friendly spider-tank being like an inquisitive pet.

"It's nice to meet you all, first off...secondly...Is there any particular reason that trying to communicate first isn't our primary course of action? They might send someone up to claim Quartz and her friends rather than have us make a landing in the first place. That might be considered a more 'friendly' overture than speeding on in. I saw the Eucharis just enter an atmosphere of a newly discovered race's world, and it could easily have ended worse than it did. A Nepleslian ship got blown up that might not have needed to. Or is the mission deeper than just 'return the girls and establish contact'?" It seemed like a silly and basic question, but to discount the possibility of the simplest solution wasn't necessarily a good idea. Clearly these people were willing to go to war. They already had.

 

[Zack]

Crew Lounge

Green Thumb nodded, she did understand where Toshiro was coming from.

"We did try and call, but there was no answer. Either they can not respond, or will not respond... Also..." Green Thumb would lean in a little bit, dropping the volume of her voice down.

"Someone sent a few young girls out on a starship to fight for them, told them not to talk to anyone, and lives in some well hidden hole in the ground out in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like they have one 'daddy' type and everyone else she knows is a girl like her. I'm not here to take these girls back to some creepy cult..."

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Z-9 didn't really reply to Serenity vocally, just kind of laughing like a bemused child whilst snuggling the fluffy tail to their face. Despite being made more than a little out of metal, they were surprisingly light. No pain, just lots of dumb irate noises from the cyborg.

Greenhorn got an immediate flurry of weird images and strange psychedelically music video suggestions. The Freespacer was still wrapped up in the Helashio appendage, but still shot across a appreciative look with their eyes.

"You wanna drop me off and have a gander-scout!?" What's this, and actual helpful suggestion? "Zee-Nine is resistunt to all sorts of bad gas and nasty rads!"

 

[SageShooter]

Serenity seemed awkward with her tail wrapped up around another. She fidgeted from foot to foot but well, she was trying to be a good host to the odd...girl? She still wasn't sure. Her own communicator beeped as it notified the Helashio it had sent out the friend requests to the two before she looked back to Green Thumb.

"Should be... Have we had ships go in atmosphere yet for an extended period of time? Do we know if there is a protected docking area?" She quizzed the woman as she fought the urge to retrieve her tail from the Freespacer. When the purple floater drifted in Serenity snagged the creature from the air, cuddling it to her own body and scratching it under the chin in an attempt to calm her own nerves right then. She wasn't used to such forward or talkative people on the ship all at once. But she had to admit it was nice compared to the usually quiet environment.

 

[Zack]

Crew Lounge

"We did scout the area we think their home is at. There is certainly something down there, but it does not look like an entrance large enough for a ship. We will have to check the place out on foot. We have some drones that will generate a protective field, but the surface is harsh so space-suits for everyone...

... YOU TOO Z-9!" Green Thumb added, "I don't want your fleshy-bits hurt by the debris blowing around.

We think there is an entrance large enough for a small vehicle, but not for a full ship. Silver will be carrying our tools for getting in. However everything past that is unknown so we will need to make it up as we go along.

Who else wants to join the ground team by the way?"

 

[SageShooter]

Serenity looked to Toshiro as if asking if it was ok she went along with the ground team. She had been cooped up in the ship for a bit to long for her liking and frankly she wanted to stretch her legs a bit, even if it was on an irradiated planet where some weird cult was holding people hostage. At least it sounded like a cult.

Idly as she waited she scratched the purple floater under the chin, her tail twitching in the Freespacer's hands a little.

 

[Toshiro]

Toshiro looked to Serenity, aware of what that look meant. He was hesitant to let her join the ground team, especially given the situation...but he couldn't shield her by keeping her cooped up on the ship forever. Besides, she had to make her own decisions sometimes.

"Alright, Serenity, you can go too...but be careful, please. I'm worried that if this is dangerous, that someone might try to keep someone exotic like you as a slave..." Of course, that is what the Helashio race initially were, Serenity being an exception because Toshiro had let her explore her individuality and her own wishes. "I'd also like Yggdrasill to remote into an Ironman and help protect you all as well though. If Yggdrasill would be so kind." The Captain looked to the ship's speaker, expecting a response, which indeed came.

"Of course, Father. Though if there is significant jamming or other forms of interference, there might be problems with my maintaining a connection with the Ironman. We can certainly attempt it as long as we have that fact in mind." Yggdrasill agreed to try and protect its...sibling? As the floater enjoyed the attention, giving what amounted to a bubbly-sounding purr...

 

[Primitive Polygon]

"Oh-mai-gosh a new void suit? For me!? AHAHAHAHA!~" The volume once again rose. Z-9 finally let go of the spanner-wielding Helashio's tail, though their hand reflexively moved over to pap the floater on the head instead, only just realising it might be about as sentient as they where. "I ain't had a space walker since I done my fifth visor in on Longarm-Twenty-Tive, and Reachseeker Zenith said he won't gonna give me new one!"

More laughing. Their appreciation for the concept of a gift soon dragged them away from Serenity completely. Wheel-palms skidded them across the floor, spinning and vaulting up into the air, then half swing-hugging around one of Green Thumb's tremendous biceps. It was like they were suddenly wearing a cloak of garbage-worthy robot arms.

Noisy noisy noisy. All the time. It never stopped. There was no end.

Suddenly, multiple booping noises. Everybody who had linked themselves to the spacer received POV shot of the large Nepleslian, disturbingly overlayed with the woman's skeleton and heat signature, and then covered in cartoon hearts via some cheap image manipulation app.

<-♡♡♡ ~~~My nEW GreEN thUMBS speckial :3 ;I and I LUV THEM manY GooD FRESH!!! AM HAPPY MAkE FREInD On YYGGGDROLLOLL :3 :3~~~ ♡♡♡->

"Don't worry Mister Boss! I won't let nutting happen to them! Z-9 is a good shot!" They were talking to Toshiro now? Maybe Serenity? Maybe the ship itself? "You can look through my peepers and keep an eye on the situachun, too!"

They weren't lying. The link was right there in the poly profile they sent everyone.

X-ray and heat vision were left on all the time, evidently. A third feed, swinging around wildly but showing the floor panels in incredible detail, was presumably their gun arm's scope.

If they wanted a scout drone, they certainly did have one... Stealth was probably out of the question, but still.

 

[Zack]

Crew Lounge

"Glad you are wwaaaAAA!" Green-Thumb flailed about as Z-9 took hold of her. The large Nepleslian woman being dragged backwards as she tried to steady herself while the Spacer swung off Green-Thumb's body. "I will need you to stand on your own for this mission. I can not carry you Z-9..."

By the time she was finished talking, she had ended up falling over sideways onto one of the nearby sofas. This did wonders for supporting the combined weight of the pair.

Green Horn laughed as she checked her datapad, watching the spacer's gun-view twirling about... then assigning it a Thumbs Up

Quartz, the barely 18 year old girl hidden away in the puffy void-suit nearby would back away a little from the whole group, "Daddy said not to trust any other fathers..." She said, a noticeable worry in her voice. Of course, Toshiro had saved her from death... and these strangers were going a long way to help her and her sisters get back home. It all seemed at-odds with what she had been told. Silver, the neko that was directly watching over her, would kneel down as if to reassure her but before she could start speaking Green-Thumb would start talking again.

"Toshiro, can you get us as close as you can to our destination? I have already shared the location of where we think their home is with Serenity.

Green-Horn. Can you head back to the shuttle bay? Make sure everyone is ready."

"Right-o Boss!" Green Horn said, getting up on her tip-toes and saluting while still in her armor before turning for the shuttle bay and running off.

"The trip should be a short one... Come on Z-9, we can figure out how to get one of our void-suits to fit you."



Shuttle Bay

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE! WHO'S COMING ALONG?!" Green-Horn practically yelled as she came running into the ship's shuttle bay, loudly coming to a stop near the racks of power armor they had brought onto the ship. A trio of mini-tanks were also nearby, neatly folded up into boxes along with two large cases of equipment. All of this equipment appeared to be in some shade of black or grey, unlike the bright-yellow power armor that Green-Horn had on that covered her head to toe.

"You should all have already read your briefings... but I assume you didn't so we'll do this again!

1!

That girl back there in the big pressure suit is Quartz. We're trying to take her back home.

2!

That homeworld is covered in a toxic cloud! The debries in the storms down there will chip away at your armor so don't get caught outside! We've got some drones that will help with that but really just don't ok?

3!

The spare power armors are here, feel free to grab one.

Uh... 3.5!

We're guests on Toshiro's ship the Ygg... so be nice and don't break anything ok?! Good!

3.6!

YELLOW ARMOR!" Green-Horn would point to herself, "Means we're with the CRBN group. That means we're responsible for making sure the toxic chemicals down there don't kill you. Don't take off your armor unless we say it is ok! We don't want you tracking death-particles back onto the ship or into their home."

 

[Ace]

Shuttle Bay

Spacecase would be in the Shuttle Bay already in a set of Power Armor. Spacecase would wave at Toshiro before starting to speak. "Hey bud its I've been sent here to help."

 

[Esscast]

A lumbering giant of a man standing roughly 7'2" ducks under the doorway entering the room "hey, names Frank uso said she had some work I could assist with" Frank asked.

his body from the neck down was built like a hulking dumptruck and his skin from the neck down seemed to be synthetic and stretched over thick combat armor his right arm noticably larger than the left

He wore a blackish grey tank top and night time bdu combat pants tucked into his boots his right side of his face has noticable burn marks and a cybernetic eye .