2446/Operation SELENE

Operation SELENE
Date of Scene:	13 June 2015
Location:	Scorched Earth
Synopsis:	Via warpgates, ReGenesis sends EDF soldiers and Elites to the moon. What lies within is a glimpse of the truth of what happened to Earth, a great bounty of scavengable tech, and prime evidence of man's inhumanity to man.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 64, Eryl Fairfax, 596, 626, Starbound Flotilla, 673, 781, 789, 796

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Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     There certainly is a lot of hustle and bustle in the ReGenesis camp outside Eden when the Elites arrive. It's night time in Scorched Earth and spotlights have been set up on the perimeter, to shine down on an elevated stage bearing a podium with the ReGenesis logo on the front.

     A soldier of the Eden Defence Force queries everyone as they arrive, asking if they have the gear for and/or experience with lunar travel. Those who do are left alone. Those who don't are pulled aside and issued with a ReGenesis spacesuit. It consists of a bright orange bodysuit, very loose at first, but by touching the left wrist with the right thumb, it instantly shrinks to fit perfectly. There is also a helmet that melds with the neck of the suit to create a perfectly enclosed outfit. An air tank is put onto their back and hooked up to the helmet. Following this, those who are inexperienced at low-gravity movement are given a quick primer on how to move about.

     Once everyone is prepped, the purpose of the stage is revealed. Diana LeFoe, CEO of ReGenesis has arrived to see this mission of personally. A very severe woman with gray hair, pulled back into a bun so tight one can see the lines of her skull. She wears an obsidian black jumpsuit with absolutely no decoration. The CEO takes the podium, and begins to speak into the microphone. "Elites and EDF soldiers both. Together, you will ascend to the stage of one of humanity's greatest triumphs." She points heavenward, at the moon above. "The Moon! So far, in a relative sense, so alien, so barren. Utterly unable to support human existence. And yet, we went there anyway, because we could. We even planned on making it entirely liveable, because THAT is the human way. And yet now, we are reduced to picking over its carcass like vultures." She slams the podium with her fist, a fierce scowl on her face. "But, it will not always be this way. We will take the Moon back eventually, and go beyond what the Before Times ever did. This mission is the first small step towards that dream. Good luck."

     She steps down from the podium, and the ReGenesis staff and soldiers begin to applaud her. Everyone is guided to sit in the back of one part of a truck convoy. Once everything is ready, they all head off through the warpgate!

Lou (64) has posed:
    Most Casts could survive depressurization, at least for a modest period of time. However, that doesn't mean that it is comfortable. Lou accepted one of the pressure suits, accordingly, her body itself having nothing particularly jagged or out of place that would prevent it fitting. Her head, though, is another matter - hopefully the helmet is bulbous enough to accomodate the horn-like antennae that poke out of her bubblegum pink hair. Once everything is connected, she finds it suitable enough, reattaching her nanotransformer to a spot out the outside. Aside from the fit and efficiency, there is just one small issue, as she comments to noone in particular, "The suit is interfering with my network reception. Switching to adaptive beam forming. Link stabilized."

    Settling in with her fellow astronauts, for the presentation, she momentarily turns scenarios over in her head. There was no need for instruction for lower gravity environments, as she has her extensive references available as well as localized training. But this field unit, and in fact most, had never operated in this kind of environment before, so getting hands on data will be invaluable. It isn't that she isn't listening to Diana LeFoe's speech, though perhaps taking a recording of it is a more precise way to put it. It's all part of the ceremony of this sort of operation, one she is familiar with from President Dallgun's own speeches. She somehow doubts applause would work with these gloves, but makes a somewhat robotic attempt at it, nonetheless, before the groups are ferried to their trucks.

Rocket (781) has posed:
Rocket and Groot arrive in the Rack 'n' Ruin and park it where directed by the landing control. The pair chat with the soldier who takes them though the equipment assignment process -- ok, so Rocket does the chatting and the soldier's expression by the end of the experience seems to indicate he is questioning Groot's sapience. Rocket seems pretty well geared up but he does accept an airtank which he's strapped on his back while Groot is carrying a bandoleer of emergency airtanks that Rocket insisted the soldier find for him to carry.

During the brief briefing Rocket stands on Groot's shoulder. While the pair listen to LeFoe's orientation speech, Rocket pulls sleeves, boots and a tail covering out of the material of his suit turning it into a full-body vaccsuit -- he even pulls out a translucent hood which hangs from the back of the neck. Despite the shortness of the talk, Rocket starts tapping his foot before it is over.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The STARBOUND FLOTILLA is here! All six of them. They have the gear, of course, stored in their Matter Manipulators; they've brought OXYGEN NANOSKINS, which will let them survive without protective gear or air supplies! Of course, they're not wearing their proper gear quite yet, they can get changed in the truck. They're quite attentive to the speech, and most even applaud politely! Albert, Seft, and Moonfin in a particularly respectful, professional sort of way, while George and Biteblade are a bit more energetic. As per the norm, they send talk over their own networks.

MOONFIN: Heavenly aspirations. These are people worth lending our help to.
PAVO: They're worth gettin' paid by.
ALBERT: I do not care if you're here to help because of ideals or because of greed, just help.
MOONFIN: Your pragmatism remains eternal. Let us board.

    It's not long before all six are in the back of a truck. As for what each individual of the Flotilla is doing, that depends...

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had been mostly living on Miter station going over data related to what had happrned it might even start to worry those close to her like Rory. She had thankfully last night gone out and been social off the station. Today she's doing something else helping the EDF with another job, hopefully this would pan out. She seeme dot be ready for now she's wuited up. Once she does so she heads through the warpgage and galls in with the Foltilla. She just happnes to be keeping near Seft and Ablert for now.

"So this is certainly a new kind of salvage job. LEt's see what we can do?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    RORY WHITE is particularly well already outfitted for Lunar Travel. She's wearing a skintight Vacsuit of her own design. It lacks life support because she's in her Synth, so its only purpose is extra radiation shielding. And it keeps off moondust from her outfit!

    "And to think I'm going from exploring ruined Earth to a ruined Luna." It's very dark humor, given how stressed she is over the last big job. She's NOT in her typical bubbly mood right now.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft is the one who speaks to Lou once she's in the back of the truck. The robotic princess-looking Glitch glances over from across the back, her eyes blinking once before the eye-visor displays a spinning WAIT wheel until her eyes return. After a brief moment, she speaks up in monotones. "Recognizing. You were another participant in Operation APOLLO." She offers a quick handshake. "Polite. We split up during the operation. I look forward to having a chance to work together in the field. My name is Seft, what is yours?"

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Sarah Rogers has a bit of an argument with the soldier that got assigned to her, they can be heard bickering back and forth, mostly unintelligibly. Although the phrase, "'It looks uncomfortable' is not a reason to go without a suit Ma'am!" can be made out, There's some more discussion, and a compromise seems to me made. Sarah's given an air supply and an airtight mask. Apparently part of the compromise was the instance that she attend the lunar gravity training, which she does, but looks bored and makes a point of hovering above the ground a few times.

"Alright, Now that we've got that out of the way, when do we get started?" She asks to no one in particular. She spends a long moment staring at Groot with a silly grin on her face, Remembering the tree attempting to sing Disney songs at the Stark Birthday Bash.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Rocket and Groot get attention from Biteblade, the Floran member of the Flotilla, even before they get into the truck. Biteblade, of course, is a plant, like Groot, but lacks the same stature and hard appearance. Where he's bark, she can be said to be all stem, so to speak. The many-toothed little Floran doesn't actually speak up quite yet; instead, she seems to start examining Groot, and alongside him, Rocket, very closely. She doesn't particularly have an understanding of personal space that most people made of meat have, so her rustling little leafy form gets around the tall tree-man very actively, looking closely.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
SARAH PARSLE is going to SPACE.

"This is going to be ridiculous." Sarah says after they all break up and head into the warpgate, wearing the orange suit and helmet. "But interesting. I guess. Try to stay away from pointy objects. So, we're here to find stuff, right?"

She looks over the others present in the transport. "This is going to be a hell of a crew."

Unlike other Sarahs, Sarah Parsle seems to be content with just looking forward, though she does seem to gravitate towards the Flotilla members. She knows they're competent, she has no idea about the other people.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Zwei seems to have found the time to dither about on Scorched Earth again, or more precisely, its version of Luna this time. Whereas last time the combat specialized Armiger Asche had carved a trail of destruction through it, this time the information gathering unit Weiss is present at Zwei's discretion, anticipating significantly less military threat on an abandoned moon station of all places. She waves off the suit, having her own environmentally sealed exoskeleton ready, purely for the use of its multitude of micro thrusters more than a need for environment control, as evidenced by the fact that she isn't even wearing the helmet and is letting her hair hang free.

    She spares some small amount of attention to the CEO -- enough to record her speech and the reactions of the crowd at least -- but seems to be more focused on the other Elites present, busying herself with detailed, invasive scans of each one she doesn't recognize, as is her distasteful hobby, paying special attention to Lou and Rocket for being immediately recognizable as technologically focused. "Don't worry, if you puncture your suit, I can fix it right away. In fact, I could make you a whole new one~" Weiss says in response to miss Parsle. The responds to the older Sarah with a simple "Right away! Want to race?"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert is the one who, as always, deals mostly with Kotone and Rory. A heavy, military sort of ape-grunt is what Kotone and Rory get, before he speaks. "The value of any ruin is whatever you can find to help build a better future. They are a resource. Think of them as such." Sarah Parsle also seems to be one that he gets nearer to. Albert seems like the kind of Flotilla member who's all about protecting people at around that range of combat efficacy, even though there's no way this is going to be a combat mission. "I want to know your scavenging expertise. Rory and Kotone, you have information and mechanical scavenging expertise I assume. What is yours?" He recognizes Sarah from the New Vegas operations, and seems quite willing to help her out here.

Lou (64) has posed:
    "I am called Lou," comes a relatively no-nonsense reply, the same self-introduction she typically gives even over Union channels, so it is not like she's selling Seft short. Her own eyes focus on Seft's face - or rather, visor, concentric rings visible in her irises while the sun shield of the ReGenesis helmet isn't yet engaged. They also spin to adjust to the range, and then she speaks again, the obvious, "You are a synthetic organism, Seft? It has many advantages." And yet, like many of her fellow, otherwise logical Casts, Seft seems to prefer such fancy adornments. It is hard to reconcile with her own algorithms. "Let us conduct this operation with efficiency."

Rocket (781) has posed:
Groot notices the other sapient plant as she approaches him. He speaks to her extending his plant control as a plant-like telepathy towards her, "I am Groot." ((Hello there.))

From Groot's shoulder Rocket looks down at the creeping plant a little nervously but seems confident in Groot looking out for him. "Hi," he says to it also.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Weiss's offer to repair the suit draws a thumbsup from Parsle. "Cool beans. You've got a lot of neat tricks, huh. Maybe we won't need them." There's a pause. "Probably will though. Having you here helps keep things from going to hell. You can fix this transport if it breaks too, right?"

She leans back on the wall next to Albert. Albert is a cool Apex who doesn't afaid of anything. She can appreciate that. Despite this being presumably a noncombat mission, Sarah Parsle seems to expect the worst at any given time.

Though she does blink at Rocket and Groot. "Is that a gun-toting raccoon in a mobile tree?" She asks. "Sup." She waves to the pair.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George is the one who tries to give Sarah Rogers the invitation on over to the trucks. "All's left is loading on up, gettin' on Luna. Looks like you had the mobility stuff all down, you brought a bag of holding or whatever to go with the ball-peen of destiny thing you got goin' on there?" The goofy reference to her hammer is irreverent. "Make sure you take the load off with the viking raid gear if you're gonna be carrying armfuls of loot here, we're not exactly takin' a rocket to Lindisfarne here." He barks a laugh at his own awful joke and jumps on into the trucks himself.

Rocket (781) has posed:
Hearing mention of the two of them, Rocket turns in the direction of Sarah Parsle and pantomimes tipping a hat in her direction. "Rocket's the name and my friend here is Groot. He's like a tree, sure. And yes, I'm armed," he does not address the 'raccoon' question and he taps the butt of the rifle strapped to his back which is nearly as long as he is tall. "I'm also a pretty decent technician if you don't mind my saying it myself."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Moonfin is the one who gives smug smiles to Weiss. "Ah, I intend to take the humble paths provided by our benefactors, but I assume you intend a more direct route?" He says, when she starts offering races and things like that. "I suspect I'll see you quite a bit later, if that's the case." He always seems more smug around Weiss, not really /at/ her but as if he's more comfortable with another intergalactic smuglord to be on the same side as.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     The convoy travels for half an hour through warpgate systems, eventually parking among several exists. One of which has a sign pounded into the ground before it. It reads as follows:

WARNING: BEYOND THIS GATE IS A LUNAR SURFACE. THERE IS NO AIR TO SUSTAIN LIFE. USE EXTREME CAUTION.

     It also repeats that, in multiple languages. The rest of the convoy begins to set up, inflating a portable medical wing in case of emergency and blocking off the gate to the Moon's surface. The Elites are all brought together again, now joined by the six usual EDF soldiers that help them out in these missions. William Davidson, Philip Troch, Lily Cooper, Tabitha Reston, Bonnie Moon and Jamie Hsu. They too, are dressed in spacesuits, and Tabitha is wearing a typical human body this time. There's no banter, and only murmured greetings over the radio. Through the helmets, one could tell that the soldiers are feeling nervous.

     Eventually, an 'all-clear' is given, and William grunts over the radio, "Let's do this." The soldiers lead the way into the warpgate! When the Elites follow, the first thing that would hit them is the quiet. No air means the only sound that reaches them is their own breathing. The kind of quiet that inspires you to breathe all the harder, to drown out the sounds of other bodily functions, ones that usually go missed. Their feet touch down on the pale, dusty surface, the sky above pitch black. The Earth is visible, a mostly blue sphere far above. All visible landmasses, however, are the colour of dust. Stars do not twinkle on the Moon, shining in fixed, stark white points.

     Ahead of the group is one of the domes of the lunar base. The soldiers begin to move, bouncing from one foot to the other as they move forward, to enter it. Thankfully, the airlocks still work, sliding open to permit their entry. "Don't take off your suits once we're inside. No way of knowing if it's been compromised yet," Philip says over the radio, all joviality missing.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Cheerful. A pleasure to meet you properly, Lou." Seft says. Her eye-visor swaps from round eyes to a '^_^' expression when she's asked about her nature. "Cheerful. I am a meber of the Glitch race, and synthetic in as much capacity as most people consider" She nods several times. "Warm. Efficacy is important in helping these people. I admit that I wish to see more connection between ReGenesis and our outside help as well." Then she stares a little longer, and those eyes turn into exclamation marks! "Recognizing. Oh, and you have also been caught up in the situation surrounding Juno Eclipse. We have worked together repeatedly, it seems." There'll be some time until they get there, but once they do, she'll be quietly stepping out of the truck, whirring and clicking and suchlike. Much more simple, less human design! She'll invite Lou to accompany on into the Warpgate in the first wave, since both of them are machines that can withstand vacuum more.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Sarah Rogers makes her way over to George. The truth is this is her first lunar excursion and he looks like he knows what he's doing. "Actually.. carrying capacity isn't something I'd thought about." She says with a sheepish grin, "I can lift a *lot* but having a backpack or a cart or something would help. We've got those right?" She hops into the same truck as George and leans back to enjoy the ride.

Once they've reached the Lunar surface, the environment doesn't bother her much, as expected. But man is that sun *BRIGHT* when there's no atmosphere to filter it out! Fortunately her Shield turns out to make a good sunshade.

Rocket (781) has posed:
As the warning about the lunar surface is announced, Rocket pulls the translucent hood over his head and attaches it around the rim of the suit's neck. It inflates and hardens into a 'fishbowl' style helmet which, as it stretches, becaomes totally transparent. He touches some buttons concealed in a pocket and speaks into the radio briefly to test the radio frequency for general chatter. "Everything seems to be in order here," he says. Before the vaccuum is loosed he straps a band around Groot's neck and asks, "That's not too snug for you is it?" to be answered, "I am Groot!" ((No, its perfectly fine, Rocket, just like you told me to expect.)) which can also be heard on the radio.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Floran isss Biteblade." The Flotilla's own Floran says, accepting the telepathic influence eagerly! She'll accompany the pair onto the trucks and jabber all the way there. "Floran wonder, what isss Groot? Look like tall Floran, barksssoldier who eat lotsss of drysssap, but not crazy insssane ssstab all time. Tell Floran what isss, want to know." She has an eager, hissy sort of tone. Then she turns a bit of attention on Rocket. "Tiny animal friend. Hello! Floran normally eat tiny animal, but animal that talk isss bad to eat becaussse ethicsss, Floran read in book. What isss name?" She keeps examining all during the ride, and keeps poking and prodding as they head on through the gate...

Lou (64) has posed:
    Lou's facial expressions can be hard to read, ironically moreso than Seft's, considering they practically don't exist most of the time. Nonetheless, there is a slight quizzical quirk of her features, before she gives an agreeable nod of her head, "By pure chance, it seems we have become acquainted already, Miss Seft. However, you are only partially correct: I am not the field unit involved with Miss Eclipse, though I am aware of her experiences."

    Leaving Seft to puzzle that out, since they have arrived, she ably steps out, the suit not seeming to slow her down much, though with the added exertion of it, the normally silent servos in her legs give their own soft, hydraulic sounds of effort. She is not complaining, though, lowering the sun shade on her helmet as they enter the actual lunar environment itself. Considering that all that stands between many of their fellows and nearly instantaneous loss of consciousness, and eventual death, is a space suit, it is understandable that the ReGenesis troops are apprehensive, but that is all the more important reason for Lou, Seft, and the other Elites to lead by example, and put them at ease.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "Ruins can be a base to build something new, there's still roads and other public works from an empire that's been dead for over 1500 years on my world, yet they are still in use because they still work."

With the convoy well on the way. She gets the idea about the warning on the gate. She now pass though with the rest and keeps her wits about her. She has no idea on what might await them.

<<Good thinking sir, there could be contimation in the old base after all Even just from decay of organic matter within.>>

She looked over to Lou and tries to pick up her spirits.

"HEllo Lou it's good to meet you as well. I'm Kotone Yamakawa as friend of Sefts and she's pretty much on the money for why I'm helping here."

Man she never got used to Seft using emoticons on her face though it was still adorable.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Hell, you want one, sure." George says, reaching into his Matter Manipulator. In a bright blue flash, he's pulling out what looks like a backpack that normally holds first aid supplies! He promptly dumps the whole thing on the floor of their inflated medical wing area, before wandering alongside Sarah Rogers to the gate. "Turns out I don't keep spare backpacks around 'cause that's kinda redundant, but here, have this." He offers the empty bag to her as if what just happened is the most normal thing in the world.

    He also retrieves a pair of slick sunglasses. "I /do/ keep a lot of these, though." He says, grinning wide. "So I can make sure to tell people 'deal with it' dramatically. Have one." He hands one of those off too, and starts hopping his way towards the lunar base. He's pretty agile, despite being on the moon! He's well trained in low-gravity stuff, and may bounce right out of the conversation entirely! He'll be right at the airlocks, helping get them open and working to assess the hull to determine the state of the architectural materials here.

Rocket (781) has posed:
"I am Groot." ((I am called Groot. My name is <OOC: the player doesn't know and isn't wanting to make it up>.)) He smiles at the inquiry from Biteblade and continues conversing with her. "I am Groot." ((My species is called Flora Colossus by the Kree. We call ourselves 'people' though, like most sapients do. I am not familiar with the Floran species. Given the nature of this megaplanet it is unlikely that we are even from the same universe after all though.))

Rocket tries to join the conversation by saying, "I'm Rock-" but it is Groot's turn to interrupt his friend for a chance: "I am Groot." ((He's called Rocket. He reminds me of the maintenance animals that cohabitate our world back home. It is what made me interested in being around him actually.)) Rocket looks surprised at this -- not the interruption but the information he had not been privy to previously.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    A small shadow looms on Sarah Parsle from behind. There is a squeaky rustle before the shadow deepens and Sarah feels something drape over her shoulders.

    "Hi!" Kyra chirps cheerfully. She's already fully suited up, clearly in some kind of small-sized loaner from the Flotilla. Her world is very lacking in the space travel, after all, and thus lacking in the kind of proper protection for things such as 'no air atmospheres'. That is with the exception of certain diving suits. "Hey, didn't see you come in. Is this your first space moon walk? This is my second but the last one had air on it."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "If it can be manufactured, I can replace it!" Weiss says confidently to little Sarah. Unfortunately, big Sarah doesn't seem to be interested in racing, and so the Armiger is left to give off a totally faked, forlorn sigh. "Nah, it's fine. I'm gonna stick with you guys just in case anything happens." she says to Moonfin. Of course she isn't referring to the Flotilla themselves. She's more than confident in their plucky, ragtag, space-faring abilities. It's only the humans, barring George, she has any reason to be concerned about.

    She doesn't seem all that affected by stepping foot on the moon, though that's simply due to Zwei having spent so many hours in combat sims on various, true-to-life moon environments; environments which, honestly, only have so much variation. She does take a good while to look at Earth though, assessing its condition from orbit with absurdly powerful sensors. She frowns faintly at the condition she finds it in. She also spares a moment to stare directly at the sun like nobody actually should in order to measure it, but finds it well within normal levels. On the way to the base, she doesn't even bother bouncing, instead just lazily drifting ahead on soundless, near invisible exertions of her thrusters, showing only as faint points of blueish light on the back of her legs and shoulders with the minimal effort it requires to propel her under 0.16 Gs. She doesn't stop once she gets inside either, turning her scanners onto wide area mode to get the topography of the base first.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft is going right back to the spinny WAIT symbol, trying to puzzle out Lou's meaning there. "Confused. I do not understand. I am certain I have seen you in action during the conflict surrounding Juno Eclipse and the betrayal of the Galactic Empire." She moves over the lunar surface with entirely robotic motions, and once the brightness hits her visual sensors, her eye visor begins displaying sunglasses instead of eyes. "Confused. During both the bombing that catalyzed the betrayal and the jailbreak, I am certain that I saw you in operation." Then, maybe a bit more politely, "Curious. I feel like I have missed something important. Is there a standard cause for my confusion?" She seems genuinely eager to know more about Lou!

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
It takes a few moments before Sarah accepts the backpack, apparently she's more concerned with all the stuff that got dumped out of it. "That looks important.. You're sure we won't need it?" She says worriedly. At least it's in the medical tent where it'll be of the most use? The sunglasses she accepts eagerly, and even has the forethought to stop the airflow on her mask for the few moments it takes to get them on and her mask readjusted over them.

Her attention goes to Zwei next, "Did I miss something about a race? I'm sorry. My first time out here and there's so much to take in!" She's pretty much decided George is her partner and matches his paces in the air as he bounds along towards the site.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Kotone gets a heavy nod from Albert. He's as short-spoken as ever. "You use whatever is available, new or old. That is how you survive." He insists on sticking close to her as the group heads on towards the facility. His eyes are narrowed in the light, but he insists on scanning the horizon for potential threats. Always paranoid, always on the defense. His motions in low-gravity are a baffling combination of apelike and marching, like he was trained for this in an Apex military organization.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah Parsle gives Rocket a nod and a thumbsup. "Sarah Parsle, of Death Game Academy. I'm good with puzzles and trying to avoid predictably stupid things happening."

TIME PASSES...

And Sarah looks out over the area with a tilted head. "Well, no time like the present." She says, and pops out on the surface.

Silence. Everything is quiet in space, because there is no air to conduct sound. She looks up, breathing slowly as it echoes in her helmet, and stands there on the gray-pocked surface, staring at the Earth quietly.

He doesn't wait long, looking back down to the surface, and then bouncing along experimentally towards the lunar base. Everyone seems to be going in the same direction, she'll head there, sticking near Albert. "You're a cool guy." She says, simply, over the shortwave radio. "How did you learn how to do all that stuff?" She asks. Is she just making conversation? Is the lunar environment getting to her already? Who knows?

Lou (64) has posed:
    Locomotion in low gravity is fun, or at least if her 'fun processors' were online, it would certainly be. Lou has little need for such things, and so her moon hopping is efficient, but unimaginative. It is simply designed to carry her over toward the designated base coordinates. "Greetings, Kotone," she offers, on the way there, opting to use her own internal radio than the suit's for now, so her voice is a bit clearer than what might be expected of a space suit's. "If you encounter any trouble, do not hesitate to call for assistance. More than one life is at stake." It's somewhat uncharacteristic of Lou to think of the others this work will benefit, but she is still a Guardian, before anything else.

    Lou's squishy bits are also somewhat less in quantity than the fully fledged humans that are accompanying them, but they do still exist. Conversation serves as a welcome change from having to be reminded of them, as well as the phase change fluids no doubt present in the suit itself, given the dead quiet. Accordingly, for once, she is keen to engage in it, as well as satisfy Seft's curiosity. "Many Casts are created using one design," she explains, "I am one Lou unit of a classified number. However, we are able to share information with one another instantly over our network, as well as the Guardians database." Before there's any misunderstandings, mid-bound, she maintains, "We are not a hivemind, but we share many characteristics."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Biteblade is cheerful and positive here. "Hi Groot!" She seems quite upbeat about this meeting. "Floran underssstand. Floran isss Floran. Plant like you, but sssoft like meat ssso we can move. Only hard bark if eat drysssap, eat drysssap and lossse marble all over place. Floran underssstand why call you Colosssssus! Big! Tall! Floran wanna grow tall like Groot sssomeday." She's a bit rambly as she heads on through the Gate. Her leaves stop audibly rustling in the vacuum, and they float in an uncanny way in the gravity.

    "Rocket! Isss a cool name. Big fire, big explosssion, go to ssspace or real fassst or all kind. Floran build rocketsss one time, for when Floran make ssspaceship. You are like maintenance animal. You help Groot? Sssymbiotic?" She's at least not excluding him from the conversation! She's... Down on all fours to use lunar gravity to its proper potential for Floran form, while she heads on into the facility, already looking for valuable electronics to scavenge...

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Kyra is noticed! Seft's eye-visor briefly displays a 'volume up' symbol as she calls out to her. "Cheerful. Kyra, welcome. It is a relief to have your higher-speed repair abilities on call. I am happy that you could make it to the job." Albert, meanwhile is wordlessly beckoning her over to join up with the rest of the Flotilla, and presumably Sarah Parsle is already along for the ride too, given how she's coming along with them!

Rocket (781) has posed:
For the time being Rocket maintains his perch on Groot's shoulder while the arboraform strides across the lunar surface effortlessly, gripping at it with root-like tendrils as he continues his conversation with the Floran. "I am Groot." ((I am actually fairly small right now. Many of my elders are many times larger than I am currently.))

Rocket's ears fold back slightly and he bares more teeth then normal as he answers Biteblade's question with one of his own, "Are you calling me an /animal/?" He starts reaching for his gun but in his anger he fumble fingers a bit. "I am Groot!" ((Rocket, she didn't say that. She's confused!)) Groot takes advantage of Rocket's fumbling to interject this quickly and manages to stave off a fight with an ally.

As he starts to calm down, Rocket says, "I'm not an animal."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Moonfin makes a sighing sort of 'ahhhh' noise at Weiss. "The greatest of motivations. I know exactly what you mean. It is something I take great pride in. We are, eternally, a place where one can often find a story worth remembering; our life is one that is interesting." He knows what Zwei likes most. "How could one bear to distance themselves with shortcuts and the like when there are so many moments of interest then, hmmm?" He chuckles wryly. Moonfin has also precisely practiced a way of moving over the lunar surface that looks like walking elegantly but manages to cover more space than it ever should. It's still a little slow and an astute eye will tell that he's trying a bit hard to make it work.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     The airlock is thankfully, just big enough for everyone to smush into. Groot may need to hunch over a bit though! Eventually, the light above the door on the other side goes green and opens. What lies within is what appears to have once been a vast bedroom.

     Bunk beds lay on their sides all over, fashioned into crude barricades and cover. A crack spreads across the surface of the dome on the other side of the airlock, clearly large enough for exposure. Bodies lay all over, some wearing plain jumpsuits and others in spacesuits like their own. All of them are terrifyingly well preserved due to exposure, their skin utterly mummified.

     "Shiiiit, what happened here?" Tabitha gasps over the radio. The ReGenesis soldiers begin to fan out to investigate the area. Computers are installed along the walls, easy prey for the technologically-inclined. Philip makes a beeline for one and begins typing slowly, his suit obstructing him a little. All the bunks are obstructive, so William and Tabitha begin to move them, carefully avoiding any sharp bit. Jamie is leaning against the wall a little, and looks to be dry-heaving. Bonnie and Lily begin checking the bodies for ID-tags.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Oh, hi Seft!" Kyra replies back on the suit-to-suit radio circuit no doubt set up for this mission. "Good, yes, I am ready for action! I just hope to avoid my own suit being breached otherwise I won't be able to cast. I kind of need to be able to make sounds, after all! Very important." The white mage slips off of Sarah's shoulder and bounces over to join up with Albert and the others. Pretty usual MO with the Flotilla since Albert made an excellent tank.

    Upon finally seeing the living quarters of the moonbase, Kyra gasps in dismay given the stunning number of corpses present. Although it isn't something she's looking forward to, Kyra forces herself forward so she can examine one of the corpses, attempting to determine the cause of death.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory unexpectedly jitters in place at Albert's words. It serves to bring a small smile back to her face and relieve some of the frustrations at least! "True. Thank you, Albert. Everything has been so dreary and awful these days."

    This is one occasion where Rory's saucer drones won't be of any help. With no atmosphere their ionic drives have nothing to react against. So... they'll be grounded.

    This hasn't stopped her from strapping one to the back of her Vacsuit for the extra eyes though.

    "ONce we find a terminal I'll attempt a dump of any useful information!"

    In the group goes though, and upon seeing the barricades and carnage...

    Rory frowns, but... "Faced with dwindling resources, it's highly probable the inhabitants became fiercely competetive over whatever was left... 'every man for himself.' If there's any security footage of it, we'll find out for certain."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George doesn't respond to the questions about if he'll need medical supplies. He just gives a grin and a wink to Sarah Rogers. She keeps up! Nice. Once he makes his way into the facility, he comes to a stop probably a bit nearby, putting a hand to his chin. "Yeah, that's, wow. Yipes, what happened here?" For now, he's investigating the DOME CRACKS to determine what sort of damage caused it. Physical impact? Explosions? Air pressure? "Kiddo, take a look around, figure out what's up. Gotta know what busted this place if we're gonna know what's safe to take back." He asides to Sarah Rogers.

Rocket (781) has posed:
Rocket climbs down Groot's arm and slowly drops from his wrist to the lunar surface, calmly reading his rifle one handed against his hip as he falls. "Was this place attacked or...." he's looking around defensively incase there are agressors to engage.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Predictably for someone who isn't even close to human in the first place, Weiss shows no averse reaction to the dead bodies. She could certainly fake one, but really what would be the point of that? Physically, she busies herself with the task of moving the barricade. Her strength prodigiously exceeds any parameter of human measurement, so the task should be relatively trivial for her, though she'll break stuff in half if it turns out to be more convenient. Mentally, she's more busy with the computer banks, wirelessly accessing them with zero-interface hardware to rapidly read their entire memory states and parse it through her well researched understanding of 21st century binary. "I'll probably have an answer in just a second!" she says.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Big Sarah looks a little grey as she looks around the bedroom, "Oh God.. next time I'm wearing a full suit." She shivers a little and prods her mask to make sure nothing's leaking out.. or in. She stays off the floor because she can, and because she doesn't want to touch the bodies, then gives a nod to George and floats to one of the computer terminals, She by no means an expert, especially with several AI's in the group, but the Battleworld had Commodore 64's wired into 30th century telepathic computers, So if the interface is straightforward she can figure it out pretty quickly, and starts looking for the logs of the last days.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert is VERY technologically inclined, and his emotions are hardened against corpses. He immediately goes for consoles installed on the walls, doing his best to assist primarily in extablishing compatible interfaces for the others. "White, Yamakawa. Begin data extractions." He's going to try to streamline that process, acting as a digital vanguard with his own Matter Manipulator's wireless systems to get an interface running for them.

    As he does, he responds to Sarah Parsle. "I was trained in computer sciences, astro-engineering, firearms maintenance, operation, and production, armor operation, physics, and similar sciences by the Apex Resistance." There's a heavy grunt there. "You are young and still receiving education. Provide and explain your intended expertise."

Lou (64) has posed:
    Once inside, any joviality she might have had, or feigned, is gone. An inhabited but abandoned moon base, reliant on surface supplies, as Lou remarks, "This was one of the most probable scenarios I had calculated." There is no real sadness to her voice, but she does give an over-long glance to the bodies, while bound-stepping as gingerly as possible inside what is accessible. She doesn't want to move too far away from the others just yet, until they can get a proper grasp of the station's situation. Something that she perhaps can help with, it turns out.

    Moving to one of the still operational computer terminals, and finding its technology similar (and accessible) to the ones she had encountered planetside in the power plants, she extends a space suited hand towards it. Unlike those reliant on manual control, she has an advantage here: A runed circle of light, triangular motifs quite prominent within its design, projected at the palm of it. Assuming her quick analysis is correct, she should be able to control it directly this way. However, not quite so directly as Zwei. Nonetheless, she will continue her own investigations, just in case. Several sets of eyes, even digital ones, on the same problem can sometimes yield better answers.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has got used to low g thanks to her hanging out with Rory.

"Good to meet you as I said."

She's pretty sure Lou is a cyborg like her or a full blown android and she's clealry looking her over a little bit for a moment.

"Ah your a Cast, I see? So like mass produced bodies on my own world. I think I get it."

She then goes quiet as they arrive to find the place is a mess, it looks like there might have been some sort of fight here.

<<Looks like there was a fight or something else happened.>>

Kotone will recoer what ID tags she can these poor souls desrve proper burrial right?

She keeps with Rory for the moment and then thinks for a moment.

"We have to keep going but ... ya things are hard right now."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft seems fairly upbeat on the way in. Her eye-visor shows a 'processing' sort of loading bar as she begins to comprehend Lou's circumstances. "Understanding. I believe I have an idea of this now." She says. "Cheerful. You are not a hivemind, you are a team. Similar to us in the Starbound Flotilla. I believe I understand. Please convey my gratitude to your organization for all the help you have given us in the past." She seems very pleasant about this... Right up until they get to the corpses.

    Seft is the only 'good' member of the Flotilla, which is to say, the only one directly affected by this. She sees some corpses and immediately her emotional reaction is strong enough that she needs to exit the airlock once again. She's not quite that vulnerable, but the severe mummification and sense of generalized desolation and struggle really just gets to her.

Lou (64) has posed:
    Believe it or not - there is something resembling a heart inside Lou. Distracted from her investigations, if only for a moment, she casts a glance toward Seft to reply - only to find her quickly exiting the chamber just as quickly as she had arrived. While her own reactions to the situation were muted, she still had enough base band empathy to understand, contacting Seft via radio transmission, "Do not force yourself, by any means, Miss Seft. Only understand that these people are already too late to save - but if we can retrieve their data, and tell their story, it might yet save others."

    Kotone also receives a reply, similarly via her internal radio's transmissions, "Indeed, Miss Kotone. Many Cast models are mass-produced. Lou units such as myself are merely equipped with additional equipment that allows us to coordinate. As Miss Seft put it, we are team members."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Woah!! You get bigger! Floran want to get bigger! Wow!" Biteblade seems really eager about this! "Sssuper huge! Floran want that." And then there's the strong reaction from Rocket. Biteblade doesn't seem to understand, until after a long, thoughtful moment, staring at Rocket and considering him. She doesn't really understand human (or animal!) aggression, instead she sort of approximates, and eventually says, "Huh! Okay! Rocket isss not animal. Ssso, what isss Rocket? Floran is Floran, Groot isss Colosssus, what isss Rocket? Floran wanna know, think isss cool."

    She then gets a bit rambly. "Floran think, know why Rocket not wanna be called animal. Isss like when mean fish call Floran 'weedsss', right? Floran come from Floran race, Floran race isss mean and angry, ssstab all the time. Hunt, ssstab, kill, breed. Sssavage. But, Floran isss not savage, sssee? Floran read all the booksss, learn all the ssscience, figure out all the ethicsss. Did you read all the booksss too, ssso not animal now?"

    Biteblade disregards corpses, but uses her TRACKING INSTINCT to try to determine the nature of the attacker by way of tracks left in debris, spilled fluids, or similar.

Rocket (781) has posed:
"I am Groot." ((Rocket is... Rocket. He's unique--)) Groot begins to explain only to be interrupted by Rocket.

"I've always thought I was one-of-a-kind until I found out there's another Rocket somewhere out there just like me... and people keep calling me a raccoon... what ever that is," Rocket says as he kneels to examine one of the broken edges of the shattered dome.

While Rocket speaks Groot moves to split the difference between staying with Rocket and following Biteblade, looking for anything he can help with on either side of the conversation. "I am Groot." ((Yes, it would be like calling you a weed or a blight rather than a quite capable plant.))

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah Parsle freezes up when Kyra drapes over her. Reflexively, a JENGA STACK appears in her hand from her STRIFE DECK, but she quickly identifies Kyra. With a flash, the JENGA STACK returns to the fuzzy world of obscure and difficult to use inventory systems. "Oh. Hi." She says, playing it off like it was nothing.

She follows them into the base, and...

"Oh, look, dead people." Sarah says with a disturbing lack of concern." She approaches, looks them over for a moment, but looks mostly up at the big crack in the dome. "Looks like something tried to force its way in, and in the process breached the dome. Everyone more or less bit it from there." Sarah observes. "Ugh. This is terrible." There seems to be a lot of computer people around, so Sarah foregoes trying to hax the old computer systems in favor of prodding around, perhaps looking for small objects that may have been lost in the shuffle. "I've been trained in scrounging, inventory management, using computers, gardening, cooking, folk guitar, cryptography, and puzzle-solving, which is basically the same thing, strife, and mythological analysis. When your gods are real people who can show up, people tend to take religion more seriously. What do I want to do, though?"

But then she stops again, thinking about Albert's words. There was a different interpretation of the question. "Mostly, I want to live. That's all I've been focused on ever since I learned about what I was going to have to do. I don't think anything I do is going to help change that much but I try anyway. It's why I'm working with all these people. Get stuff. Learn things. Make contacts. Everyone wins. Except when we lose, but that happens."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     William nods his thanks to Weiss and begins to pile the broken bedding in the centre of the dome. Tabitha drags any bodies there out of the way, making quiet, disgusted sounds as their skin crumbles away in her artificial hands.

     George's investigation of the crack reveals something very clear, something that anyone experienced in weaponry would be able to tell. Large pockmarks around the crack indicate that it was caused by gunfire. Approximately 17 shots had struck it, all quite spaced out. Whoever did it was clearly no marksman.

     Investigation of the corpses reveals a wide variety of injuries, mostly consisting of blunt force trauma to the head. Objects such as drawers, pots, pans mugs and computer monitors lay scattered around bodies, bearing stains of what was once possibly blood. However, only two bodies near one of the doors show signs of bullet wounds. Biteblade's tracking skills... don't reveal anything specific. A chaotic mess of footprints indicate that some kind of battle or multiple skirmishes broke out here.

     As for the computers, the massed investigation reveals a whole lot! Once again, Before Times tech was built to last. Security logs show multiple fights breaking out, with seemingly three factions vying for control. All battles were fought with improvised weaponry, not even a kitchen knife in sight, let alone firearms. After the fights, there is a long period of little happening, only broken when someone in a spacesuit enters, fires a handgun up at the dome, and leaves once it cracks. Then, nothing until present day.

     Additionally, maps of the interconnected domes are retrieved, and inventories. Strangely, the base DOES have an armoury, and it did contain firearms. But listings of equipment reveals...

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Philip suddenly yells over the radio, causing the over soldiers to flinch. "Guys, you're not going to believe this oh man inventory on power supplies says this place has 18 GODDAMN KOAN CORES!" A long pause, then "Oh damn, that's good shit!" Tabitha says with a fistpump. DeFoe suddenly interrupts on the radio. "Retrieval of those cores is now top priority. Organize teams and split up to complete your objectives."

     Lily begins to muse, looking among her soldiers and Elites. "All right. You four-" She points to Rory, Albert, Sarah Parsle and Kotone. "You'll be heading for the main Earth Observation dome. Your mission is to check their logs for any evidence as to why the Earth is the way it is. You'll be going with Philip and Tabitha." The engineer and cyborg jump in the low gravity to do a mid-air high-five, their jitters fading as the mission really gets underway. Next, Lily points to Rocket(and Groot!), Biteblade, George, Weiss and Sarah Rogers. "You all head for the armoury. They had weapons, why didn't they use them? Find out. William and Jamie will go with you." The youngest solider seems to have recovered from his nausea, and goes to William who gives all of his team a curt nod. "Finally, the rest of you-" Lily points to Kyra, Lou and the rest of the Flotilla. "Are with Bonnie and I. We're going to find those cores. Let's go."

     The soldiers, having downloaded the map into their suits, begin to split up, leaving through separate exits into the tunnels that link the domes.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Pavo make their way to Zwei, following along. "Got me a feelin' Rory was right there, lass. Take a look an' tell me what greed ye seein'. Figure the real valuables kept these folks alive, kept 'em greedy for it. What keeps a man alive on the moon can keep a man alive in a desert or a bunker. Gotta know what it was." Pavo says, grumbling and prodding at the computers but not in her area of particular expertise. "Run yer analysis, know ye got the brains for it. Follow the greed and ye find what's really valuable." And then, quickly, she's shuffling on off with Kyra and Lou, soon to be rejoined by Seft...

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George puts a comforting hand on Sarah Rogers' back. "Easy does it, kid. Chin up. Literally, just try not to look at the ground, it is /nasty/." He laughs again at his own awful jokes. "Chop chop, kid. Let's hit the weapons. Pavo's gonna be on my ass all night if I don't get her some sweet loot. Watch for traps or whatever, huh? Might be why they didn't grab it themselves."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft shortly rejoins Lou, processing the data for the maps. "Relieved. Thank you. I can deactivate subroutines responsible for emotional matters, but it is unsettling to do so. I appreciate your willingness to accommodate that." A brief 'u_u' look, before she's back to normal, or a semblance of it, doing her best not to look closely. "Firm. We have others to save, you are right." She's already using some built-in holoprojectors from her Matter Manipulator to take that map and project a convenient guidance line for their objectives, the cores!

Lou (64) has posed:
    Her algorithms had predicted the fights breaking out, certainly. But the purposeful compromising of the structure itself defies all logic - and especially since it appears to have happened long after the main struggles were over. Could someone have really survived, and if they were inflincting damage purposefully, what were they attempting to accomplish? To hide something. Lou's face, normally mask-like, shows just a tinge of being troubled by these revelations, but withdraws from the computer as the teams begin to form. Perhaps there will be time to figure out those riddles along the way, with some more clues.

    The Cast has no problem with their assignments, though it is unlikely she would voice it even if she did. A nod of her space suit helmeted head is given, and she pulls her hand away from the computer system, the rotating circle of light fading from her hand as she does. With the map data shared into her systems, for once, she can rely on someone else to provide the updates necessary on that front. Instead, she focuses on her passive radar systems as their team starts toward their objective: Retrieve the cores. Her own data would similarly be shared with her squad, made freely accessible on any suitably modern equipment.

    It is not so much that she expects any threats to appear on the radar, given the state and span of time, but navigational hazards could certainly present themselves. Given the unfamiliar territory, however, she can at most guarantee ten meters of monitoring in a spheroid around her.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Sarah Rogers smiles weakly at George, "That's what I've been trying to do. But I'll just bet the path to the armory is going to have more bodies in it than the other teams are gonna be dealing with." She sighs, "But I'll manage. What's a Koan Core by the way? ... Wait don't tell me, I have a feeling It'd make me want to be on that team even more." She pulls her shield down and start to hover forward, "Me and the big guy," She points a thumb at Groot. "Should probably be in front. If there's traps we can take the brunt of of them without too much trouble."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Biteblade nods eagerly as she also comes along to the armory, beckoning to both Groot and Rocket. "Floran underssstand. Think, right thing to sssay for meat people isss, 'sssorry'? Floran isss sssorry about sssay mean thing. Not know what raccoon isss. Floran decide, Rocket isss Rocket." She seems pretty cheery about it though. And then there's a happy sort of hiss at Groot's compliment. "Floran thank! Floran do all can, for be not like blight. Groot ssseem very sssmart too! Floran have feeling, when talk to. Isss not like Floran race, Floran trabe, alwaysss stab and fight." She continues on their way!

    They're getting to the armory. "Rocket hasss weapon, Floran think good for ssscavenge weapon. Alssso technician, Floran heard. Floran have Matter Manipulator! You tell Floran what to get, Floran put in Matter Manipulator, easssy ssstore. Floran trussst you know what to get, Floran not know lot about gunsss, 'kay?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Once Rory finds a comfortable place to settle in, she snaps a salute to Lily! "Roger!"

    on to the Earth Observation dome!

    "Finding out what happened bothers me more and more now..."

Rocket (781) has posed:
"The armory..." Rocket smiles broadly and there is an excited gleam in his eyes as he adds, "Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about."

"I am Groot." ((We have teammates to meet, Rocket,)) Groot reminds Rocket who then turns and nods to the others. "It was George, Weiss, Sarah, William and Jamie," he repeats the names as he nods to the others and then also to Biteblade, "And no Groot, I won't forget your new friend," he adds as Groot begins to speak.

The Floran's comments cause a broad grin to spead across his features. "Excellent, matter manipulation sounds amazing."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...hm, cause of death may be blunt force trauma." Kyra remarks at one corpse, then moves to another, "...blunt force trauma. Blunt force trauma...hm...it's like everyone beat each other to death." Her observations are interrupted at the excited interjection of Philip.

    "Koan cores?" Kyra sounds confused, "What is a koan core?"

    Sadly, Kyra is parted from Sarah Parsle. Kyra looks a little sad but gathers with the rest of the Flotilla and the Lou unit of the day, the latter of whom she looks up and down. "Hello. I'm Kyra Hyral and I'm with the Flotilla."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert grunts. "You will put all your effort into survival when it comes time." He says to Sarah Parsle, as if it were a guaranteed thing. "You take your threat seriously and so you will give it the appropriate preparation. No scavenging expertise relevant to this scenario, so I expect you to function as a reliable extra set of hands. Scout areas that haven't already drawn experts cautiously, provide backup otherwise." He closes up his Matter Manipulator's holoprojector and directs the moving out that the others are doing.

    "The state of the Earth and the cause of its crisis is a puzzle that needs solving. Determine the cause, so that ReGenesis can work to reverse it and keep it from ever happening again."

Lou (64) has posed:
    The Lou field unit returns the look by Kyra - a bit more directly now, as the relative shelter of the base allows a secondary, less reflective visor to be engaged. It is then followed with a nod of the head, "I am Lou, of the Guardians," though she expects that name means little to most in the multiverse. "My, and the other unit's, contact with the Flotilla has so far been positive. You are a very goal-oriented group of individuals - a trait I can appreciate." While her association and appreciation cannot freely go further than that, given that the Flotilla is a bit too 'Rogues-like' for the Guardians' taste, they had been known to cooperate before, out of the public eye.

    No smile is offered, but it does not seem to be her way. The obviously electronic parts of her likely give a clue as to why. After the brief social contact, which her algorithms predicted would be better done with an actual face to match her voice, she once again engages the more protective lens on the helmet, a reflective gold layer. "KOAN Cores, according to my database, provide a way to recover energy that had been lost to entropic processes. That makes them immensely valuable, from both a monetary and resource perspective." That is about all she will speak on the subject, though; presumably the ReGenesis troopers would be able to explain better, and in a more articulate manner than her.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss looks to Pavo with an expression not nearly as askance as it should be. In fact, she seems like she might be vaguely, distantly impressed. "I'd like to say it was a fight for survival over basic provisions, but that seems unlikely. The more probable hypothesis here is that when they learned most or all of Earth had died, they realized themselves as the last piece of human civilization and devolved into a power struggle. I count three distinct groups of people participating in multiple skirmishes without the use of so much as a bladed instrument. I have few ideas why they might have been so averse to spilling blood." She's fairly matter-of-fact about it; not robotic or disinterested, but speaking in what could be compared to an academic tone. "As for the damage, someone came in after the fact and shot up the canopy for ostensibly no real reason. They're the only recorded footage of anyone employing a firearm."

    She seems happy enough with the team arrangement, being paired up with a couple of people she likes combined with most of the total unknowns. She busies herself for a few moments analyzing what would make Sarah think of herself as tough enough to block for the rest, seeming as she doesn't seem to be all that well armoured and superficially looks human, mostly paying attention to what she can glean from her physiology and equipment. Groot is self-explanatory. He's frigging huge and made of solid, hardened plant matter. She obligingly walks behind those two, but deliberately within the distance of the soldiers that her personal interdiction field can cover them.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Attagirl." George says to Sarah Rogers. Then he listens over radios! "Sounds like an energy thing. More for big societal stuff than just personal things, though, otherwise Pavo would-- Oh wait, Pavo /is/ headin' there. Well shit, there we go then." He laughs again! Always laughing at his own jokes there. "Gotta get all the finder's fees, huh? Let's grab what we can get, I guess." He asides to Kyra Hyral, "Yep, that's what you do in low-gravity stuff. Trust me. Bladed weapons and stuff like that? Lot tougher to get right if you're below about half a G, see? I've seen riots like this, it's pretty much seventy percent punches and thirty percent fire extinguishers or, like, some random pipe someone pulled off a wall."

    And then there's Rocket and Groot coming over here! He gives a couple waves, gesturing them on over! Very friendly.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Albert provides direction. The firm conviction seems to prevent sass potential from Little Sarah. "You got it." She says, and she turns to the others on her team. "Let's go, should be a blast." She falls in behind Tabitha and Philp, assuming they know the way, and checks areas just off the path, taking to her assignment as Kid Scout with aplomb. Kotone gets to look around in places that look dangerous. She's combat grade, she said, right? Sarah doesn't consider herself that. She tries to scurry around a bit, looking for anything untoward and/or lootable, the latter of which will probably end up CAPTCHALOGUED in her ENIGMA MODUS.

Once they get to the Earth Observatrtion Dome, she'll get to work in earnest. She likes solving puzzles. Puzzles are clear-cut, follow rules, and inevitably collapse into an answer once one understands those rules and can manipulate them. The world's destruction does seem to fall into those parameters. It's just a matter of learning the rules of this particular puzzle.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft gives several robotic nods, and displays that '^_^' look again. "Cheerful. There's nothing so unifying for a group as a common goal."She says, and then gets a bit more '<_<' in her visor. "Sheepish. I admit I do not always share their goals, but loyalty comes first. Efforts like this, efforts to restore life and protect innocents or advance civilizations, I have put my absolute support behind." Back to energetically positive round blue eyes on her eye-visor. She's very expressive, for that sort of monotone. "Cheerful. I hope our respective organizations can continue to collaborate in the future."

Rocket (781) has posed:
"I am Groot," ((Of course I can help take point,)) Groot says to Sarah Rogers in response to her suggestion. Rocket translates: "He's with you on point," and then he adds, "I'll take the rear if that's alright with the rest of you guys."

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Sarah Rogers grins at Rocket and Groot in turn, "Excellent, let's get this show on the road, I can understand you by the way Big Guy." She fingers that necklace of hers, Mjolnir in perfect miniature. "I have a thing for that." She turns her attention to Rocket, "Based on your reaction, I have the feeling you're going to know best what to do with the, shall we call it salvage? That we find."

She turns in mid air to look the rest of her team over, "Everyone else, it would be helpful if we all shared our capabilities, This place feels pretty dead, but we should be cautious none the less. Who brought the map by the way?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa Says "I know how that goes I shelled out the money to make sure my face wasn't a stock design myself. Too creepy that way honestly. Still if that's how you come into the world. I figure it would bother you less than for someone who wasn't. We should talk another time when we're not on a job. I think it would be interesting to be honest."

The battle site is just a nightmare and she is glad to be heading out with Rory and Albert. She recalls Sarah from the Syndicate radio and is more than willing to take point, she's only brought pistols today and not some of her heavier arms, given it might punch holes in the very things they want to salvage.

"This place .... ugg knowing more this is like a nightmare set up for any space operation."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Pavo nods with a grim sort of look to Weiss. "Survival is greed, lass. 'I gotta live more than the other guy', ye know. Just how it works. They were greedy for things that help ye survive, and now we need 'em." And that's all she has to say about that before things are getting split up. She's joining with the group heading to the Cores, already getting out her extensive collection of breaching supplies designed to tear through protections for valuables in space structures.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM ARMOURY==

     William and Jamie leads the Armoury team through a tunnel that begins to slop downwards immediately. It too, has rows of barricades up, necessitating weaving between them or just plowing through them, depending. They also listen to Sarah Roger's advice, allowing the treeman and the girl to take point to soak up traps. Though William insists on sticking with them. "The armoury was build underground, in a dead-end section of cave. Only one way in, so it would be hard to steal any," Jamie explains over the radio, still not sounding entirely well.

     As they reach the next dome, another bedroom that actually looks like a bedroom, William suddenly holds up his hand to stop. "Do you hear that?" Indeed, everyone would hear interference on their radios, whispered, garbled speech like they were picking up another broadcast. Jamie begins tapping at his wrist radio, trying to lock on to the signal. "Okay, I got it... broadcasting to you all now."

     A male voice with a Southern accent speaks over the radios, far more jubilant than the setting should suggest. "The first day of mah first job, CHIEF O' SECURTY ON DA MOON! Paw would prolly say that it ain't a real job, no one gonna cause trouble on da moon, but paw got bit by a rattler in the outhouse so what does he know? Lot of the science types been looking down on me, must be the accent. But I'mma do my job and do it well!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM EARTH OBSERVATION DOME==

     Tabitha leads the way, bouncing over the barricades that fill the tunnel. Philip tries to do the same, but he just lacks the mechanical precision and goes tumbling a few times. These two are clearly trying to have fun.

     The Observation Dome is quite close, only needing to go down a few tunnels to reach it. It is also breeched, another crack spreading across the surface. But it does offer a gorgeous view of the Earth above. Most of the time. Sometimes the view seems to... flicker. "Aw man, looks like they used the dome as a digital telescope, and now it's busted!" Philip bemoans. Several computing stations have been set up, some of which have bodies slumped on them. The walls have whiteboards lines along them, all packed thick with calculations and diagrams.

     "Hmm... okay folks, this is a T-873 Viewfinder system." Tabitha begins to explain as she looks up at the damaged view. "These things are self-repairing, but we need to supply the shards it lost when it was damaged." She looks down, and picks one up. The color seems to constantly shift in the lighting. "Start gathering these up, then jump up to put them into the cracks, like a puzzle!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM KOAN CORES==

     According to the map, this team has the farthest way to go. The KOAN Core setup is all the way at the Moon's northern pole, and they're only just north of its equator. "We'll have to take the rail transit," Bonnie says. Again, they have to walk through the barricaded tunnels, mostly made from the trolleys that custodial staff would use to reach it.

     Lily looks back at the group, and speaks in a hard voice. "Now, I want this to be perfectly clear to you all: KOAN Cores are /off-limits./ You do not get to claim them as part of your payment. We need them far more than you do." Bonnie looks at Lou, and nods at her explanation. "That's basically it. We don't know how to make them, and we've found so few. One of them is in SAVIOUR-001, others are being kept aside for future SAVIOURS. I think we only have two actually powering Eden."

     The rail system is quite a walk away, but they do reach it. A trolley stands waiting for them. "Everybody on, I'll get it going," Bonnie says. She enters a booth and begins typing away at the console found within before rushing inside. It hums to life, and begins to move off!

Lou (64) has posed:
    Speaking of the more Rogues-like elements. Lou regards Pavo for a moment, since it doesn't distract her attention from her radar monitoring. A simple nod is given - in times such as this, she cannot really dissuade use of such crude measures, should it come to it. Hopefully it won't. "The autonomous system's records continued updating, post-habitation, but were incomplete in places," she warns, as she continues those short bounds through the corridors, an arm extended to keep the impulse from smacking her suit against the walls and ceilings, overmuch. "Given the nature of the dome breach, I calculate a high probability of damage in other areas and facilities. Hopefully the transit system data is accurate."

    All of this was to reach the rail system, ultimately. It was much too far for any reasonable foot, or hopping, travel, given their suits weren't designed for stays that extended. Reaching the trolley, after that brisk little jog, Lou secures herself to it by hooking on with a clip. The least thing you want is to fall off this thing in low gravity - who knows how far back they'll find you, or in how many pieces. "Affirmative," comes her agreement to the cores' importance. "I had anticipated that to be the case." She gives another glance to Kyra, Seft and Pavo at that; she trusts Seft with this, but she makes a mental note to try and keep a cautionary monitoring of the others. Just because they are nice to work with does not mean she completely can neglect any possibility.

    She also says as much, aloud, though not directly indicating any suspicions in the current situation, as the trolley begins to move. "I have been forbidden from freely associating with unallied elements. Fortunately, Guardians protocol allows me to override such considerations when lives and civilian property are in danger." In other words, if Lou encounters them working for some Evil McBaddie, circumstances might be different in the future.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "So edged weapons are just harder to use effectively in low gravity? Interesting...though to be fair it doesn't look like a large number of people here carried edged weapons anymore. Seems kind of impractical...what if they are attacked by something with tentacles and they need to cut themselves free? Well. Hypothetically since all of these people here are dead." Kyra yammers at George until her question about Koam Cores is answered-well, partiaully answered by the robot Lou. Furthermore, she gets a little lecutre about Koan Cores.

    A sad frown follows when it's revealed that nobody gets any Koan corse. Kyra seems put out until she realizes that these guys probably need the cores a WHOLE lot more than she or anyone she knows does, just like they say. Rebuilding a world is pretty tough. "Right, right, understood, understood."

    Kyra climbs onto the trolley and plops down next to Pavo. "Anything special we need to know about handling KOAN cores, though?"

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
==ARMORY TEAM==

    Sarah Rogers busies herself with moving barricades out of the way with the aid of Groot, then suddenly she stops and stares straight ahead with a dumbfounded look on her face as the voice comes over the radio. "Okaaay.." She says finally, "I was ready for old booby traps, automated defenses, maybe a few insane survivors. But... Moon Hillbillies? I just- I didn't see that coming!" She looks at William, still confused. "Is that signal live or a recording? If someone else beat us here, how the heck did they get ahead of us with all this crap in the way!?"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    ARMORY TEAM:

    "Moonbillies." George says, wrinkling his nose unpleasantly as he walks some distance behind the vanguard. "It's worse than I thought." Is he being serious? It's not clear. He taps his headset module at his ear. "Was this guy liveblogging his moon job?" He says, in a confused tone. "Man, Heads of Security are never good. Least, from the look of it, he locked down the armory and kept the loot from getting spread around too much." And then he shakes his head at Sarah Rogers. "No way this is live, kiddo. 'First day', nope. This is recorded. Definitely blogging."

Rocket (781) has posed:
==TEAM ARMORY==

As William guides the group though the complex, Groot helps Sarah Rogers with the barricades. "I am Groot!" ((You're stronger than you look, Miss!))

Rocket, towards the rear as planned, throws a switch on his rifle putting it in stun mode -- no need killing a survivor if they might be rehabilitated, right? "How can we identify friendlies from hostiles, Jamie?" he asks over the comms before he realizes what they are all hearing. "Life bloging? On the moon? Seriously?" Yeah, he's not impressed witht he idea of that life choice.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "You mean repair the DOME? ... Self-repair on this scale? Really?" Rory's not sure whether to be startled and balk, or shocked and amazed. It sounds like both though her expression's just sort of boggley!

    Nevertheless, she sets her Saucer down on a handy terminal and gets looking. Sure, her physical body's wandering around but 3 extra thought threads are using her optics and the saucer to hunt for pieces!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "He did say 'first day'." Weiss replies to Sarah. "It's old. I can understand recording it, but I'm really not sure why he'd broadcast it though. Maybe he just really wanted it to be found once he knew he was going to die?" Weiss homes in on the signal herself, drifting vaguely in its direction to try and find the source, more out of curiosity of the state of the man himself rather than any desire to recover the full log. She's a little curious about his history, but his role in the general catastrophe is more important. Besides, it's not like the armoury is going anywhere.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    ARMORY TEAM:

    Biteblade laughs at Rocket. "How will we know about who wasss Sssecurity Head if not blog about it?" She says, not particularly seriously. She's the one who's sniffing around to try to find the armory. Where is that on the map? Where's the exit from here? The individualist and isolationist nature implied by the culture of the voice on the radio makes her wary of a lethal response! "Floran think, can probably know what isss bad, iss good, with eye. Anything here after yearsss, probably dead. If moving, probably friendly!" Biteblade seems cheerful and not very paranoid about everything here!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
DOME TEAM:

    Little Sarah nods to Kotone again. "It's pretty messed up. but there's no point in crying over spilled air pressure. We need to keep moving."

Once they arrive in the Dome itself, she looks over the digital dome. She looks back down at the pieces lying all over the place. And then back up at the dome. "Wow. This is /literally/ a puzzle." Sarah says, and then just gets to work, immediately running around to scoop up shards until her hand is full, then begins examining them, then looking up at the damage. "Hrm." She pauses, and then begins methodically attempting to fit pieces into the borders. "Focus on cleaning up the borders and then we can work our way in. Are these things going to reconnect themselves or do we need space epoxy?" She asks.

Sarah is diligent now, setting to work without complaint. She has something she needs to work out. Time to get to work.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    DOME TEAM:

    Albert grunts heavily. "It seems like I was being literal." He says. Is it possible for him to be bemused? Maybe. Trying to use his Matter Manipulator to vacuum up the pieces is something he can do after the others have assessed their state enough; Albert himself heads over to the whiteboards and the computers, checking what data was being gathered, or what happened to the bodies slumped at the computers. If there's anything usable or useful here, he needs to check that first, and help out Rory White. If there's not... Well, he'll start sweeping his Matter Manipulator around, sucking up shards like a vacuum to hand off to more capable people like Sarah Parsle or Kotone. For the latter, he says, "When you go into space you have to understand that there will always be a chance you won't come back. It always has some small fraction of suicide in it."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
==Team Dome==

Kotone is able to keep up with Tabitha and the rest as they head in. She looks for a moment and she sighs.

"Well we can maybe find some things of worth, right? Oh it can be repaired easily? That's pretty useful."

She'll start looking about for parts to gather up and maybe to work them. She's moving to try and put the bits into the damaged parts as best she can.

"It's not unknown on some worlds but damn if we can this is something isn't it, Rory?"

She looks to Albert as he gets to work with the Matter Manipulator and damn that thing's handy isn't it?

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    CORE TEAM:

    Pavo makes a 'pfffft' noise at Lily. "And yer the folks payin' the highest prices for 'em, right? Ye landlubbers have made workin' for ye more profitable than not workin' for ye, long as ye pay me my finder's fee I ain't gonna kick up a fuss here about ye rules." She seems fine with Lily's policy, albeit irreverently so. She slips her way onto the trolly and talks a bit to Kyra. "Lass, ye best not talk to George 'bout tentacles. Least, not if ye ain't doin' me gimmick of makin' him mad just 'cause ye wanna. He got a history, ye know."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    CORE TEAM:

    Seft also takes a seat on the trolly, but her way of sitting and speaking is far more polite. She gives several nods to Lou. "Somber. I understand. We are people who it would be difficult to justify certain association with, and I do not begrudge that." And then there's the '^_^' look again. "Optimistic. I just want to hope that we both happen to want to work on the same good agendas in the future. You have done good work so far, from what I have seen. And I will hold no grudge against you if our operations of more ill intent have us run counter to each other."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM ARMOURY==

     William nods at the other's assessments. "Definitely a recording. Some kind of journal, or 'blogging' if that's what you call it." Jamie chips in with, "Could be a useful source on what happened. I'll keep us tuned in to it." He glances to Rocket, and in a vaguely condescending tone, he says, "There aren't going to be any hostiles. Everyone is dead, this is just a recording."

     And so the journey to the armoury continues, with the Southern baritone in their ears. Though the next update is far more sombre than the previous. "Earth... something done happened to it. Not respondin' to our calls... shit." Going further down, now below the surface of the moon. Just long tunnels that open into caverns now.

     "Folks gettin' real antsy lately. Lotta talk of hoardin' of other people bein' wastes of air. Don't like it ooooone bit. Other security folk keep pesterin' me for the key to the armoury. I ain't gonna give it to 'em though. Guns're nuthin' but trouble. Last thing we need." His voice is starting to break up, filling with despair with every update. They reach the final stretch, a long tunnel with a wall at the far end. Before the group lays the armoury.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM EARTH OBSERVATION DOME==

     "Hell yeah self-repair! This is the moon base, they got all the best stuff up here," Philip says to Rory as he bends down to pick up some shard. Albert's use of the Matter Manipulator certainly does speed up the process too. The dome broke into a lot of little slivers, not a single big chunk to be found.

     As for the whiteboard, they all seem to include equations for orbital mechanics and the triangulation of a specific location on Earth... however, exposure to solar radiation has actually begun to bleach the boards, with some parts missing. It's hard to tell if they ever found an answer.

     As for repairing the dome, thankfully they don't have to be super-precise. Putting a shard near the edge of a crack causes it to meld into it, gradually fitting it all together more and more. Tabitha listens to Sarah's advice and works on the borders first. Eventually the flickering stops as the last crack melts away!

     "Awright, let's see what happened!" Philip goes to the centre of the room and conjures a holographic representation of the Earth and Moon. Giving it a hard slap, he makes both start to orbit in reverse, and the display the dome gives begins to rewind!

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM KOAN CORES==

     Lily gives a satisfied nod when everyone agrees to leave the Cores to ReGenesis. "Thank you for your understanding." The trolley is a fast one, zooming through the long stretch of tunnel at an even clip. "KOAN Cores don't give off radiation, if that's what you mean," Bonnie says to Kyra. "Just be really careful in holding them, don't want to break them."

     Now, the computer that Bonnie used to activate the rails gave an 'all-clear' on the track's integrity, but it did note that maintenance hadn't happened for a long long time. Without a lot of options, she had activated it anyway, and silently hoped it would hold together.

     It didn't.

     With a sudden jolt, the trolley comes off the track as a section of rail slips loose from the next due to vibration. "BRACE!" Lily yells over the radio, tucking her head between her knees as it begins to slide against the floor, sending loud shrieks through the base!

Rocket (781) has posed:
==Armory Team==

"If the armory's locked someone's going to need to get us in," Rocket observes and then offers, "I have a few tricks I can try to manage it if need be," as the group move towards their goal.

"I am Groot?" ((You're going to try to disengage the lock instead of blowing the door open, right Rocket?)) Even those who don't understand Groot's words can hear the concern he puts into the annunciation of his name this time.

Lou (64) has posed:
==TEAM CORES==

    For most of the duration of the ride, Lou mostly sits quietly and patiently. She finds it hard to converse normally, unless she's responding to something specifically, or attempting to bring attention to something. She also doesn't need to look around as much as others that don't have passive sensors as parts of their body, further degrading any body language. Nonetheless, there are a few threads she can continue to pursue with Seft, mostly about the nature of their involvements. "Making a projection based on the data set available is difficult," she says, head and helmet tilting, with some difficulty, in an emulation of a thoughtful gesture. "It appears likely, that will remain the case, Miss Seft. As I understand it - your group seizes opportunities, but are intensely loyal. It is not completely without a code of conduct."

    She sits back again, her posture straightening, as she explains her own misgivings about it, "In the Gurhal system, where I originate, there is a desert planet run entirely by organized crime, with a puppet government orchestrated by them. The foremost of these groups are called the Rogues. They are tolerated only because it is preferable to complete anarchy--" She's cut off by something.

    Just about then, Lou's internal sensors begin flashing red, an alert that is also transmitted to members of her team with the equipment to receive it. Unfortunately, her sensors' range, combined with the high rate of speed, make the reaction time difficult. In a robotically fast movement, her arm reaches out to take hold of the structure of the trolley, though even with her Cast body's strength, there's little fighting against physics. It's a doubly good thing she had secured herself with that hook and strap, earlier. As she recovers somewhat from the jole, and the trolley skids, the helmet of her suit has some noticable fracturing, but holds together. "If I had the capacity to," she says, with a bit more uneven tone to her voice, trying to clamber back up, "I would hate my accurate projections." A quick scan is taken to confirm all the passengers are still here, and uninjured.

Rory White (673) has posed:
DOME TEAM:

    Well, Albert certainly had that one in the bag. "I'm wondering though. Why are all of the domes cracked? It's as if it was done deliberately. I cannot imagine why that would be..."

    But it's unimportant for the moment. She flocks to the display with mad speed, eager to observe!

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
==ARMORY TEAM==

Sarah Rogers grins up at Groot, "Well, I try to keep in shape, and the lower gravity helps." She explains, and she continues toss blockage out of the way like it's made of balsa wood. She listens worriedly to the conversation between the Racoon and his Tree. "The Armory is probably better shielded than most of this place. It's possible it could still be pressurized. We need to be careful opening it up, maybe cut a small hole first and see if it tries to blow out."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
==TEAM CORES

    "Radiation or any other nasty handling surprises you think we should know about. Granted there are a few things I will do to start out with when it comes to studying a new power source. I apologize in advance if I get annoying."

    Kyra seems to be about to offer more insight when the trolley jerks forward. She might not be able to see the wheels of the car moving but based on the vibrations she can guess that the trolley has jumped the rails. Instinctively, Kyra starts to try to dig through her gear...only to realize that her stuff is INSIDE her space suit. A"Ah shit-!" she instead exclaims in surrender, grabbbing onto Pavo for stability.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
The work is done quickly. Sarah steps back and looks up at it, satisfied. "Well then, that worked out. Surprised that all the pieces were still here." She looks around, and then stands over by Rory and Albert, waiting to see the cause of the terrifying end of the world. "Hope the recordings are still intact. It'd suck if whatever caused it ruined the records."

Rory brings up a good point. "Well, it doesn't seem like it would come from inside. If it was, we wouldn't have found all the shards. Some of them would have went out into space." Sarah points out.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Biteblade giggles. "Moonbillie had right ideasss. Gun make trouble. Hunt and kill with ssstab, punch, clearly work out better." Then she ponders, the situation a while before responding to Rocket... "Huh, even sssecurity man not know what happen to Earth. Isss not good, hmmm. Like human Flotilla friend George, isss myssstery what happen to Earth. Floran think, break in with key. Find Head of Sssecurity office, break in there, take key, break in armory. Easssy! Or maybe, no, maybe isss electronic key! Two metal friend can break open." She says, pointing at Weiss!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George says, "Yeah, pretty shitty suddenly having Earth get fucked for no reason. If Weiss can't do it, I'm a pretty solid space hull engineer. We work together, I can figure a way to can-open in there, but best bet's looting the HoS' office." Credit where it's due to Weiss, Rocket, and Sarah having strength to work with here. No jokes this time. Stuff's putting him in a mood. He's even grabbing a smoke from his Matter Manipulator as he bounces through the hallways, taking heavy drags on it eventually. Earth apocalypses always get him a bit like this.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Albert makes unpleasant noises at the whiteboard, and at Rory herself, but not with any aggresion towards her. "There is only one option I can think of." He says, tersely. "And I would rather it not be true." His eyes narrow at the 'rewind'. "Information persists. Infowar is difficult because once information exists and is known, it's incredibly difficult to destroy. Nobody knows what devastated Earth so severely. It's possible that this was part of a plan to cover it up." And then a contemptuous noise. "Or someone up here had a sense of shame."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss feels no need to get smug or satisfied about her predictions being steadily proved more and more accurate by the continuing tapes. Though she is by far the less emotional and sentimental half of Zwei's mind, she can at least recognize where those kinds of feelings would be inappropriate. She instead shrugs towards Groot. "Does it matter? Nobody's used this place for a long time, and nobody is /going/ to be using it for a while. Something simple like a door isn't a big deal to replace. As long as you don't hit it so hard that it damages the room inside, I don't think it's a big deal." She of course has multiple means to circumvent a mundane door quite easily, but showing off is far less useful than gathering data on the capabilities of the others. Besides. She has zero reason to fear the dangers Sarah warns of, despite their sensible nature. Biteblade goes through the effort of bringing up the entirely possible outcome that the locks could be entirely digital, but that earns little more than a wayward smile. "If it really doesn't have anything analogue, I could always try."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Pavo nods seriously. She DOES really want to get paid. "Aye, cap'n." She says, to Lily. "Careful with the valuables, know that. Ain't gonna treat 'em rough." She seems serious about that, and partially advising to Kyra. And then suddenly, derailment! Oh shit. Pavo is clung to, and Kyra is held onto! "Avast!" She calls out. "Sawbones! Ye fancy machine magic! Ah shit, if ye can't... TIN CAN, PULL US OVER." She calls out, aggressively, over to Seft now.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft was listening, attentively, to Lou; it's clear that their lack of previous contact has made the princess-bot kind of eager to hear about what she has to say, and get to know her better. She makes a very firm affirmative sort of beeping noise when Lou mentions that the Core Fleet of the Flotilla is loyal; that is definitely something she wants people to understand.

    And then they're jumping the tracks and sliding around! Oh shit. Rattling, her visor flashing red, she immediately grabs on to Lou who will hopefully be stable, and draws her POWER BATTLEAXE from her Matter Manipulator, trying to slam it into the ground at the back of the trolly and use it like a rudder, nearly rattling her arm apart to try to force it back onto the tracks, or if not, at least away from the walls of the tunnel so they can still get to where they need to go!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is working to get the self repari system going it's pretty impressive if it's going to work. She sees the dome fixing it self and it's a marvel to see therel. She takes a step back now as she looks to see just what happned. She also lookin for a computer system she could tap into it.

"Somethings as we have learned Albert are best left consumed by time, yes.

"Could be micro meteror impacts it's been left idle for a long time."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM ARMOURY==

     On the final approach, a new report begins to play. This one is obviously different right from the get-go. Loud shouting is in the background, slurs being thrown around and the sounds of fists pounding fills it, only to be cut off by the head of security.

     "SHUT UP! All of ya're animals! Things get a little bumpy and y'all are tryin' to tear each other apart! I said it once and I'll say it again. No one is takin' ANYTHING from this armoury. Ya wanna kill each other? Do it the hard way." The tone of his voice is a challenging one, with an undercurrent of desperation. Like he's hoping that the dare will scare them enough that they won't.

     But the silence only lasts a moment. The yelling and pounding begins again, and a tired, sorrowful sigh is heard. "... we reached the moon by workin' together, but it all boils down to selfishness when the chips're down huh? Fine. I even gathered up all the knives before lockin' myself in here. Kill each other without weapons. I'mma be playing this on loop from here, maybe it'll snap y'all out if it. I'm out."

     The last thing is a loud hiss. And then the recording loops.

     Having reached the wall, the group can see a corpse sitting behind the grill through which weapons would be passed. He has a large hole in his head, surrounded by dried blood. Said grill also has a small hole in it, large enough to reach a hand through. But the door is still sealed.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM EARTH OBSERVATION DOME==

     The dome display shows the past, flying back through the years, decades and centuries. It's almost like all the dust and dirt is being replaced by greenery over time, rather than the reverse. But suddenly, there's a white flash around the Earth, and Philip stops the rewind, moving forward a bit to see it.

     On the display, beams of white light seem to lance off of satellites orbiting the Earth, splitting to hit other satellites until the whole Earth is encased within the beams. And suddenly, multiple beams erupt from the satellites, aimed Earthwards. They drag themselves across the surface, land and sea both for approximately half an hour before cutting off.

     There's a long silence from the two soldiers, finally broken by Philip. "What the FUCK was that? Where did it come from?" He rewinds a bit, trying to see where the first beam originated from... but the lights all come from the opposite side of Earth simultaneously. "Great. We narrowed it to a whole goddamn hemisphere. Fucking. Awesome." The albino kicks one of the corpses violently, and turns off his radio. Though it doesn't take a genius to tell that he's ranting in his suit.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM KOAN CORES==

     When the trolley has come to a halt, Lily gets up. "Sound off! Everyone all right?" She pats Lou on the shoulder. "Thanks for the save, we could have been trapped in here." After a moment, it's clear that Bonnie hadn't said anything.

     Lily checks on her comrade who is lying prone on the ground. Turning her over reveals a crack in her helmet, the air making a hissing noise in the silence. "BONNIE!" Lily takes a tube from her belt and begins smearing the contents over the crack, sealing it. But through the visor, anyone can tell that she's injured her head, blood running down her face.

     Lily stands up straight and runs a hand down her visor. "We'll have to leave her here for now. The mission comes first." Her kindly tone is gone, replaced by the steel of a seasoned solider. She bends down and pokes at Bonnie's left wrist, activating a beacon. "Come on," the old woman says to the Elites.

     It's just a short walk to the station they were aiming for, and up a small ladder. The KOAN Core setup consists of all 18 cores plugged into a column. They're all squat, fat cylinders of metal and glass, the innards obscured by a constant white glow that comes from with.

     Also in the chamber is a single corpse, wearing a space suit with a firearm at its side.

Lou (64) has posed:
==TEAM CORES==

    Unaccustomed to being a stable platform, but willing to be one regardless, Lou's logic cores realign and adapt quickly to their situation. Keeping a firm hold of Seft with one hand, and the trolley's chassis railing with the other, with a bit more strength than her small-ish five foot frame might suggest, she says with an even intonation, "I have you." While the Glitch does her best to try and steer this thing, Lou's own strength is being tested, judging by the strained sounds Lou hears coming from each arm inside her suit. Of course, there being no air, there's nothing to alert the others to this, though perhaps Seft could sense the vibrations all the same.

    Whether or not Seft proves successful in steering the trolley back onto the track, as soon as it is reasonably safe to do so from having slowed down, Lou moves to pull her back inside. If it does skip back out again, it's better to be inside the protective metal cage than outside of it. Unseen, thanks to the cracked, gold-tinted helmet visor, Lou's face gives an uncharacteristic pained wince, but she seems intact. "I am uninjured," comes her technically correct reply, though she has little chance to say 'you're welcome'.

    Her helmet instead turns to Bonnie's, which unfortunately did not survive the crash as well as her own, but there is little she is equipped to do in this situation. Her healing technics are...inadequate to deal with more than common scrapes. But, despite the leave-noone-behind mentality, logic wins out for now, once she completes her impromptu scans of Bonnie, which only confirms what can easily be seen, "Understood. Let us hurry."

    As they continue, Lou bounds the rest of the way, with a bit more haste than she had before, given that they have to hurry for so many reasons. She takes a quick stock of things, once again flipping up the more reflective visor to go with the polarized one, so that her optics are improved. "Permission to use my Nano Transformers for carrying some of the KOAN Cores," she wonders? A momentary glance is given to the body with the rifle - a rarity, so these must have been highly prized even by the Before Timers. She further explains, "It is able to convert matter directly to a form of light for storage, and recreate it later. I will understand, given their sensitive nature, if you would prefer otherwise."

Rocket (781) has posed:
==Armory Team==

From the back, Rocket asks, "Can anyone see the key?" as he is trying to look around everyone in front of him.

Groot just shakes his head at his friend's bluntness and tries forcing the door. Speaking to Sarah Rogers Groot says, "I am Groot...." ((It can't be pressurized, perhaps we can open it together...))

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
==Armory Team==

Sarah Rogers nods to Groot, "Let's pull that grill off." She's already grabbing it to test it's strength as she speaks, "If he doesn't have the key, You Me and Weiss can get through it the hard way." She sounds like she's getting impatient, and the rest of the team seems pretty certain the room beyond isn't pressurized, so let's get this thing done!

Rory White (673) has posed:
    DOME TEAM:
    Rory's reaction is pretty similar to Philip's. She makes a squawk noise of pure alarm but is already replaying the entire thing in her own 'mental window' several times, looking to figure out where this beam originated and what kind of energy it might've been based on spectral analysis. IF the resolution supports it.

    "I've never HEARD of such a weapon. For that matter, WHY would anyone construct a doomsday device?! Attempting to locate point of origin..."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Kyra is good!" Kyra pats herself down. A good, careful listen to herself reveals that nothing seems to be awry for her suit. She'd hear or feel it if she had a breach and nothing was detected. But after a few moments it becomes clear that someone has yet to check in.

    Kyra scrambles, standing and hopping over to the prone Bonnie. "I can-" ah, too late, a sealant is used on the breach. Leaning forward, she peers into the helmet to check what she can and pulls away, displeased to see that there's blood in there. It's hard for her to assess any other injuries with the suit on. "Move her so she's lying on her side." Kyra's quick to add, "Don't want her choking."

    Calmly, Kyra presses a hand against Bonnie's helmet, which immediately starts to glow with white light. Fortunately, white magic cares little about the obstructions of armor or protective suits so the simple cure spell is able to bypass it and go straight to the body where Bonnie needs it.

    Kyra doesn't seem too happy about leaving Bonnie behind though but at least their destination isn't too far. Much like before with the other bodies, Kyra checks for a cause of death. She'll also take that firearm if she can beat Pavo to it.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    ARMORY TEAM:

    George tosses his cigarette and stamps on it, drawing a pair of heavy powered bolt cutters from his Matter Manipulator. There's a nod to Groot. "Gotcha, Whomping Willow. Let's open this can." He's improving his own mood with awful jokes. There's an aside to Sarah Rogers, of course. "Kiddo, hit it with whatever you got." And he's at work trying to snap bits of the grille with his bolt cutters strategically, to weaken the overall structure so the others can crash through it more easily. They gotta get through one way or another!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    ARMORY TEAM:

    Biteblade looks around... For anything that might have been breached by the astronaut found in the data before. The one who had the gun. "Floran think... No. Mmmmh. Floran think, third party intervention. Find moon bassse, cover up what happen. Purge more. But who?" She's not expecting to find any breach already used by the astronaut. "Floran not underssstand. Not make sssense." She makes a contemplative hissing noise. "No decay in ssspace, undissturb crime ssscene. Two metal friend, when we get inssside, try to do forensssic thing, match ballisssstic. Figure out if bullet from armory isss like bullet that broke all domesss. Pleassse?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is busy openiong wireless connections to start downloading all the data here into her cyberbrain for the moment she cna mill over it later and give a copy to her employers. Still it needs to be saved but she's going to get the whole database if she's able to do so. She frowns at Rory for a moment and says "Why were nuclear weapons made? Why were weaponized neanties. Some people want to watch the world burn or are desperate to stop something else. OR flat out insaneity I'm afraid I don't know...I'm getting the database however."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    CORES TEAM:

    Moonfin was also on the trolly, though he insisted on staying in a meditative stance the entire time, legs crossed and tranquil. It was incredibly dangerous and stupid, but was sorta stable and at least he's come through without dying. When he stands, he gives a bow-like nod to Lily. "Your adherence to duty is admirable. I will remain behind. If we are to retrieve your KOANs quickly, someone needs to restore the trolly to its rails. It is merely chance, of course, that such an action might perhaps mean your comrade will be saved."

    He will, in fact, stay behind, working to re-rail the derailed trolly using his own slightly more limited engineering tools. It'll probably take a while.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    CORES TEAM:

    Seft is the one who goes to the corpse first. Of course, she speaks to Lou first. "Grateful. Thank you for your assistance. I hope we can continue our conversation another time." It seems like that talk got. Um. Derailed. Anyway, this is merely one corpse, so Seft can withstand the emotional nonsense. She goes to kneel by it... Focusing, primarily, on the suit itself. Is this like the suits elsewhere? If someone came here to cover this up, it ought to not be...

    But if it /is/ like them, there are much worse implications. She leaves the loot, as ever, to Pavo.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    CORES TEAM:

    Speaking of Pavo, she's going to politely wait on Kyra grabbing that firearm. Pavo has her own, for now, she's going to focus on... the Cores! Her breaching tools are back in her hand, intending to safely cut cables, disengage release safeties, and similar. It's all hacked together and kludged terribly, but it ought to work. Very piratey. She'll be sticking cores into her Matter Manipulator, which ought to compress their local space down into something managable!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
TEAM DOME:

Little Sarah watches the display, tapping her foot a bit as the readout progresses. She blinks as she sees the flash, and then leans in, staring for a moment. "Huh. Lasers everywhere." That's about all she's got on this one, as she looks over to Rory. "Got anything?" She asks. However, she did a useful thing, so now she's going to do something else useful and look around to see if there's anything of note in the dome here. The fact that she's 14 years old might come in handy. She has a shorter perspective. You'd be amazed what people lose under desks and consoles.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "I'm thinkin along similar lines." Weiss says to Biteblade, peering through the grille to get a good look at the bulletwound. It seems a little odd that someone would nail such a precise shot when the job on the dome had been little more than random fire. Regardless, there's only one way to find out, and, preferring to keep the TRANSIENCE tech under the hat for a little while, Weiss settles on the more old fashioned means, relatively speaking. The wristguard of her exoskeleton pops open to allow her to fire her built in multiweapon, using an extremely precise beam of short wave laser to penetrate through the bulk of the door and slice through any fastening mechanisms inside.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM ARMOURY==

     Between all the Elites, the grill comes off with only a bit of resistance! Crawling through it would require a lot of care, since the ends are probably pointed enough to maybe tear a spacesuit. The answer to Biteblade's query is quite clear on the grill that lies on the ground: someone managed to snip a hole in it large enough to reach an arm through. And in fact, once the group is inside, they'll see that no gun lies around the corpse.

     "Whoever was shooting the domes out must have taken it from where it fell. Probably landed on the desk," Jamie muses, being careful to avoid looking at the corpse. William however, reaches out to take the keys, and check the ID. "His name was Ricky Solstice. He lay down his life to try and prevent a rash of violence. And yet, it still happened anyway. But I'll make sure that ReGenesis recognizes his efforts." The tall man gives the corpse a salute, before helping to check over the weapons.

     A happy side effect of no weapons being taken though, is that they're easy to loot for yourself! Experts like Rocket, George and Biteblade would recognize that the racks upon racks of weapons are EM firearms, along with magnetic body armour designed to deflect bullets, high-frequency vibrating combat knives (and also a whole bunch of kitchen and utility knives) and crates of loaded clips for the guns and batteries for everything. A real haul, enough that any interested parties could easily snag some.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM EARTH OBSERVATION DOME==

     Eventually, Philip calms down with his little tantrum and turns his radio back on. "Sorry you had to see that folks," he mutters. Tabitha gives him a pat on the shoulder and looks to the group. "Thanks for the help everyone." She begins typing at the console, aiming to beam the logs down to ReGenesis for them to study further. "If there was anything else you wanted to look for or snag for yourselves, now's the time."

     Philip awkwardly goes over to the body he kicked over and pulls it back up to its resting position. "Huh... damn, this guy got shot too. Whoever got that one gun must have been playing cleanup or something."

     Sarah's shorter position does reveal something, in fact. Just under one of the desks is... a slip of paper. Now, this is unusual, because among all the debris they passed, there was not a single other slip of paper anywhere. Everything was computerized. Should she examine it, or draw attention to it, checking it would reveal a pair of coordinates, written in faded ink. It seems that its position helped shield it from the radiation.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
==TEAM KOAN CORES==

     Lily thanks Kyra for healing Bonnie, patting the girl on the shoulder. She also nods her thanks to Moonfin as he tries to rerail the trolley. "Don't worry if you can't. We can hitch a ride back on the transport that comes to pick up Bonnie."

     In the KOAN Core room, Lily shakes her head at Lou. "Leave them for now. We might need power as we strip the base, so these would be saved for last." Unfortunately, she had her back to Pavo as she says this, so in all likelihood the birdbrain finishes removing them! Thankfully, the power doesn't go out.

     As Kyra examines the body, she finds that cause of death was a bullet wound to the head. In addition, Seft would find that the space suit is the exact same version that everyone else on the base had. She would be able to tell by the print on the left breast, depicting a crescent moon. But in addition, a light is blinking on the left wrist. Lily notices this too.

     "I think whoever this was left a suicide note." She kneels down and begins to download it into her own suit.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
DOME TEAM:

Sarah looks around, trying to find something useful lying around. She doesn't want to really fill up her SYLLADEX with corpses /again/.

But then she sees a scrap. With a quick movement, she scuffles down on the floor and wriggles forward and pulls the old piece of paper out from under the desk carefully. "Hey." She calls out, popping up and holding the page out to Philip. "Hey. What's at these coordinates?" She asks.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     The final note begins with the rattling gasps of a woman. She begins to speak:

     "We fucked it all up. We were the select few, the chosen sons and daughters of Earth. The ones who would be the first to colonize the moon." She gives a tired and weak chuckle. "And then when shit went down, what did we do? Turned on each other. Friends against friends, brothers against brothers. We were hardly the best humanity had to offer..." She coughs, a creaking groaning cough of an engine on its last legs. "We didn't deserve to live. No group of people has ever let down humanity as hard as we did. I cleared out whatever stragglers I could find, and ruined the domes on top of that. No one is surviving this."

     There's a long pause, almost a couple of minutes before she speaks again. "If anyone finds this, take what you want. All these technological marvels? Put 'em to good use. But forget us. The worst people to ever exist. We barely deserve to leave a corpse, no one should waste the time to learn our names. Just... I dunno, blast us into space or throw us in an unmarked grave. We were nothing but scum convinced we were gold."

     A long, exhausted sigh. "Man... you KOAN Cores just keep going forever huh? Whoever finds you will always be able to rely on you. Not like people. They just let you down." Another pause, then the recording ends.