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Starbound Flotilla     Amalgam, or as it was previously known, Epsilon Maiia Minoris IV a. This planet, full of dense forests and sparsely covered with small bodies of water, is what the moon claimed by AMATERASU Lunar Mining Facility 01 orbits (which would, of course, be Epsilon Maiia Minoris IV b). As such, it is the logical place to begin one's expansion. The region they've chosen is a small valley, a pleasant little spot that's neighboring the old site of the Glitch exodus that the Flotilla members caused last time.

    Noteworthy here is that the trees are multicolored, and bear massive flowers in lieu of proper leaves. Also noteworthy are the sparse bits of Glitch ruins -- little medieval outposts and towers -- that dot the small valley. The valley of the colony itself isn't too steep, and the sides can be easily climbed. The regions around the valley, the area at its base, and the regions below are designated for the construction today. A teleportation beacon, alongside an artificial warpgate, have both been established here; arrival won't be tricky in the least! There's already a small outpost setup; so far, much of the development area of the colony has been flattened effectively, several residential areas of varying aesthetics and types are set up, there's a now-functioning power grid wiring them up, recycling areas in progress, and a basic craftworks area mostly complete. A dozen or so people have already moved here, but it's still in need of more. The aesthetics are completely varied. While most of the area so far is crafted out of Pixel-fabbed plastic-like substances, some of it is medieval stone, some is bamboo, some is heavy aztec-like stone bricking, some is pure industrial steel, all sorts of aesthetics to the small cluster of structures.


                          
       AMALGAM COLONY      
                          
        Colonization      
           RESIDENCE: #####
          SUSTENANCE: ##  
               POWER: ###  
                          
            Economic      
       MANUFACTURING: ###  
               TRADE: #    
                          
            Conflict      
             DEFENSE: ##  
             OFFENSE:      
               NAVAL: #    
                          
            Research      
               ARMOR: ##  
             WEAPONS: ##  
               TOOLS: #    
               POWER: #    
            VEHICLES: #    
                          

    Today's site of interest comes right off of a fresh mining supply rail. While it's still under construction, with the facades missing at some points, it's still quite servicable. The group can find themselves, in fact, going most of the way on a comfortable little tram! This means Albert gets to sit in there and give them a briefing. "Apex test site. Dedicated sites for labwork focused on testing will have MiniKnog defense development going on, if they're off of designated MiniKnog space. Take whatever they were testing, finish the testing sequence or break out, and we'll be able to disassemble the facility safely. Keep together, observe signage. Expect automated turrets and lethal electric security."

    The tram pulls in at the end of the construction, where the facility's busted-up hallway lies. The group can get on through without a problem! It's a little more spartan than it was before, but still ready for looting beyond the "waiting area".
Rory White     Once again Rory's come as simply herself. Without any drones. Her Flexbot exterior gleams in the tram's internal lighting. "What kind of security measures are we likely to find? If the facility's automated then there must be a way to establish control. Perhaps someone left an ID card in a locker for instance!" Rory's already thinking of how to turn the situation to their advantage. She knows there was a wireless network, but she never got around to hacking over control of it in that frenzy of investigation!
Alexis Maaka     CA-CHUNK!

    Alexis' helmet folds into place once the tram reaches its destination. She has her GASH coilgun, and it's locked and cocked as she steps off the platform and heads into the facility proper. "Same as before, I'll take point if nobody has any objections." Alexis takes off, carefully advancing down the hall as she keeps her eyes peeled for turrets and anything else constituting a threat this time.

    All the while, she makes note to mind the signage she might come across, and signals the rest to follow when she determines it's safe to move along.
Nozomi Houken     Tram ride! Taiga sits beside Nozomi the entire way, right there on the seat. His manner can roughly be summarized as, 'This is perfectly normal. Do you have some reason to disagree?'

    But wow this sounds pretty dangerous. Nozomi is feeling a little more nervous than usual about things, despite the new 'toy' the Flotilla has gifted her. And she absolutely has brought her staff, holding it like a walking stick for the time being. Much as before, she falls towards the back of the group, and Taiga moves himself on up towards the front. The tram might just rock a little bit when he leaps off of it, too. Heavy catbot.
Staren THAT MORNING

    After treating the newest Unionite to REAL FOOD and discovering he has a bottomless stomach, Staren returns to his ship, and sleeps in the ego bridge instead of his bed.

    One moment he's dreaming... something about...

    He jerks awake with a start, brain screaming at him: DEAD DEAD DEAD YOU WERE DEAD

    Staren tells his brain he was /not/ dead, that he just... didn't exist for a bit when he wasn't running on a body.

    The lizard part of Staren's brain is confused by this explanation, so, frustrated, it makes him feel on edge. As he opens the capsule door and steps out, he realizes he's been 'breathing' heavily even though he doesn't have to breathe at all. His hands are shaking, but the moment he pays attention to them, it stops.

NOW

    Staren's ready for anything. Some people may or may not know what Staren's done, but he's clearly wearing different armor than earlier, and advanced sensors or magic may detect that he's a machine like Rory and not alive.

    Staren listens to Albert's briefing. He nods at the warnings. "Hmm. Hopefully it won't be lethal like this, but I'll try not to find out all the same." Staren looks at his hand. It's not shaking.

    Staren waits just outside the testing area for everyone to be ready. He's got a different bag than usual, and instead of carrying external heavy weapons, he's got an Argonaut caseless submachinegun, although he still has the weapons built into his armor, of course.
Sarah Parsle Sarah is quiet as they head down. This is probably a good thing for most of them. She's equipped with another ENVIRONMENT SUIT from STAREN because NOT BEING PREPARED is STUPID.

She also is wearing a pair of INSULATED GLOVES she stole from the electical work station. For no reason, really. After Albert gives the overview, Saran nods. "Well, we're sticking to the plan. You guys," She says, indicating the people with ARMOR and CYBERNETICS and TANKY THINGS, "Are going in first to clear, people with inventory management and looting systems will clean up. Sweep and move, don't stick around. If anyone's managed to break into the local security systems, we can disable or alter their identification routines. Chop chop, guys, we're on the clock." Her tone is brisk and intent.

And coming from a 14 year old kid. Arthur H. Lowell.
Starbound Flotilla     Albert grunts heavily, then repeats himself. "Turrets. Electrical risks. Lasers." Hmh. "Sometimes drones. Rarely, except for USCM salvage." He's not being especially rude to Rory, in as much as he's just sort of acting the way Albert always does. "Manual testing, less risk. Hack the control once it's complete, might have something extra. Too much risk right now. Might set off incinerations."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa as giving Rory's gift another shake down today hopefully to get Rory some futher data on the morph she made for Kotone. Kotone wanted to get used to it more and hopefully she'd also get some good live test data here. She was however wearing her normal stealth suit and had a full load of gear ready for salvage and tech jobs. She also will attempt to network with anyone else on sight who has an the ability to do do.

"Right, we should get what gear we can, while I and anyone else work on the computer systems here, Rory? Albert? This is going to be a team job and if Kaz would like to remote in Alexis that would be welcome."
Starbound Flotilla     Maaka gets into the hallway. The decayed structure's panels are falling off, and moldy furniture still sits around the waiting area. Flickering screens still declare TESTING OFFLINE between other semi-emergency data about the failures of the rest of the facility. The lights remain off, thank goodness given the power situation. The turrets along the walls are inactive, as before; she has a straight shot to the entrance of the testing labs, sitting behind an ominously bulletproof-glassed kiosk handling test subject entry. Once that's busted open, it should be easy for someone to man and get the labs open.
Alexis Maaka     Kaz chimes in over the line. <Copy that. I'm linking with you guys as we speak.> He replies to Kotone, already working ahead of the curve as usual.

    Alexis frowns as she approaches the broken glass, narrowing her golden eyes as she stops short of being in arm's reach. The cyborg produces some charges, planting them in a pattern around the glass before detonating them. Thermite burns through the windows before making an opening she climbs through shortly upon blowing them. Then she'll begin hacking the kiosk, pulling intel from it if she can find any and trying to get the labs opened up.
Rory White     "PSImetrics... I suppose we'll have to try risky things once we've looted what we can." Rory's shoulders slump. She was HOPING to avoid putting people through danger by just subverting the entire damned thing, even if it took a few hours to crack through security...

    Oh, also, she DID bring some drones. They're just very tiny. The size of dragonflies and shaped very similar to them. All they are... are flying cameras and other sensors which she's having keep an eye on other people in the facility!

    Particularly Maaka.
Starbound Flotilla     Sarah's responsible use of insulated gloves is noted. George is in the tram too, and he gives a quick approving nod.
Staren     Staren smiles behind his visor as Sarah steps into the leader role. She's definately helpful to have around...

    Maaka's got the testing room open. Staren looks back at the others and nods, going in first. In this body, with armor, he might well be the tankiest. He draws the SMG, whatever help that might be.
Starbound Flotilla     Maaka pops the door effectively. It's not going to give much intel that isn't a rehash of what Rory managed to pull. Beyond this, Rory's already-present data will indicate, is a larger chamber meant for starting things out. There should be some form of automated dispensing system that will provide the relevant gear for recovery... Of course, only once the test sequence is activated, after which those within will need to complete the testing or break out in some other way.

    The heavy piping and phneumatic systems involved in the delivery equipment opposite the entrance are exposed by failing piping, and backed by thick steel plates behind them that show that the testing area is reinforced. The thick entryway halls indicate sealing doors, and the ominous drainage system below shows that it was expected that this area might be exposed to blood. Lots of blood! Rory will also have found, thankfully, that today's test subjects won't be the control group. The control group had 100% fatality rate, though.
Nozomi Houken     Once Maaka has the door open, Taiga moves through right alongside Staren; he might not be as beefy as Staren's armored form, but he's still pretty sturdy, and impressively agile besides. He's got his cannons up and ready the moment he's through, shifting to one side to prevent being hosed down by any possible ambushes. He only goes still when he's sure there's no immediate attack, and once he is, he starts to pace instead, sweeping the area with his psychic sensors in particular. He knows for a fact the Flotilla's home turf has psionics, after all.
Sarah Parsle Albert makes a good point. "That's a good point, Albert." Sarah says. "Careful on the hacking, we want to get optimal results for putting asses on the line here. If we're going in, let's do this right." She nods back to George. You never know when you might need to not get electrocuted for handling live wires."

She putters over, staying out of the way as they begin busting the doors open. "Form up. Good work forcing th entrance already. Hustle up, people, this place is going to turn into a death zone as someone breaks into the lab control system and hits the button. Stay together, your asses are worth more alive than dead."

Once the door is forced, she just leans over and edges over around the back, following her own advice. "Okay, hit the button when we're ready to roll. Let's stay on task: Don't die, loot everything not nailed down, and if it's nailed down apply a crowbar so it's not nailed down."
Alexis Maaka     Alexis is quick to go back to point man duties, going through the open doorway with her coilgun raised. The helmet she wears definitely muffles the stench of blood, and she begins to patrol the immediate area the group is in. Once she finds a dispensing system of some kind, she nudges it a little before glancing at Sarah. "Since when did you start giving orders?" She asks with amusement, before she begins to fiddle a little bit with the dispension system out of curiosity.

    "Okay...someone wanna tell me what I'm looking at here?" SHe asks aloud, probably to Albert, or Rory or Staren.
Staren     Dispensing tubes... are they going to dispense anything?

    Also: Blood drains. "I thought this setup was for testing robots? ...Oh. I suppose they had to compare the performance to Apex as a baseline..."
Rory White     Rory's made her way to a terminal and linked in. If there's a standard Apex access jack she can utilize that through an adapter. If not, there's always wireless! But she prefers those over actually touching a keyboard...

    "I don't like this idea. We have no idea what the test is going to throw at people. It could just be a deathtrap because of bad design!"

    But she's doing what research she can. Trying to find out using whatever access she can to pull up data.

    Meanwhile, one of her dragonfly-shaped Speck drones buzzes through into the test chambers. Spectroscopy is employed with a tiny laser on the dispensing tubes, looking for any unusual chemical residue!
Sarah Parsle "When it became apparent that if I didn't you guys would screw around all day. I know what happens when enough adventurers and mercenaries arrive in one location." Sarah replies.

Rory's complaint gains a laugh. "Nah, just look at this place. It's /very good/ design." She scuffs her shoe at one of the drains. "... For killing things. Good thing you guys aren't random schmucks, isn't it?"
Staren     "That's why me and you have backups." Staren points out to Rory. "Although I'm reasonably sure out combined firepower could break us out if we need it to."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is getting some of the group organized for going after the systems of the old apex base. She can only guess what they might have down here. She's already looking for the earlier ways in. She's hoping to get what she can out of whatever databases remain. There has to be something of use in there? Right? She's jacking in now and seem to be ready even as she also launches her own drone cameras. She's going to follow along, she can be mobile and keep to her work as well, she keep her matter manipulator ready to snatch up any choice finds on the way in. Sarah gets an eyebrow raise she didnt' quite expect that out of her, and she's presently surprised, she makes her way in.

"Let's do this and I did recover a few ID cards last time they might give us an edge getting past some of this."

She keeps in contact with the others on the network like Alexis, Staren, Rory and Seft if she's about.

"Some of us find that idea more than a bit creepy...for personal use...I can think of too many bad things that could happen to a backup."
Rory White     "And I thought this facility was performing bio-engineering experiments? It's possible that whatever they were testing has long since died. Maybe NOTHING will be dispensed..." Rory postulates, hopeful that this will be the case!

    But in her experience... no, she's yet to ever get a lucky break like that...
Eiko     Eiko has two katana now, almost like she's a samurai or something, but with a trenchcoat in place of armor, and neither blade is a shorter wakizashi. And as a woman. So not really like a samurai at all. She has, at least, gotten some practice, in the past few days, with using her new blink-blade. She spends the ride over pretty cheerfully, but not with any real questions after the greetings are out of the way.

    Hopping out, she keeps back of Taiga, Maaka and Staren. "Backups, huh. I don't have any kind of save state, more's the pity, but oh, well. Just gotta be careful in this line of work. Fast 'n' careful, when you can." She's looking around, but not spotting much extra. Staying back with Nozomi again sounds good. She'd kind of like to see the young robot-summoner in action, anyway. That's kind of a rare class.
Starbound Flotilla     Taiga very quickly detects a very high volume of psionic residue, rather than emissions. It's likely that the psionics involved come from amplification, and whatever is being amplified -- presumably the test subjects -- aren't being amplified just yet.
Staren     Staren shrugs at Eiko. "We'll try not to let it come to that. And Rory... while we were initially concerned it might be something like that, this lab seems to have been testing mobility and defense technology..." Staren looks at the drains. "...Oh. I thought that meant they were working on robotics, but maybe it's more of... worn or handheld devices..."

    He looks around. "Well, either way, if we're doing this, how do we start the test?"
Nozomi Houken     The information is useful to Taiga himself, but he also has the rest of the group to worry about. If nothing else, Nozomi would be sad if something happened to them. "I would like to report that there is significant psychic residue in this area. No currently active psychic sources of this magnitude have been detected, but this much residue in this dispersion pattern all but guarantees some form of psionic amplification." The mechatiger continues to scan, slowly circling the area, while Nozomi herself is just stepping through.

    She isn't quite sure what psychic residue or psionic amplification actually /are/, but they sound scary enough that she deploys her staff's drone, which begins floating around her.
Starbound Flotilla     The testing entry chamber is full of people! From here, those within will need to begin the testing shortly. Those outside may not have much chance to interact with the interior, but the observation area will unlock once the testing begins, alongside, perhaps, additional hacking options... The testing sequence, itself, can be activated at the kiosk with a button press inside, or wirelessly, via the network, but once it does, the doors slam shut STRONGLY. Tremendous blast-doors, in multiple layers, in fact.

    The tubes light up, offering a strange view of the interior. Delivery pods are coming through, from some deep, intensely secure site farther inside the wing. Alongside that, a sign flickers to life. "LEVEL 1", it says, in strict black letters on hard white light, and the other end of the room unfolds in massive, churning, robotically-articulated plates. Past it... A much, MUCH larger underground environment. Several safe testing regions in sequence, surrounded by viciously sparking environmental hazards, make it sort of like islands.

    The dispensing pipes send in what look like some sort of little wrist modules. What's all that about? Presumably it's about the thirty-second countdown displayed there, the way the floor has shifted to suddenly create stairs and raised platforms, and the heavy gunturrets pointing at the group, humming with energy... They're aged, but not broken. In fact, none of the turrets in here seem damaged; fighting them won't be the objective, from the look of it. Notably, they also don't seem like they're made for shooting bullets, and initial data that hackers can pull will find they're not classified as weapons in the first place!

    At least, not THOSE ones. The ones on the ceiling -- which hackers and those who head for the observation area will be able to tell are scanning for unauthorized systems, specifically things like flight -- are definitely high-power laser weapons without any accessible cover to prevent damage from them! They won't fire on those who aren't violating the presumed 'rules' here, meant to keep control over more mutated avians perhaps.

    Time to use this short time to figure out how to get to the other side.
Sarah Parsle Sarah might have stuck to observation herself, but this group is dripping with hackers, so it's not like she has any particular weight on either side.

Instead, she's immediately grabbing one of the wrist modules, strapping it on and looking them over for several moments, trying to get some indication of what they might be or what activation methods they might have.

She also conveniently moves into the middle of the group, letting the others take the outside ring.
Starbound Flotilla     Press buttan, get... A palpable sense of psionic drain. That is, it seems to take energy from human focus. Or Apex focus, or machine focus... A large bubble of some kind is formed! A soft gray shimmering shape, it seems to be shielding of an entirely less sensible type. The soft purple indicates Erchius tech functioning within. Sarah should be able to keep the field up for a few seconds at a time before running out of FOCUS ENERGY, and the same will hold true for most people. What the field DOES is another mystery.
Eiko     Stuff appears! This stuff is quite definitely important to whatever it is they're doing, or supposed to be doing, so Eiko grabs one of the thingies and tries to quickly attach it around the sleeve of her coat. Hopefully it's not going to try to stick needles through her clothing or anything. Or, well--even if it did, she could use that. She doesn't really stop moving when she does this, instead running up the stairs mid-equip.

    So, turrets. What's that about? "Not a lot of cover, eh. Let's see what they try to do once they have a shot at me..." Her blink-blade is drawn a moment later. If nothing stops her, she'll just that to zap over from one platform to another, aiming for a platform with a turret if she can, and just the furthest one she can reach, otherwise.
Staren     Staren takes a wrist module. He's wondering what it does, but... heavy weapon turrets! His first reaction is to blast one or two with his beam cannons -- reactions die hard. Only during the few seconds after while the cannons are cooling does he realize they're... not attacking? Huh?

    While puzzling that out, he's also taking in the 'course' and seeing if the way to traverse it is /obvious/ by any chance, via conventional locomotion.
Alexis Maaka     Alexis is quick to grab a wrist module, affixing it to her arm and fiddling with it intently to try and get the thing to work.

    THere's plenty of hackers present, and among them is Kaz, who is currently in the middle of remotely accessing the security systems. He doesn't have a lot of time to work with, so he works fast.

    Before anybody else can, Alexis takes off, throwing her grappling wire out and boost-jumping to give herself some air time as she swings. Her mobilty better give her an edge against those turrets as she avoids the obstacles, she's in no mood for your RULES, MONKEY PEOPLE.
Starbound Flotilla     The turrets are designed, it appears, to launch some kind of heavy solid projectile at low speeds rather than launch any form of more efficient ballistic projectile, or laser or anything like that. Which is to say, Eiko can see a really simple almost spring-loaded setup, rather than a cool complicated railgun or anything like that.
Starbound Flotilla     Staren finds that the course can't be completed by standard human locomotion. For example, the challenge of Level 1 seems to be to get to the next "island" in the electric sea. The turrets suffer damage, clearly, but their simple, sturdy design make them able to withstand it... So able to withstand it, in fact, that it calls to mind the 'plane made of black-box' conundrum. You can't make a weapon that durable while making it an effective weapon. They can't be that much of a threat...
Starbound Flotilla     Maaka activates her grappling wire. There's not a lot of obstacles in the open-air course -- in fact, it's gotta be REALLY tall, several stories! -- but the laser turrets above immediately fix on her! She can get the bubble to work, though! It provides...

    Uh oh, no protection from a high-power high-precision energy beam trying to shoot her out of mid-air. She's going to need a HACKER to help reset the turrets to stop shooting at her! In the meantime, she'll have to figure how to evade or counteract them without cover!
Rory White     Rory has chosen to head to the Observation Area for best results! She's figured that this test probably intended for entrants to have NO OUTSIDE HELP once they're inside, and now prays that her wireless communications can still pierce into the chamber.

    Because her Specks are still in there. Three Specks, in fact, followed others into the chamber and quickly fly up towards the ceiling away from any moving machinery. As Rory seats herself in the observer's chairs, she boots up a few programs...

    [TACNET SOFTWARE]

    The feed from all her Specks links up with Kotone's new body and all its senses to instantly create an up-to-date map of the chamber. The turrets are marked as hostile and data collection on them has begun.

    Then, as Sarah activates the device, this too is flagged as an unknown effect! But the field's apparent size and duration is measured.

    "Alright. It looks like these devices create some kind of energy field. A shield? Barrier? Try to test the field against the turrets without exposing yourself to a direct shot. Also please grab an extra module or two if there's spares!"

    After a few moments of data analysis... the LOWER turrets shift to a more neutral yellow color, flagged as unknowns.

    "Hold on. The turrets aren't weapons. I wonder... this looks like an obstacle course. These are supposed to be mobility devices, right? Try seeing if they have any effect on running speed or gravity? I'm still investigating those turrets. Watch out for the ones on the ceiling!"
Eiko     Eiko's immediate interest was in the turrets, so she just gives this one a good kick or wrench to get it pointed the wrong way, then hops back via short-range, explosive teleport to grab Nozomi's staff. Then she's back away again, this time aiming for the apparent goal. The distance is a bit far, but hey, no one said she had to be standing still to use a blink-blade. She figures it'll work just fine mid-leap.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is now entering into the testing chamber and she looks a bit concerned as they arrive in it. She does take notice there may be new hacking options shortly and she keeps her connection ready. Its strange being able to do this and also focus on what's about her. It sometimes makes her question herself but she's got to focus on her job. Kotone is going to try to get into the systems the moment she can she looks at the path ahead of her with the gauntlet and has to wonder about this.

"Oh this is going to be crazy."

She does find the turrets are not classed as such and will bring it up. She gets ready to move with the rest of the group, this was going to be quite the workout for new body she mused.

"No flight we'll trigger actual lasers if we do."

She is thankful for the heads up from Rory over her HUD. She doesn't need to bring much up as Rory has all of that handled.

<<Rory you can slave my cyberain systems to help boost your hacking if you need it. I'll be in here incase they need someone to directly jack into something stand alone.>>

She's then off using her body's mobiluty to follow after the others. A year ago she'd not have had the skill to do this, and now she does.
Staren     "Alexis!" Staren shouts out as he sees her try the test and... get lasered! He can't shield her, so hopefully she can take some hits, but he /can/ deal with some of those turrets! He takes aim with the beam cannons, and follows with up to a half-dozen HEAP minimissiles if needed to target however many turrets are shooting her. Which is half his armament, but better to use it up to help than to be left with extra missiles later, right?
Nozomi Houken     Taiga's sensors continue to sweep for psychic dangers, but at the same time, he doesn't need a sensor suite to see the guns. Or the hazards ahead. Or the fact that the device Sarah uses produces some sort of defensive shield. Being able to scan it helps to notice the psychic drain, however. An unpleasant notion takes shape in the robotic tiger's mind, and with a quick glance at Nozomi - visibly more nervous, now clutching the staff with both hands - he realizes he's right. In a surprisingly gentle tone, the robotiger speaks up. "Nozomi. I am sorry, but I think it may be prudent if..."

    Her eyes widen a little in surprise, and visible fear. But then there's the faintest of nods. "...o-okay..."

    Clunk clunk clunk, he ambles over to Nozomi, who hands off her staff to Eiko, before the robot seems to hunker down a little. Then he speaks again, but this time in a completely robotic tone, devoide of any sense of emotion or personality. It's a system announcement.

        "Disengaging Independent Mode. Rerouting power from cognitive        
                  functions to weapons and motive systems."                  
                           "Rampart Mode engaged."                            

    Taiga- no, the TIGER comes apart. Shoulders become pauldrons. A head becomes chest plating. Around Nozomi, there is a flare of light, replacing her street clothes with a black bodysuit - and in doing so, her eyes suddenly shift in color, from muted brown to a striking yellow. Black flows up through her hair, from roots to tip, and it pulls up into a pair of twintails, out of the way. Her expression grows cold, hard, harsh; entirely unlike Nozomi in a way that's more than a little unsettling. The armor that was once a tiger shifts in around her, locking into place, and she takes a step forward, reaching out to grasp the air... no, to grasp the handle of a large, mechanical sword, grasping it in one hand despite its mass. This, she rests on her shoulder, looking up and around at the room with a chilly, silent gaze.

    Staren and Rory both receive silent pings for a telemetry uplink. If they accept, they'll start getting a data feed from the TIGER's supernatural sensors.
Alexis Maaka     "Oh shi-" Alexis hopes to god her armor can withstand a blast of that firepower, as she takes it right on the chest. OW. The shields built in do help, but she's knocked off course as she flies through the air. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shi-AAAAA!"

    Her booster jets recharge just in time, and she propels herself through the air as she grapples another obstacle to swing off of. "Kaz, turrets, go!"

    <On it! Don't say I don't do nothin' for you, boss!> Kaz furiously begins to hack the turrets, trying to either disable them or fire on each other to get them out of everyone's hair.
Starbound Flotilla     Rory finds the observation area, letting her give all relevant information about the turret timing -- why is there SO MUCH information about turret timing? That might be important -- and there's nothing inhibiting her wireless in the least. It also let her examine all the processes going on through the ongoing test! It looks like...

    It looks like, according to the observation deck, Maaka set off the turrets due to 'unacceptable solution'; people are free to swing around and such in the levels, but not between them. They apparently need to find the solution that launches them out between levels normally... Or, you know, just fight all the turrets, but that'd be a bit of a pain.
Starbound Flotilla     The turrets are slowly autocorrecting, and for Eiko, they're beginning to fire! Hefty slugs, but nothing impossible to dodge. It looks like whatever's being tested has something to do with HIGH-MASS HEAVY IMPACT in relation to those field emitters! They're also not firing near rapid enough to pose a consistent threat, unless you intend to do something like 'sit down and catch your breath'. Tough to keep track of though, it's CHAOTIC!
Starbound Flotilla     Eiko's solution bypasses height, but while it gets through the "obstacle course", it's a bit risk for the far edge to the next "island"! And if she does, she'll wind up dealing with the turrets above, according to the data Rory's getting... it DOES work mid-leap though, and the feeling is a cool rush.
Starbound Flotilla     Staren shuts down several of the turrets that were after Maaka, slagging their exterior. Kaz is able to shut them down further with their own hackery. Maaka's made it to level 2, though it'll be a hell of a gauntlet getting through to the further areas in the next 'puzzle'-looking set of islands. They can probably bypass it, or potentially go off-path entirely, heading for the wall. With enough explosive power and with enough willingness to suffer damage, they could probably breach out of the test chamber.
Nozomi Houken     Neither Rory nor Eiko's reactions to her transformation garner any sort of reply from Nozomi, although she does briefly glance in Eiko's direction. No words are spoken by her at all, in fact. It's an eerie silence entirely separate from her usual quiet. She's visibly taking everything in, though, silently analyzing the situation. And after coming to some conclusion or another, the jets on her back snap up into place and lift her off the ground, deliberately invoking the 'no, you're doing it wrong' response.

    The jets on her blade, the EM Zanbatou, fire up at once. She's looking to take a shot at slicing one of the solid projectiles in half, just to test if she can.
Alexis Maaka     Eventually it gets knocked through Alexis' dumb head what she's supposed to do, and she returns to ground level, tucking and rolling upon landing before she reactivates the shield. She runs like hell, leaping towards a surface she can cling to with paramagnetics in her suit, then running along it before leaping towards another surface, maneuvering until she gets past Level 2. Her suit does sustain a beating, however, with energy burns and scorches all across it as she whethers the storm of punishment. It hurts, but she'll manage with her pain receptors off to avoid distractions.
Starbound Flotilla     Nozomaiga takes off. If she wants the turrets BELOW, the solid slug-throwers, to fire at her, she won't need to wait long. They're firing whether she takes off or not, but sometimes on set tracks, other times tracking the people here. And she can easily slice one of their many, many, many solid metal slugs apart. If she tries to provoke the WRONG SOLUTION reaction, though, she'll find that's the turrets above, the ones that are much more... Lasery.

    To her credit, though, if she's a quick little robogirl, she won't have TOO much trouble slicing a laserbolt in half, it'll just be trouble to do it regularly or not sustain a fair bit of damage even while doing that.
Starbound Flotilla     Something incredibly silly happens.

    Maaka reactivates the shield and tries to stick to a wall. What winds up happening is that the shield FLASHES, suddenly draining a tiny burst of focus. She bounces off the wall at a much higher speed than she ran at it, and may wind up bouncing along the floors.
Staren     Crisis momentarily averted with Maaka, Staren decides to investigate something else: He approaches the spring-loaded turrets and tries to use his shield on /their/ attacks. Maybe it works on kinetics but not energy, who knows?

    And then Maaka bounces. It's a BOUNCE FIELD! "Oh! Oh I get it now!" He tries to use the bubble-field to bounce off the floor and onto STAGE 2!
Alexis Maaka     Okay this is happening.

    Alexis feels her head go fuzzy for a second, before suddenly she's /bouncing/ from surface to surface. "OHCRAP!" BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE. She's clearly not enjoying this, using her jets to fight for control over where she flies and bounces. This is not as fun as it looks.
Starbound Flotilla     Bouncing off the floor might be tough, but with a bit of simplistic abuse of one or two of the remaining turrets, Staren might be able to build up the necessary speed. notably, he'll find, it should be bouncing, uh... Less. The speed at which he bounces off of a surface is higher than the speed with which he impacts the surface. Psionics!! He can make the landing though... Probably!
Eiko     Sadly, the blink-blade doesn't have infinite energy, or Eiko would be tempted to just teleport absolutely everywhere. Yawning abyss? Teleport! Tricky cliff face? Teleport! Can't reach the remote? Teleport!

    Instead, her eyes track quickly here and there, putting her action/puzzle-game senses to the test. This is the type of thing she's pretty good at, so it shouldn't take her long to find a turret that's about to fire where she needs it. She leaps over the shot, not actually intersecting it, activating her shield-thingy at the moment when the heavy projectile should be behind and below her, with the next platform she wants to get to way out in front.
Starbound Flotilla     Eiko's the one who will be the person who inspires that solution. She finds out why the turrets are, in fact, helpful! Because by bouncing off the heavy slugs, she's the first to progress the proper way, landing heavily in some sort of shield-slowing segment of the next island. Thank goodness, because the way these things bounce means that they never actually /decrease in speed/, so, uh...
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is a bit suprised by Nozomi but she accepts it well enougn. She doesn't comment it might prove too distracting to her comrade. So she moves onwayrd using her own dash systems and is pushing them as hard as she can. She knows she doesn't want to set off the lasers it would be painful to do so,s he also keeps tabs looking for things in the local network as Rory can't be everywhere at once and hopefully she'll be able to deal with anything coming their way.

The bullets come and she is not wnting to get hit, she sees Eiko's example and bounces of the bullts following after her, however she now notices things are just getting crazy.
Nozomi Houken     The solid projectiles are easy for Nozomi to slice apart in Rampart Mode. Not so much lasers. She jerks aside, one shot glancing off her armor in such a way as to leave a visible singe-mark across the shoulder. Even with the magically-energized defensive plating, those laser shots are going to be an issue. So the armored girl lands, skidding to a stop for a second or two, and considers her options. Silently, she watches the others move, leap, find out the 'intended' use of the devices; and then without a word, she implements her own solution.

    The jets on the TIGER armor's back kick in again, launching her - in a way that emulates the natural arc of a 'leap' like those bubbles would produce. She's attempting to mimic the devices in an attempt to get through the course more safely.
Rory White     Rory's definitely trying to subvert control of the testing protocol - gently probing access methods using whatever credentials have been uncovered so far. But she's paying way more attention to events in the chambers! Like...

    A TRANSFORMATION and all kinds of new data that she's never seen before!

    And Alexis just.. BOUNCING ALL OVER THE PLACE.

    "... W-well. I guess that IS a kind of mobility device!"

    Information on the bounce field - estimations of how much ground they can cover with a few different physics models - are quickly calculated and possible paths through the obstacle course provided over the tacnet!

    "If the field makes you bounce when you hit things, the same should hold true for physical projectiles. It SHOULD protect you from kinetic impacts!"

    ...

    "Though I wouldn't count on it too much."
Sarah Parsle Sarah activates the barrier, and blinks at the response. "Huh. That's a thing..." It doesn't last long, though, before her concentration falters, unable to sustain the unusual drain for long. "Some kind of barrier. This is kind of neat." She says, immediately bogarting any of the ones no one else takes and stuffing them into her SYLLADEX. A moment later, she climbs up, looking around at the situation.

Electric sea. Need to get to the next island. She sees Maaka bounce off the wall. Function, noted. Eiko is the first to figure out how to use the nature of the field to the ir advantage. Sarah nods. "HEY GUYS, PAY ATTENTION TO EIKO! Learn to physics, guys!" She turns, kicking a turret to get some aggro, then charges in the direction of the island, and LEAPS into the electric sea...

While she's in the air, she focuses, and activates her shield, hoping to use the inertia and kinetic assist to get her to the next section.
Eiko     Eiko noticed the change in Nozomi, but it didn't seem like the right point to poke at it while she's busy puzzle-solving. Now that she's more or less figured this one out--the rest is just calculating paths in her head and dodging bullets in precisely timed ways--she mulls over it a bit in a similar kind of puzzle-solving way. This still doesn't end with her calling any attention to it, though.

    "This thing is way too tiring to use as a real shield, though. Timed blocks only. No wonder it never got out of testing."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone gets with the program using her dash systemns to dash and air dash up keeping up with the other,s seeing Sarah and other abusing the hell out of physiucs has Kotone following suit to keep up with them. She does /not/ want to get left behind here.
Starbound Flotilla     Jets can relieve some of the chaos. Alexis shouldn't be trapped in bounce hell forever. Just for a reasonably inconvenient amount of time that gets them a bit too close to the horrible Electric Sea. Luckily, by now, the upper turrets have shut down. Alexis can resume her plan, and can do what she likes to attempt an escape or bypass, or she can follow the others, whichever her choice may be.
Alexis Maaka     BOING BOING BOING. Alexis eventually ceases the ridiculous bouncing, just in time for Alexis to just go back to following the others. Dashing and evading traps, she keeps a good pace without leaving the others behind. She DOES have no idea where to go, after all. At this point, she's just resigned herself to getting this ridiculous course over with.
Staren     After completing the first 'puzzle', Staren remembers they're here to steal stuff and starts filling his matter manipulator.
Starbound Flotilla     Well, now they've established their solutions. Nozomaiga and her combined thought processes can find a vastly more simplified way of bypassing this issue. Rory, on the other hand, is finding that their best option here is less trying to get rid of the security, and more something they're more familiar with: Power management! As a station habitat AI, they have more than enough understanding of how isolated power systems work, they'll be able to use some very limited control over the power in this testing area, shutting down turrets when breaks are needed, preventing moving platforms from moving around too quickly, things like that!

    Sarah and Eiko determine that Staren's suspicions are definitely true. This looks like it's utterly impervious to larger, heavy kinetic attacks! Things like cannon impacts, larger slamming attacks, ground impacts, or similar indicate that this thing is blasted long distances by those sorts of impacts, but leaves the person inside utterly unharmed by them. A tradeoff! From here on out, Sarah's leadership will work well in solving the puzzles and obstacles of the lab, but Nozomi's solution may yet still work; some of those jumps would be HARSH, but at least she's not getting jacked by the turret systems. All the bouncing, all the goofy physics bounce-stacking, and the various turret systems, ought to let the crew manage to progress. Some of the puzzles will need more than one person, and many will need highly precise skills, making rather intense demands of the involved testers.

    Each island shuts down as it becomes complete, though; it'll become open for LOOTING as they go! But the prime loot -- these little wrist modules -- will suffice! And while it takes a completely excessive amount of time to get this horrible challenge worked through, the group will, eventually, finally settle down in a finishing area! Which is where Rory is directed to go retrieve them, with some sort of complicated protocol that involves a lot of brutal use of tasers and truncheons. Maybe that bit of protocol can be bypassed.
Nozomi Houken     Only at the far end of the course, when she's more or less assured of her own safety, does Nozomi come to a stop and detransform. The process is much like a reversal of the initial transformation; the armor lifts away, the color fades from her eyes, her usual clothes reassert themselves... and about the time the TIGER begins its transformation back to a robotic feline, Nozomi drops to her knees with a shudder. The look on her face has returned to her normal expression... or at least, some semblance of it. It's now rather obvious why she doesn't use Taiga's full capabilities often. Nothing that leaves a haunted look on her face like that could be very pleasant to experience.
Sarah Parsle This makes complete sense to Sarah. Honestly, she doesn't really care all that much about the test. Once she's figured out the mechanics, it's basically just like training at school. Use stupid gimmick, solve problem. Repeat with variations. As they progress through the test, she hoovers up whatever she can and other people don't into her SYLLADEX, allowing her to grab some goodies for later. The colony will even get most of it. It's not like SHE needs a million near-indestructable crappy turrets.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is pushing her body hard, this thing is quite the place. She darts about bouncing about after the others. EAch island is curious but they keep pushing ahead today is not the day that she leads the way at all, and that's fine. They do end up getting some pretty crazy tech though once they get to the end.

"Well this explains a good bit about things here.

"That was impressive Nozomi."

She notes and then looks over to Sarah for a moment as they finish up.

"Not a bad running with you again Sarah."

She gets her own matter manipulator out and starts hovering up what she can as well.
Staren     Staren helps loot with his matter manipulator, and supplies unconventional puzzle solutions. Like, say, robot-superstrength punching people in bubbles to launch them really far.

    Once it's all done, he smiles around, "Good job team, we made it!"

    Nozomi... her condition worries him, though. He rushes to her side, "Hey, are you alright? What's wrong??"
Nozomi Houken     There's Staren at her side - Nozomi actually starts a little at his sudden approach, before relaxing... slightly. "I-I'm... I'm fine... just... i-it's nothing," she mumbles, trailing off into withdrawn silence. Taiga chooses that point to amble over, however, seating himself next to her and explaining, "Rampart Mode is not the most pleasant experience for either of us. For Nozomi, far moreso than for me. Ordinarily I am combat-capable enough that it isn't necessary. If my user requests it, however, or if I believe it necessary to ensure her safety..." He shakes his head faintly. "Physically, at least, she is fine. She needs nothing but rest." More to calm down than anything else, apparently.
Rory White     As people finally emerge from the Testing Chambers, Rory's there to receive them. And she's quick to point out, "The testing protocols urge me to taze everyone. I hope the Apex scientists were joking!" But she's... really not sure, after seeing what this 'test' entailed. It was FAR TOO LETHAL to be a test.

    "Everyone did great!" And she's not doing a very good job of hiding her relief. Her face is all scrunched up!
Staren     Staren continues to look concerned, but it's clear Nozomi and Taiga don't want to talk about it. "Alright." He pats thw two of them on the shoulder, then stands up and turns to leave the testing chamber.

    "I think we all know by now that Miniknog scientists are terrible. It was probably serious."