Scene #4400: Dealings in Death

Owner	Pose
Zathlarne	Far above a booming city hangs a warpgate, that's utterly impossible to describe as anything other than collasal, and scattered around it are a large number of airships, flying craft, air freighters, and a large assorted amount of flying vessels in various states of parking and disorder... ...Filled with an equally bored number of captains that have been waiting about for several days for an Imperial escort to arrive. And arrive it does, with some fifty multi-mile long war-ships crusing slowly out of the gate to take up a sort of formation about the milling merchants, followed by a group of super-carriers and finally, a fifteen mile long monstrousity with large flowing runic shields that extend around it, forming a giant bubble of protection some hundred miles in radius... ...And the warp-gate? It only has plenty of room to spare despite the size of the gathered fleet. It doesn't take too long for communications to start shooting back and forth and groups of the merchant fleet to size up into something resembling a massive formation around the shield ship. Where you want to fit into the formation is up to you...
Kushiko	Information was a key factor in whether or not the Lotus would fully consider what was now taking place. No, that was slightly inaccurate; the murmurings overheard by Kushiko and her growing sense of independence -- needed, given the Multiverse's sprawl--was part of it. The sheer vastness of it meant they had to be a little pickier, and words given then were reason enough to quietly and discretely extend her feelers there. Oddly enough, the sheer size of the vessels was a strange comfort to Kushiko as Ordis guided the Prisma-enhanced Liset along with the formation. Not to mention the types of vessels themselves; in another setting and situation, her ship would have had activated cloaking procedures in order to attach, breach, and deploy the Warframe to conduct combat operations. But, ah, no, that was not to be the case. No, the case here as Ordis occasionally trades anything from polite remarks to blistering notions about someone's mother's ability to fly before apologizing and correcting himself is to find a nice little position unassumingly amidst the formation. After all, the Liset is not for combat in the traditional sense being as it's primary armament is tucked away in the ship's recess along the fore bottom of the vessel. Given spread of ships, it would likely see that the Liset itself will find a nice place along with a Mercantile vessel that for once, wasn't filled with Corpus and screeching proxies. And no, during transit the Liset is not at all imitating the diving and leaping motions of a dolphin, why ever would you think that?
Zathlarne	And like a somewhat well oiled machine, it doesn't take longer then about fifteen minutes to get all of the ships of the merchant fleet into a coherent whole, tucked into the massive shields of the largest ship... ...It's fairly obvious that most of the merchant fleet captains have done it before. "This is the shield ship. Escorts are inserting now. For those of you that are ... new here ... We'll be using the gravity drive to anchor all of you in place, and using our drive field to move the entire mass of you forward in a coherent whole together." There's a poinant pause, "This means no panicing and trying to drive through the ship in front of you as we start moving. If we are attacked, then keep calm, and let the escorting fleet deal with it. We don't need any of you shooting up your neighbors, or driving out of the protective fields and feeding the planetary core." There's a short pause, and a snort. "Commence escort insertion. Fortress Multiversal Gate reports clear, empty skies." A few moments later a group of the warships and one of the supercarriers starts through the gate, a few moments after the shieldship starts forward, dragging everything along inside it's shields easily ... there's a moment of transition as it hits the gate and then ... a moment of transition before the entire fleet emerges above and nearby a giant floating heavily fortressed island... ...Downward, there are a number of floating islands, some of which are rampant with vegetation, some are barren, and some seem to be little more then floating deserts, radar and scans going in that direction seem to be dampened, even the light seems to be fading out in an unnatural rate. Going up, there are yet more visible islands, and even more warships that seem to be patrolling the region that the shieldship is rapidly crusing upward and through... ...In fact, the ships 'gravity drive' is dragging the ships along with it at some 300+ Miles an hour, and still accelerating... ...A fact that's definitely guaranteed to get everyone there a lot sooner then expected.
Kushiko	It's Ordis that actually replies first to some measure, "Of course. My Operator stands ready if necessary but we hope there will not be a need for it. Even if it would be fun to let her obliterate something new. That is to say, this is not an environment we're firsthandedly experienced with." Honesty, really. As much as they knew, firsthand experience was far different when it came to what you were prepared for. Nonetheless, it's a peculiar kind of sensation otherwise; not just for Ordis for whom the Liset was his own 'body' but the Tenno who watched through the Void energy that permeated the ship and allowed her to have a sort of third person view outside the ship itself as she watched through the Transference back at the Orbiter. It was times like this that she was... somewhat /glad/ that the Multiverse didn't affect the distance by which she channeled her power through the Warframe. Nova Prime within the recess of the Liset, felt what her Tenno saw and it was the necessity of staying put that kept her curiosity in check as well, that curiosity instead doubling back into Kushiko. The sheer speed of it all was /impressive/. Almost as impressive as her Wormholes, but then again Nova felt that as a point of smug pride. Maybe. Ordis would frown, but the lightcube cannot frown, the sinewaves of his Cephalon form making a grumbling note about the lack of active or even passive sensor penetration into some areas. All must be documented as a matter of course, logged and registered to one's memory. ...hopefully the decelleration wouldn't be an issue, but with modest reassurance, he wouldn't complain. Much.
Zathlarne	One of the com-techs on the shield ship replies to Ordis, "We're hoping that your Operator doesn't have to deploy as well. It doesn't seem to matter how many times we give that opening speech, or how man of our warships they see... Some of those merchant ships always do their best to do something stupid the minute that combat breaks out." He snorts, "You'd think the fact that we're moving at least three times the best speed that some of them can manage would keep them from trying to exit the field but... Nooo." A video is sent to Ordis it involves a ship attempting to swerve out of the field, and literally getting torn apart by both inertia and drag. "Speaking of which we'll be approaching mach two shortly, and cruising speed. Is this is your first run in our sector of the Multiverse?" In the far distance, Ordis could probably easily see one of the battleship groups peeling off to intersect what looks like a giant cross between a dragon, an insect, and a partially decaying hydra, it's not long before a few salvos of missiles are sent screaming down after it, followed by hundreds of lances of withering energy fire. It doesn't last long. At all.
Kushiko	For a few fleeting moments the cracked Cephalon's response is less the polite dulcet tones and the more organic ones of /whatever/ it was in him: "What an IDIOT why would you even think about that--" And then back to normal, "Well, it appears they did suffer from grave miscalculations of their own capability. Inertia and other gravity elements are not unknown to us at these speeds, but done so in different ways." Solar Rails and all for intersystem travel in fleeting moments. Scale's probably slightly different. As to the question, the cracked hexahedron's inner waves pulsing with the occasional syllable timing. "Oh yes, it is. Would that we have come sooner but there were other matters for my Operator to attend to before doing so. All of this is a rather curious experience besides." He trails off for a moment, giving Kushiko back at her Orbiter a viewpoint of what he's seeing. That... is a very big dragon. And they can see why they assure people that it's not something to freak out about. Unless of course they freak out themselves but then that would mean everything's gone to pot.
Zathlarne	The voice at the other end of the radio responds darkly, "If the Multiverse has taught us one thing, it's that there are still plenty of idiots out there." There's a sigh, as the distant battlegroup peels back towards the convoy, and back towards it's old position in formation. "Well, It's good to see that you guys are here, even if you feel you're a bit delayed. I'd welcome you to our section of paradise, but it's not really much of a section of paradise... What with the planetary core trying to kill everyone, and the great beasts trying to escape it and us." There's enough of a pause for a shrug on the other end of the line, "So how does your world handle intertia then? We've obviously got our gravity drives, and thats pretty inertia-less, unless there's some sort of a collision event involved, or a breaker-storm. We're past the storm layer by now... So that's not going to be problem. Maybe another hour before we're there."
Kushiko	Everything in the universe trying to kill you? ... how familiar. Well, maybe not to the degree it's happening HERE obviously but still, it's an effort for Ordis not to retort that. And maybe a gentle poke from the Tenno regarding this. Speaking of 'delayed' that's when the Lotus speaks, "It was necessary to know what we were getting into first. The way transit is handled for one, and the basis of the way this world worked." 'World' being somewhat more encompassing but it worked for keeping things simple. Back to the present topics of worlds working Ordis inserts again, "Without a lot of boring technical details we go FAST AS HELL." Yeah, did we mention Ordis has problems staying on one polite tangenital track? We feel we should mention this. Ahem. "The best way we can compare it to how others see it are effectively 'light speed' but systems are used to encapsulate in energy and gravity to 'slingshot' ships that cannot sustain what the Liset can as part of the rail networks." So basically similar here but clearly on a scale that's /far/ more advanced.
Zathlarne	There's a pause as the person on the other end of the com-line digests the third voice. "How many people do you have stuffed on that-" There's a short cough, "-Errr sorry. Didn't mean to pry." The voice clears it's throat again, "Well. It's ... irresponsible to say the least, to step into a world like ours without at least looking into it..." There's a pause, "And quite frankly, we'd much prefer that you did look into things before you lept here. We get enough idiots that assume that since their world was safe and reasonable, that the rest of the Muliverse must be the same." There's a laugh as Ordis speaks again, "Well. Sounds a lot more convienent then this is." The voice pauses, "Sounds a lot more expensive too. The best we can manage is short range teleportation in case of an emergency. Useful in a tactical sense, not very good for moving groups of merchants around."
Kushiko	"'People' is relative. I am Ordis, Ship Cephalon. I do not have a 'body' in the traditional sense. I guide my Operator's ship by her order." Which is to say of course, that the Tenno did not pilot the vessel directly. For it is the Lotus who spoke next, "Nor am I directly here. It is not safe for me aboard the Tenno's vessel. Too many eggs in one basket, you could say." Simple enough to imply the necessity of safety without seeming rude or giving away too many hints themselves. And on that last line, the Lotus might be smiling a little bitterly, "That is something we've seen as gross misconceptions. The system we hail from is not one that can ever truly be considered 'safe', even discounting obvious threats." The Void for one was it's own twisted horror without actually being a practical, focused one. Ordis again picks up, "Teleportation rarely is; rails closer to wormholes and gateways. Travel through the Void similar. Subdimensional space, but not safe for the unprepared. Remarkable how similar some situations might be."
Zathlarne	There's a pause on the other end of the line, before the voice speaks again, it's tones slightly warmer, not to say that they weren't genuinely friendly before... ...And not to say that there aren't multiple communications officers all talking to different members of the fleet, trying to keep Chaos Ordered up properly. "Oh. A disembodied consciousness? We all spend time that way off and on... And well. Ma'am. We don't just understand caution. We applaud it. The Multiverse is large, often unfriendly, and even more often, unforgiving." The voice chuckles, "Stay cautious and stay alive. Especially if you're from one of the dangerous places like our own." There's a pause, "Wormholes. Space-time tunnels? Those are convienent but hard to setup outside of the Upper-Empire. Some of the storms below this level have been known to toss fifty ton chunks of granite around at mach eight point five," The voice sours slightly, "The less we say about what that can do a sensitive installation the better." There's a chuckle, "So... How'd you hear about us anyway?" There's a pause, "You're a lot more how to say ... professionally inclined ... then what we normally get out of merchants around these parts."
Kushiko	Boy if the truth /ever/ got out there. The Beast of Bones. Not that Kushiko knew, nor Ordis in his present state. The Lotus may know but she knows the worth and value of information--not just for what it was, but for it's value in not being known. For the moment, silence pervades, just for the notion of picking a proper conversational piece to pick up on. "That is uh, an unfortunate degree of speed," Ordis almost flatly notes. No, he didn't like that speed for it. The Liset probably could outspeed it but didn't like to have to do that. Or the suddeness. That would be bad too. And a stationary object? Yeah, good luck there. "Close enough to wormholes, yes. Space time and other elements are factors that do not adhere to common physics laws when it comes to FTL travel." His voice goes from low to surprised as the softer voice of the Tenno elects to speak. "One of yours, Keilandus. He fought with us by chance and by other means, we found him interesting and worth knowing more of. He assisted us with a threat, and through that, our curiosity was drawn here. Thus, we are here to speak on those matters. To see and experience firsthand as one can only know so much from gathered intelligence." That and the Multiverse was such a different prospect for how they conducted themselves compared to before when it was just the Origin System.
Zathlarne	There's a short pause on the other end of the radio, then a dry chuckle. "An unfortunate degree of speed. We've always felt that way about breaker-storms and the debris they toss out ourselves." The voice turns turn a little warmer, "Not that I really have a degree in such things, or that I'm an artificier, but from what I'm told anything moving fast enough sort of adheres to it's own set of rules." The voice laughs again, then pauses as Kushiko speaks up ... then there's a long pause ... followed by a low whistle as she drops a name. That name. "Old Keilandus himself?" There's another pause, "That's ... Probably why you feel a lot more profressional then the other people in this convoy he's ummm... Kind of a surprisingly large name to hear." The voice coughs, "If you'd like I could have your ship dock with one of the attending destroyers and get you to the capital a bit faster?" Apparently she's just been upgraded to VIP.
Kushiko	But it's true! Totally /was/ an unfortunate degree of speed and acceleration. Ordis might be somewhat flabbergasted at the words repeated back to him but he seems to pay it no mind otherwise. "Oh that is quite true. After a certain point, other rules apply instead, if not outright bent. Or played with. Plenty of loopholes if you have the knowledge and the capability." Truthfully speaking, the dropping of Keilandus' name was not so much to play coy and holding back such information on the assumption of say, upgrading to VIP. No, it was originally going to be a notion of discretion to some degree but given the way the chatter had been going, a little reverse influence from her Warframe induced a slightly more talkative mindset. On the other hand it /did/ for the Lotus' benefit confirm what she suspected given the strength the mage and the golems displayed along with their tactics. "If you like. We did not wish to impose upon others, and at first, we felt it a matter of discretion." There's a blink and you miss it moment: the way she uses the 'we' tones do not necessarily suggest she's talking on behalf of the Lotus or Ordis implicitly. A few of the control surfaces break at the varying points on the Liset, fins spreading slightly as though preparing for a necessary adjustment. They won't say no to an expediency of things but not to the detriment of others here.
Zathlarne	There's a bit of a dry chuckle, "If a single destroyer makes that much of a difference, then a lot of patrol ships, and an entire battle-fleet hasn't been doing it's job right. Either that, or the situation is dire enough that a lot of battle-fleets are going to become involved in a very umm ... unsubtle fashion." There's another dry chuckle, "The higher you go in our world, the less dangerous it is, and we're high enough that flocks of great-beasts and horrors are never seen, not that they don't like to eat each other anyways but..." There's enough of a pause for a shrug, "...Long story short, if you're here on the invitation of Old Keilandus, that means you're here on the kind of business that keeps the Empire as a whole running. A few people can hold off on getting their coffee for a few minutes longer if can get you there faster." There's a pause, "Okay your sensors should a destroying inserting itself into the gravity bubble down to your right and a bit forward of your position. Given that your has demonstrated an exceptional degree of agility..." The voice coughs, apparently someone noticed the whole dolphin movements earlier. "...We'll be instructing the nearby captains to maintain their position and to let you past." There's a swift transmission of a schematic, complete with several highlighted docking points, should she want to be able to board, and several reinforced hull points if she'd prefer to just latch on. "If you do board the destroyer, mind yourself that some probably won't be in bodies, and others won't be in humanoid bodies at all." There's a chuckle, "The captain sends her ahh ... invitation to come on board, apparently she'd rather be moving fast then bogged down with an escort mission." There's a pause, "And it's a been a pleasure. Ordis, Lotus, and Operator. We try to assign a com-watch to everyone, especially for the longer travels, and for the newer people. You've all three been interesting."
Kushiko	"Mmm. This much is true," Kushiko serenely notes. It could also have the potential for /fun/ but she suppresses that instinct of brutality when it comes to the possibility of combat against an unknown foe, to learn everything that could be thrown against them and how they would break--or wouldn't, thus needing to learn /more/; she is not so arrogant after all. Holding back on how it might be a pity otherwise, she listens--as does Ordis. Everything being mentioned, described, witnessed; from the great horrors to other hazards are being devoured like scraps before a hungry animal knowing there's more to come. More to know and keenly be aware of for the future. A day may come where she might need to provide a certain degree of assistance but who knows. Ordis chimes in, "All information acknowledged and verified. Hmmm..." Seems Ordis has found a point to attach to and dock; likely he wants to keep the options open for Kushiko otherwise. "Hmm, is that so? Well, all told, we suspected a few things. Bodies and the nature of those things... well. Nothing to go over on this channel after all." She might be smiling, even if it were unseen. At the last, however, she remarks, "You may call us Tenno, for now." Divine Emperor in old languages. The truth of her name will become known later, as required. "It's been a pleasure, and an interesting journey to see such unique things after all." As she says that, the Liset banks nimbly; more akin to an organic being than not, thrusters lightly, gently 'swimming' into and around the other ships in order to dock with the destroyer itself. She'll disembark shortly after but for right now but Ordis wantes to make sure everything's safe and secure and drop through the airlock once that's all on lockdown.
Zathlarne	The unseen com-officer chuckles again, "I'll send you a data-file on some of it." A moment later the voice signs off, "For the Emperor, the Empire, and it's People. Fortune favor you Tenno." The data-file contains a lot of information, some of it speculative, and labeled as such, some of it being ancient history, some geographical, some cultural, and a lot of it useful in odd ways. Esecially when it pertains to the people: As the story goes, an ancient being foresaw the coming of the end of the world, and used his empire to capture up as much and as many varied resources, knowledge and people as possible, before literally disembodying them, and binding the souls of everyone to a large extra-dimensional city known as Necropolis. Not long after, the end of the world came, with first the moon violently exploding and raining debris down on the then planet, and finally a pair of god-like beings slammed into the planet with enough force to cause everything from the core outward to explode upwards and into a set of orbiting flying islands... ...The god-like beings were said to be slain by Emperor Zathlarne... ...And the survivors gathered, to rebuild a society of sorts. People are regularly embodied from somewhere in the Necropolis to either bio-mechanical machines, magitech devices, or fully organic bodies. It's heavily implied that you earn your body through service to the people of the Empire throughout the document. It's also heavily implied that some of the most complex computer systems are actually people working in unison to make certain that things don't break down, from inside the computers. Still, it probably takes longer for the Orbiter to dock at the ship then it does for Kushiko and Ordis to make sense of things.
Kushiko	"Thank you very much. Until we meet again, should that be in the future." Mmm, information dumps! Nearly as satisfying as the other kinds! No, in all seriousness, it isn't just Kushiko and Ordis overlooking this information, but the Lotus; really the Lotus is taking a firm grip in digesting this information. Had they just arrived freshly in the Multiverse much of this would be looked at with a great deal of skepticism and the like. Now? Now, a bit less so. Didn't mean it was less scrutiny to read between the lines in the case of the Lotus but Kushiko was enjoying it akin to story and lore due to not really having anything for her own history save a pockmarked landscape of sensation rather than true memory other than recent times. It was arguable that her choice to come here was part to do with making her own memories as she had been lately. And in her mind it was utterly /fascinating/ but that may be in part due to the fact Kushiko's mind doesn't really work the same way as others do. The elements of necromancy and the like would undoubtedly be horrifying to some, but reading between the lines she could now make the connection regardin 'enough energy' for families given what she recalled during that time Keilandus had assisted with Phorid. She didn't know why, but the implications regarding merit and service over say, genetic bloodlines and more stoked an odd fire of kinship she couldn't quite place. Instinct paired with the knowledge of what she was looking over--and in turn discussed quietly with the Lotus--showed that beyond the typical presumptions one might have with that which is necromantic solely /because/ they were necromantic--that dark is not necessarily evil. And light, that golden light of the Orokin in her case, was not good either. Nonetheless, the shimmering energy about the Prisma Liset came to a standstill once Ordis finished docking procedures; life support equalized through the (very) short umbilical attachments provided for Warframe to disembark properly, the half-cylinder turning on it's axis to reveal the humanoid-shaped recess and the black-purple tinted Nova Prime within. Not that she immediately dropped because well, she would pause to ensure she could step off onto the deck rather than drop down.
Zathlarne	The destroyer is only about a good half a mile long, making it one of the smaller ships, but in this case ... also one of the faster ones. Once again, the motion of the ship itself is only apparent from the external sensors in the Liset, but the actual movement speed is ... much much faster this time. Inside the ship is a Human looking lieutenant with a midnight blue crisp looking uniform. "Welcome on board Tenno. My name is Anders, and I've been assigned as your personal liason." They give you a swift salute, "Would you care to accompany me to the bridge, or one of the recreation rooms?" The initial impression of the inside of the ship is ... clean alloylike, with good lightning and somewhat spacious corridors. There's a soft background humm, throughout the ship that's not unpleasant, and a slightly prickling sensation of energy being distributed invisibly, that Nova would probably not fail to notice.
Kushiko	ONLY a mile long. Well, least there's reference points for that kind of thing that the Tenno knows about. The speed is noticable and makes Ordis make some sortof affirmative in appreciation due to the change over and being able to go at a better speed. And with docking on the ship, hooray! There's no need to drop down through the vents. Wait, what are we saying? Ahem. The biometal frame takes a few careful steps forward after visually affirming what she suspected to be the case, the heels making precious little noise as she cants her head towards the human-looking sort aboard. In lieu of a salute, she returns a short bow, one fist in open palm in front of her. She doesn't yet speak as ever since coming and standing on board, the antimatter, Void-fueled Warframe is sensing things. Or more to the point, Kushiko is. And almost as though in response to Anders' words at first, the control surfaces upon her head flare slightly along with those funnels of energy glowing brightly as she speaks. Or more accurately projects her voice through that Void that permeates her Nova Prime as a conduit: "The bridge is fine. Depending on what your recreation room has in way of obstacle courses, we may be interested in there as well." Having said this, she steps forward, the sway of the energy-woven Asa syandana flitting behind her. She's armed with just a trio of weapons similarly colored to her frame.
Zathlarne	The officer smiles, "Bridge it is then. Obsticle courses tend to be more of a fixture on troop-transport and infantry vessels." She shrugs, "Though we definitely have a few in the capital too, should you wish to exercise there. They're often tailored as much towards calibration tools, and manuverability tests for the people who are using new ... external accessories." She shrugs and gestures towards part of the center of the ship, before heading off that way herself, dress boots clicking softly on the metal floors. "Our vessel here is used more often as part of as scouting group for a larger fleet, or as part of a flotilla of ships to hunt down the faster and more agile horrors from the core." She grins slightly turning back to you, "Which is why our captain volunteered to help ferry you to the capital."
Kushiko	Curses. So there's no chance there's an elaborately long hall where Kushiko can play, 'the floor is lava' here. Ohwell. "Understandable. We didn't think it'd be likely but..." Little need for recreation in the way most people think about is the other facet to it. For her, the Warframe /is/ her body much of the time and she loves most of all to both practice and 'play' at the different things she can pull off. "And yes, getting calibrated to new bodies and equipment is rather daunting at first," she offers sympathetically. "I've gone through so many myself but sometimes it's necessary to strengthen them. Though now that it comes down to it, I don't need as much time to acclimate." All the same, she's following closely after as well. The energy she can sense is something she places in the back of her mind, the slight groaning resulting in more passive observation as she hmms once. "Makes sense. Hit and run if needed when it's a fast mover as well, perhaps?" Not that she or her Tenno were all about that ship to ship combat so much as, 'get aboard the ship in question and murder everything in sight' at least. "We appreciate this. Not that we minded the way we were going, it was good to see things from that level if that makes sense."