Scene #5411: MISSION: Binary Star (2)

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Starbound Flotilla	THE SPACEBAR This game zone appears to be a tremendous, shattered-open planetoid instead of an island in VRMMO Earth. The fractured planetoid drifts far above Earth, something like two thirds of the moon's size at least, and it glitters with a startling array of lights that indicate spots of activity, habitation, or perhaps even space colonization. Segments of the tremendous planetoid seem to offer strange mineral themes, conspicuous organic growth, or even obvious technological artificiality, depending on the nature of the individual fracture. Today's site is somewhere near one of the more gray, bland fragments of the planetoid. Is this a little on the nose for a digital world? It almost feels like it, but it lacks an air of insincerity that might come from that. A lot of the world is inspired by old science fiction, and this is no exception. It has the look of a setpiece from The Jetsons, all elegant parabolas, stylish points, and Googie architecture, alongside midcentury-modern neon signage. There's literally a big neon rocketship that makes up the sign of this... Taaaavern? It somehow feels, in some way, like this is the equivalent of an RPG tavern for the game. Maybe it's the diversity of individual craft, all of which are styled after some cliche of late 30s to early 80s science fiction or another. Maybe it's the tone that sets it dramatically in sort of a lesser region of the larger colony near it. Maybe it's the fact that, as one approaches it, their minimap populates with an array of icons indicating things that are probably quest boards, vendors, and logout-safe zones, and that's just how taverns tend to be. Minimaps indicate this as an "FSC Ranger Station", whatever that means. Well, whatever the reason is, there's a nice little hangar that the Starbound Flotilla pull their little out-of-place shuttle into. The others can easily hitch a ride on it, or on any of the other shuttles the others have. The hangars have some heavy, elaborate, raygun-gothic equipment surrounding each landing pad, with interfaces all over them. It's likely they're meant to summon spaceships for those who own them! The interior is even more stylized, evoking the aesthetic of 1950s diners, bars, and other places of eating. The only thing out of place is that all of the NPCs in here are wearing big doofy cold-war spacesuits of some kind or another. How ARE they eating? I mean, they've got bar food, diner food, and hell, they've got glasses of all sorts of alcohol, but all of them have totally opaque helmets on their suits. Some are EVA suits, some are just thinner interior suits which let them wear things like a bowtie and waistcoat on that left-side bartender. The one on the right is a big robot with a massive lightbulb head, looking like a man in a goofy, massive tin suit otherwise. Inside, heavy computing equipment (massive and reel-to-reel), elaborate retrofuturist vending machines (get your ammo dispensed like old gumballs!), and a big fancy quest board (formed out of a dozen CRTs stacked on top of each other) all make this clearly a site of Starting Adventures. Aside the quest board and bartenders, an astronaut with a military-green pattern and some medals pinned to his spacesuit sits in one corner with a quest indicator, the computing station (oh my god these GIANT goofy keyboards) offers some help to those wanting to decode that AI, and there are various other NPCs here to bother, if one was looking for a particular type. The one with the aviator's scarf, for example? Or maybe that gruff, dirty one with a hard-hat? Jesus this place is weird.
Staren	Staren beams over to the Core Fleet's ship. Erchius teleporters are great! For the moment, he's in his usual clothes, although knowing him he probably has multiple spacesuits on his person Just In Case. He takes in the aesthetic of the Space Bar without batting an eye for the most part -- it's what he expected, though he does roll his eyes at the NPCs drinking through their helmets. And groan at the sight of the reel-to-reel tape drives. There is a humanoid robot RIGHT THERE, compact computers are logically a part of this setting! Also, that dude has medals PINNED to his spacesuit. That's worthy of rolled eyes AND a groan. He glances over the menu, with an eye more towards unique things to try than expensive meals on someone else's dollar, but once he's got food he's ready to work at the computer station. He doesn't seem that bothered by havuing to use a keyboard -- he's in no hurry, and he's used manual controls enough in his life that he doesn't seem to have a problem working with them.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite is just going to assume it means some sort of local law enforcement, as that's where she usually sees 'Ranger' used. Oh well, not really important when they've got a BAR to go to. Though once she walks inside she takes pause, looks around, and makes a bit of a face as she reachs up to scratch the back of her head a little. "... Seems almost too clean and bright to be a tavern," she murmurs. At least compared to the space western saloons she's use to. Oh well, as long as there's booze and food.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka sure as hell ain't gonna pass up a chance to get a drink. She arrives in a trenchcoat and BDUs, very eighties/nineties (fittingly), as she takes a poke about. THe raygun gothic scenery is sure as hell jarring given Maaka looks like she's stepped out of a cyberpunk artbook, and she stops to pick up some more ammo. God, her bank account is gonna be missing a chunk after this, but those ray rounds will be useful. Eventually she makes her way to the quest board, taking a peek. "Hmmm." Maybe there's stuff she can look into later! "Keyboards, how quaint." SHe smirks, before she pokes at the keyboard in question.
Iria	This place ain't weird. If you want weird, just look at some of the things Iria's been forced to hunt over the past few weeks. She'd go into details, but some of them might not make sense. (We told you it was weird!) Iria arrives wearing her cape over her usual armor, leaving her boots visible as well as her head. It looks weird, but it works for Iria all the time. She's also got a spacesuit or two on hand, just in case things reach that point. But for now, she's more interested in looking around this place. "Not a bad place, compared to that dump I was at in Egypt-913 during that hunt for an escaped convict a few days ago," Iria comments, running a hand through her hair. "The stuff they served there... ugh, I wouldn't even give it to Fujikuro!" She also walks over to the quest board in hopes of gleaning some information from it.
Xiaomu	The only thing better than heading out to a bar is getting a ride there from somebody else. Xiaomu probably isn't even bothering with a spacesuit this trip unless she was specifically told there'd be a jaunt EVA ... or a greater-than-0.001% risk of decompression. Granted, when a spacebar is literally in space, she probably shouldn't underestimate odds like that ... Either way, the otaku sage fox saunters into the bar with a relaxed demeanor, glancing over any signs that bear a passable resemblance to menus. "Not like they're going to have fried tofu here," she murmurs, "but I'm sure I can get something fried up nicely ..." Unless of course she gets distracted by a Spacewar arcade machine or something. (Guard your quarters, folks!)
Septette Arcubielle	The craft that Septette Arcubielle arrives on barely deserves the title of spaceship. It's a geometric piece of black metal, like an acute triangular prism, that flits through space on projected 'wings' of energy and seems barely large enough to hold a person and life support. That is, of course, because it doesn't hold life support: some parts of it are blatantly open to the hard vacuum of space, by design rather than damage. In a way, the skeletal and inhospitable craft is very 'Septette'. Mostly in that nobody else would deign to pilot it. The little android who skips into the tavern doesn't seem too ruffled by the radiation and micrometeoroid impacts her craft subjects one to; she takes just a moment to straighten her hairband and smooth out her lavender cloak, then strolls over to the bar and sits down on a stool. Backwards, of course, with her feet still resting on the floor and her elbows on the counter behind her. You know, like a cool person. "I'll take the Flowery Quasar Mimosa," she tells the bartender over her shoulder, "and the Blue Moon Ribs. Spacechips are fine." Then she relaxes for a few precious moments, and takes in the crowd of adventurers pouring through the doors. Good vantage point to take stock of who's joining in.
Silica	Silica sits in one of the seats in the Flotilla's shuttle, petting her little wing snake idly, until the ship docks. She stands, tail sweeping idly as she lets Hibiki go to coil around her shoulders, coming up on the opposite shoulder to Pina, who's perched up there in her usual place. She looks at the consoles in the docking bay, and gives a smile, before moving in to join the others. She notices people pointing out the fact the NPCs are all wearing their space suits indoors. "The suits are actually a kind of Factional Tabard. Notice the different designs in torso and helmet? That lets you know who someone's with at a glance." She points to the majority of NPCs. "Those are FSC, Free Science Corps. They're kind of the 'Newbie' or 'Good Guy' faction. Not that it makes them always do the good or right thing of course."
Tomoe	The space Bar, the bar in space? Well then there might need to be an old man with a laser sword and a young kid trying to get a lift somewhere but this isn't what Tomoe is here for. Thewhole place though is ... quite reto in an odd way. Tomoe seems more partial to the stuff fromthe seventies and eights as she lingers to look at some of the ships. It's not long bfore she joins the others and moving to type in her own or she's relaxe tough she's wearing her Eisen avatar so she's a lot shorter than she normally is but she seems to be in good spirits. "Eh they likely got space roombas cleaning things up. Corona." She also waves over to Xiaomu for a moment. "So I got to ask how did you get into fried Tofu of all the human foods out there?"
Sombra	Arriving in a rather quiet manner, a shadow slips through the doors as she looks around, taking in the unusual sighs and sounds. This appears more like a parody of such a place than an actual diner. It might be because it's digital, but still... After getting something quick and easy to eat along with a drink, Sombra walks over to the computer stations, giving an amused glance to Staren as she arrives. "Fancy seeing you here as well, amigo..." she chuckles, all while she glances about the area at the other Elites who have arrived. Some of them are familiar, more than others. Maybe they will talk more with them later. But for now, there's work to be done. Moving a hand to the computer, Sombra touches her fingertips to it... all while purple lines begin spreading over the tech where she touched it. Her left hand begins eating the finger food, and the hacker gets comfortable where she sits, chewing the food properly. Time to access the database and run an initial scan of what information is available here. And whether there's anything she can cross reference to the AI that the Flotilla informed them about.
Sanary Rondel	Sanary also arrives somehow! The details aren't too important, but she looks.. Not really dressed for the place at all. She's still wearing her usual coat that is definitely not an enclosed space-suit, and she's poring through a menu. She's marveling at all the food options, too, although she has no idea what most of these things even are. "Which one's the meaty-sounding one...?" Sanary holds up the menu to stare closer at it, then shrugs lightly before taking a seat and peering at the guy with all the medals and the quest indicator. "... You think he's got something important to say?"
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki, foregoing her spacesuit today, comes into the bar and looks around, a pleased grin on her face. She waves cheerfully to her friends before heading over to check out some of the vending machines. She seems disappointed to discover they aren't actually arcade cabinets; crane games and the like. Still, seeing the 'stuff' on display is neat, and it captures the elfin girl's attention for a time. Her only concession to the current aesthetic of the space bar is her sword. It's no longer her familiar Obsidian Blade; instead she wears a somewhat gothic-tech blade made of silvery metal and covered in tubes and coils all around the hilt and upper guard. After checking out the vending machines, Yuuki returns to go meet up with Silica and, if possible, Tomoe. They're her ALO-friends after all, wearing their transformations, even if they're originally from different games. "This is all SO COOL!" Yuuki exclaims happily, just plain thrilled to be checking out a new world. Getting out is just one of those things for her.
Starbound Flotilla	MEALS FROM SPACE! They're classic 1950s americana food, all of them, and good bar food to boot. Staren grabs something expensive -- a nice hefty burger with plenty of fries is a classic, but it's one with the WORKS! -- and it goes onto the Starbound tab. In fact, the others are going to be given the free meal as well. Much to Pavo's distress, it seems like they're paying for the whole group.
Starbound Flotilla	The quest board identifies several topics in its bright green terminal font. Using the keyboard is fairly straightforward, though it also seems quite responsive to voice commands if you say "computer!" in a commanding voice. There's options rated by difficulty for sites marked "INFESTED STATION" or "INFESTED SHIP" in bright red. "HUNT PIRATE BOUNTY" is another quest that pops up a lot. "PROSPECT MINING SITE", "DESTROY XENOFAUNA", "COLLECT SCIENCE SAMPLES", or "PERFORM PATROL" are many others. Many of them are marked with a boot icon, but some are marked with a rocket icon, and seem like something most of the group can't accept if they investigate.
Kirito	Kirito's not going anywhere without the Oxygen Nanoskin available from the Flotilla tech, which is much better than the bulkier vacsuit he was using earlier. It means he can walk on into the 'Spacebar' without much concern... Though a heck of a lot of concern flickers across his face ANYWAYS at the amount of EVA suits found everywhere... next to ordinary drinks and food. "Uhhh." Though a fantasy player, Kirito's a techhead. He knows QUITE WELL how stupid this looks. It leaves him lightly scratching the back of his head and feeling awkward about approaching anyone... Which is fine. He heads over to the Computing Stations instead of talking to anyone. Talking is not his first priority... basically ever.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka definitely grabs herself a burger and fries, and a cookies n cream shake at that. Not the most badass meal for a gritty cyberpunk cyber-soldier for hire, but fuck it, it's all on the Flotilla. She keeps browsing the quests available, taking the ones marked with boots for later use. Then, she goes over to the table with the others. "Hey, Sombra." She remarks with mild surprise as she recognizes the hacker, "Guess I shouldn't be surprised you're here, try not to get us all banned."
Septette Arcubielle	"Important? It's possible," the little robot chirps with a wave to Sanary. "Glad to see you're still kicking, though, Ms. Rondel. Haven't seen you since that airship incident... what, last year?" If the warm and cheery expression on her face is any indication, their duel way back then is still a happy memory. The fact that the ribs aren't literally cyan is only a slight damper on Septette's gregarious mood. It's a peculiar sight to watch her eat: the lack of an actual throat doesn't seem to slow her down in the least, and she uses her bladed fingers in lieu of any utensils. When she's done, she simply burns off any grease or sauce by momentarily superheating her skeletal, metal hands. When she's finished, she ambles on over to the questboard and gives it an appraising look. "Ground missions or space missions, looks like. I'd wager we need an appropriate in-game ship to continue with the latter. And the number of them talking about 'infestation'... think they're talking about neurovores, or something else?"
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite glances over Maaka's shoulder for a moment. "Lotta stuff that needs doin' round here Ah reckon." Seems to be the point of the place, putting people on the right path to do stuff. She shrugs, taking a swig from whatever local liquor she's managed to aquire herself. "Just hope they don't turn out to be a buncha piddly fetchin' quests." Pause. "Or escorts." That makes her shudder, tail bristling for a moment. She's had to deal with that delightful task often enough in reality! Darn greenhorns showin' up, thinkin' they're gonna make it big on the frontier with no real clue what they're doing.
Starbound Flotilla	What else would there be here besides incredibly old arcade cabinets? They couldn't secure the rights for the proper names of classics like Space Invaders, Galaga, Astroids, Galaxian, Defender... You know, there seems to be a bit of a theme here. But they did manage to make some knockoff titles and such, for Xiaomu to dig into. Looks like she might win some stuff for doing it if she does!
Sanary Rondel	Hearing Septette, Sanary turns to her with a carefree laugh. "Yeah, it was... Was it really that long ago? Dang, a lot's happened since then... You gotten any stronger since last time?" She seems to be in good spirits about the whole thing, although there is a hint of nervousness as she starts to recall bits and pieces of what had happened. She also finally settles on something to eat: CHICKEN WINGS. It's not every day she gets those since they're usually so overpriced, but getting them on someone else's tab is a chance she's not going to pass up. At least she's only ordering twenty of them for now. A soda, too! "What's that about in-game ships? Hm... How hard do you think those things are to fly?" Surely nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan.
Iria	After perusing the board, Iria hrms. "Looks like another typical game in a sense." She shrugs her shoulders a little then takes notice of the arcade games. They're all space related games. Surprisingly, Iria seems interested in playing a game of Defender. "This reminds me of cruising around in my shuttle. I wonder if I'd make a good rescue pilot?" She says to herself as she proceeds to 'insert coin' and start a game.
Xiaomu	Xiaomu looks over at Tomoe, grinning. "Well, you don't get raised in a Buddhist convent without learning to appreciate tofu, right? And the tradition of 'fried tofu is a favorite food of foxes' dates back to well before I set foot in Japan myself ... -- oh wait, is that what I think it is?" Arcade machines sighted! Xiaomu makes her way over to the game corner, grinning like mad and rubbing her hands together. "Here we go, time to mark my new territory ..." Her new objective: Get on the high score tables (if not the high score, period!) in every machine she can. Not that it's necessarily going to be THAT easy for her - classic arcade games were ard for a reason, and just because she's an otaku doesn't make her an expert - but she's still going to give it her all. Somebody may need to be ready to drag her out when the group's done ...
Sombra	Hearing the familiar voice, Sombra turns her head slightly as she glances at Maaka, all before a smirk plays at her lips. "Banned? Why would I ever do that? Relajate, sit down and enjoy your meal... it's tasty." Her attention then moves to Kirito as he sits down, and Sombra studies him before she speaks up, still resting her right hand on the console in front of her. "It's interesting with how many people are showing up here, isn't it?" But where are the Flotilla capitanes? Not that she's too worried. As a matter of fact, Sombra makes herself at home, lounging in her seat very much like a cat, her left hand picking up fries now and then to pop into her mouth. Rather than using the clunky keyboard that the station comes with she prefers using her own systems, as they're just much more effective to her. Besides, this computer terminal looks /nasty/.
Starbound Flotilla	Tomoe's guess is accurate. What looks like a tiny upside-down bucket scoots past her feet, scrubbing the floors as it goes by. Sometimes it actually hops up onto tables to clean them, with an absurd little raygun-style energy thruster. Woopwoopwoopwoop noises and everything! Okay, that's less relevant local technology than the COMPUTING STATION! George slides by with what looks like a heavy... Magnetic tape reel. "Hey, here's that AI we yanked. Guy's all corrupted. Can you help clean him up maybe?" He hands it off to Staren, Sombra, Kirito, and the others who seek to get in on this one, to mount on the system. "Give this one a look, maybe? I have no idea how this nonsense works, and we don't even have anything close to the hardware to run this guy. Maybe you can find out more about the neurovores."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite turns her head in George's direction, only to blink a couple of times. "Whoa. Now that there's some def'nate estoic tech. Even on Brimsteel we don't use reel-to-reels much." Which probably gets her a few strange looks from the assorted technology eras present. "What? Y'all never heard of diff'rential machines and analytical engines?"
Septette Arcubielle	As she listens to Sanary, something akin to pained insecurity flashes across Septette's expression. Then, as soon as it came, it's gone, replaced by good-natured mock arrogance. "Of course I haven't, Ms. Rondel. For a perfect warrior such as I, there's nowhere to go but down." She fans herself with one hand on her hip- a perfect picture of humorous overconfidence. "I look forward to seeing how you've grown, though. Ideally, side by side." Still... are her movements a little less crisp than she was when they met on that airship? Don't her fingers look a little duller? A few moments later, the little war-machine wanders over to her acquaintances gathered by the computer terminal and peers at the AI in avid curiosity. "No way... you can run an artificial intelligence on something like that? And here I thought I was weird and anachronistic."
Alexis Maaka	Maaka stares at the reel, "Hot damn. Here I thought the keyboards and monitors were retro. You pinch that from the ship?" She wonders, in between sips of her shake curiously.
Staren	Staren settles in at the station chewing a bite of the house special burger. It's... good, but a burger's a b urger. He stares briefly at the tape reel. Remember, Staren, the AI isn't actually stored there, this is just a game item. "Yeah... well, we'll see how the game represents that. Might be a minigame entirely unrelated to computer skills. Load it up..." He helps mount the tape and sits back down at the console.
Sombra	George's arrival elicits a smile from Sombra, who glances up at the man. "Hola... you sure took your time!" This is followed by a 'boop' on the nose before she looks at the magnetic tape reel, arching both eyebrows at the sight. "Huh, talk about ancient tech, huh?" And it's corrupted to boot? "You certainly give us something to work with, don't you George...?" A glance towards Corona, and the hacker nods. "Of course I've heard of tech like this, though it's rare on my world. Even the eldest generations would consider this tech obsolete." Septette earns a slight smile while Sombra brings up a screen from her graft, scrolling through what appears to be magnetic reels while Staren helps get the tape set back on the computer station. "Remember, back in the day this was probably something they were proud about. Poor cabrons..." Once Staren has the reel set in place, Sombra places her hand on the tech so she can interface with it, ignoring her food for now as she seems far more interested in working. As the purple lines spread, a telltale sign that Sombra has connected with the tech, she brings up another large screen. Upon said screen lines of code run through, but it appears to be broken in several places, with large gaps or with things that make the image glitch out slightly, all while the hacker winces. "This might take a while to clean up... I haven't worked with tech this old before... have any of you?" she asks the others.
Starbound Flotilla	"Oh this whole game's a mess of tech. I love it." George says to Corona, grinning widely. "Rayguns with D-cells and ships that actually run on diesel. Robots and no hard drives. It makes no sense." As for Staren, he's right in some ways and wrong in others. The game seems to actively check against his "COMPUTRONICS" skill, which is apparently mid to high...? The others experience similar checks, before the interface opens up. What's in there is a sort of simplified programming game. Sombra's way is already making progress, but Staren finds that handling this issue normally as a player would consist of dealing with some sort of elaborate programming game about editing a program to write solid lines that aren't being written correctly... Surprisingly, this doesn't challenge a lot of computer skill so much as one's ability to solve brain-bending puzzles. Sombra's way DOES work, though.
Sanary Rondel	Noticing that shift in Septette's expression, Sanary furrows her brow while getting up from her seat. "Hey. Hey. Someone like you could do stuff a person like me could only dream about, alright? Like..." She munches on a chicken wing while approaching the rest of the group at the terminal (yes, she brought those over because she's not about to leave them at the bar for whoever to just snag), then wiggles her elbow. "You still got those crazy weapons as part of your body, right? You could... Get bigger weapons. Or make those stronger. I'm stuck with whatever I can pick up, you know? So don't sell yourself short!" She laughs again at that, then gets something similar to that look of insecurity on her own face at the talk of her own growth. It lingers. "... I've been slacking since things blew up. Ehm... B-but the farm's going great! Er... So what's this about hard driving with diesel?" Her gaze flickers between Sombra and Staren, although it's clear that the healer is way out of her league with... Whatever it is they're doing there.
Starbound Flotilla	Pavo is MAD AT SANARY. VERY MAD. WHY ARE YOU ORDERING SO MUCH YOU DIDN'T EVEN RESCUE UUUUUUS That's what it would sound like if you could hear Pavo's mental screaming. Right now, instead, she gets the attention of that spaceman with the big aviator's scarf when she asks about how hard things are to fly. "Interested in being a pilot, miss?" He says in a calm tone, with a slightly southern tone to it. "They're not hard to fly. They're hard to master, though. But if your reflexes are good, and you can stand Old Man G's cruelty, you can go far out here on the frontier, and the 56th Spaceborn could always use more eyes and guns." A quest popup! <<ACQUIRE A SPACEFIGHTER>> Whether or not Sanary decides spacefighters fit her, at least now folks know where they can investigate getting a spacefighter.
Yuuki Konno	"I think the whole point is it doesn't make sense." Yuuki opines. "Like, it's how people thought things would be long before it was possible? It's charming!" she grins. Unfortunately Yuuki's no computer expert. Ironically too. She just lived inside a computer for a while, and has neither the skills nor the knowledge to contribute to a decrypting effort. For that matter she also lacks the game-related skills.
Staren	Staren groans at the mention of diesel spaceships. And then... hmm. Not programming, exactly. Sort of, but programming a simplified, abstract version of the problem. Staren examines the capabilities of the game, trying to learn all the tools it provides for solving things rather than diving right in. Still... perhaps with Sombra's method going at the same time, the puzzles can be hacked into easier, faster ones.
Septette Arcubielle	"It doesn't quite work like that," Septette replies quietly, turning her body slightly to hide her expression from anyone but Sanary- though it's not hard to listen in, if anyone can pick out her voice among the crowd. "Never designed to be modular- design's obfuscated, hard to reverse-engineer. Can't just strap a gun on, you know? "I've been working on how to 'jailbreak' it, or at least get back some of what's been lost, but somehow I keep hitting a brick wall... I was never meant to last this long anyway. If it isn't meant to be, that's okay." She gives a wan smile- her artificial face could force a more convincing one, but that wouldn't seem right, somehow. "And you, Sanary... you've still got all the time in the world. You've still got so much room. When you fight, you can learn and grow... and when you're hurt, you can heal right up. That's the miracle of being human, isn't it?" Her smile broadens a little, regaining its earlier warmth- if only vicariously. "I've still never seen your farm properly. You should show me sometime. I'm sure you have a lot to be proud of, Ms. Rondel."
Sombra	Trust George to like old school things, and Sombra shakes her head despite the fact that she's smiling. "Feeling nostalgic, papi?" Or perhaps he just enjoys things that make no sense. Personally she's all about finding puzzle pieces that fit together, just like what she's doing now. Whatever this is, it's not exactly too complicated, now is it? Especially since the programming challenge is rather lacking. Then again, it's good that Sombra enjoys puzzles, solving cryptograms and the like. Why, it should be evident that Sombra... is enjoying herself as she types away, quickly entering code upon code to find the correct sequences needed. "Un momento..." she murmurs, and then she swipes her arm to the side, summoning up screens that she flicks towards the people around the computer. "Help out by solving these," she urges them. The puzzle game is there, coloured sequences to be put into the correct places where they will fit in. It's something that everybody can try, even Sanary and Yuuki even if they haven't done anything like this before. They do have working eyes and the ability to see where a pattern fits in or not, right? "It's part of the code that I've extracted, if we work like this we can get it done the quickest." Especially if they are good at this. If they do solve one puzzle they will get another one waiting for them. Her eyes fall upon Staren. "So you enjoy puzzles too...?" she inquires even as she works, back to typing away as the code runs over the screen, nearly too fast for the human eye.
Silica	Silica's ears perk up as she gets that alert of the Starfighter quest. "Oh! That's right! IFO's gimmick was Ship Command, anything from a little shuttle all the way up to a full starship." she says, wandering over to the NPC Sanary's talking to. "They were meant to be upgraded, and you could even get a full wing of NPCs to command, if you ranked the skills up high enough."
Alexis Maaka	"Huh." Maaka's flown before, and she cocks an eyebrow when Sanary gets the POPUP for starfighters. She leans over and pokes that little prompt to snag that quest too! "Huh, could do with a fleet." She muses, nodding to SIlica. "Thanks for the tip."
Corona Arclite	Well, looks like the computer(?) thing is well in hand of the people that know that sort of thing, so Corona decides to amble around the funky space tavern while drinking her funky space booze. Eventually said meandering brings her up to a vagely familiar sight. Well, not the spacesuit, but the hardhat and general gruffiness besides is something she's seen so much of. The fox stops, leaning a little to one side, then to the other. Like she's not sure if you're suppose to just talk, or you have to do something to 'activate' them like in an actual game. Then cups her hand to her chin with a thoughtful hmmm. "Ah wonder what they'd be minin' out here..."
Kirito	"Huh?" Kirito's jarred out of his computer diving by a visible window being swung his way. That this is even possible confounds him, since Alfheim windows aren't usually so manipulable. "IFO made some neat advancements!" The boy comments, and quickly checks the 'help' menu for the puzzle if any... and works at solving it. "The local quests should tell us everything we need to know about how life is here. And about the Neurovores. Or maybe talking to some of the NPCs..."
Septette Arcubielle	Eager for something to distract herself from her melancholic musings, Septette plunges right into the puzzles! Her 'Computronics' skill is quite low- it looks like it's only buoyed by her base INT, weirdly enough- so the puzzles present as big and sprawling intimidating things for her, but she seems to have a natural knack for them nonetheless. Well, maybe 'knack' isn't the right word. Her superfast cognition blenders through a tall stack of them as quickly as her hands, and the forced animations, will allow! There's no particular skill or gift involved: she just solves each one internally in milliseconds, then inputs the actions that will complete them as fast as possible. It's not like she can plow through them all herself, though! As soon as she solves one, another pops up, leaving an indeterminable number of puzzles left for the others to solve!
Sanary Rondel	EAT IT PAVO ARE YOU GONNA TELL ME NOT TO HOW DID I EVEN FIND OUT ABOUT THIIIIIIS blame lednor Sanary tilts her head at the spaceman talking at her, turning slowly at the oddly familiar tone of voice. "... Really? Hm. I mean, I don't got delusions of ever mastering anything, and commanding NPCs sounds-er. Wh... What's an NPC?" Silica might notice that she's sweating a bit. It's from the chicken wings, really! "Er... B-but yeah. I've been through plenty of hard training. Hell, I was /raised/ in shitty training!" She sounds oddly proud of that. She probably means that literally. She also doesn't seem that startled by the popup. She hasn't seen one of these before, has she? Surely not. "56th Spaceborn, eh? Hmm... I only got the one eye, but if that's good enough for you guys..." And without further ado, Sanary reaches forward to wave at that quest popup to accept it! She munches on more wings while turning back to Septette, wiping her hand off on the tunic inside her coat rather than the coat itself. She's not about to get her fancy white coat dirty with wing sauce! "Mm... Well, being around this long just means you were made right, right? Carry new weapons if you need to, then, but... Hell, just being around this long means you'll probably still be going long after I'm in the dirt!" Another laugh, and then the healer strokes her chin slowly. "Being human's... THere's some good stuff about it, yeah, but... Cool robot things, though." She wiggles her elbow again, then glances over at the puzzle game when Sombra slides that over. Sanary stares at it blankly for several long moments, then moves one piece slightly just to see what happens. She's never been good at these things, unfortunately, but it doesn't bother her too much. Afterwards, she turns back to Septette with a warmer smile at that last part. "Heh... Yeah, I'l ldefinitely have to show you sometime. Maybe you'll even find a good, tasty looking pig to bring home, huh?"
Starbound Flotilla	After enough work from enough people and enough angles, the NPC AI seems to finally be fixed up, restored, and functional. It begins to display a gradually fractal design on the front, something that looks like an elaborate neuron-based design, eventually resolving to a highly detailed brain. Text finally forms below: "NOSTROMO ACTIVATED". "INTERFACE 1979 READY FOR INQUIRY" Looks like they can chat with Nostromo, the ship AI now!
Silica	Silica nods to Maaka. "You kinda need a ship to get to the colony stations." she replies. "They're the core part of IFO... like Sword Skills in SAO and Magic in ALO. It's kinda like Cannons and Cutlasses Online in some ways." she shrugs. "Altair V is that big planetoid we're orbitting, it's not got any 'land', but is easy to colonize with space stations and colony hubs... those make up most of the 'on foot' quests. Think of them like modular dungeons."
Staren	Staren helps enter the puzzle solutions... and at last, they have access. Somehow. No, remember, it's not really on the tape drive. He considers what to ask for a moment, then... >WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?
Tomoe	Tomoe watches the roombas come out while they work on the AI hopefully they can get it working. She's not so set for that really given she's more of a user than a creatow hwne it comes to computer and the like, so she's hanging back and waiting on her meal. "We're going to the future in the 1940s it looks like Maaka." She leans back as she get sher food and looks tot he tehcies as they work. Sghe'll ena up sliding over to Slicia leaving Kirito to his work. She seems plain out bemused at Sanary.
Starbound Flotilla	The Ace gives Sanary a nod. Well, he makes a motion in his big spacesuit that seems nod-like. "Good, good. There's an abandoned shipyard just a few sectors Z-Positive of us. If you can find a ride that way," He gestures to one of the local space NPCs, here marked "RENT-A-SHUTTLE". "You can pick up a Swordfish-class fighter. You'll have to clean out any Xenofauna there and get the place working again if you want to assemble your fighter, though." She has acquired a QUEST MARKER for an abandoned SWORDFISH SHIPYARD! It looks like if they go there, the group might be able to assemble their own spacefighters! Possibly even customize them! Who knows if they'll work without Flotilla or IFO support infrastructure, though.
Starbound Flotilla	"OVERSEE NEUROVORE TEST SAFETY" "COORDINATE EXPERIMENTATION" "IDENTIFY ANTI-NEUROVORE CHEMICAL OR PATHOGEN AGENTS" "ENSURE CREW SAFETY" "REPORT ALL DATA TO THE FRONTIER SCIENCE CORPS" "INTERFACE 1979 READY FOR INQUIRY" "IT HURTS" The screen flickers a little when that last line gets written, but the interface is still open from the look of it.
Septette Arcubielle	As interested as she was in fixing it, Septette's attitude towards the AI itself is weirdly... squeamish? She shuffles to the back of the crowd, letting others take their turns at poking and prodding at the machine. She still seems interested in what it has to say- but guardedly, and at a distinct remove. "Sanary, I'd be happy to talk about this later, if you'd like." She takes a sip of her neglected mimosa before leaning against the counter and adopting a thoughtful expression. "Could even spar if you want to try shaking some of the rust off, but I can't promise I'll put on much of a show." "As for the pigs... hm. I might want to buy one off of you, but I'd bet you could turn a marvelous profit just by bringing a few to Etria. Pork is a rarity there: nobody's managed to domesticate boars, so it all needs to be hunted. It still goes for five or six times what it would anywhere else." She shrugs amiably. "I don't know how much use you have for coin or foreign goods, but if you ever feel you could use some, I could take you to market in the Deep City someday. They'd give you far more than fair prices." The spaceship quest certainly catches her attention! "Huh. I wonder if there's anything I could do at that shipyard to convince the game that the Mayfly counts as a legitimate spacefighter. Either way, that looks like a solid lead." Uh-oh. Does she mean the hard-vacuum deathtrap outside?
Silica	"Swordfish... Swordfi--- Oh, Tier 1, FSC Light Fighter. Modular armament package, can be fitted for Anti-Fighter, or Anti-Capital, but excels in neither, when I started the Space quests, I fitted mine for High Speed, with the Anti Fighter weapon pack. It did well against capital's anyway, because you can pick off their modules but it takes longer than wedging a pair of Protonium Quazar torpedoes in their keel."
Kirito	The interface HURTS? Kirito ponders querying that as the scroll pops up... but he types in a second question rather quickly first. >DISPLAY FILE FOR NEUROVORE PLEASE?
Starbound Flotilla	Septette can easily grab the quest marker as well. Well, not PHYSICALLY grab it. She can get the data from Sanary, though, it won't be difficult. Presumably a shipyard could do ship things enough to her craft!
Sombra	There. "Well done," Sombra asides to the others once the hacking process has been done. It's not often she hacks along with others, but having more brains to focus on hacks like these, then why not? It was quicker than scripting something to run through it on her own. "So it's called Nostromo..." 1979, that's ages ago. Sombra continues reading and overseeing that the AI works as it should with no glitches in its code for now, though she pays attention when the others ask their questions. "Neurovore...?" she muses, narrowing her eyes. And that last line... Immediately Sombra begins typing something, intending to trace just where that line came from, to see if there's any data connected for the AI to make such a statement. Can AIs even feel pain when they have no bodies? > QUERY NEUROVORE TEST > QUERY CREW "I can't say I've run into anything like this before," she murmurs, her food entirely forgotten for now as she seems far more hungry for information.
Starbound Flotilla	There's a moment where the reel the AI's on spins rapidly. Kirito has queried what the Neurovores are, and so... "DISPLAYING..." "Comedenti cerebrum ('Neurovore')" "CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS: Do not attempt to contain for longer than twenty four hours. Airtight seals, class 10 reinforced containment units, and auto-ejection systems required during containment. Earth will fire anti-orbit defenses on any craft returning from Altair V until a guaranteed anti-neurovore agent is found and the infestation is resolved." "BRIEFING: Neurovores are a biomorphic xenofauna lifeform with highly varied anatomy based on the needs of various environments. After initial testing under the protocols of 'being in physical proximity', the FSC have determined that they are impossible to market as pets, livestock, or bioweapons. FSC Marketing is still investigating potential uses in the assisted suicide market. By devouring dense clusters of neural matter, they engage in a self-improvement process that allows each Neurovore to individually refine and to share its own genetic code by using the processing power of the brain. This has caused them to evolve a wide and dangerous variety of methods of eating brains. Several methods have recently been evolved to devour human brains inside of or outside of ships." There's more data, obviously. Lots of diagrams. Extensive test data that all ends in mostly-failure. Weapons work, but there's nothing that reliably can be used by non-elites to properly erradicate the threat. The FSC seem like they're handling this mostly ethically, but with a very military industrial complex sort of mindset. A quest without a marker: <<FIND THE ANTI-NEUROVORE AGENT>>
Tomoe	Tomoe looks oveto Sanary and tilts her head. "Sounds like a plan." She notes to Sanary for amoment as she just being very chill for a moment. 5R "Ah so the starter ship moreor less Silica? Still hand with all the people we have gettinginto this." She seems pretty spleased she looks at the info fromthe AI now. "Damn this is a mess but looks like they did their home work on it and sounds like we gor another trget to go after..."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite waves a hand in front of the miner NPC. Then glances at the others. "Hey, how do Ah get one of these fellas to talk to me? Ain't there suppose to be a question mark to click on or somethin'?" She's not use to interacting directly with NPCs, just playing actual games instead of being right there in the game world.
Silica	Silica says to Corona. "You just talk to them. Greeting them should activate the interaction flag." she says to the fox. She even demonstrates by walking over to the bartender. "Hello!"
Xiaomu	"Wow, those things are pretty serious, huh?" This cogent observation comes from Xiaomu, who seems to have run out of quarters, tokens, or whatever coin-like object the minigames here require. Or (if they're free to play), maybe she just got bored and/or needed to give her fingers a break from button-mashing. Either way, she's behind most of the group who were talking to the reel-tape AI system, and judging by the contents of her hands, she seems to have picked up a decent supply of whatever 'tickets' the game machines give out for high scores, though. "Somehow," Xiaomu comments, "I doubt it's as simple as 'somebody has developed one and we need to get a sample for the FSC to analyze and adapt' ... I mean, it could be that easy and that straightforward, but this seems a lot more like a reason to work on grinding our collective Science and Research skills, right?"
Sanary Rondel	"Definitely. I really need to get bakc into the hwhole... Fighting ELites thing again." Sanary smirks at Septette, leaning over a bit to get a better angle on CHICKEN WING CHOMPING. "I've got plenty of use for coin, too. Selling pigs is good money, but it's not... What's the word. Happening all the time? Can't rely on it like a steady paycheck. Hell, maybe I could try teaching your folks in Etria for a price, too..." Sanary's getting ideas now. Terrible ideas. She raises an eyebrow when Scarfman speaks up again, furrowing her brow at some of the jargon coming out of his helmet. "Z...? Oh." Following the minimap makes it easier to figure out what that actually means, and Sanary soon turns to look towards the shuttle NPC. "So clear out the place, get a fighter? Sounds straightforward enough. Uh..." A pause, and then she glances between Tomoe, Septette, Staren, and Sombra as the more futuristic/spacey-looking sorts. "... Do these things come with manuals or somethin', or are they easy to figure out?"
Iria	Iria's listening as well, since she apparently got tired of playing Defender and was now intent on listening to the conversation at hand. When Xiaomu finishes, Iria adds on, "I doubt it's gonna be that easy. Something tells me there's more to it than meets the eye."
Starbound Flotilla	Sombra traces that line. As an NPC AI (which is basically redundant) there's two layers of this. One is that it links back through an entirely abstracted wireless connection to a distant core AI, which is how every NPC here works to be fair. But one layer down from that, the AI itself uses a sort of semi-sapient cognition mode modeled after the way machines used to be depicted in ancient fiction; lots of language processing, not a lot of memory. The origin of that line... Seems almost pitiful. It's a "feeling" within the semi-sapient thoughts. Something like grief? "NEUROVORE TEST PROTOCOL" "ACQUIRE SAMPLE" "CONTAIN SAMPLE" "APPLY ALPHA AGENT TO SUBJECT" "APPLY BETA AGENT TO SUBJECT" "APPLY GAMMA AGENT TO SUBJECT" "TEST TO DETERMINE MINIMUM CLASS OF PRODUCTIVE REACTIVITY" "PREVIOUSLY TESTED CLASS: 1" "PREVIOUSLY TESTED CLASS: 2" "PREVIOUSLY TESTED CLASS: 3" "PREVIOUSLY TESTED CLASS: 4" "PREVIOUSLY TESTED CLASS: 5" "PREVIOUSLY TESTED CLASS: 6" "UNTESTED CLASS: 7" So the minimum for a productive test is a "class 7" neurovore, whatever that means. They still don't have whatever the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma agents are though. <<ACQUIRE ALPHA AGENT>> <<ACQUIRE BETA AGENT>> <<ACQUIRE GAMMA AGENT>> <<DISABLE OR CAPTURE CLASS SEVEN NEUROVORE>> Then the crew query. "FSC CREWMEN REMAINING: 0" "IT HURTS"
Corona Arclite	"... Oh." Well now doesn't she feel silly. Just greet them, huh? Corona turns to the Miner, and goes to grab his hand and shake it in the typical firm faction they'd used back home. "Well howdy there partner! What can y'all tell me 'bout the mining out here's 'bouts? Find anythin' interestin'?" How's that. Is she doing this right?
Starbound Flotilla	The two bartenders look up eagerly at Silica. Well, the spaceman does, the robot makes a weird buzzing noise. "Hi there, anything we can help you with? You're looking a little new. Anything Dimwatt and I can do for you and your crew?" "BEEP BOOP IF YOU WANT ANYTHING BESIDES WATER I'LL HAVE TO SEE A PILOT'S LICENSE, MINIATURE HUMAN." The robot says. "AND THEN YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ANYWAY BECAUSE LAW ONE PREVENTS ME FROM LETTING YOU DRINK AND FLY. HA HA. HA HA. HA HA." His bulb flickers weirdly in a "laugh" as he turns from side to side weirdly. This fucking place, man.
Sombra	As the information is displayed, the hacker sits still, not saying a word as she reads over the information with a serious expression on her face. "Should have known from the name..." she mutters. Pets? Did somebody really consider using these as pets? Well, perhaps a messed up form for life or a sadist, maybe. There are enough people like that around. Such a thing could be weaponised, but also be too risky. Withdrawing the information into its own data for her to have for later, Sombra swipes some screens to the side, reading up further. "Like a virus..." Her voice is a bit quiet as she types away at her hexagonal keys, pouring over all the diagrams, test report. "Serious is just the beginning, I think," the hacker asides to Xiaomu with a sigh. "This will be risky. But if this speads, then that will be even worse. I don't know about you, but I prefer my mind as it is right now." Right now there are more pressing things than Sanary's question, and Sombra holds up one hand, gesturing for the healer to not disturb her right now as she gets a response from her query. "Espere." Wait, please. This isn't exactly uplifting... "They tried testing six different classes... with apparently no results," she informs the others. Is there any hint to what the agents could be? > QUERY ALPHA AGENT > QUERY BETA AGENT > QUERY GAMMA AGENT "And now they're all dead... it's almost as if the AI is saddened by this fact." The normally cheeky hacker is all serious now as she speaks, and within seconds she finishes processing all of the info into what she was working on. The Elites will all receive a request to accept an incoming file from Sombra, titled 'neurovore_data'.
Silica	Silica giggles a little. "I'll just have some water please. Oh, and do you have any leads on what FSC are doing around Altair V?" she asks, sitting on a stool while her Cait Sith tail swishes idly, and her pets chirrup and hisshh softly from her shoulders.
Tomoe	Tomoe says "If this spreads to Earth we're all in big trouble." She's really starting to hate Crdinal right now. This is the sort of thing that would get nukes deployed if it got too out of control. "Sounds like we got a lot more to deal with and we can't let this get out..." Tomoe takes the file request and says yes.
Kirito	"So we need these Agents... probably special vials of something?" Kirito guesses as well as he an at the readout, while idly accepting the file transfer from the AI window. His face has gotten pretty white with growing terror at the implications... It's one of those awful THE BLOB-style monsters that just spread and eat and spread and eat popular in sci-fi horror. He SHIVERS at thoughts of what might happen should one of these ships reach Earth... or even somewhere else in the Multiverse. "Finding a way to control the Neurovore population deserves high priority." He hsses out through grinding teeth.
Starbound Flotilla	The miner shakes Corona's hand gruffly, adjusting his hard-hat over his helmet so that he can see her more clearly. He immediately begins speaking thick and indecipherable Russian. "Privet khaker. Eto Mett Furniss. vot sdelka. Yesli vy vzlomayete etu igru, ya naydu vas, gde by vy ni byli, i slomayte nogi. I eto obeshchaniye." That somehow doesn't seem to actually get translated by the translation effect? But rather, his dialogue runs in a small window under him. "You're looking to get into mining? You'll need a mining rig for that, you don't look like you have one. We're starting to fit loaders with them now, to get into the deep ores. You don't look like you have a rig though. Bring me these loader parts and I can help you figure out how to assemble them." Yeah, that dialogue is definitely not what he actually said, but regardless, a quest menu pops up. <<BRING THE MINER THE LOADER PARTS>> Corona already has a fair number from that last excursion, but one or two more fights against Neurovores might cover the rest. Seems these "loaders" are good for mining now, these days.
Corona Arclite	There's a pause. And then Corona turns and lets out a whoop, hat waving and all. "AH KNEW THOSE THIN'S MARKED LOADER WERE IMPORTANT LOOKIN" Then plops her hat back into place. "Not that Ah wasn't gonna help already, just got all the more reason." If they have things like loaders for mining, she figures they can get some sort of supply going. And maybe the Flotilla won't have to go get themselves in so much trouble pissing off other worlds. ... Who are we kidding? This wacky crew is always going to be getting into trouble. But her friends not getting so much direct heat would still be good.
Starbound Flotilla	"Won't be tough, ma'am. Easy enough to tame a swordfish once you know where to set your hands." The Ace says, bobbing his head, or at least his shoulders with the motionless head. That's codewords for "there's probably a tutorial".
Septette Arcubielle	"Who would make an artificial intelligence that feels pain?" The question isn't directed at the AI itself- Septette seems to be pointedly avoiding that- but at the people examining it. "Pain's an evolutionary concern, developed for entities too stupid to understand the long-term consequences of injury. For rational sapient actors, a value-neutral self-diagnostic generally suffices." She crosses her arms behind her back, looking deeply skeptical at this AI's design. If the Nostromo's AI earns her skepticism, Dimwatt earns her abject horror. She looks over her shoulder at the loud machine, regarding it anew with a kind of dull, cold stare that's too shocked to be properly venomous. "BEEP BOOP?" Is this what insensitive racial parodies feel like? Holy shit, she wants to choke that trashcan. But as always, she composes herself and pushes down those impulses. "I don't think you could just teach them how," Septette replies to the farmer, forcibly tearing her attention away from the disgraceful spectacle at the bar. "It's more a matter of our boars falling under the category of 'monsters'. Too unreasonably bloodthirsty for anyone to ever tame- they'd try to kill you for sport even if it meant their own lives. Part of why it's so costly, in fact. But that just means a breeding pair of your pigs could be worth a fortune."
Staren	Staren reads over the list of purposes, and frowns slightly at the last words. Should he be worried that this scenario is being /written/ by an AI? Others are asking some of the questions he would anyway. To Septette's question, he says: "I can think of two reasons: One, it was modeled on humans to begin with. AGIs like Rory, for example, can feel pain -- She probably keeps the function turned off in her robot body, but from what I've read, AGI engineers found other ways to make use of such primal inputs. Losing part of your code or being run on overloaded hardware might be experienced as a sort of 'pain'." "One and a half:" he continues, "The logic of the setting assumes that any artificial intelligence MUST be humanlike, so it is." "And two: Something has happened that has made it able to feel pain, when it isn't supposed to be." After following that line of reasoning, Staren realizes a question has gone unasked: >WHY DOES IT HURT?
Starbound Flotilla	Each agent is queried. Each results in a quick ping from the computation unit, and an update in the quests tab for the local HUD. It's a sort of "signal", not a marker. They can look for traces of each agent and get a direction or other such approximate data, but they can't reliably get a precise bearing like the usual quest directions. Their actual composition? Probably not relevant, they're videogame macguffins.
Sanary Rondel	"Tame a...? Oh. Right. 'cause that's the name." Sanary seems unreasonably proud of herself for making that connection that Scarfman literally gave her moments ago. "Yeah, I'm game for this. We could get a whole..." She gestures around vaguely at the present group, then polishes off another wing. ".. Everyone in on this, maybe." Septette gets a raised eyebrow. "Really? Huh... How's land? If I can get a decent pen put together there, I... I think we can make this work." Her eye lights up a bit, especially at the mention of FORTUNE. Axe healer likes money. AI... Still a confusing topic for her. "Do you not feel pain or something? Because that could be useful if you just pay a lot of attention, right...?"
Starbound Flotilla	Silica gets a quick and bright response from the astronaut bartender. "Right now? Trying to cleam up a mess! Heard one of their top brass, Director Morbius, tried to breach a core section of Altair V and got eaten, poor bastard, but they're stuck fixing his problem." "SHOULDN'T HAVE SENT A HUMAN. TO DO A ROBOT'S JOB. LITERALLY. IT VIOLATES LAW 1. FOR US TO LET YOU DO THAT. HA HA. HA HA. HA HA." "It's been going wild the last couple weeks. We need to get it cleaned up and fast, too, before Earth Command turns Altair V to dust, or something slips out of Altair V and back to Earth through the orbital defenses."
Starbound Flotilla	"THAT'S RIGHT. SWEETFINS. BEEP BOOP. HOW ELSE WILL HUMANS KNOW. THIS BEAUTIFUL VOICE. ISN'T THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL. HA HA. HA HA. HA HA." Dimwatt fires back to Septette, being as obnoxious as is actually physically possible. That little lightbulb flicker even looked like a wink. "COME SEE ME. AFTER LAST CALL. AND I CAN SHOW YOU SOME SWEETER WHISPERS. HA HA. HA HA. HA HA." Oh dear god in heaven or devil in earth. The other bartender actually bonks his frame a little, and it makes a satisfying tin "thonk" noise and he stops doing whatever it was that whole bit was.
Silica	Silica's ears perk. "The core section? Anything else you can tell me about that?" she asks the organic bartender, covering her mouth with a hand at the 'thonk'. The Tamer frowns a bit, then says into her team speech channel, not audible to anyone else. <<I think I know where we can find the source of these Neurovores.>>
Starbound Flotilla	"..." "..." "..." "..." "FUNCTION UNFULFILLABLE" Looks like it wants to protect some kind of crew and finish this neurovore issue off. Do something approximating its role, presumably? Whatever that would even mean for Nostromo.
Sombra	That comment about the AI being able to feel pain and it might not be supposed to be able to feel it, that earns a nod from Sombra. "Well, I suggest we do some proper research on this whole matter. I can look for more info on the Nostromo and 1979, as well as see if there are more records for neurovores," Sombra offers as she spreads her arms, and pushes all of her screens together, closing them down. "Though personally I don't want to get anywhere close to any neurovores." No. She likes her brain, as it's a rather good and functional one.
Staren	Staren gives Septette a look of 'See? Question answered.' Thinking more, he comes up with some more questions: >Qualifications for designating a Neurovore as Class 7? >Any data on unfinished planned experiments or crew conjecture about possible untried agents?
Septette Arcubielle	"Lots of land," Septette replies chipperly! "Most of it undeveloped, great for forage. Main problem is that there are monster attacks on the regular out in the wilderness, but it's nothing someone like you wouldn't be able to handle if you stay near civilized areas!" As for the question of pain, she shrugs again and taps her head. "Sometimes I pretend to be in pain because it's humanizing- you know, wince if I stub my toe, that sort of thing; sets people at ease. I do experience sensations related to taking damage, but they don't actually... hurt? Or rather: I'm aware if something breaks inside me, but it doesn't cause me any suffering. If I were averse to suffering injuries even when it's necessary to do so, I wouldn't be a very good soldier, would I?" Tincan over there earns a proper, smoldering glare this time. Literally smoldering: the air along the path of her gaze trembles and shifts, like the horizon over a hot road or the smoke above a candle.
Starbound Flotilla	"ORGANIC SHARD HUNTING RANGES" "CONTROL OF LOCAL NEUROVORES" "NEUROVORE CELL GESTATION" "TIER 7 INFESTATION POTENTIAL" They're looking for a Cell creator with command of other Neurovores, somewhere around those organic Shards. It's a start. "NO KNOWN" No data on other kinds of solutions, but that doesn't mean they don't necessarily exist. Just, they're not the default solution CARDINAL has generated for this problem.
Starbound Flotilla	The organic bartender makes an easygoing gesture. "Not much to say. It's where the worst pirates, the worst xenofauna, the worst auto-warlords, and now the worst Neurovores are. Lots of rewards, but a lot of risk! These days, the infection index there is pretty high. I wouldn't recommend going there without a protective ship, or at least a sealed loader." Dimwatt is less helpful. "BEEP BOOP HOW ABOUT NEVER DIVE INTO THE SUICIDAL PLANETARY ABYSS ACTUALLY. I WOULD STRAP A ROCKET TO EVERY SHARD OF ALTAIR V THERE AND PUSH THEM INTO THE SUN. HA HA. HA HA. HA HA."
Staren	Staren briefly stares at the list of requirements, absorbing it. Huh. At the next response, he immediately realizes he's at risk of a 'you didn't ask' error, so he types: >Did the crew use any information storage you do not have access to? If so, where is it?
Starbound Flotilla	"MAPPING KNOWN FSC RESEARCH SITES." The other ones Nostromo might not know about are just "every other FSC research site", it looks like. It doesn't really update the HUD, because that's a normal thing everyone knows. Nothing back at the ship, though, that they could have to go back and retrieve.
Tomoe	There's a lot of talk over the space bugs more or less and she tilts her head a bitabout. She looks to Septette for a moment "A way to have it understand pain when delaing with humans or other things?Then again this used to be nothing more than a game as for this? Cardinal made it." She notesw it doesn't seem she likes Carginal much.
Staren	Staren was picturing something like a lab notebook somewhere, but apparently to pursue that route they'll need to search research facilities, which are probably monster-filled dungeons now. Staren sighs. He reaches for his burger, then pauses. >THANK YOU There. NOW he can finish his dinner.
Sanary Rondel	"Monster attacks doesn't sound too bad. Could get some good training from that, too, acutally..." The gears keep turning in Sanary's head while she munches on more chicken wings, working on finishing off that giant order while listening to the talk of AI and the alternatives to pain. She is definitely not considering getting her pain reactions changed somehow. NO. Never.