<> (Going to clean up after dinner, back before the end of the opening crawl, I'm sure.) <> <> <> * Amadeus is so ready to investigate. Ready ready ready! Is he suited up? He sure is! * Zeke is always suited up. Maybe he's a Mars Scout. * Hestia is always suited up also. Add a feather and a happy thought, she can fly too. (The Martian Gender-Equal Preparedness Scouts?) (Exactly.) * Tomas suits up and disembarks with the rest. (What about pixie dust?) <> (Don't give Cham ideas.) * Hestia glances at either 1.) viewscreens or 2.) windows, whichever. "...I'm starting to think the monkeys built the ruins." * Lexi shrugs. "Stranger things have happened." (Okay, this is a little more improbable than the Shakespeare Monkeys, Lexi.) (You know... I think the NCIS prop department has *one* picture of a dead army colonel and uses it in every set.) * Zeke looks over at Lexi, then back forward as he and his drones fan out. "Not significantly stranger." <> * Tomas heads toward the nearest entrance for the ruins, "This one looks to already have power." * Amadeus nods as he walks along. "So it does. Let's take a look." * Hestia walks along as well. She's not much use until they're inside, after all. "Wondering if this one is all clockwork too." A beat, then a smirk. "Seems like the type of thing Earthers would like. Very old world." <> * Tomas notices the monkeys staying away from the structure, "How long has the power actually been on here?" <> * Amadeus's eyes widen, and he takes a good look at the area to find out what that might be! (I have many supervision! I might actually know!) (I've only got IR. I know nothing.) It's the ruins! * Amadeus runs and ducks for cover, because he'd rather not DIE. (I can see 360 degrees but I assume they are hiding somewhere) <> (I'd still rather not die!) * Hestia draws and aims, rather than diving for cover, since she has no idea where the source of the target is. Basically, she's sighting along her gun with a two-handed grip toward the top of the ruins, since that sort of stuff is usually placed high. <> * Zeke doesn't dive either, but he's got his weapon in hand fairly quickly. "More military." * Hestia tracks up to the device, aiming at it. It's not like bird clockwork people know it's a gun she's holding. "Question is, is that a warning or a welcome?" * Lexi stands ready to fight and waits for something to come in her radius of vision. * Amadeus does, and he picks up the audio... he wastes absolutely no time in recording it either. * Tomas stands on alert, trying to watch everywhere at once. * Amadeus listens for repeats in the message, in tone and words. <> I can't tell if this is automated or not. * Hestia realizes the thing's not going to fire missiles, so she holsters her gun again and crosses her arms over her chest. Curses! She wanted to see if it would drop a power up. <> * Zeke's drones, well, half of them, crawl up towards the dome. Meanwhile, he asks, "Are we going to move forward?" * Lexi looks over at the others. "What's it saying?" I've not a clue, Lexi. <> (I can just roll mind, I suppose) <> (Just mind it is!) 2d6+12 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lexi (2d6+12) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 19. 2d6+8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Amadeus (2d6+8) and gets a natural 9 for a result of 17. (Oh wait, we get a bonus, right?) (... haha, I am the dumb, that is supposed to be a penalty.) (OH.) (Stupid systems.) (Oh!) 2d6+3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Amadeus (2d6+3) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 10. (Haha) (Way more awesome.) (Then mine is 5 lower) (well 10 lower) (Sorry, break the +5 down for me?) (It's meant to be a -5.) (Cham am silly.) (That's what I thought.) 2d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Hestia (2d6+5) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 13. 2d6+4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zeke (2d6+4) and gets a natural 9 for a result of 13. <> < three fingers which emerge from beneath them. The head is raptor-like, ending in a wickedly hooked beak. The beak takes up most of the head, and the eyes are set midway down the head - if you could call them eyes. They have what is an oval bubble, starting almost on top of their heads and curving down to the midway point.>> <> (...planet of the Silverhawks.) * Hestia is glancing at the 'replay' mentally, all things considered, and raises an eyebrow at that image. "Alright, that's pretty messed up." (I.... you know, I ... had not even ... I hate you. You ruin all good things.) (Ha ha ha ha.) (I will never surprass Chii!Rondure. You should be so lucky that I would ruin things.) * Zeke replies, "It does not seem interactive." * Zeke's holoface looks slightly confused for a moment, before going back to normal. What are you talking about? * Hestia raises an eyebrow. "You're not seeing this?" * Lexi looks over at Amadeus. "There's like some weird cyberturkey thing, Deus." Er... can you transmit it to me? Or at least record it, if you're not already? <> <> What -- could you send it my way too? * Amadeus so totally records. "This is amazing!" I wonder if that's actual metal they're made of. I mean, what's the point of wings if it is? <> * Zeke replies, "That seems unlikely. The puddles of metal in the initial structure were likely remanants of such suits." * Lexi blinks. "Hey! That's Sleythin! Not that I know what it's saying! But uh it's getting closer!" * Zeke finishes, "And there were no bones in them." Is this a PI? It doesn't seem recorded. ...Gelatinous birds in powered armor. Well, look at it this way, Lexi: that's way more improbable than the monkeys building the ruins. * Hestia then listens, since unlike some mooks, she actually understands Sleythin. ~[You are trespassing on sacred territory! The Holy Bloc has claimed this planet, and all lower forms must not contaminate the blessed sites! This one has sullied himself in order to give you this one warning, which is to be repeated in all known languages!]~ * Amadeus records it anyway. He can always run it through a translator later. * Hestia mutters, "Yeah, not a lot of 'known languages', are there, you jerk?" That's Sleythin, isn't it Tia? <> * Hestia nods. "Sounds like there was some sort of... factional dispute between the Jello Birds. It's a warning to stay away, though, in 'all known languages'." I wonder why this didn't happen on any of the other planets. * Hestia puts a hand on her hip. "They called themselves the 'Holy Bloc'... could be these ones are why the other ruins are... well, ruined." * Zeke replies, "Or it could be simple luck." All of these sites have been heavily damaged before. * Hestia rolls her eyes. "Yes, or it could be that they were attacked by the Mashed Potatoes and Gravy monsters from Dimension X. You are a buzzkill, Monitor Boy." * Zeke frowns. "I'm simply saying what's likely. Which is Bug involvement." Holy Bloc? Sounds like they were pretty heavily religious. <> ~[The message has been delivered. This one must now destroy himself so as not to pollute the Holy Bloc any further.]~ <> * Lexi shrugs. "What wackos. Anyway, shall we head on?" Let's. * Hestia raises both eyebrows. "...if they're whackos, they take xenophobia to some pretty impressive extremes." She gets to work, mentally speaking, on producing a translated version of all of that to play back to the others. Then on some levels, it may be good we don't have to deal with them directly. * Amadeus sounds a little disappointed, though. We should be on our guard though. They don't seem to want us here. (I'm assuming since I've already written a proto translator before that this is just a matter of time required?) * Hestia walks on. "They don't want ANYONE here. That messenger killed himself after recording that." <> (ha. What's that?) (DCV + any Ranged Defense you have, yes?) (Yis) (For the drones too?) (Including the ones going for the top?) 2d6+7 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zeke (2d6+7) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 15. 2d6+7 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Hestia (2d6+7) and gets a natural 6 for a result of 13. 2d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tomas (2d6+5) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 12. (For the drones, too.) 6 2d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zeke (6 2d6+5) and gets a natural 4 for a result of 10 14 15 11 15 9. 2d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zeke (2d6+5) and gets 7, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "I'm a child of extremes. Have a crit, and a nice day to go with it." 2d6+7 (Awesome. That last one was for the birdsect.) * Dicesuke throws the bones for Amadeus (2d6+7) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 14. <> (How unlucky?) <> 2d6+6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lexi (2d6+6) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 14. (Sorry was in the bathroom) * Hestia had jumped backwards, and lands in a crouch. When she comes back up, the gun is out again; clearly, she's trying to pinpoint where those were fired from. "Guess they take the whole thing more seriously than I thought." (Lexi also dodges!) (Does it just take a hit that makes it sad?) * Lexi floats quickly up to avoid the explosion. "Yep. I'd say they are pretty serious about their wackodity" <> <> * Zeke jumps to the side, as do most of his drones. One doesn't make the jump and gets whacked by it, but only seems slightly damaged by it. It's not even leaking! * Zeke then comments, "Their capabilities seem ineffective with age." * Amadeus manages to avoid too, somehow - mostly by panicking and diving. "Is there any way you can disable it?!" * Hestia steps well back, drops her aim, and starts fiddling with her gun a little. "I know one way, yeah." (YO!) (You're late! we're getting shot at!) (I told Cham I'd be late) (I can has recap?) (someone recap plz) (SUMMARY: Jello Birds in silverhawk suits are on a jihad, then missile turret shoots missiles at us that did not penetrate our chitinous exoskeletons.) (That is an inaccurate summary. Especially given that you have found bird bones.) * Hestia finishes whatever she's doing, then brings her gun up with that two-handed grip again and sights along the barrel toward the missile launcher. "Proceeding with turret disabling," she says with a smirk, before pulling the trigger. <> * Amadeus lets out a breath. "Thanks, Tia." * Chamelaeon gives voice to Kyle (So the ceaseless moving... ceases?) (YES) (And the universe exploded.) * Zeke straightens up slightly. "Simple." (I mentioned I've been having problems with insomnia, right?) (Load-bearing turret.) < <> * Amadeus makes his way for the ruins now. Sweet, automated doors! * Hestia starts walking forward again. "Maybe that... whatever he was in during the warning was a... hazmat suit?" * Zeke regroups his drones and says, as he walks, "With this base being more active, we will likely find how to operate the devices." * Lexi nods at Zeke. "It would be a nice change from digging around corpses rubble." <> (that should be corpses and rubble) (You assume correctly. Actually I'll even take the things that are nailed down assuming I can pull out the nails!) (Damn straight) (Well, you then take the things that are nailed down. And then take then nails.) <> <> * Amadeus is exploring! Anyone wants to explore with him can go with him! (+who) * Tomas explores with Amadeus, hoping it's more exciting than last time! * Hestia is not splitting up. She doesn't hate the GM. "I want to look for their computer core, when we have time." (It won't. We'll just find more bedrooms and showers.) * Kyle thinks exploring is a good idea! Exploring with Teh Prof! Sure. I'm all for exploring the entire area. * Zeke is fine with staying with the masses, and will send off drones if people split. <> 2d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Tomas (2d6+5) and gets a natural 4 for a result of 9. 2d6+7 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Zeke (2d6+7) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 15. (So close to a crit :\) 2d6+14 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Amadeus (2d6+14) and gets a natural 9 for a result of 23. 2d6+7 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lexi (2d6+7) and gets a natural 11 for a result of 18. 2d6+8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Kyle (2d6+8) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 15. (Also fair warning, I am drinking sleepytime tea and taking a pair of tylenol PM. It takes a bit to kick in, but the end of the session may come suddenly.) (Sleep is important.) 2d6+8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Hestia (2d6+8) and gets a natural 9 for a result of 17. <> <> (A device unlike any other!) (NO! YOU MUST RUN UNTIL 6 AM TOMORROW MORNING!) <> * Amadeus espies a device, as it were, and he goes to check it out for it looks interesting. (No.) (I WON'T BE HERE THAT LATE! BUT YOU MUST CONTINUE TO RUN!) (Uh okay....... ah, there. http://www.gullivercode.com/wiki/images/thumb/b/be/Codex.jpg/300px-Codex.jpg ) (Aaaagh!) (It's the Dan Brown world! RUUUUUUUN!) (I AM FLEEING) <> <> * Amadeus turns it over in his hands, puzzling for a little bit, then comments, "I think this plugs into something." (There is a reason you are paid large sums of money to teach) Well, that's... unique. (Dude, I'm a biologist, not a general SCIENCE! person.) (Who gets a degree in science anyway?) Sweet prof. No, I mean, it looks rather like one of those scrolls. Perhaps a video? * Amadeus hands it over to Kyle or Tia. They're tech peoples. (Or Zeke, I guess, but he's creepy.) (D:<) * Lexi floats up and sits down in mid-air. "Sweet! Movietime!" Meanwhile behind her she continues to sort through the various things that she has been picking up/ been interested in throughout the ruin. (Argh. Let Zeke have it, I need to AFK a second or two.) * Kyle takes it and starts to fiddle around with it. * Kyle looks around for any nearby ports and devices it'd plug into. <> * Hestia glances at Zeke as he fiddles with the dial-a-word. "Diagnostic device, maybe?" <> * Zeke shakes his head. "It seems likely to be some sort of key into these systems. Perhaps it holds data." (So, uh... who has it?) (You do!) Yo, prof. Check these out. Same language, makes sense, right? <> * Amadeus walks over. "Yes, it does look like the same language." * Kyle scratches his head. "Huh. Well, you got some input, there's your scrolling." * Amadeus nods, watching Kyle figure out how to work the thing. "Another item we're definitely going to take back. And also this," he says, tapping the reader. Totally. Hey, maybe we could crack the code. <> If you think you can do it... * Zeke looks over at the display with a frown on his holoface. <> * Lexi floats one of them over in front of her and spins it around. "What'dya suppose these are for?" * Tomas looks up from his digging, "I can't say." * Kyle picks it up with his mind and takes a closer look. "Uh... huh. Dunno." He sees if it correlates to anything on the word-switchy-device. <> <> * Tomas picks it up and takes a look inside, "Found a gear box, guys." * Kyle tosses the object over to Tomas. "Maybe this fits in there, then?" <> * Kyle goes back to fiddling with the device. <> Nothing but dust. * Amadeus frowns at the open box, then goes about looking for, well, more boxes! * Hestia glances into the dusty box. "Moral of this story? Nothing lasts forever." Apparently boxes and gears do, though! * Tomas examines the dust more closely? (Only things you can click on last forever.) <> <> <> <> * Kyle looks deep in thought now, trying to crack the menu-system for the mystical wordbox. "This is so... primative." It really is. Which is why I want to know how they're DOING it. Perhaps... not all of this is their technology. * Lexi looks over at Zeke. "You think the Monkeys did something here after all? Which, by the way... I wonder about. Why didn't the mechabird attack the monkeys?" No, not the monkeys. Some other species. That spoke one of those other languages. * Hestia is inspecting the main computer! I suppose. <> <> (Meaning I... can't really do anything to it beyond go "Yep... it's a computer.") ("It's hiding something.") ("Definitely hiding something.") (Try fire.) <>