<> <> <> <> (We never used the quest item!) (Clearly we need to use the key item somewhere else!) * Hestia stares at the... probably massed Guublings and asks one a question she finally just can't think of any way to avoid or put gently. "This was a one-way trip, wasn't it? For you, I mean." <> "Yes. We had thought... our thinking done." (You thought so hard you thought being dogs was a good idea.) (Well done, aliens.) * Amadeus frowns, then says, a little uncomfortably: "We're explorers. We're supposed to go back and report. Do you want us to... avoid mentioning your history?" (It's brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT!) (This is a BRILLIANT PLAN! It can't POSSIBLY GO WRONG!) (so uh yeah) * Hestia gets a pensive expression. "Does this mean the other ones of... you... we've run into just, uh..." She searches for a word before deciding on "...went feral?" (We found this artichoke and decided to push it into the tailpipe of our shipe. Now we can avoid the interdiction zones.) (I was trying to figure out if that phrase would even survive on Mars.) (We definitely didn't get it from some ancient race that deevolved themselves to avoid the bug invasion.) (Now they are Dudbears.) <> "Yes. Please. We wish to be as we were." (Bub?) (We're Shadoles. <3) "Our ..... cousins. Elsewhere. Are not not Guuub. They are as they were." * Amadeus nods, thinking about the ramifications. Doing this would mean they'd be treated like animals by future settlers/explorers, but hey, it's not like they didn't know the risk back when they were thinking about risks. * Hestia grins at Amadeus somewhat, over the heads of the Guubears. "A shame. You probably could have gotten quite an ethics paper out of this." (Think how smug the Sleythin will be. "We just locked ourselves in a closet, but someone can at least OPEN a closet.") (Shadoles o/~) (I actually think the Sleythin would, on the average, be very sad about it.) (I was joking.) (Excluding General Bulbasaur et al.) (I know, just felt like saying.) (Ahaha. Yeah, the Chakosaur would just throw up all her arms and turn around and stomp off.) ~ God, what would that even be like. I mean, it's like... it'd be like waking up and realizing you're a PI. ~ * Zeke replies, ~ It seems most akin to a debilitating mental disease, in analogized experience. ~ "We...... wish you eternal luck." ~Maybe like there's some sort of cloud in your mind, or somethin'.~ * Amadeus nods. "Thank you. You've helped us tremendously." "If you can make the universe ... neighborly. Then everything was worth it." * Kyle grins to the Mupploths. "Hey, hopin' you do well also. Yeah. Let's hope that happens. Deuktibots be trippin' somethin' wacky." * Hestia looks at the Guubears and after a moment of reflection, says the kindest thing she can think of in return: "I hope it all works out for the best for you." (Two great spacefaring cultures wiped out, and their legacies are a rampaging fleet of psychotically xenophobic robot chocobos and a species of genius giants that transplanted themselves, as a race, into their pet dogs.) (Tia is, understandably, a little jarred.) * Lexi waves. "Yeah. See ya later." (Don't forget the third one that actually did ninjavanish.) (Oh right, the singing walruses.) (Oh, no, they actually all died. I meant the troylae.) (Oh right.) (I love that I was all "NO NEW ALIENS FOR ATC4" and then now they're coming out of the woodwork.) (ANYHOW.) (That's the part that's always amazed me.) (What can I say, the only guy that's more of a jerk than future me is past me.) (God, that guy's a dick.) (No kidding.) * Zeke has no words for the pseudoGuuub! Probably for the best. <> "Be strong." * Amadeus waves back, more or less, and then also more or less scrambles into the ship so he doesn't have to pretend everything's cool with the ethically disturbing creatures anymore. * Hestia ditto. * Amadeus hides in the safety of the map room! Normally he'd go for the lab, but map room's where he'll be needed. <> (He uses it to send a metal head zipping around the ship making comments in a british accent.) (Dammit Gillian!) <> (Pretty sure Mars.) (Yup, we have to inform the proper authorities of the sweet stuff we found.) * Zeke states, over comms, "Now we are to return to Mars, I believe. It will be... interesting to explain ourselves." * Tomas stumbles out of the galley with a tray overflowing with orange chocolate chip cookies, "What? We're leaving already? I made them cookies." (I'm sure you have time to give them out!) (We'll let you stay to do it!) Well, uh... if you wanna give out cookies you can, but we're kinda done. * Tomas sadfaces, "That's ok. I suppose we should get back." <> (She's so wasted.) (Dre... I'll find him.) (He's in the bathroom.) (Doing work?) (Something like that, I'd assume.) (Better than the alternative.) <> (I'm back) (We'd better make sure the inertial dampeners are up to snuff.) * Tomas gawks at the hurricane, ~Where have you jumped us to, Lex?~ * Lexi shakes her head. "Uh... Given our recent history with this thing, I have no idea!" * Kyle glances at Lexi. "So you're flyin' by the seat of your pants?" It seems that the amount of time we were away was enough for the Duekti PIs to finish their interdiction. <> (Hilariously) (Before we got the artichoke i was going to suggest to Lexi, at one point, that she just fly into the hurricane anyway) <> (Ha. I read "seems like a ges of" instead of "seems like ages of" and wondered what the hell a 'ges' was.) * Hestia white-knuckle grips her chair in the lounge, which unlike her normal map room perch, is blissfully low on portholes to stare out. "Motion sickness in artificial gravity. THAT is a first." * Amadeus doesn't comment, but he looks rather ill. * Zeke is grabbed onto things with all three arms up in the cockpit area. It keeps him stable! * Lexi shakes her head. "Sorry about that. It looks like this solves our problem, but not comfortably." <> Well... shit. ...wonderful. <> ( HI! :D) * Kyle pulls it up. Not on mainscreen 'cuz Lexi DOES need to fly. (No kidding. "When you've got time.") * Lexi sighs. "Yes, Director? What seems to be so urgent? Oh! It's not the army of duekti death ships is it? That's no big deal. Just another Wednesday night." * Lexi keeps flying as she says this, of course. Evasively! * Zeke gets to the weapons! ~We are facing down many Duekti ships, the weapons must be operated.~ What helpful comming! Hello, by the way. <> (Ohhh this is EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TO AVOID) (TOO BAD) (Tia: "I guess we'll just have to... save humanity. I guess." *lamptoss*) * Zeke is on the rapidfire cannon! It has the mad shoots. (Yay LAMP!) * Tomas runs up to a console and takes the railgun. It has mad shoot. (Has Antima spoken yet?) <> "How the hell did you even GET here?! Wait, don't tell me, the line's not secure." (Not that I've seen!) (sorry. Wording.) (* Zeke smiles and looks Antima up and down, smirking as he says in a smarmy, robotic voice, "If you were x, I'd want to be x^2/2." He pauses a moment then continues, cocking a digital eyebrow, "So I could be the area under your curves.") (FIRED.) (^) (ignore that ticking sound.) (*cribs notes*) <> * Hestia is not shooty lady when it comes to ship-scale weaponry. Instead, she is thinking about other things. "Oh, is a secure line all you need? Because there is an awful lot that needs explaining." (I'm not sure how to specifcy where we are focusing our fire: there's a lot of undifferentiated ships.) * Lexi shakes her head. "Let's just say we changed the curtains. Anyway... It seems you have a bird problem? Pesky little buggers, but they DO make good soup!" * Amadeus tries to focus on the call, because tons of warships trying to kill him freaks him out. (Yeah, what's the array of ship?) * Kyle helps with the shooting if there's a station open! He'll probably grab the small gun, but hey, when you have this many targets it's hard to MISS. Then again, they might just want him on damage control. In fact, he probably IS on damage control. (Lexi can have a conversation and fly. That only requires two of her brain divides!) (My guess is that we want to focus the rapid fire on ships we can kill. Things like the capital ship are more suited for the railgun or HERF.) * Hestia gets to creating a secure line. Species-wide emergency > potential issues hacking required systems if needed. (Right, I was going to suggest mid-class, especially those threatening the planet.) (We can't handle a capital and tiny fighters are pointless.) (I am enjoying the Mass Effect 'battle at the Citadel'-style image of events however.) (Yeah, that's what I'm picturing too.) (All with a giant artichoke spiked on top of our engine.) (So, if we get a new ship are we naming it Normandy?) <> (Oh, well, they're the structural objectives.) <> "Good, now I can send these." <> "There's no time to explain, these will do it. We need to get you OUT of here RIGHT NOW."' (You sent an .exe and space-mIRC auto-blocked! Damn you space-mIRC!) (I'll try to disable guns and engines on the cruisers, since I'm on the rail gun.) * Merilan has quit (Ping timeout) * Zeke looks over at the comm. "To anywhere specific?" <> * Hestia starts... uh, downloading files/extracting, apparently. Very abbreviated summary: those aren't actual Duekti, they're PIs gone berserk. The real ones are long gone. We salvaged some tech that bypasses the interdiction field but it's just us that can use it for now. It's not what I'd call 'mass-reproducable.' <> "That makes sense, that meshes with what we heard on the ...." <> "Oh my space jesus. They... they were supposed to be bluffing! DAMN it!" <> (GOODBYE TWILIGHT CITY! :D) (At last, at last) (*dance*) (>_>) (Too soon?) (Did that end the communication?) (haha. Good question.) * Kyle reads the scanners in disbelief for a couple seconds. "Uh... Shit. That was a nuke." (Where did the explosion hit?) <> "GO. You have to GO, RIGHT NOW, to the place you had your induction ceremony! We sent everyone we could there before the interdiction came down! Watch the video, it explains everything!" <> "Good luck." <> * Lexi blinks. "Well fuck!" She zips out! <> (and nothing of value was lost.) * Amadeus stares at that. "Holy shit." Fuck fuck fuck fuck... * Zeke frowns, as the connection breaks, and states, "They threatened orbital nuclear assault, and they hoped they were bluffing." A pause, then, "Play the video." Lexi, get us out of here! * Hestia is cueing the 'tape,' among other things. I'm not sure why anyone would think they were bluffing. * Lexi keeps flying and turns around. "Yeah! I'm doing that!" * Tomas continues firing while Lexi maneuvers the ship out. (Where are we going again?) (The bar planet.) <> (Indi Epsilon.) (Ha. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu0QO1za64E is for sure the right BGM for the end of this scene.) (ahah! NICE.) (NICE.) <> "ATTENTION INHABITANTS OF THIS STAR SYSTEM." * Hestia frowns. "Nothing shocking so far." "This one is a member of the Duekti, as you may have been informed of by others in your species.This one speaks for its masters, who are elsewhere now, having fulfilled their purpose here as the most advanced and enlightened species." <> "This leaves these units without masters. Having been recently reactivated, this one has engaged in the filthy process of attempting to understand your species, since multiple units have made contact with isolated members. Consumption and analysis of electromagnetic traffic emanating from your system has polluted this unit's very being but left it with one inescapable conclusion - you are the dominant species currently active in the portions of the galaxy in which the Duekti have previously been active. As such, these units have chosen new masters - you." (...) * Hestia literally freezes with a glass of water halfway to her mouth, and ends up staring at the vidscreen over the rim of the glass. Uh... Wait, who in the what now? I...what? Is that how the Duekti died out? Their minions nuked them from orbit? * Hestia slowly sets the glass down. "Oh, you've got to be KIDDING." * Lexi shakes her head. "This doesn't answer any questions, it just adds more." (What a tweest!) (What a tweest.) "However. Your pitiable current status cannot possibly live up to the glorious standards of the duekti. So for your own edification and advancement, these units will take custodianship of your system and your species until such time as these units deem you fit to perform as these units' new masters. Resistance, while expected from such crude beings, will be met with swift reprisals. These units will brook no mass assault, no incursions of the Europa Team. Any destruction of a capital ship will be met with nuclear saturation of the planet you call Mars. This unit will give you two of your days to prepare to accept controlling units into all major places of government." <> "Together we will be glorious. You will see." <> (I like it.) (Ahaha. Sadly.) (In my head, the Europa Team are observing that broadcast and raising one eyebrow and going "OH REALLY" while Ronnie makes frantic hand gestures in the background) * Amadeus stares at the screen well after the !Duekti blinks off. He blinks. And blinks. And says, "I have a headache." (For their own safety they are probably in a ship by themselves in the middle of an uncharted system, drinking.) (Hahahaha.) (s/uncharted system/Epsilon Indi.) * Hestia taps her fingers on the sides of the glass. "That's some amazingly circular logic. In a different context I'd be impressed." (Probably. I know Taluun would probably either be partying or chillaxing.) (But he was really damn chill for being on the Europa team.) * Zeke adds, "In desperation, it makes a certain sense. When deprived of everything, both they and the Guuub lower themselves." * Lexi nods. "Well... that does explain some things." It also explains why NUKES ARE DROPPING. It was just the one. Let's not overstate the situation. (Nobody will miss the place anyhow. Let's go back and chat.) Yes, it was clearly a demonstration. It said 'Nuclear Saturation.' That's so not cool. Unless it's a doomsday movie. Then it's really freakin' cool. But this ISN'T a doomsday movie. It's just doomsday. Yeah. They're missing the movie part. Maybe we're in a movie? * Zeke gives Kyle a deadpan look. * Hestia runs her hands through her hair. "Oh lord, none of the scenarios for dealing with this I imagined are any use now." (*checks off mark in box*) (How about we nuke them from orb--oh.) * Hestia leans back in her chair and stares at the ceiling. "What the hell do we even DO? Insert some virus into their network? Even if we could do that, what if the result is they hit the panic button and all that's left of Mars is asteroid debris and a lot of empty parking spaces?" Do you think the Duekti have their own artichokes? Hey, we're SUPPOSED to meet someone... somewhere? (We can't yet, the new planet is still loading.) We gather information at Epsilon Indi, and reformulate a plan, Hestia. * Lexi shrugs. "Why would they, Tomas? Do you have some plan to stop them from jumping?" (If we warp out too early Epsilon indi would just be a wire frame!) * Lexi also goes about landing. * Tomas shakes his head, "No, but if they don't have their own artichokes they can't get in or out either." * Lexi nods. "Ah. I assume they have something that lets them get through. Why lock the door on yourself?" * Zeke pauses a moment, then adds, "My current suposition, Hestia, is that the chain of interdiction devices was put in place to stop a threat to their plan." Like _what_? There was only one species we can think of that were a threat and they're long gone now. <> * Amadeus just cradles his head in his hands. (Hey, Cham... I'm going to have to leave in like 10 or 15. I have some friends who are begging me to go out and meet them and I don't get to hang out with them outside of work very much, so I feel I should at least make an appearance.) * Zeke replies, "They clearly have planned significantly for resistance, and consider this important. They do not seem to be taking chances." <> (Dre: Okay.) * Lexi also lands near the bar and gets up. "Great! A bar! sounds like a great place to welcome the end of the world!" Even if no threat presented itself, they did not allow for the possibility. * Hestia looks at the engine room. "That thing CAN be reverse-engineered, I'm sure of it. If we could do it in enough time to matter, that's a different story." * Kyle whistles 'It's the end of the world and we know it.' Oh yeah, it totally can be reverse-engineered. Just dunno how fast. * Zeke also gets up, drones moving with him as he heads out of the ship. * Amadeus stands, too, and walks out while muttering that he wishes he could get drunk. * Tomas stands and retrieves the Guub cookies before following the others. * Kyle heads out. Today sucks. <> "So. You are not dead, then?" No. We're not. Thanks for asking. It is reasonably certain I am not a zombie. (Then I shoot him. ) We live. Cookie? <> "You misunderstand me. I am glad. Don Fernando cannot seek to finally beat you if you have been killed by devil chickens, can he?" <> "And besides. It is good to have another here. Ah... no. No cookie for Don Fernando." * Amadeus eyes Don Fernando. He doesn't really remember this dude speaking in third person all the time. * Kyle shrugs. It's pretty normal for chain jumpers to be wackos. (How could Don Fernando not speak in the third person?) * Lexi shrugs. "Glad that you're not dead too, Donny." (He's got a name like DON FERNANDO. If you were named DON FERNANDO, you'd speak in third person too!) * Zeke is silent a moment, then states, "Was there a plan in gathering the ships here?" * Lexi heads towards the bar. "Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go and order 5 Martinis... and whatever these guys are having." She motions back to the crew. <> "Besides moving us outside the interdiction field? No." <> "Hey, wait a minute. How'd you know we were meeting here if you haven't been back to Mars?" (Okay, so Lexi is going to go and get some drinks, and so, I suppose, am I. I'll see you all later! And I'll read backscroll when I get back.) * Tomas turns to Galia, "We just came from Mars. Antima told us to come here. Cookie?" (Seeya) It's a long story. * Zeke frowns a touch at the news, then replies, "Have a cookie, he has been trying to get rid of them. We are capable of penetrating the interdiction field in what we currently believe to be a method we cannot quickly reproduce due to its alien technological origin." (Later D) <> "Are you wizards? Have you just been fucking with the rest of us?" (Are you a wizard, and is magic real?) (Yes.) As far as I know he just uses an oven. ( * Zeke eyes Galia lasciviously, "Come back to my bunk and I"ll let you decide if magic is real") (These lessons are very important for Zeke, so he needs you to be completely honest about his performance.) "You know what I mean!" * Tomas nods, "I made them as a payment for the artichoke, but we had to take off before I could present them." * Zeke replies, "No, we are clearly not... wizards." "Okay. I want some more answers in that vein, or I'm gonna grab my wrench and start hitting people, wizards or not." Please no, my head hurts enough. What answers do you want again? (Amadeus is hung over :( ) Dunno how well we can answer. 'cuz quite frankly, I'm pretty damn lost. (He's had a long day!) "You found these Duekti things, right? And more species besides! Even our luck wasn't that good, and we had pretty good luck. You knew about that Mr. Jackson guy, and now you're flying through hurricanes in nullspace?! I mean, Space Jesus, you people are fuckin' weird, but lives are on the line now!" * Hestia crosses her arms. "Maybe we're the ones from the prophecy." Perfectly straight face. * Tomas continues offering cookies to those presumably gathering around the spectacle. "There's a prophecy now?" <> "Hold on, hold on. Just .... let's all calm down." (Yes. Let us calm down. Don Fernando's moustache is getting ruffled.) (Are the tips curling of their own accord as the conversation progresses?) (Possibly.) (Maybe he is a secret wizard too.) (Odd question: does Floofy have a chainjumping team?) (Not that they have publicly announced.) (Frowntown.) * Zeke frowns as he looks over at Hestia, then states, "If there are any representatives from Floofy here, it would be a good idea for us to speak to them." <> "Okay, tell you what. Let's have everybody go back inside, and we'll tackle this one thing at a time, okay? With some strong alcohol." Lots of strong alcohol. "At least we have plenty of that." If that is what you want. * Hestia shrugs. "We might as well." (Wow, okay, I am fading fast. Anyone have anything pressing to get out before we closed?) (Not really. Next time, war council.) (Basically.) (You have my tongue!) (Plus skipping past boring reciting of logs.) <>