LucidRain

Nooooooo I'm late ; _ ; I heard that the sign ups are going to be re-opened after first event... if so, may I join? I'm a HUGE Mystery Dungeon fan

Hello, just a small note to say that I am dropping this RP. Though it was entertaining to create my characters, the slow pace at the start was rather offsetting and has in kind turned me off of continuing this RP. Good luck to the rest of the folk participating.

As Kalva heard Wailord's cries getting shorter and shorter, he matched it with equally accelerating pace, half-wading half-swimming through the crystal saturated waters. Kalva was painfully aware of the concept of 'golden time'. 1 hour, and past that, the slight chance that Kalva was able to help Wailord would be extinguished. With time already dwindling from their discussion on whether or not they should go, Kalva was frantic to reach Wailord as quick as possible, especially now that he realised that Wailord was losing consciousness. Eventually, Quina, who had been clinging on Kalva's head for some time, paused to pull lightly on Kalva's hoodie. Kalva had been only wading for Quina to breathe, and she was slowing him down. And with Verna already keeping in contact with Wailord, her role was no longer needed. Something felt strangely upsetting to Quina, however. As Kalva took out her Aether-ball mid-swim, she felt like Wailord was...no longer there. Wailord was still there in the physical sense, but the signal was empty. As if Wailord's presence was 'what was once been' rather than 'what is'. She dreaded the worst, but they'd only find out when they got there. After Kalva returned Quina, he transitioned into a full freestyle. Kalva wasn't the best swimmer, but necessity had Kalva speeding ahead through the corridor. Only after had he found even footing he took in a proper breath. Gagging a little from the desperate exercise, he immediately released Quina back out and held up the A-Comm like a flashlight above him. His eyes met Wailord's and realised one horrible, infallible truth. Wailord was dead. No, even worse than dead. Wanting to die but unable to do so - cursed with terrible undeath as it was consumed painfully by the nexus. With the full weight of the truth, Kalva sunk to his knees and tears burst. Rivulets of tears mingled with the life water and fell into the dark pool below. N̶͝ǫ̷ ҉n̡o̶ ̧n̶͞͏o̶̷! He shook uncontrollably as a black wave closed in, shoulders heaving as his breath became unstable. N͘͞͡͏̴o̧t̨͝ ̨͏͝a̵̷g̴̵̨͞a҉i̵̡͞n̷̢,҉̵̨̡ ̀͠p̶̸͢l̸̕è̡͜͞a͞͡͡͠s̶̸̛͞͠e͠҉̨͝ ҉̨̛n͘͏̨o̸̢̕t҉̀ ̸̵̀͘á̸̕͢g̸̶̶a͢i̶̢͜n̴̴͟͞ I̡̕͢ ̕҉̸̵͠c̵̢a͠͏̷͞͞n̵̸̡̕͝'̢̛t̸́͢͜ ̡̀͢͟h͏̶͢è̷̀͢͞ļ̕͝͠p҉̸̡ ͏̢ỳ͡͠҉o͜͟͡ú͡ ̶̢̛̕͢I̸̧̡͘͠ ҉̷͜c̵̛a̢̛n͜͞͝'̶͢t͘͝ Quina quickly jumped into his vision and put her hand over her mouth, with practiced determination. Quina had always known Kalva's illness - and this... Quina was shocked as well; she had been anticipating it, somewhat, and she had braced herself for it. But for Kalva, Quina knew even prior knowledge would not have eased his misery. When Kalva stumbled, Quina must be there to catch him. She must stay strong. With a tattered vestige of his mind, he recollected enough to mimic Quina's action, and stifled his breathing. After a few moments of breathing through his nose, his breathing established and the black tide receded. But the pain still burned - Kalva clenched his free hand with utter frustration and hopelessness. I̢͡͞'̡̢̛͢͝ḿ̡̧͢ ͝҉s͏̵̡ờ̸̀͠ ̵̨́͘͟s̵̛̀͘o̴͟͟͡r̡̨̀̕͢r̷̡̧͜͟ỳ ̶̷̨Į̵̨͘'͏̴͟͜m҉̷̧͡ ́͘͠͝͠w͏e͏̸a̕҉k̡ ͡҉̨I͘͜'̨̢͞m̛͠ ̢͠͡ẁ͏̶́͞e̡̨ą̀k̢͘͠ As Kalva's tears continued to blind him, he heard Wailord cry out once again. He took in a sharp breath out of surprise and looked up, and saw the flash of light behind Wailord. Wailord was still alive - and suffering. Quina was filled with even more dread as her previous suspicions were confirmed. This Nexus was not a Nexus of Life - it was a parasite, slowly sapping all foreign life into its crystalline demise. At this point, Kalva stood back up, wiping away his face, his eye flashing curiously under his green hair. His chest still heaved sporadically, but he was standing. Quina was surprised Kalva had recovered so quickly from his suffering. Usually it took at least 5 minutes for Kalva to calm down properly. But perhaps, she gathered, Kalva had never recovered at all. Wailord was hurting. Kalva felt even worse when he saw Wailord like this...but purpose it granted, and Kalva looked into Wailord's eyes once more, and realised what he must do. Kalva couldn't save Wailord...but maybe he could ease their suffering. The fact that he was even thinking among these lines hurt Kalva, poisoning him with age old guilt. But there was no other choice. Feeling sick in his stomach, he pursed his lips as he and Quina braced for a fight.

Hello, Dropping in to say that I'm dropping Trespassers. It's been fun, but I feel like I've lost touch with my characters and before I went inactive, I felt like I was doing a chore rather than out of enjoyment. I also feel like it may be just a personal preference. It was at first fun to interact with so many characters, but then it got tiresome and pneumatic to link to them all in character. I just would like to thank Murdoc for dedicating so much time for everyone organising all this. I never really realised how hard it was till I got into a management position, and man, you're doing the work of a God. I also would like to thank everyone else for being part of this - this was my first RP experience, and you guys made it awesome. I hope to see you around! -Pigeon

Regi was a little creeped out by her detailed response. He was pretty sure he only thought out the whole "don't only shoot the main pirate ship" part. So she can read minds? She either has a processor powerful enough to read voice signatures, or she's psychic. Regi grunted. Well, psychic or not, she did have a point. A pirate would most likely not put precious cargo in a collision course. Regi was annoyed that a yana had just schooled him, but then again, he was a least a little bit relieved that the captain knew her stuff. Or he was being an idiot. Either way, he had nothing better to do, so he may as well just keep talking. The captain, as he saw from her profile, was perfectly capable of chatter along with her other tasks. "So by 'don't preserve hostage shuttles', you mean 'feel free to blow up hostages'? I mean, yeah sure, that doesn't inconvenience me. I just thought it would make a bad first impression for a JTF, and I don't know how brass is gonna react to that. And besides, if it isn't hostages, I reckon it's probably explosives. If it's a one-man stand this guy's doing, he probably cleared out civilian shuttles, chocked it full of bombs and send it over our way. If I was a pirate, that's probably how I'd handle being against superior firepower. Sure - we can kill the shoddy-ass boshtet, but we have paint scratched, you know?"

Kalva ducked his head apologetically. It was only a suggestion that they had to reduce their party size. Perhaps it came across as too...authoritative? Kalva shivered at the thought. He looked further down the tunnel from which Wailord's voice was coming from. From what he had learnt, Pokemon were very sensitive to humans in large numbers, as they were prone to panicking. But as long as they knew they were going to help them...as long as they didn't make sudden movements or made any hostile actions... Kalva hoped that Wailord would understand. Wailord, we're coming to help you. Please, hold on a little longer... He thought. It was a little pointless to try and 'think his messages out loud', and many others were a little weirded out when Kalva explained his periodic moments of stasis. But it was a weird habit he had ever since, well, ever since he could remember. If by the off-chance Wailord could hear him, then it was all for the better. As they furthered down the tunnel, Quina responded to the Wailord's cry in regular intervals to keep in contact with them. If Wailord could hear her becoming louder, then it would make Wailord more expectant of them and reduce the chance of panic when they showed up. Kalva noticed, too, the smashed crystals. It could be a sign of panic, as Terry said. But Wailord had enough consciousness and reason to respond to Verna's signal. He counted the seconds in between Wailord's cries, and confirmed it was in regular intervals. That also indicated that Wailord was aware of them, and that they were calm enough to keep notification of their location and consciousness. It was evidence to the contrary - but what the crystals did indicate, however, was that Wailord could be in a lot of pain; and in need of medical attention. This strengthened Kalva's resolve to push on. He was not going to turn his back against another Pokemon in danger, no matter the odds. Never again. Kalva turned to his friends following. "Wailord's cries are regular and responsive, which means they are not panicked. As long as they understand that we are coming to help them, it should be alright." He wrote on his A-Comm now that the notebook was in danger of water. He still felt guilty for possibly trying to dictate the groups' actions. Was he still dragging the team down? But they had to move on, at least see if Wailord was safe or not... "I'll go...but do you still want to as well?"

But apparently, it's beyond your level of intelligence. "Well, Cap', some of the vessels look pretty civilian. Depending on how many tricks this pony has, we might be looking at hostages, pirate tactics and all. If your strategy involved destroying everything with flak, well, just to let you know, may be a bad idea". Regi painted the re-furbished civilian vessels purple. He didn't know for sure, of course. Only after his hacking probe hit would he be able to tell the vessels' inside situation. He just had a hunch, if he was a pirate pulling stuff like this, he'd probably do the same sort of thing. "Energy signatures from friendly vessels detected." Felix informed as Regi looked disapprovingly at the general direction of the captain deck. It was a pretty obvious observation, if the white-hot pulses from the ships were not evidence enough. But he might as well test out Felix's capabilities a bit more. If she was only capable of visible observations, then he had no use for her on board the ship. "Yeah? Calculate potential trajectories and determine target." The green avatar narrowed its 'eyes' to indicate her processors. He took a sip from the suit's emergency induction port as he waited a little for the AI to spout out an answer. "Most trajectories seem to indicate the target of the main hostile vessel." "Good job." He said dryly, looking even more disapprovingly at the Crescent. Because the word ''ballistic intercept trajectory' doesn't mean a thing to them. Regi shook his head. 'Prediction' and 'action' should come hand in hand. If the captain had these sorts of situation in her 'prediction', then it was also her job to dictate their next 'action' accordingly to best have a reaction ready to such a circumstance. Obviously, right now their 'action' was to act as if there was no vessels in intercept range and fire blindly at a literal decoy, and 'prediction' proved 'true' had been pushed to second priorities. For now, he'd have to wait and see how first contact will pan out. Hopefully, flak will take care of the most hazardous ones, and the captain had the smarts to hold fire on the civilian vessels...

"Bosh'tet. If you want to create a diversion then don't half-ass it." Obviously, this pirate was a very arrogant bastard, or he was just starting. Either way, he would care less. Regi reacted swiftly, compiling the data of the scan, coordinates and vessel types, and sent it to his data bank on the Crescent where it would automatically distribute the data to all relevant personnel. He personally pushed a message to Lil' Lulu to get her attention. "Cap', this guy's packin more than he's showing." To be perfectly honest, Regi didn't even know why HE was the one who was scanning and detecting other hostile entities. Was everyone ELSE too incompetent to see through this half-assed tactic? Regi desperately hoped not, lest he felt like his life was probably going to end very, very soon. "Alright, time to pop some pimples." He quipped, locking on the closest shuttles with the drone and LE cannons. "Recommendation: seek assistance from infirmary for facial pustules" Felix offered. Regi heaved a sigh. Please tell me this is not one of those overused 'I do not understand humor' tropes. "It's a saying. Now shut up and highlight the targets on my HUD." No response from Felix, though some shuttles were painted with blaring red. "...Felix?" "The command 'shut up' was recognised as a command to mute the audio module." If she used half her subroutines in actual processing instead of sassing me, then she'd probably be much more of a help. "Don't shut up, then. And next time we're back on the laxer, import a 'humor' database." Now that was sorted, (honestly, Regi didn't know why he still bothered), he turned his attention back to the shuttles. The Rogue Entity was still cloaked, and firing the LE cannons would blow it out of its cover. Rather than put himself into such a position, it would better if he practiced flash-hacking the shuttles. Quick Reflexes grants Regi extra action the first turn. Fire 1 hacking drone to nearest shuttle. If successful, initiate a Flash Hack. Flash Hack - Pilfer on-board database and take over navigation systems. Make a check of [23+14] against a GM determined difficulty

Kalva looked back to see many of the cadets following suit, all ready and willing to help save Wailord. This filled his heart with warmth; there were humans who cared deeply about Pokemon - those that had joined the Cadets. This once again reaffirmed his decision to join the Aether Academy in the first place. As happy Kalva was to see so many friends joining him...the numbers too, was a problem. Wounded Pokemon tended to panic when they faced unfamiliar humans, and Kalva had learnt this over so many odd years nursing them back to health. Getting Pokemon to trust him was always the hardest part, and in this case, injured Wailord would most definitely panic if they found several humans suddenly appearing before them and panicking was the worst possible outcome out of any situation. They had to limit the amount of people Wailord could see at one time, preferably under 3. Kalva wrote up a sign, "Thank you everyone! But I think only 3 people should go to help save Wailord. Wailord might panic." Kalva hoped this wouldn't come across as ungrateful or offensive, but it was important for them to limit the size.

"We'll take care of it later, alright?" "We'̶l̴l͡ t̕a͝k͝é ͝c͜are̸ o͟f͟ ͡i̸t later,͟ al͘rìght̸?" "W̛͘͝e̴'҉l̡͘͢l͡͠ ͜t̵̨a̛͝k̸͢e̶ ̛c̴a̴͟r̵̴͢e̢͠ ̡o̷f҉̸̢ ̨́i̛t̸̡͢ ͏l̡à͟t̸̛e̶͝r̢, ̸a͟l̶̷̵ri̸g͝h̷̕t́͠?̷̛" Kalva took a sharp breath, his pupils dilating and shaking. He looked down, squinting slightly and face going ever so slightly pale. From the outside, anyone without medical experience would see this as Kalva recoiling like he had been shone a bright light, perhaps prompting some to mistake it for a surge or irritation or frustration. Those with medical experiences would know the reason behind it, even though Kalva tried his best to hide it. N̶͢͏͞o̸̴͡͏ ̴̨̧́͞n̡̧͟͟͢o̷̧͢͡ ҉̶̵̕͢n͜͠͞ó̡ Ì̶̴̢̨ ̀n͠e̡e͞d̨̀͡͡ ̶̢t̡͏̧o͘͜҉̷͞ ̴̢͟Į̀͜͢ ̢̀͘͘n̴̷̸͝͝e͟҉̴̧̕e҉͘d̴̨̢̛ ̴̸̀t̡̛͟o͝҉ He felt a warmth behind him, and realised Quina has hugging him tightly, sharing what strength she had with him. Quina. A reminder. He breathed back out evenly and quickly went back through the methodology again. Count to five... O̡n̶̡ȩ͟,̢͠ ̷t̛ẁo̧ ͜t̡̛hŕ͝ee̛, ̛f̧où͝r͟.̛͞.͘.̶̴five He brought out the A-Comm. They were at... N̷e̢x͏us 0̕8͘.͡ ̨Crys̶ta͝l͠ cav͡e. The reason for this was... I am travelling with Quina. We need to find the 08's core. There's Wailord somewhere, I need to save them. After brief moments, he was back with a determined face. He wrote, "But we don't know that. Wailord could die while we wait for backup. We still don't know how the water works. Why would Wailord cry back to Verna? We need to save them, try to." He felt he was being selfish, trying to bring the whole team along for his own convictions. Was he hindering them? They couldn't let Wailord die - but the others, they had come for a job elsewhere. Was he wrong to try and save Wailord, against the consensus of others? But...Wailord. He couldn't let go of the thought of a pokemon in danger. "It's alright if you don't want to come." He put an understanding look, then left towards the corridor. He started walking to Corridor 5, then slowed down as they approached the unknown section, edging towards perhaps a ledge of some kind. Cave systems were dangerous, and anywhere unlit could be very dangerous. He fumbled with the A-comm a little, then shone it in front of him like a headlight, just in case there was something dangerous in front of him. At the same time, Quina let out a cry to see if the Wailord could hear them and respond in kind. Of course, it would be weaker than a Supersonic. But just in case...

Kalva checked that Zeta got down safe, and, with Quina holding tightly to his hoodie, slowly descended into the caverns below. He methodically slid down the Escape Rope, making sure not to make sudden movements in case Quina fell. All the while however, as he descended and his eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, he could see the crystalline structures that covered the walls of the cave cascade down to the floors. He couldn't help but marvel at these sights - no structure in 02 ever looked like it, let alone anywhere in the Academy. If he had time, perhaps he could take a picture - but for now, he had to catch up with the rest of the Cadets. He focused on getting down as steady as possible. Quina, likewise, observed the crystals and wondered the nature of the crystals. They had been seen to be capable of replacing organic materials, and it was reasonable that the crystals were able to grow underground through the trees' roots. But was it organic, and could grow beyond the roots and eventually convert an entire area into crystal? Or was it parasitic, and was limited only to the extent of its host? Certainly, the observations looked like it was organic, though they'll have to see the source of the crystals to understand them for sure. When Kalva was down, he spotted Morelull on Taylor's shoulder, and smiled at the Morelull. I guess they're thinking of teaming up with Taylor, then! I'm sure they'll make a great team! Though I wonder how Radovan would react if he knew Morelull had rejected him? He listened to Cathode's suggestion. It did make sense - after all, if there was nothing in the shortest route, then it was much less time that was wasted. He had a strange premonition that the corridor 4 lead to somewhere important, but it would be unwise to rush off on his own... Then, he heard the Pokemon's cry. It was foreign to him, but the A-Comm told him what he needed to know. Wailord - a very large aquatic pokemon, who could most likely breathe from the water but nonetheless unfit for a cavernous environment. In time, Wailord could very well starve. Of course, finding the root of 08 was important - but if a Pokemon's life was potentially in danger, that put all other matters secondary. When Terry confirmed his thoughts, Kalva put on a determined face and pointed to himself, then down the corridor from which Wailord's cry reverberated. Kalva didn't speak a word, of course, but the message was quite clear. He was going to save Wailord.

Kalva was taken by surprise with Rad's sudden hug, but hugged him back afterwards. He took Rad's hug as an unspoken thank you, and was left relieved that the crystal had worked. He gave Quina a hi-five. You should get a medal for that Quina! I bet even Aether doctors wouldn't have thought of using the crystals. Quina waved off the flattery with a little blush. It was a gamble either way, and really, no one knew what was going to happen...but she secretly did like a little praise anyway. Kalva thanked Zeta too, with a thumbs up. He really appreciated that extra little bit of help (to be honest, he most likely would not have made it all the way to the sinkhole without her). Kalva picked Quina up and approached the large sink-hole, leaning over the edge with the rope in his free hand. He gulped. He wasn't afraid of heights or darkness, and he had a plenty of experience with ropes from the Academy, but the height sure did make him a least a little squeamish. He then looked at Zeta worriedly - did she know how to climb down ropes? He wrote, "Do you know how to climb with ropes? I can help you if you're worried." He wasn't quite sure how he could help, but he was sure he could find a way.

Kalva and Quina still sat around sleeping Radovan, still stumped. Kalva had a rather limited medical experience. He had treated Pokemon back in 02, and learnt very basic treatment from the Academy; but neither experiences were enough to improvise without such equipment. After a moment, Quina had an idea. She dug into Kalva's pocket and took out one of the crystals that Kalva had gathered just few moments ago. It still resonated energy - and Kalva realised what Quina was planning to do. They had already seen its regenerative properties before on Poochy - so perhaps it could work with Radovan's status effect as well. Kalva was a little nervous with Quina's experimental treatment, but without berries or medicine of the same particular, they would have to try with foreign circumstances. A-and, humans can't be too different to pokemon, right? Tentatively, Kalva took the crystal from Quina and placed it on Radovan's forehead, then waited for what hopefully was Radovan's revival.

Regi sighed in exasperation. So a few things happened just then. Firstly, some cheap knock-off pirate decided to attack them. From the transmission he had just received, it was obvious that this new ship wasn't even trying to be a real pirate. Regi guessed it was either some brass' cheap knock-off tactic to test their new JTF toy, or it was real pirates' cheap knock-off attempt to distract them from maybe another contingent waiting to ambush them. Either way, it was probably best to hit up a scan of the surrounding areas, just to make sure. He stopped his security program optimisation (with a groan that it probably will never get done at this rate), and started up a full scan of the ship's surroundings again. Then, some idiot decided to transmit and open channel taunt over to the pirates in some garbled bug-a-nese. At least when Regi used vanian, it was quite clear at least half of it was swear words. Added upon that, Regi was pretty sure that the ability to transmit messages to the a potential enemy was probably reserved for the captain ONLY. Hopefully, whoever decided to hurl insults whom no-one understood would probably get kicked out of this JTF group. "And they call ME the unprofessional one. Bosh'tet." As he boarded the Rogue Entity, he opened the crazy bug's report, and added to the end 'Staggeringly stupid.' He brought the ship online, and dragged it out of the ship's hangar. "Wake up, Felix." He said, pulling out a micro-disk and inserting it into a hidden compartment. After a few moments, his ship's well... technically 'AI' flickered to life. Its icon was simplistic, a green circle with two smaller white circles to serve as rudimentary eyes. Regi had salvaged 'Felix' from an old industrial tech-dump, a degrading Superintendent-class AI which was abandoned after it had run well out of its lifetime and began to decay. It had been a little side-project he had been working on, to try to repurpose Felix into a much more sized-down version of a ship's dumb AI. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't quite worth it. Felix took up quite a lot of processing drag, so she was limited to a ship. And her only function currently was to vocally inform him of dangers and give useless advice. She was a little annoying, and she took passive-aggressive pot-shots at him every so often, but Regi enjoyed the small amount of company in an otherwise solitary work of a hacker. "Registering pilot. Welcome back, Phantom." The eyes turned into upper green half-circles to represent a happy 'hello'. Regi simply nodded in response. Hopefully, this thing will run more than a few cycles. He steered the ship to face their newest offender and activated the ship's cloaking unit. "Detecting a possible hostile entity. Recommendation: Activate Phase Cloak." Felix chirped, completely oblivious to what he had just done. "Try to process that faster next time." Regi grumbled. "Command acknowledged. Diverting power to optimise hostile detection subroutine." With that, the entire ship started to shut down of its own accord, supposedly diverting ALL power to its processing. Regi sighed. "Limit optimisation to marginal power reserves, and make that the default setting." The ship regained power again, Felix chirping again, "Command acknowledged. Recommendation: provide more information next time." Regi squinted, not knowing if the AI had just mocked him intentionally or not. Nah, too dumb to. He switched to to silent mode and readied the hacking probe launcher, in case the 'pirate ship' decided to do something hostile.

After picking up a few crystals along the way, he heard someone crumble near him - a cursory glance identified Radovan, fallen asleep after Morelull mistook Radovan's approach as an attack. Well, after Radovan's preemptive Aether Ball throw, there was good reason for it, too. Though Kalva's favor for Radovan waned in the last few moments, Kalva decided that it was best not to leave a fellow cadet behind. And - Kalva reasoned - Radovan was sure to learn from his mistakes! Perhaps Radovan would learn to respect Pokemon more. Kalva handed the note and pen to Quina, then stepped over, slowly so that Morelull would not be startled, and then gingerly lifted Radovan up. Kalva was stronger, quite a bit stronger, than many of his age and stature. He simply assumed that it was from the times he spent in the dumps, and never considered otherwise. And his mellow nature never chanced his strength, especially in the Academy. Well, now was a good time to use Strength. He winced as he put large strain on his right arm, and nearly dropped Radovan back down. The injury from his last visit to 02...No, really, it should have healed a long time since. It should be fine, after all. He took a deep breath and managed to haul Radovan out of the range of the Morelull. He looked around for Terry, who he trusted to know what to do. But with a crash and rumble, Suzie had fallen into some kind of hole in the ground, and Terry had run after her. Oh - oh no, is Suzie alright? He wanted to run after her too, but didn't want to abandon Radovan either. With a muted groan, Kalva waved to others to notify them of the situation to see, perhaps, if they had some kind of way to awaken their sleeping party member. While he waited, Kalva and Quina slowly made their way across to the sinkhole, and lay Radovan a little ways away from the edge. He hadn't brought any berries, nor was there any vegetation at all to remedy his status. Kalva looked to Quina for help, but she shook her head solemnly. This was quite the puzzle...

Regi spun around in his chair as he listened to Ciaran. "Riiight. Pulling veterans and top-seaters out of their groups and THEN testing them with strawberries." Regi sniffed irritably. Typical brass move, then. "And yes - I did ask the skipper and she said she didn't know either. So unless she's hiding something too, who knows what's on that ship, eh? Could be a box of yana for all we know." Urgh- so no-one knew. Not even the Captain. There had to be SOME way to find out. Boredom and curiosity were brothers - and together, Regi couldn't resist. "Any ideas on how to check?"

Regi snickered at Ciara's witty albeit a little irritated response. "Heh, good one!" Regi said. "I guess spending a few years with the void men do rack up your wits. Anyway, names' Regi." He glanced at the computer screen, whirring a little as it ran the optimisation simulation over and over again. He frowned at it, as if trying to intimidate it to process faster. He turned back to Ciara. "So - real question is, why do you think they'd send a dreadnaught to escort strawberry ships?"

The technician looked down at the code and shifted through the lines of code in the security program. "Urgh. Whoever wrote this mess deserves to be executed." Regi tagged several redundancies in the system and decided to let some of the auto-functions on the program environment do its thing. "No wonder. Someone decided to shove in pseudo-code and decided it's good enough for a military class destroyer. Python died 4000 years ago, bosh'tet." He spun around and decided to tackle the strawberry problem again. After all, it seemed like it was the only thing to do right now - well, the only thing that won't end in Regi screaming at the computer and bashing his head on why it won't work. The Captain obviously had no intent on trying to snoop around on the strawberry ships. Maybe the lower-downs had some more ideas. He opened his profiles and picked a random one, then wired it over through on a private channel. Ciara, the human soldier he had researched earlier. "How much are you willing to bet that the ships we're escorting aren't strawberries?"

Kalva frowned at Radovan's initial attempts to capture the morelull. Clearly, the morelull was not hostile, and they had not actively asked Radovan to join his team. But his first reaction was to simply throw an Aether ball at it, without even asking. Such actions gave Radovan no merit, and inordinate demand for subjugation would not earn him any more virtues either. If it were up to Kalva, Kalva would sit and ask if they wanted to see more of the world. Perhaps they would want to join, perhaps not. But it was not up to Kalva to decide - that was his stout principle he had carried through even the most tenebrous places. Hopefully, Radovan would not disturb the other morelull who had peacefully relocated elsewhere. As Suzie attempted very violently to crack through the hard surface of the planet, he waved and tried to ask it to stop - including Quina who waved tiny hands from Kalva's hoodie. He nearly tripped from the force that Suzie crashed through the crystal trees, pieces of crystal flying everywhere, but regained his balance as Suzie toned down her impactful drilling a little. Quina could sense hurt pride in Suzie, and guiltily realised that perhaps their waving had only served to further fuel her embarrassment. Actions with the best of intentions sometimes had negative repercussions; and yet...what action should they have taken? Inaction otherwise could have nonetheless embarrassed Suzie. Looking away even more so. Such moments, Quina thought, will just have to be action upon with best interests of the person at heart. As Kalva followed Suzie's path, he picked up some of the crystals that looked the most intact and searched for other curios he might find in the shattered crystal forest.

"Well, I just don't feel like we're demonstrating too much unity by delivering strawberries. But I see your point cap'n. When those elves are eating those berries, I am certain the first thing they'll be thinking will be like, 'Man, those Void Rangers are really out there changing the world.' Anyway, glad to be on your ship cap'n." No I'm not. Puerta, she sounds like a bloody yana. A 'yana' was a worm-like lifeform that lived in underground tunnels of his homeland Halnoi. It was a pink blob of fat that shook this way and that; every time a Vanian poked it, it would do nothing but go the other way, seemingly uncaring or unaware of something impending to eat them. It was a joke of nature - it only survived because it never had a predator, and never bothered to have anything other than moving. As such, Vanians often insulted others by comparing them to such a creature; small, docile, and exceedingly stupid. In the case of Regi, he used it to call brass who knew nothing but their orders. If he found that Lune was as bad as she sounded over the comms, then he'll take the first ride home. Hopefully, she'll turn out like Ha'ala. After his unsuccessful attempts to figure out why the hell they were sending a dreadnaught with a strawberry ship, he decided to research more about his other crew, since there seemed to be nothing better to do. Hmm, let see... how about the muscle packers...ah. This Ciaran looks interesting. Female human - man, humans have really taken over the galaxy. Ton of information about her, yeah? Would've thought that it would be more classified. Crap. She looks like another yana to me. Rich girl saved by man who shot everyone she knew dead. That's a story and a half. Military training at the age of 15, lost arm and leg. Guess that's something common. Some limited data around here though. Guess she didn't want her family's privacy to be breached. Vyi, data around her family in particular sound pretty sketchy. Phah, whatever. He went on to do similar cursory researches around the crew members, but then quickly tired of that too. Urgh. He tapped the security toolkit again and checked to see if was progressing. He put one finger on the end of the loading bar to see if it did move, and indeed it inched very slowly to completion. Maybe he should rewrite the security program sometime, if it was taking this long to load.

Melina (65/83) Melina uses Mass Heal on Morgan, Hiroki and Ghost, healing for [10] HP and decreasing all active cooldowns by 1 turn. Heals on Morgan and Ghost is put first on the init ladder. Constitution: 8 + 2 Resistance: 3 + 10 Dexterity: 0 Intelligence: 0 Strength: 3 + 2 Synergy: 8 + 2

Regi looked back up from his security scan, mildly surprised that the captain actually took the time to respond. Well, he guessed that AIs were pretty good at multitasking. After hearing her cold shouldered response, he raised his eyebrow and opened his La Lune notes again, and added to the end, Pretty freaking cold. He considered calling her 'Little Lulu' just to spite her, but after carefully considering his ability to defend himself legally in case it came to a court-martial, he saved the nickname for later use. Instead, he'll try to skirt as many formalities as possible. "Right-o, cap'n. Just checking, since you never know what scaaary thing might happen to our dreadnought on our trip there, you know? All this stuff aside, you know who's actually checking if that ship actually has strawberries, or any other reason why they'd send a dreadnaught with a strawberry ship?" He drew up a list of all the crew and picked the most prominent ones, or the most weird looking. He rapidly processed their profiles and combined it from footage from sources from the internet. Sigmus - the infamous dragon war veteran (though he had no idea what he was famous FOR), Edward Roberts - some shady dude they drafted in for no reason, along with others. He highlighted Sigmus' name on the message back, along with a very brief profile (satire-lessly, just in case). "Seriously. We have Dr. Sigmus on our deck, a decorated war veteran, and I very much doubt they would send a JTF task force on a milk run. Unless we're at the brunt of some cruel joke, there's gotta be some kind of reason behind this, cap."

Regi's mechanical arm sparked as he fiddled with its holo-monitor. His real hand swiped symbols and numbers around in the limelight of his makeshift station in the Crescent. He looked at the display with scrutiny, occasionally muttering, "Shit, that's not supposed to happen." or "Guess they put the wall up for a reason." After a little while more, the Vanian closed down the holo-display and looked at his brand new ship in the hanger on one of the displays. Rogue Entity - a spanking new Arbalest bomber right off the presser, given to him by the Poltergeists - a renowned corp of advanced Vanian hackers, with a special endorsement from their illustrious leader Ha'ala. Looking back at it now, it seemed as if it was a sorry parting gift before she sent him off to this JTF squad. He switched into a mocking patriotic voice, no doubt a caricature of Ha'ala's voice "You're so talented, Regi! You are destined for greater things, Regi! I'm sending a special recommendation to a special operative, Regi!" Changing back to his normal voice, he muttered, "Puerta. She's such an asshole." All that supposed talent, spent on delivering strawberries to the Gods Know Where. Why did they have to bring a whole Dreadnought on this mission anyway? It wasn't as if some space-pirate was gonna hit them out of the thin air for a bunch of fruit. Urgh, whatever. At least he had more time to tinker through his mechanical arm. There were so many redundant systems in here, Regi could probably remove half the systems and it would still work to the same capacity. Regi's head perked up at the sound of someone speaking through radio. It was probably against protocol to talk casually through comms, Regi thought jadedly, but then again, everything was against protocol. Either case, the distraction was welcome. Though tinkering was fun, it slowly became a drag after several hours of fruitless attempts to break through one particular system. He opened comes and replied, "Somewhere non-descriptive on the Crescent here. Nothing here either." Regi yawned, bored out of his mind. And for him boredom was lethal. He decided to snoop around on the net and get some more data about the ship's commander, La Lune. Through the power of the internet, he began to find videos, track records and files about her performance, displaying them through his visor's display. He recorded his findings in a separate folder, titling it 'Some People I Should Probably Know'. First off, what kind of name is that? Hell of a way to blow an opportunity to call themselves 'Destroyer of Worlds' or 'Harbinger of Doom'. Huh. Engineer origin, few hundred years old. Frame is female, voice is male. Creepy. Well, kudos to her, she has an eye lazer. That's pretty cool. Initial striker kinda fighter. She seems to be the kinda person who'd like an ambush. Regi stashed his summary of the Crescent ship and La Lune away when this too, started to bore him. He'll probably forget about all this detail anyway. Guess he should hit her up personally and see what's up about escorting a strawberry ship. He opened comms and messaged La Lune. "Hey, are we there yet?" Not expecting for her to reply, Regi went ahead with another holistic diagnosis of the ship's cyberframe and check for viruses. [Check for any hacking attempts on the ship's systems. +14 to roll for Counter Intrusion]