Starside

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

Yone stops picking up fragments and examines her tentacles. The scratches an animal can inflict on her should, by definition, be harmless and bloodless. And she never felt a deep cut. But perhaps the birds were more than they seemed.

"I think I'm fine. What is the scan saying?"

[Lost in Space]

Montgomery said it so casually that it takes Bloom quite a while to realize that he killed the chemist who was helping him just because he didn't like needing help. Okay, that settles one thing. No matter how useful the nanites might be, there's no letting them off this ship alive. Except there are still memories from the current host; maybe it would be possible to restore her? They have the professor's word that she was stupid and immoral and he's shown no inclination to lie, but he is deeply biased.

The captain nods.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to execute you. If you wish to find some immortality in your works, I will send over our nanomachine expert to speak with you. If you have any last words, I- I will hear them." She takes a step away from his cell, shaking her head.

[Felandria]

[Dyson Sphere]

An undressed cat! The scandal!
"Were those what cast those shadows up above, Reinholdt?"
Tossing aside the dead bird, Yone goes to take a closer look at the metal bits on the ground here.

[Lost in Space]

Sorry, Maroon. We do tend to make assumptions, and with only the voice to go on - we thought the star people might have chosen a voice that matches - but that is only if they knew and if their voices were similar to ours.
Don't eat the professor, now. That's exactly the sort of thing we want to discourage.

"Immortality by killing people and stealing their bodies." The captain sighs, unimpressed. Clearly no remorse for one's crimes here in this cell. This is a straightforward "couldn't carry out the sentence" case. Let's not tell the good professor about all the immortals down in the Nexus. It would just confuse him.
"How did you manage to blow up the ship so much from in here?"

As for her technology? The captain's suit is a bulky white thing from the early days of human spaceflight, although the helmet isn't a single glass bubble; only a faceplate is transparent. With some modifications; the fact that it's an actual functioning space-suit is a backup for the magical enhancements. A canister on the side of the backpack contains a miniature bell-and-marble airmaker, a ritualized second circulatory system between the compression layer and the insulation controls heat, and the patterns of dimly glowing lines on the outside keep it pressurized and maneuverable. Spell circles and holy markings (stylized plants and animals) are etched into the plates of the gloves. The belt carries, among other things, a perfectly mundane extra radio, a small jug, and a plastic pistol that looks like it has never been used. The captain herself is tall, solidly built, and flawlessly pretty in much the same way as the Professor's current body; she was designed to be cute. Her eyes are inhuman, but you can hardly see any of the feathers at the moment.

[Pirate Base]

The kaleidoscope alien flashes out confirmation in morse code. It can run the pirate ship.
"Thanks, Felandria. This way, everybody!" Chevin draws hir knife (a slender bone things with a red feather charm dangling from the hilt) and charges back out of the prison, taking a quick turn to the left; there's a whole band of seven-or-so pirates arriving on the scene of the commotion from further within the base, checking the injured ones in the common room or heading towards the jail to investigate the open door.
Lasers start flying.

And so, again, do the Magic Missiles come flying from Felandria’s wand.

Avast!

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"No. Nothing got me." Reinholdt claims. But wait, he just cleaned his fur. What if the blood from the stabbed bird got there and he accidentally licked some up? Gah!

Oh hold on, nevermind. He had the spacesuit on when he was stabbing the bird so any splatter would have gotten on it, not him. Phew, that was a close one. Rein eyes Yone suspiciously. Will he need to turn his weapon on her to keep her from turning into a bird alien monstrosity?

Then why was he so worried before? Did he confuse his own blood for the bird's when cleaning his fur? Maybe he did get pecked after all. Well it's plenty covered up now. It'll be fine. Besides, he might have just gotten cut on the inside of his suit crashing into Cadet Hansen. Minor scrapes and bruises. No need to worry everyone unnecessarily over what's probably nothing to begin with.

[WarforgedTank]

[R.E.A.C.H. Orbital Drydocks]

Heavy footsteps can be heard on the metal deck as an armored soldier approaches. The man stands just over 7 feet in height, and carries an impressive array of weaponry. Personal weaponry includes an M6G Magnum and a System 99-Series 5 Anti-Matériel Sniper Rifle. He has 2 fragmentation grenades, and two blue orbs described as "Plasma Grenades". His current form of transportation is the G79H-TC/MA Pelican gunship. He is a SPARTAN. Lost in space during a confrontation with the Covenant, SPARTAN 214, a.k.a. Connor is looking for a way home. He approaches the desk, paperwork in hand. He hands it to the robot behind the desk, who stamps all of the appropriate paperwork, and sends him on his way.

"Gotta be someone around here I can talk to about getting us home."

It sounds like Connor is talking to himself, but there is indeed someone listening to him. His armor is equipped with the latest in UNSC AI technology. His AI is referred to as Odin. Odin wasn't one of the fancy smart AI's that some other members of the UNSC had, but he was very reliable when it came to Connor lining up his targets while sniping. Connor didn't really need the help, mind you, but Odin kept track of all of Connor's suits systems, and any surrounding conditions or enemies.

"Unknown. The probability that we will find assistance at this exact station pertaining to our exact mission is ERROR."

That had been happening quite frequently since Connor woke up in his Pelican in a sector of space he wasn't familiar with, with a Pelican full of dead Marines. Connor ignored the AI's 'confusion' and set about looking for information on the area.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

"Good. These scans show that there's a slow-acting neurotoxin in the bird's spit." Hansen injects the bird with something, and it falls either asleep or dead. "What're those bits? Looks like they could be parts of a probe."


R.E.A.C.H. Drydocks

Connor will eventually be stopped by a uniformed security guard. "Sir, may I help you?" If the Spartan is looking to see what weapons the man has, he is carrying a pistol and one grenade.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

Hmm. She can be poisoned, but no, it looks like she really is okay.
"A broken machine. Does this look like what we're searching for?" Yone holds up the fragment with writing on it, comparing the color and text-fragment to their description of the probes.

[Pirate Base]

Magic missiles strike the first two pirates, knocking them back, but the others clamber over them, aiming mostly at Felandria (the biggest target ) and the escaped prisoner she's holding. A laser blast strikes Chevin right in the chest (which doesn't hurt hir, but does create a troublesome burnt hole in the spacesuit).

The catperson lunges at a pirate with the stolen sword, only narrowly blocked - cutlass against cutlass.
The kaleidoscope shifts rapidly through an eye-watering array of colors, and one pirate at the back cries out and covers his antennae.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Ah, err... Neurotoxin? Like the... Painful kind or paralysis or death? What're we looking at? I mean, these might not be the only birds in this station, so it'd be a good idea if we synthesized some antidotes and made sure everyone had some right?" They could be attacked by neurotoxin birds at any moment!

Yeah, that was probably the probe from the looks of it. But what on earth caused it to explode into pieces down here? That was almost more concerning than the birds.

[WarforgedTank]

R.E.A.C.H. Drydocks

Connor will eventually be stopped by a uniformed security guard. "Sir, may I help you?" If the Spartan is looking to see what weapons the man has, he is carrying a pistol and one grenade.

Connor looks at the security guard, glancing quickly at the mans armaments. This is of course obscured by the amber visor in his helmet.

"Actually, yes, yes you can. I'm looking for star charts of this quadrant of your galaxy. I seem to have gotten....lost after a run in with some Cov...hostile aliens."

Connor didn't want to give away too much information to anyone, particularly someone he'd just met. Odin clicked into his comms, but Connor closed the link immediately as he waited for the security guards response.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

"Looks like it would slowly paralyze you, then the birds could pick you off at their leisure. I can whip up an antidote, but I'd need some equipment which is back on the ship."

Yone can tell that the parts came from one of the probes. The black box is probably somewhere nearby.

REACH Drydocks

"Star charts, hmm. I think there's some in one of our waiting rooms. Come right this way." The guard leads the way to a waiting room. Inside, several chairs are set up for people to sit in, there are small piles of magazines for reading, and a large paper star chart stuck with pins of different colors hangs on the wall.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Frozen in place while the birds eat you up bit by bit~" How clever.
Yone searches through the wreckage for the black box, lifting it up triumphantly if found.

"Best case, the birds damaged the probe and it fell all this way to shatter down here. Probably there'll be records of whatever destroyed it."

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Oh is that all?" No need to worry about that then. If he did get pecked, the only time it'll be a problem is if it comes up at the worst possible moment!

"Hopefully it was just the birds." Reinholdt will join in the search for the black box, looking under vines that it might have scattered beneath.

[Felandria]

[Dyson Sphere]

Hmm. She can be poisoned, but no, it looks like she really is okay.
"A broken machine. Does this look like what we're searching for?" Yone holds up the fragment with writing on it, comparing the color and text-fragment to their description of the probes.

[Pirate Base]

Magic missiles strike the first two pirates, knocking them back, but the others clamber over them, aiming mostly at Felandria (the biggest target ) and the escaped prisoner she's holding. A laser blast strikes Chevin right in the chest (which doesn't hurt hir, but does create a troublesome burnt hole in the spacesuit).

The catperson lunges at a pirate with the stolen sword, only narrowly blocked - cutlass against cutlass.
The kaleidoscope shifts rapidly through an eye-watering array of colors, and one pirate at the back cries out and covers his antennae.

Felandria does her best to protect the alien in her arms and dodge the blasts while firing additional magic missiles at the bad guys and possibly kicking them as well.

[WarforgedTank]

Dyson Sphere

"Looks like it would slowly paralyze you, then the birds could pick you off at their leisure. I can whip up an antidote, but I'd need some equipment which is back on the ship."

Yone can tell that the parts came from one of the probes. The black box is probably somewhere nearby.

REACH Drydocks

"Star charts, hmm. I think there's some in one of our waiting rooms. Come right this way." The guard leads the way to a waiting room. Inside, several chairs are set up for people to sit in, there are small piles of magazines for reading, and a large paper star chart stuck with pins of different colors hangs on the wall.

Connor takes one glance at the star charts, and his worst fears are confirmed. None of this looks familiar to him.

"While you're here, officer. You wouldn't happen to know anyone who specializes in dimensional travels or gates would you?"

Connor knew it was a stretch, but he had to take any chance he could.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

Reinholdt finds the box amongst the vines. The orange cube has a single USB port and a wireless transceiver to connect with the data.

REACH Drydocks

"Sorry, I don't know anyone personally who could help, but there's bound to be someone who could get you home. This is the Nexus, it's a sort of interdimensional intersection. Lost people like you wash up here all the time. You can find all sorts." The guard understands the Spartan's predicament, but can't really help.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"That's one."
Yone looks more closely at the vines. Is there any way another probe could have passed through here?

[Pirate Base]

Felandria is hampered by needing to keep the rescuee safe from laser-fire, but kicking the closest pirate creates an opening for the catperson to slash down at them, and the rain of magic missiles keeps them off-balance and vulnerable to Chevin laying about with their knife, each slash melting a pirate.
In a few moments ione pirate has fled and the others lie dead or defeated in the hallway.
Chevin points them towards the hangar door that will lead to the landing strip where the ship waits to be hijacked.

[Felandria]

[Dyson Sphere]

"That's one."
Yone looks more closely at the vines. Is there any way another probe could have passed through here?

[Pirate Base]

Felandria is hampered by needing to keep the rescuee safe from laser-fire, but kicking the closest pirate creates an opening for the catperson to slash down at them, and the rain of magic missiles keeps them off-balance and vulnerable to Chevin laying about with their knife, each slash melting a pirate.
In a few moments ione pirate has fled and the others lie dead or defeated in the hallway.
Chevin points them towards the hangar door that will lead to the landing strip where the ship waits to be hijacked.

Let’s get out of here! But maybe there’s some treasure we could liberate on the way out!

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Ah-ha!" Reinholdt pulls out the box and waves it at the cadets. Once they're aware Rein pulls out the scanner and tries scanning the black box to see if he can get any useful data out of it about its last moments or if they need more advanced gear to find out what happened.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

When the scanner is plugged into the box, its files can be read. However, large sections of the data have been corrupted and reduced to gibberish. The last few minutes of log are still readable. The probe detected an energy spike in this area and moved to investigate, as per its programming. Once it arrived, it detected another spike and a drastic increase in hill temperature, and the log ends.

Yone can't see any way a probe could've passed through the thicket of vines, but some of them have
serious burn marks on them, maybe from an exploding probe, maybe from something else.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"What did you find, Rein?" Yone inquires. "Over here, something burnt the place up pretty badly."

[Pirate Base]

"If we're in time, the treasure will still be loaded on the ship!"
Treasure? Well, she could stop to loot some fallen pirates, taking their laser guns and pocket change...
The real treasure is doubtless buried on a near-uncharted asteroid, concealed in a single treasure map...
But maybe there's something in between. The hangar here is certainly full of interesting space gear. One of those pens that can write on anything, a jetpack, a very shiny ball hovering over its table...

Chevin is quickly patching up hir suit, the catperson is working on getting themselves into a mask, the kaleidoscope is watching the door for any pursuing pirates.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

Reinholdt licks his lips. "I don't know. It's weird. And concerning. There was some sort of energy flux and the probe came to check it out. Another spike later and the entire thing was overheating rapidly and exploded." He frowns, glancing around. "I can't tell much more than that. Data's too corrupted. But whatever caused it to do this probably has a worse effect on flesh and bone so we should probably keep moving before it happens again."

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"Well. Hardly unexpected, I must say. I have left my research, or a lot of it, at least, inscribed on a rock. The rock is located in my personal quarters in the space station I did most of my work. The rock is not very large, about cricket ball sized. You know cricket? Stupid sport. The British Astral Empire still play it, along with a few independent worlds settled by the Commonwealth nations of Earth. Anyway, the rock was being used as a paperweight on my desk. It has a metal plaque announcing it as a meteor gathered from Argyre Planitia, which is false. I took it from the garden of my childhood home, to always remember my homeworld. The inscription was made using nanobots, to avoid detection. I guarantee the ULE did not find it, and now the space station is deserted. It's too far to be economically viable for anything but secret research, and most groups conducting such have the facilities to build one rather than needing to reuse ones discovered and depopulated by the space pigs. It orbits the gas giant DHE-8963-Gimel-C, in the uninhabited system of DHE-8963-Gimel, approximately five AU away from its star." She stops a moment to think. "Last words: No scientific basis in the rule of three." As the ULE tried executing him twice before; that's why he's aboard.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

The cadets look nervous and start scanning the area for automated defense systems, hidden people, or anything else capable of blowing up a probe.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Everything here looks burnt. But also like a dead-end."
Yone looks back up the passage they descended. No more birds, right?
"Should we go back?"

[Lost in Space]

"Noted." Most likely they have no way to identify that system, even with whatever astronomical charts are elsewhere in this vessel. But maybe their universe is still reachable. And probably the necromancers can get something useful out of her either way.
"Since that's not your original body, I think I can categorize you as a disease and just...sort of...The captain cross her hands, aligning the spell circles just so, and closes her eyes.

The patterns on the gloves start to glow, and the professor may for a few moments get the sensation of being watched by something vast and disinterested. Then the captain jerks one hand out and snaps the other to her chest, and magic tears into Montgomery, attempting to burn away infections, parasites, nanomachines...anything more or less foreign. It might well leave her alive. Depending on how fast and self-replicating the mind-swarm is, it might not even get wiped out.

Her eyes flick back open to see the reaction.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

Professor Montgomery looks around briefly, before screaming and falling to her knees. The nanobots try desperately to keep a hold on the host, but the magic is fundamentally destroying them. The bots themselves are capable of rapid enough reproduction to resist the attempt, given enough resources. However, the resources it needs aren't commonly found in a human body, and when they integrate with a brain they specifically slow down to avoid unnecessary damage to the sensitive organ surrounding them. All the nanomachines are burnt away, as well as a variety of other organisms that exist in low numbers in the average human which cause complications or illness in large numbers.

The host has collapsed on the floor, unconscious. She's alive, but she needs medical attention to figure out if there's any damage to her brain or spinal chord, plus somebody needs to change her out of her now-soiled prison jumpsuit and into some new, clean clothes.

[WarforgedTank]

Dyson Sphere

Reinholdt finds the box amongst the vines. The orange cube has a single USB port and a wireless transceiver to connect with the data.

REACH Drydocks

"Sorry, I don't know anyone personally who could help, but there's bound to be someone who could get you home. This is the Nexus, it's a sort of interdimensional intersection. Lost people like you wash up here all the time. You can find all sorts." The guard understands the Spartan's predicament, but can't really help.

He knew it. The whole situation was FUBAR.

"Thanks anyway officer."

Connor snaps a quick salute, then heads over to see where he can attempt to find answers next.

[bc56]

REACH Drydocks

"You're welcome sir. Before you go, though, you should know that there was someone in similar armor to yours here earlier, looking for upgrades to his equipment. I think he went towards the Hephaestus Scrapyards section of the docks." The guard waves a friendly goodbye and returns to his post.

[Felandria]

[Dyson Sphere]

"What did you find, Rein?" Yone inquires. "Over here, something burnt the place up pretty badly."

[Pirate Base]

"If we're in time, the treasure will still be loaded on the ship!"
Treasure? Well, she could stop to loot some fallen pirates, taking their laser guns and pocket change...
The real treasure is doubtless buried on a near-uncharted asteroid, concealed in a single treasure map...
But maybe there's something in between. The hangar here is certainly full of interesting space gear. One of those pens that can write on anything, a jetpack, a very shiny ball hovering over its table...

Chevin is quickly patching up hir suit, the catperson is working on getting themselves into a mask, the kaleidoscope is watching the door for any pursuing pirates.

Felandria will grab the shiny ball and the pen on the way to the ship, and of course a laser gun, because laser gun.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

Reinholdt looks over the vines. Yeah, even if they could get through here, the probes probably didn't. "There was one more door back up there we didn't go through. The one with the giant insects half-way up the wall." Rein sighs. "Guess we need to deal with that. Still, better than being here whenever that energy spikes again."

Back up the shaft then. Reinholdt starts floating up, but goes particularly slow this time, so as to not get far away from those who have to climb back up the hard way.

[WarforgedTank]

REACH Drydocks

"You're welcome sir. Before you go, though, you should know that there was someone in similar armor to yours here earlier, looking for upgrades to his equipment. I think he went towards the Hephaestus Scrapyards section of the docks." The guard waves a friendly goodbye and returns to his post.

Another SPARTAN? Here? What are the chances?

"How would one get to this scrapyard? It's on station right? Can you point me in the right direction?"

Connor's brain was going faster than it normally did. So many SPARTAN's were listed as M.I.A. Could one of them have actually wound up here?

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"There might be something behind those vines, but it's not our objective and it's not safe to stay and find out."
Yone begins climbing the shaft with an impossible display of acrobatics, jumping from the ground to the wall to the opposite wall to the first wall again.

[Pirate Base]

Of course. How could one leave without looting a laser gun?
Chevin finishes hir repairs and starts opening the hangar doors (which conveniently seals the door back into the base pretty well closed, just in case, although the air is kept in the hangar by magic). Outside one can see the far wall of the crater, the black sky full of countless stars, and the pirate ship sitting on the landing pad.

The ship looks like someone took several normal water-going galleons and fused them together at odd angles. There are masts and sails on the top...and also the sides, the back, diagonally. The decks are small and piecemeal, a maze of ladders and ropes. The figurehead depicts and insectoid like the pirates with two pairs of swords crossed over his chest.
There's a stack of three large boxes that were just unloaded from the ship (it clearly could contain many more such boxes in its hold), but with the commotion in the base, the pirates have decided to halt unloading and retreat into space, to return once it's sorted out! They're just now undoing the various lines that tether it to the dock.
It seems the pirates in the rigging are quite alarmed to see the intruders/escapees, though of course out in space we can't hear whatever they're saying.

[Lost in Space]

Bloom winces as the Professor's host screams and collapses. 'Had to be done', she reminds herself. She opens up the cell and steps in to cast a simple bit of healing spell over the girl. It won't repair brain damage, but it should prevent things getting any worse until she can be examined in the medical bay (or better, a planetside hospital with real medical professionals), if the sudden loss of the nanobots caused, say, any shock or internal bleeding.
"Russel, get her into a pressure suit and take her back to the Mote and bring her to the medical room. Then go tell engineering that there is a patient."
And that's all the prisoners dealt with.
The captain quickly checks through the fifteen empty cells to see if there is actually anything there. Supposedly the professor didn't manage to get any machinery into the prison block, but there were also several distinct escape attempts going on, so anything's possible.