Wrong Side of Heaven(IC)

[RandomRoninKitten]

Wrong Side of Heaven, Chapter 1: Legion of the Serpent

Ggefsi Zoi S.M/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Zoi woke up in her usual place, in her Invictus and after going through her usual routine, her ALICE unit detects a nearby spacecraft, apparently from the Human Empire, which seems to be a cargo ship, with only a few other, smaller fighters traveling nearby. Closer inspection would reveal that none of them look 'official' in the sense that they belong to the Empire as a Monopoly on Arbitration, but something else using Human Empire Technology.

Impulse/CondorBoH

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Impulse wakes up in her Invictus and after going through her morning routine, she finds that she was send an assignment from HQ, giving her orders to scout the planet of Dellor. The information given along with the orders detail that they have received conflicting reports, some stating that it's a ghost planet, others saying it's home to unknown lifeforms. Regardless of which, both reports agree that traces of rare metals are implied to be beneath the planet's surface, and want her to confirm all of the above details.

Isi-Artais/Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Isi was given orders the night before to travel to Dellor and investigate whether or not the planet was suitable for colonization. They had conflicting reports that it was a ghost planet and that it was home to unknown lifeforms, however the scouts sending the reports had disappeared. The planet is suspected to be dangerous, and they had warned her to be very careful. If possible, they also desired to be informed of the whereabouts of their missing scouts, as well.

Cthyu/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Cthyu awakens to warnings from her ALICE that spacecraft have been sighted heading straight towards them, and hadn't made any attempts to contact them, and were moving at high speed. None of the signatures could be recognized, however such speeds in such a cluttered area of space would normally be somewhat dangerous.

Adamantem/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Adamantem had just awakened and was in the midst of her morning routine when a job was sent to her ALICE unit. The job was to serve as one of the bodyguards for a Human Ambassador serving the Human Empire, intending to visit and discuss policy with the President of the Legion of the Serpent, a splinter civilization which was originally part of the Serpent Collective, who defected and took control of several resource-rich planets.

[CondorBoH]

Impulse looked over the reports with a raised eyebrow. How did they mess up this badly to have multiple conflicting reports. Well, guess that's why scouts like her were around huh? Maybe, if there were locals, they were simply good at hiding. But the rare metal bit was good. Rare metal meant.... uh.
Well.
It was clearly valuable, in some way, and that meant it had uses. Not that she knew them off the top of her head. Maybe Recall knew? Either way, a flight path was to be set, and away they would go.

"Alright, lets get going to this maybe-ghost-world! I hope there are locals, I feel like I've been stuck on this ship all by myself for weeeeeeeeeks!"
She sighed, sloshing onto her side and letting herself partially dissolve to add to the drama, shutting both eyes. Then, after a little bit, opening one and looking at the nearest display and hoping her ALICE would bite the bit.

"You're doing this on purpose, and you're also just being rude."
There she was! Recall's pouting face flickered up on the nearest screen, the ALICE having been quiet for the morning. Impulse put herself back together, sitting up in the piloting chair and grinning at her AI. It was only a matter of time before another glitch hit her, and everything went saucy, but for now she had an actually functioning ALICE.
"Buuuut it did wake you up. Now lets see, we got some time to kill before we get to the planet. Can you tell me anything I don't already know about our ghost-planet?"

There was a flicker on the screen as Recall materialised behind her, her hard-light form embracing Impulse from behind.
"I can re-read the reports aloud for you, if you want. But past that, the planet has been investigated a number of times before and nothing but conflicting information has come from it. Once we get closer, I can scan the atmosphere and work out if any conventional - of unconventional like you, my little squishy girl - lifeforms could survive on it."
Recall squeezed a little tighter, pouting again.
"Not much else, I'm afraid. That's what we're here for. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."

[mrblah]

A sleeping Ggefsi Zoi S.M is about the only time you'd ever catch her calm. The rising and lowering of her chest moved in time to a silent lullaby, and her eyes stayed peacefully closed... that is, if she had eyes to close. Ba dum tss.

Zoi jumped out of her chair and waved her arms in the air frantically, karate chopping the control panel of her ship and hissing in a breath from the pain. She cradled her hand, gritting her teeth and glaring at the screen which displayed the laughing face of the perpetrator of her sudden awakening. "Hahahaha! Your face! Your stupid face!" A finger was pointed at Zoi, and if the coward had the guts to materialize herself while mocking her owner, Zoi likely would have bitten that finger. Of course, her A.L.I.C.E knew better than to do something like that.

"Keep laughing. Next time I see your body, you're getting it." Threatened Zoi with a harsh glare. It served to cool down the enthusiasm of her companion, who cleared her throat and tried a smile. "H-hey, I was just doing you a solid, Z! We've got humans on our radar, and they looked a little fishy so I thought I'd warn you! I-it's a nice gesture, right? Since you'd want me to wake you up for something like this!" She waved her hands in some attempt to pacify the annoyed Glossa... but her words were a good enough distraction as it were. "Yeah... then what the hell's up with these humans, Star? Better make this interesting quick."

Star cleared her throat unnecessarily, then the screen showing her image changed to reveal outside, with a camera's view aimed right towards ships. "None of them look so official, you see? They don't look like your normal Confederation convoy. It's weird!" As Star was saying that, she highlighted specifically the cargo ship. Zoi peered at it for a little while longer... "Betcha they're pirates. I don't feel like dealing with so many of them right now... prepare the Magnum 2 in case we need to beat a retreat, but send them a message just to see who they are. Say somethin' suave and polite, like 'Who the hell are you?'"

Star hesitated... but complied after a moment's thought. "I did it, but... shouldn't we just leave if they're bad guys? Why do you wanna try to talk?" It did seem weird that anyone would stick around in the presence of something suspicious that they believe to be dangerous. Zoi just grinned. "Ễchmet merno veriti, Star. Have some faith. You never know anything until it shoots at you."

[Mark3000]

"Miss Cthyu! Miss Cthyu! Please awake, we have an emergency" Zuta called out from the onboard speaker system. Cthyu had been resting after a rather strenuous job. Even with her talent, seeping into another's mind was tiring work. She had hoped to leave things in the hands of her A.L.I.C.E, Zuta until they arrived at their next job.

Listlessly, Cthyu arose from her slumber and made her way to the bridge of the ship. "Walk with me Zuta." She commanded.

"Yes Miss Cthyu." Zuta responded timidly as the ship formed a physical construct of Zuta. Cthyu didn't really need her to manifest herself, she just enjoyed ordering around the meek A.I in this form. "We have a spacecraft heading straight for us. They haven't attempted to contact us and I can't recognize the signature coming from them."

As they reached the bridge, Cthyu yawned. The tendrils on her head were still restless from the lack of adequate sleep. "Increase speed and see of you can outrun what ever it is that's chasing us." Cthyu said as she sat at the controls. The drifting Nyalotian had made more then a few enemies in the universe since leaving her home. She wasn't about to test her luck with an unknown ship.

[MiscChaos]

The Sunt don't sleep. Not like organic beings anyway as far as she knows. Having no organs or anything really, rest isn't something Ada needs. But it gets boring, drifting through space until she gets a new job or finds somewhere to hang out for a few weeks. So while she doesn't rest, deep meditation looks a lot like sleeping to anyone else and it passes the hours by. Still, she'll blame that meditation for not catching what happens next before it could be sprung on her.

"DO YOU REMEMBER!? HOW WE USED TO TALK! WE WERE YOUNG AND INNOCENT THEN!!" Ada jumps out of bed and hits the floor gracelessly with a loud *thunk* as her meditation is interrupted with a loud, purposefully off key (because she knows the woman can sing damn beautifully when she wants!) rendition of some old Earthling song. It isn't familiar to Ada, but then again she doesn't go out of her way to listen to that kind of thing.

"Stiggy, I'm revoking your access to the net!" She screams, trying to be heard over the continued "serenade" she's being graced with. "You can't keep waking me with old Earth songs like this!"

"So would you prefer old Martian songs? Or maybe old Antaemnekht? The possibilities are endless, Ada!" Ada counts it as a minor victory that at the very least Stiggy stopped singing to answer her. Distractions usually don't work this well unless there's something else going on. "Also, I woke you up because we have work. Apparently some Human Empire official wants to hire us for a meeting with the Serpent Legion's runaway Pres. Sounds like fun. The amount of trouble you could get into politically if this goes sideways is amazing!" Sometimes, she really wishes she had failed to make Stiggy just as mischievous as she remembered Vivi being. It would make statements like the one she just received a lot less worrying to hear. Well, not less worrying, but at the very least it'd be said with a bit more tact.

Still, with that much pressure, she supposes it's time to get up and get on with things. She looks at the pile of clothes on the floor and ignores them. It's her ship, she doesn't have to wear those silly things if she doesn't want to! She'll do it off the ship cause she never knows which planets have those pesky nudity laws until she arrives, though that does remind her of the one time she was actually punished for wearing clothes on a planet. It's probably a good thing she's inorganic or else having her clothes set on fire while still wearing them would have been more of an inconvenience. Actually, that entire planet was a pain in the ass since the idiot she was hired to protect was more looking for an escort system than a bodyguard one. And she's distracted herself again. "When I won't fuck it up." she says simply as she makes her way to the controls. "Set a course to the specified coordinates and lemme know 15 minutes before we're to dock. I need to put clothes on just in case."

"Awww. Do you have to?" Stiggy asks, materializing her head between Ada's legs. Ada very quickly closes said legs. She can never tell whether Stiggy down there is a good thing or if it'll result in her curled up on herself in pain.

"I'd rather avoid another witch hunt if I can. Sure, being burnt at the stake didn't do anything except soot over my exterior, but the contracts I lost over that was ridiculous! I mean, you'd think people would wanna hire me more as a witch! And I doubt you enjoyed them trying to tear you apart to cleanse your code of my influence either."

"Fine, fine, let's avoid that happening again. For a bunch of puritanical assholes, they had the most perverted way of trying to hack into me and I'd really rather not have a repeat." Sobered a touch from that reminder, Stiggy doesn't say another word as she sets the course.

[Littlemankitten]

Isi read the document presented to her, then re-read it, then re-read it a second time. She trusted the royal family, they were the wisest of her race after all. Yet, why in the name of Ta-Pili did they want her and others to scout out a system practically across the entire colonized zone? It is among the farthest systems available to them. Sighing, Isi folded her ears back in annoyance and barked at her ALICE. "Subira! How long till we reach the system of Dellor at maximum speed?" After a few moments, the body of the ALICE appeared in the holo-terminal on the console of the ship, she bowed, seemingly not affected by Isi's mood. "The Dellor system will take exactly 8.219432 hours to reach at maximum hyperdrive power. Do you wish to head there now?" Isi rolled her eyes and nodded. Why else would she even bother asking if she didn't want to go there? "Yes of course, set us a course and get us there as fast as possible. Also can you tell me anything about that system while your memory is on it?"

The engines roared to life and a high pitched hum started as the hyperdrive spooled. The ship turned towards the direction of the star system and the whine grew louder. "I am sorry, but there is nothing currently known about the Dellor system. That is why you have gone to scout it after all."The ALICE responded in a completely calm voice. "Don't patronize me... sometimes all I think your good for is your mating mode." Isi grumbled that last part and kicked her feet up onto the console, sighing. These stupid scouting missions weren't what she envisioned signing up for the military. She thought she'd be on one of the grand home fleet Battleships, manning its gigantic guns and blowing would be trespassers into oblivion. What a rip off, oh well, maybe there would be some excitement in that so called 'ghost planet' whatever the Malak that was supposed to mean.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Impulse/CondorBoH

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Impulse looked over the reports with a raised eyebrow. How did they mess up this badly to have multiple conflicting reports. Well, guess that's why scouts like her were around huh? Maybe, if there were locals, they were simply good at hiding. But the rare metal bit was good. Rare metal meant.... uh.
Well.
It was clearly valuable, in some way, and that meant it had uses. Not that she knew them off the top of her head. Maybe Recall knew? Either way, a flight path was to be set, and away they would go.

"Alright, lets get going to this maybe-ghost-world! I hope there are locals, I feel like I've been stuck on this ship all by myself for weeeeeeeeeks!"
She sighed, sloshing onto her side and letting herself partially dissolve to add to the drama, shutting both eyes. Then, after a little bit, opening one and looking at the nearest display and hoping her ALICE would bite the bit.

"You're doing this on purpose, and you're also just being rude."
There she was! Recall's pouting face flickered up on the nearest screen, the ALICE having been quiet for the morning. Impulse put herself back together, sitting up in the piloting chair and grinning at her AI. It was only a matter of time before another glitch hit her, and everything went saucy, but for now she had an actually functioning ALICE.
"Buuuut it did wake you up. Now lets see, we got some time to kill before we get to the planet. Can you tell me anything I don't already know about our ghost-planet?"

There was a flicker on the screen as Recall materialised behind her, her hard-light form embracing Impulse from behind.
"I can re-read the reports aloud for you, if you want. But past that, the planet has been investigated a number of times before and nothing but conflicting information has come from it. Once we get closer, I can scan the atmosphere and work out if any conventional - of unconventional like you, my little squishy girl - lifeforms could survive on it."
Recall squeezed a little tighter, pouting again.
"Not much else, I'm afraid. That's what we're here for. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

On her way to the appointed planet, Impulse's ALICE gets readings of other approaching ships attempting to match her speed. The make and model of the ships, upon first inspection, are consistent with that of the Khaid Empire, however upon closer inspection with the sensors, the ships seem to have been worn down in places, and have some parts replaced with what looks to be scavenged parts.

The paint also seems to have been scraped off in some areas, and repainted in others. Typically, the Khaid Empire would repair and repaint their ships each time they return to one of their stations. The ships also don't seem to be attempting to contact them at all.

Ggefsi Zoi S.M/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A sleeping Ggefsi Zoi S.M is about the only time you'd ever catch her calm. The rising and lowering of her chest moved in time to a silent lullaby, and her eyes stayed peacefully closed... that is, if she had eyes to close. Ba dum tss.

Zoi jumped out of her chair and waved her arms in the air frantically, karate chopping the control panel of her ship and hissing in a breath from the pain. She cradled her hand, gritting her teeth and glaring at the screen which displayed the laughing face of the perpetrator of her sudden awakening. "Hahahaha! Your face! Your stupid face!" A finger was pointed at Zoi, and if the coward had the guts to materialize herself while mocking her owner, Zoi likely would have bitten that finger. Of course, her A.L.I.C.E knew better than to do something like that.

"Keep laughing. Next time I see your body, you're getting it." Threatened Zoi with a harsh glare. It served to cool down the enthusiasm of her companion, who cleared her throat and tried a smile. "H-hey, I was just doing you a solid, Z! We've got humans on our radar, and they looked a little fishy so I thought I'd warn you! I-it's a nice gesture, right? Since you'd want me to wake you up for something like this!" She waved her hands in some attempt to pacify the annoyed Glossa... but her words were a good enough distraction as it were. "Yeah... then what the hell's up with these humans, Star? Better make this interesting quick."

Star cleared her throat unnecessarily, then the screen showing her image changed to reveal outside, with a camera's view aimed right towards ships. "None of them look so official, you see? They don't look like your normal Confederation convoy. It's weird!" As Star was saying that, she highlighted specifically the cargo ship. Zoi peered at it for a little while longer... "Betcha they're pirates. I don't feel like dealing with so many of them right now... prepare the Magnum 2 in case we need to beat a retreat, but send them a message just to see who they are. Say somethin' suave and polite, like 'Who the hell are you?'"

Star hesitated... but complied after a moment's thought. "I did it, but... shouldn't we just leave if they're bad guys? Why do you wanna try to talk?" It did seem weird that anyone would stick around in the presence of something suspicious that they believe to be dangerous. Zoi just grinned. "Ễchmet merno veriti, Star. Have some faith. You never know anything until it shoots at you."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Immediately after the transmission was sent, one of the ships fired a pair of missiles at Zoi's ship, however the ALICE system was able to easily dodge both missiles one after the other, the missiles not even coming close to hitting the ship, due to its immense speed. After the missiles had been avoided, the ships moved to attempt to surround Zoi's ship, still not responding to the transmission that was sent earlier.

Now that the ships were in better view, the the smaller aircraft were painted with the Human Empire colors and were the same models, however something was still off about them, as if they couldn't get the schematics and only built the ships with the closest approximation they could manage, but only got CLOSE to the design.



The cargo ship in the back of the group, while the others moved to surround Zoi's Invictus, had stayed back where it was, at a safer distance. While it looked similar to the others, it was more cube-shaped with rounded edges, and the same paint scheme as the others, also only coming CLOSE to the design of a cargo ship, rather than matching one exactly in design.

Cthyu/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Miss Cthyu! Miss Cthyu! Please awake, we have an emergency" Zuta called out from the onboard speaker system. Cthyu had been resting after a rather strenuous job. Even with her talent, seeping into another's mind was tiring work. She had hoped to leave things in the hands of her A.L.I.C.E, Zuta until they arrived at their next job.

Listlessly, Cthyu arose from her slumber and made her way to the bridge of the ship. "Walk with me Zuta." She commanded.

"Yes Miss Cthyu." Zuta responded timidly as the ship formed a physical construct of Zuta. Cthyu didn't really need her to manifest herself, she just enjoyed ordering around the meek A.I in this form. "We have a spacecraft heading straight for us. They haven't attempted to contact us and I can't recognize the signature coming from them."

As they reached the bridge, Cthyu yawned. The tendrils on her head were still restless from the lack of adequate sleep. "Increase speed and see of you can outrun what ever it is that's chasing us." Cthyu said as she sat at the controls. The drifting Nyalotian had made more then a few enemies in the universe since leaving her home. She wasn't about to test her luck with an unknown ship.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The ships quickly fall behind, without Cthyu's ship even reaching half of its full speed. The ships don't even reach sight range before Cthyu's Invictus leaves them in the dust.

After the signatures are no longer in range to be detected, six more signatures, three on each side of her ship, begin heading directly towards her Invictus, this time only being detected when they can be seen. The ships look to be non-uniform, but all being older Invicti which seem to be using parts from a scrap heap to replace anything that had worn off, yet one of them must have had some form of advanced Jammer to have prevented Cthyu from detecting them before they got this close. The ships, again, do not bother attempting to send any transmissions to her ship, they just charge straight in.

Adamantem/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The Sunt don't sleep. Not like organic beings anyway as far as she knows. Having no organs or anything really, rest isn't something Ada needs. But it gets boring, drifting through space until she gets a new job or finds somewhere to hang out for a few weeks. So while she doesn't rest, deep meditation looks a lot like sleeping to anyone else and it passes the hours by. Still, she'll blame that meditation for not catching what happens next before it could be sprung on her.

"DO YOU REMEMBER!? HOW WE USED TO TALK! WE WERE YOUNG AND INNOCENT THEN!!" Ada jumps out of bed and hits the floor gracelessly with a loud *thunk* as her meditation is interrupted with a loud, purposefully off key (because she knows the woman can sing damn beautifully when she wants!) rendition of some old Earthling song. It isn't familiar to Ada, but then again she doesn't go out of her way to listen to that kind of thing.

"Stiggy, I'm revoking your access to the net!" She screams, trying to be heard over the continued "serenade" she's being graced with. "You can't keep waking me with old Earth songs like this!"

"So would you prefer old Martian songs? Or maybe old Antaemnekht? The possibilities are endless, Ada!" Ada counts it as a minor victory that at the very least Stiggy stopped singing to answer her. Distractions usually don't work this well unless there's something else going on. "Also, I woke you up because we have work. Apparently some Human Empire official wants to hire us for a meeting with the Serpent Legion's runaway Pres. Sounds like fun. The amount of trouble you could get into politically if this goes sideways is amazing!" Sometimes, she really wishes she had failed to make Stiggy just as mischievous as she remembered Vivi being. It would make statements like the one she just received a lot less worrying to hear. Well, not less worrying, but at the very least it'd be said with a bit more tact.

Still, with that much pressure, she supposes it's time to get up and get on with things. She looks at the pile of clothes on the floor and ignores them. It's her ship, she doesn't have to wear those silly things if she doesn't want to! She'll do it off the ship cause she never knows which planets have those pesky nudity laws until she arrives, though that does remind her of the one time she was actually punished for wearing clothes on a planet. It's probably a good thing she's inorganic or else having her clothes set on fire while still wearing them would have been more of an inconvenience. Actually, that entire planet was a pain in the ass since the idiot she was hired to protect was more looking for an escort system than a bodyguard one. And she's distracted herself again. "When I won't fuck it up." she says simply as she makes her way to the controls. "Set a course to the specified coordinates and lemme know 15 minutes before we're to dock. I need to put clothes on just in case."

"Awww. Do you have to?" Stiggy asks, materializing her head between Ada's legs. Ada very quickly closes said legs. She can never tell whether Stiggy down there is a good thing or if it'll result in her curled up on herself in pain.

"I'd rather avoid another witch hunt if I can. Sure, being burnt at the stake didn't do anything except soot over my exterior, but the contracts I lost over that was ridiculous! I mean, you'd think people would wanna hire me more as a witch! And I doubt you enjoyed them trying to tear you apart to cleanse your code of my influence either."

"Fine, fine, let's avoid that happening again. For a bunch of puritanical assholes, they had the most perverted way of trying to hack into me and I'd really rather not have a repeat." Sobered a touch from that reminder, Stiggy doesn't say another word as she sets the course.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ada manages to arrive at the appointed planet without incident. From up above, the planet seemed to be 90% desert, with very small patches of jungle, and roughly the same amount of water. Judging just from all the desert, one could probably see why one would choose not to live there once interstellar travel started seeing widespread usage.

From her vantage point near the planet, her ALICE system also couldn't seem to scan the surface for any Invictus or Hyperion signatures. It seemed that if she wanted to fulfill her mission, she'd have to teleport down to the planet's surface, since further information seemed unlikely from here.

As they hovered near the planet, her ALICE's sensors suddenly picked up the presence of a Antaemnekht Invictus in the area, moving towards the same planet at full speed.

Isi-Artais/Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Isi read the document presented to her, then re-read it, then re-read it a second time. She trusted the royal family, they were the wisest of her race after all. Yet, why in the name of Ta-Pili did they want her and others to scout out a system practically across the entire colonized zone? It is among the farthest systems available to them. Sighing, Isi folded her ears back in annoyance and barked at her ALICE. "Subira! How long till we reach the system of Dellor at maximum speed?" After a few moments, the body of the ALICE appeared in the holo-terminal on the console of the ship, she bowed, seemingly not affected by Isi's mood. "The Dellor system will take exactly 8.219432 hours to reach at maximum hyperdrive power. Do you wish to head there now?" Isi rolled her eyes and nodded. Why else would she even bother asking if she didn't want to go there? "Yes of course, set us a course and get us there as fast as possible. Also can you tell me anything about that system while your memory is on it?"

The engines roared to life and a high pitched hum started as the hyperdrive spooled. The ship turned towards the direction of the star system and the whine grew louder. "I am sorry, but there is nothing currently known about the Dellor system. That is why you have gone to scout it after all."The ALICE responded in a completely calm voice. "Don't patronize me... sometimes all I think your good for is your mating mode." Isi grumbled that last part and kicked her feet up onto the console, sighing. These stupid scouting missions weren't what she envisioned signing up for the military. She thought she'd be on one of the grand home fleet Battleships, manning its gigantic guns and blowing would be trespassers into oblivion. What a rip off, oh well, maybe there would be some excitement in that so called 'ghost planet' whatever the Malak that was supposed to mean.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Isi manages to reach the planet without incident, however, as she approaches the planet, her ALICE detects a Minerali Invictus signature near said planet, just floating in place at the moment. The planet itself, nearby, appears to be mostly desert, with only small patches of jungle and patches of water of roughly the same size. Isi's Alice also can't scan the planet for signs of Invicti or Hyperion Units, meaning she would likely have to teleport to the planet surface in order to carry out the mission.

Looking at the planet for this position, however, it's no wonder it would supposedly be reported as a ghost planet.

[CondorBoH]

On one hand, the justification for the worn down ship parts could simply be that they hadn't managed to return to one of their stations in a while...
On the other, it was more likely that these were stolen and were being run by criminals. Impulse immediatly attempted to hail the ship in front, while also activating her shields just in case. She didn't quite trust this situation, and it would make sense.

After all, a ghost planet where people disappear? Of course, pirates may be the cause of that rumour.
"Recall, be prepared in case things get violent. This doesn't seem normal."

[mrblah]

The ship's speedy evasions rocked Zoi back and forth in her chair, with one particular sharp curve throwing the glossa stomach first right into the armchair. "ACK!! Synos it cyla! They shot at us!" She coughed and nursed her stomach, settling back into her chair with an annoyed grimace. "Hate to say I told ya so, but I told ya so!" Zoi sighed in exasperation as Star's voice sounded over the intercoms. What an annoying A.L.I.C.E. "Star, shut up and hit that Magnum 2. Today is not the day for pirates."

... Silence and inaction met her words. "Are you sure about that? I mean, we're surrounded and they're REALLY close so —" The A.L.I.C.E was cut off. "Star, shut up and hit that Magnum 2."

The emphasis on her words spurred on her A.L.I.C.E, who fired up the engine and tried to speed them off at reckless speeds to obey her annoyed captain's orders.

[Mark3000]

Three ships to either side of her, jamming technology and no communication. A puzzling encounter indeed. If these ships were as slow as the other ones. It would be easy to evade them. But that didn't change the fact that someone has taken an interest in her. From her seat, Cythu brings up a Star Map. "Zuta, take us to the closest inhabited planet at full speed. Preferably one with a sizable population. If out friend want at me, it will be on my terms."

"Yes Miss Cythu" Zuta said obediently, as the A.L.I.CE unit set their plan into motion.

[Littlemankitten]

Isi clutches her head as they exit hyper-speed. God she hated hyper-speed. Repressing the urge to vomit as her body adjusts to bending reality. Seeing the other ship on her scanners, she presses the button to activate her ALICE. "Subira! Tell me what you can about these uh... Miner...Minara.... Minurel... How do you even pronounce that... The ALICE appears, and for a brief moment seems to fill with static to showcase she was searching her data banks. "Minerali... They are a race of sentient crystals that serve as excellent combatants thanks to their inorganic nature. Isi waited for her ALICE to say more, anything else possibly useful. After a while she huffed. "Aaaaaaannnnnnnnd?" The Alice gave Isi a blank and calm stare. "That is all I know about them." Isi growled and slammed her fist on the console, causing it briefly shake at the force. "Fucking useless piece of shit only good at sucking cock and even then the girls in high school knew how to better." She grumbled to herself as she walked over to her Hyperion in order to be on the surface, while the ALICE continues to look calmly at Isi, preparing navigational instruments in order to track her location on the surface. "Do you wish to hail the Minerali ship?" The Alice asked non-chalantly. Isi groaned a little then shrugged. "Only if they hail us first, if not, just take me to the damn surface so I can see what we're working with here."

[MiscChaos]

"SHE WALKED UP TO MY FACE, SAID THIS IS THE PLACE. YOU SAID MEET YOU RIGHT HERE AT NOON!" Ada can only assume more out of tune singing means that they're approaching their destination and that it's time to put on clothes. She wishes that Stiggy would do it NORMALLY and without more Earthling music, but she somewhat doubts it and complaining would just increase the volume this time. So, after picking herself off the ground again, she attempts to ignore the ongoing song as she throws on her outfit and prepares for landing. "Oh yeah. You know how I was saying I could sing you an Antaemnekht song earlier?" Her ALICE asks, causing Ada to freeze. Usually, questions like that never lead to anything good.

"Yes?" She says, though it sounds more like a question than anything. "Well, you can hear it from a native! We've got one on our sensors speeding towards the same planet. Or I assume it's one since the ship design is from them. Could be a pirate. Hey, we should say hi! It'd be hot to see you get violated by pirates. Or violate the pirates. I'm not picky." All Ada can really do is sigh and place her face in her hand. Why did her ALICE become such a pervert? She's fairly sure she didn't program such a thing in and it's not a part of Vivi's personality that the human ever expressed to her, so WHY!? "We're just gonna table that for now and come back to it in about 1000 Sunt Cycles. For now, could you hail the other ship. I need to figure out if they're gonna be hostile or not." She says tiredly. Sometimes just being in her ship is a trial. "Tell 'em to send nudes." Stiggy says before opening comms to the Antaemnekht ship.

"Greetings. I am Adamantem of the Minerali Sunt. This is just a friendly communication to ascertain how friendly our interactions will remain. Can I ask your purpose with this planet? I'm on a bodyguard assignment myself."

[RandomRoninKitten]

Impulse/CondorBoH

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

On one hand, the justification for the worn down ship parts could simply be that they hadn't managed to return to one of their stations in a while...
On the other, it was more likely that these were stolen and were being run by criminals. Impulse immediatly attempted to hail the ship in front, while also activating her shields just in case. She didn't quite trust this situation, and it would make sense.

After all, a ghost planet where people disappear? Of course, pirates may be the cause of that rumour.
"Recall, be prepared in case things get violent. This doesn't seem normal."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

When Impulse attempted to hail the ship, communications opened immediately, and she was met by a black-furred face, with one bead-like red eye, and an eyepatch. The creature was very fluffy, with a fluffy tail behind it. The creature stared at the screen for a moment before leaning in close and speaking with a high-pitched raspy voice "Hello, disgusting slime thing, I am Snarky, and you are to turn over everything on your ship which has value. Failure to comply will result in your ship being disabled and boarded, then we'll do whatever we like."

Ggefsi Zoi S.M/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The ship's speedy evasions rocked Zoi back and forth in her chair, with one particular sharp curve throwing the glossa stomach first right into the armchair. "ACK!! Synos it cyla! They shot at us!" She coughed and nursed her stomach, settling back into her chair with an annoyed grimace. "Hate to say I told ya so, but I told ya so!" Zoi sighed in exasperation as Star's voice sounded over the intercoms. What an annoying A.L.I.C.E. "Star, shut up and hit that Magnum 2. Today is not the day for pirates."

... Silence and inaction met her words. "Are you sure about that? I mean, we're surrounded and they're REALLY close so —" The A.L.I.C.E was cut off. "Star, shut up and hit that Magnum 2."

The emphasis on her words spurred on her A.L.I.C.E, who fired up the engine and tried to speed them off at reckless speeds to obey her annoyed captain's orders.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

At first, Zoi's Invictus manages to out-fly the other Invicti, which continue firing at her. At this point, the weapons are mismatched, and some are clearly out-dated from the charge times on some of the energy weapons, while others seem to be either up to date or almost up to date. The Invicti chase her into the planet Grak's space, a low-tech planet that's owned by the Khaid Empire, however said empire rarely did anything with that planet, due to the aforementioned lack of technology as well as the lack of resources available on the planet. There were also many common tales about the inhabitants of the planet and their less-than-cooperative disposition.

As soon as Zoi enters Grak space, the other Invicti stop dead just outside, however one of them fires one more missile, the signature of which can be recognized as a strange, highly advanced Lightning Mine, which attaches to the back of Zoi's invicti, despite all of her A.L.I.C.E's attempts to shake it, and then subsequently discharges electricity, which then causes the electricity to pass through the ship and also electrocutes Zoi herself, filling her body with searing, jolting pain. The electrical force causes the ship's propulsion capabilities to shut down momentarily, along with most other systems, which then leads to her Invictus being pulled into the planet's atmosphere by its gravity.

The mostly-desert planet down below starts to close in as Zoi's Invictus plummets towards the surface at high speed, until the world suddenly goes black upon impact.

When Zoi awakens, she finds that the world outside has turned a sandy, white-ish tan color... or not really, her Invictus seems to have crashed heavily enough into the desert planet's surface to have embedded itself within. The world outside, just like when she saw it from above, is nothing but desert as far as she can see, aside from a distant dark blur, presumably a camp, with the red banner of the Khaid Empire flying over it.

Cthyu/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Three ships to either side of her, jamming technology and no communication. A puzzling encounter indeed. If these ships were as slow as the other ones. It would be easy to evade them. But that didn't change the fact that someone has taken an interest in her. From her seat, Cythu brings up a Star Map. "Zuta, take us to the closest inhabited planet at full speed. Preferably one with a sizable population. If out friend want at me, it will be on my terms."

"Yes Miss Cythu" Zuta said obediently, as the A.L.I.CE unit set their plan into motion.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The absolute closest planet is Grak, an almost entirely desert planet under the dominion of the Khaid Empire, however, while under their dominion, their people actually didn't do much with that planet, due to how few resources it had, and how low-tech the inhabitants were.

As soon as Cthyu's Invictus enters the Grak space, the pursuing Invicti stop dead, and hold position just outside, however just at that moment, another Invictus and several more Invicti similar to the ones pursuing Cthyu enter that airspace, at which point the Invictus being chased, a white one with a large blue, transparent dome, is hit by a strange-looking mine, which then discharges volts of electricity into the ship, at which point the thrusters shut off. The Invictus is immediately pulled into Grak's gravitational field and begins slowly entering the atmosphere. Just like the other group of Invicti, these also stop dead outside of Grak's space, before then plummeting towards the surface at high speed.

Isi-Artais/Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Isi clutches her head as they exit hyper-speed. God she hated hyper-speed. Repressing the urge to vomit as her body adjusts to bending reality. Seeing the other ship on her scanners, she presses the button to activate her ALICE. "Subira! Tell me what you can about these uh... Miner...Minara.... Minurel... How do you even pronounce that... The ALICE appears, and for a brief moment seems to fill with static to showcase she was searching her data banks. "Minerali... They are a race of sentient crystals that serve as excellent combatants thanks to their inorganic nature. Isi waited for her ALICE to say more, anything else possibly useful. After a while she huffed. "Aaaaaaannnnnnnnd?" The Alice gave Isi a blank and calm stare. "That is all I know about them." Isi growled and slammed her fist on the console, causing it briefly shake at the force. "Fucking useless piece of shit only good at sucking cock and even then the girls in high school knew how to better." She grumbled to herself as she walked over to her Hyperion in order to be on the surface, while the ALICE continues to look calmly at Isi, preparing navigational instruments in order to track her location on the surface. "Do you wish to hail the Minerali ship?" The Alice asked non-chalantly. Isi groaned a little then shrugged. "Only if they hail us first, if not, just take me to the damn surface so I can see what we're working with here."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Right as Isi said "Only if they hail us first", a transmission is received from the Minerali ship. The girl who comes up onscreen has diamond-like hair and eyes, as well as the typical inorganic skin of their race. "Greetings. I am Adamantem of the Minerali Sunt. This is just a friendly communication to ascertain how friendly our interactions will remain. Can I ask your purpose with this planet? I'm on a bodyguard assignment myself." she says, before awaiting Isi to open up her transmission and give her a reply. As it was, the ship was remaining floating in space above the surface without actually making any moves.

Meanwhile, the surface of the planet below them began the shift to grey, as clouds began covering the entirety of the visible area. This was an anomaly seen on other planets, known as a Global Plasma Storm. While this was generally unsafe on most planets, typically it kept the creatures in desert areas from leaving their burrows, making desert areas safer, while all others were made more dangerous.

Adamantem/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"SHE WALKED UP TO MY FACE, SAID THIS IS THE PLACE. YOU SAID MEET YOU RIGHT HERE AT NOON!" Ada can only assume more out of tune singing means that they're approaching their destination and that it's time to put on clothes. She wishes that Stiggy would do it NORMALLY and without more Earthling music, but she somewhat doubts it and complaining would just increase the volume this time. So, after picking herself off the ground again, she attempts to ignore the ongoing song as she throws on her outfit and prepares for landing. "Oh yeah. You know how I was saying I could sing you an Antaemnekht song earlier?" Her ALICE asks, causing Ada to freeze. Usually, questions like that never lead to anything good.

"Yes?" She says, though it sounds more like a question than anything. "Well, you can hear it from a native! We've got one on our sensors speeding towards the same planet. Or I assume it's one since the ship design is from them. Could be a pirate. Hey, we should say hi! It'd be hot to see you get violated by pirates. Or violate the pirates. I'm not picky." All Ada can really do is sigh and place her face in her hand. Why did her ALICE become such a pervert? She's fairly sure she didn't program such a thing in and it's not a part of Vivi's personality that the human ever expressed to her, so WHY!? "We're just gonna table that for now and come back to it in about 1000 Sunt Cycles. For now, could you hail the other ship. I need to figure out if they're gonna be hostile or not." She says tiredly. Sometimes just being in her ship is a trial. "Tell 'em to send nudes." Stiggy says before opening comms to the Antaemnekht ship.

"Greetings. I am Adamantem of the Minerali Sunt. This is just a friendly communication to ascertain how friendly our interactions will remain. Can I ask your purpose with this planet? I'm on a bodyguard assignment myself."

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

While Ada awaited the other ship's response to her hail, the surface of the planet below them began the shift to grey, as clouds began covering the entirety of the visible area. This was an anomaly seen on other planets, known as a Global Plasma Storm. While this was generally unsafe on most planets, typically it kept the creatures in desert areas from leaving their burrows, making desert areas safer, while all others were made more dangerous.

[CondorBoH]

Impulse immedietly made an annoyed face, turning around to look back in her ship. She stretched an arm out to grab something underneath her bed and showed it to the camera. It was a large, purple, slightly glowing dildo.
"I mean the PLEASUREMASTER 5000 is the only thing of actual value on this heap. Unless the scale on this comscreen is off, I'm pretty sure it wont fit."

The goop-woman leaned in close to the camera to smile at this Snarky. Meanwhile, under the camera, her fingers were tapping at the console. Her ALICE, the slightly-glitchy RECALL was set to checking the Scout Force's database for this individual. Pirate, yes, but she wanted to see who she was dealing with.

[mrblah]

Zoi grinned widely as her pursuers failed to hit her with every attempt they made. Her ship might've often felt like a rust bucket, but this was a good reminder that she didn't have the worst junker in the galaxy. "Man, these these guys suck! Not even trying that hard and they can't hit a single shot!" She laughed uproariously, and in her excitement, the Starfinder's captain hadn't noticed the airspace they were flying into. She likely wouldn't have cared much anyway.

"Z, incoming!" Her A.L.I.C.E cried out. Zoi, as distracted as she was, hadn't seen Star's race against the lightning mine and ignored the spinning and shaking. But as danger was pointed out to her, she looked down at the radar to see a missile just a second from impacting against the ship. "Skerto-" The missile made contact with the ship, and the electricity coursed through the Starfinder to finally shock Zoi. It felt like a hot flash of energy was coursing through her, making her yelp in pain as she almost lost consciousness from the sudden damage. "Wuh oh—zzzz!" Zoi barely heard Star's exclamation and interruption, and couldn't have given it much thought on just what happened to her. With the ship suddenly falling quiet, and her body aching in five different ways, it kind of felt like now would be a nice time... to sleep a little.

And sleep she did. She slept through the entire process of her ship slowly drifting into the planet's atmosphere, and she slept through the blaring red alarms as it was sucked in by its gravity and sent for a crash course to the ground. Not even the hard impact woke her much.

She did, however, awaken in time. Her body was aching like she'd been thrown in a space hurricane, and it hurt to move any of her limbs, but she forced herself up to at least figure out what the hell happened to her... which she did in seconds. She could hear the sparks from damaged ship parts and taste a metallic flavor in her mouth. She could smell the light bits of smoke, and most importantly, she couldn't hear her A.L.I.C.E. No doubt they crashed after she passed out. The lightning missile probably fried the Starfinder's systems, and Star likely went with them. Zoi tsk'd.

"Right... okay." She counted to three, then struggled to stand out of her chair, her body protesting all the while. She took slow steps to the ship's controls, and pressed a few buttons... low energy, a machine's voice told her. It gave her a verbal report of the ship's damages, and Zoi listened to it as she tried to get Star back online. A few buttons were pushed, most of the ship's power was routed to its A.L.I.C.E, and it was put into low power mode. Then, in a small beam of light, the form of her digital companion formed within the damaged ship. Star, in all her glory. "Well, you look awful." The first words her longtime digital companion had said. "Gee, thanks." Zoi deadpanned in reply. Just another day in her life, really.

"So, to sum things up, we crash landed on some planet, probably Grak since it was the closest at the time, and the junker's stabbed into the ground; it's probably pretty banged up right now. I'm gonna head out to see if I can find something useful in this desert. I'm taking the communicator, so keep a watch out for me." As she was talking, Zoi was searching for said communicator. Once she found it, she'd put it in her pocket and head out. From the ruins of her ship, Star would lead her to the Khaid Empire's camp. She often acted as Zoi's eyes whenever Zoi's other amazing senses couldn't be so useful to make up for her natural blindness.