Futuristic Uknown Crisis: Intermission

[TrashRabbit]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

Goody hadn't been around for the Ji-eun's introduction, he'd been busy. And the sleep that came to him was hard earned but short lived. He awoke- moments after impact with the floor to the deafening thump of EDM. It's not a song he knows and it's gone by time he grabs his head and starts to run a diagnostic it's gone. There are several un read emails in his in box from NASA, Avalon, and Cmmd Hekkiah, that if he been around to read them might have shed some insight on the situation- given him some semblance of what the cause of such a high level of shenanigans could be. But he was tiered, his side hurt and he was generally still shaken from previous mission. His diagnostics came back alright- something made it through his fire wall- his Jiian fire wall that most of the world lived in fear of, but it hadn't left anything behind. So he did something he did very rarely- at least outside of Avalon. He turned on his personal texting interface. They were more common in other cultures- but most everyone on the ship still used discord like a beloved troglodyte and accessing the ships intranet was simple enough with his interface. There were only two other users in range. He was too grogy to consider that maybe getting a text from a Jiian os/ip would probably not going to make the situation better?

ᶃ⚮Ð: Any body get the IP on that blast?

The sound seemed to be coming from a direction now at least and he pulled himself up and headed out into the hall in nothing but his sweat pants and tattoos. If this was Cathal some how, he was throwing him in a trash compactor.

Donny stepped out of his room and said; "WHAT THE FUCK GUYS" and then went back into his room.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

Cathal's turntable was playing Fall Out Boy loud enough that he almost didn't hear the dubstep at first. His phone was somewhere in the depths of his bed, and he was constructing an elaborate birthday package for one of his nieces, who was about to turn eleven. Philip was playing in the discarded bits of wrapping paper, and Cathal was very carefully keeping track of her and the scissors.
It wasn't until his com switched itself on to play him some vintage dubstep that he heard it, and he turned to frown at it on his desk.
"What do you have against Fall Out Boy?" he asked it.
The com went quiet.
"That's what I thought," he said, assuming that Goody, or maybe June, had decided to tease him.
The com went back on, and Miranda reported.
"Probably not Goody," Cathal told Philip. He picked her up and gave her a smooch and returned her to her tank, stopping his record on the way out.
"What is the fuck, Donny?" Cathal called back. "Donny. Donny is the empire here? They brought classic dubstep. Donny. Donnyyyyyyyyyy."

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Its a shitty prank and I'm not a sucker," Donny's voice called, muffled from the interior of his room.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Who's pulling a shitty prank involving dubstep though?" Cathal asked, leaning on the door. He was barefoot and wearing flannel, and said into the com, "Children, you've upset your father, he hates fun and bases that drop."

 

[Faelinara]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

Suddenly the beat stops. In it's place starts this song....

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound
​

[ERROR]: [A,, b_d; 6vt t:: \P 0- t,,t bl-st?]
"What the fuck?" Miranda says to herself as a message arrives on her entoptics, coming to a stop - and Zephyr skidding past her. [Altis, was that you?]
[No] Altis promptly replies. [I got the same message. Good news though, the Felix Cecropia genome is safe.]
[Not yet it isn't] Miranda texts. She tries to run a trace for the source of the message, and manages to triangulate it to very close by...
...the crew cabins.
"Fuck!" Miranda shouts, "Zephyr, c'mon!" The two book it for the crew deck - whoever the attacker is could be infiltrating the ship from the crew deck! They might even have someone hostage!
Miranda rushes past the doors, hearing a door open behind her and an irish-mexican accent confusedly drawl out muffled words as the only thing she can focus on is stopping this.
She stops at the room her inserts tell her was the source of the transmission: it's Goody's bunk.
"Zephyr, the vents," Miranda commands, urgently hoping she's wrong about this. Zephyr finds the nearest access and leaps up into the ventilation shaft, moving with balance and stealth into the room. She can trust Zephyr to do what needs to be done.
The holo-interface for Goody's door pops open, and Miranda finds it unlocked. She opens the door just as Zephyr drops from the vents in Goody's room.
Only Goody isn't there.
"What?" Miranda gasps. "Zephyr, find him."
Zephyr inhales sharply, then looks out the door and breaks into a run past Miranda. She turns and follows, the cricket able to move a lot faster than she can. She hears Zephyr's footfalls come to a stop, and runs up to find Zephyr confronting Goody - only with their claws down and their head tilted sideways. Miranda finds Goody in nothing but his sweatpants and tattoos - unarmed and even a little helpless looking.
"Well, you found him," Miranda commends, tail up and alert, regarding Goody warily, not entirely sure what happens next. Where had Goody been in all that lost time? What had he been up to? Had he been compromised?
"I need you to be very honest with me, Goody," Miranda says as coolly as she can manage, Zephyr picking up on her tension and clicking warily, "are you the one responsible for this?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

Goody puts his hands up in surender as the bug charges and stops. Goody is tensed, every muscle in him flexed and just waits it out. when miranda confornts him he cocks his head and if un-looks could kill says "What? No!"His very meek customer service voice raising a pitch and his hand gesturing emphaticaly as he speaks. "How dare! My pranks are funny and I have better taste in music. And its coming form that way! I just tried to message you about it?"
He stood pointing down the hall. He still hadn't relaxed physically which made his pose look like some sort of angry pin up.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

"Wait, that was you?" Miranda asks, her caution giving way to shock. "Altis and I both got really scrambled messages, and I thought..."
Miranda takes a breath and settles herself, cueing Zephyr to relax as well.
"Whoever managed to break open our inserts has to know what they're doing, so when I sourced the message back to your room I was ready to think...fucking hell," Miranda says, an upper hand on the back of her neck, really not sure what to think now.
"<He's telling the truth,>" Zephyr chirps.
"I know, cricket," Miranda says, her chest still tight. Looking to Goody, she says: "I put an all-call out about it, let's get you some clothes on so we can go find out who this gremlin is."
Looking back, Miranda calls: "I could've sworn I heard a Cathal just now, is he coming along?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

Goody flung his hand wide and let them flap against his sides in exasperation while making a very guttural "aaaugh," noise that actually came form his vocal chords, so as it also sounded a bit like he was a trapped in tin can. He deiced to disengage which was a perfectly acceptable social move on Avalon considering the vast majority of the populations inability to actually follow social convention and stalked off down the hallway towards the source. He wanted to deal with exactly zero of Miranda at the moment- later when he was so angry. He didn't get angry often and to be honest he wasn't best at coping with it. He had always had to wait till he'd cooled off and thankfully, back home pressing some one when they had an emotion was strictly taboo. The rest of the universe was not so accommodating though.

The trash compactor was too good for who ever was doing this.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal left Donny to sulk in his room and went in search of the others. He found Goody and Miranda, and the tenseness of Goody's shoulders told Cathal everything he needed to know about how that unsupervised interaction had gone.
"Well hello beautiful people. How do we feel about dubstep?" Cathal asked. He reached up and patted Goody's shoulder. He tilted his head and squinted at the rising bruise on Goody's side, and asked, "Do you need to go back to bed? I got this."

 

[TrashRabbit]

Goody hung his head and stopped. The answer was yes and he didn't want to admit it, though he deflated all over.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Take five at least," Cathal said. "There's a good lad." He patted Goody's shoulder again. "I will make the dubstep stop. Once we figure out where they're hiding." He gave Goody a little shove and watched him go off in the direction of his room. "So," he said to Miranda, "You got any other ideas where this is coming from?"

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

"It's coming from somewhere at the far end of the ship," Miranda answers, after a second of silence to pick out the beats from the background noise. "Zephyr and I were going to check it out when Goody somehow texted my inserts, only the message came across scrambled and, well...here we are. I tried to put a message out, only I think our hacker might have spiked my communicator because no one seems to have responded. How do you want to handle this?"

Zephyr warbles a greeting at Cathal, still somewhat tense from the standoff and visibly concerned after Goody.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

"I think Donny might be right," Cathal said, leaning over to scratch Zephyr's chin. "This feels more like a prank than a real attack. Unpleasant. Annoying. But not really malicious. So I think we ought to find out who's playing and have a chat. We just have to find where they're hacking in from, is all. " And with that, he turned and headed off to the trash compactor, because that was always the last place anyone ever looked.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Intermission: ???? whats that sound​

"But the sound's coming from the other direction...?" Miranda starts to say as Cathal marches off to the trash compactor. Turning back to the source of it, she nods Zephyr along to follow her down the corridors of the ship toward the sick beats, starting to ease up as no one else seems particularly worried; just to be sure, she tasks her inserts with running a full sweep to ensure that nothing has been compromised.

As they get close to what might be the source of the noise, Zephyr stops. Miranda stops with the bug, and watches as they take several sharp inhalations. "<Someone new>," Zephyr says in clicks and chirps. They lope down the hall with more animus than before, on the scent of their prankster. Just as they approach a room with an open door, the dubstep stops - only to start playing from three different but very close doors. Miranda and Zephyr both glance about, Zephyr inhaling to take the scent of the air. Miranda thinks she can hear something else underneath the music, very close...

Zephyr springs into action, racing for the nearest vent shaft and leaping upward into the vent: Miranda hears some kind of eep! like a startled rodent in the ventilation shaft - only it sounds synthetic. Zephyr races down the vent after some target, and Miranda rushes down the hall to keep up: the tic tic tic tics end with a loud thunk and more panicked screeching as Zephyr proceeds to an opening and drops back into the corridor, something squirming in the grip of its mouthparts.

"Well, what have we here?" Miranda asks, walking up to and crouching down before Zephyr to get a good look at their catch. Pteromys Volans springs to mind as the general shape of the thing struggling with Zephyr's mouthparts ceases struggling, regarding Miranda warily with what are clearly synthetic eyes set in a chrome-plated synthetic body. It is a strikingly accurate replication of an old-Earth flying squirrel, but one made of metal and plastics rather than flesh and bone. The squirrel-drone resumes struggling, fighting to break free of the iron grip Zephyr has on it.

"You're not going anywhere, little one," Miranda says to the robot, drawing her communicator off of her belt. "Miranda to Cathal, I didn't find our prankster but I may have found something of their's: an autonomous drone of some kind."

Miranda looks and listens for any indication of their interloper through the music and the noise of the ship: "Where are you, little gremlin...?"

 

[Graystone713]

Kevin Starr
I can’t believe it’s NASA​

Kevin wanted to walk back out. He wanted to just hide in his room again. But it was far too late now, and he’d lose his mind if he didn’t find out what on earth they were cooking and why it needed such crazy equipment.
“I blame you for this, Cathal. So, yeah. I’m Kevin... Uh... what’re we making?”
He said, quickly whispering to Cathal before he properly addressed the others and asked that burning question...

What’s that sound?
​

Kevin and the twins had been testing the robots, trying to sync up the new Beta’s weird tentacle arm to what Kevin wanted it to do. Then the signal dropped and the ship was flooded with dubstep. What?
“Tina, what’s happening?”
Kevin said, exiting the Neuropod.
“Hacker... Outplayed?”
Tina said, trying to take back control. But she was no masterclass Hacker. It stopped briefly, but that was just the track changing. What? How? Kevin heard communiques from the others, and knew they were looking...
“Tina, let’s triangulate this signal, just like Io. But... less bug fighting. I hope.”
Tina just nodded, sure she could eventually pinpoint the origin...

 

[Faelinara]

What's That Sound?​

As Miranda calls in her findings to Cathal, the music scratches to a halt. The mechanical critter looks up at her with wary eyes. Jerking its head toward Zephyr it lets out a tiny squeak, much like that of a Pteromys Volans from Old Earth. As the sound hits both the assailants’ ears, the squirrel emits a short electric shock, stinging Zephyr’s mouth like a short prick with a pin, in many places. His mouth loosens just enough for the critter to drop down and race away.
As the mech-squirrel lope down the corridors, the music changes:



Screens flash visual of a countdown 3…2…1…and then a disco ball, rotating in sync to the rhythm.
The instant the music changes, Tina’s location sensors narrow down to two very accurate locations. One was, right on Zephyr and Miranda? The other….the barracks! And an incoming message from unknown:

Tina you are so adorable! ; D

Everyone receives an incoming message from Unknown:

I can’t wait to meet you all! : D

 

[theunderwolf]

A notification played a rather pompous anthem on every single one of Nikki's devices
SBM: That was a bit rude.
SBM: But quite funny

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Intermission: I Can't Believe It's NASA!​

"We're making all kinds of things!" Miranda proclaims, two of her four arms indicating the bags of ingredients. "Now, a lot of the ingredients have elements that need to be extracted or neutralized, the weirdest of which Altis and I can handle and the rest of which will be sorted out by the same means you're all familiar with. Let's see, here..."

Miranda's attention turns to the table, occasionally glancing back at Altis and her equipment as the two of them divide the labor up over insert chat. "Actually lot of this is going to be ingredient prep. We could start with...well, those are maybe for Altis and I to handle...who here's good with a steak? We've got what amount to steaks, but titanohulud meat needs quite a bit of love to get it tender enough for human consumption. We're also going to need someone to mind a pan for the cloudmouth skins to make those nice and chewy...we have so many things to make that I will bet you a drink that we can find something to suit your abilities - what do you most enjoy cooking?"

Miranda doesn't let much of a pause hang before she remembers something, trampling over her own question by asking: "Actually, have any of you seen Eppie around? She said she was going to help us, and" - Miranda pauses briefly to check the time on her entoptics - "she's normally awake by now. Did anyone hear from her, whether she had to go ashore or anything?"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

Cathal McKay
I can't believe it's not NASA!​

Cathal grinned brightly back at Kevin. "You're welcome!" he whispered back. He listened to Miranda and then said, "Are you askin' for someone to beat some meat? I'm pretty good at that, I hear."

What's that sound?​

Goody had stuffed Cathal in the trash compactor enough times that he was very good at getting out of it, and getting in by himself was only a little trickier. He almost regretted sending Goody to bed, as it would have been easier to get in with his help. Cathal had not been in it long before he realized that he was not in the right spot. Miranda's message over the radio confirmed it, and then he got the bubbly text.

Its hard 2 meet u when ur hiding love!!! ): ): Cathal texted back.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Donovan
I can't believe its not nasa​

"I have hands," Donvan said helpfully, "How Can I help." He gave June a reassuring smile.

Goody
whats that noise1!1​

The email was post dated to fourteen hours ago, when he wad firmly still on Ket. It had only arrived in his inbox a full five minutes earlier. It was addressed to him from the Avalon senator, detailing the transfer of a young girls guardian ship from NASA Deep space research to Avalon- and by proxy as a reserve representative currently onboard with NASA that meant him. He skimmed the outline and justification of here position on team nine.
He dragged his fingers over his face so that they made a window-pane like squeak. Goody took a minute to breath. And then looking at the message the girl had sent to everyone and responded.
[Where are you? Also you are grounded. I'm your guardian now so I totally can.]

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Miranda Menendez
I can't believe it's not NASA!​

"Such lovely volunteers," Miranda quips, smirking at Cathal's entendre before smiling genuinely at Donny's offer of hands. "Well, as I said, we have quite a bit of ingredient prep to get through, and I suppose I can lay out some options. Cathal, since you're so good at beating meat, let's have you get to work on the Akheti titanohulud steaks that will be one of our main courses for this evening. Donny, your hands could get to work on the small mountain of vegetables and veggie-analogues we'll be putting into many different dishes. June, you could help us get the Durgothian Croquettes started! Miloj could start preparing any number of the ithyomorphic fillets we'll need to prepare. Kevin, I understand you're something of a cook, we could have you help Altis and I prepare some of the specialty spices and sauces from the more exotic planets we've visited...I think that's everybody who's here..."

"You are all free to decline, of course - we're here to cook with you, not to order you around. Now, unless anyone has any objections, this will be a day long effort, so we should get started..."

Miranda and Altis proceed to instruct everyone in the preparation of the exotic ingredients they have prepared for the feast. Miranda helps situate everyone present, and organizes the ingredients so that everyone can move from preparing one course to the next. The ingredients are almost all of an alien nature, having been sampled from the dozens of planets the sisters explored in their tours as planetary explorers for the Commonwealth, but have been modified to be fit for human consumption, or that could be made fit for human consumption with some careful preparation. As she moves from table to table and crew to crew, Miranda keeps an eye out for anyone passing by in general - but Eppie in particular - who might want to jump in and help with the effort, already grinning at the budding camaraderie in the kitchen.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Miranda Menendez
???? whats that sound​

Zephyr shrieks in shock as the squirrel-bot discharges some sort of pulse into their mouth. Everything happens rapidly: contrary to Miranda's assertion, the drone leaps out of Zephyr's grip and bolts off for some unknown location, with Zephyr bounding after them within the second it takes for them to recover from the shock. Miranda takes off after them, running as fast as she can through the halls, her hearing having to guide her as she follows Zephyr's footfalls and the squirrel-drone's comparatively tiny tic tic tics. A message arrives to her cortical inserts - Miranda's inserts immediately scan it for any kind of virus, finding nothing. It's only when she catches up to Zephyr that she bothers to check it - and realizes that it had a set of coordinates aboard the ship pinpointing the very room she finds herself standing in front of.

"What the...?" Miranda asks, only briefly drawing Zephyr's attention away from what she previously believed was an empty crew bunk-room. There is still no present sign that anyone has been assigned to the room, and Miranda isn't sure why Zephyr broke off their chase - until she spots something on the floor. Something like a piece of technology, only Miranda doesn't recognize it, and isn't inclined to approach it after everything else.

"<The drone dropped it>" Zephyr informs her in chirps and clicks. Miranda stands off, unsure of what happens next.

Reaching for her communicator, she says, "The drone dropped something in one of the empty rooms, and we're not sure what it is. Who all is around who can help us figure out what our prankster left us?"

 

[Faelinara]

What's That Sound?​

As soon as Goody sent his message, a giant : ( came onto his screen but nothing followed.

The mech squirrel scittered up and into the vent after dropping a curious object in the center of the room. As Miranda called to the others, a flash of pink and purple shot out of the device, and in the blink of an eye...were those pixels?... a humanoid appeared, and as if exploding from the flash, squeed for joy.

"Ha! You found me!"

Standing before the pair was a rather lanky young girl clad in a very curious attire, black and accented with pinks and purples. But the face was covered by her space mask. Colorful little piece, with ears and a nifty little trick. The girl looked around, then a pink : O popped up on a Holo screen in the facial area., "Mm? Where are the others? They didn't wanna play?"

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Miranda Menendez
???? Whats that sound​

One second, there is empty space - confirmed by the absence of any trace of stimulus to Miranda's augmented senses - above the strange device on the floor: the next, with only an anomalous pixel-like shimmer to the air to warn Miranda and Zephyr, a lanky young girl appears, giving Miranda and Zephyr both a start. Miranda restrains herself from reacting rashly, and glances at Zephyr to see the bug alarmed but with their claws down, only regarding the girl warily.

"You must be our gremlin," Miranda says to the girl, setting the question of how in the cosmos she teleported into the room to one side as a dossier loads up on her entoptic display. It takes her only a second to read through it, as much of the data has been redacted or otherwise corrupted - likely by this Nikki. She is surprised to find out that the hacker who likely cracked open her inserts is only twelve years old - and augmented considerably with cybernetics for someone of her age. Miranda closes the dossier and regards the girl before her with wary curiosity. Zephyr carries an alert tension within them, making no move to threaten Nikki but likewise alert for any sudden movements.

You, ah, you rather surprised us," Miranda says in answer to her question. "I wasn't aware you were joining us until you, ah, announced yourself."

Miranda takes a second to collect her thoughts, unsure of what happens now that their master-class hacker is also a twelve-year-old child with no apparent sense of boundaries. She takes a breath to steady herself - Nikki is just a child, after all. Miranda invites herself into the room and takes a seat on the bed past Nikki, Zephyr inhaling on the opposite corner of the room to take Nikki's scent. Miranda's lower arms prop her up on the bed as her upper arms settle in her lap as well as her tail, the tip of which dances softly on her lap.

"You'll meet the others in good time, waay'paal. In the mean time, Zephyr and I will keep your company: why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"