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Futuristic Unknown Crisis IC (full)

The drill dies at the same time the control panel sparks and snaps with the last bit of the ships power- the crystal around you, covering the controls and the tunnel sing with the force of it and shatter, bits of debutage raining down around you and leaving neuron like fractures burnt deep into the crystal. It also blows Kevin clear across the bridge and back into the tunnel proper. (Kevin mark two damage you're gonna feel that)

Goody doesn't hear Eppie because both his sight and hearing are tied into his main systems. the blast takes him by surprise, and he grabs on to Eppie like there might be more explosions. He's in the middle of signing "I'm blind and deaf right now please leave a message-" when his system turns back on. But he's got no control of it. "-Wait. Its in my computer." It rooted through his systems opening and closing things swiftly. There were several reasons this made Goody's gut sink and then it opened the partition on his hard drive; the side that still ran Jiian software and tried to activate an SOS signal. "I hope the signal is still jammed cause this thing just put out a distress call to the Jiian Empire. Fuck my face." He signed motioning at all of his face, which where his computer bits were also stored.
 
Kevin Starr​

Kevin groaned weakly. What just happened?... He was out in the tunnel? Wait, his suit was scorched. His drill was scorched. The spaceship was right there. Did-Did he get blown up? Okay, everything was starting to hurt, and Kevin was CERTAIN his tailbone was fucked up in one way or another. Maybe sprained, maybe broken, maybe dislocated? Whatever happened to him, that tailbone along with everything else hurt like a BITCH... Well, he was okay-HE WASN'T THE ONLY ONE IN THERE. He stumbled as quickly as he could back to the ship, and caught the end of Goody's signing: 'Distress call to the Jiian Empire'. Kevin checked his comms. Yep, fried. He looked at the others, and they weren't obviously hurt. But he spoke aloud, or more accurately, tried to shout through both the muffling of his helmet and the limited atmosphere:
"WE'LL DEAL WITH IT LATER, BUT MY JAMMER'S DOWN. IS EVERYONE ELSE OKAY AND NOT EXPLODED? CAN SOMEONE CONTACT MITCH TO CHECK THE SITUATION UP TOP? DOES ANYONE ELSE NEED A SUIT PATCH?"
He asked, hoping that he could be heard by the others okay. Actually, really just hoping no-one was hurt. And that the Ionians weren't all zombie apocalypse right now.
 
"Donovan to team nine? This is Donovan, hello. hello- Cathal they're dead we gotta go down there-" Came Donny's ideal chatter as their coms came back online.
He was sudenly interrupted by Chaya, "Donovan, you want to tell me why there's a Jiian SOS broadcasting from New Io?"
"Uuuuh-" He said to Cathal. He'd mostly lost control of this mission the moment they left Dr. Cho to die in the patient room.
 
Cathal reached over, took Donny's com, and said, "We would love to! And we will. In a minute. Once we figure it out. Bye!" brightly into it, before switching it off and handing it back to Donny. "Let's get down there. What the entire fuck," he said, in the same bright tones he'd used with Chaya.
 
Eppie Cross​

As the control panel fucking explodes, Goody grabs onto Eppie and holds her tight. It’s honestly probably the only thing that keeps her from toppling over from the blast, and she watches with wide eyes as Kevin gets thrown back like a ragdoll. “Kevin!” She calls, releasing Goody to run to him, but remembers a little too late that her leg is currently not attached to her body, and falls over with a vicious curse. She crawls over to her leg, checking it to see if destroying the panel would have reactivated it. Hope fills her as she spots an error message, indicating it is at least on, but opening the panel to try and initiate a reboot yields nothing. It just flashes an error message with every single thing she tries, until Eppie gets so frustrated she just throws it.

Goody, the lucky bastard, gets his system to reboot, but her blood runs cold as he says that his system was not only hacked, but opened up a distress signal. Just then, Eppie’s comms turn back on, and she doesn’t miss a beat to report to Donny and Chaya of what the fuck is going on, “Donny, we’re okay. I’ve got Miloj, Goody, and Kevin alive, but Kevin is going to need medical assistance and I’m going to need evac. The signal shut down our cybernetics. Kevin shut down the signal, but it blew up the panel and Kevin, and I can’t get my leg back online to climb out unless someone wants to carry me out. Goody’s system rebooted as it should, but it got hacked and activated a Jiian distress beacon. Get all that?”
 
"Got it," Donovan said into the comm. He did a little half hop and then broke into a sprint, dragging Cathal with him. He was literally ever letting them out of his sight again.
"This is gonna sound stupid- but have you tried turning the jiian signal off? Goody's face comes off. All the way off. Have you tried that?"
Goody, meanwhile; still deaf and blind and watching this ai send line after line of code to somewhere, was attempting to eject his face plate but the mechanism was locked. This would be comical in any other situation because it made him look like he was trying to pull his head of his shoulders.
 
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Kevin Starr​
Kevin wasn’t sure what was happening at first, his Comms were dead. Eppie helpfully yelled an answer into hers, presumably telling commander Hekkekiah what the hell was going on. Shit. Goody was trying to pull his own face off because it betrayed him, and was sending that Jian distress signal. He could fix that, right? He walked over shakily and tapped on Goody’s arms. Goody, being a good boy, moved his hands away so Kevin could try. And the problem was apparent the moment you put a pen light to it. There was a bit of crystal jammed into a gap in the frame. So he pulled out the tweezers, took hold of the fragment, and slowly tried to slide Goody’s face back into the fully equipped position so he could remove it... and his nerves betrayed him, he shook, and the crystal fell inside of Goody’s face. Darn. Okay, but the track was clear, so he slowly began to pull it up and off, gently hoping the crystal wouldn’t jam anything else. Then his hand’s neuroport gently grazed goody’s metal. And the static caused some seriously disproportionate feedback, and a jolt of pain made him yank it wrong, causing a little plastic ‘crunch’ noise to come out of the mask, and the whole thing to go dark. He fucked up the motherboard or something. Shit. He had no way to tell a blind deaf boy that his face needed to be removed and replaced by someone with steadier hands, more time, and a much fuller toolkit. He could only hope he understood that just by feeling the crunch happen. So Kevin sat down, sighed, and said “I think we need to get Goody to Donny. And just leave in general... We can investigate later, when we’ve had a chance to recover, re-equip, and just... Calm down. Fuck.”
 
Goody let out a yell as his face unit was yanked clear- and for once it didn't sound like he was trapped in a tin can. That was the scene Donny and Cathal arrived at, out of breath with Cathal holding one of the crystal pill bugs like a baby in the crook of his arm.
"Tell me you turned off the signal?" He said- taking in that no one was in fact dying.
The trek back to the station proper was a hassle. Miloj handled the bugs and the rest of them limped along. Dealing with the New Ionian authorities was worse and Chaya had to ship over to argue with Mitch as he argued with the rest of New-io council.
"Well," Donny said to Kevin, patching him up in the same medbay that he had watched Dr. Cho die in earlier, "I think you're the hero of the day- just you know, in the future, don't short circuit yourself to do it."
The back of Goody's face wasn't fun to look at- he didn't so much have a proper mouth but he could use a straw and that flesh was open to the air, the rest looked like the inside of any average Jiian bio computer; a hot mess. The head of the New-io Militia had handcuffed one of his hands to the chair- the other one was holding the detached bit in his lap.
Eventually they were released back to UC9. the Commander didn't look happy.
 
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The Cyber Brains of New Io debriefing​

​

  • For the most part the mission was a diplomatic nightmare that team nine didn't have to directly deal with. The political back lash from with in new Io that there was a pre-empire ship at the core of their settlement was immense. On any other world this would have been a some what simple cover up- Mitch's position was one hundred percent transparent and had reported the signal when he overheard it. The second alliance is reeling- New Io is a corner stone of their alliance and had always proudly boasted their generation ship history, this is however factually wrong. New Io was founded by a group of pre-Jiian empire ships.

    Dr. Cho's proposed procedure for the victims of the Ajiian AI involving buffing out the information engraved on the infected cyberbrain's was successful. However it resulted in memory loss and personality change in many patients. Dr. Cho was mourned by majority of the second alliance academic community.

    So far Jiian forces have not responded to the signal.

    Goody's CPU was quarantined and retained by NASA, New Io is at arms for it to be returned. NASA has not capitulated. Goody had a spare face on hand once he was back on UC9.

 
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Cathal McKay
Intermission: Punks Don't Narc​

Cathal had a big blue plastic tub with holes in the lid that he lugged into the medbay. He set it down outside of Dr. Finch’s office and leaned in. “Hey. Hey Tom.”
“Yeah?” He said in the same tone that meant go away I’m still reading Altis’s research papers, the same thing I’ve been doing for the past week please stop.
“Do you want to see something very cool?”
Tom made a face like he found that unlikely then, remembered this was cathal and pivoted in his computer chair, “Hit me. What is it.”
“First. What’s something very not punk that you would never ever do?” Cathal asked, rocking on the balls of his feet.
“Uh-” said tom like this was a trick or test, “Sexaul assault? Swastikas? Narc? I’m deeply fucking concerned Cathal.”
Cathal flashed him finger guns and dragged the tub in the office. “The correct answer is narc, and you passed.” He shut the door behind him and pulled the crystal bug out and held it up like it was baby Simba. “Look at this!!”
“CATHAL!”
“What? It’s a big bug?”
“You took a Silica Beetle?”
“Yes? Nobody stopped me?”
Tom put his head in his hands, “Do you know- how rare those are? I mean I guess New Io has a shit ton- but like on record They’re been found on couple second alliance moons and only two or three at a time.”
“Huh. Neat,” Cathal said. The bug wiggled its many legs in protest of being held, and Cathal tucked it in his arms like it was a baby. “They’re a pain in the ass when there’s that many of them, but they’re kind of cute. I wonder what happens when they eat their way out of the tunnels.”
“Nothing good for New-Io but I read they crystallize as they go so structurally it’s not so bad. Also ALSO- You cannot let that thing get lose. Just on his onsie that little fucker can kill us in like an hour.”
“Wait wait wait,” Cathal said. “They crystallize? They made all those weird crystals? People on New Io put bug spit in their brains? That is fucked up.”
Tom shrugged, “The manufacture of the cyber brains was completely unknown until like today because I asked really shittily- It’s like a composite of spit and like shed skins and their dead. Its gross but they’re not carbon based? It’s a very particular crystal matrix. The beetles themself function a bit like cyber brains.”
“...Do you think the bugs are just...the cyberbrains after they come out of the dead bodies?” Cathal asked, holding the bug up to eye level suspiciously.
“No no god- I can’t unsee that and I wasn’t even there- Listen the bugs make the crystal midden and then they mine it and shape it into the cyber brains. I don’t think the bugs themself have enough storage for a human consciousness.”
“I put nothing past New Io,” Cathal said stubbornly. “Fucked. Up.”
“Okay but like, the fuck are you going to do with it, man?”
“You said they’re rare, right?”
“Yesssss....” Tom said like he had regrets.
Cathal booped the bug on what might have been its nose. “That sounds like a way to make money to me,” he told it.
Tom groaned. “Okay but- have you considered that thing is a living weapon and like the key to understanding how to preserve consciousness synthetically? Have you. Fucking. Considered?”
Cathal looked down at the bug and then at Tom. “Do you...want to keep it?”
“I mean- yes?!”
“Happy birthday!” Cathal told him.
Cathal forced it into his hands and Tom’s eyes went wide, the legs rather reminded him of a horseshoe crab. “I love my child,” he said sourly.
“I can feed him for you, if you want?” Cathal offered.
“It’s really not safe to keep this thing on a spacecraft though” He said.
“He’s got a nice plastic tub,” Cathal said, and banged it with his foot.
“If I past her on to someone else for research would that count as narcing?”
“Only if you told them where you got it.”
“I can be convincingly eccentric.”
“That’s why you’re my favorite,” Cathal said brightly.


Cathal returned to his room to find Chaya there and Philip and her tank very obviously visible, so Cathal decided not to acknowledge that at all.
“Hi, Chaya,” he said.
“Hi!” The commander said out chippering him.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Oh not an awful lot,” she said putting her elbow on top of Philip’s tank and leaning on it, “What about you?”
“Oh, you know. Flirting with Tom,” Cathal said, determinedly not looking at Philip.
“I came in here to see if I could borrow a blue plastic container- but I think I’ve got bigger problems. You feel me?”
“Yeah, I just let someone borrow the container,” Cathal said.
“You- handed it over? Already?” She said like she didn’t believe him.
“I’m wooing Thomas P. Finch one weird bug at a time,” Cathal said solidly.
Chaya looked meaningfully at the tiny pleseasaur nudging around a pink ball in the tank, “That sounds right.”
“That’s Philip. I love her and if you take her away I’m going to cry,” Cathal said.
Chaya put her hands on her hips and spent some long moments staring into the tank, “Well, you’re not keeping the space ship eating termite, right?”
“Tom is giving it to a friend for research purposes,” Cathal said. “It’s not mine anymore.”
“You know-” Chaya said moving away from Philip, “It’s not very punk rock to be a narc-” And exited his room like she wasn’t in a hurry to go shake down Tom for a bug.
Cathal gestured after her. “That was a gift!” he howled and chased after her.
“This next conversation will between me and Dr. Finch~” she said picking up the pace.
“You used your powers for evil!” Cathal protested.
She threw her hands up in a shrug as she disappeared into the med bay.
Cathal shrieked and followed her.
The commander slipped into Tom’s office and shut the door- locked it with her badge behind her.
“NOOOOOOO!” Cathal said, running face first into the door. “Tom I’m SORRY.”
Twenty minutes later Chaya finally opened the door and lingered like she wasn’t ready to leave. They were talking about bands.
Cathal was laying on the floor looking very pathetic.
Chaya stepped over him like she hadn’t noticed him. Leaving Tom to look at him in confusion.
“I’m very stupid,” Cathal said from the floor.
“I mean yes? But I don’t know what your about right now.”
“It was me. I was the narc.”
“Uh? I think Chaya is fucking with you....how I dunno. But-” He looked around in confusion.
“She got me to tell that I gave you the bug.”
“Oh well she didn’t mention it,” He said, “Sometimes she just wants to know what’s going on- more than doing anything about it.”
“It’s awful, and I’m going to kill her,” Cathal said, staring very hard at the ceiling. “She knows I’m stupid, and it’s just mean.”
“There there,” Tom said patting his leg with his boot.
 
Aleksei Donovan and Altis Menendez
Intermission: An Entire Moth-Cat​

Her latest creation snoozing softly in a bundle of soft cloth in her arms, Altis makes her way to the medical bay to present it to Donny. She heard from various sources around the ship that Donny is amenable to cats and cat-adjacent creatures, and rather than opting for something functional like a neo-genetic coffee mug, decided to create something that he could keep as a pet. The doors to the medbay open as they detect her approach, and Altis steps through, the thing in her arms stirring softly at the noise of the doors. “Donny,” Altis calls, “are you in here?”

“Uh-Hi yeah!” He was in the back of the medbay and seemed preoccupied with a blue plastic tub wich he stowed back under one of the counters. He jogged over to meet her half way. He paused and looked like he was about to say oh no but stopped himself. “What do you got there? Do I want to know?”

“Something that might be for you, if you like her,” Altis replies, beaming. Looking down at the swaddled creation, she sets about carefully unwrapping it so as to not expose the kitten to too much light at once. From one end of the wrap emerges a feline head with two fern-like antennae flicking out and about to take the scent of the room: the kitten mewls softly, her eyes adjusting to the light as she peeks out.

1522819031477.png

Altis reveals the whole kitten, barely larger than her own two hands and laying on her back, her six feline legs flicking about softly and her wings folded against the cloth. Her abdomen-tail flicks about as the cat looks first up at Altis - mewling with delight - before looking over to Donny, head askew in curiosity. “She doesn’t have a name yet, but I’ve designated her Felix Cecropia - I thought I might let you name her.”

“Oh no,” He says almost reverently because he instantly and permanently in love with the kitten. He holds out both hands like he has no idea what he’s done to deserve this, “are you for real right now?”

“Absolutely,” Altis says, smiling wide and filled with light at Donny’s response. She holds out the kitten to Donny’s arms, and the kitten flips herself upright, flapping her wings to test their strength before deciding to plod over and into Donny’s hands. The kitten looks up to Donny and mewls at him.

“Oh no,” he says again quietly to the kitten, “I love you.”

“You do??” Altis says, holding the cloth to her chest - it’s always a toss-up with her creations as to whether or not they will be accepted, and she is glowing to see Donny’s reception of the kitten. For her part, the kitten rears back and tries to flap her wings for takeoff but stumbles over herself and nearly falls out of Donny’s hands.
Donny scrabbles to keep her level, like she might break or that he might drop her like a bar of soap. “Nononono, you’re very small,” He warns and then looks at Altis, “And she’s for me?” The gravity of this gesture seems to hit him and to his credit the only part of him that turns red are his ears.

“She is, if you want her!” Altis replies. “I plotted out her entire genome with Miranda’s help to make her the perfect balance of self-sufficient with affectionate. She will mature to become a very smart cat and will be able to glide once her wings grow to their full strength. I can help you take care of her in her early days though, I know exactly what she needs for both her feline and insectoid needs.” Altis couldn’t be happier with how this is turning out - and Donny looks so cute with the Felix Cecropia in his arms, Altis' heart leaps in her chest! She lets herself imagine how the kitten will grow up in his care, how Donny will help her grow into a beautiful creature and love her through the unpredictable youth of a designer organism.

“Thank you,” He says seriously. He doesn't really know what to do with himself. Commander Hekiah was going to be pissed, but at least this was only creature on board that wasn’t stolen. Cathal was going to lose his mind. “I-uh-uh-” He breathed out in a little huff like one would while trying to catch there balance during say something more intensive like a presentation. He had not considered that his bad jokes had hit it off with altis enough to warrant a Moth-kitten, or maybe he was wrong. Both of the sister were altruistic if formal- and he’d pickle himself if this was just a gesture of friendship. One did not just gift somebody kitten. He didn’t care what kind of culture you were from. Kittens were big guns for the human psyche and that was a fact. He looked down at the kitten and held her to his chest.

He couldn’t believe how much he loved his new child.
He was never giving her back.
The kitten mewls and leans into Donny’s chest, rubbing herself against him and gently running her antennae against his shirt to take his scent; if Donny were to listen closely, he could hear the tiniest purring noise start to sound, a soft noise that practically shakes the kitten to make.

Altis, for her part, doesn’t know which of the two is cuter, and feels warmth flow through her heart like a liquid, smiling brightly at both of them as she watches the gears turn in Donny’s head. “I’ve had Miranda deliver some things to your quarters to help her get situated, she mostly needs the same things that the classical cat needs, only with a greater supplement of sugar in her water. I’ll be certain to check up on her - and you, to see how she treats you - as she grows up, just to be sure.”

“Doyouwantotgetcoffeesometime?” He asks in a rush.

“Yes, of course!” Altis exclaims, laughing in surprise but mostly in joy that this is going so flawlessly. The moth-kitten mewls up at Donny, continuing to rub herself against him.

“Okay,” He says, like this has returned his ability to navigate reality, like his person has fianlly returned to his body, ”Lets go set up her things- I guess I have to think of a name. We cannot let Cathal see her until this whole mess with his plesiosaur blows over- but holy shit, Altis, you made an entire weird kitten,” He says, “That’s fucking amazing. She’s fucking perfect?”

“She is!” Altis exclaims with pride and joy, looking at her creation before looking to regard Donny with a warm expression on her face. “I know you’ll take good care of her, and hope that she takes good care of you with everything you have to deal with. Let’s go get her situated!”

As they exited the medbay, Donny holding the kiten over his shoulder like a baby he asks; “I’m sure she will....Is it that obvious I’m a damn wreck?”

The doors slide shut behind them and the obvious answer was yes. Yes it is.
 
The Zookeepers of Tlao
mission four briefing​



  • The zookeepers are a federation start up working on Tlao. The origin of the group lies in a generation ship's arc, which transported hundreds of animals and the genetics of thousands more. The arc became a place of learning on Tlao until the federation caught up with the settlement and delivered all the technology that had been developed since their ship had taken off from earth. Then it became an invaluable resource. So much ecological damage had been done to earth since there departure that their genetic stores had a high price tag. Tlao refused to sell and the academics instead rallied and licensed a start up- a extremely expensive endeavor and were wildly successful in the bio-genetics market of the vast federation. However the zookeepers reinvested in other startups on Tlao a luxury most settlements overwhelmed by the federation cannot afford. Tlao subsequently is highly independent and lucrative, I functions the way federation economic propaganda advertises it should. However few places the federation contacts and mines are able to manage this feat as the federation is widely known for its exploitative tactics. The Zookeepers also own a vast registry of Exenofauna specimens and genomes.

 
The entrance to the park was barricaded like a war zone, with high hard light barrier and spiked concrete blocks interspersed along the passage towards it. There are signs of the public's flight from the space, a purse, a shoe, a smear of blood. the team passed by authorities, and they did not have much to say on the situation other than "Watch out for the snake-dogs. Two of them got into the city and it was nasty."
"Snake Dogs?" Donny had parroted back, wondering if this was a weird-dog situation or an unknown creature situation.
"If you don't know em when you see em I don't know how to help you," The man in grey blue Tlao uniform hissed back.
"Got it."
The walk towards the main entrance was about a fourth of a mile from the main transportation tunnel and Donny took the opportunity to say, "At least this trip probably wont have zombies, just putting it out there."
"People are less scary than beasts," Goody said walking a few steps behind Niki. His mission was to keep an eye on her, and he suspected that would be a full time job and he hoped the rest of the team knew that.
"Nah man. People are scary as hell," Donny said.
The main entrance was sprawling and verdant. Level one was mostly rainforest. Something roared in the distance- there was something metallic to it.
"Spooky," Said Donny, "So lets not split up. can we do this one thing for me today. I don't care what kind of hot nonsense you pull. Just can we not split up?"
 
"Snake dogs...." Mako said with an excited grin. She was so utterly out of her depth with robots, absolutely no idea what was going on with them. But a giant zoo? Full of deadly, rare creatures that wanted to eat them? This was her element. She had even brought her clothes ring, hoping something would put up enough of a fight to bear a hidden shape shift. Trying to keep her heartbeat steady she took a sniff of the bloodstain, memorizing it for later. The roar got her excited as well, she liked the sound of it. "All systems are shut down but..." She said calmly, "I don't know how smart some of these species are. First priority should be scouting... But as a general rule animals prefer their own ranges. So if we want to find one we start with its normal territory and triangulate by flight distance." She said this as she pulled out her Offical Funtime Zoo map! and began doodling on it with a sharpie, drawing very exacting circles of the likely flight range of all the species she knew how to track and a few she figured by movement speed. Plus, since there where fake biomes for individual terrains and environments, animals were likely to stay where it was most comfortable. "First priority is easy prey animals... they're the easiest assets to harm so if we can secure them they stay safe and make predators a little hungrier and willing to take more risks. As for the bio weapons I don't think we'll find them. Well I could but that shouldn't be a priority. But they'll find us especially if we've got freaking goody and Kev stomping around. My best suggestion is we should start with any prey we find first and getting control center access cameras, motion sensors etc. As for first captures Kev should take point, animals will know you're a bot which means they hide more then run. The escape distance for vehicles and robots is much shorter since animals don't know how far they need to run, they hide quicker which makes them easier to flush out/ Sound fair?" She finally finished holding up her complete re-marked map.
 
Elias and Eppie Cross​

Following the roar, Elias looks around with his hand on his hips, side eyes Eppie, then says, in his most official announcer voice, “Welcome... to Jurrassic Park.”

Eppie pipes in, doing an enthusiatic rendition of the the orchestral theme song, “doo doo DOO DOO DOO~” Snickering to herself, she cracks open the brochure, checking to see which animals are going to try and eat her, “Is this everything you dreamed of, Eli?”

“Honestly, I was hoping people would learn from the movie,” Turning to look at the authorities, Elias throws his hands in the air helplessly, “Life finds a way, guys. C’mon - Jeff Goldblum tried to tell you. He warned us. This is why we can’t have nice things-“

“HOLY SHIT!” Eppie hollers as she flips the page to see one of the main attractions, “Elias, this zoo has got me fucked up!!!”

Having had the literal shit scared out of him, he looks flatly at Eppie, “What.”

Swiftly ignoring him, she bounds over to Miranda since they had compared expeditions and their resulting scars during some downtime, rolling up her sleeve to expose a very detailed tattoo of a particularly vicious alien on her arm and the scars it’s kind had caused, “Mirandamirandamiranda,” She practically collides with Miranda as she comes to her side, then holds out the brochure to compare the tattoo to the photograph of the creature, “They have an Asshole the Apex Predator alien here! What the fuckkkkkkk!”

002F8E4F-FF65-445F-AE3E-6A0B54DF213D.jpeg
 
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Kevin Starr
Jurassic Park, or Pacific Rim?​

Kevin wasn’t going to waste any time on this mission. He’d spent the last few days in and out of the gym, getting rid of his phantom pains. And here he was, loaded into Gamma, ready to get in a fight. He had his machine rigged up with tranquilizer guns, and Tina would have that digital soundboard ready soon; The one containing the sounds for park announcements, feeding bells, and hopefully a few useful animal calls. When Mako laid out the plan, Kevin smiled. A plan! A good one! Lots of experience and knowledge! A rough map of where to expect animals!
“I’m so happy to have a plan right now, you don’t even know. But if it helps, I actually asked Tina to start work on a soundboard of stuff like park announcements, bells, door chimes, and basically any sort of audio cue the animals might recognize. I figure it could lure a few out, if it sounds like the zookeepers are about to start feeding time. On the herbivores and smaller predators it ought to be easy, right? Dunno about anything bigger and smarter than your average dog, but... It helps, right?”
 
Miranda and Zephyr Menendez​

Having set her own Official Funtime Zoo! map back in the pocket of her jumpsuit, Miranda scans the jungles of the first tier, jumpier than she'd like to be for her first mission. The sights, scents, and sounds of the habitat have an almost familiar quality to them, and she feels herself drawn toward the underbrush, ready to climb the trees and get acquainted with the artificial ecosystems of Tlao; her senses are sharp, almost too sharp, alert for any sign of movement within the brush. There is nothing for it but to power through the consequences of Altis' recent experiment for the good of the people she came here to help.

Next to her, Zephyr grumbles, gently clawing at the NASA bandana wrapped around their neck that kept them from being shot for a rogue specimen.

"Ah yes, you've been plenty patient," Miranda says, crouching down and undoing the bandana in one elegant motion. Zephyr chirps a thanks to her, their tension from the landing and the crossing amid twitchy security personnel easing as they take in the jungle environment. Warbling softly as they lope alongside Miranda, Zephyr takes a few draws of the air for anything worth noting as Miranda ties the bandana around her own neck with a secure but easily removable knot.

To the matter at hand, Miranda listens intently to Mako's strategizing; she is more familiar with studying wildlife than manipulating it, but agrees with most of Mako's points: "I would only add that we should be prepared for surprises; yours is a good plan, but there's no accounting for what chimeric or even neo-genetic organisms are capable of, to say nothing of those deliberately bred as weapons-"

Hearing her name called from behind her, Miranda whips around in time to catch Eppie barreling into her - her four arms reflexively wrapping around Eppie and laughing in surprise, very aware of everyone around her and especially Eppie. Her laughter is cut short by Eppie's pointing out the inclusion of Asshole the Apex Predator to the menagerie, a thrill passing through her.

"Madre de cosmos..." Miranda mutters, the harrowing story of Eppie's encounter called back into mind, first glancing at Eppie's scars, the tattoo, and then the depiction of the creature on the brochure. Letting go of Eppie, Miranda feels the chill pass into anticipation, a hand on the barrel of the otherwise not-entirely-welcome tranquilizer rifle slung over her back: "Let's hope we get the drop on this one first."

Miranda takes a breath to try to still herself. Altis has done what she can to alleviate the worst of the neurostimulus experiment, and the retrovirals are off to their invisible work of removing it from her genome: Miranda will have to endure the heightened awareness and fight-or-flight response in the mean time. There are lives of all kinds at stake.

"Good thinking, Kevin," Miranda compliments. "Hard to say what will react to what noises without a better understanding of the collection, but it's a good start nonetheless. Zephyr and I are...prepared to scout ahead and get a sense of what we're dealing with, and my sister is standing by for any anomalous genetic data we need analyzed. We'll assist with containment and study of the rogue organisms, hopefully to see them safely contained and cared for."

Zephyr chirps in agreement, sensing her uncharacteristic unease and nuzzling up against her: Miranda's tail comes to rest on their carapace, the tip petting their sweet head.
 
Cathal McKay​

Despite the rest of the team's plans for rounding up the animals, Cathal had outfitted the security team like they did back home when kangaroos got too close for comfort: big hand canons and even bigger rifles. True, they mostly had tranqs for ammo, but dosage was always a risky thing--too much and you killed the animal anyway, too little and you just pissed them off. And where they were going in blind, the odds of things weren't great.
He had also made sure they all had grenades, because sometimes you just had to explode a void dog from the inside out.
"How come we never get to go to the zoo when things are normal?" Cathal complained.
Finn, a little behind him, had evidently been listening to Eppie and Miranda, because he said, "Asshole the Apex Predator?"
"Deberíamos alimentar a un tratamiento explosión también," Cris told him.
"Por supuesto," Cathal agreed. "Cris, Miloj, you guys in back, eyes on our six. Elias, Finn, three and nine. I'll take point with Kevin. No surprises, le bhur dtoil." After the chewing out he and Donny had gotten from the way New Io had shaken down, Cathal wanted things to go...well, he wasn't dumb enough to expect it would go how he wanted, but he'd settle for it being handled in a way that they couldn't get yelled at for.
 
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Miloj​

At the mentioning of Snake Dogs, Miloj silently slid on his helmet and flicked off the safety on his rifle.He wasn't fucking with any Snake Dogs. Eyes flicking over some of the general information on his helmet's HUD, he glanced up at Eppie's outburst. {This should be fun,} he mumbled to himself in Russian, before Cathal ordered him to the back of the pack with Cris. Holding his rifle up against his shoulder with one hand as he checked his sidearm with the other, he gave Cris a slight nod. "Do not be letting the beasties eat me, and I will not be letting them eat you."
 
Snake dogs
​
5ed424d0ae13b6fda3035464df7076b5.jpg
The ambush happens in perfect unison- slithering out form under a table and from behind a vending machine- two on each side and toward the center. On the left, they jump high and take Elias and Eppie from above, crashing down on them with their full force. On the right, both swerve and twine and jump Finn. It's only after the first shout- after the team realizes what's happening- only after Cathal has turned to look that the fifth jumps him from behind.


Eppie takes 2 harm
Cathal takes 1 harm
Elias takes 0 harm
Finn takes 0 harm
 
Elias and Eppie Cross
​
It’s exactly like the fucking movie. They come out of nowhere, hit hard and fast, and are smart enough to form an ambush. Eppie would love to science the fuck out of them if one of them didn’t target her. It leaps into the air, slamming the full force of it’s weight into Eppie and sending them both to the floor. It knocks the tranquilizer right out of her hands as she lands on her back hard enough that every single bit of oxygen in her lungs leaves her in a pained wheeze. The Boy™ is not patient or polite enough to give her a second or two to get her lungs to stop spasming, and she barely has time to throw her arms over her face to keep it from ripping out her throat.

It’s teeth shred through the thin sleeve of her suit and bury into her arm, and she cries out in pain, tears welling in her eyes reflexively at the throbbing bite. With the arm not being used as a chew toy, she reaches out blindly for anything she can use to get this weird dog off her, her fingers finding purpose on a rock. Using every amount of force she can manage, she slams the rock into the side of it’s head, again and again and again until it’s jaw loosens on Eppie’s arm and releases her. She scrambles to her feet and puts distance between herself and the hound, and then notices it has effectively blocked her from the rest of the group, and she can see her only weapon is just behind it’s leg.

She holds out her hands in what she hopes is a gesture that calms the creature but is likely just fucking stupid, but she feels like it would be even dumber to run, especially since she can feel blood dripping down her arm and wetting the torn fabric of her suit, which is almost positively going to give this dog an easy time if he wanted to hunt her down, “Okay, that’s a good boy, please don’t attack me...”

Meanwhile, Elias has a slightly better time when the dog jumps him. Having a little more capacity to react quickly to sudden threats, Elias is prepped to catch the son of a bitch when it leaps at him, staggering beneath the weight of the damn thing but not falling, though he shouts when he hears Eppie cry out, “Eppie!”

He desperately wants to help his sister, but the snake dog seems very adamant on trying to claw Elias’ eyes out, so he focuses on it for the current moment. It’s claws try to rake down Elias to take him down, but his suit thank fully holds. The weird dog thrashes hard, lurching forward to try and snap at Elias’ face, and trying to dodge that one throws Elias flat on his ass. He swears viciously, grunting as he takes it and practically throws it off him and over his shoulder. Breathing hard, Elias looks back in just enough time to watch it slam into Miranda and begin to try to kill her.

He doesn’t even move to help - he just sits there, so totally and completely fucking baffled that, of all fourteen fucking people that are here, the one he launches the wild snake dog at is one of two girls that his sister is sweet on. A one in fourteen chance of him hitting Miranda, one in seven if he counted both Miranda and Mako. He’s seen Mako tango with Zephyr a handful of times despite his realitively short stay on the ship, so as bad as it sounds, it wouldn’t be that bad to throw it at Mako. But NOPE, he has to throw the murder dog at fucking Miranda, the scientist.

“Oh, fuck me.”
 
Miranda Menendez​

If there is anything to be said in favor of Miranda’s heightened alertness, it is that she manages to react to the sound of claws scraping against the ground and turn to watch as the snake-dogs lunge from their concealed positions for the team. They move with amazing speed, one of them barreling into Elias and the other into -

“Euphemia!” Miranda cries out in horror as the creature throws Eppie to the ground before lunging at her. The tranquilizer rifle is in her hand and loaded with a single fluid motion, but as the creature bites into Eppie’s arm and wrenches a scream out of her, Miranda hears Elias swear with the snarling of another snake-dog right behind her. They move so fast, these chimeric hybrids of pythonid and canid genestock, that Miranda can’t get a clean shot on the one lashing its head back and forth like it’s trying to tear off her arm without the unacceptable risk of hitting Eppie.

“Zephyr - Eppie, now!” Miranda shouts, whipping around to focus her attention on the uncomfortably close brawl between Elias and the snake-dog behind her. Miranda hears the scrape of talon on concrete as Zephyr launches off, but is faced with the same dilemma as she tries to level a shot on the creature coiling around Elias: both combatants are moving too quickly for her to have a clean shot on the chimera without risking a shot on Elias. It slams him to the ground, but with shocking strength Elias takes hold of it by its and hurls it-

-right at her.

The creature’s lithe, flailing body slams into Miranda with great force, the creature disoriented and thrashing, trying to get a grip on its own situation as it takes Miranda to the ground with her. Miranda hits the ground, the wind knocked out of her as the snake-dog slams into her, whipping around and making itself a hard target. Her mind racing and her upper arms on the rifle, her lower arms push hard to catapult the snake dog off of her. The creature snaps back at the arms but misses them as it is launched clear of her. Miranda pulls her legs back for a kick, striking the chimera square in its chest hard and wrenching a yelp of pain that sends the creature reeling. Having made the opening she needs, Miranda kicks herself upright and levels the rifle on the snake-dog, setting her crosshairs on the creature’s chest with the second she has before it rights itself. She fires a dart loaded with a fast-acting tranquilizer-

-and strikes home, wrenching another yelp from the chimera as it injects the fast-acting sedative - prepared ahead of time for this very scenario - into the snake-dog’s body. It looks to her with a vengeful outrage, but the drug takes rapid effect, and the bite meant for her snaps shut on empty air. The snake-dog tries to right itself, lashing around and hissing vengefully: all it can manage is kick and bite impotently at empty air, its hissing and snapping becoming gurgling before the creature’s body goes limp. The gentle rising and falling of its chest all Miranda needs to see before trying to get a grip on the unfolding chaos around her.
 
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Finn Dolan​

Finn liked snakes, and dogs. He did not like snake dogs. Especially not when they flew out of nowhere at him. There were two, and Finn fired off his first shot, but it didn't seem to bother the one he hit--the tranq dose must have been just low enough to piss it off instead of putting it to sleep. It just screeched, angry, and its friend rushed in at him. Finn didn't get a chance to fire off a second shot before it darted in and bit into his shoulder. Unfortunately, it had teeth like a python, and Finn swore. It was too close and at too awkward an angle for him to shoot it, so he reversed his grip on his big Alaskan Winchester and slammed the butt in its nose. It let go, making a noise that sounded more offended than actually hurt.

Finn glanced at his shoulder. The dog snake's teeth had torn through his armor, and his arm throbbed, leaking more blood than he wanted to see at the moment.

"Not great," Finn observed. He swung his rifle back into firing position, wincing as he moved his injured right arm, and pointed the barrel at the two snake dogs he'd managed to offend.

Cathal McKay​

Cathal spun at the sound of the attacking snake dogs, and paid for it when the fifth snake dog grabbed him by the legs and joinked him backwards like he was in a bad horror movie. Cathal shouted, the shots meant for the creatures attacking Finn going wide, and he wiggled around, trying to shoot the one trying to eat him. He was at a terrible angle, where it was dragging him across the ground on his belly, and he didn't think he managed to hit anything at all.

"Oh, fuck me sideways," he said.

He hoped he gave the thing a hell of a stomach ache.
 
"Oh that was quick," Mako said dully, a little annoyed they were caught by surprise. The snake-dogs were fierce looking but not the worst she'd ever seen. Snakes and dogs were both rather easy to deal with so snake dogs couldn't be that much harder. Instantly she charged into action, running at the one that Eppie had shoved off her. Hopefully she wasn't hurt that bad but Mako instantly outpaced Zephyr and punched the snake right in its face until its eyes bulged out of its head and slid back a meter or so. Mako however, realized that she had forgotten a landing and hit the ground unsteadily, right next to the beast's tail. The tail wrapped around her leg and pulled, using her weight against her. Curses, her own weight against her. Mako fell like the rug was pulled out from beneath her. "Strong tails!" She giggled, not realizing that she was utterly failing to be reasonably scared, "You ok Eppie?"
 
N7KK7​
Nikki walked along just in front of Goody, taking everything in. A small smirk came across her face as they walked through the entrance rubble. "New toys", she thought to herself as she thought about all the fun she could have with the AI and other tech tools in the facility.

As the dogs ambushed, Nikki's forced and tortured training came into play, and her critter lept from her back onto a high light pole. Nikki clicked something on her arm and was teleported to her critter up high. She crouched, watching the fight with a small chuckle, "fun!"
 
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