Stirring Up Chaos

[Boog]

"So, we're allowed inside?" Shadou gave another not-grin and clambered into the hatch, not waiting for a reply, "I'll resist the urge to push any shiney buttons. There a wet bar in here, or is it only like a limo in shape?"

[Stygian]

"I don't see how that would be such a severe blow," Stygian said. "There's still a lot to learn. Not to mention that there are a few things that I am positively sure you've never seen..."
   "Or maybe you're just looking for an excuse to feed your ego by showing off, Styg?" The voice that came to them was just a bit metallic in its tone and melodic, almost playful as it rang out above the low hum still given off by the ship. Stygian turned against its source and smiled.
   "Hello, Moira."
   The thing that came down the steps lowered from the armored hatch was doubtlessly a machine when you looked this close, but might have been mistaken for human from further away. She, because with that voice, that curvaceous yet hard shape and those moves it was no doubt that it was a she, was about as tall as Stygian, and not too different from the ship in general appearance. Her "skin", made of some dark metal laquered black and silvery armored wiring, was a lot more polished than the ship's shell though, and seemed to stretch and flex in a way that no ordinary metal could, like genuine skin. There was no segmentation on her; her entire form seemed put together absolutely perfectly, and the only mechanical parts that showed seemed to bend a bit too, and were fitted so precisely that it did not matter. The only non-human features to her were a pair of large cylinder-like connectors, each about as long as a hand, that jutted from her back, and her face, which was a perfectly shaped teardrop-like form, featureless yet somehow still feminine like the rest of her.
   "Hey, Sebastian. So... What sort of motley crew have you teamed up with this time?" she asked amusedly, while swinging down from the entry hatch and striding up to them with precise, smooth movements.

[TheGreyRonin]

"Interesting," Stalker murmured quietly.

He looked at Stygian and spoke in a more conversational tone. "You are simply full of surprises and wonders."

He stepped nearer to the hatch and the black mechanoid, and bowed. "A pleasure to meet you, Milady. Do you control all of the functions of the ship, or are you in fact part of the vehicle? I only ask out of curiousity."

[Boog]

Shadou gave a second low whistle. It was safe to say he was impressed.
"I gotta get me one of these things. They come with everything," Another not-grin, "Of course, my lady would clobber me, but..." A third whistle.

[Stygian]

The machine glanced over Shadou, her eyeslits curving just a bit and the glowing green behind them regarding him. She chuckled, and shifted on her feet. Then, she replied to Stalker with something almost like a little curtsy, and continued just as bemusedly.
   "I'm a standalone unit. I can control this ship, of course, but I usually just fill a supporting function. And I wonder what kind of lady you have?" she said, the question directed at Shadou.
   "I didn't think he'd be the steady type..." Stygian said, while climbing up into the hatch.

[Boog]

"She's the most wonderful woman in the freaking world, and nobody gets to say otherwise," Shadou replied to Moira in a matter-of-fact tone as he stepped out of Stygian's way, "No offense, o' course."

[TheGreyRonin]

Stalker looked bemused for a moment, then peered up the ramp. "I think our friend has made himself quite at home inside."

He turned to PBH and made a sweeping gesture. "Ladies first, of course."

[ITOS]

After taking a few more photos Jack moved to the ramp. Moira seemed interesting, made you wonder just what type of resources Stygian had to draw upon. Of course, Jack could just read the profiles he had received before the mission but that would ruin the fun. It wasn't often he got to head into something this unprepared.

"Are you a smart or dumb intelligence?" Jack asked Moira, hoping that she wouldn't misunderstand what he meant with "smart" and "dumb" and be offended.

((OOC: For the record, a dumb AI is programmed to do one sort of thing and has a programmed behaviour. A smart AI develops a behaviour much like a biological mind and can adapt to a variety of tasks much easier than a dumb AI.))

[Stygian]

Stygian had just kept on going into the belly of the ship and made his way straight for the cockpit. It was situated at the end of the oval hallway that passed throughout the whole of the centre of the craft, beginning from the heavily armored and sealed core and ending with the cockpit's entrance.
   The inside of the craft proved not very much unlike its outside. It was hard, sleek and dark, armored wiring held apart by bands, pipes running through the walls further back down the corridor and reinforced framework jutting through the sides and roof at places. It wasn't that cramped, and further back there were hatches that had to lead to other rooms and compartments within the ship, yet there was a constant, pressured feeling that hung over the place. It felt as if it were pushing against you and feeling you, as if something was watching you from the darkness from behind or down the hallway, something that was aware and alive. It was unsettling to say the least, and quite hard to explain.

   Moira... blinked, somehow at Jack and took a step back, eyeing the feline from a significant height difference. She walked up to him, and managed to tower quite well over his figure.
   "I'm fully sentient and individual, if that's what you're asking," she said in a matter-of-factly tone that wasn't indignant, but very nearly. "I have a self-developing superconducting nanoprocessor, with a continuous and fully intelligent mode of operation." The green of her eyesensors seemed to want to bore into that of his own. "And just so you know, that camera's being taken for examination if you take any photos on board. You won't be taking anything else off the ship either. And don't think of sending some transmission," she said, and turned, nodding her head toward stalker and starting to walk up the steps back into the ship. "It's pretty much useless."

((OOC: In Dyssea, Sebastian's homeworld, fully intelligent and sentient computers have long since been outlawed and made impossible by implementing hardware and software that does not support genuine sentience. Essentially, the computers there aren't any slower or "dumber" than one should expect, much the contrary, but they can't carry on single continuous operations for as long as it takes to gain an actual consciousness, and their memory and operation are divided into a complex system of partitions, pseudo-operations and split processes to keep their intelligence from forming sentience. M01RA does not have that sort of system, but instead a self-rewiring and nanotech-based system that learns and develops actively, and can thus be called a fully sentient being.))

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Thank you Mr Stalker,

Hello Ms Moira, I am very glad to meet you, AI being. **offers her hand to shake to the lady machine.** 

Jack please try not to be rude and stop taking pictures without leave or people will get upset...

**PBH follows Stygian to the cockpit/bridge**

[Cogidubnus]

Cog tipped his hat to the android and entered the ship. He smiled at the interior of the ship, the decor obviously reflecting it's owner, and shook his head. He followed the rest of the group towards the front.
"I hope somebody remembered to ask for directions..." He said, trying to keep from bumping into the odd parts of the walls that jutted inwards.

[Stygian]

The cockpit was a low-roofed segmented place situated within the ship's nosecone. There were no windows visible, only a myriad of screens set around a larger panel of some sort and centred around a leaned back seat at the very front of it, surrounded in turn by instruments, gauges, buttoned panels and controls. Stygian walked up to it, and sat down, pulling back a complex steering column and switching on the view of the system. Immediately, the bridge was plunged into a green-lit darkness as the screens came on and the other lights went out.
   "Have a seat if you want. I don't think that there's enough for everyone, and Moira's doing in-flight engineering, but you can take the third," Stygian said. There were only two other seats in there, situated to either side and quite a bit behind the pilot's, one surrounded with panels and computer screens, the other more open. "We'll be off once everyone's on board." Then, he pressed that nub behind his ear. "Puppy. This is Mongrel, preparing for takeoff. Flight will be leaving shortly, so those of you who are supposed to, get your asses over. Boarding cards not required."

[TheGreyRonin]

Stalker smirked knowingly at Moira, then shifted, flowing up into the ship in a self-powered cascade, only to reform in his chosen shape in a seat, relaxed comfortably.

"Shall we proceed?" he said cheerfully.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"thank you Stygy.. I'm a pilot, too with air and spacecraft.   I will like to take the three seat and if you don't mind me looking over your shoulder.."  PBH

[ITOS]

"That's...  not quite what I asked but I think I figured out the answer anyway." Jack said in reply to Moira's answer. He could never quite adapt to the fact that different worlds had different definitions for technical terms and judging by the hostile behaviour of Moira Jack had offended her. ... in some way.

Jack looked at his camera.
"No photos? Awww..." He stuffed the camera away and looked a bit sad. In fact, he had no use of photos. He was here to observe with his own eyes... or the eyes he was currently calling his own.
"And I'm not being rude." He said to PBH. "Just that a photographer hates missing a good photo opportunity, call it an occupational injury." He then followed the others into the cockpit. One seat left... Jack stood and pondered for a while if he should take it or leave it for someone else.

[e_voyager]

E walked among them silently among them listening to them. 

[Boog]

"Well, seeing as I'm quite capable of getting into a five-vehicle pile up all by myself, I'll leave the chairs to someone else. If there's other seats, let me know," Shadou chuckled, leaning in a convenient corner, "So it would appear we're carpooling to the targets?" He continued looking around, studying the layout of the craft to learn about it's uses and it's owner; a habit born of prior proffessions.
No windows; he's not prone to claustrophobia. Neither am I, but I'm 4'11"; kinda hard to get me to feel claustrophobic. No visible luxuries whatsoever. Businesslike. Takes himself seriously, perhaps to a degree that goes beyond proffessionalism. Lots of survalence equipment, cloaking device and a great deal of speed, and what looked like many weapons outside. Sneak in, make yourself known in some destructive manner, get the hell out. I approve of the design, but what manner of man is behind the wheel? Another advantage of next to no visible face is that Shadou's thoughts rarely showed, Back home, this mentality would indicate either some very solitary breed of monster, perhaps an ogre or a member of the spirituo diablo family. But he claims to be a shadow. What does that suggest...?

[Stygian]

After having spoken into the transceiver Stygian leaned back, and then his hands began flying over the controls around him with speed and precision. Green screens shifted, the main panel in front turned into an outside view full of data and information from a heads-up display, and the system seemed to be working at full speed. Moira, in her own chair just leaned back with a clearly recognizably amused expression, and then stood up.
   "He really doesn't need any help with this. I've already made the settings that he'd want me to anyway," she said to the others. "Come on. I'll take you back. Unless you want to stay and watch, of course." She turned and began walking back down the hallway.
   The large craft moved under them, and they could feel the force as it lifted from the ground and turned a bit to the right. Its engines thrummed, and there was an underlying resonance that kept shifting, like a pulse, vibrating through its hull as it rose from the clearing and up over the lake. Powerful mechanics growled and hummed as its engines turned.
   "Cloaking engaging... Particle dispersion... We are now about as conspicuous as a crow to most sensors," Stygian said while tapping a panel. "I suggest you sit down somwhere. We'll be doing mach 3 in no time."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

((ooc This is PBH's newer model Hardsuit))

"Stygian, You would be a brastard of an flight instructor, but going mach 3 to someplace across town seem a bit fast"

**Since she can't see much of what Stygian was doing, PBH watches the screens from the engineering boards she copied to her screens**

PBH

[Stygian]

"Oh, we're not going to right across town," Stygian said, and made a few taps to another board. A larger screen leaned down with some mechanical buzzing, and displayed a map which began zooming with text and indicators. It appeared to be a rough readout of their "immediate" surroundings over quite a few hundreds of kilometres' range.
   "This appears to be the central energy grid," he said and pointed as a blue tree of lines blinked into view. "Now here are power dispersion nodes," he continued, red dots appearing where the lines branched, "and here are power stations." Only three dots became apparrent in the vincinity. "Knocking out all of them would be unneccesary, and the linear layout of these two means that we can take control of the closer one and get control of the feed from both. So, we're going to destroy the independent one, and take over the grid with this one," he said and tapped the dot on the screen. " Then, he gripped the steering column, and flicked some switches. They felt as if they lifted from the floor just a bit, before being pushed back and down harder than before.
   "This is only the close grid, of course, but I think it will suffice. If not, well..." Stygian continued, undisturbed. "In either case it would be quite stupid to destroy the whole grid, when we can just disable it, don't you think?"

[Boog]

Shadou followed behind Moira, still taking note of the interior of the ship.
"So, I'm guessing you're some sort of construct or something. But what's Styggy-boy?" He said when he figured they were out of earshot, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "I can't place his species; he looks human, he claims he's a monster, he acts like an ogre or something... What the heck's with him? The rest of 'em are odd too, but seeing as he's driving and all..."

[Stygian]

The machine-woman laughed as she led them back through the central corridor, and pressed a metallic hand on a lock, a circular door in a wall unlatching and sliding apart, admitting them into something like a combination of a large pentry and something as close to a living space as one could imagine on a craft like the one they were in. She rounded a table that was fastened to the floor, and sat down on a padded bench that actually looked somewhat comfortable, in contrast to the rest of the ship.
   "Sebastian's... a bit of a special case," she chuckled, and one could see the bemusement on her face. "If you want to know what he really is, then ask him. I'm sure you'll enjoy getting an answer out of him on that," she said with sharp sarcasm. Then, she scooted over to the side that was closer to what seemed like the facilities of the place. "Tea?" she asked, and without waiting began preparing some from out of some metal cylinders and tools.
   "Me, I'm just a computer that's happy to be alive. And he is the reason I am. That's as much as I care for, mostly."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

I don't know how good your cloaking device is Stygian, but there seem to be a small squadian of miltary types closing on our left aft quad at 1000m in altitude.  And there is a small noise in your third harmonical in your shield frequencies.  or maybe I am reading this wrong.

Well, the miltary are not coming straight at us, but they are going the point that we broke the sound barrier..

PBH

[e_voyager]

E hears the report to Stygian and wonder for a moment. then he ask the entity closest to him. " you don't suppose they are tracking or at least investigating the atmospheric disturbance that was generated by the ship do you?"

[ITOS]

Jack smiled a little. He almost hoped that those militaries had noticed them, Stygian seemed overconfident and could use a bit of a setback.
Jack's face got serious again. On the other hand, most people die when their bodies die. It's not fun to fail and die if you can't try again.

"Shouldn't such things be compensated for?" Jack asked.

[Stygian]

Stygian just kept his face on the screens, not a hint of emotion across it. He tapped a few buttons, and then brought up a view of the vessels in question. He seemed to be trying to make some analysis of them. Then, he turned away and just flew.
   "They can't see us clearly or lock on us. Neither visual, radar or grav-em should be able to get any reading, and heat is poor. And if that was the case, then they would be hailing us. Right now, I'd guess they're just tracing our heat and EM-trail, seeing as they picked it up only when we got close," he said, quite calmly. "Yet they are getting awfully near. Well, nothing that can't be helped though..."
   Then, Stygian flipped a large switch, which brought another panel on the side of the chair up and then a pair of targeting reticules and zooms into view on the two next-largest screens on each side of the main flight display. From behind them, they could hear some low sounds, like large locks sliding into place. Then, the reticules turned on the hostile ships, one for each. They locked.
   "Let's give them a warning first..." Stygian said, and pressed a trigger on the four-part steering column.
   A slim lance of light struck out from the ship, like a spear of slightly blue and purplish white, surrounded by lightning. It tore into the cockpit of the targeted aircraft, and cut it right through the middle like a hot blade through mist. A piece of the craft exploded, while the rest just fell out of the sky. Stygian then tapped a button.
   "Attention, Order pilots. You have fifteen seconds to exit from your present course, or you will be destroyed," he said, then tapped it again, and went back to flying.

[Boog]

"'Special case'... Suppose that makes him another monster. And I'd appreciate some of that tea, thanks. Five sugars," he sat down on the bench and leaned back a little. Just in time to feel the rumble of guns firing, nearly knocking out of the seat, "Never fails, just as you finally get to sit down and relax..." he grumbled to himself, slightly embarassed that all it took was a little cannonfire to make him loose his balance. Been working a normal job wayyyy too long.

[ITOS]

"And I'm not allowed to photograph this... " Jack said and sighed as Stygian blew up one of the ships. In reality the frustration was over the fact that Jack would have handled this situation very differently.
"Will be interesting to see how order reacts to this, doubly so if they figured out where we're heading. I hope you haven't flown in a straight line to our destination, Stygian."

[Stygian]

"Not quite. It's not very time-consuming with a craft like this anyhow," Stygian said and grinned. "Some mountains coming up, so we'll go low..." He pushed a bit on the two hand grips, and they felt it clearly as the craft made a smooth dive, heading for the ground.
   Much against good judgement, the Order craft decided to continue their pursuit.

   Back in the pentry, Moira steadied herself a bit against the wall as they sank and some few thrums from the accelerators for the plasma lances permeated the hull, and then set down a cylindrical cup before Shadou, smiling at him.
   "Well, I'd definitely call him a monster. Though there's a difference between Demon and Devil, if you know what I mean," she said, and looked at him a bit more seriously. "How about you then? I mean, you don't exactly seem like the regular sort either."

[Boog]

"Last I checked, the difference between Demon and Devil was a slim one..." Shadou chuckled, picking up the cup of tea carefully. All it would require was hot tea in his lap or on his bandolier to ruin his day, or more importantly his fireworks, "I am, in fact, a monster. Not so much a species as a lack thereof, and there's as much variety in traits as there are reactions to us, ranging from commonplace to terror and loathing. This whole hopping between worlds thing..." he waved a hand, either to indicate dismissal or confusion, "It isn't commonplace, and even those of us who have so much have heard about it don't know much. What I do know is that my world's saturated in more magic than most are, so weird things like monsters will happen," Not really a lie; those things all do happen. It's just not what resulted in me. Not something to spread around though, "Only reason there's any of us left is because of genetic translation spells. That and the occasional berzerker who wanders out of who-knows-where," he took a sip of the tea, "Mh, good stuff."