The Line in the Stars (IC) [PG/14]

[Lisky]

Causeways

Knight took the extra weight, and started moving in stride with the injured tigress.   He matched her pace, and kept up with the team.  As the vent fell, he very quickly brought the pistol out, letting Jeanne continue to use him as somewhere to place her weight besides her own feet.  "Oh shhhh.... We've got contacts!, Hostiles!" Knight shouted, as the military part of his mind registered, and informed the rest of the team of the sudden intrusion.

He brought the pistol sights in line with his own vision, and then aligned them with the beast. He squeezed off a few a shots, nothing fancy, simply trying to put as many bolts of plasma into the beast's center-mass as possible.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

MATRON

"Sorry,  Captain, but I'll try to get you up to speed, We have a planet monster on his way to destroy us.  We have the Team to pick up and then we are trying to escape without detection. Yet, Loki is right, we should try to protect the natives, get that thing to chase us away for the system.  The pirates are on their own.  They just saw their fleet bast to the Void, so they should be sense-able enough to run of it. " says Nova.   She hugs the feline captain, and gives Richard scowing look during it.

"Loki, here, says that either one of us, Sasoko, could sacrifice ourselves, to summond the "shadowcats" to take out that thing"  Nova point to the view screen.  "Can we leave that as a last resort?" said Nova "Sacrifices like that should be one own decision."

PBH

[SquirrelWizard]

Robert grumbled, "We have two or so hours before they're breathing down our necks. We need to focus on practical plans here. If we cant duplicate a reactor failure, we need to focus on what we can do. We should be focusing on hiding our escape, or distracting them with false positives when we leave. If the enemy fleet isn't aware of our exact location, we should stay put till we are ready to grab our people and go. And, when we do that we need to do it fast."

[Azlan]

Matron


Xaos grinned widely and disappeared without a trace to only reappear behind Nova and Saioko.  He embraced both in a hug, "oh not to worry ladies, sacrifices are always immensely personal and ultimately one's own decision.  This is a last resort, trust me, I would not ask such a thing lightly.  Why, if G and I were all better and not nearly... uh, dead?  I guess that is the best word... limited structural constructs... uh where was I?  Oh, yeah... if we weren't mostly dead, we could take on Chronos and his fourth generational lackeys."

Saioko sighed heavily, the poor girl did not know what to do at this point and talking to the likes of Xaos was frustrating.  The fox lived up to his name, he was chaos.

Richard spoke up, "Robert is right, shouldn't we be considering a stealthy escape?  Not getting caught and reduced to component particles is the aim yes?"

Gaea regarded the view screen, or at least the area near it, "perhaps we need to consider the truths here.  Reactor failures would be too contrived, too convenient at this point to be truly believable.  It would serve as a distraction, perhaps cover our tracks, but I do not know of any way to generate such an effect without a large noticeable buildup or a risky 'high technology' energy signature or emission prior to detonation that might reveal its artificially generated external source.  Distractions and false positives are very hard to do and make them believable.  Our resources in this area are around 50 total drone units, they use micro-fusion reactors and have a sensor cross-section of a small shuttle if they are 'loud'.  We have four ISF heavy fighters, that if we mount two probes on one and put a neural disruptor in it, we might be able to give it a sensor cross-section of a light cruiser with an odd psionic signature that might be like a psionic wave drive.  If we try and open a jump point in the atmosphere and try and focus the destination point at their fleet location... we could send all 50 probes to that location and detonate their fusion reactors... it would be an awfully hard, lengthy set of calculations..."  The vixen shrugged, "I'm grasping at straws here..."



Causeways


The weapons fire was fast and well executed, harbingers seem to have a high weakness verse plasma and laser fire.  The two pirate guides made a good showing as well, terminating a number of the little beasties.  The poor things really had very little chance, having no time to react or successfully attack.

Jack spoke into the communicator, "we're okay Magick, just a small altercation, they do seem aggressive... way too aggressive."

Ana yelped as she pulled a four inch thin tubular shaft out of her arm, "don't grab these things, they have spines on their head and ridge line."

Jack picked it up and examined it, "poisoned too."

Ana rolled her eyes, "wonderful, best news yet... is it fatal?"

The fennec shook his head, "paralytic neurotoxin with some kind of psychotropic effect... not a biologist.  The spine couldn't hold that much, so it's not nearly as bad as being bit."

"yeah, 'cept that was just the one that got stuck and broke off.  Great, paralyzed and trippin... feels kinda tingly."

Miyuki sighed, "Doc, can you wrap her arm and let's get moving or we are going to go down just off of attrition..."

After attending to Anastasia, the group moved on.  The blue vixen seemed fine to walk though she was a bit glassy eyed.  Nearing the stairs down to the level with Magick and Harriet, it became obvious to their guides why the harbingers were being aggressive.  The room in front of the stairs, which would be a machine room under normal circumstances, held a large, green winged creature very similar to the harbingers with very nasty spines.

"A Hakkun Queen... must have snuck in here from the forest.  Looks like she's probably got young, would explain why the harbingers are all aggressive and spiny... they're reverting."  Miyuki whispered to the rest of the group.

"We either have to go through it to go down or find another way.  Just so you know, there is no name for the harbinger's native species... this is called a Hakkun Queen because someone decided to get fancy with what we nicknamed it... a hucking queen... cause she can huck her tail spines at you."  Jack stated.

It remains to see what the decision will be.



Neurotoxins and exits
     

"I just heard from Jack that there is a Hakkun Queen in the machine room before the stairs.  That would explain why there is so many harbingers in that room over there.  I was worried about that.  These things revert fast, either that or someone has been breeding them secretly down here?"  The sable seemed unsure. 

He sighed and shook his head, "this whole thing is contrived, as if it was planned like this.  How could anyone even think someone would try a maneuver like this?  And set up a contrived trap like this?  You'd think this was a manga... or an RPG or something."

Coincidentally, the airlock control blinked several times and flashed green, expertly bypassed.  Slowly it slid open to reveal a human male, dark hair and Caucasian, dressed similar to a pirate pilot.  He threw up his hands immediately as Magick already had him well covered, "whoa easy there, I'm Dex... came in with Knight and Ana... we were here to rescue our friend Marcus, I was piloting the escape craft.  I managed to get a position reading on my boss through the jamming and headed here as this is the closest door.  Is she okay?"  Dex pointed to Harriet.

"Peachy, don't move."  He spoke into the comm, "does someone know a human named Dex... pilot and working for someone named Ana?"

Ben acknowledged the call, "yeah, he's with us."

[Lushin]

Causeways
"Anyone have some flash bangs? Rather not kill any of them especially the young ones" Doc said as he peaked into the room.

[Lisky]

Causeways

Knight gave a little thought about his options.  Go through the beast, and take the known route to safety, or take a longer route, and waste precious minutes trying to find an alternate route.  He didn't like the idea of having to kill the beast.  It was defending it's territory, it's den.  At the same time, it was blocking his path.

"Ana, do you think you could give us a force-field that you could keep between us and the queen while we cross the room?"

He considered other options as well.  Perhaps simply wounding it would be enough to stop her from blocking their path... or, if they absolutely had to, kill her quick and move on.  That was the last option he wanted, though.  "If anyone has flashbangs, make a big show of things, be loud, be scary, and move quick... If we can get through here without killing her, great... if not... try wounding her, scare her down, show that we only attack when provoked.  We need to get out of here, now.  That means through this room.  If anyone else has a suggestion... i'm all ears, because i'm running out of ideas."

He gave a shrug and looked around, also doing a visual inspection of what gear everyone had left, seeing if perhaps there was something useful that his own soldiers had overlooked, attached to their own bodies.

[ShadesFox]

Matron

Aaron nods, "At this point I'm tempted to take the head start and run with it rather then try and contrive an elaborate escape plan.  Though perhaps we can have it both ways.  I'm lead to understand that Mother can screen Matron relatively well, so we use that to grab our people and flee to a point where the hostile fleet will have to maneuver around stellar objects to chase us.  We can use that time to devise a plan to lose them with the additional help of our crew currently out in the pirate base.  I'm favoring rigging up a ship with the probes and the disruptor, from there scattering to rejoin elsewhere.  Enough false leads and bad paths to sort through should see us out safely."

[Azlan]

Causeway


Ben and Jaice produced a few flashbangs, five total.  Sairenji had two as well, bringing the total to seven.

Ana gave Knight a strange look as she leaned against the wall, "sorry, I feel kinda funny.  Neurotoxin is having a weird effect on my Move By Wire system."  It would seem that it took most of her concentration and willpower to stop from shaking.

Hacker produced a pair of sonic stun grenades and four colored smoke grenades, "perhaps these can be of use?"


A visual inspection of gear shows a few obvious things, as well as a number of items it is safe to assume.

Each soldier dressed as a pirate who is ISF SpecOps has a field kit that consists of the following items:

   * (1) Electrolyte and natural energy drink mix packet
   * (1) Packet of nutrient rich 'candy'
   * (12) Disinfectant wipes
   * (3) Synthetic, sterile, high absorbent cloths
   * (1) Tissues Mini-Pack
   * (2) Electrolyte Heat Relief Tablets
   * (1) Lip Balm
   * (3) Insect Sting Relief Tabs
   * (1) Sunblock SPF30 tube
   * (1) Bandana
   * (1) Generic Safety Glasses
   * (1) Generic Black Sunglasses
   * (1) Generic Emergency Poncho
   * (1) Generic Emergency Blanket
   * (1) Generic Small LED Flashlight w/regenerating energy cell
   * (2) Safety Lightstick - green

Each ISF SpecOps person caries a primary weapon, a sidearm, a data unit (PDA), compass, med kit, rations and water, some light sources, and a combat knife  

Hacker has a ruggidized portable computer system.  He also carries a high-range communications device.

Jaice carries an EOD field kit and various sundry explosive materials.  He also brought a small carbine sized grenade launcher.  Standard load would carry fragmentation, explosive, smoke and perhaps teargas or sonic stun.  If asked, he has sonic stun rounds.

Ana doesn't carry much, but she does have some type of wrist multi-function device (computer, communications and such) as well as a collapsible fighting staff.

Marcus is wearing a pirate security vest with a radio.  He has a pirate slug-thrower rifle and pistol.

Miyuki Sairenji is armed with a rifle, a pair of pistols and a pair of katana-like blades.  She has a comm unit, a field kit, multi-spectrum goggles and hard knuckle gloves.  She also carries a climbing kit.

Jack carries a rifle, a pistol, a shotgun and a pair of combat knives.  He has a more extensive first aid kit, a portable computer system, and a multi-function tool.

Ben carries the standard gear plus a pair of knuckle dusters and a sniper spotter kit.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Matron

"Well, we do have a pirate base on this planet. Couldn't we try a mimic psionic blast from it's reactor core?  Once we leave with our own, and we could ...  mmm No, The base reactor couldn't be overloaded and blow up as a psionic wave."   asks Nova.

She, too was relieved by Xaos remakes, but she wasn't too sure.  Nova was looking at Saioko, and hug the cat woman.

"Wait, Gaea and Xaos, what's this about being almost dead?  Are you getting better, or do we need get you something?" asks Nova as she turns to Gaea and then Xaos

PBH

[Lushin]

Causeway
"I think I may have an idea" Doc said, sounding like he's thinking out loud. He was silent for a bit while he thought about his plan abit.
"We throw in a few flash bangs and run like our clothes are on fire right after they go out" Doc looked at Ana with a concerned look. "Think you can do that, Miss?"

[Lisky]

"Jaice, think you can give us a smoke-screen, then drop a few stun rounds before we move?"  Knight asked.  Looking over the various gear the team had. 

"i mean... we don't have a lot of time to wait here and plan... every minute we stall is another minute they have to figure out what's going on.  So... are you all ready for this.  Remember, we're in it's lair... we're trying to get in and out as fast as possible.  Move fast, move quiet, and keep your heads down."

Waiting for confirmation from everyone, Knight moved himself back into position near Ana, Jeanna and the newest 'acquisition' of the team, waiting for Jaice to sets things in motion.

[SquirrelWizard]

"I agree about not spending any more time than we need to planet side, but what we should first do is get into contact with whatever team you have out there, and see about getting them to an extraction point. Once they're in posistion we can then snatch them up, and run. One swift movement is the key here. The longer we spend moving around planet side, the more likely their sensors will lock our posistion."

Robert picked at his tattered uniform, "We may want to hold off on using our fighters as decoys for the giant fleet. If it takes two probes, a fighter craft, and a specialized piece of equipment to simulate this ship's engines then it might not be worth the effort," he leaned forward, "can this ship perform a jump in a manner to mimic ISF signatures? Also, can we perform multiple jumps in quick succession without being disoriented? If its possible, we can just make it seem like we're one of the pirates running from their fleet, and then try quick jumping like," he thought for a moment, "three times, each time changing our vector to elude anybody chasing us."

[Chairtastic]

Neurotoxins and Exits

"Magick....rule forty-one.  If it seems like someone is out to get you, they probably are."

For a bit Harriet went back to fighting off the psychotropic effects that she would soon be experiencing.  The euphoria was getting stronger, but she refused to let it show in front of her subordinate.  Now if only she had a red shirt...

When the airlock opened up, Harriet's knife was in her hand again, ready to be thrown at some eyeballs.  She remained silent throughout the exchange.  And once it was over, she slumped into the wall.  Two more giggle fits had to been suppressed while she was holding that position.  Fortunately, no hallucinations had come around yet. 

"How far is your ship?"  She heard Magick ask the other human.

"Minimum safe distance, not too far."  Was the reply.  "How is Ana and everyone?  And who are you?"

"I am Chief Warrant Officer Hariet Tibalt,"  the human female ground out, slightly slurred. It took monstrous effort to speak normally, effort that was likely spreading the toxin faster. "This is my subordinate, our objective is to obtain aerial transport of Lt. Whitehaven and his unit.  Their status is one man down."

"One man down...who got shot?"

"We don't know," Magick drawled.  "But you can ask them when they come by, since we're going to have to wait for them, given only you know where you parked your ship....wait...why did you leave your ship in the first place?"

"Magick!"  Harriet hissed.  "Interrogation later, logistics support now.  Now either tell Jack to scan for this open airlock, or give me the comm so I can....hehehehehe."  Harriet devolved into a mass of giggling laughter, slowly growing in volume.

"Oh crap-she's going to give our position away!"  Magick tried slapping her a few times, but it only seemed to make the human laugh harder.  Eventually, he was forced to use the sleeper hold on his superior, rendering her unconscious.  After the maniacal laughter, the silence was deafening.  The sable stood up, gave a blank look to Dex, and spoke into the comm.  "Jack?  When your done with the Queen, Harriet says to look for an open airlock, so we can rendezvous."

And again, deafening silence.

[Azlan]

Causality and Causeways


Ana gave Doc a very strange look and smiled impishly, "hehe... don't worry about little old me.  I can slay dragons, yes I can... heh."  The vixen shook her head a few times as if trying to shake something off before swooning and collapsing.  Shrugging off any help she stood up, "I... I'm losing my grip on reality... stuffs goin thru me too fast."  Ana blinked and her eyes shifted to the glowing golden that signifies her magic usage and her voice sounded more like it was emitted from an old computer speaker, "I'm going to have to go straight tech, the 'meat' portion of me is going psychotic... can't do this for too long, not much energy.  I am good to go for now."

Jaice nodded to Knight and pulled his grenade launcher and spun the cylinder until the smoke ordinance was loaded.  Making sure everyone was ready, the dalmatian opened up with a quick succession of smoke grenades.  The queen reacted immediately with a screeching hiss, swishing her tail around with intent to toss spines as the smoke closed in around her.  Jaice hit the side of the wall just to the right of the entrance to where the queen was.  With a deep breath he ducked around the corner and pumped a few stun grenades into the dark mass within the smoke.  He immediately ducked back around.  

The queen immediately began thrashing around heavily distracted and confused due to the stuns.  She managed to toss a few spines out towards where the grenades were fired from, scattering into the main causeway.  Ben waved everyone forward and began the run across the space to the stairs.  Jaice came up behind him with Miyuki and Jack following.

The beast noticed and tried to fire spines at the shadows dashing through the smoke, but the sonic effects were very debilitating.  A spine logged itself in Ben's pack, but such things are immune to harbinger venom.

The stairs descended into a cross way.  On the stairs and in front of the landing were a pair of harbinger bodies impaled by spines and quite dead.  There were three ways to go from here: forward, left, and right.  Forward was a short hallway, perhaps 10 meters, that opened into another room.  Within that room were many harbingers, who were aware of the commotion and could see the group, but something prevented them from surging forward and attacking.  Beyond the room, and through the harbingers, was another passage that ran left and right. Somewhere off to the left was where Harriet, Magick, and now Dex were located.

The left passage of the cross way was 30 meters and then it curved to the right.  The way to the right of the stairs continued more than 30 meters into the gloom.


OOC: Hacker is now covering and will be one of the last to follow up.  He has those sonic stun grenades that he will throw if necessary.  I'll leave Bas to move him, Jeanne, Ana and Holly (Lushin can too if he wishes) with himself.



Matron


"Any vehicle attempting to exit the atmosphere will likely be easily detected, even if I try to emulate one of your ion or plasma based reaction drives.  Trying to put too few objects into space would be scrutinized.  We can't exactly coordinate a launch with the current residents."  Matron remarked.

Gaea nodded, "true, but we could access their main Strategic Space Command network and launch their anti-orbital missiles.  The planet has no exoatmospheric defenses, but they do possess a network of mobile launch platforms with very old, surplus nuclear fission warhead missiles.  Some unknown source within the Technocratic League has been supplying these pirates with out-dated weapons, spacecraft and supplies.  These antique weapons are scattered all over the planet and a simultaneous launch could cover our planetary exit."

Mother considered Richard's input, "your current FTL technology seems to use a very inefficient and primitive design that allows your ships to warp real space.  I could generate that field emission type, but I would not be able to do it until I leave the gravity well.  'Quick jumping' would likely make it look like we were trying to evade detection, but we should try and throw off the trail by setting obvious vectors for differing star systems."

Xaos looked thoughtful for a moment, considering Nova's question.  He leaned to her ear and whispered into it, "if you wouldn't mind giving me a substantial portion of your life force."

Gaea stopped her discussion on escape and stared daggers at the dark colored fox.  He grinned impishly and shoved his hands in his pockets.



Neurotoxins and Exits


The sounds of the extraction team 'dealing' with the queen were very noticeable.  It was probably the only thing that turned the numerous harbingers away and towards the room with the large amount of them in it.

Dex breathed a sigh of relief, "I left to try and catch the team.  I've been getting some odd telemetry from the Starchaser that seems a bit troublesome.  If I could remote instruct her from here, I'd bring her or try and communicate with the main ship, but there is a limit."

"I am aware."  Stated the sable as he lowered Harriet back into a reclining position.

"Hey, you're one of those Shadow Adepts."

"Was."  Magick flatly stated.  Waving off the human, he spoke into the comm, "I had to knock out Harriet because of the toxin.  Let me know when you are near an airlock and we will head out to rendezvous."

"Roger that, we are in motion as I speak."  Came the reply over the comm from Jack.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Matron

"Why Lord Xaos,  Do I feel a chill in the air, and I think if I do as you ask, I will not only give up my present Life but likely any future lives I may get.." asks Nova, "Can you take the some of the life-force for someone in the enemy camp or lower thinking animal?   Lady Gaea, He is joking right?"

Nova rolls her eyes after Xaos impish grin.  Nova was little peeved at Mother's remark on primitive star drives, but she has more angry at her teaches who wouldn't listen to her improvements for the basic FTL drive theories.  

Turning to Mother, Nova said, "Mother, we're wasting time, what do you need and how much time need to link up with Matron? or Can we just pull our people out of the pirate base without her? We can bring everyone back here, if we must. Once we have everyone on board, we can try and send every ship, probe and drone up at the same time at that thing as we sneak off and throw up more false trails."  She points to the viewer and the planetoid monster.  

" We have two hours tops and the nearer that thing gets to this planet, the less likely any trick we throw up is going to fool it.  Have we heard anything from the strike team?"

PBH

[SquirrelWizard]

Robert thought for a second, then answered. "If they have a supply of warheads networked together, then there has to be a central control module. If we can find, and get to it we can set them to launch when we're ready to move out."

He glanced over to Aaron, "How many transports do we have? Do we have enough to recover your squad and possibly secure the launch station?"

[Lisky]

Causeways

The rolling smoke distorted the vision of everyone.  They, however, had a very effective screen, and the party moved through the hostile environment with nothing but a very close call for Ben.  As the cleared the room, Knight noted the hallway and room ahead.  Then he noted the two side halls.  He brought up the map, and scanned... if things were as they appeared, they could meet up with their unseen assistance by heading left.  Right seemed like something out of a bad horror film... and straight ahead seemed like something worse.  It took very little time before Knight tapped Ben's shoulder and pointed to the hallway that seemed safest.  

"Jack, make sure Jaice doesn't fall too far behind playing rearguard, everyone else, stay in line, we're heading left."

With orders issued, knight kept himself close to Ana, Jeanne and Holly.

"Miyuki, think you can take point in the darkness?  Looks like we might be walking into trouble, and i'm without my normal sensor suite.  Everyone, flashlights on if and only if you absolutely need them... otherwise, keep quiet, keep alert, and stay close to the persons in front of and behind you.  We're running on borrowed time at this point... we gotta exfil... and fast."

Clicking his comm unit, he fired off another burst transmission for the ISIS operative  On way to rendezvous... Expecting resistance, prepare to ex-filtrate facility ASAP

[Lushin]

Causeways
Doc quickly followed the others.

[ShadesFox]

Matron

Aaron nodded, "Okay, first off for your answer Robert, our craft includes Matron, who you see now, which also seem to be our main burden as far as escaping goes.  There is also Mother, the ship we originally showed up in.  Mother has a number of drop ships, but not really suitable for an extraction.  There is also Ana's ship, which they were intending to depart in.  I am concerned about the whole 'launching nukes into orbit' aspect in regards to where Ana is.  I'm sure she would be unappreciative of us nuking orbit as she was launching.  Matron, can you tie together a big red button for the orbital launch.  Then we need to get in touch with Ana and make sure she and the ground team can escape safely if we go ahead with the nuke plan."

[Chairtastic]

Neurotoxins and Exits.

"Alright, showtime. Get ready to run."

Magick hefted Harriet over his shoulder, and a few laps around the section of hall to get used to her additional weight.  He had been able to, over time, subtly obtain several of Harriet's cyphers, in case she recieved any orders to the effect of 'liquidate all assets.'  And unfortunately, in the eyes of ISIS, he Jack, Miyuki, and Doc all counted as assets.  Once Harriet found out, she was going to be mad, furious even; but she would concede him to be a good spy for his work, he knew that much about her personality, or at least the one she'd started wearing when she arrived.  Whether or not she would refrain from shooting him was still up in the air, however.

[SquirrelWizard]

Matron

Robert listened to Aaron's input on the nuke idea, then shook his head, "I'm not talking about arming them. We'd just be using their boosters to simulate multiple ships leaving the atmosphere. It would be the equivalent of lobbing rocks into space... very expensive rocks." he scratched his chin, "A possible way to launch the missiles without arming them would be to see if there is some sort of emergency launch program. You know, if a missile is about to let go, you launch it into orbit and detonate it instead of letting it go off on the ground. At worse all we'd have is several missiles self destructing in orbit which wouldn't be as energetic as their warheads going off."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

(OOC: I was going to add this to OOC thread but Nova is not psychic So, she would ask this aloud.)

MATRON

"That is a good point, but here is another point..  Beyond what we could do to the defence computers and launch all missiles, probe and what-not from the pirate base.  I wondering, Did the total destruction of the main fleet go unnoticed? and if not Is every living soul running to the nearest ship/transport trying to made a run for it, right now? ", Lt Nova wonders aloud.  

PBH

[Azlan]

Matron



Xaos patted Nova on the head like he used to when she was small, "don't worry about the life force thing kitten.  As for pirate activity, they seem to be going crazy across the whole system."  The dark fox opened a view screen in midair and showed multiple scenes of panic, flight and retreat.  Acadian fighters were harassing the fleeing pirates.  The only thing to escape the system was a cloaked medium sized vessel.  It was larger than the one Ana owned, but it was of the same origin.

Mother sighed, "it is impossible to waste time... oh nevermind.  There is a central launch control and it is at the main pirate base.  Matron has a slaved control system that has been connected to their network for years."

"Yes, it was anticipated that we might need to access their systems at some point in the future, so we integrated a very low-end system into their network when they were building it.  We can do whatever we need without having to infiltrate their launch center physically."  Matron added.

Gaea smiled adding her voice to the conversation, "I do not wish to seem impatient, but can we please come to a final solution to this situation?"

Saioko raised her hand a bit as she spoke, "wouldn't orbital detonations of nuclear weapons be very high energy bursts?  If they are all detonated simultaneously, that should be quite a lot of 'noise', enough to cover a single FTL jump if time precisely enough."

Not having anything to say that would be useful, Richard sipped tea and remained silent.



Causeways, Neurotoxins and the Exit.


The two groups made their way through the the final steps and out of the airlocks.  There were no other incidents with harbingers and both parties exited the base, finding themselves outside.  The two groups barely had much time to rendezvous before they spotted something unusual.

Awaiting them was a single transparent figure of a fox.  The fuchsia colored vulpine was faced away from them and he turned quickly, surprised to find something at last.

He was instantly disappointed, "I sensed an odd energy, not what I was looking for, but it was vulpine in origin.  I should have recognized a cyberkinesis application."  He was directing most of his attention to Ana, but drifted his gaze to that of Marcus, Dex and even Magick.

"I have been searching ever so long for others like me and thought I might have found one.  Do you gentle beings know of Acadians?"

Ben almost levelled his weapon at it, but instead shook his head, "Arcadians?  Can't say I've ever been to Arcad.  Don't travel much myself, we are mostly just conscripts trying to escape our pirate masters and decided to help this technomage free her friend."

Ana kept a level gaze and shook her head, "I'm not officially with the TL, so I've missed out on any dealings my nation has had with yours.  I'm just trying to get my friend back and get out of here.  Been having a bit of trouble with that."

The others remained silent, trying to act as normal as they could.

[ShadesFox]

Matron

Aaron shrugged, "I've been saying we should go for a little while now. We now have a decent plan. Mother, could you recall the bots that were on guard duty? Also, can we get to the base to help recover the ground team?  If so I want to do that immediately. Either way we need to coordinate with Ana for the nuke covered jump"

[Azlan]

Matron


Matron shifted her gaze to Mother who nodded, "it would be best for us to meet them... ah, I am receiving hyperwave connection requests from their comm equipment.  What ever was blocking the hyperwave, I suspect it is the structure of the pirate base itself, they have moved away from."

A mass recall was issued for all security robots on patrol and guarding the outpost.  They began to return with all haste.



Outside the base


All the Special Forces communications units received a signal strength indicator of two out of six.  At this level, communications is patchy and there is a lot of static.

"Communications by hyperband systems, how quaint.  My name is Heimdall and we just arrived in system.  We are looking for some old friends... they go by the names Xaos and Gaea."  The fox smiled pleasantly, but did not take his eyes off of anyone. 

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Matron

Nova felt like the special little kitten for a second, while Xaos petted her head.  Yet, looking at the viewscreens, she catches a sight one of the views from the one of the base cameras with some people in ISF gear.
 
"Is that our guys there, Mother?" asks the catgirl  "And who is that fox?"

PBH

[Lisky]

Outside the Pirate Base

Having no actual knowledge of the situation abound, Kinght thought it best to let Ben handle things.  He stood in the back, checking on Ana, Holly and Jeanna.  He kept his weapon lowered, but ready to snap up at a moments notice.  The new stranger seemed odd and out of place.  Even more-so than the rest of the mission.  He was tempted to say something, but instead held back.  He'd promised Saioko he'd avoid unnecessary risk, he'd said he'd come back, and wasn't about to break his word over something as foolish as starting a brawl with what appeared to be an Arcadian.

Tapping Ben on the shoulder, Knight said in a low voice "you got the lead for this... i'm a little more outside the know than usual... i'll have your back, though."

[Chairtastic]

Magick didn't like this.  Not at all.  Miyuki and Jack had sidled over to him, casting worried glances at the unconcious Harriet.  "Jack, general anti-toxin for the bosslady, if you don't mind."  The fennec nodded, and fished around the first aide kit, found the needle, and gave Harriet an injection in the neck, not having much time to sterilize the skin first.

"If I give her more than one injection, it might cause her heart to give out, this is essentially a stimulant to counteract the poison's paralytic effect," explained the Techie.

"Doc," the sabel called over to the 'jack of all trades' of the group.  "Could you inform the lieutenant of our dear Harriet's pressing medical concerns?"

"Since when did you call the shots?"  Miyuki questioned.

"Since Harriet gave me orders to 'call the shots' until we got to an aircraft.  Now less talking more pointing your gun uselessly at a mental projection of an energy being."

[Lushin]

Outside the Pirate Base
"Acadians hrmm? I kinda remmeber hearing about them a long time ago. The vixen who took me in told me stories about them. Don't remember them much" Doc said looking at the new comer. Then he looked at Magick.
"He's here, he can see for himself. Also seeing that he's here you are no longer in charge. So relax abit will ya?"

[ShadesFox]

Matron

Aaron cringed looking at the new fuchsia fox, "He looks Acadian."

Richard perked his ears, "How can you tell?"

"Mostly it was the fuchsia. Really, how many other fuchsia colored foxes have you seen?"

Richard responded almost immediately, "Once I had to retrieve my little sister from a bad rave. I'm pretty sure there was one there."

"Beside the point really. I don't like this new situation. We need to get there immediately and save our people."