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Starbound Flotilla	It's not too hard to get a ride to space. Space travel services from other worlds often provide access without troubles, and the Concord's own interest in finding out what's happened here means they're especially inclined to provide travel means for anyone who is wanting to show up, alongside the people who already have their own shuttles. As those who are here to investigate approach, for a long while it seems like there's nothing at all to find in the first place. This is absolutely wrong, as they soon find. Gravometrics start to flicker. Visual start to distort. When they reach the border of a sphereical section of space currently orbiting roughly over the western pacific ocean, they'll find out what's been interfering when it suddenly flickers into vision.     A GAME ZONE is now visible! It looks like CARDINAL has been obscuring it to prevent it from interfering with sunlight and tides, because this game zone appears to be a tremendous, shattered-open planetoid instead of an island. The fractured planetoid drifts far above Earth, something like two thirds of the moon's size at least, and it glitters with a startling array of lights that indicate spots of activity, habitation, or perhaps even space colonization. Segments of the tremendous planetoid seem to offer strange mineral themes, conspicuous organic growth, or even obvious technological artificiality, depending on the nature of the individual fracture.     The distress beacon's near one of the closer fragments, a rocky one without much light near it. As one approaches, it clearly displays itself as a fragment with plenty of that odd organic growth extruding around certain areas. And clearly inhabited, too, or at least it has plenty of active machinery; small drones whizz by to and fro among the fragmented, drifting astroid pieces, but they look less like modern machines and far, far more like they draw their aesthetic inspiration from Sputnik and cliche rayguns instead of any sensible design standard.     And when they reach the structure that is the origin point of this whole thing, it's clear why. The tremendous, aged, decaying space craft that is lodged halfway into a massive chunk of mineral-rich space rock draws aesthetic inspiration from an atomic-age supercar crossed with a flying saucer, with its dramatic parabolas and sharp boomerang shape. It's a huge one, though, definitely a mobile residence at the very least, for dozens of people, as well as performing some work. Those native VRMMO players lucky enough to have a detailed HUD and such to work with are suddenly picking up the craft as a point-of-interest marker, calling it a "Neurovore Experimentation Craft", whatever that means. Empty escape pods that look like 1940s refridgerators drift nearby, a half-dozen distress beacons flickering, and the main one on the ship still active.     One of the Starbound Flotilla's far more practical craft are docked nearby, that core central shuttle they tend to make their new residence. Their ship isn't running any distress beacons, but it's clear they're probably there, if anywhere.
Staren	The SSC Stranger than Fiction drops out of FTL with a flash, looking like a house-sized castle with a mechanical serpent entwined around it, and thrusters.     Inside, on the bridge, Staren has suited up and stares at the sight out the window. He takes several moments to make confused exclamations and double, triple-check all his sensor readings.     As he starts beaming people up, his ship comes into visual range of the fragment with the beacon on it, and given the strange aesthetic, it begins to click. "It's a game."     For those being beamed up, they arrive in... well, the aesthetic is like the inside of a castle, but the walls are lined with modern-looking storage lockers, and port and starboard windows show space outside. One corner of the room has a spiral staircase upwards, and doorways lead to a castle-y room filled with computers and stuff, and a room that abandons the aesthetic completely filled with machines. A hatch in the floor leads down to an airlock. Staren will help people with getting spacesuits on and getting outside. "I hope your flight works up here. If not... you might not be able to do much just yet. Be careful."     He maintains radio contact, and heads off to the Star Hawk. Their spacesuit HUDS show where everyone is and all that stuff. They have plenty of air.
Alexis Maaka	The Crimson Spectre, Maaka's vessel, arrives with fellow Elites in tow. WHoever needs a ride or lacks one entirely will probbaly have been picked up by the Spectre, and greeted by Maaka and her crewmates...who are a shrimpy fellow and a stocky old guy. Neither of whom seem like combatants.     "Picking up the beacon. Near one of the closer fragments." Kaz, the shrimpy one, reports. HE's currently on Bridge Bunny duty, calling out things as they happen. Maaka's loaded up with her EM-GASH rifle, waiting at the primary hangar bay.     Her STALKER suit is rated for space travel, luckily enough, so she can breathe just fine.     Vacsuits and other gear from the INitiative are provided for those who tagged along, as Maaka offers them out along with a blaster for each, if they accept the weapons anyway.     The Spectre drifts towards the ruined vessel, as Kaz begins to scan for lifesigns from the ship and the escape pods.
Iria	Space, the not-so-final frontier. This is the journey of a young bounty hunter who goes by the name of Iria. Her mission to seek out and destroy evil where ever it may lurk. To hunt whatever bounties come her way... OK, enough of the cheesy openings. While some may prefer to ride in on Staren's craft, Iria's arriving in her personal shuttle. The indestructible force field protects her from the vacuum of space, which causes her voice to echo slightly when she speaks. Nevertheless, she knows that her armor alone won't protect her, so she's got a special vacsuit with her as well which she's changed into and has slipped on her helmet as well. As Iria gets closer, she scowls a little at the sight of what she sees. "I want to say we were too late, but something really seems off about this." She can't put her finger on it, but she has the feeling there's something else at work here.
Septette Arcubielle	There are few things that can cause Septette deep and authentic alarm, but the possibility- no matter how small- of losing a valued ally is one of them. She hasn't wasted any time in getting here: a series of Ariadne Thread jaunts through deep space lead her to the moon-like VR realm, and a couple more controlled teleports land her next to the Starbounders' primary craft. The gorgeous and surreal surroundings are largely lost on her right now: she's laser-focused on getting inside and pinpointing the Captains' location and status.      She's already familiar with the craft's layout and its basic access codes, so assuming nothing is tampered with or broken, it won't take her long to reach the telepad. She toggles it on in open-receiving mode and then waits for Staren and Maaka to land, so as to address the largest group of arrivals.      Dressed in a floor-length lavender shawl that hides her monstrously skeletal body and fluffy earmuffs that cover her triangular ear-fins, the little robot almost looks presentably human today! ... Almost. She's unwilling or unable to mask the soft purple glow of her piercing eyes, and when she moves, inhumanly angular and strange shapes visibly press out against the fabric of her loose cloak. If that weren't enough, her every footstep is accompanied by a clanging sound that sounds much, much heavier than her five-foot frame has any right to produce.      But if you only look at her sweet face, and don't notice her glowing eyes, and are deaf enough to miss the resounding footfalls- she looks like a rather fetching young lady! ... Until she opens her mouth to speak, of course. It's a warm, emotive, and almost syrupy voice, but tinged with a raw, distorted synthetic burr, as if she were a talking doll succumbing to the first symptoms of battery failure.      "Septette Arcubielle, friend of the Core Fleet speaking. Thank you for your interest and willingness to come on such short notice. You all heard the broadcast- 'inside my heart', 'inside my walls'. My initial suspicion is that this is referring to the Captains- we ought to look for structures that they'd be interested in entering, and that are large enough to host some kind of security AI." Quite a leap, but perhaps it pays to make certain assumptions when time may be at a premium.      She nods towards the huge, rusted spacecraft. "I suggest we start there. Any objections?"
Yuuki Konno	It's good to have friends. Yuuki bums a ride up into orbit, being her normal excited and rather bouncy self as she staaaaares outwards at the new frontier. Or the Interstellar Frontier as the case may be. Only of course it's no longer Online.     It's exciting, even if she's more a sword-and-sorcery fan. Well she's technically a fan of both, but sword-and-sorcery gives her more opportunity to run, dive, spin and roll.     So yes, sword girl in spaaaaace! It ain't easy being purple. At the moment Yuuki doesn't have much to do in terms of actual investigation of the signal or the apparent disappearance of the Starbound Fleet, but she's practically wriggling with excitement at the idea of exploring a new virtual world no matter how out of place she currently is.
Tomoe	Does not show up as Tomoe the Iron Lily today but in the appearance of Eisen Blumen. She was shorter far ashort had stark red hair and this avatrar looked to be vaguely asian. Which is omething Maaka hasn't seen since GGO though oddly she has a sword across her back rather than a shotgun, kinda of odd but whelp she takes up less space like this. She seems tobe nursing something though as she seems on edge, she also has several holo windows open she's going over, gear, information and checking a few online space cam feeds. "What is going on here?" F The now tiny woman checks her windows for a moment longer before she does. She's also got a vac suit which she's thankful for before she joins Maaka in making ready to beam down. She'll take the blaster which is put into her inventory but she won't be able to use it too much as eh moves to beam down in a pillar of light the vac suit clad Eisen seems on edge though as she lands and chants a brief spell causing an orb of light to appear at her shoulder. <<Eisen here I'm on site. I have my eyes on one of the Flotilla's ships. I'm moving in.>> She moves forward for the moment on edge but is also not about to back down. <<Already on it. I played this game a bit... but didn't stay too long.>>
Silica	Silica's here too. The Cait Sith is more a down-to-earth kind of girl, but that doesn't stop her from helping her friends. She looks out at the starscape, and the fractured moon before something clicks. "IFO! This is IFO you guys! I played a bit of it before!" she says, suddenly getting animated as she presses against the window. "Woooow, those are Mk. XVI Inspection drones! They're armed with Type 3 Photonic Lancers."     Nerd alert. Nerd alert!
Corona Arclite	And not far after Staren's arrival another ship comes chugging out of FTL. Almost, but not quite, literally chugging, with its exterior resembling that of an old fashion steam locomotive. Just with less wheels and more thrusters and particle effects instead of smoke. "Well tarnation, ain't this a mess." Corona spun the pilot chair around from the console and hopped out. "Keep an eye on things from up here Windrose, Ah'm gonna go take a lookseedo." The young skunk aviator gave Corona a curious glance as she passed. "Don't you need a spacesuit, or something?" As excited as she was to actually be IN SPACE she couldn't help but show concern for her recently aquired friend. "Now doncha worry none. Ah've picked up a trick or two in my adventures." Instead of her usual hat Corona grabbed a different one as she passed. It still looked like a cowboy hat, but when she plopped it on her head a light energy shield formed from it, looking much like one of those retro 60s style bubble helmets. Just with a hat on top, as the rest of the vacsuit activates. "Com'n Hopalong, yer half magitech, ya oughta work in space just fine." The robo-jackalope hops after her to the teleporter so she can meet up with the others going out to investigate.
Sentinel Lunara	Despite what little may be known of the self declared new arrival to the Multiverse, SENTINEL LUNARA is not at all a stranger to space travel. Though in the ancient world of Azeroth the stars and planets were only accessible by means of magical portals, her time in the Nexus taught Lunara many things about being in orbit. Countless millions of times did Lunara did battle in Braxis station, where she found herself and her allies fighting alien monsters and Terran marines floating in a space plataform with only only a thick piece of glass protecting them from the vaccum of space. Similarly, Lunara is no stranger to teleportation and when she arrives to the station she steps boldly as a gladiator stepping into the arena. The deer taur, clad in full Night Elf armor, arrives with a heavy sound of deer hooves. She brings with her a distinctly looking purple kite shield with the symbol of the Kaldorei painted in the center and she seems armed with that appears to be a deer's antler. The dryad peers with her glowing purple eyes towards whom she assumes is Septette and trods over to her quietly observing her sorroundings. She's a cautious one, though there is no fear seen in her. This dryad is no shy doe that's for sure.
Starbound Flotilla	The escape pods don't have anyone in them, unfortunately, according to Staren's initial scans. At least, nobody alive, there's probably skeletons or something in them. The ship itself has, oddly, far more than six signatures. There have to be several dozen, milling around in there! It's not exactly absent of any sort of significant presence. Though, even googling 'neurovore' from the old IFO documentation doesn't give anyone any sort of understanding of what's going on. Silica is totally right on the drones, but even she'll not know much about whatever a neurovore is.     Heading outside is pretty easy though. Between the ship breaches and the astroid chunk's openings, it won't be hard to enter this. It's just a question of whether they want to start with the SHIP or with the ASTROID section! Though some are already starting with the SHIP.
Kirito	Kirito's hitched a ride with Staren. The Black Swordsman's glee at getting a ride to SPACE OF ALL PLACES is a bit muted by the dread creeping up on him the moment that shattered planetoid pops into view though. "Man... to think THAT's been in orbit the whole time... wouldn't it mess with gravity something terrible?!" And yet... for whatever reason, it's not...     The new world is weird like that.     Kirito's not satisfied with just the view from the windows of Staren's ship though. He's suited up for battle, all of his standard gear on display. Elucidator and Dark Repulsor rest comfortably in crossed scabbards on his back... despite the spacesuit that he's had to equip over top of most everything else that Staren offered.     At least 'equipping' it was apparently as easy as pressing some AR buttons and watching it derezz and reappear sized to his body... no fuss and mess involved.     But the young man finds himself canting his head slightly to peer quizzically Silica's way. "Ohhh... you never struck me as a fan of Sci-Fi, Silica! We're lucky to have someone here that knows about it." The Black Swordsman exclaims, voice warm and supporting.
Reker	Reker's gear is a little more fancy looking than he would usually wear. Higher end gear for an unknown mission, after all. He's never been in this game, and of course, this ain't no game anymore. As soon as he has his feet on solid ground, he equips his Devastator and racks a round into the chamber, sticking with non-armor piercing rounds for now. Don't wanna use AP rounds when we are going to be risking exposure to space. "So do we know anything about what we're looking for? Or at least what the factions are? Or at least who's hostile?" He hates going in with no intel.
Xiaomu	By luck of the draw, it's Staren who beams Xiaomu up from the surface of the local version of Earth. She shapeshifts out of her usual qipao and vest (and into something resembling a black spandex bodysuit) before getting her space suit on; if she can carry her handguns in external holsters (or even re-use the holsters she normally wears under her vests), great. She *will* be carrying her staff, in any case. "And just to get the 'Fox One' jokes out of the way," she remarks before putting on her helmet (which may have taken some arranging), "I'm not a radar-guided *or* heat-seeking missile. Now, if we find fried tofu over there, we can debate the issue." She dons her helmet and prepares to head on over with the others. She's only read a bit about the game that this zone appears to be derived from, so it's basically all going to be new to her. Except, of course, to the extent that her general fandom will apply.
Staren	"I'm getting lifesigns from that crashed UFO thing. A lot of them." Staren relays.     When Kirito asks if it'd mess with gravity, Staren shrugs. "Mnh. ALO and GGO didn't cause flooding..."     The Star Hawk detaches from the ship, and arms and legs unfold as thrusters gently push it towards the mysterious ship.
Septette Arcubielle	ENTER A NAME BEFORE PROCEEDING!          NAME ENTRY: LADY SEPTETTE ARCU¦          MAXIMUM LENGTH EXCEEDED!          NAME ENTRY: SEPTETTE ARCUBIEL¦          MAXIMUM LENGTH EXCEEDED!      Septette emulates a sigh, evidently frustrated, and crosses her arms grumpily. Not cool, game.          NAME ENTRY: RQBL-7          NAME ACCEPTED! WELCOME, RQBL-7 !      "Nobody ever actually call me that," she says sourly to anyone who will listen, even as a little name indicator pops up above her head. A moment later, though, she refocuses on the mission. "Good to have you with us, Lunara. Welcome to the really weird shit; sorry we couldn't put you in the 'shallow end' first, but you know how it goes."      She extends a clawed hand in greeting; its shape recalls a menacing flesh-tone skeleton made out of blades, but if the druid's brave enough to accept it, she'll find that Septette's grasp is remarkably delicate and gentle. All of the sharp edges are carefully angled to avoid so much as nicking her skin.      With that concluded, she turns on her heel and begins marching off towards the exposed half of the rusted ship, looking for an entrance. "Once we're inside, any of the more delicate party members should ideally stay behind me. We don't know what we'll run into in there."
Yuuki Konno	Preparing for space is a laborious process, but Yuuki does what's necessary. Perhaps in the future she'll take advantage of a solution more suited for the MMO, but for now she'll accept a space suit. That means getting rid of her own armor - easily enough done - and her weapon, left behind in her inventory. Easy enough to resummon should she actually need it, surely, but inventory access isn't quick. If she were to have fast access to the weapon, she'd have to actually wear it sheathed. Then again, the vaccuum of space probably isn't the best place for her normal slashy stabby sword style. It ought to be absolutely phenomenal for jumping though, and she bounces out towards the gathering people quite cheerfully.     Yuuki peers around, putting names to faces. Or to game-identities at least. "RQ... uh... Arcubielle? Septette? Why didn't you just name yourself Septette?" she asks, enthusiastically greeting the interesting robot for the first time. She looks in amazed awe at Lunara. Dryad, she sort of understood... but she hadn't expected a CENTAUR!
Starbound Flotilla	Iria is already on the way to the ship, and several others are about to follow! The easiest docking point is near the underside of the big raygun-gothic flying saucer, while others can slip in at associated openings just near it. It seems to still have power! It accepts the entry easily, locking with the shuttle and opening wide.     Inside, a large docking area can be found, designed in classic Googie ATOMIC AGE style. The arcing singular beams meet in slightly more dramatic and militaristic way. Huge tesla coils are just sort of there for no reason among the stylish neon and steel, and large sweeping platforms meant for loading lots of military equipment are where one can dock at the base. At the opposite interior wall of the docking apparatus, a wide section of the wall is now dedicated to a huge military icon of a four-point star with wings. Silica will recognize it as the icon of the Frontier Science Corps! One of the main factions in IFO.     All around, posters are plastered with assorted moon-landing-era spacemen making various stern gestures, saying things like, "NEUROVORE SAFETY IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS", dramatically displaying things like "PREMIUM INFESTATION CLEANSER", or advertising stylish spacecraft visually inspired by 1930s-era luxury cars. Silica will recognize that last one! There's even proper vending machines full of videogame consumables, too, lining the walls of the dock's entry further into the ship.     Also worth noting are several enemy mobs marked all around. Weird, blobby opaque slime creatures marked as "NEUROVORE CELLS", as well as a variety of wolf-like fleshy tentacled things marked "NEUROVORE PACKMATE". They look rather inspired by old rubbery alien visual effects from old movies, but their displayed difficulty level is actually startlingly high, though still no boss-like thing. One of them screeches, and the others begin pacing around the entryway in a sort of pack-hunting behavior. If they're going to get inside, it'll mean tearing through the local enemies.
Sentinel Lunara	"My lady. It is an honor to meet you at last." Lunara faces Septette and though in the past she might have been apprehensive of one that looks like her, long ago has Lunara discarded her dislike for machines. Certainly not one who has been so helpful like Septette. The first of the Dryads does an elegant bow, her front legs curling to do as a horse might when told to do a curtsy, whilst her top elven half do a more European style gentleman bow, her right hand going over her waist. Lunara displays no apprehension either when Septette offers her hand. Lunara extends her own and grasps it for a vigorous hand shake. And for a strange sort of parallel whilst Lunara's own frame may look delicate she has a hell of a grip! The Dryad then shrugs as Septette offers her regret for throwing her into the lion's den so to speak. "Perish the thought, my lady. Trial by fire is fitting for one such as I." Lunara then frowns at several things. Firstly Yuuki staring at her and then the dryad recognizing her for someone who she had talked to in broadband. But then is when things get really thing strangely.. familiar? A game HUD? Having to put a name? Life points and a mana bar?? Lunara enters the name LUNARA with hesitation before it all dawns upon her. "Oh no.." She moans. "I'm stuck in another death game again!!?" Also along the way she got one of those all form fitting bubble vac suits. She's probably seen those before in the Nexus.
Alexis Maaka	The Spectre docks with the underside of the saucer, as Maaka leads the way inside. She covers the corners, securing the area. "Wow, retro." She murmurs quietly, as she brushes dust off of things and stuff. Assuming there IS anyway. She snaps pictures, mostly for information, while she takes note of the signage. NEUROVORE SAFETY sounds like no joke at all, and is enough to make the cyborg on-edge as she approaches a vending machine.     "Hmmm." She takes a moment, and pokes the vending machine's buttons. Assuming she gets anything, she'll stuff some healing items in her inventory before moving along.     She's far past the point of horrified realizations, unlike LUnara.
Silica	Silica dons a space suit herself, one of the light vac suits. This means taking off her armour, and removing her dagger from the back sheath she has it in, but she doesn't really need her dagger most of the time. She follows Yuuki out, and comes to a stop at seeing the Neurovores... "I can't summon my pets out here, they'd suffocate. I'll take support and healing position. Everyone, accept the raid invite!" she says, tapping through her menus and shooting off invites to everyone in the area. She then lets the melee fighters go in front, before beginning to chant words of power, which spin around her before locking in. The spell coalesces and a thin 'shield' of blue hexagons appears around everyone in the group. "That should help with mitigating incoming damage, but it won't block it completely. Be careful!"
Staren	<<Actually, wearing the suit under your armor might work. It's pretty thin.>> A female voice points out to Yuuki. It seems Staren's AI is monitoring everyone who took one of his suits. Wouldn't do to lose any of them!     The entrance to the ship pops up as a waypoint for everyone who did, too, once Staren identifies it. The Star Hawk switches to humanoid mode and holds on nearby, before Staren climbs out and makes his way to an airlock.     Staren takes it all in, but has to stop when he sees the horde of monsters. Damn. He reaches into his bag and tosses Xiaomu a canister. Some sort of plasma grenade. "Here you go." For his part, he stands back and pulls the laser rifle with underbarrel grenade launcher off his back, ready to engage when Septette gives the word.
Starbound Flotilla	Maaka doesn't aggro the creatures in their defensive radius when she heads to the vending machines. They offer several healing items, usually marked as things like "HEALING STIM" and such. But among them are other things. "INFESTATION CLEANSER" is especially on sale, as a unique healing thing that those who look up IFO will find was originally absent. The spray bottles are odd, but at least look like they'll make sense. It's deducting real money from her accounts, though! At least until she gets some proper in-game currenct. IFO did always have that sort of thing too.
Yuuki Konno	Looking about, Yuuki takes obvious delight in the campy space atmosphere. Well, not actual space atmosphere in a literal sense, as that'd be vaccuum. She opens her helmet, seeing as how it's unlikely to be of any actual use. "PAAH!" she exclaims, as if suddenly freed from a stale head-bucket. "This place is SO CHEESY!" she adds, her eyes sparkling with joy.     Yuuki greets Lunara's bow with a respectful one in return and shakes Septette's hand unselfconsciously, then abruptly acknowledges the call for melee fighters. She crowds up near the front, only deferring place-of-pride to those who insist on being tanks. Tomoe and Lunara mostly, though she'd also likely defer to Septette the non-squishy. She puts herself on the flank, ready to burst through as soon as they've cleared enough of a space for her to bounce in through the airlock. Or, more likely, she'll go OVER them rather than squeeze around.
Iria	Once Iria makes her way inside, she double-checks to make sure her vac suit is working properly before she steps outside. Upon getting out, she has her pistol at the ready to ensure that anything that might be trying to get the drop on her would be making a foolish mistake. Once she realizes she's not in danger, at least for now, she lowers her pistol and proceeds to take a look around at the general area. "Neurovore? What the hey?" Iria then turns and spies the enemy mobs and their levels, as well as their names. "Looks like I just got my answer," Iria says with a sour sneer. "Never expected to be playing games out in space, but what do I know?" Her sneer turns into a scowl. "Still, these things... ewww..." When Septette gives the order to fall in, Iria decides to fall in as well, swapping out her pistol for her assault rifle. "I can handle ranged, don't worry about me." She shakes her head. "I don't want to get TOO close to those things!"
Alexis Maaka	"Huh, nice." Maaka makes note of HEALING STIMS and such. The cleanser might be way more useful as she pockets those. She notices as the money is deducted from her accounts, cocking an eyebrow as she stops. "Fucking microtransactions. Here too?" She grumbles, before she moves along. She stops as she spies NEUROVORES. "Okay, now I know why we have those cleansers." She says warily, training her gun on the creatures as she fires a few shots at them. "OKay, standard formation. Don't get too close to these!" She says, opting for sniping herself.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite beams down to the ship, but she isn't worried about possible gravity shenanigans, her boots have Magnetic Spurs on them... Okay it's not literally spurs, but it's in the heels where spurs would be worn, so they're called that to sound fancy. Hopalong on the other hand just uses his little metal claws to grip the deck. What, you didn't know lagomorphs had claws? Why do you think their kicks hurt so damn much? Those claws may be small but they're nasty! But I'm getting off track. Corona and her Robot Buddy (how fitting for the setting) are here! After fiddling with taking care of this silly 'log in' nonsense. Some worlds. That's probably why she already has her analyzer device out in one hand. Though that makes it easy to pick up the bleep of 'mobs' ahead as they enter the airlock section. So with the other hand she juts a thumb towards some of the posters. "Ah'm gonna take a wild guess an' the readin's up ahead are what these here warnin' signs are talkin' 'bout." She glances down at her side. "Hopalong, clean out the riffraff." The clockpunk jackalope hops a few steps ahead of her, closer to where the pack is prowling, but where his small profile won't get in the way of others. Kicks one of his back legs a few times, emitting a sound somewhere between an old motor revving up and a lighter being clicked. A few sparks krackle up along his antlers like a jacob's ladder, before sending a larger bolt of electricity arcing towards the pack of neurovores. This way Corona can keep her hands on her device to continue scanning. Battle pets are useful, gameworld or otherwise!
Xiaomu	"Oh, thanks," Xiaomu replies as she easily catches the grenade and secures it in her inventory. "Help me remember to give it back to you if I don't use it." She also returns Lunara's bow, because being polite to nature spirits is usually a good idea. Once the proprieties are taken care of, she'll check the vending machines for additional grenades and/or ammunition, but there's a reason why she's probably going to rely mostly on Suiren - and secondarily on her other magic. Not that she's particularly eager to learn whether she can leech energy off of the Neurovores, never mind what that energy might 'taste' like; Dakki no Kata is kind of a last resort, especially when she has other options. That still tends to put her in the melee category, so she takes a spot in the lead. Still, any Neurovore mobs that try to attack the group are liable to be subject to freezing, thanks to Suiren's ice magic, possibly before they even get *into* melee range. Call it pre-emptive crowd control, plus making it easier for her allies to shoot them.
Tomoe	Eisen is very much on edge she's already moving in she thinks about the movie in question. All but the ship's chief engineer died against hte horror that was woken up and she barely killed the corp agent who wanted to weaponize it. Given how the thing that has usurped her world acts? Ya when she sees the mobs she even gets more creeped out at this. She's ready to go in and she pulls Caliburn from it's scabbard on her back, she's ready to engage the creatuers for the moment as she looks at the mobs for ta moment. She replies to Septette and nods "Got it won't call you that, and no we don't. So you tank as well? That's good news, I'm generally alone in the guild for tanking save for Tana." Who has become a good tank but there's only two in the end. "I'm ready to go start clearing our way in a soon as everyone's ready." She looks to Yuuki for a momen grinning at her a bit and Lunara gets a look of suprise, this was a new one for her. She'd never seen anything like her before that wasn't fiction. "Given these things names mean brain eaters, letsbe careful, all right?" She'll move to fall in with Sepette as she get to chanting something in norse as golden runes fly about her body as she does some pret fight buffing, and in her off hand a shield appears. "So no one get your brains eatan and watch for air ducts and vet's I'd wager. Also Silica I'm counting on you for what you know about this game and it's setting."
Septette Arcubielle	The little robot swiftly offers the same unnerving handshake to the bouncy Yuuki, looking warm yet businesslike. At the suggestion, though, she scrunches up her face a bit in a bemused, disgruntled expression. "You mean it wasn't asking for a full name...? I should've just gone with that, then. RQBL-7's my official designation, but..." She trails off, a look of mild distaste summarizing her feelings better than words could.      When the enemies come into visual range, though, an abrupt transformation of sorts comes over the yggdroid. Her movements shed their humanizing imperfection, becoming preternaturally swift and crisp; her face loses all feeling, slipping into a cool mask. Her shawl is cast aside, revealing a tan exoskeleton that resembles human bones over charred-black internal components, and a spherical core inside her 'ribcage' that thrums and pulses an ominous red.      She accepts the raid invite, then steps to the fore of the party as her arms unfold and morph into complex scything blades, like nightmarish swiss-army knives. The blades begin to glow a dull, angry red as they're magically heated to lethal temperatures. Simultaneously, a trio of small, spherical, hovering drones materialize around her. "Self-buffs applied. Drones summoned. Let's begin."      The trio of hovering bots open up on the pack of Neurovores with a barrage of elemental bolts- ice, fire, and electricity- as she closes in, perhaps a little too eager to start the battle. She lunges while still ten feet out, twisting her body to whip around with a long curved blade that extends from her arm like a mantis's claw, and it lashes out almost faster than the eye can track at the neck of the nearest packmate!
Kirito	"Ooooooh." Kirito's impressed by the fancy aesthetics, however antiquated and wacky they are. But there's not a lot of time to gaga over them so he keeps to the matter at hand - heading out from the dock and into the ship's... welcome area, for lack of a better way to put it.     Silica's quick jumping to buffs though fills him with power... and a surge of relief... because the sight of their welcoming PARTY is OFFPUTTING to put it mildly. "E-eugh. What's that thing... some kind of... slime?"     Seeing slimes that ping THIS HIGH on the Color Cursor though is a bit startling for the Black Swordsman.     "Don't worry, Silica! We've got enough firepower here to handle a few monsters and then some." And Kirito's not even equipped Excaliber, so there's that.     The warning about air ducts does have him getting wary quickly though. He glances about at the hallways... and carefully approaches just one of the Neurovore Cells... and flings a Throwing Pick at it!     The very next moment, he's drawn Elucidator. "Nothing to do but learn their patterns and push through!"
Starbound Flotilla	Plenty of ammo in those vending machines too, Xiaomu finds. Even fancier types, or at least those names say they are. So many of them are "ray rounds", which seem to be bullets retrofitted to shoot big whoopy raygun blasts. Shiny WOOWOOWOOWOO effects and everything! God damn this place lays it on thick.     And now that's enough prep time. The group's starting to fight!
Sentinel Lunara	A warrior always has time for formalities even whilst in the heat of combat. Lunara nods to Yuuki and Xiaomu banging her shield with her deer antler for a fierce greeting. "Well met, warriors!" Already fired up by the prospect of being in yet another death game, Lunara quickly falls into position as Septette starts giving orders of taking party roles. Now, Lunara is not a squishy by any means but she does form the backline DPS as a skirmisher so she falls in line behind Sept and bounds after her with all the speed that one might expect of a deertaur. As she dashes behind the tank, Lunara loads her deer antler horn with a spar and fires it at the mob. In mid air the spear, which is actually an atlatl dart, splits into four different projectiles to hit four different targets at the same time. Not only that, those targets struck quickly begin to rot as if being consumed by flesh eating bacteria or some kind of fungi. In game terms they now got the POISONED flag. "TASTE MY SPEAR!!" Lunara is heard crying out. She does have a passion for war after all. Just another day in the office for her.
Reker	"YOu know I was expecting...I don't know, something more akin to Aliens than Flash Gordon." Reker says, as he lowers his rifle a bit, keeping it held in his right hand but not actively aiming it at anything at the moment. Reker looks towards Tomoe for a second, "Interesting skin choice. I don't know why you always switch things up, but hey if it works for you, go for it." He grins and gives her a thumbs up with his left hand, before he pulls his rifle back up to a ready position. Because of the make up of what they are fighting against, he has decided to switch his ammunition type. He pulls the magazine from the HCAR and replaces it, the glow around the barrel turning red as he loads in incindiary rounds. The ammo counter on his HUD changes color to make sure he knows what kind of ammo he has. Weapon loaded with the proper ammo, he opens up with a quick burst of rounds towards the one closest to him. Should be a good give them a burning debuff and give him a good idea of the kind of damage they can take.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka glances back to Lunara, "Yo!" She greets casually, before she begins to search her inventory. She's fighting with guns, she can do this when the enemy isn't firing back and has to slither. She draws her Glock 9mm, adding a new magazine marked with these 'ray rounds' casually. It's weird how they seem to fit completely fine. "I know," She says to Reker, "But the saucer was kind of a big hint to me." She shrugs a shoulder, before she takes a few experiemntal shots at the neurovores with her sidearm.     They fire laser pewpew rounds, and she stares at the gun. "...huh. Gonna need more of these." She says, before she goes back to the Coilgun and opens fire with high-velocity magnetic rounds, the gun kicking against her shoulder beefily like the battle rifle it is.
Silica	Silica sees people taking off their helmets, and follows suit. Her nose wrinkles at the stale air, but she endures it. "Alright, there's air in here, so... Pina, Hibiki, Nana! I Choose you!" She opens her inventory, and hits a button on three 'items' in rapid succession. Three sparks of light appear around her, into the familiar forms of the Feathered Dragon, a Wing SnakeDragon and an Ice Boar. "We'll provide support and ranged damage!" she says, then points at some of the attacking Packmates. "Pina, Hibiki, Nana, Flash Freeze!" The two flying pets combine their Bubble Breath, Fog Foam and Wind Needles into a single attack, spreading a freezing fog across a group of Packmates, trying to freeze them solid before they can move to attack.
Tomoe	Tomoe looks as Septette gets her bots up and running, okay that's pretty coola nd then she goes in. She's righ behiind her and comments to Reker as she does so. "Because it's fun and I enjoy it!" She's flat out honest about it and away she goes she makes ready with a sword skill and lets it lose launching her self at several of the enmies while also procing a taunt effect off the ability she just made use of. "Clear em out!"
Starbound Flotilla	Staren, Iria, Maaka, Reker, Silica, and Corona have taken up a longer- ranged combat position. They open fire as soon as Septette engages, and find an appropriate response. Several of the packmates break off, and suddenly try to circle around the melee fighters! They leap ONTO the Neurovore Cells, using their adhesive locomotion to slip onto the areas they couldn't jump on themselves. The cells look like support units of some kind! Several of them are intercepted by proper tanks, but the ranged types will need to find a way to deal with those flankers.     The Neurovores are tough, but only in a bullet-spongey way. Their vulnerable points at the brain, targeted by ranged fighters, seem to be easy enough to neutralize them at, but center of mass shots are far less effective for ranged weapons. Not, oddly, for melee, but that'll come up in a moment. Those who fire the odd RAY ROUNDS seem to burn holes through the neurovores with dramatic energy!! But the total HP damage seems just as much as it is with their normal weapons. PEW PEW PEW though!! That's their real value.
Starbound Flotilla	Electrocution like Corona used, and other SCIENCY(!!) effects seem to be especially effective. Staren's laser weapon evokes this about halfway, it seems, being a little too on the nose and direct for IFO's damage calculations to give it that SCIENCE(!) boost. Reker similarly procs a halfway-implementation of that SCIENCE(!) vulnerability with his burning rounds! It spreads effectively, with a huge rush of fire among the pack. Damage over time is a bit iffy for bullet-sponges, but it's at least throwing off their response, and several of them seem to be "stunned" out of attempts to fire ranged attacks back, some kind of spit perhaps? What's far more effective is when he shoots Neurovores that have been frozen by Xiaomu's and Silica's FREEZING MAGIC. SCIENCE(!) dictates that freezing and heat combine into exploding, which makes the neurovores experience surface detonations like he was hitting them with tiny missiles.
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki bounds on into the melee with seemingly reckless haste, clearing several of the lumpy Neurovore Cells, turning a vault in midair and dealing out an inverted slash as she passes by. Somehow despite the reckless leap and aerial ballet, she lands on the far side of the pack with grace, immediately spinning and carving a horizontal line into a Packmate. And then she actually gets started fighting.     For those who have never seen Yuuki fight, her attack appears incredibly reckless. She seems to care not a whit for defense, diving in between attackers to strike against a monster that has its back turned, seemingly relying on pure momentum to keep herself safe. And yet she turns to meet attacks, cutting to each side, rolling or vaulting away as something lunges for her, able to recognize and react to each attack as if the attacker were in slow motion. It's business as usual for those used to fighting alongside the Imp girl, but surly it'd appear reckless if not foolhardy for those who think an unarmored human - or imp - is a fragile, squishy thing.     Not that she's completely untouchable or anything. If these creatures should inflict any kind of splash damage, or if they have flexible tentacles and pseudopods like most space alien cell-like things, she's not got a perfect defense. Her best defense is speed, but these are high-end mobs who aren't going to fall without a fight!
Staren	Staren has ACTUAL lasers, although he hasn't turned on the PEW PEW sound effects. Still, monsters circling around is a problem, as it seems they can't kill them quite fast enough. He switches tactics, shifting the laser rifle to his off-hand while pulling out an SMG with another underbarrel launcher of some kind -- this one, it turns out, shoots tiny missiles which explode into globs of rapidly expanding-and-hardening foam! Maybe he can glue some of the neurovore cells and their riding packmates in place to buy time?
Starbound Flotilla	The melee frontline experience more anatomical oddness. Septette cuts cleanly through the incredibly tough flesh of a neurovore packmate, and shouldn't find too much trouble decapitating others with their facefirst lunges, though that puts her in swiping range of their brutally sharp claws. A few times that happens, though, their heads slam past the blades and try to start gnashing their teeth right for her head, launching off with some sort of articulated cellular mass forming right at the wounds. Xiaomu's and Silica's freezing seem especially effective at making that not happen much, and in general it seems like freezing effects are also removing a lot of the Neurovore Cell mobility as well. All of the biological weirdness, in fact, seems dampened by it!     Lunara's melee may be, well, melee, but it's a mid-range sort of thing. She's the one who will be the most effective at countering the weird Sudden Anatomical Events; her heavy spears mean that she can intercept detached parts that get too rambunctious. Or it might be better served drawing the majority of the pack off Tomoe, who are very, very busy trying to crawl up and over her shield and get to her tasty, tasty brain. Aside from the ones that are drawn away towards Tomoe, Yuuki's managed to sort of DPS-dodge-taunt the others into a manual taunt, keeping their attention and reducing their mobility by shearing through their twisted anatomy.     Kirito's going after the cells specifically; these support units seem far more concerned with leaping into open wounds that the others create and ad-hoc healing them, so intercepting them ahead of time is a good idea, and his blade tears through some incredibly tough, viscous, goopy bioform. He's the one who gets to see one unusual thing in particular. While chasing down one of the neurovore cells, he gets to watch it leap into the severed neck-stump of one of the dead packmates... And suddenly, revive it! It looks like cells can replace lost brains entirely! The 'REVIVED(!!) neurovore packmate' seems even stronger than the others, adding at least ten levels!
Septette Arcubielle	Calling Septette a juggernaut wouldn't be entirely fair to her sophistication: even as she wades into the thick of the pack, her movements have a peculiar calculated grace to them. Her every motion and attack is part of a dance of probabilities, bringing her just into reach of the neurovores' predicted attacks and then snatching her out of their jaws again just as they've committed to the assault!      She seems to be remarkably adaptable in her offensive tactics, as well: when her blue and red drones tag a neurovore simultaneously by chance and detonate it, it takes her mere milliseconds to respond to the new information. She rapidly quenches the fiery glow of her left armblade and then shrouds it in cryonic enchantments, alternating attacks on individual targets to explode them!      The evasive calculations aren't perfect by any means: in the first few seconds of pitched melee combat, she takes several glancing hits to her limbs and face where she mis-predicted their aggression or means of attack. But the damage is remarkably minor, for such high-level opponents. Where their attacks hit her tan exoskeleton, they simply plink off harmlessly, perhaps staggering her for a fraction of a second; where they find chinks in the incomplete armor, she sparks and twitches while compensating for the damage, then renews her vicious assault.      Throughout the entire ordeal, her overall offensive methodology remains the same: she thoroughly butchers and disposes of one enemy while avoiding or tanking the attacks of the others, then moves on to the next with inhuman efficiency. As the battle wears on, her analytical dissection of the neurovores' attack patterns becomes vastly more refined. Even surrounded, she goes entire seconds without sustaining a direct blow- one gets the impression that, given enough time and enough enemies, she could eventually dissect an army like this.
Corona Arclite	Well that was effective!.. But now the mobs are trying to circle 'round them. Either to flank, or to get to the people keeping to the back. Either intention is not any good, and Hopalong is going to need a few moments to build up another charge. Corona snaps her device shut, scanning is going to have to wait until later, shoving it back in her toolbelt inventory. Then reachs back to pull Forgesweeper out of its sling. She flips it around as she draws it, catching the sawed-off scattergun by the action so the motion pumps it for her to power up its pulsarium core and lever back into her hand proper. Clusters of targets is what this weapon was made for. "Keep yer heads down!", she warns anyone that make be approaching the flankers on her side as she raises the sawed-off and opens fire. What it lacks in range due to being modeled after a short-doublebarrel shotgun, Forgesweeper makes up for in power and coverage. One shot spews out a scatterblast of plasma 'sparks' that, due to the way the pulsarium core generates plasma energy through it, is an odd combination of Fire and Electricity. It's like being 'shot with electrical burns' as an outlaw put it once.
Sentinel Lunara	In the heat of battle things usually fall apart and one must rely on instinct rather than a drawn out plan. Go by the book in a real fight and you'll quickly find yourself dead. That is why rather than sticking close to the tank, Lunara hops off to the side to try to assist the flank. "Fight well, my lady!" She yells over to Septette who she recognizes as a fellow experienced warrior and thus will be able to take care of herself. Instead of skirmishing at the front, Lunara spots that a large size of monsters are trying to overwhelm Tomoe and climb over her shield. Even though she's a DPS, its also Lunara's duty to protect their backline! "Begone!!" Calls Lunara and summons toxic spores to appear all over the slimes crowding Tomoe. Her Toxic Spores apply the same Debuff as her spears, POISONED, but with a twist too as the Nature's Toxin begins to target the limbs and locomotion of any being making it even harder to move and attack. SLOW effect for sure.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka's eyes drift towards the flanking units, as they leap onto the cells and zip around. OPening fire on the slimy bastards, she tries to focus on their squishy bits to take them out, one or two shots apiece. Here's hoping those ray rounds do their job, as she goes back to the Glock 17 and opens fire with some well aimed pistol fire, finding her shots to burn them up.     She makes another note: Ray rounds kill these things dead. Hopefully she can reproduce these things.
Iria	As Iria proceeds to slap another clip into her gun, she's unsurprised to find that some of the Neurovores are attempting to flank her. "They've definitely got intelligence, I'll give them that," She says sarcastically as she attempts to fire upon the Neurovores flanking from the left. She made sure to bring plenty of ammunition, but who knows how many more there might be? All the while, she's occasionally sweeping the right flank too, not wanting to be caught from behind by one of those things. "I'm not even going THINK about what one of them might do to me if they get me from behind!" Iria sneers.
Tomoe	Tomoe tomeos keeps going with her blade she seems to know how to use it and she ses agrro goos she'll keep fighitn her blade goes to work at aiming to keeop them at bay and she also gets these things are a very real danger, her hate of Cardinal grows just a bit more. She's also glad for the help with Lunara and Septette's help with this. She chants again causing her blade to blaze up with light going for light elemental strikes. She also will bash her shield into the on c9omming foes. "Sorry my brains are too spicey!" She taunts the mobs with even as she gets an idea of how Sepetette fiths Lunara is also suppiorting her with some sort of plant magic which is welcome as it should help keep the brain eaters back, right?
Xiaomu	Ah, the good old 'nail mobs with opposing elements and watch them exacerbate each other' approach. Xiaomu grins and continues spreading her ice magic around, but she's being careful - if any of the Neurovore things get too close, or circle around - which Lunara points out is a worry - then she'll still be in trouble. For now, though, ice magic seems like her best tactic - and if she can make the neurovores brittle enough to shatter outright, all the better. "Try and herd them together, and let's see how much good grenades do!" she calls out to her allies. To THAT end, she pours on the ice magic in a different direction - rather than trying to freeze the neurovores in front of her, she works on 'building' a big wall of ice out from her side of the party's front line. It should last for a bit before it melts, unless the Neurovores get smart enough to try and hit it really hard in a focused effort - but even then, that SHOULD mean they bunch up better ... better, that is, for getting exploded en masse with some grenades in their midst.
Kirito	"What the--?!" Chasing down a Neurovore Cell is getting annoying, but seeing odd behavior from one Kirito's stomach sinks. ANYTIME a Monster does something Unusual it's usually Bad News...     And then he realizes something else.     The Neurovore Packmates leave CORPSES.     ... That's not normal for ALO... Is it normal for IFO? Only Silica here would know.     Acting on instinct, he leaps straight for the Neurovore, hopin to STOP it mid-leap before it can reach the Packmate...     And is SOUNDLY thwacked away by the revived monster. Kirito gives a yell and promptly SLAMS into a wall, HP taking a solid hit. He's got his breath back in a second though, and swiftly dive-rolls to the side and back up to his feet.     "So. They can self-rez... what a pain. We'd better go after the Cell's first."     A quick gesture and he activates Quick-Change, a One-Handed Sword skill Augmentation. Elucidator vanishes from his hand, as well as the scabbard... and both are replaced with a new sheathed sword. Gleaming, and made of solid gold, the new sword he draws faintly glows with holy light.     "This is no time to be holding back... eat this!!"     Holy Sword Excaliber alights a frosty-blue, and Kirito leaps forward and into a thrust-carve-carve-YOINK manuever that draws something close to the number 4 into his opponent... which leaves a trail of exploding ice. Savage Fulcrum.
Reker	"Hey you alien scumbags!" Reker yells out, as he sees that his flame shots seem to be working on them. That's what he needed to know for sure. He has 20 rounds with each magazine on this thing, and he can do a lot of damage with those twenty rounds. Each burst he fires is about two or three shots, it's easy enough to get them on target. He opens up again with another burst of rounds. He's trying to make sure he picks his targets to ensure that the others are also laying into them. Reker's fought monsters and all sorts of things before, but these things normally despawn, right? Like they turn into pixels and vanish and you end up with the gear...This isn't right, especially for a VRMMO, even if it's not really one...He's confused, but he takes a second to focus up, and reloads his rifle, "We can worry about it later, keep shooting!"
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki continues her whirling dance of devastation. She IS a tank of sorts, using her ludicrous reaction speed to keep herself safe while drawing aggro on as many mobs as possible. While they're focussed on her they're vulnerable to others, and she moves out of their range so quickly that it tends to simply waste the mob's time chasing her down instead of promoting an attack on a more-stationary ally. She even has a few basic aggro-building skills, though the new mobs of the Real World seem to have entirely different aggro mechanisms from a standard VRMMO like Sword Art Online.     While she dances, going over and under and around attackers, Yuuki pays attention to the tactical conversation. She seems to be effortless while responding to the discussion as well. So really, even this incredible act of violence may be a level below her ultimately-focussed abilities. "Huh! That explains why slimes are such a high-end mob!" she grins, directing her attacks more at them than at the packmates. Which should be feasible, since she's basically flanking and back-lining the attacking mobs. As she attacks she periodically channels mana into her blade, making it glow purple and blasting Packmates and Cells with brief dustclouds of Dark-elemental power. It may not be terribly effective in this game, depending on if there's any sort of darkness-type magic in the original. It might be a mild debuff though, or perhaps a distraction, and she mixes it up with occasional hits of Dark-powered poison channeled through her blade. Not strong poison by any means; Yuuki's no mage. But a little damage over time that could perhaps counter a measure of healing power if nothing else.
Starbound Flotilla	Staren's grenade is a far more SCIENCY solution, and so fully benefits from the IFO damage vulnerability. Well, for a given value of damage. Neurovore cells seem quite effectively immobilized by the expanding, hardening foam. A few of them in sufficiently inopportune positions that they can be easily taken out by Maaka and Iria, and any that surge past it and dodge are fired on by Corona, tearing through them! The rest, cut off from flanking, definitely. Continuing the current barrage of ranged fire like this ought to break things up easily, at least over time. The enemies whittle down now... There probably aren't too many concerns for the backline, this will finish off shortly.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka produces a box of RAY ROUNDS, as Corona requests some of the ammunition. "Catch!" She calls out, tossing them over to the fox as she goes back to firing off some more rounds. Staren does a THING as the riot foam freezes them. "Oh, hell yeah! Staren, you gotta give me some of those sometime!" SHe says to the science cat, letting off a steady burst for each of the Neurovores that are frozen in place.
Staren	Staren smiles slightly as he sees the foam holding them in place, allowing the others to deal with the flankers. Excellent!     He also notices that they seem to be weak to electricity. It may not have occured to him that it could be a SCIENCE! weakness. He drops the laser rifle, and ejects the SMG's magazine before even firing it, loading another one... and then he opens up with a mix of his armor's beam cannons and shock rounds from the SMG, trying to eliminate the cells first and then the packmates, unless one of the latter risks getting close to the backline again!
Silica	Silica watches the battle unfolding, relating that the corpses aren't natural for IFO. She does call her pets back close, and with a point, she commands. "Freezing Wind Bubbles!" Pina, Hibiki and Nana all form up, Pina breathing her Bubble Breath, Nana then freezing the bubbles, before Hibiki shoots them through with one of its Wind Needles, lancing them out to stab into the Cells. These impacts leave frozen patches where they strike, and also explode out in a plume of ice after a few moments.
Sentinel Lunara	Herd them together, that sounds like a plan! And one that Lunara just so happens to be well versed at. Even before the Nexus, as the boldest and strongest of the Dryads, Lunara often dived deep into the enemy line to bring the fight to them instead of staying at the back like her sisters. Today is no different; Lunara spots priority targets that Kirito points out are reviving their fallen foes and charges towards them! Not directly mind you, Septette and Yuuki are thick in the melee and would block her charge. Instead, Lunara takes to the skies with a mighty leap that sees her up well twenty or so feet in the air, laughing all the way. "AHAHAH!!" Clearing the frontline with a single bound, Lunara lands behind the slimes rezing their fallen allies and stomps the ground behind them with her hooves. This causes seismec shocks that will push them forward and bunch them up together, all piled up perfectly for Xiaomu's grenades.
Iria	The foam seems to be holding them down, and Iria smirks with an evil smirk. "All right, looks like you ain't going nowhere... except to hell!" She can't help but grin as she fires upon the now non-moving Neurovores. "I dunno why this happened, but it's useful!"
Xiaomu	Where the Neurovores had been trying to flank the party, now it's the *party* flanking the mobs - herding them together, immobilizing some with foam or ice, obliterating others before they can escape. Xiaomu keeps doing her part with ice magic, and now with occasional gunfire as well - she has GOT to borrow some of those beam-fire clips at some point, but that's not a high priority right now. Soon enough, the Neurovore mobs are packed about as closely as they can get, and Xiaomu holsters her pistol long enough to swipe open her inventory, retrieve the plasma grenade Staren offered her earlier ... "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!" ... and yanks the pin out in almost the same movement as she pitches the grenade into the thick of the Neurovores. No sooner has the explosive weapon left her fingers than she starts conjuring another wall of ice, this one in front of her - cutting off another path of retreat for the monsters, but more importantly, giving her some additional protection from the detonation which is presumably about to ensue ... and if any of her allies need cover, the ice barrier's wide enough that a few of her neighbors can duck behind it as well, while not forcing them to go around the wall if they want to keep fighting.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite's sharp ears hear Maaka's shout, and she holds up one hand to catch the ammo coming from that direction without having to look for it. With the other hand she flips Forgesweeper over and stows it back in it's sling. Then pulls a handgun with multiple barrels out of one her belt pouchs. Snaps it open, chambers several of the ray rounds, marvelling for a moment at how they somehow just happen to fit despite the gun having an entirely different calibre. But this isn't the time to muse over what SCIENCE! makes this possible. A flick shuts and locks the chamber in place, and she gives it a gunslinger twirl before turning and holding her arm out in the direction of the remaining slimes. An ear flicks back. "Yippy-ka-ya, jello thumpers!" Corona only has to pull the trigger once, and the six barrels fire off in succession, each one emitting the appropriate sound as it fires a laser ray instead of a bullet at the remaining Neurovore mobs. PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!
Starbound Flotilla	Septette's rapid calculation rips through them more and more rapidly, more and more effectively, while the toxins build a painful damage over time effect badly. Tomoe's swapped to elemental attacks! That means the strange, dynamic combos she forms with the elemental effects elsewhere, not to mention her condensing the enemies into poison AoEs. Xiaomu's and Silica's Ice magic helps block them off and herd them in while skewering them against the wall, enhanced by Yuuki Konno's elaborate dances and Darkness magic (which the game seems to interpret as a dodge-reducing "JAMMING" effect), making it all the more easy for Kirito to hunt down the cells before they can rez more corpses.     Then comes Lunara's big, final hit, stunning the others dramatically, gathering them up, and making a final cluster for Xiaomu's Staren-given plasma grenade to mix with Kirito's explosive ice elemental damage, creating a VAPORIZATION elemental effect! It sears away their flesh, leaving dramatic skeletonized parts of their bodies.     And then, the moment the last neurovore cell is put to rest, the whole thing settles down, and... The corpses burst. It looks like the Neurovores' infesting nature mean that corpses near them are maintained. Somehow, the Neurovores have very gently altered normal death behavior, but only do so in a small radius surrounding them. In absence of cells, they can't exert that effect any more.     Pshhhhhh! They burst into voxels. And loot drops pop up! Yuuki's gotten some kind of magnetic coil sword, there's a couple rayguns around for the ranged types, all sorts of things like that. But they've also acquired various 'loader' parts. 'Loader circuitboard', 'loader plating', 'loader thruster', and similar names pop up on the loot list. Weeeeird.     Alarmingly, each member of the party receives an alert of an "infestation index" increasing, marking how much time they spent in proximity to the neurovores. The most it goes up for (for Septette) is about a fifth of the bar's length. Silica will know this is completely new stuff, but when the bar goes up, so does the DPS rating on some of the gear the group got.
Yuuki Konno	Yuuki continues to press in hard, jumping in and out of danger zones, keeping a careful eye on her allies and on the tactical situation. As reckless as she seems in her attacks, she always seems to be ducked down low (usually sweeping in a low slashing attack) whenever someone fires a grenade or area-blast cannon. Using the press of enemies to shield herself from incidental fire. Not that she's escaped all damage, but her wounds are relatively minor. Not pushing far into the yellow portion of the bar thanks in part to the healing, and she might have taken even less had she gone properly armored. Still, that armor's more of a protection from critical strikes than an absolute defense; nothing Yuuki's suffered would have been significantly less-serious with her light metal armor. Unfortunately her space suit isn't going to be very space-worthy after this.     As Xiaomu's grenades arc in, Yuuki decides the mobs have had all they can take. She bounds away, taking advantage of the light gravity to leap into the air, turn and strike a wall, then bounce off of it and well out of way of explosions with a cheerful, delighted laugh that can only be called a giggle.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette's response to the battle nearing its conclusion is rather different from her comrades'- rather than finishing up with some big and grand attack, she simply picks up one of the remaining neurovore packmates, sinking her bladelike claws into its alien flesh, and holds it at arm's length. It looks almost comical- the short girl holding the writhing beast off the ground, in a position that the intuitive center of gravity here would dictate must be impossible- until she starts to pull.      Her claws go deep- into flesh, into marrow- and their points of contact are carefully chosen. She pulls her hands apart with a kind of luxuriating slowness even as the monster claws and bites at her arms ineffectually. But this is no superficial tear: skin rips, muscles shred, and bone pulls from bone as the monster slowly unravels into two discrete and ragged halves.      Through the entire spectacle, Septette's expression remains analytical and impassive: she doesn't just want to watch it die, she wants to see HOW it dies, where and when each tissue fails and what finally causes it to expire. And then... poof. It's gone, without leaving so much as a trace of blood on her claws.      The animation and emotion returns to her features as quickly as it left, and she flashes the rest of the party that characteristically warm smile as she looks over their various states of injury (or lack thereof). "Infestation rating, huh," she muses. "Sounds ominous, but I still feel fine. Think I'll keep one of those cleansers handy, though... everyone else okay?"
Alexis Maaka	Maaka watches with a loud laugh as Corona unleashes a pepperbox laserhail, before she watches the creatures...burst. She wipes some goo from her body, before she remembers the Infestation Cleansing items she'd pocketed when she notices her life bar is infected. "...huh." She uses one of the items, and depending on the result, she begins to rifle through her Matter Manipulator's inventory until she has enough to go around.     "Oi, think we'd better keep some of these on hand if we keep coming back here." She suggests, tossing items out for others like candy at a party. She also notices a raygun, snagging the pistol and stuffing it in her inventory, before she takes some scrap too. Loader parts mostly make her wonder if it has to do with some kind of mechanic up ahead.
Silica	Silica gathers her pets back together, and joins the others, gesturing for one of those Infestation Cleaner items to clear her bar. It's new, it's not part of IFO's base mechanics and so it's not staying around if she can help it.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite makes a face at the splatters before the things do finally evaporate into voxels. "Rawht. Next time, bring decontam gear with." Fortunately Maaka raided that vending machine for location appropriate supplies. Oh, also, loot. Corona yoinks her Manipulator off her belt, using it to conveniently collect some of that stuff. Hey, guns... and a brow raises as various 'loader' items come up on the inventory after picking them up. "Ah reckon, knowin' a few uses over the term 'loader' in relation to other things, these are gonna be important later." But mostly hey, location appropriate pew pew gun. That's always a good thing.
Iria	Iria takes some of the gear as well, looking it over... then realizes there's some kind of indicator indicating she's been... infested? She scowls at this. "Oh swell, looks like I've got something new to worry about." She doesn't sound too thrilled about this.
Reker	The encounter being over, Reker moves to look through the gear they won off of that fight, "This is a very interesting setup.." The infestation on the lifebar is a bit worring, especially if it continues on after they leave this zone. Still he takes one of the ray pistols and twirls it around his finger and then holsters it. "Cool now I just need to get a jetpack or something." He says, with a grin, before he takes one of the clensers. He tucks it away into his inventory, figuring he'll use it later if need be. For now he looks towards Kirito, "So how do we get infested? Contact with the enemies?"
Staren	Aaand they're down! Well! "I'm fine." Staren managed to stay pretty safe. He doesn't have a lot of special ammo, though. And it seems that despite his efforts to stay at range, he's gained some 'infection'. He's about to head to the vending machine to search for a cure, when he notices that when he picks up items, they display a DPS bonus for it. Iiiinteresting. Still, it'd be good to have curative items on-hand. So he checks the vending machine for such and buys some for later.     "You say they're 'loader' parts? What do you think the chances are they'll build a small mech?" He'll keep one of the rayguns to try and compare, but he's also going to do a quick supply run before they go deeper. Now that he knows which weapons work. "I'll be right back, guys!" And he runs back to the landing platform to beam to his ship, returning a couple of minutes later after grabbing all his spare electric bullets, hellball grenades, and sticky-foam missiles.
Kirito	Infestation index? With this popping up as loot drops and corpses burst to bits, Kirito's breath is stolen away by a sharp thrust of fear to the heart. What does this mean? What happens if it maxes out?     He's seen games with meters like this... let them max out and... boom. Game over.     A dozen dreadful images bring him to sharply inhale and rapidly bring up his menu, shuffle through the inventory to the stuff Maaka was handing out...He presses the buttons shakily...     INFESTATION CLEANSER -> STATUS
Silica	Silica says towards Staren. "I think they're to repair a MK.XXI Load Lifter Exoframe, one Operation in the game revolved around finding the parts to fix it, then ues it to fight off a Boss that's been stalking the party for the whole dungeon."
Alexis Maaka	Maaka's head jerks towards Silica. "CALLED IT!" She shouts, suddenly. "...nobody else thought it was weird we have loader parts right?"
Xiaomu	Whatever the 'Infestation Index' means, Xiaomu gives it a wary look and commits it to memory. She'll have to keep an eye on that while she's in this game-region, for sure, but she's also certain that there will be ways to help manage its level. In the meantime, those grenades did the trick; she really *will* have to make sure to bring grenades next time. They might not even have to be Shinra specials, the fire-elemental boosted grenades she normally uses (when she *does* expect to need them, anyway); normal grenades might be plenty. Maybe. Well, time enough to investigate that another time. For now, Xiaomu turns her attention to the loot-drop windows, accepting everything that the game has seen fit to give her. The 'loader' items have her interested - something to keep an eye out for, maybe there's a sidequest (or a core story quest, even) involving them? Otherwise the word just seems a *bit* out of place. - And then Silica, while talking to Staren, takes much of the surprise out of it. OH WELL. She'll definitely take one of those ray guns, though. Might even see if she can trade for a second one from somebody else in the party ....
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite smirks at Maaka. "That's -exactly- the sort of thing Ah was expectin'."
Sentinel Lunara	Infestation is not a concern of Lunara. She feels fine now and if there are problems ahead she will deal with them in due time. Now though is the time for VICTORY! The Dryad raises her shield and deer antler up and starts banging them together in celebration, rejoicing in the display of guts thrown asunder by the grenades before dissapearing into thin air. "YAAAAH!! FOR KALIMDOR!!!!" Later on she might review her Kill stats and such. She always did that after a battle in the Nexus.
Septette Arcubielle	With that unpleasant matter resolved, Septette cleans herself off by briefly bathing in an aura of magical fire to boil off any remaining alien blood or protoplasm. Then she folds up her blades neatly, assuming a more human- though still skeletal- form once more. Lunara earns a light, playful punch on the shoulder as the robot walks past, with the rest of the group getting a respectful nod and grateful smile.      "I can only guess how many more of those things wait inside," she says soberly. "And it is hard to say how urgent reaching the Flotilla may be. We would do well to conserve our resources, and not head back for healing or resupply unless seriously imperiled ourselves. Now, shall we see what's inside this strange craft?"
Sentinel Lunara	Lunara cackles as Septette passes next to her and punches her amicably. She returns the gesture by punching back with that unnatural strength of hers. Sufficient for a juggernaut like Septette to at least feel something. The dryad then bounds towards the group pumping her fist in the air. Still, wholly unaware of this infestation business. "That was worth waiting for. I hope there are more challenges like that ahead!"
Tomoe	Tomoe winds down a little as the last of the monsters are taken out sh watche them explode into Voxels and will move to take her part of theloot thouhg the infestation index? That concerns her as a mechanic for this place. She does get all the loot she got from the drops and puts her weapons away back into her inventory as she looks about. "So just what the heckis up with this?" She looks around at teh party. "is everyone all right?"
Starbound Flotilla	Well, now things are a lot easier. Septette can frontline more and more effectively since they're animalistic NPCs, for one, and as the tactics become easier to deal with. The rest of the ship is built in the Science Corps proper aesthetic. More ATOMIC AGE hallways, especially with the residences. They've even got those cool HOUSE OF THE FUTURE robots! Some of them even WORK! Elsewhere, cargo areas are far more dangerous, while lab areas seemingly are the most destroyed and decayed. Thankfully, the architecture is actually rather sensible. The big flying-saucer aesthetic and boomerang shape of its outside really helped define its inside.     Kirito finds out some of the... UNIQUE flavor of the item descriptions. "Neurovores got you down? Having arguments with your new second head over who gets your third arm? Well don't worry! I'm Jack Ripley, Defense Superscience director, and whenever my humanity decays under the erosion of neurovore corruption, I turn to Frontier Science Corps 'Neurocleanse Plus(tm)'!"     It's after a lengthy period of this adventuring that they actually finally find the Starbound Flotilla. Or at least, that's what can be assumed from the active fighting. They seem to be unregistered on the system, and so they've not received a startlingly wide variety of alerts. Whoever's the first ahead of the group will get to see them trying to slice into some sort of super-high-security airlock. But they're... Wrong, in some significant way. Under their armor, small tendrils and weird fleshy fillaments emerge. Even Seft has something seeping through the cracks in her head section, exuding a distressing sort of slime.     They still seem coherent -- you know, operating tools and such -- but they're communicating to each other, even Seft, in a strange of very inhuman noises. Their icons as "players" are marked with an infestation index that's about halfway full, with three little dots atop it; it looks like they maxed Infestation Index three times while not receiving game alerts.     That familiar automated voice speaks up, at last. "STOP. ZERO. XRAY. DELTA. ECHO. ALPHA. ZERO. ZERO. FOXTROT. FOXTROT. UNEXPECTED TEST SHUTDOWN OCCURRED. PLEASE RESTART TEST SYSTEM." And the anthem plays again. Each time the voice speaks up, red lights around the door the Starbound Flotilla is slicing through light up.
Silica	Silica sees the markers... then gets a wide-eyed look of terror. "Maaka... I hope you have a lot of those items..." she says, arraying her pets in a defensive formation, just in case.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette may well be the first one to round the corner and see the Flotilla at work, depending on whether anyone's adventurous or curious enough to walk ahead of her. Strangely enough, she doesn't stop at a distance or even slow down: she keeps walking towards them, even as their corrupted nature becomes apparent.      If they need help, she wants to be close. And if they need to be beaten into submission- she still wants to be close.      The robot may be relatively small, but she's definitely not stealthy. If they somehow haven't noticed her presence by the time she gets to within about twenty feet, she'll call out to them. "Hey- Captains? It's me... Septette Arcubielle. You guys went off the grid, so a bunch of people got worried... and now you don't look so good." Her tone is deliberately faltering and unsure, conveying vulnerability and distress, but internally her mind is still racing. "Can I get you all to take some medicine, please? I'm worried this place is making you sick."      Unwanted memories bubble up in her head, muddling her thinking. Memories of a war two centuries ago, of human soldiers- trusted friends- driven to madness or worse by exposure to the Deep Ones. Of seeing human flesh slowly turn chalky white, bruised pink, and coppery green. Of how they still bled red, mixed with unearthly cerulean, when she put them down.      Every outward emotion Septette displays is a careful act, an unspoken second language that she's never fully felt at home with. Today, her distress in her voice is just as convincing as it ever was. And yet, for the first time in years, it is also real.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite is following the group, but most of her attention is on flipping through the various 'loader' parts now in their inventory. It's an engineer's force of habit, even if actual engineering skills might not be needed if they're kind of just 'installed' like items because VRMMO mechanics. Then people stop abruptly and she nearly walks into the back of someone else. "Now what are we stoppin' fo--" only to stop herself when she scoots past to see. "--Oh." Uuuh. "We're gonna need a lot more of those decontaminatin' thingabadoodles." Yes that is a legit technical term. 'Thingabadoodle'.
Sentinel Lunara	Lunara doesn't know these people, and thus even though she understands that they are the ones that need to be rescued, their corrupted nature tells her that something is terribly wrong. Which compells her to keep Septette from walking towards them, reaching out to try and grab her by the shoulders and backpedalling with all her hooves. "My lady! Stop!!"
Starbound Flotilla	George is the one who turns to Septette. He approaches her with something... Oddly familiar. He makes a friendly, positive noise, saying a word that isn't a word. "#####! ###, ####'# ##?" His throat is doing something horribly mutated that no human throat should, but it's like he's talking, and Septette just can't hear it right. "###, ####'# ## #### #### #####? # ###'# ########## ###." He says, tilting his head in an unnerved way. He doesn't seem to have understood what she said, but he's surprisingly coherent.     Actually, wow, they're acting... Surprisingly like themselves, aside from the communication issues. Biteblade looks a lot more infested, having sustained at least five pips of it. "################..." She makes an unnerving noise, looking up from her welding in a distinctly twitchy way. Her black sclera have a distinct red tone to them. It's kind of horrible to look at.     "STOP. ZERO. XRAY. ZERO. ZERO. ZERO. ZERO. ZERO. ZERO. ALPHA. ALPHA." The voice sounds again. "IT SEEPS INTO YOUR WALLS. IT SEEMS INTO YOUR HEART. IT SEEPS INTO YOUR MIND. RESTART TEST SYSTEM."
Alexis Maaka	Maaka stares. She just...kind of keeps staring at the Flotilla, her friends, as she keeps a gun trained on them. "Uhhhhh..." COrona takes the words out of her mouth, and she fumbles for her cleansing items. "Y-you may wanna take these." She says, holding out a bundle of the items with a shaky look behind her helmet.
Septette Arcubielle	At the best of times, it's pretty hard to physically shift Septette: despite her small and gracile frame, she weighs as much as a small car. In this case, it's even tougher: her talon-like feet dig into the metal floor, making it as hard to pull her back as it would be to rip out the ship's internal walls.      She carefully places one hand on top of Lunara's and tries to pry the druid's fingers off of her shoulder as delicately as possible. "No," she says firmly. "These people are... I know them. They're important to me." She stops short, just barely, of saying 'friends'.      George's expression sends the gears turning in her head. If she can't understand him, and he can't understand her... then maybe the Captains see them as the distorted, mutated ones? That thought, plus the deer obstinately tugging at her, gives her pause.      So she simply kneels down, holding one hand up in a gesture of peace... and rolls the bottle of infestation-cure across the floor towards George. "Take it," she implores, miming pouring the contents of a bottle into her mouth in as exaggerated and clear a form as possible. "Please."
Staren	They've got it down, so proceeding through the dungeon is just a steady grind, now.     He lets Septette keep point, so he doesn't rush up to her until he hears her adressing 'captains'.     He hurries up, and stares. How did they manage to miss registering this whole time?! "Please take some medicine..." He affirms after Septette's request, pulling a couple of the healing items from his bag.     After George speaks, he walks up, smiling in a friendly manner, and then tries to apply the healing items to George.
Sentinel Lunara	Again, Lunara doesn't know these people. She understands that they are important for Septette, and yet their look is currently raising all kinds of red flags within the Dryad. She stares at Septette with pleading eyes for her to reconsider, until she eventually relents and backs away allowing the robot lady to try and help them. Nevertheless, Lunara stands by at the ready, a spear loaded on her atlatl deer antler just in case the mutated flotilla prove to be hostile.
Iria	Iria doesn't recognize the people either, but she tries to play it cool and keep it calm. Still, after all that's happened, along with that 'infestation' thing, it's easy to tell that she's not quite at ease right now.
Starbound Flotilla	Albert squints at Maaka. "####. ### ### ### ######## #### ## ##?" He doesn't seem hostile about the fact that she's got a gun trained on him, but he's seeming worried himself, in a distant way. He's one of the ones who didn't take much infestation, being a ranged fighter. "### #### #########." He says, seeming a bit suspicious of her.     George picks up the medicine, staring at it. Sprays? He tests it just spraying around the air, but then Staren just walks up and sprays him, and then he jumps back a bit. The awful, wispy organic growths seem to audibly SHRIEK as the medicine burns through them. "####!" George calls out, losing a pip of infestation. "SoN Of a #####, th#t buRNS. ####, BONes, wh#t's iN TH#s?" His voice seems to be returning, at least. "C#n you say whATevEr gu#gly st#ff t##t #as Ag##N?" He re-caps the spray bottle he got handed in a sort of awkward, distressed way. Eugh! Weird medicine!
Alexis Maaka	"Well, there you go. This stuff will fix the infestation." Maaka says, motioning to George as she mimes drinking it to ALbert. "Just drink this stuff and you can be right as rain. Please do that."
Kirito	Kirito is wary of the infested Core Fleet members, and does not approach closer than twenty paces. He's still brandishing Excaliber, which is unusual for the Black Swordsman who usually stylishly sheathes his weapons after wiping out enemies...     But this place, and that hogwash item description, have unnerved him to a point of constant vigilance. So the black-clad, black-haired youth runs scenarios through his head, trying to imagine how these competent folk could have let things get like this... and wondering just what the effects are.     The gibberish, warped noises, but clearly normal body language and behaviors otherwise turn his terror briefly to stupefied staring though...     "... Is the infection purely cosmetic...?" He murmurs disbelievingly. No, that CAN'T be right...     The Black Swordsman's gaze sharpens, and he makes a few gestures at the Flotilla! Although doing so is a bit embarassing, he pantomimes the 'choose a username' box they should have gotten...
Corona Arclite	"And make sure Bitey gets some, she's the worst lookin' outta ya," Corona chimes in. She really doesn't want to have to try to fight the Floran to get her to take it, that'd possibly be worse than dealing with the alien slime horde.
Xiaomu	To be fair, Xiaomu doesn't know the Flotilla's members that well, but the HUD she has is enough to register that they're 'players' rather than NPCs. Which is most of what she needs to know. Also, their infestation indices are at about 350 percent each. Minimum. Which is ... okay, she'd be a lot happier without knowing that, or rather, knowing they WEREN'T that badly off. Hoo boy. Septette is pretty much taking point on that, so Xiaomu holsters her guns and keeps one hand empty, her staff held vertically in her left hand. "Hey guys, there's a thing you probably needed to know about being here, but for now ..." A bit of work on her menu produces one of her Infestation Cleanser items, and she holds it out invitingly to whichever member of the Flotilla is closest. "This isn't likely to totally cure what ails you, but it'll at least be a start, right? And once we can understand each other, we can walk you through registering into the local system so you can keep track of that ..."
Tomoe	Tomoe is also going to pop the item Maaka suggeasted they should she's not playing around /with/ that sort of thing. Then she sees the FLotilla's stare and stares she looks at them and almost reaches for her weapon. She's about ready to make ready with a spell and she knows it's time to not.She stands ready and will let Sepetette handle the flotilla.
Starbound Flotilla	Albert looks startled, and seems to be concerned about George. "### ### ##?" Albert seems worried, suddenly, as if George started speaking a different language. George, meanwhile, suddenly seems like he can't understand Albert. No, Kirito's about right. It's not cosmetic. It's sort of like a factional language. They don't even seem to be aware of their own level of infection. But with this many people suddenly showing up, George suddenly seems to come to a realization. "S###." He says. "nO, n#, I GEt ##, bUT N#t yET. LeT ## dO the me##ci#e lASt." His partially warped vocal cords are still of use, apparently.     He grabs up the rest of the medicine, running to his fellow Starbounders and apparently applying it while trying to use that more infested tone. It seems the infested can only understand each other. Whatever he's saying, something about "it's fine if it burns" or "just trust me on this" or things like that, seems to work out. Biteblade is the only one who seems extra cautious, even a little hostile, before she sustains a long session of the gulping.     Eventually, the Starbounders are fixed up. "Shit!" George declares. "I get it! It's like swapping over to the other side. Man, that was weird. Okay, thanks for that, I was wondering why I couldn't understand a damn thing on the radio, sheesh. Hey, we've dug up this AI unit, we're gonna snag 'em and bring him in. Keep on the air, this whole place is a weird situation and we'll be helping you guys figure it out. Hey, Staren! You don't look like a weird mutant anymore. Well, you usually look like a weird mutant, but a different kind of weird mutant. Come help us out decoding this screaming guy's secrets, yeah?" He gestures to the AI, as Biteblade finally finishes slicing through the airlock and exposes a vast interior AI core.     Yep, it's time for everyone to pile right back out and head on out. IFO's secrets will be decoded soon!
Iria	When it's time for everyone to pile right back out, Iria's one of the first to head back to her shuttle. Getting back in and heading out, she strips out of her vac suit and finally breathes a sigh of relief. "That thing was tight. But you do what you have to, I suppose." She frowns a little after learning the latest bit of info. "But being infested is a good thing? That's really something else." She shrugs a little, before bringing up Kei on her communicator. "Hey Kei, you there?" "What's up, Iria?" "How about pizza and movies tonight? If you order, I'll let you select the movie. That is, unless you want to hear about what happened with me." "I'll order our usual, how's that Iria?" "Sounds good to me Kei!" Iria disconnects and smiles a little. "After a weird and unusual mission, there's nothing like the simplicity of pizza and good movies!"
Staren	Staren is relieved that George gets it and starts cleansing the rest of the crew. "/I/ looked like a weird mutant? Huh, to us it was you that looked all... corrupted. Interesting." As they reach the AI core he shrugs, "Yeah, sure. But tell me... all this time, why didn't you just register accounts? There's a HUD and stuff that shows you your infestation level and how much money you get from monsters and a map with points of interest and all that."
Starbound Flotilla	"Floran ate text box!" Biteblade says. "I must meditate regularly for a week to achieve a perfect name." Moonfin says. "Gave me a DRM error." Pavo shrugs. She's a pirate. "Caution. I don't like being monitored." Albert grunts. "Sheepish. The terms of service said not to bot." Seft says. "Oh, I registered." George says, grinning. "I just wanted to know what would happen if the number got high." God damn it George.
Alexis Maaka	Maaka stares at the flotilla, and she just gives the most epic facepalm, her hand clunking on her faceplate. "Goddammit, guys."
Xiaomu	So that's what the infestation stuff does, thinks Xiaomu. And it's not necessarily a bad thing all told, for purposes of this game's story - or at least this dungeon's story. Which kind of makes sense, all things considered - it encourages players to keep pushing onwards, pressing into combat; it actively rewards them (kind of) for taking risks and being aggressive. And come to think of it, what 'downside' *is* there ... ? Besides, well, not being able to understand non-Infested characters (players or non-). She'll have to study up on this. If it's a known plot thread from before the Overlay, then there should be a discussion thread or fifty about it on fan boards or online fora of some kind. Then the Flotilla's members explain what happened - why they didn't register accounts (in most cases) or why they 'ignored' the fact it was getting so high (dammit George). The sage fox closes her eyes for a moment, wrestling with the impulse to either facepalm, or to outright facefault. Or, alternately, to go down the line and whack them over their heads with her staff, or with a big folded paper fan ... Well. Maybe not that last, she doesn't have her harisen. ANYWAY the job's basically done for today, they know what was going on with that weird transmission, and the Flotilla have found what they were after. Yeah, going home sounds good - she can catch up on today's anime and put some gaming time in before bed.
Silica	Silica just... facepalms at the Flotilla. "You... I... UGH!" she turns and storms off, back to the entry way to get more of the items.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette stares at the Captains through their entire explanation, with a kind of blank venom on her face- irritation and a bit of anger, mixed with too much confusion to really concentrate them into a death-glare. One hand fidgets, closing and opening, in restless helplessness.      Then, without warning, she laughs. It's a kind of ragged laugh, the sort that comes from somewhere deep in your lungs you didn't know your breath could reach. She doubles over, hands on her knees, and keeps giggling incoherently for a few seconds. The stress almost palpably bleeds off of her. Everything's going to be okay. It's all gonna be okay.      "Oh... oh, my stars," she gasps, in a clean emulation of being out of breath. "Ohh... fuck you guys." Then she punches George on the shoulder. "Don't DO that."
Corona Arclite	So the infestation is a... oookay.... Corona just shakes her head a bit as they get ready to head home. "And Ah though the eldrich freakish things back home got weird...."
Tomoe	Tomoe releaes somewhat the the Captains are not hostile and they are taking the meds. IT doesn't seem they may have enough, they may need more to deal with the infestation she does sememwary and she knows that she'll need to keep a good stockpile of the meds at this point least she end sup lioke that. She sees the starbounders were all fixed up. "Mutant? You guys were the oneswho mutated. Wait a ... zombie mechanic to this? Oh hell its an infection based factional or PVP system..." She grimaces about this really not liking it. She tilts her head at the starbounders again. "We should put up a warning becon after we get out." With that she's going to move to and get off this place for now.
Reker	"PvP stuff, huh?" Reker says, as he looks at Tomoe, "That's kind of a weird way to do it...It's similar to something I've run into before, but.." He rubs his chin for a second, "So we should keep our infection levels down to make sure we don't have to fight our friends.." Reker's not really knowing much about the Starbounders, but they seem to be the ones who figured out the infection's faction swapping mechanic, so it'll be important to know, "What I don't get is how this could be up here this long and nobody noticed it."
Starbound Flotilla	Biteblade runs in and immediately hugs Septette after that punch. "Ssskeleton friiieeeeend! You looked all weird! Ssscared Floran a little! Thought, wasss maybe gonna hurt. Ssso happy, not gonna! Hiiiii! Thanksss for help!"     George, meanwhile, rubs his shoulders, laughing. "Hahaha, okay, fair point. Fair point! Look, we definitely won't mess around here without you around, how's that?" He promises to Septette in a casual, easygoing tone. "Can't go wrong that way, huh? Could use the help, this is a pretty big problem we're working with here. Gonna need a lot of hands and a lot of time to dig through it."
Staren	Staren gives Biteblade and Pavo a confused look, rolls his eyes at Seft, and gives Moonfin an understanding nod. George gets a sigh.
Tomoe	Tomoe says "There was an old Fantasy game my father played when I was an infant. They had a launch event that was a zombie plague and those who got infested were part of a new temp faction with it's own lanuages." sShe notes but alls well that ends well, right?