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[Chevaleresse]

"Did it have to be a killer sexbot?" Scarlet's tone was clearly unamused, and really more exasperated than actually fearful. Still. . . "Aubrey, what are you seeing?" She'd suggest that the message was a bluff, all or part of it, but Varkonius didn't seem the type to spend time setting up an elaborate deception implying he had potent automated defenses instead of, you know, actually setting up potent automated defenses. She eyed the room, looking for telltale signs of any sort of device designed to visit unpleasantness upon unwanted guests other than the sexbot, which was probably armed and armored. Really, it seemed like there was a good chance this was a bust, but Scarlet was as stubborn as her actual chronological age might suggest; she wasn't leaving until this was definitively irretrievable.

[lawastooshort]

”Well. Hold on.”

Aubrey needed to forget the blood and disturbing sexbot and all other context: this was just an infiltration, and this was what she was good at. Although of course normally she’d know when to back off and find another way or another job, and this time she just didn’t seem capable of that… Ha. Like she was swept along in a grand terrifying and blood-soaked narrative where whatever she chose would lead to more expected blood-soaked terror. And that was the key – expected.

So. She started to look for ways in.

Come on Aubrey, for goodness sake. She must be able to access the immediate circuits of the ship and its defences. Do so! Mindhack in just enough to start assessing where and what they are, and then their possibility of being disabled. Stop as soon as it feels too dangerous, but at least probe a little.

Of course, she wasn’t rich enough to retire, so she stored that thought away somewhere deep in her mental basement.

edit: of course, relay findings to comrades

[IronyOwl]

"Of course it had to be a killer sexbot!" Khate chided at Scarlet. "He's going for the opulent, classy villain vibe! Or he's a pervert!"

Khate titled her head.

"If he didn't dock with it, he must have hidden it somewhere and intended to exchange the coordinates for the payment. We'll need to either capture him alive, at which point he won't tell us, or crack his ship and hope he didn't erase its logs so we can guess.

Speaking of guesses! I'll saaaaaaaaay... minidrones! Tiny, possibly flying contraptions to swarm, cling to, and exsanguinate their victims at any cost!" She looked happily between her comrades, eagerly awaiting their guesses.

Try to get a better look at the bodies and blood. See if I can get a good guess as to how blood-filled creatures would end up as the current two products.

[Draignean]

Khate

Try to get a better look at the bodies and blood. See if I can get a good guess as to how blood-filled creatures would end up as the current two products.

Khate closed in on the nearest of corpses laid out on the ground, bending down until the suit's muzzle almost touched the shriveled corpse. Normally, Khate did care too much to classify things in categories other than dead and not-dead, but this was cool. Her initial idea, about swarms of bloodsucking things, actually didn't seem that implausible. The needle wounds were triangular in profile, like some bizzare bug proboscis, and there were four much smaller wounds at the edges of the bruised circle, like something had latched on and bitten.

Evil death bugs seemed like an excellent guess, and it probably meant that Sadish would want a souvenir box then they got back to the Reunion.

Khate was just about to pull back from the body when the olfactory sensors in her suit caught something else, a familiar zesty tang that made bright red exclamation points pop up on her HUD and caused the mech's 'nostrils' to clamp shut and internal air-circulation to kick on. A paralytic, not enough to do any harm now, but enough left on the skin to waft into the region of the suit's senses.

The paralytic did two things. First, it helped explain why there weren't oodles of defensive wounds as the afflicted tried to claw things off of them. Second, it disappointed Khate. She did use paralytics to bring people in, they were really good at that, but if you were going to kill someone, paralyzing them first just seemed like a waste of a good cinematic opportunity.


Aubrey

Come on Aubrey, for goodness sake. She must be able to access the immediate circuits of the ship and its defences. Do so! Mindhack in just enough to start assessing where and what they are, and then their possibility of being disabled. Stop as soon as it feels too dangerous, but at least probe a little.

Aubrey edged her senses forward, pushing her implants to the limit without actually stepping forward through the bloodsoaked umbilical. The maid, or sexbot as scarlet had referred to it, had fairly low power levels. If it had weapon systems that would qualify as 'killer' they were either inactive or quite subtle. The maid was advanced, Aubrey could tell that by the amount of field nuance, but she didn't seem to be hiding any particularly horrible technological surprises. Though, for some reason, the maid's outfit also had a faint, but definite, current running through it.

Of course 'HE grenade' was a pretty horrible surprise, and one that Aubrey wouldn't be able to detect. Not that there were many places in the robot's outfit capable of hiding such an object.

Further towards the ship things started to get complicated. Very complicated. Electronic Warfare systems were designed to cut through this mess of conflicting and overlapping signals to deliver coordinated attacks, but Aubrey didn't have that kind of power. The best she could do at this distance was get the broad strokes of the ship, and even that was open to a good bit of interpretation. The first, most obvious item, was that the ship had a structural shield generator. It was currently in a passive state, generating a barely perceptible meta-field curtain, but it was definitely capable of sealing a hull breach and retaining an atmosphere. It also seemed to have been designed to function as auxiliary to the ship's airlock, capable of sealing the ship even while the door was kept open. That could potentially make for a very nasty surprise if they had to get out in a hurry.

Beyond that, what Aubrey could sense was one of two different kinds of internal sensor systems.  Either the ship was using a nanite field detector, or it was using a capacitance cloud detector, but which was difficult to say. If it was a nanite field detector, then the atmosphere of the ship was suffused with thousands of nanites. Each one would only be capable of providing minimal information, but when networked together would be capable of detecting minute shifts in temperature, light, and airflow. If it is was a capacitance cloud detector, then the atmosphere of the ship was doped and subtly charged, enabling it to detect and isolate any change in the air volume (such as that displaced by a person) or atmospheric charge (as produced by scanners). Aubrey knew how to get around both, they just had very similar signatures. If she had five minutes, she could separate the two, but it seemed likely that she didn't have five minutes.

Deeper inside the ship, things became much, much more confusing. It was difficult to tell the difference between a coffee machine and a sentry turret , or between a powered armchair and a leap mine. That being said, Aubrey thought she could feel the faint pulsing waves of a targeting system or three looking for targets.


Scarlet

"Did it have to be a killer sexbot?" Scarlet's tone was clearly unamused, and really more exasperated than actually fearful. Still. . . "Aubrey, what are you seeing?" She'd suggest that the message was a bluff, all or part of it, but Varkonius didn't seem the type to spend time setting up an elaborate deception implying he had potent automated defenses instead of, you know, actually setting up potent automated defenses. She eyed the room, looking for telltale signs of any sort of device designed to visit unpleasantness upon unwanted guests other than the sexbot, which was probably armed and armored. Really, it seemed like there was a good chance this was a bust, but Scarlet was as stubborn as her actual chronological age might suggest; she wasn't leaving until this was definitively irretrievable.

Scarlet joined Khate, crouching over the bodies. The needle wounds were bizarre, but, as she had noted before, probably not the cause of death. The holes she'd spotted earlier in the skulls of the Cane and one of the Claws looked like low caliber bullets. Both shots had entered at a bit of an odd angle, almost flat sideways to the side of the head, but lacked matching exit wounds. Which made a certain sense. Bullets on board ships could make a mess. Breaching the hull wasn't a big worry, but that wouldn't stop it from hitting screen, or a circuit bundle, or really anything that didn't actively need a hole in it. Underpowered or break-apart round would definitely work to their advantage.Scarlet's armor was more than tough enough to withstand a round that was designed to not penetrate both sides of the skull, and Khate's was even tougher.

Which brought Scarlet to the more worrying injury on the Crow. It was definitely energy based, and it lacked the fiery burn star of the typical LI pulse laser like Scarlet's. That meant sustained beam or VSI pulse laser, both of which had the worrying habit of drilling through armor with a great deal of precision. That begged the question of why there was both a defense system utilizing a standard slugthrower with underpowered bullets and a defense system using a sophisticated laser cutting device.


Kesari

Minor Action: Rethink my own words. Is this actually...reasonable?
Also stay comfy next to Sadish.

Considering everything else that was happening, what with shuttles going nuclear on the surface and seemingly normal trading vessels utilizing advanced spoofing software to conceal themselves, reasonable feel on a relative scale. With AL-Loy pleasantly distracted, it was very likely that she could get away with additional 'marketing diagnostics' as long as she didn't actively seem malicious. Pretty much everyone else had bigger fish to fry- even if the other mercies knew what Kari was doing, odds on they wouldn't report it, and if they didn't have the Star themselves, they'd likely just let the infraction slip.

Kesari settled in next to Sadish as she waited for Boris' response to the question. Not that she was even sure he'd realize the question had been addressed to him. While he enjoyed being called King, he was occasionally a little slow on the uptake that Kari occasionally called him captain. It wasn't a regular thing, and Kari wasn't exactly how much she meant it, but he didn't have the tendency to stump around and take charge like some aged ship captain of a bygone era.

A cyan light suddenly beeped on the console, a short line of text scrolling out beside it.

Tenth ship verified. Awaiting permission to send marketing package.

Kari looked at the message in confusion, reviewing the sensor info. There were nine ships. Seven docked at the station, one AL-Loy vessel, and the transport currently docking. The system didn't count the Reunion, unless it was glitching, and it didn't count shuttles as ships either.

[Dwarmin]

Sadish was getting bored, so she decided to tell jokes.

"Alright, so two Neo-Crows walk into a tavern...

The First Neo-Crow nods to his companion."

Sadish said, handing Kesari a slice of Squijum in it's container-helpfully cut into small pieces.

"The first one says, 'I've recently read a report that claims a person dies on this planet, every time I take a breath of air. That's quite serious. What can we do about the rate of deaths?'.

And, the second one says, "Have you considered a breath mint?'"

[Tiruin]

While munching on fun-sized Squijy snacks thankfully given by her buddy and paying passive listening to her jokes (while very amusing, she somberly had a job to do), the cyan message caught her eye and she tapped Boris and Sadish while pointing at it. Her mouth was full of spicy squid however, and as tears were forming at her eyes (thanks to her suit's cooling providing for her body instead of panting) she pointed both at that cyan message and at her readings of 'only nine priority vessels amongst all the other non-descript civilian ships in system', and the need of a response to that one mercenary vessel.

[lawastooshort]

”You two. There is some kind of field, which can seal the hull. I.e. if we are in it. Can doesn’t mean will, I suppose. There is also a sensor system, which is one of two – it’s somewhat tricky. I could try to disable it. It may be linked to the hull-field. There are targetting systems – several – scanning for targets already. I can’t detect the location of the related weapons, however. The sexmaid appears to be mostly harmless. Although a little unsettling. How shall we proceed?”

[Tiruin]

Thankful for the ordeal being over (as having her senses of taste relatively more akin to humans than actual predecessor origins) and all the squid-stuff swallowed, Kesari checked over with Boris--and if he acknowledged her mention, she would respond in the same calm tone (as calm as she could given the lingering taste) to Captain Mickaw.

"Due to prevailing radiation danger, we request you send the first shuttle alongside the hangar walls--we'll be sending a communications drone to meet your needs; do you require any further assistance? We will issue preliminary scans of all ships."

She nearly coughed and sneezed once she got Sadish's joke. She brushed this away as a sneeze and took the awkwardness that came with it; it was better than giving into the heat of the spice.

Do my anti-advertising magic; issue 'clean scans', although let the lingering subtle advertising include deeper scans onto Mickaw's ships as per my inference (mentioned in a previous post by the GM).

Announce the above and relay the response to his request.

How goes everything over there! I do suppose you've found something on the station or such? We're encountering something of importance on-ship too; a mercenary vessel docked at the Flounder headed by Captain Wilcox and whose communications officer (named Mickaw) requested a shuttle docking, two shuttles, one initial, one after depending on our response to the first.

We've issued a notice that the hanger is 'dangerous and radioactive', just the same you'd all expect. Their shuttle will be stationed by the ship outer armored hull. We'll be sending a drone to communicate.

May need you all back anytime soon.

[Dwarmin]

Sadish continued her spiel while she was working on the modifications her drone would need.

"So, there's these two Neo-Crows locked up in insane asylum, and both them decide to escape one night.

They get up onto the roof, and just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the city.

Now, the first Neo-Crow, he flaps across easily. But, the other New-Crow is too afraid to make the leap. So the first Neo-Crow, gets an idea. He says, "I have an directional illumination torch with me, also known as a 'flashlight'. I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can then walk along the beam, and join me."

The second Neo-Crow just shakes her head. She says "Do you think me mad? You'd just turn it off when I was half way across the gap."

She considered this one of her best jokes. Her best jokes, which suspiciously always contained two Neo-Crows.

Action: Sadish begins any modifications she/her drone will need to carry out this plan if it goes forward.

[lawastooshort]

"I don't know if I can make this safe. It is a risk. I am only just willing to take it."

We're... somewhat occupied. Will try to return with speed if required. Entering critical phase imminently. We may be some time.

Aubrey had read ancient tales of intrepid crow explorers in frozen wastelands, and wondered briefly if Kesari had too.

That is to say survival not currently guaranteed.

[Dwarmin]

The Fin notices the content of the incoming message and looks up from wiring the umbilical cable to her drone to respond.

"Seems quite pessimistic...that's Aubrey for you, a dark cloud, during a foggy night, in a snowstorm. Still, I do hope she lives to rain upon my mood another day...

Anyway, Send them my joke about the two neo-crows in insane asylum." Sadish prods, helpfully. "I'm sure it will cheer them up in these trying times."

[Chevaleresse]

"Shit. . . This is starting to get to be way more of a crapshoot than I want to take. Look at this; holes in the crow's armor, and from a laser. Plus we've got, what, paralytics and something that drew all this blood out of these poor bastards? I'll go with what you two decide to go, but I think we should just grab the civilians and pull out. It's a lot easier to find a new job than it is to survive lasers in the brain." Even if the goddamn ship is falling apart already. . .

[Digital Hellhound]

'Hrmh. Good plan. If they don't accept and if they keep pushing, we should shoot them. This is all too shady,' Boris muttered. His decades in the void had left him with a healthy degree of paranoia. He preferred the smash and grab-kind of job. There were too many variables here.

Assist with drone, if needed. See if I can work in some kind of self-destruct device. You know, just in case.

[Tiruin]

Anyway, Send them my joke about the two neo-crows in insane asylum. I'm sure it will cheer them up in these trying times."[/color]

Busied with her work, Kesari could only recall the gist of Sadish's joke--while funny, it was her bane ever since she learned multilingual cues from the folks back at home: She never got around to making jokes right, for some strange reason. But she guessed it was worth a shot of morale.

Hey everyone, here's a joke I heard from Sadish!

So, there's these two Neo-Crows locked up in an insane asylum, and both them decide to escape one night.

They fly up to the roof because there were high walls preventing escape, and just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the city.

Now, the first Neo-Crow is able to get across easily. But, the other New-Crow is too afraid to make the leap for some reason. So the first Neo-Crow, gets an idea. He says, "I have a directional illumination torch with me, also known as a 'flashlight'. I'll shine it onto the gap between the buildings. You can then walk on the beam, and join me on this side."

The second Neo-Crow shakes her head and says "Do you think I'm mad? You'd just turn it off when I was half way across the gap."

...Losing her train of thought midway with all the details, she saved it as a draft (accidentally activating the 'send' option to the away team) and returned to her duties.

"Got it Sadish! I'll send it to them after I relay this message to the mercs."

[lawastooshort]

"I find that acceptable, Sadish. This is messy. Fuzzy offered me work before we left. Khate? I'm sure we can find something filmable in a rescue mission."