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[Draignean]

Kesari

Ping Khate/Scarlet. Send an audible message.
If I can spare the time: Prepare medbay. Make a quick check on the hangar crew and Mick's second-in-command; having sent them the possible bore destinations.

Second Priority: Initiate scanning and defensive measures against attacking freighter and cloaked ship; initiate ship scan on ship database for both freighter and cloaked ship--attempt to send relevant data to Aubrey.

Priority: Ready up weapons; test weapons systems to probe for strengths of attacking ships--bore in bomb clouds and start defending this ship and cargo!
Also link earlier data of that cloaked ship's weapon systems for ease of defending.
P.S. Take another bite of chocolate.

Highest priority: Establish communication with shuttle/sled; guide and correct + give encouragement.
Be so happy that I'm an energetic pup as a total aside to micromanage multiple tasks.

Kesari sent her short message to Varkonius' ship and then began breaking down what she could and could not do. Prepping med-bay would require her to leave the bridge, which felt like a terrible idea considering the immediate circumstances.

Scanning the assailing vessel was easier, but fruitless. It had shields up and fully active, appearing on most scans as a solid block with no internal information. Frankly it was a miracle that Kari could still communicate with Aubrey, and that was only because they were both trying to make direct connections with one another. It was the kind of signal that could be severed at a moment's notice if Kesari's presumable analog aboard the Nosoi realized what was happening.

Despite Boris and Aubrey being confirmed to be on board, Kari tried to send over a few dozen small 'testing' explosives to see if she could measure the deflection arc on the Nosoi's shields and get an idea of her strength. Problematically, there seemed to be one hell of an interdiction field around the ship. Combined with the Nosoi's speed, the interdiction field meant that Kesari couldn't bore a bomb in close enough to do any real damage via immediate detonation, and PD cannons on the Nosoi took out bombs she planted ahead of the attacking vessel's course.

Depending on how good the Nosoi's PD was, Kari thought she might be able to delay the Nosoi, or at least force it to turn, by boring in a whole lot of bombs at once, but that would commit a substantial portion of the Reunion's bombs.

Establishing a communications link with the incoming shuttles was an... interesting experience. Kesari introduced herself quickly. The two shuttles replied back equally quickly. In very different ways.

"This is Tagget, I read you five by five and have a stable approach on your hangar. We detect enemy contact but have no heat on approach."

"Oh, hi! THIS IS AWESOME! What does this button do? OHGODWE'RETURNINGNOWSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYWHICHBUTTONWASTHAT! Okay! Cool butto- OMIGOD YOU VOMITED ON ME THAT'S DISGUSTING! Ugh, it's in the seat now! Wait, why is that red light blinking? I don't want to open the cargo doors! No, wait, that's the engine temperature... No? Oh, right, hey, does anyone know what SAI stands for?"

SAI stood for Stable Approach Indicator, and basically was a light that indicated whether you were properly angled and at a healthy velocity and spin to align with the cradle of a receiving hangar. Red and blinking was bad.


Khate

"So how do you know me and my ship? Are you a DNR fan?

And uh... do you know why Rainbows wanted your cat so badly? If I'm not mistaken he orchestrated this whole mercy meetup and mass mangling, apparently just for that."

"Dead Neo Running, Cass, and a very nearly infinite supply of explosives are all that I have to divert my attention on long trips. You in particular, as well as a couple of your family members, are on my notifications list for new footage." Vark tapped a final command into the navigation console, and the ship shivered slightly as the cradle disengaged. "Bet a 500 credit split between you and Raukus making it into the top 50 best new acquisitions some years back, and I still think it's a goddamn crime that they put every member of that fucking boy-band turned bounty hunters in ahead of you two."

Raukus, aka Bert Merki. He was part of Khate's clan, distantly, and probably some kind of x-times-removed cousin because of that. She just remembered him getting teased a lot in class for his stub tail and his very-late-to-drop voice. In all fairness, he had yipped like a puppy for the better part of sixteen years. If Khate remembered correctly, he'd ended up specializing in sonic weapons, which seemed like a wee bit of overcompensation.

"So, yeah, I've kept track of your footage. Bought platinum membership to the DNR deepsite a forever ago, so I get the behind-the-scenes reels pretty much live. Kinda looking forward to seeing what this furball looked like from your angle. As to motives for going after her..." Vark glanced over at his panther. "I understand why people want the Star, I have no idea why people would want my girl. Hell, I picked her up from an acting troupe that was on the luxury liner I lifted the Star from. Not really a hostile connection."

Vark glanced at a green light that had begun flashing on the console, tapping it immediately. "Also, there's an intercepted message from the Reunion, I-"

"To Varkonius; Hello!
We're currently under attack from those strange fellows owned probably by the rainbow dog. Would appreciate assistance, but to not bother you: I can give a bore solution that'd send your ship right into our hangar; just open a synch link, I'll take over the rest. You've around 25 minutes since my crew gave me word.

Please take care, can't wait to hear from the person Khate has been uppity with for quite some time.
And that's a compliment.

Also if you've any details on the attackers or their ship, that would be much appreciated. Some of our crew have boarded their ship in retaliation before it launched from the Flounder."

Varkonius was silent for a long moment. "Did she just address a verbal message like a text?"

Scarlet

"I'm going kicking and screaming if I go at all. Sorry if I bleed on your carpet." She looked at the maid, mentally steeling herself. Dying wasn't great, but she'd been on the delivering end of emergency medical care often enough to know that the process of not dying had a tendency to end up pretty damn unpleasant too. After taking a moment to make sure she wasn't confirming the sexbot's offer of euthanaisa. "Cass, please attempt medical treatment, with no euthanasia as requested." Damn robots. Damn suspicious missions. This was a new one: damn rainbow Canes.

Cass stepped forward and pressed a hand into Scarlet's chest, which only got more awkward when the hand liquefied into transparent goop and began worming its way through Scarlet's clothing and armor. It tingled electrically, somewhat like licking a battery, except in this case it felt like the battery was licking her. 

"Pathogen is clearly the result of intentional weaponization, with no match in any known bio-weapon database. Pathogen appears non-contagious and highly individualized. Primary immune system non-functional, vestigial as a result of disuse. Nano-mechanical secondary immune system detected, unrecognized manufacturer. Secondary immune system collapse imminent due to power failure resulting from inadequate energy generation-to-usage ration, only key organs are currently being protected. Recommending intravenous infusion of energized saline in order to extend nanite battery life. Potential side effects: Seizures, internal burns, nerve damage, brain damage, nanite malfunction, nanite destruction, nausea, dry scalp, rash, itchiness. "

Cass' arm began retracting from Scarlet's chest, then stopped. "Partial genetic match to unknown bacteria found in locally stored sample 15b, jaguar blood."


Sadish

Sadish didn't really understand hypothetical concepts and symbolism. Presumably her clones knew this, and were having fun mystifying her.

"...I think this might be a psychological statement on my own interior divisions. Perhaps they are asking that I should choose the path of the explorer, the innocent, the healer, or the antiquarian...rather than being split a among myself. Be one whole cake, rather than many pieces of cake pulled in every direction!

What do you think Aimasc? Should we have cake for lunch, or is the cake only in my mind? Also, do you actually have cake? I'm a bit hungry. Though perhaps I should stick to liquids until I am mended..."

"Er, no, no cake. I ran out of emergency medical rations ages ago, hence why all the remnants are eating fungus. As far as food goes, I'm afraid you're going to be a bit dependent on the remnants to remember that you, unlike a deity, actually need to eat. My apologies, but I wouldn't count on it."

"As for your problem, I'm worried that you're taking it too literally, or perhaps not literally enough. How did you come by these little creatures, exactly?"


Boris

Suicidal Plan Pt. II: First, find the way to Ka's ship. Make sure the two ships can be easily detached when we undoubtedly come running back with a million goons on our tail.

Second. Avoid guards. Find either: the reactor, the engines, or any convenient critical things like weapons systems, life support, oxygen tanks, etc. Put on my best sabotaging face.

If spotted or caught, err, try to take out goons and stop them from alerting the whole ship. If Ka is there and we are not immediately killed, we do things extra, extraaa careful.

Boris clomped along the freighter's spine, painfully aware of how little room for 'stealth' there was. In the old battleship wrecks from his halcyon days in Strenger, there had been miles of unused corridors and bulkhead that could barely hold atmosphere- places where entire communities could live and die with no one being the wiser. In a little freighter like this... No space was wasted, and there wasn't exactly a wealth of places to hide outside of private rooms and/or a smugglers hold if this freighter had one.

Still, no hiding seemed to be needed. There was no one to see Boris, much less resist him, on the way. The ship seemed deserted, which, considering that it had basically just been a ghillie for Ka's ship, wasn't completely beyond the pale, but it still seemed... too easy.

Carefully, Boris eased the door leading from the crew corridor to the freighter's cargo hold open.

"No, no! What are you doing you hamhanded idiot?!"

Boris froze, the sliding door open about an inch. He couldn't see much through it.  The door led out onto a catwalk that had stairs leading down to the bulk of the hold, which was little more than large square room for packing in crates.

"Sir, I'm moving the body as you requested."

There was a gutteral, disgusted sound from somewhere below Boris. "Yes, and dragging him by his wrists! He probably weighs a hundred and seventy pounds! You're leaving marks on his body utterly inconsistent with the scene!"

"Medenov, we're blowing this ship up anyway. Go easy."

"Easy?!" The one Boris assumed was Medenov was hissing now, a distinctly felid tone of outrage and indignation consuming his voice. "I am creating! There will be an investigation into this incident, and they will see precisely what we want them to see. Every reconstruction, every clue, every lead, everything must lead back to one moment that never existed at all. I am fabricating the very robe of lies which makes the body of truth fit to be seen by the scaled eyes of this world, and you tell me to go easy!?"

Thanks to the acoustics of the mostly empty cargo hold, Boris could actually hear the tired sigh that followed Medenov's outburst. "Just tell me the yield I need to use. And initiate, pick up bodies gently so you don't leave incriminating drag marks, and make sure you don't bruise them. Because AL-Loy clearly has a forensic analyst who is going to look at all three grams of recoverable tissue and wonder why there's bruising."

Another hiss of disgust. "Initial shell impact from an AL-Loy light defense boat... 1.324 million newtons."

[Dwarmin]

"Well, if they're speaking literally, I solved a device I have called the Senolight Puzzle Box and that produced them. It changes configuration every time you complete it, and it does something new and interesting every time as well...well, I suppose would they want me to complete it again? That would be something to do...if I had it with me....I still don't understand what they want me to choose."

[Draignean]

Aimasc tilted her head to one side slightly. "And the box, where did you get the box?"

[IronyOwl]

Khate perked up a bit at hearing she had an admirer. "Glad to hear you're a fan! You'll probably enjoy seeing footage of yourself blowing up the fin. It was very impressive!

That's Kesari. She's rather odd, so she fits in well! Also good at getting our ship to do things. She's responsible for the disruptive noises."

She let out a groan on hearing Cass, however.

"That's what I was afraid of. He delivered a bit of a villainous monologue to Scarlet about new beginnings and so on. He probably wants the panther to help remake Claws or something equally dramatic and insane. If or why he needed this panther in particular I have no idea, Sadish could probably tell us. She's our real biologist and doctor.

She uh, seems to have vanished, so I might need to take a quick trip to find her..."

[Tiruin]

Aubrey, we're lucky to be getting these messages through; cross-contrasting to all my other scans, you're in a flying brick until any of those defenses can get down. I'm not seeing anything other than the annoying shield, and that the shield is particularly squarish.

Also squarish is a word and I'm high on chocolate so I'mt yping my thoughts as they are, please take care!
Ship is armed with a nice array of PD turrets, annoyingly tiny-fast for a freighter, and wow isn't it nice that it's taking up our ammo.

Busy busy being busy, Kesari had enough time to quickly send the same encrypted messages to the shuttles.

@Shuttle1:
"I'll be relaying you a bore solution, Mr. Tagget. It will hopefully match our speed unless any heavy interdiction interrupts (which would stop the synchronization and be harmless other than saving time for the interdictor), and/or a high amount of force would knock our ship outside of the synch-parameters that would only be a problem if your shuttles are in the process of boring in.

Sending in the solution as soon as we're ready. Also to ease your passage, please tell me all your consumerist tendencies ever since you or your crew have heard of capitalism. And/or the first set of ideas and expectations that come to mind when I say "Spaceship resort." Our bore engine works well on a... marketing computer. And your words are being recorded in our array of "black boxes".

My apologies, and my thanks. The Reunion welcomes you."

She sent the same package to Shuttle2, but also noticed a similar flame like herself, way back when she was-...way back when she was a pupper. She decided to send the package later as mentioned, recalling the type of shuttle that was being used alongside its specific interior (from the brief glimpse of Sadish's drone), and picking up on brief hints on what the pilot could see given her excited-yet-tense voice; for example, there was the notice of viewing the craft's direction and velocity, which way the thrust was moving it--she may just be excitably inexperienced, much like a very eager student with idealism in her mind.

Much like herself back in the day. Which brought about a lot of embarrassing recollections that Kesari sought to repair by getting her ideas organized and not letting this nice fellow suffer the same embarrassment. She was glad she got around 'talking to herself' about the situation and not letting it get to her in the future; lessons learned and all that.

And she was quite happy she learned the skill of "talking while your hands were doing everything else", much so with a tech harness--it was like how typing masters did their work while doing anything else, like transcribing from reading back in the last millenium--or teachers, who needed to write as well as turn sideways to look at their class, to establish both rapport, and a sense of being a super-person and invoking awe in the younger learners.

The joys of being a university mathematics professor-turned militia-turned mercy-turned aeronautics control person couldn't be boxed into a single sentence at this point.

@Shuttle2:
"Greetings there--You're okay. You're doing okay.
I would like you to initiate the SAS control, right in the center of your control set. I've sent in a coordinate node to aid the docking interface, you would notice the SAI turning green, please keep your hands or paws on the respective areas as I highlight them.

You're doing alright, just follow my instructions and try to find what I'm going to tell you. Tell me what you see when I say-..."

Feeling that she was talking with an enthusiastic newbie, or a young person, Kesari recalled that all craft usually had a stability augmentation system, or spacecraft attitude stabilization system, or ship attitude control system (or rather how she called them ever since learning about the system itself) and given some workarounds, it was fairly able to re-align a craft's prograde or adjusting retrograde thrusters to help its stability via external signalling, with the internal controls being manually adjusted insofar as fine adjustment was needed; although, she had to dedicate the tiniest portion of the Reunion's carrier control systems to handling this alongside guiding the person in the pilot's area through working with it. Although, she had to make sure that she had the awareness covered: Shuttles were among the most modified spacecraft available, and especially in this context, she had to go through a basic list of familiarity.

She had also recalled especially by hearing the voice on the other end, the many movies or otherwise that she had read (due to transcripts) or viewed in cases such as these and the importance of an encouraging, guiding voice, which had pushed her into signaling studies in the militia. Even if most of them were about aircraft in various atmospheres in several planets in the outer rim, it was still synonymous. There was so much one could do in between classes back in the day anyway,

. . .Hopefully the other person on the other end would pick up on Kari's hint that there was a manual she could read, explicitly as she mentioned it being the first thing she told as guidance: "Find the pilot's compartment". She would continue with the usual protocol, inquiring how many are on board, and if there are others who have piloting experience to help around.

She wondered if they still had cup holders there, as a humorous aside, before turning back to defending the Reunion and testing the shield mitigation of the attacking ships--especially with an eye on Ka-T's presumed cloaking ship. There were several minutes of time before they entered weapons range, and she did not like a concentrated beam striking the ship. She had to redirect or make it 'busy'.

She had at least a quarter hour to figure this out.

==+==
Kesari felt a jolt as her tail touched the metallic floor. She was forgetting something!
Activate all Sadish scanners/personal locators, or work with her drone to broadcast her signal on all possibilities it was capable of.

[Dwarmin]

Aimasc tilted her head to one side slightly. "And the box, where did you get the box?"

"...Oh, I found it one of my more recent expeditions, after I joined the crew. We were on a resupply stop...NGA 2021, I believe? Anyway, I had some time explore Planet Brode, which was the only barely habitable place around. The world is undergoing a permanent ice age-sort of spinning off into the darkness of space, all by itself. I mean, it's a very cold planet....and, I had heard a tip there were ancient ruins, buried deep under the frozen seas. I never found any of the ruins, but I did find the wreck of a ship that was of considerably more recent. Apparently it had some sort of mechanical problem and froze right over. Along with her crew. Boris was annoyed that most of the ship was inaccessible without the aid of heavy drilling equipment, but I managed to fashion an Excavation Laser! Didn't work as well I had hoped, to be honest. Still working on fixing the glitches with that...ah, but anyway, I did manage to cut my way to the cargo hold.

I found that the deceased crew had been looking for what I had-judging by the precautions they had taken in sealing and securing each individual item, they had been looking for artifacts...but most of what they found was, to be frank, junk. Not even good junk. I think they had in fact merely scavenged an even older ship that fell for the same trap that they did-Boris could identify most of the parts as fairly common tech in older starships.

I did find the Senolight puzzle box there, of course. It was the one thing they had found that had any sort of value, though they paid it no special attention. I assume they scavenged it from the same older starship, and for all I know that ship scavenged it from yet another ship-my plan was to trace wrecked ship to wrecked ship until I found the source, but further investigation was put on hold-we had to leave. I think a war was starting nearby, or something. Or maybe it was trouble with the locals. Something about Giant Ice-spiders? Well, I didn't catch all of it..."

[Draignean]

"That actually makes sense," Aimasc said slowly, her expression pensive. "Sadish, been assuming that the little copies of you have some deep and innate understanding of you, right? What if that's not correct? Consider this, I'm a piece of advanced technology, I'm nothing like you at all, no flesh or blood to my name, but I imitate the form of a living thing in order to be a better companion- to seem like I'm a more rational and agreeable thing than a hundred thousand bits of metal and machine whizzing through the air."

Aimasc blurred across the room, laying down on the bed directly beside Sadish, her paws crossed under her chin. "Imagine this thing is like me and the remnants. It is an advanced piece of technology, beyond either of our understanding. We, be comparison, are woefully primitive and unintelligent creatures. It has a purpose, it was made to do something, and it is trying to accomplish that goal with you- but you're not exactly what it was meant to work with. So it tries other methods of communication, trying to tender down complex objectives into a language you understand. It wants you to choose something, and I don't think it's something abstract. Believe me, I nearly started a splinter religion when I tried to ask a remnant cane if it wanted to save the life of its pregnant mate, or the pups its mate was carrying. A very clear cut and practical decision to my mind, but one that he took very abstractly."

[Tiruin]

Retroactive quick action: Check Sadish's drone--if there are people still in the hangar, why are there still people in the hangar? I had given them freedom of picking which coordinates they would arrive at (Or at least that was the intent after checking possible exits)

If possible, check up on Mickaw's second. Status, etc, of the people. (And probably why they hadn't left yet)

((...They did recover Mickaw right? ))

[lawastooshort]

Aubrey spoke very quietly to Boris.

”Is that two of them? Or three? Is the initiate another person?”

She briefly wondered whether initiate signalled some kind of cult, but filed the thought away.

”Clearly we must leave this ship, or disarm it. If we disarmed it and flew it back to the Reunion we might discover some interesting evidence. Or get shot on the way back. What do you prefer to do? Ideally we would disarm this ship, and disable the attached enemy ship. Do we take on these 2 or 3 enemies?”

Does any of Kesari’s information include details on any escape pods or shuttles on this freighter? If not, can Aubrey access any local systems undetected that would give this information?

[Dwarmin]

Aimasc blurred across the room, laying down on the bed directly beside Sadish, her paws crossed under her chin. "Imagine this thing is like me and the remnants. It is an advanced piece of technology, beyond either of our understanding. We, be comparison, are woefully primitive and unintelligent creatures. It has a purpose, it was made to do something, and it is trying to accomplish that goal with you- but you're not exactly what it was meant to work with. So it tries other methods of communication, trying to tender down complex objectives into a language you understand. It wants you to choose something, and I don't think it's something abstract. Believe me, I nearly started a splinter religion when I tried to ask a remnant cane if it wanted to save the life of its pregnant mate, or the pups its mate was carrying. A very clear cut and practical decision to my mind, but one that he took very abstractly."

"All that makes good sense. The box does seem to have an interest in my continued welfare...maybe it wants me to do something. Probably nothing to do with cake. I wonder if I'll ever really understand what...if the goal is truly incompatible with my limited mind, it might be like trying to sing a sea bass to fetch your tail-warmer. I suppose I can ask for some clarification..."

She made another whalemoji, one showing a cake, the other showing herself greatly confused.

Action: Sadish signs the images for cake and confusion to the holograms.

[Chevaleresse]

"Genetic match? So, what, the cat's a carrier for this?" She tried to focus on solutions; the currently offered one wasn't exactly the best one she'd heard. Like an old commercial for asthma medications that caused shortness of breath. "Cass, give an estimate of time before irreversible organ failure. Do you have any way to get antibiotics that Ve- the pathogen will respond to?" There had to be something to do; she just couldn't think of what. "If not, start that saline treatment - slowly." She wasn't sure if she was starting to get used to this feeling or if everything was starting to go numb. Preferably it was the former.

"Khate, any idea where Sadish is? She'd know what do do here."

Wrack my brain about what to do given the other sample. I know it's important for several reasons.

[IronyOwl]

Khate shook her head. "Kesari doesn't know either, and Boris went to help Aubrey. Apparently they're sabotaging Rainbows' ship!

I'll see if I can find her as soon as we're aboard."

[Tiruin]

Kesari transmitted the first complete data set from her scans of the freighter to Aubrey--when she received it, her own tech updated it for her own understanding. Humorously, Kesari wondered how good a space brick would be.

Hopefully it wasn't going to ram them, because that'd be extremely silly.

I do believe a quirk in my encryption allows your comm device to modify the info in [THIS ATTACHMENT HERE WHICH WILL OPEN WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT] to match what you're receiving there; tell me about it later on!
I think the Reunion's marketing is slipping into my code--or I'm just being overworked here! Take care!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((Yeaaa I'm making this IC, Irony. :3))

[Digital Hellhound]

Aubrey spoke very quietly to Boris.

”Is that two of them? Or three? Is the initiate another person?”

She briefly wondered whether initiate signalled some kind of cult, but filed the thought away.

”Clearly we must leave this ship, or disarm it. If we disarmed it and flew it back to the Reunion we might discover some interesting evidence. Or get shot on the way back. What do you prefer to do? Ideally we would disarm this ship, and disable the attached enemy ship. Do we take on these 2 or 3 enemies?”

'Three,' Boris grunted. Three people who did not want what they were doing to be shown to the world. AL-Loy might pay nicely for that footage, even if that was the extent of what they uncovered. He smiled darkly and looked back at Aubrey. 'Hehheh. I hope you're recording this.'

He moved the door open another inch. 'We'll take them out and disarm,' he said. 'I can't move very quietly. Can you go in and take a better look? See how many of them are there, how dangerous they look. A surprise attack will work best. I'll be right behind you when we strike.'

Stealthy approach is go. If Aubrey is spotted or chooses to attack, jump down and get smashing! Try to incapacitate rather than kill whoever seems to be Medenov. Try not to die horribly.

[lawastooshort]

”Okay.”

Aubrey wanted to add more. She wanted to tell King Boris not to leave her if this continued to go wrong; but she knew he wouldn’t. She wanted to say something that would let him know how uneasy she was; but that wouldn’t do at all. It’s not that she wasn’t comfortable about the immediate task in hand, but… it had been a tricky mission so far.

So. First steps.

First steps:
Can Aubrey hack into a surveillance camera quickly to see what is behind the door? Try to identify/locate enemy. Communicate this to Boris.

Can Aubrey disrupt their communications so that said enemy in next room are isolated from the outside world whilst we deal with them? Including temporarily sealing exits from room (not including Boris’s exit!)

Can Aubrey prepare some kind of disruption to be set off as soon as the enemy detect us such as 1/killing the lights if it won’t affect her or Boris’s ability to fight 2/ horrible noises in their ears 3/ or best, taking over/immobilising their gear? Anything to gain a temporary advantage as they outnumber us and outstrength me, very probably.

Infiltrate and attack:
Then ready weapons; cloak; sneak in; eliminate targets that don’t appear to be Medenov until spotted, then fight tactically with Boris. For example using him as the main point of focus and fluttering round sneakily and distractingly, delivering hit and run blows on the fiendish enemy whilst being aware of opportunities to mindhack their equipment into uselessness.

Also:
Is Aubrey recording this somehow? Boris would like that.