Mission 02 - Stacy Says Follow the Yules

[cityship]

There is a resounding mental alarum that sounds through the ship. Nearly "deafening." Lights flash from places for extra emphasis, making it impossible to ignore.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

It's entirely likely that she won't stop repeating the announcement until, well, everyone reports to Obs Deck. Outside the windows, a very Earth-like planet is visible, hanging in space. The mouth in the huge statue opens, revealing a screen. On it, the dossier for the mission flickers into display, understandable to every person there. Smaller copies of the dossier appear in holographic form in front of everyone.

The planet's stats, right next to a rotating holographic picture of it, marbled blue and green, are as follows:

Planet Designation: Earth-78734XM45
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Homo Sapiens. [Various translations of "human" appear here so everyone understands it]
Water: 69.5% of the planet's surface.

Climate: Earth-like, in the throes of a mild nuclear winter [Click here for cultural equivalents for non-Earth cultures.]
Landscape: Varied.
Air: Normoxic concentration. Slightly elevated levels of carbon dioxide.

Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue. Often overcast.
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star.

Warnings: Wildlife and plant-life can be hazardous. Humans can be hazardous. A human cultural and legal database is available. [click here]

Mission: Revive the spiritual entity at the North Pole.

--

Following that, there are various maps and things visible. The version of Earth this world is may be very recognizable to some, but vast cities dot its surface.

||Attention, podmates. Attention.||

Apparently Stacy wants their attention.

||It is critical that you pay attention at this time.||

A few people will be able to avoid the call by being in the right place at the right time, but most will be gathered up on Obs Deck.

[ooc: Organization Post | You can post into the gathering thread. I'll add more subthreads with explanations of aspects of the mission as we go. Note: If you don't have time to post to this mission briefing but still want to have your character in the plot, that's fine. You can just pretend they were there the whole time. If you DON'T want your characters to be in this plot altogether, however, don't have them in the briefing--Stacy could have missed snagging them.]

Comments

[thunder-ace.livejournal.com]

"I'm just helping the disadvantaged team!" Fate said. And though she tried sounding serious, the playful tone in her voice made that a little hard.

"Flying isn't fair, you know."

[thethirdhalfa.livejournal.com]

And then....DEATH FROM ABOVE!

Namely Dani throwing snowballs while invisible in the air.

A special one for Fate for the flying isn't fair comment. Just cause.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Teaming up might not be a bad idea," Jamie muses. Especially after seeing Aeneas in action - he'd be a good one to have on a team.

And while he privately agrees with Wyn on the cold, he's not about to say so out loud. "Wyn, ye just need to warm up a little and ye won't feel it. Ye can throw snowballs, or..." He scootches a little closer with a mischievous grin on his face, arms outstretched as if to offer a hug.

He's still utterly coated in snow, mind you.

[lackofdarkwings.livejournal.com]

It was a fickle use of magic.

It was one grossly huge snowball.

But Matt, since landfall, had gleefully rolled the biggest damn snowball known to mankind. Straining with the magical force, he he hefted the giant thing high in the air with air magic.

"IT'S DOOFING TIME!" he roared, making a ripping motion with his hands as the snowball exploded into a shower of wet snow, several headed for the flying mage who he gave a grin to.

[starlightace]

Nanoha was about to argue back to Fate when she saw Dani's snowballs come out of nowhere, two of which were aimed at her and Fate, respectively. And while she raised a hand to shield her face - the snowball exploded against her forearm - she didn't call out to warn Fate, whose back was turned to the source of the attacks. It'd serve her right!

Of course, she wasn't looking at the giant snowball Matt was rolling, either.

[thunder-ace.livejournal.com]

Without a warning, Dani's snowball hit it's target, dead-center in her back. Luckily, the long white cape of Fate's Barrier Jacket guarded her from the cold of the snow, but she still felt the hit, and she whipped around to see where the attack had come from.

... Then, of course, she heard Matt's yell, and saw the rather large snowball heading straight for them. Without warning Nanoha, Fate flew back, well out of range of the cannonball-like projectile.

Serves her right.

[lackofdarkwings.livejournal.com]

Matt was doing his best impression of an Evil Overlord as he watched the giant snowball aiming for Nanoha. She'd probably doof him with a snowball later, but with a spin of magic, he launched himself into the air, a rounded snowball flying free for a random target.

[enter-aeneas.livejournal.com]

Aeneas still only had his head and neck protruding from his improvised snow fortress, which had served to keep him safe from most of the attacks thus far. Not completely of course, but it was satisfactory.

And he was clearing out the inside with his tail to make room for extra inhabitants.

"I will have to agree with—Jamie McCrimmon, yeah?" Aeneas blinked, vaguely remembering the human male from his experience at the Observation Deck (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/208483.html), "If you move around you should stay warm."

And, of course, exchanging body heat was still a viable option.

Then Aeneas said something that he, in living memory, never remembered even muttering in passing:

"Here, I have a plan."

The creature's eyes creased with an enthusiastic smile before he disappeared inside his cleared-out tunnel. Should the others investigate, they would find that the makeshift burrow extended well under the surface ice, branching out in all directions underneath the battlefield.

This was how the alien was getting around. And by this point he was already gone.

...Rest assured, there was very little chance of the tunnels collapsing—and if they did, they weren't that far from the surface that the victim couldn't dig themselves out. In any case, the original hub should be enough of a hiding spot for Aeneas's teammates to camp out and avoid the larger onslaughts.

In the meantime, the blue alien had appeared somewhere behind Matt Olsen and was probably able to stuff a significant amount of snow down his jacket before he flew into the air (and, consequently, managed to hit Aeneas in the chest a few times before he escaped into the tunnels).

[starlightace]

Nanoha never had a chance. The snow cannon crashed into her from behind, sending her reeling - and before she could right herself, she crashed to the ground in a snow bank... and after a moment's pause, sat up coughing, and thoroughly covered in white powder from her auburn hair to the shoes of her Barrier Jacket.

Why was she wearing a skirt - even a long one - anyway? This was freezing!

[mrsarcastic003]

Tim laughs and tries to roll Dick away from Jaime. He hasn't quite come to the point of stuffing snow down people's shirts yet, but if Jaime wants to give it another shot...

[madeofwyn.livejournal.com]

Wyn scoots away from Jamie as fast as he can scoot towards her, holding her arms out to forestall any hugging that might happen. "No, no, no, the sharing body heat plan only works when the people sharing aren't covered in snow!"

[bonnypiperlad]

"Och, ye're no fun." Jamie grins at Wyn to let her know he's not serious about that statement - he knew that the odds of that plan working were non-existent. He lets his own arms drop, and doesn't make a further attempt at hugging.

"And aye..." he starts to reply to Aeneas, only to trail off as the alien pops into the tunnel. "Huh."

He makes his way over to investigate and disappears into the snow.