trans_9 | Lirath - Noncombatants

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Lirath - Noncombatants

As the battle raged on far away on Lirath, the crew that remained on Balisair faced a different challenge.

The planet itself was bleak and simple, a rugged landscape covered with sparse forests. The colony itself wasn't very large, but a massive refugee camp was already being set up outside the walls. Numerous tents were already filling up with wounded and scared refugees, and more were coming. They would need help to take all of them in.

Numerous evacuation ships, still scarred from their close calls back at Lirath, were pouring in from the Bleed-Gate that appeared in orbit above the colony, bringing even more refugees with them.

On top of all this, there was yet another problem: Some of the colonists, concerned the sudden influx of refugees would tax the small colony's already small reserve of supplies, were holding back critical supplies the refugee camp needed. It would take someone to convince them to help out for the greater good to get them to part with these supplies.

The crew had their work cut out for them.

[ooc: Open!]

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There was quite a bit of work to be done if you were looking for it. Supplies to be carried, tents to be set up, refugees to be comforted.

For those that needed a break or were just less altruistically-inclined, they could sit somewhere and talk with other crewmen.

The people needing comfort were who Nima's first instincts wanted her to attend to, but she thought it might be easier for the refugees to find any comfort at all if they had some sort of shelter under which to take their rest.

After beginning to set up a tent by herself, she thought she might combine the two. She began approaching small, huddled groups of people one by one, with the supplies for their temporary shelters.

"Excuse me. I'd like to help you set up your tent. Can I help you do this?"

It was quickly becoming clear how unwelcome the refugees were in the eyes of the natives of the planet.

There was a mix of species on the planet, but they had two things in common. 1) They were all hardy, grizzled miners, and 2) They did not want the refugees here.

Some were throwing rubbish at refugees as they entered the camp, and protesting. Clearly, something had to be done about this.

[ooc: one thread]

Among the inhabitants of the camp, a harried-looking man with rolled-up sleeves and an uncharacteristically shiny, newish datapad was threading his way through the crowd, obviously on the lookout for someone. He certainly wasn't a shell-shocked refugee.

Jinx had to admit, she wasn't sure just how much use she was going to be in this crowd. A girl like her just wasn't used to such..."people"

But she was going to give it her all and so here she was, in her new uniform crisp and clean but with plenty of room to move. Her sharp eyes caught sight of this newcomer and she glanced around for the other members of the crew to see if she was going to get any backup before confronting him.

Rhiow didn't have the skills or physical ability to combat the Ohm directly - her skills were elsewhere and better put to use elsewhere, especially as the ranking representative of Stacy's crew to the refugees.

Trotting through the line of refugees made her ears pin back. If she could afford to waste the energy, she would set up a shield around these people, but that wasn't an option right now. So she found the person who looked most likely to be in charge and trotted right up to him. "Excuse me, I'm Councilor Rhiow of the Transmigration Nine. Are you in charge here?"

The man paused mid-walk, blinking and frowning at the sudden appearance of the talking animal and the pink-haired girl behind. He looked to first once, then the other. "That big, important hunk of space junk, huh? Well, unless this is an emergency, I'm going to have to ask you to go find Vals instead. I've got my hands full right now."

With that, he attempted to scurry off past the crew.

"Well maybe we can help." Jinx offered moving gracefully to intercept, "After all that's why we're here. And then you can help us locate Vals or whoever's in charge." She offered trying to sound as kind and polite as she could manage...which for her took some serious effort.

Inara appeared behind Jinx and Rhiow, a few unfortunate moments late, but there, nonetheless. While she was well-trained enough to deal with the Ohm directly, she was far better suited for a diplomatic mission such as this. She had, after all, been Ambassador for the crew on Serenity for a good, long while.

She smiled a warm, gracious smile at the man after taking stock of the others in the area. It did remind her of the Outer Planets, somewhat.

"If you could just take a moment, sir, it would be greatly appreciated," she said. "And afterwards, if we can be of any aid to you, I assure you that it would be our pleasure to lend you our services."

Rhiow was less than impressed with the official's attempts to pawn them off on someone else. She tilted her ears to the side and lowered her eyes half-closed, mentally reciting the airwalking spell. Bipeds, she had found, respected someone more if they could look eye-to-eye with them. The air near Rhiow solidified, and she jumped up onto her newly made platform lightly. "We can start with the matter of security, or the lack thereof..." something round and soft, like a rotted fruit, whizzed past Rhiow's ears and splattered on the ground. "The miners don't seem very willing to let the refugees be here. What are we doing to keep them safe?"

'We' might have been a bit of a misnomer, since Mister Clipboard was so anxious to get rid of them, but Rhiow was implying that they were in it together. Usually it helped calm types like this down.

The man ducked as the fruit sailed by. "Who threw that?!" he shouted into the crowd, eyes falling on one of the men gathered around protesting. "Isar! If you don't want kitchen duty for the next month, I'd better not see that happening again!" The man in question looked vaguely mutinous at the threat, but at least he put down the bright purple orange he was holding.

Then he turned, staring hard at the (to him, frankly bizarre) collection of crew members in front of him. He seemed to take special exception to Rhiow's words. "'We'," he said, rather sharply. "Are doing all we can at the moment. Everyone's scared. They're scared there won't be enough food, enough supplies, enough shelter. More importantly, they know what those bugs can do, and they think once they figure out where all these people escaped to, they'll follow the ships right back here and go to town."

He looked a little skeptically at Jinx (awfully young for a diplomat, wasn't she?), and seemed slightly more reassured to see Inara. "You want to help?" he asked. "Then help me convince some of these people to stop yelling and go back to the barracks. I can barely hear myself think out here."

"No problem." Jinx tried to express the confidence and capability she knew she was capable of while she ran through her options. Traditionally to get people to do what she wanted she either manipulated them in a sneaky way...or threatened them with violence. Somehow she didn't think the second option would be as effective with this crew.

She glanced at her fellow diplomats suspecting it might be better to let them take the lead from here on out though. She was a thief, these two had more experience and she could tell. "Right?"

It was probably the slight look of assurance on the man's face that led Inara to realize that was the only humanoid adult of the three of them. Not that the realization affected any change on her expression. She nodded at Jinx and smiled reassuringly at her. "I've met seldom few people who haven't wanted to listen to a pretty face and a promising smile," she said. She watched as another piece of rotten fruit sailed by their heads. "I hope that isn't going to change now," she said as she turned to survey the worried - and angry - townsfolk. "Rhiow. Do you have any ideas?" Inara found that she trusted the cat, instinctively. If anything, Rhiow seemed to possess a good head on her shoulders, and she was clearly strong.

"We know what they're afraid of," Rhiow said. "It's best to address those fears directly. Introduce ourselves first of course - and expect some anger for being the ship to bring all of these people here."

The anger would probably lead to more rotten fruit throwing. "Give me a moment to put up a barrier," she said, and reached out with her claws outstretched. She hooked them deep into a nearby bundle of hyperstrings, invisible to ehhif eyes, and pulled.

Around the three of them, a golden circle of swooping, curled script materialized. The language looked similar to Arabic, but closer inspection would reveal that it wasn't anything of the kind. "This is a localized solid-matter reflection barrier," Rhiow began, and spoke the rest of the spell quickly. The characters flared with light and then disappeared, leaving an invisible shell around the diplomats. "Let's go," she said, and trotted forward on her path of solid air, about shoulder level with the others.

"You're just full of neat tricks." Jinx remarked casually in a complimentary fashion as they approached the angry mob. After a pause she smiled softly to Inara, "After you?" There was a part of her that hated to admit that the older woman and the cat seemed to have a better grasp on the situation. But she could learn and do her best to help as they carried on.

Inara smiled at Rhiow's little display of power. Where she came from, no such abilities existed. At least, none that Inara knew of. She nodded at Jinx and walked towards the angry mob, exuding as much calmness as she could. "Let's hope they decide not to mob us with flaming torches and whatever they have that may pass for a pitchfork," she said. Granted, Mal wasn't there, which usually boded well. It was usually him who had the profound ability to really tick someone off. Once she reached the crowd, Inara put her hands up tried to shush the crowd. It was, clearly, not an easy thing to do. They were an angry, scared people, and Inara knew that anger and fear never made very good emotional mates.

"I don't suppose either of you have a spell handy to calm these people down?" She paused. "No. That may not be the best course of action. It would be against their wishes."

She turned back to the crowd. "People, please. Quiet down. We come to you in peace." It was, she knew, one of the most cliched things to say, but at the moment, she was unable to think of a better way to introduce her and her comrades to these people.

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Lirath - Noncombatants

General Threading

Tents!

Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

Re: Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

Re: Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

Re: Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

Re: Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

Re: Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

Re: Noncombatant group B (diplomacy group)

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Skip NPCs for this turn?

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