Trudy wasn't much of a programmer, but she thought she'd finally gotten the Sensoriums to understand what she wanted. The simulations of Zokez II had been modified to have all their pilots removed from the sim. Now it was just swarms and swarms of Ohm.

But the arriving pilots wouldn't know that right away - one of the things they trained on the least was actually getting into your ship and getting out the hangar door, and now that they had the carrier, that was even more vital.

So when the pilots arrived in the Sensoriums, they would find themselves not in Stacy's hangar, but in the hangar bay of the Macross Quarter. The fighters and gundams were arrayed throughout the hangar in neat ranks, all ready to go.

Trudy herself stood in her eyesore of a flight suit, her helmet tucked against her hip, waiting to greet people as they came in. She had some new faces to meet, after all.

But before anyone could get too comfortable, the wailing tones of Stacy's red alert sounded through the Sensoriums. [[Attention crew]] came Stacy's voice, [[We are under attack. Repeat, the Ohm are attacking.]]

"Get to your fighters! Rogue Two to the bridge - Wash, take us out!"

((OOC: Anyone currently in Starfighter Command or interested in joining is free to participate and hop in a cockpit. Shuttle pilots and crew will be manning their shuttles. The command staff and the council are welcome to observe the exercise but Trudy would prefer no civilian observers. Have fun! Shoot the Ohm with yer lazors, pew pew!))

Most of the recently-awakened people had probably heard of the Drunken Dragon tavern within a few days of getting accustomed to the ship. Some had already visited it, and a few had even become regulars.

As usual, the door was open, and both Kang and Kaylee were there, refilling drinks and being sociable.

The stage was free for anyone that wanted to share a story, sing a song, or play an instrument, and it was more than welcomed, for what's a tavern without some form of entertainment?

[OOC: Everyone check the link! There have been some changes made to the tavern. :D]

While doing a more search through his Gundams, Setsuna had come across a couple of interesting things. The first was an old flight suit of his, which had been tucked away with a few other emergency supplies. It was too small for him these days, though he knew of someone who might be able to use it, and left it in the pilot seat of a certain Gundam. And he may have changed a few of the settings while he was in there...

One of the other things he found, though, that was much more interesting, was a stowaway in the 0-Raiser's cockpit in the form a red Haro. A completely deactivated red Haro. This was something of a boon, as it would allow him to run more complex diagnostics on his suits, not to mention it could manage the Raiser System in lieu of a pilot.

He just needed to get it working, first.

Which is why Setsuna wasn't in the hangar, for once, which is where he had practically been living since he ended up on this ship. For the moment, he was in Engineering, where he had claimed a small space to work. A few parts of Haro were spread over the table, but anyone who needed room to work still had plenty.

Once he got started, the repairs went relatively smoothly, but were also going terribly slowly. He had the schematics in front of him (thankfully, those had still been stored in the 00's system), and while he could follow them, he wasn't a mechanic.

He'd probably be there for a while.

The entire hangar was nearly shaking from the power of the subwoofer. Loud rock music, possibly centuries or more outdated for most here, blasted from a single source in one side of the hangar. Obnoxious and loud, anyone who'd met him already could probably tell who was causing this ruckus- if their ears weren't already ringing from being situated right by his Gundam.

"Don't mind her playing a demon
Long as it's with me!
If this is hell then you could say
It's heavenly!"

The braided self-appointed deathgod screamed along with the scratchy tones of Bon Scott (may he rest in peace), thumping and drumming on his Gundam's console as he worked on weapons calibrations, among other things he'd had on his to do list- such as upgrades that he'd learned in the Sensorium were sorely needed.

Any of the mobile suits, or even other machines a little ways from the grouping of mobile suits, were probably rattling from the decibel level. Duo himself remained completely oblivious to the possible annoyance he was causing, sliding out of his pilot seat to air guitar on the cockpit's open platform as he checked on a connected laptop sitting out by the edge- he was even wearing shades. Inside a ship. In a cockpit.

He was just that cool.

Kira sat still in a dark, enclosed space, listening to his own heartbeat reverberate through the helmet of a sealed flight suit, and took a long, slow breath - and he opened his eyes as lights flared to life in the darkness. Around him, the cockpit of the Strike Freedom entered its familiar startup sequence, the viewscreens flickering on to display the depth of the seemingly-infinite starfield around him.

He knew it was all a simulation - a hallucination, even - but that didn't make it feel any less real as he took the controls and engaged the Freedom's Phase Shift armor, causing color to spread across the craft's surface.

There was no Archangel or Eternal to launch from this time, but he couldn't help old habits as his foot sunk weight onto the pedal. "Kira Yamato, Freedom - heading out!"

In the depths of space beyond, lights twinkled in a peaceful way that belied their menace - Ohm Shrikes. Kira's grip tightened ever so minutely as his mobile suit drew its beam rifle and the twin railguns unfolded at its hips, and he fired.

The more they practiced now, the safer they'd be in a fight.

Anyone who entered would find themselves standing on the deck of an observation platform suspended in space (if the protocol Kira had written worked properly, anyway). It might make the whole thing a bit less awkward.

With the little house she’d been fixing in the City quarantined, Sheryl had made it her business to become intimately acquainted with the Quarter, and had happily discovered that it had a serviceable mess kitchen and crew bunks in the dustier parts of its bowels. A few hours in Hydroponics later, she’d assembled the materials for a serviceable break from ship-goo dinners, and now a respectable soup was finishing up on the oversized burners.

She let her hair down and sent off a brief omnicomm message and started pushing the worst of the dust off the little lounge’s tables before anyone from off Frontier could arrive.

[[ Dated to after podpop and during contagion plot, open to all. ]]

Setsuna didn't stay long at the Meet n' Greet. He mostly milled about in the background, listening to a handful of conversations here and there. He wasn't sure what to make of the whole spiel about worlds having been destroyed, but he'd discover the truth about that in time. He had more important things to worry about.

Eventually, he managed to pick up several key words, being "Hangar" and "Suits", and he figured he'd find his Gundam there, or some clue about where they took it.

He rushed there, finding it open for anyone to access. He wandered through, looking around at the various vehicles, planes, and craft. He eventually spotted something that made his jaw drop, though.

Exia was there, fully repaired, but lacking a GN drive to power it. Not surprising, considering that the 00 Gundam was right next to it (which contained both Exia's and 0 Gundam's GN Drives), complete with the 0-Raiser already docked to it. But what was shocking was the number of similar yet different mobile suits surrounding both of his.

"...other... Gundams?"

For someone who practically worshiped his mobile suit, and knew there were only a mere handful even remotely like it, this was definitely a shock. Though, upon a slightly closer inspection, he noticed that none of the others had GN Drives of their own. Were these true Gundams from other worlds? Or were those mere knock offs of his own?

"How is this possible?"

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )