The final group, Mal, Prince, Blitzwing, Soundwave, Kaylee, and Elle went off in the direction of the sixth and final pod. They were very shortly out of the trees and underbrush, and there was something up ahead on the horizon.

Looked a bit like a civilization. But Stacy had said "no sentient life forms", hadn't she?

The door opens to a lush green place. They've landed in a forest glade of some kind. Deciduous in nature, but the leaves are somewhat odd in shape and very, very thick and tall. The grass is a green that's almost a blue.

The sky is blue like a normal sky, but brighter, more vibrant than on Earth. Two moons hang there, so close that they're visible even in the daytime.

The air is fresh and clean-smelling, like after a rain--in fact, the moisture in the air means it may have rained here recently. There's even a cool, light breeze.

Curiously, when they come down the ramp, they'll see that the pod--its umbilical cord spiraling up miles upon miles to meet the ship, floating visibly in the atmosphere--is floating about six inches off the ground.

The Meeting is interrupted.

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...||

They can hear it through the meeting bubble and Jaime drops it.

It's entirely likely that she won't stop repeating the announcement until, well, everyone reports to Obs Deck. 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 picture of it, marled blue and green, are as follows:

( Mission Dossier )

It's big meeting time! Word of mouth gets everyone gathered in the Obs Deck--everyone. New, old, the entire crew is there and that makes it clear that there's close to a hundred of them, if not more.

When they've all arrived, a blue bubble pops up around them, courtesy of Blue Beetle, to block them all from Stacy's sensors. Most of the new people were given the basic rundown by Cybil or Chief when they were first released. Some of them have already joined a discussion with a the Commanding Officers and department heads. Some have had a chance to explore a bit. Some were only just recently released.

[ooc: READ THIS BEFORE TAGGING.]

Right outside the Hub, as the newbies file into the hallway, Cybil is there with her datapad adding new people to the ship roster, partly compiled by herself and by Wednesday, kicking ass and taking names--oh wait, sorry, that's just taking names.

"My name is Cybil Bennett. So far, If you need an explanation, I can't promise you a great one, but I can give you the best one I've got. After that, you're free to explore--just don't go anywhere alone. Even though we think it's relatively safe now, we've been attacked before. In an hour, we're having a meeting on Obs Deck, where you'll get even more information, and we'll work on introductions and..."

Her eyes dart up to one of Stacy's many watching ones.

"...our plans for dealing with all this."

In the lulls, if current crew has questions, or wants to talk, she's there for that too.

Elle stumbled upon the statuary by accident, but it was distracting and amusing enough that she promptly abandoned her search for that weird clock room and decided to explore it instead.

She deduced that it was half-cool, half-weird. She recognized several from history textbooks (very neat, though she was never particularly studious), and others that looked like they were from comic books, video games, or something else similiarly geeky (also neat, but also reminded her of movie sets again). Despite the fact that flicking the switches on the large statue bases didn't appear the actually DO anything, she continued attempting to make something happen.

Maybe it's just broken, she wondered, repeatedly flipping the switch for a statue of the Venus De Milo. How irritating. It would've been way cool if it was animatronic or something and moved, she glumly noted.

A little too tempted by the idea, Elle covered the switch with her palm, blue electricity shimmering over the surface of her skin. I'll just... Give it a jumpstart!

There was a crackle- a loud zap!

And...

Nothing.

She rolled her eyes, letting her hand drop back to her side. Why did that never seem to work?

After being de-slimed--for the most part--and wrapped in discomforting, dark green, plant-like body-suits--that not only left little to the imagination, but also seemed to be breathing--the newly pod-popped crew all happen to congregate in the Weapons and Possessions Lockers at the same time. This cavernous warehouse of a chamber has shelves and shelves and racks of belongings and weapons that go off as far as the eye can see. Everything from massive sidearms to impossibly huge swords, to Hello Kitty lunchboxes.

Their own belongings are here near the front--they've been moved to make finding them more easy, but it will take a bit of hunting.

Either way, they won't be searching alone. Everyone's piling in at the same time.

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

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

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

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.