With the Council having laid down the groundwork with the Daligig to gain their trust in the uprising, the crew prepared to put on a show, and the Daligig at their wit's end and impatient with the crew of the Transmigation 9, it was time to act.

The plans were clear. Allenby would be leading some of the crew in what looked like a hotheaded attempt the attack the Daligig and Kessek and oust them off the ship. Those that wanted to stay out of the fighting and take a neutral position of some kind were to make sure they stayed safe or acted their parts as the horrified crew-members that wanted everyone to make peace. And of course, anyone else was going to play a roll in pretending to side with the Council and the Daligig to put their fellow crew members down (without hurting them) making it look like it wasn't a clear-cut issue, so the Council could get the command codes necessary to start the crew's true takeover of the ship.

More observant members of the crew had noticed where the Daligig, Ghyll, and Kessek had been entering and leaving the restricted areas of the ship. The attack was to start at one of those entrances, as the fake rebels tried to storm in and take on the Daligig forces. After that, as the Kessek were drawn into the ship itself to put down the rebellion, it was going to be a free-for-all, a faux civil war of sorts, as flashy and convincing as they could make it without anyone actually dying.

Lights! Cameras! Action, people! It was time to put on a show and hope it was convincing enough for the Daligig to give the crew what they needed to truly be free.

[ooc: Go Go Go!]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicomms and comm rings. They are also told they must read information about their current situation and a survival guide with their new omnicomm. New crewmates might see a tall dragonish guy with wings (but don't call him that), a large afro attached to a smaller girl, and talking ponies 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. But thankfully this time, there's a system that was set up to aid the new crew members with a few more experienced ones.

[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. Big brother/sister, there will be a thread for you as well!]

The man sat at one of the mess hall tables, eating with one hand and tapping on the omnicomm on the table with the other. He wasn't just tall, he was big, broad across the shoulders and built like a tank underneath the plant suit. The pale skin of his neck and face was laced with scarring. He was entirely focused on what he was reading, brow furrowed slightly.

There were only a few people on the ship that might have recognized the Master Chief without his armor.

He had been asleep for a long time, that much was clear.

It was making things difficult.

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... )

After the crew finished up with the Rituals of Judgement and Joining, they were permitted to enter the city proper.

Orongo was even more impressive than it appeared from outside the wall. Despite the primitive seeming architecture, the city was alive with lights and sounds and colors. The numerous stone buildings were covered in bright paints in beautiful swirling designs, each one a unique piece of art. People milled about the city in droves, many of them various examples of random alien species, though there were quite a few Moai and knee-high Rapa Nui moving about.

The priests that directed them into the city indicated to them to the Consummation Huts, where they would be spending the night, regardless of whether they chose to use them to their...eh hem...full potential, or not.

As they entered the city, each of them got the same message from Stacy.

||You will be spending the night in the city as per the Moai's instructions. Arrangements have been made to meet with the Moai Elders in the morning. For now, you are given leave to explore the city as you wish. I have transferred each of you an allowance of credits to purchase supplies or entertainment tonight.||

||Do try to have fun.||

[ooc: And they're off! Feel free to have them explore. You can also start doing open posts on-planet now, if you want. Have fun!]

Once Domalai made sure the crew was fully informed of what was expected of them in the upcoming rituals, he showed them over to where the Rituals of Judgement and Joining would be performed.

As they neared the gate that led into the city of Orongo, they could see many other people milling about, waiting for their turn to undergo the rituals themselves. The crew, of course, being a special case, are moved to the front of the line. Thankfully, everyone seems to be in a good enough mood that no one puts up a fuss about it.

The first area they were brought to had a simple stone circle, around which were three smaller circles. Two Moai priests were waiting there as they approached, and Domalai moved over to join them before speaking up.

[ooc: wait for subthreads to go up]

[ooc2: Ready! Tag away!]

The Master Chief has taken over Samus' old office. It's not like he had a lot to move.

It feels a little odd sitting in this chair, he's used to being on the other side of the desk. He'll have to get used to it, he supposes.

In the meantime, he's not busy. If you need to talk to him now's a good opportunity.

"Oof."

Samus smacks the ground as she's thrown out of the blue portal behind her. She rolls onto her back, glancing around her surrounds. It's... the city. She sits up. It's the city! She's back! Hell yeah! Take that, Glados!

She never thought she'd be so glad to be back here. But after-how long was she gone? A full month at least. After being trapped doing "tests" for so long, though, who wouldn't be? At least her cognitive thinking abilities probably improved a lot...

But the question remains, where is she? She's up high. That's all she knows. And where's...

Perhaps it was sort of unnecessary for Samus to call Chief into her office, but in all honesty she preferred to speak in person. She was never quite sure of the security of it, so even when she was passing along completely unclassified information, habit forced her to request a meeting in person.

She waited at her desk, Chief wouldn't take more than a few seconds to arrive, considering where he was coming from anyway. She has something to show him anyway. On her desk was a rather obvious set up of conventional firearms, ranging from simple pistols to rifles. Each one was marked with an orange stripe. At the end of the row was a remote. Its purpose remained unknown to a casual observer.

Though she didn't want to draw attention to it, the observant viewer would realize that there was a new photo frame on her desk. She frowned at it and picked it up, looking for another place to put it.

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... )

It was official, come down from the ship herself; there was an outbreak aboard the Transmigration 9.

Naturally, the Contagion Containment Laboratory was unusually crowded-- patients in quarantine bubbles, panicked crew members asking questions, medics and scientists hard at work in desperation to find a cure.

[ooc: If you've got business in the CC lab, this is the thread for you. Pick an appropriate subthread and mingle, or start your own!]

Paco was a man on a mission. It was a very serious mission of the utmost importance.

Depending on the definitions of "serious", "utmost", and "importance" at least.

There were people on this ship that needed to either be recruited onto Team Have Some Freaking Fun, and there were people who needed to be marked down to be shanghai'd into having fun the next time the Team had a plan. There were also people who he needed to talk to talk to on general principle because they were his friends and what else were friends for?

In other words, Paco was bored and in the mood to socialize.

Denizens of Stacy, beware.

[[OOC: Pick a location! Paco will find your character and socialize!]]

Hydroponics is the Chief's favorite part of the ship. This isn't because of any special function it serves, but because it's usually quiet and mostly empty. He can get away from the rest of the crew in here, for a little while. It's space to think.

He has a lot of thinking to do.

He has no particular set goal in mind, just pacing some of the usual paths. However, something seems to be following him. A whiteish bug of some kind roughly the size of a german shepherd. It scuttles along behind the Spartan as he goes, and he seems to be ignoring it.

Has he even noticed it? It's impossible to tell.

The infiltration team has had a long, hard slog through everything GLaDOS is capable of throwing in their way. Lasers, pitfall traps, rooms with mildly toxic gas, anything that she can spring on them with minimal prep time at her disposal and whilst at the mercy of the path they blast through the walls.

||Haha-a. Well done.||

The AI's voice is entirely mirthless as the team finally reaches their destination. It's cooler in this final hall and the floors and walls are mostly fleshy once again. There are more metallic intrusions here than much of the rest of the ship, but it's a sharp contrast to the stark whitewalled test chambers.

At the end, it opens up into a circular chamber with a narrow metal walkway spiraling up from the floor in the middle. Hanging from the ceiling in the center is a strange combination of wires and smooth, curved white metal with four spheres with colored "eyes" protruding from the tangle. The eyes roll toward the infiltration party.

||You ^have passed your test. Please wait _{for your} cake to be dispensed. Obey ^all cake awaiting procedures and _remain here un^til the cake arrives. Refrain from moving from ^{where you} stand or there will be no cake.||

How could something so apparently helpless possibly do anything to harm them now that they're out of her little "kingdom" of chambers and she can't keep playing her sick little games? It has to be a bluff.

Hasn't it?

This ship was still a dangerous place. There were a lot of things that were out of their control, and problems they could manage, but few that they could fix. One of the biggest ongoing problems was GLaDOS, who routinely caused crew members to disappear, some for good.

Worst of all, there was nothing that could be done about it.

Until now.

Which was why Leon was putting a team together, the members of which he had called to meet him at the Precinct. They'll be the ones to finally deal with the AI once and for all.

Oh boy.

Samus has had an excellent start to her new job. She was a little wary to take on the responsibility of security. After all, she always considered herself better as a free agent rather than part of the organized system. She always seemed to need to bend the rules in order to get things done. Leon understood this, though, and still offered her the position. Maybe it would even give her a bit more freedom in her methods, having to answer to less superiors. Maybe this would be a good thing.

Except for the fact that it now gave her adopted bird son even more unsupervised freetime around this very dangerous ship, which is exactly why the new Chief of Security was sitting with her head in one hand next to the passed out Komali in the Med Bay instead of in her new office in the precinct. Oh the joys of being a single parent.

In the City, near one of Sherry's many hiding spots (safe until her parents decided to plug some kind of tracking device into her), a little girl and a little bird boy stood atop of a two-story whitewashed building. There really, logically, wasn't any reason for Sherry to be up here with him. But she knew, she just knew, that if she was down below, calling encouragement, Komali would probably never jump down.

Not that she blamed him, but as someone without wings, it was probably better that she didn't go flinging herself off of buildings. "It really isn't even that far down," she urged.

"I bet you won't even hit the ground."

After leaving his omnicom message, he waits for them in one of the Sensoriums of all places, but that will make it easier to answer any questions. Right now, there's a chalkboard up and several things written on it. Things like:

BUGS LIKE ME?

OHM WELCOME

DALIGIG TELLING THE TRUTH?

CARGN KNOWS MORE THAN HE'S TELLING