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 Precinct was still, thankfully, one of the most secure places on the ship. It was also a fairly innocuous place for Leon and Kang to have this discussion. With Leon using the place temporarily as an office, no one would really think twice about one of the Council members coming to talk business.

They might, however, if they had an idea of what the two were about to discuss. They had to plan for the visitors that were coming aboard.

In the aftermath of the battle at Lirath, Stacy had been severely damaged. Though she still eventually managed to build up enough power to resume course, she was obviously struggling, her pace far slower than normal. She could barely even manage to directly address those who needed to speak with her, instead allowing the more monotone voice of the Warden to speak up wherever she couldn't.

Several days after the battle, however, she once again stopped course suddenly and without warning, and let out a message throughout the ship.

||Notice to all crew members, Daligig Vessel Horizon is approaching. Archon Yavek is requesting to board so repairs can begin on this vessel. Please report to the Obs deck to recieve Daligig personnel and begin briefing. I repeat, notice to all crew members...||

Those going to the Obs Deck to check out the commotion would see the Horizon just out the observation window. It was massive, nearly half as long as Stacy, and likely had enough room for over a million crew members. The ship was colored a brilliantly bright white, with sleek, smooth lines, making the ships the GIA had that the crew had seen in the battle at Lirath seem like ancient relics.

Not long after the crew had arrived at the Obs Deck, bright, crackling lights began to appear towards the far end of the room as figures began teleporting in.

The first to appear were...not the Daligig. Instead, the first figures to arrive were massive, 9-ft tall reptilian soldiers, each decked in thick armor carrying equally massive battle rifles. At their fore stood one of them wearing lighter armor, carrying a tall metallic staff. He appeared older than the other reptillians, and wore a red sash that seemed to mark him of higher rank than the others. He raised the comm unit on his wrist to speak into it.

"Situation green, Archon. It is safe come over."

At that point, more figures began teleporting over, much smaller than the reptilian soldiers that came before. In fact, they were even somewhat shorter than normal humans, the tallest among them barely six feet tall. These were the Daligig, strange looking and varied in appearance. Each of them had devices on their arms, apparently small but powerful micro computers, each with different colors denoting the rank of the wearer. At their side were numerous tiny beings, each barely 4 feet tall, who almost immediately fanned out, obsessively observing and picking at Stacy's techno-organic structure.

Suddenly, one of the Daligig, wearing a dark blue arm unit, stepped forward with a rather grim, serious expression on his face. This, apparently was Archon Yavek.

"Who is in charge here?" he demanded bluntly.

[ooc: Meant to get this up a week ago, but school got the better of me, so sorry, guys! First thread that I put up will be the main expositionary thread, but feel free to make more threads for you characters to react, talk to each other, or try and talk to the Daligig and their companions. Basic info on the Daligig can be found over here.]

The light of the yellow sun that warmed Balisair shone brightly into Obs Deck. It was almost cheerful, like they weren't on a creepy ship made of meat, like they were somewhere that could have had wheat fields under a bright Kansas sky.

It felt like morning.

For a moment, Kon's hand pressed against the surface of the funeral pod, and those that had viewed the Tapestry would suddenly see what they'd seen once before--a hand on a funeral pod, a portent of a death of one of their own, now come to pass.

Inside the pod, barely visible through the clear membrane, Superman's cape covered his body. Superboy had found that he just couldn't keep the original, sewn by Ma Kent herself. No, it belonged with him. Kon planned to have another made out of the cloak given to him by Rory.

It was time to send the Councilor off into the bright light of that sun, to his final rest.

The Ohm had retreated. The various GIA forces on Lirath were withdrawn.

Refugees were being treated and dropped off at the refugee camps, and the crew that had been left there was gathered up. There hadn't been any other outbursts of Catastrophist attacks--it seemed that all of them had either been taken out or killed. Those that had been captured quickly self-detonated their neural explosives to avoid questioning, though the bodies still remained for investigation. Plenty of dead Ohm were there for study as well. Perhaps now the forces aligned against the bug menace could get some answers.

Currently, the Trans 9 was in orbit around the planet the camps were on while Stacy regenerated, allowing them access to and communication with the GIA. Several of the surviving GIA ships were orbiting, making similar repairs. It would be there only briefly before moving out.

Life went on.

Except, of course, when it didn't.

There was no time to recover the countless bodies lost in battle and it wasn't safe to stay on Lirath after the attack. The Ohm could possibly come back in greater force. Only one body was gathered up, with great respect and dignity, and carried up to the Transmigration 9--Superman's.

However, despite the people lost on Lirath--refugees, soldiers, and crew alike--the Ohm had been hurt badly this day. A full invasion force had been defeated, sent running.

They could be beaten, after all.

This was it. Endgame. The crux of the battle, the turning point, those crucial moments that would decide if the crew won or lost, that would decide if the Ohm would reign victorious or go running with their chitinous tails between their legs.

Did the crew have enough grit to win? Could they defeat a full Ohm fighting force?

With the flagging confidence of the GIA forces, it'd be up to the crew to turn the tide.

And one of the crew would pay the ultimate price to make sure the others walked away alive.

[ooc: everything is up!]

 After dropping off some of the crew at Balisair, it was time for the crew to set course for Lirath. The situation greeting them wasn't the most promising.

The cracked surface of the moon called Lirath was one of its most unmistakeable features. One of the three moons of the planet Kehoe, it had been terraformed and served as a settlement for a hundreds of different species, some humanoid, some not. Despite occasional class struggles, environmental issues, and speciesism blocking their way, the darker parts of Lirath's past were largely left behind, and an era of peace and tolerance had reigned for quite some time. The only problems they'd had recently were with a terrorist group whose cause for their actions had been a mystery, but they weren't tied to any particular species or social group and had been likened to a cult and had largely gone quiet in recent years.

Now the peace on the moon of Lirath had been shattered by the invasion of the Ohm.

The capital city had been destroyed. Now, all that was left of the peoples of Lirath was evacuating from one of its smaller cities, one known as Smyteval. A desert city, existing in a valley in between a rocky range of canyons and mountains, even though it was in the low ground, the natural channels of rock served as bottlenecks for any Ohm attacking from the ground.

GIA squadrons patrolled in space, locked in explosive warfare, protecting the Bleed-gate that had been activated to see the evacuated ships to the refugee world, and a shield created by massively-powerful shield generators extended around the city and up into the atmosphere, creating a shielded tunnel so ships could escape.

Word had come that there was a vital weapon to be deployed on Lirath, one that needed to be destroyed, hence why the Transmigration 9 had been called in. Given the diverse crew, and the ships that were in its hangar, there was at least someone or something on board that could blow the weapon up if it did show.

There was no sign of it yet. Right now, there was just chaos, streams of evacuees boarding ships, armies of Ohm engaged with GIA soldiers outside the shields, and forcefields that everyone hoped would hold out just a little bit longer.

The crew would be following Leon's orders but finding themselves fighting side-by-side with GIA platoons, full of various species that were currently all getting their asses kicked severely.

[ooc: STAGE 1 is now open! Please do not tage STAGE 2 until it's announced as open as well.]

[ooc: STAGE 2 is now open!]

 After receiving the warning the Tapestry had provided them, along the order to begin preparations from Councillor Kang, the crew had been getting ready for upcoming combat with the Ohm.

Unfortunately, the rather vague nature of the warning they received meant they had no particular way of knowing exactly when this battle would occur. Understandably, this put some of the crew on edge, but at the very least they had some prior warning that they would be facing the Ohm, rather than being thrown blind into such a dangerous situation. Combat drills, vehicle maintenance and armory inspections seemed to be regular sights for the week or so following Kang's message. Not much time to prepare, but the crew worked with what was given to them.

Eventually, however, the call came.

||Alert, Alert,|| Stacy called out throughout the ship, ||Priority One message from GIA High Command. All crew members please report to the Obs Deck. Repeat, Priority One message from GIA High Command, All crew members please report to the Obs Deck...||

Stacy kept repeating the message over and over until the crew began making their way towards the Obs Deck to receive the message.

[ooc: As implied by the post, we're assuming the crew's ICly had a one-to-two week heads-up about the battle. It was supposed to be played out, but RL timing prevented this from working out. Feel free to come up with the details of your character's preparations on your own

Also, as usual, please wait for subthreads to go up before tagging in.

Edit: It's up! Feel free to start tagging in!]

The City didn't have weather as most people knew it, but it was nonetheless a beautiful day - warm weather with a nice breeze, Stacy's sun-equivalent shining in the sky... almost as if it was reflecting the emotions of at least one of the ship's crew. In the middle of the Park, someone had set up a little white lattice archway amongst the hedgerows, decorated with ivy and roses and lilies that looked remarkably real (if they were, in fact, synthetic). In front of the arch were several rows of white chairs, more than enough for anyone who cared to show up.

It was a beautiful day for a wedding.

And frankly, Nanoha needed it. After the chaos and confusion; the rage and terror on Galilee... she didn't think she could ever forget that horrible sense of loss and emptiness when she'd thought that Fate was gone, if only for a day or so. But this would go a long way toward exorcising those demons - a day that she'd dreamed of for years.

Of course, she couldn't go greet anyone yet. She was in her wedding dress, after all! These things needed to be proper.

(ooc: Tag the respective subthreads, please! Mingling is highly encouraged.)

Reviewing any mission is a critical step. Its important to note what went right and what went wrong so that adjustments could be made in the future. But the initial mission reports from Galilee seemed to indicate that everything went ridiculously sideways.

Granted, everyone came back alive, and with the technology they had been seeking. But this mission had clearly gone pear-shaped.

So after giving everyone on the away team a day to recover, say hi to the new arrivals, and get a few tattoos removed, it was time to get some more detailed answers. Leon started, privately, with the Command members on the mission: Nightwing, Fate, and Lash. The three of them were ordered to meet him and Nathan in one of the conference rooms in the Precinct. Kon would have been ordered to attend as well, but he was still in the Medbay, recovering from losing his hand.

When everyone arrived and got settled, Leon only had one question for the group.

"What the hell happened down there?"

The omnicoms were actually quite sturdy as it turns out -- sturdy enough to survive being dropped in horror when a certain crew member puts a few anonymous comments together to identify an unknown sentient -- and from there, that sentient's tormentor.

"Captain Kennedy, I need to speak with you immediately," Jeka said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "Where are you?"

Oh grife. Oh grife, oh grife, oh sprock, oh grife.

The crew was in very deep trouble.

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.]

As night fell in the Rom village, the bustling activity began to die down. Even the energetic Rom needed to rest, and so the village soon became quiet and still as the moon rose.

Luminescent alien fungi began to glow once the sun went down, covering the village in a soft, eerie blue glow. It was easy to see why they had to wait till nightfall, now. In the dense forest, it would have been easy to get lost searching for the Tapestry. But the glowing fungi seemed to form a path leading towards edge of the valley the settlement was situated in, likely the way towards the Tapestry.

Loq'hi stood waiting near the outskirts of the town, waiting for the crew to arrive, along with a pair of his men at his side. Cargn stood nearby, having sent out a quick message to the rest of the landing party that it was time to retrieve the Tapestry.

It was time to claim their prize.

The crew had made it to the village where the Tapestry was supposedly hidden, but for now, they had to wait. According to the Rom, the path to where the Tapestry was hidden would only open once night fell.

That left them with a fairly good chunk of time on their hands, as well as a rather large Rom settlement to explore in the meantime.

It was rather hard to believe the expansive village was completely isolated from the outside world, but somehow it still thrived. Many younger Rom could be seen flying to and from the many small buildings built right into the forest. Despite the fairly advanced look of all the technology spread throughout the village, everything appeared to be rather ancient.

Still, there was quite a bit to do to pass the time. The central marketplace of the village was rather active, and the crew could always use more supplies. There were also a number of places to get food and drinks.

Most of all, it would be a good opportunity to learn more about the Tapestry and the Rom--along with their connection with the crew's destiny--by asking around. After all, if they were going through all this trouble for the damn thing, they might as well find out more about it.

Several hours after Cargn's message to the command staff, the crew was summoned to the Obs Deck in Stacy's usual fashion. Upon arrival, they would find a mission briefing much like the ones that came before it.

The hologram next to it would show a rather unusual looking planet, with a single, massive ocean taking up the majority of the surface, and a single, perfectly circular continent taking up the rest. It appeared rather unnatural at first glance.

Planet Designation: Unknown. No records of a system existing at this location can be found. All information is based on preliminary scans.
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Unknown.
Sentient Life: Unknown.
Water: 74.8% of the planet's surface.
Climate: Temperate.
Landscape: Mountainous.
Air: Normoxic concentration. Slightly elevated levels of carbon dioxide.
Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue. Occasional cloud cover.
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star.
Warnings: No records of this planet exist. Suggest taking extreme caution while planet-side, as dangers that have not shown up on preliminary scans could exist.
Mission: Scout planet's surface and locate artifact known as the Tapestry.

Well. It certainly wasn't much to go on. But the Tapestry seemed to be important enough to the crew, so it might be worth the risk.

Maybe.

So, the hostages had been rescued successfully and were recovering. The crew members affected by the clock were back to their proper age.

Sherry was back to her proper age. Something which was both a great relief and tremendously heartbreaking at the same time. He was glad she was back to being his little linefacer, but getting a chance to see her when she was so small, during all the years of her life that he hadn't been a part of.

At least he took plenty of pictures.

Though, while a couple of problems were solved, there were still plenty more to deal with. The map; whether or not the GIA set them up at NiSaris; the Ohm; replacing repodded personnel... Though he was taking a break from that now. Or was trying to, at least. Not an easy thing to do with a ton of stuff weighing on his mind.

To help clear his mind, he went down to the City (which reminded him, at some point, he needed suggest to the Council that they actually give the City a name), and at the moment was hanging upside down from a tall fence doing one sit up after another. He wasn't out of shape, still barely having an ounce of fat on him, and by no means rusty, but the rescue mission had made him realize he had been out of the field and behind a desk for too long. Being some distant, hands off executive wasn't his style. And whatever was about to come their way next, he'd need to be at his best to help.

Smaller didn't necessarily mean Sherry was less of a handful. Somewhere during the time it took her to shrink from four to somewhere around two, she'd gotten more curious and - inexplicably -louder. She was quick, too, on those fat little legs of hers, as she ran from Interesting Thing, to More Interesting Thing.

Naturally, anything she found went straight to her mouth, and then immediately subjected to a chorus of "Ew! Ewwwwww!" Claire's dog was a "cat", no matter how many times Sherry was corrected otherwise. And the poor alien pup itself was subjected to Sherry climbing on its back and clinging to it like pony until she was either plucked off or fell off.

Still, there were some good things about this. Sherry was sweeter, more amiable, liked being spoken to and enjoyed being tossed high in the air. Over. And over. And over. Which is why the little tot was addressing her mother with the biggest, sweetest pair of blue eyes meant to be totally convincing.

"Mama! Up!" Her chubby little hands grasped for the hem of Claire's shirt, falling short. "Up!"

Despite how he argued that he was fine, despite how he displayed a range of motion with his wounded shoulder (complete with pained facial expressions and one yell of agony), Medical insisted on tossing Luis in for treatment as soon as they were all back on the ship. His wound was infected and there was a process Stacy needed to go through to clean it all up and make sure it wouldn't turn gangrenous and fall off. That explanation made him a bit more cooperative.

So Luis sat on his bed in the Med Bay, laying on his side, glaring at the ceiling and extremely uncomfortable as a hose-like tentacle contraption was attached to the front and back of his shoulder, placed over the wound like a suction. Yeah. Creepy.

And he'd been caught up and around the place trying to do something productive one too many times, so there was a restraint around his ankle preventing him from standing up or even changing positions too much.

Could they at least have given him a book? This was worse than being trapped in a cave.

(Plot Post!)

The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon as the emergency pod landed down on the surface of Orya, deep in the thicket of a jungle a few miles north of the village.

It was all unknown and uncharted territory... but if Stacy's crew ever wanted to see a good half of their doctors and scientists again, there was no other choice but to stage a rescue mission.


(ooc: SUBTHREADS ARE FIIIINE. Have at!)