After the near-disaster the mission had turned out to be, Ildraniath needed time to think. She needed to unwind - everyone needed that, even Eldar. She had entered the media library and to her surprise, had found a large collection of Eldar music. Some of the more famous works ever created were there - haunting, ethereal, beautiful music that the mon-keigh could never hope to match in their lifetimes. Mozart, Bach, Weber? Children bashing at the keyboard in comparison to this.

Well, at least those were her thoughts on it. 

She had settled into one of the seats in one of the media rooms and despite the urge to curl up, she did not. Instead, she sat straight, arms and legs folded, eyes closed as she listened and remembered her real home, now gone. Possibly never to return. She let the music wash over her and through her (and remembered, vaguely, a time when she had aspired to create such beauty with her own hands and mind). She let out the frustrations and the exhaustion.

For now, she could relax. 

The plan was...well, it wasn't simple, but it sort of was.

While the CLF attacked multiple Clone Processing centers to distract the government, the group with the CLF would target one particular one in the region that'd once been New Jersey. The group with the government would offer their services in putting down their own people.

In the center, they'd split up into several groups. One would fight a fake fight, create a massive diversion, and blow up the room where the samples their DNA were being kept in the process. Another group would secure a teleporter pad. That team would teleport out other teams to steal a ship, steal some med tech to teleport to said ship, and steal a medical database. Another team would go to the main command center and hack into the government mainframe to down the sensornet around the planet so they could escape. And Nightwing himself would accompany the clones to upload the harvested memories to the Mother Brains, left unguarded because of the diversionary fighting, and make sure that was all they did.

Meanwhile, there'd be a standing order for all teams to avoid killing other crewmates, and avoid killing guards unless absolutely necessary.

It was a complicated plan. If a single part fouled up, they might find themselves dead, trapped, or worse. But if it worked, it'd work pretty spectacularly and leave them with medtech, a medical database, the clones helped, and possibly a grateful Council depending on how the fight went, because of the ones seemingly aiding the government.

In some worlds, things that were a million-to-one-chance (exactly a million-to-one) by their nature had to work. Let's hope this world is one of them, eh, mission crew?

[ooc: Only comment to threads if it says they are open here. All threads: OPEN. Characters may get injuries up to and including 7 on the Injury Scale (scroll to the bottom). Any higher, and they must ask permission of the plot-runners, just to make sure everyone isn't immobilized without enough people to help move them.]

At some time during the night, while some were still sleeping, and some were awake and wandering around the hotel common rooms--a massive explosion rocked the hotel the group was staying in.

Simultaneously, perhaps by lucky chance, or perhaps on purpose, a number of the group was mysteriously teleported away. Specifically, the ones missing were: Fate, Jr., Kang, Superboy, Zouichi, Howard, The Doctor, Lash, Nightwing, Zetta, Dr. Henderson, Rory, Ruffnut, and Sakura.

The problem was that the group likely wouldn't be able to tell from the vaporized common rooms and bedrooms that those particular individuals hadn't been in them when the explosion hit.

[ooc: All subthreads are open.]

The Maingate Hotel was pretty extravagant, and an entire section of it had been eked out for the crew's use during their stay. They had several suites, three communal areas, a conference room, their own kitchen with a chef on call if they required her.

They were all teleported from the main teleport pad of the hotel into the conference room, which was a large enough room to be able to hold a group their size and had plenty of chairs arranged in a circular pattern so they could mostly all face each other or whoever was in the middle of the room.

Everyone had to settle down so they were all able to talk, and the meeting itself would have to be carefully controlled so they wouldn't all talk over each other. But they were up for the task, right?

[ooc: Guardian Setup, General Mingling, Clone Checkup, Newbie Briefing, General Briefing, More Mingling, Back to the Meeting, and The Idea Guy sections are open. Backup characters introduced to the plot can join in the mingling subthreads if they want. The opening of new subthreads will be announced here and the ooc. Please read the linked OOC post for a plot timeline.]

The trip down was uneventful. The view was gorgeous when the viewing window shields were raised again when they were through the atmosphere, especially as they passed down to Megalopolis, the simply-named giant city that was this world's capital. To the Earthlings there, the continents of this world would look vastly familiar, but that didn't mean anything, did it?

Eventually the sparkling city spires of the mega-city, interspersed with flying traffic, rose up to meet them, and Obs Deck, attached by its massive shielded umbilical cord, deposited them at the Council's private spaceport. It retreated back up to Stacy after they'd disembarked.

This world was a gorgeous world, that much they could likely tell while standing there on the landing pad, looking at the rounded curves of the beautifully designed spaceport. Buildings rose up above them in shades of white, paneled with multi-colored glass, in creative architectural designs. The air traffic weaved neatly in endless lines between buildings, and the overcast sky was in shades of orange and pink, with occasional slips of a bright blue peeking through.

The Council of Five was waiting for them in person, clearly glad to see them all, dressed in resplendent clothing.

"Welcome to the Megalopolis, our capital city, and welcome to Galilee. We are the Council of Five, and we're honored by your presence."

[ooc: The first subthread is now open. They have split into groups! All subthreads are now open! Please do not set up new subthreads. The plot-runners will set them up as needed as we go.]

A large group of crew members was gathered. In fact, given the mission briefing provided, it was curious that there'd be such a large number for a diplomatic mission.

Planet Designation: Galilee
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Homo Sapiens. [Various translations of "human" appear here so everyone understands it]
Water: 69.5% of the planet's surface.
Climate: Earth-like [Click here for cultural equivalents for non-Earth cultures.]
Landscape: Varied.
Air: Normoxic concentration. Slightly elevated levels of carbon dioxide.
Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue. Often overcast.
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star.
Warnings: Wildlife and plant-life can be hazardous. Humans can be hazardous. A human cultural and legal database is available. [click here]
Mission: Successfully negotiate with the Galileeans in exchange for their advanced medical technology.

It was very little to work with, so the crew gathered there possibly had a lot of questions.

He really only intended to talk, eyes dark with rage and head throbbing in an almost rhythmically.

But he needed to know. An accident, sure. He could handle that. He could be frustrated and push for a policy change, but he could accept it. Accidents happened, they were frustrating, but dwelling on them only made the situation worse and lowered his effectiveness. He knew that. He'd learned that practically on the first day at the hospital. Things happened, and then you moved on and dealt with the next things happening.

But this...if Conner was right, if Tim was right, and he had no reason to believe that either would lie or make this sort of assumption.

An attack. On his family. That could not be tolerated.

'Never start a fight, it's ok to walk away, Rory. Strength is knowing when to walk away.'

'When what you love is threatened, spare no effort in protecting it. Mercy is for peacetime, kindness for your allies. To your enemies, show only the edge of your blade.'

He was fairly certian he was slowly losing his mind. Memories that weren't his pounding against the back of his temples until he just wanted to retreat, meekly, back to Conner and Molly and Amy.

But he couldn't, his legs wouldn't stop, his fists clinched furiously at his sides. Nothing in his face showed any of the mental turmoil, only rage that his family had been threatened.

He felt like something had possessed him, as though he might explode if the right sequence of buttons was pushed.

The door to Neuropathy swung open easily under his hand and it wasn't hard to spot his quarry. "Did you think no one would notice?" The words were cool, controlled, tightly leashed with threat and fury.

With her son back to being self-sufficient (and being able to remind her of such), Eva's suddenly found herself with a windfall of downtime. Doing what any sensible lady would do with such a situation, she raided the hall closet for board games.

She sits outside the house with a little plastic table an lawn chairs set up, as well as a battered old chessboard of Cassie's. A few of the white pawns and the black rook were missing, so she replaced them with bottlecaps and a salt shaker.

A cardboard sign in impeccable handwriting reads: FREE CHESS GAMES, YOUR LOSS. She drums her fingers as she waits for company.

[OOC: bendytimed to a little after Melting Clock.]

Down in Neuropathy, the lighting brightened briefly and then dimmed. All over the ship, the crew was treated to strangle garbled noises that sounded like some combination of Stacy’s and the Warden’s voices.

|| --zzznch wrakkeep -- ||

In some places, tentacles burst from the walls and lashed about sightlessly.

|| --gap gap gap-- ||

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended. The tentacles retreated into the walls and the lights in Neuropathy returned to normal. When Stacy spoke, she sounded tired but triumphant.

||I’m very sorry for the confusion, I hope that no one was hurt. If anyone was, I will bring them to the Med Bay myself. However, I have good news – thanks to your work in Neuropathy, I’ve been able to take some functions back from the Warden programming.||

||While I’m afraid that she will still take over in defense of the ship itself, I am now in control of stopping fights between crew members. And I will not be assigning Violations unless someone attempts to kill someone else where I can see them, or if asked to by the Captain.||

||Furthermore, your memories of those who are having their avia tested will no longer be modified. Again, I am sorry for the confusion caused in the last few moments of this fight. If you have any questions, you may ask them now.||

It was a little hectic in Medbay. Though there were only a few patients, they weren't in the best shape. Still, there was the best life support technology that could be built or grown in the Medbay, and the problems were being dealt with.

For the moment.

That moment would soon be over, only to be replaced by sheer chaos.

[ooc: Tag away!]

The proud princess lay broken on the floor of her cell, the constant chatter in her mind all piling up to a barely intelligible roar.
( [TL:DR: Azula is a crazy pile of crazy with crazysauce] )

Many people across the Earth could tell you where they were when they found out the news. That a terrible creature had torn through the the United States, razing the country in a horrific storm of death and destruction. That the Justice League, some of Earth's mightiest heroes, fell before this beast's might. That only one man stood in its way - Superman. And when the dust settled in Metropolis, the beast was stopped... and so was Superman.

But, not everyone knows about that horrific day on Stacy. Perhaps Superboy does. Perhaps one of the Legion. But, as it stands, not even the Clock knew of this moment.

For today, at least, in the middle of the City...

...was the day a Superman died.

(OoC: And after all that talk from the Council about trusting people. Obviously, Superman isn't going to say anything in this entry. Gonna need someone to find him, though. It's gonna look stupid with a dead Superman in the middle of the street for this portion and no one the wiser of it. Beyond that, have fun!)

Despite Superman's suddenly odd penchant for sporting mullets, it was time to have a heart-to-heart chat... between the Council and the rest of the crew. If there was some sort of bond between them and the crew that needed to be made, it needed to be done without hiding behind Omnicomms and other decisions.

Thus, the Council was gathered within La Prefecture and everyone was welcome to come in and make their concerns, questions, complaints and what have you known. Care to join us?

(OoC: This is open to everybody and everyone! Also, don't wait for the Council to address you guys! If your characters have concerns, start up a subthread and we'll gladly tag it!)

Lex Luthor was never not up to something. Someone as driven as him was never prone to be idle, even if he was being quiet. And Lex had been relatively quiet recently.

Today, however, he broke away from whatever had been keeping him busy to do something a bit more mundane. Namely, some engine theory.

Previously, there had been a project to upgrade some of the mobile suits using engines from the X-Wings. The project had to be abandoned, however, due to that pesky thing called the laws of physics. The mobile suits, on average, had more than 70x the mass of an X-Wing. Moving the engine from an X-Wing to a mobile suit was a lot like taking the engine out of a suped up hot rod and putting it in a tractor trailer that was hauling 35 tons up a hill; you can't do that and still expect to go from 0-60 in under six seconds.

Not without causing the engine to explode, at any rate.

However, as Lex realized with a burst of scientific inspiration, there were ways to adapt some of the deign ideas and philosophies from the X-Wing's engines to that of a Mobile Suit's. If his design worked, the would be a marked improvements in speed and thrust. (Of course, by his estimation, there wasn't anything on this ship that couldn't be improved by him, but that's neither here nor there.)

Which is why he was in Special Weapons today, having taken over a good sized chunk of the common area. There were engine schematics spread out all over the place, and a couple of transparent dry erase boards that had a number of equations scrawled all over them. Yes, Lex was a man with access to cutting edge tech, but having his work spread out as such gave a sense of the big picture that a computer could not. Though he did use a computer to verify his numbers.

Yet, judging by the way he was staring his pile of papers, his face a mask of concentration, some of those numbers just weren't adding up quite right.

"There's something I'm missing here," he muttered to himself, scanning over the work to try and see how he could pull it all together.

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!]

Once those who decided to go along on the mission were gathered on the Obs Deck and had time to go over the mission briefing, the detachment procedures began.

As with the missions before, the doors to the Obs Deck closed before it detached itself from Stacy, tethered by a massive umbilical cord. Those who had been on missions before would find the experience familiar if still somewhat unpleasant, but for those of whom this was their first mission, the sudden lack of gravity and lurching feeling as they entered the atmosphere would come as a surprise.

Thankfully though, the ride was quickly over as they landed safely on the planet below, the gravitational dampeners of the Obs Deck gently dropping the crew members back on their feet. One of the walls opened up, forming a ramp to the ground below. There was a sudden, slight gust of air as the door opened as the thick air rushed in. Even so, the air felt quite warm and refreshing.

Looking outside, the crew would see the bright yellow sun looming overhead, quite close in comparison to the sun on most planets. A handful of small, silver clouds dotted the blueish purple sky.

Ahead of them stood a rather impressive looking plateau, surrounded by a tall, ornate stone wall which was covered in tribal markings. Directly ahead was a large gate through the wall, with several small stone buildings in front of it. Beyond the gates, a larger settlement could be seen. Surrounding the plateau and covering the surrounding region were numerous strange, blue and purplish trees and plants.

[ooc: hold up until subthreads are set up]

[ooc2: ready! feel free to tag!]

Stacy's voice came over the comm, blaring across the entire ship.

||Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. All personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention, all personnel...||

The mouth in the main sculpture on Obs Deck opened, revealing a screen with the image of a mottled blue and purple planet, rotating slowly.
( Read more... )

Time for another mission, then.

[[OOC: This right here is required reading if you're going to tag. OOC organization is here

For too long the firstborn son of Satan's demonic soul had been trapped, denied his rightful control over Daimon's body. Now, thanks to Mei-Xing, he was finally free. The next course of action was obvious- he would have to take control of one of the beings on this ship. He could start with the vulnerable and move on to the more powerful. He had to act fast before that fool recovered. Fortunately he needn't go very far. The city was full of potential victims.

Now, now. Who to possess first?

Relaxation time! What? He'd actually been training pretty hardcore using the Sensoriums lately. He'd earned the break as far as he was concerned.

The door was left open in case any newbies wandered by, so he could helpfully show them the many holographic wonders of the Sensoriums, and hey, to meet some new people, just in general. That was always cool. Otherwise, Superboy was chilling hardcore, laying on a hammock under the Hawaiian sun, in just sunglasses and some board shorts (with a little S-shield on them, of course).

Not far off was the beach, the waves crashing away against the sand. The palm leaves made hushed rustling sounds in the wind.

"Stace, crank up the breeze just a bit?"

The sea breeze blew in just a little bit stronger and cooler, and Kon squirmed to get comfy in his hammock.

"Oh yeah. That's the stuff."

Hawaii was one of his favorite places to relax in the Sensoriums. Between that and Kansas fields, all his relaxation location needs were usually covered.

Still, he wasn't always in the mood for a good beach nap. Much as occasionally basking in the sun and trying to get into an aloha state of mind were beneficial, there were the bad memories tied to the islands that he never could quite get away from. It made visits something of a double-edged sword, though it helped that he always picked a location that wasn't quite like the beaches he went to most, or near the ol' compound.

Superboy wasn't quite sure why he'd picked the beach today, why it had called out to him, but it had. And it felt good to be here. And it hurt, as it always did, for what it reminded him of.

Le Prefecture De Police was an impressive building, but that wasn't the reason it had been chosen by the members of the civilian council; it had been chosen because none of the Councilmen (and women) had any ties to it, making it neutral ground. There was also the potential for everyone to have an office with a desk in the same general vicinity if they so chose, making communication easier.

One of the larger rooms had been cleared of most of the furniture, except for chairs and a few tables. It had been left up to each individual where they wanted to sit, and how, since they were all currently equals.

The Council had a lot to discuss. They had yet to choose a chairperson, and three major issues had popped up in a relatively short amount of time: Mei-Xing's clone, Schmuz and Iniss the yeerks, and whether there should be mandatory physicals and/or psychiatric evaluations for the crew.

They were also going to have a few guests presenting information, but at the moment, people were still arriving.