Lowe couldn't help but feel like a part of him died when he saw the mess inside the Hangar. It looked like a war zone tore through the area... which it did, what with a variety of Ohm parts still scattered across. A lot of the damage was easily fixable, thankfully. However, he had to write off a ZAKU that was cleaved in half along with a forklift that was destroyed the same way. There was also that one Variable Fighter that was destroyed in the space battle...

The Junk Guild tech couldn't help but let out a defeated sigh. He wanted to find the people who decided tossing ZAKUs and forklifts at bad guys was a good idea, especially those who could do what they did to the thrown items.

He did make mental notes of what could be salvaged from the unfixable items, though. Best not to let these things go to waste, eh?

Now, it was just a matter of getting it all fixed up.

Following the battle on Lirath, it seemed that six people had disappeared and was missing through a lot of the stuff afterwards, such as Superman's funeral. Over the rooftops of the City, a portal opened up and spat out six people as if it wanted to be a practical joker.

In quick succession, some of those six sprang into action so that they didn't end up going splat on the floor. Young mages Vivio Takamachi and Sakura Kinomoto used their flying spells to stop their fall, Sonic the Hedgehog gathered the still bruised and battered body of Sasami Masaki Jurai and used some of the rooftops to bounce to the bottom. Finally, the elder Spider-Man used a number of web lines to catch himself and the other with him, the long missing Lowe Guele.

"Sheesh, can't even catch a break without being slung into some other mess!" Sonic griped, setting Sasami to her feet.

"Sounds like you guys had a real blast." Lowe said as Spidey sat him down.

"It's... a long story." Vivio said, returning to her child form.

"Right now... I think a bit of rest'll do us good." Sasami said.

(OoC: I'll set up individual posts so you can tag into any of my guys if you want to!

EDIT: Take your pick! I'll have Lowe's up once his journal's reapproved)

Setsuna had shown her the way to the hangar after she had woken up on this ship and now she was going to look over the Virtue and 00 Raiser. If the suits were there, then she could take a look over them and make sure that they were indeed fully repaired and ready to fight if they were needed. She was also curious about these other 'Gundams' and wanted to see just what they looked like and possibly meet some of the other pilots.

She didn't have the Red Haro with her as she walked into the hangar and looked around. She spotted Exia, the 00 Raiser and Virtue immediately. They were familiar to her since she had worked on them before. She didn't recognize any of the other suits in the hangar. They were different than what she was used to seeing. They had similar builds to the Gundams that she knew, but they were all different.


(OOC: Open to any of the pilots!)

Like Commander Rahk had promised, he'd set up one of the sensoriums so he could teach the crew how to use the GIA equipment they'd be receiving, so he sent out a quick message to the crew to let them know it was ready.

Those arriving would find he's created a simulation of what seems to be a standard GIA training field, judging by the writing on the nearby buildings. The first thing they'd come across is the firing range, which had racks of the plasma weaponry Rahk had mentioned nearby. Not far away were small landing pads, each of which holding a waiting Bluestar Dropship. A little ways away from that, in a small open area, stood a handful of the Bio-Golems, stock still and waiting for orders.

Rahk himself was waiting near the firing range, ready for the first crew members to arrive.

If there was one thing Lowe liked to do, it was design new stuff to help others. Didn't matter what it was, if he could build it, he'd do it. And as it stood, the ship needed a lot of help.

Case in point - within Engineering, Lowe was busy designing a set of special armors. Those armors being those to be worn by the Knight Sabers, the group Sylia had announced. Thanks to a few things given to him by Sylia herself, he was on his way to recreating the armors for the other girls. A few modifications and he designed one for himself, though only for testing. He had ideas for what to include, but he didn't want to risk the other armors in doing so.

[Lowe, are you certain this'll work?] 8 asked from a nearby table.

"Of course it will, 8!" Lowe replied. "Sylia's designs and all. At the very least, I'll might have to make a few modifications along the way, but..."

Who knows why the ship was doing this. Maybe it was some kind of social experiment. Maybe Stacy was feeling festive and somewhere, out there, it was Halloween. Maybe the players just wanted to have Halloween fun. No one would ever know, would they.

In any case, what better place for a Halloween dance than a graveyard? In an area in the center, clear of headstones, there was a dance floor, and there were seats and tables with skeletal frames. Somehow grisly carved torches and jack-o-lanterns of varying sizes and shapes, cast enough eerie light to light up the place, despite the fact it was night. There were places to bob for apples, popcorn balls on strings strung up for people to try to eat for games involving that. The food tables will full of Halloweeny snacks and candy.

Far off, there was a haunted house, decrepit and foreboding. It seemed people could look into it if they dared sent down the dark trail to where it was. [ooc: Haunted house post link forthcoming].

Creepy--but danceable music was playing, from nowhere.

Perhaps most notable was the fact that the moment someone entered the Sensorium, they would find themselves in a costume. Sometimes these costumes would be what the character themselves would choose, but sometimes they'd be dressed as something strange, embarrassing, or just something they wouldn't even recognize. Leaving and coming back wouldn't fix the problem, in most cases. The costumes wouldn't change, and if they did, it wasn't guaranteed that they'd change to something better.

Whatever the case, party hard, Meatship. Somebody's got to teach the Vikings, draconians, aliens, and other sundry people to Thriller dance.

With the virus taken care of and things starting to calm back down, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for Lowe to get back to work.

By "work" meaning "fiddling with the various stuff in the Hangar". It always amazed him what new stuff appeared on-board from time to time. No sooner did he have the chance to look over the new ZAKUs and Windams did the new Mobile Suits - the ones known as Exia, "Double-Oh" and Deathscythe Hell (he'd admit it, it felt weird calling them "Gundams", especially since that's usually an OS) appeared. He'd have to wait to check them out - he didn't want their pilots to have a hissy fit.

Right now, he wanted to do another check over of the Serenity. Mostly to keep a promise he made to Kaylee, despite her feeling better. He patted the leg of the Astray Red Frame as he passed it, reaching the craft.

Hopefully one last go wouldn't hurt, right?

There was something different about the tavern. Typically, the mood in it was cheerful, almost homey; for the past few days, however, it had been... solemn.

It could have been blamed on a number of things. Because of the recent strike against GLaDOS, people were remembering those that had been repodded, and Hisk, the previous helper, was among that group. Kawalsky, Cassie, and two of the people in the pods had been killed. And lastly, though it was public knowledge by that point that Hiccup and Rose had been hurt, it wasn't yet known exactly what had happened or how bad it was.

Kang knew, though.

All of that combined equaled a somewhat mopey draconian behind the bar.

There were 8 bombs spread around the ship. The teams were assigned. They had their orders, now they had to carry them out. And pray to whatever they held dear that they could disarm them in time.

Tick tock.

There is only so much one can do by himself before starting to run out of ideas.

Case in point: Lowe's need to build and create had pretty much hit a roadblock as of lately. He's come to realize that, if they were going to fight the Ohm, they would need better gear. Sadly, sitting in the cockpit of the Red Frame for hours at a time in thought wasn't going to cut it. So, he ended up making his way to the Media Library and begin a bit of research there.

What he found was amazing...

"Man, I never knew these sorts of things were around here!" Lowe said, feeding another one of the chips into his Omnicomm, which was pretty much kitbashed onto 8 for better reading and transmitting.

[Agreed. I'd say that this could really give us a leg up on ideas...!] 8 replied as different data and schematics flashed up on its screen. Amongst the scattered chips were different notes Lowe had taken, most of them doodles of Red Frame with different weapons and forms. One had Red Frame with a staff of sorts with a picture of a shape transforming into the staff with the notes "Need to be compact and wieldy. Find Nano Nana Nani Magic Dept. Head for example." Another was a doodle of him in an armor, striking a goofy pose with the note "This is possible. Find Sylia? Master Chef Chief."

"I gotta stop writing in pen." Lowe muttered as he scratched out another small note and corrected it.

Kira was thoroughly exhausted from the week's training with the Rogues, but rather than going to his quarters to hop into bed, he almost always went down to the hangar where his Strike Freedom stood, armor inert.

The young pilot stood there for a long while, looking up at the mobile suit in contemplation. They'd been hard at work tuning them up so that they'd be able to fight on the same level as their X-Wing counterparts and soon would be physically overhauling them to increase their output. This was what they'd have to rely on for their survival... for their strength.

He was rather lost in thought, which probably made for a perfect opportunity for someone to come along and snap him out of it.

It was not uncommon for different people to be torn away from the others thanks to the wonder that is GLaDOS. Happens all the time and it's very infuriating. However, when a good chunk disappears, especially two important people? Yeah, there's a problem.

In one of the hallways, part of a wall opened up, the sounds of screaming echoed out as six figures spilled out. Two of them, Superman and the hedgehog known as Shadow, were carrying two others in their arms - Irma and Lowe with Superman and Sasami and Vivio with Shadow. Coming to a stop, the two men set the others down... and raced back to the wall.

"You're not getting away with this!" Shadow shouted as they raced to the wall, only to stop as the wall sealed up. "RRRGH! Dammit!"

"Blast..." Superman grunted, pounding the wall. There were others in there - there had to be. Others they could have pulled out. Turning around, he looked at the other four. "Is everyone alright?"

"Fine... though, now I see why everyone HATES that thing!" Irma said, rubbing her neck as she stood up straight.

"Everyone must be worried about us..." Vivio said, looking around.

"I'm sure they are, but don't worry - once they know we're alright, it'll be fine!" Lowe said.

"...hope we didn't miss the elections!" Sasami said. "Don't want to find out we missed it because of that... thing!"

"Don't worry, I doubt we have." Superman said. With that, he turned to his omnicomm and began putting out a message. At least they'll know they're okay now.

(OoC: Go ahead, mingle. Be glad everyone's okay! /o/)

The battle of Zokez II was proof that the Mobile Suits and the X-Wings were a bit out of their leagues. Overwhelmed by the Ohm's superior numbers, plenty of them got thrashed in their fights. It was time to fix that.

Since the end of the fight and the regrouping, Lowe's been busy in the Sensoriums working on a major project: the fusing of technologies. Realizing that he couldn't afford to work on the actual suits. Lowe went into the Sensoriums and began his work, modifying and remodifying the Astray Red Frame to the X-Wing's engines and power source.

At the moment, though, Lowe was taking his latest attempt to work the two technologies together. At a small hangar, there were at least four scrapped machines that were once the Astray Red Frame. If anyone walked in and saw him, they'd see the Red Frame with the back of an X-Wing attached to the back of the suit.

"YEEEE-HAW!" Lowe cried out. "Man, the speed on this thing is incredible!"

[It is, and so far, we've barely had any energy drained and what we do is quickly replaced.] 8 piped up from his spot in the cockpit. [I think we did it this time!]

"I think we did so, too, man!" Lowe said. "If there was only some way I could REALLY test this!"

As soon as the Ohm appeared, Wedge had begun moving. He practically sprinted off the Obs deck, yelling at Stacy as he headed for the hangar bay.

“Stacy, I need our fighters prepped now..” He doesn’t wait for an answer, instead lifting his comm ring to his lips and speaking into it, the message transmitted across open channels to everybody in range with their own rings.

“Attention, Rogue Squadron. Scramble, scramble, scramble! All pilots report back aboard Stacy and to your fighters. This is no drill! Again, Rogue Squadron, scramble! All pilots to your fighters!” He glanced back at the others who had been close enough to the Obs deck to accompany him back aboard Stacy.

“This is it. We’ve trained. We’re as ready as we can be now. This is for real this time.” With that he headed deeper into the ship.

As he arrived in the hangar, he was already discarding the civilian clothing he’d picked up and was half-running, half-hopping across the bay to his fighter as he struggled into his flight suit. His helmet was waiting in the cockpit. He clambered up into the cockpit, kicked the ladder free to be caught by a tentacle and tugged his helmet on. No time for a walk around. He simply had to trust that the ship was in shape to fly. He keyed the comm system on the fighter, as well as speaking into the comm ring.

“This is Rogue Leader to all fighters. Launch as soon as you’re ready. Form up in wing pairs and engage the enemy. Our primary objective is to keep additional Ohm fighters from reaching the planet and from attacking Stacy. Fly your best out there, everyone. May the Force be with us.” With that he, began a quick-start check of his systems, and punched the throttle as soon as he was sure that his fighter wouldn’t explode when he launched.

“Rogue Leader is away, four lit and green.” His fighter slashed out into space, free of Stacy. And the Ohm were everywhere.

( OOC Stuff beneath the cut )

[Closed to the mechanics and engineers who are going to be involved in the Great Rogue Upgrade project. see this com post.]

The sensoriums had been set to look like an empty hangar in which a couple X-Wings sat. Tycho had no idea what else the engineers would need for their initial planing phase, but he figured whatever it was, they could tell the sensorium to create it themselves.

He conjured himself up a crate to sit on, and scrolled through some squadron numbers on his datapad as he waited for everyone to arrive.

Wedge had set up the headquarters for yet another meet and greet operation. The headquarters, of course, was simply an abandoned building with appropriate facilities he had commandeered in the city. A low building of bright red brick, it had at some point been an office complex. Now it was the headquarters of the best fighter squadron anywhere (or so the reputation went). A crude sign and been painted over the front of the building reading 'Rogue Squadron Headquarters,' replacing the precious owners which had advertised for insurance of some type. The front offices had been set up for use by Wedge and his small staff (now including Tycho, Ben and Nura) to run the squadron. Another side room had been set up as a 'pilot lounge,' though at the moment it only had some spare office furniture. Couches and other things were hard to come by on Stacy. Finally, the largest room had been converted into a briefing room of sorts, with a projector and several rows of seating, as well as tables that could be stowed or set up as needed.

At the moment there were simply chairs scattered around the edge of the room. Wedge waited, occasionally checking his chronometer. Hopefully everyone would arrive and mingle, and then he could get down to the business of letting them know exactly what they were in for.

<sub>[[OOC: Feel free to tag each other, please!

The briefing has started!]]</sub>

"Oh..."

"...my..."

"...god!"

Lowe's exclamation could be heard as it echoed throughout the hangar. It was like being 8 again and waking up Christmas morning. Inside was nothing but vehicles of all types. It was like a melting pot of hundreds of thousands of civilizations' technologies. Many of them a lot more advanced than what ZAFT, the Earth Alliance and Orb could EVER make.

[There's a lot of machines in here. It's almost impossible to count...!] 8 chirped in.

"I know! Ah, man...! I gotta see, I gotta see...!" Lowe said, making his way over to the first thing he saw: an X-Wing. "Man, look at this! This is too sleek of a machine to be a normal Mobile Armor! A-And those guns... they have to be beam weaponry!" He pulled himself away and made his way to the next machine he saw - the Unicorn Thunderzord. "Man, look at this thing! Such an odd design! There has to be something more to it, though: there's no way it could JUST be like this!"

[Perhaps it's a component of something!] 8 said.

"It has to be!" Lowe said. The next thing he gazed at: the Unit 2. "Wow... that thing's HUMONGOUS! There's no way that's a Mobile Suit - Mobile Suits that big is just ASKING to get it's butt kicked!"

[We're dealing with a melting pot here. What may be a sitting duck in our world may be... Hold on!] 8 chirped before being stopped. [I think... 20 meters in front of us!]

"Twenty meters...?" Lowe repeated, confused. He made his way forward and gasped. In front of him was a VERY familiar machine. "It's... it's Red Frame! But, it's different!"

[Perhaps it's a gift from our saviors!] 8 said.

"It has to be... I-I gotta check it out!" Lowe said, making his way into the cockpit.

[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 Initiating|| 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... )

Stacy's voice speaks over the whole of the ship. What she has to say has become very familiar over the the podlings have spent here.

||Pod Release Protocols Initiating,|| she says. ||Please proceed to the Observation Deck to meet your new crew mates.||

Those crew members that don't head to the Obs Deck on their own are hurried there via gentle but insistent tentacles. A few people stop by Engineering to help bring and pass out omnicoms and comm rings to the new crew members as well.

[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.]