They might have been trying to get to the City, or another level, or anywhere else in the explored parts of Stacy. But when some crewmembers stepped into the transport tubes, they were going to find that where they ended up was not where they were trying to go.

The first sign that something was wrong was the strange electric jolt they get just after stepping into the tubes. The second sign was the unusually long time it took for them to get to their destination. And the third and final sign was the fact that when they arrived, it was in a place they would have never seen before.

To all appearances, it looked like a smaller replica of the crew quarters. If they ventured out a little further, they would find smaller versions of the mess hall, sleeping halls, and bathrooms as well. But there was one important difference.

They were completely and utterly empty.

And with any attempt to go back into the transport tubes failing, they appeared to be stuck here. What were they going to do?

[ooc: ICly this post happens over the course of a day, so not everyone arrives at the same time. If you tag into the post later, you can just assume that your character arrived later in the day. Also, your characters will not find that their omnicomms and communication rings don't work!

If you have a question about anything, you can ask on this ooc post.

Oh, and for this post threadjacking is welcome :P]

A couple months in Glados' mazes are enough to make anyone miss Stacy. Samus is no exception to that. Whether she liked it or not, Stacy was where her life was now. She had obligations there. She had responsibilities there. And damn, she actually cared about the crew here. She was genuinely glad when the AI spit her out of the mazes.

So for her own private celebration, Samus went to the tavern. She managed to avoid running into anyone on her way here. As much as she did care about the crew, her own mental health and peaceful alone time are important too. Opportunities to do absolutely nothing didn't come along too often for her, and Samus was not going to waste this. She sat down with a drink in the tavern to enjoy a couple more hours of solitude before going back to being a proper crew member. Sure, someone was bound to realize she was back eventually, but until one stumbled into to Drunken Dragon and found her, she could go on not-existing to the rest of Stacy's residents.

Samus was taking part in one of the few luxuries she had here on the ship: the amenities of the crew lounge. She leaned back in the leather armchair, taking a sip of her whiskey coffee and tapped a few times on her omnicomm with her free hand. She was busy at work. It was nice to get out of the office. She didn't have to stare at the empty side off the office that way.

Not that she missed the other Chief of Security or it bothered her at all. Nope. Not one bit.

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!]

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!]

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...

||Mission complete,|| Stacy's voice rang out through the ship. ||Obs deck returning.||

The mission was a success, and so the away team returned, and the Obs Deck was back in it's proper place.

But, this time, they came back with a few more visitors.

Among the returning crew members stood three strange aliens. There was the ever-dour Revus Lod, the energetic Ippli, and the stoic Commander Rahk.

The Lensmen commander looked around at his surroundings, his expression rather inscrutable at the moment.

Anyone want to say hi to the new arrivals?

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.]

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.

As promised, Samus would show Tony the Sensoriums and perhaps a few other areas of the ship along the way if he asked. Silently, she navigated with ease through the maze plant hallways and different levels without even a glance back at the man she was escorting or a further question why he was interested in her armor. Maybe she was just confident a demonstration of its abilites would stop him from trying anything less... admirable in his quest to find out. Not that she didn't trust him, she was just paranoid about that.

Or maybe she just wasn't very talkative.

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."

Injuries hardly ever stopped Samus Aran. As long as she could walk, she would train. This time was no exception, and the bandaged scratches and gashes underneath her plantsuit would just have to demand her attention some other time.

Still, she did take it a little easy, even if it wasn't obvious. Samus decided to forgo the stresses of her heavy armor, opting to practice armed only with her gun and her fists in combat situations. Generic enemies attacked from all sides, increasing in difficulty each time she took down another with a combination of acrobatic moves, tricks with a laser gun that doubled as a grapple beam, and straight up hand to hand combat. It went on for a good while until finally one laid a hand on her.

The simulation halted suddenly at the apparent hit. Samus glanced over at a display, which totaled how many foes she had taken down before what would have been the first hit an enemy got on her in the session. She pursed her lips unhappily. It was less than her total would have been in suit. It was always less than her total in suit. Try as she might, she could never match the firepower she had with her armor.

Gun. Maybe a different one could help. She waved away the current simulation and brought up another. The Sensoriums looked not unlike the rows of weapons in the armory. Samus scanned over a few, looking for something that might give her an edge. She reached for one that looked out of place: a long, thin pole. As soon as she held it in her hands, though, red laser planes sprung from the end. It was an axe with laser blades.

This might work.

The reactor may have been saved, but the Ohm's primary purpose in overloading it had been achieved: the planetary defense network on Zokez II was now deactivated.

It was now the true invasion could begin.

A matter of minutes after the reactor had been saved, a number of vast, Ohm Leviathans appeared in orbit above the planet, some of them devouring those fleeing ships they could get their hands on.

Across all of the islands on the planet below, numerous shimmering lights appeared, and out of them poured hordes of Grunts, Grenadiers, Tanks, and all manner of other Ohm types. They swarmed over the cities, destroying everything in their path, and slaughtering anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in their way.

Wherever they went, destruction followed. Left unopposed, they would raze the entire planet without any effort.

But they are not unopposed.

It was time for the crew to finally do what they were Chosen to do.

[ooc: General Ohm fightyness! Check here before posting.]

Morale was high, and everyone had their share of fun, but now it was time to part ways with Zokez II.

As everyone made their way back to the spaceport to be picked up, they could see the Obs Deck waiting for them with ramp open, and large tendrils eagerly moving vehicles and cargo back aboard.

It's about time to say goodbye to this planet...but fate, it seems, has other ideas.

[OOC: PLOT BEGINS! Here's how it goes: A handful of techies and a couple fighty people (as escort) will be on the reactor end of this part of the plot, while everyone else can help out with the evacuation.]

[OOC pt 2: Also, sorry, it apparently wasn't clear that they hadn't actually gotten back onto the ship yet. Plot is obviously taking place on the planet.]