It was one exhausted, tired, alien puke-covered, acid blood-burnt group of people that trundled out of the hangar and into the ship proper. Their mission? Had sucked. Their intel had been wrong. Their lives had nearly been forfeit.

But they had survived, mainly by watching each other's backs and shooting or slashed or flamethrowing at every damn thing that moved.

Now it was off to Medbay to tend to their injuries, but after that, maybe they'd finally catch a break.

They had no idea of what had just conspired, other than what they'd learned from Stacy's messages--there had been a traitor, and that traitor had been taken care of.

They had sneaked into the facility and out of the nest. They had gathered whatever equipment they could use as weapons. Now it was time for the rescuers to fight their way in, and the rescuees to fight their way free.

There was only a whole horde of xenomorphs in the way, after all.

In the complex, deeper into it near the core, several of the away team were all strung up near each other, around a clutch of disgusting looking eggs. Two appeared to have already been hatched. The rest were waiting. They were bound to the walls by slime and ick, some sort of substance spit up by the creatures that may as well have been quick-dry cement.

Outside the complex, the rest of the away team had made it to the ship--only to find it damaged. Acid spit up by one of the creature had burned through part of the hull and into important inner workings. They would need someone mechanically inclined, that understood electrical work, to fix it like Jamie--uh oh.

Well, that was a problem wasn't it.

It was time for the one group to try to survive, and the other group to figure out what to do about their missing comrades.

They had all been Chosen. The usual story when it came to Stacy. They'd had no say over who went on the mission, but fortunately a group of competent individuals had been chosen, with Kang, an Away Team leader there to act as mission leader.

The mission: to repair some of the mining mechanisms that had run down in an abandoned terraforming colony, to gather some rare ore with minerals and other substances vital to Stacy's functions. One small chunk would last her for ages.

The planet: LV-428 was a very hostile world, a dead rock with a very weak atmosphere that was comprised largely of Nitrogen, Argon, and Neon. Terraforming efforts had introduced enough oxygen for it to support human life, but only just barely. Due to the violent nature of terraforming on the climate, raging electromagnetic storms often occurred, cutting off all communications.

The intel: Due to a war on Earth, the members of the colony had been recalled back home. The entire place was abandoned, but thought to be safe.

The Mission Personnel: Jamie Hemeros, Kang, Sokka, and Hiccup were on to handle the mechanics ends of the mission. Scarlet Levy was to be their medic, just in case of injuries. Reimi was their pilot. And on the security detail were Tobias, Hap Suriz, Rose Tyler, Setsuna, Kettch, and Stoick. Kang doubled as their away team leader.

Surely this group could handle anything thrown their way. For something as simple as an empty colony, they were almost over-equipped.

...Right?

[ooc: Don't post until I have subthreads set up]

The City; to be more precises, a square therein, some fifty-by-fifty meters, not to this point used.

That poor piece of land would never be the same.

The tome stood in the center, laughing like it was in the finals for the Biggest Ham in the Cosmos Awards (which at some point in time it very well might have been). Around it, several vacant-yet-cheerful people, his loyal (created) constructs, puttered about, cleaning up debris and generally making the place grungy-yet-livable.

"Hyaaaa ha ha ha ha! Clean, you battle-monkeys! Clean, like you've never cleaned before in your lives!" Which they hadn't, it occurred to him, but he wasn't about to let that derail a good monologue. "Make this plaza a suitable domain for the great and powerful Overlord Zetta!"

One of his people piled a variety of stuff Zetta had, after an extensive amount of metaphorical arguing as to what exactly qualified as biometric data for a freaking book, requisitioned out of the armory. Why on the ground instead of in the locker it all ought to be in? Zetta was used to it that way. Technically his loyal mooks had these things all equipped anyway, but here in their 'permanent' home they had no need.

"You!" he said to the 'leader', the green-haired girl that normally served as a transport. "Paint a portrait of the magnificent Lord Zetta! Then get me a throne! Hyaaa ha ha ha ha!"

I really need a castle. Every Overlord should have a castle. That thought came dangerously close to, I miss my castle! -- but Zetta didn't look backwards! He WOULD get his stuff back! He WOULD get his Netherworld back! And he WOULD get his body back.

"Hyaa ha ha ha! Mark my words, Ohm!" Zetta said, with the impression that he was shaking a fist at the ceiling. "Your days were numbered the moment you chose to mess with THIS Overlord!"

Let's hope no one was trying to get some sleep anywhere near this raving loon.

 "You've gotta be kiddin me!" Alex shouted, shaking this video screen he was holding. "My own AI! Stop that!"

Apparently he was having trouble getting through one of the levels of his own game. 

Sure it was using basic text for it's graphics, but he was a programmer, not a graphic's artist. Besides, since he just had different symbols for different units and different colours for different armies and some symbols set aside for use with terrain, there was no need for fancy graphics.

So distracted by his strategy game he nearly walked into one of Stacy's fleshy walls as he wandered down the hallway, stretching his legs. He had spent his time from when he got on the ship until now programming this thing and convincing people from the engineering department to made the equipment he needed. He was damn well going to enjoy this game, even if strategy wasn't his thing. In fact, the only reason why he had made a strategy game at all was because he had an idea earlier for a new algorithm that would more efficiently analyse enemy movements and know how to react better. This was of course, best suited for a.)a fighting game- which would require a graphics artist for it to be really playable- or b.) a strategy game.

So here he was, forty battles in, fighting an AI who seemed to know what moves he would make before he did.

"Come on! Get out of my friggin head you pile of bytes!"

Yup, he was far too into this game to notice much of anything around him. Even the walls sometimes got in his way. He didn't much care- usually you were left alone if you appeared very busy, and this game was getting to be such a pain now, he had to focus on it. For all he knew, he was about to walk straight into someone. Given the sheer number of people on the ship, this was bound to happen.

For the past week, Fate had been training non-stop in the Sensoriums. She wasn't as obsessed with training as certain other people she knew, but after spending so much time making sure she was one hundred percent healed, she was really, really starting to get restless. Her confidence in her skills had also taken a blow on Zokez II, and she had been trying her best to get back in top form.

So here she was, in a large, empty stadium. She normally used the empty city simulation many of the other mages seemed to favor, but ever since she agreed to train with Setsuna a few days ago, she decided to set this up, just in case she showed up. She didn't know what the other girl could do, so it's best to go with something simple for now.

Taking a deep breath, Fate looked down at the staff in her hands. "Let's go, Bardiche."

"Yes sir."

And as she shot into the air, several drones appeared around her, ready to strike.

It was seriously feeling so much better now.

After dragging Setsuna every which way, trying to find what was going on around the ship, she decided that maybe this was a good time to meet Negi-kun, and find a place to sleep regularly.

...it also couldn't hurt to get clothes that weren't these... plantsuits. Not that she minded them too much, but being in something more fashionable made her feel better!

Slowly, she approached the conspicuous pink bus, not sure what to expect, but excited all the same.

Anyone paying attention in the City today will notice a bizarre sight-- a small lump of garbage, roughly a foot and a half in diameter, rolling up and down the streets. It's mostly made out of bits of rubble, broken glass and garbage, the odd misplaced or discarded item, the occasional loose cobblestone that's been dragged up from the street. Several crew members innocently dropped something they were carrying and found it suddenly snatched by the trashy menace and on its way down the street.

Behind the ball of garbage, pushing it along, is a well-meaning but rather misguided little space person with a pad of paper and a magenta colored pencil strapped to him like a backpack. On the paper is written a message:

-----------------------------------

WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE!
WE WILL HAVE YOUR PLANETS RESTORED SOON!

-----------------------------------

He looks hard at work, but he would be happy to stop and chat with his subjects.

She had found the Sensoriums and found it was like the training hologram rooms of the UATC. As such, she stood in a large room that was filled with grid-like creatures that were sparking with energy. Several of them were grouped together and she inhaled before nocking a arrow to the string. One, two, three, arrows flew and imbedded into the first human-like construct before it vanished in a burst of light as light poured off Reimi's next arrow. "Sonic Thorn!"

The Sonic Thorn flew forward, slamming into the opponents as Reimi shot another and another before the opponents scattered.

"Crimson Bolts!" proclaimed Reimi as she fired a barrage of arrows that slammed into the holographic opponent. The bug creature from Aeos collapsed and winked out as she reloaded her bow once again.

Two of them charged at her and she fired arrows, nailing one and downing it before the other got a little close. Jump-skipping backwards, light poured off her as it took a swipe. In a flurious motion, she leaped to the side and launched herself high into the air, twising as she did so. It was faster than humanly possible and called a Blindside, a power that was granted from long periods of training and real combat.

Landing, she swept into her next attack.

"Seraphic Thunder!" An arrow was fired into the air and lightning crashed down around her, slamming repeatedly into the opponent as it too vanished into a sizzle of energy.

"That was good," murmured Reimi as she replaced her weapon and conjured up a chair for her to sit down and mop the sweat from her hairline.

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 green-skinned alien 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... )