[@This Girlie][@Drache]
[center][h2][color=#ffc300][b]✩ The Churn ✩[/b][/color][/h2][/center]
Melusine pulled her shawl tighter as she felt a chill. Her delicate, wrinkled hands clutched the skull clasp tightly as she stared wistfully at the Hollow Grove. Eighty years is nothing to a Nano, but it was the distant past for Melusine. She could still see it in her mind, the scrap heap it used to be. She had walked by this same spot nearly every day since she had arrived on the Odyssey and the view was always different. Each day another small part of the grove changed into something extraordinary.

Torn panels had been overgrown by metallic vines. The nest of wires and debris had sprouted into chrome shoots and bloomed into enormous mirror-like petals. Trees of liquid silver grew from every surface, their sleek branches exploring every new direction and ignoring any sense of gravity. Broken machines and scrapped parts had sprung to life in so many shapes, some thick, lumbering, and docile, others lithe, graceful and skittish.  She could stare at O’ona’s handiwork for days.

For the first time in years, she had someone to share the sights with. She turned to the furry synth sitting next to her, and began speaking in old Ferontic. “It’s about time we get to work. Food and batteries aren’t free.”

Melusine's instincts cried in alarm and she leaned slightly to one side as a volley of laser fire scorched the wall behind her. “Oh my!” She let out a startled gasp, and as her attention drifted towards the five armed Ryzekt thugs blocking the nearby corridor. 

One of them stepped forward; a thread of white smoke curled off the bulky, glass bracelet latched to its outstretched hand. A feline trunk, six scythe-like legs made up the alien’s lower half, while its upper half sloped into a broad torso with four thin arms. Its entire body was covered in blue and green chitin with spiny hairs forming a lion's mane around it's neck Menacing orange haze steamed out of tiny holes along its body. It trained it's predatory yellow eyes on Melusine and squinted at her suspiciously.

“The bounty s’worth more if we bring you in alive, Empress. First shot was a warning. Make any sudden moves and the next one will go through that wicked skull of yours.” Its voice was so deep it might have been raked through gravel. Its eyes flicked to Maddy. “Tell the synth to stand down.”

A few more of the strange mantis-creatures brandished their own cypher weapons, and leveled their aim at Melusine and Maddy.

Playing the role of a frail old homeless woman was easy for the former empress. No one thought twice about ignoring her, and that was just what she needed. But somehow these morons managed to match her with a forty-seven-year-old bounty posting. She thought that unlikely. Someone else was after her this time no doubt. She sighed irritably. This was the first time she had had much opportunity to visit with her curious new friend, Maddy.

She was about to introduce their skulls to their thorax, when she noticed someone else approaching.