DracoLunaris

World of Light

wordcount: 1,643 (+3)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (20/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Baur’s Reach

Before they met the giant in his tree, the team had passed through Baur’s reach. Well, to say the team passed through was a bit of a misnomer, as Midna had found out.

See she had been nose deep in one of her looted books (nothing fancy to be honest, on basic camping guide and small set of paperback novels) when her mount, who had been carefully picking its way around all the obstacles on its own accord, suddenly leapt to the side without warning.

”Hey what the- ack!” she cried as a wave of snow washed over the two of them, causing her to drop and lose the book she had been reading.

”Hey I was enjoying that! Who the fuck let us get ambushed!” she shouted as she shook of the snow, only to realise that she and her ride had ended up on their own, in retrospect maybe they had not enjoyed her yammering on about the somewhat steamy book she was reading, and now she and her mount where alone and face to face with one of the peak’s beasts.

The Pendran’s wide flat body had allowed it to cleverly hide under the snow in ambush may have almost dashed them to pieces with a swipe of its mighty tail club, but now that it was exposed it wasn't that big (literally) of a threat. Or so she thought.

”That was the biggest and last mistake of your life, you frozen pancake!” she shouted at it before spurring her mount forwards while drawing the smaller of her two new knives. The draconian swung again at her, but the princess halted her ride’s charge just in time, casing the swing to sweep just in front of the poor wolfos as the princes herself leapt off of its back, over the sweeping club and then half flew half dropped down onto its back, before proceeding to slash the blade across three of its six eyes. It screamed and tried to claw her off, only for that claw to be grabbed and crushed by her shadow hand.

”Die you little- oh shit” she swore as it swung its massive club tail above its head. She leapt off of the head and back onto the back of her mount, but rather than accidentally brain itself in an attempt to get her off the beast started to slam its tail into the ground behind it repeatedly.

”Huh?” Midna said, confused momentarily right before a wave of snow sloughed off of the branches of the tree’s around the draconian and, more important, above her.

”Damnit move- bl-eh” she demanded of her mount, only to get showered in snow as it tried and failed to get her completely clear

”Urgh whyyyyy?” she complained, dusting herself off as best she could, feeling some of the snow melting and joining the first wave in gradually soaking her clothes. Unfortunately that wasn't even the end of it

The hammering brought down a swarm of Deegahla, kin of the Pendran who had been roosting in the trees. Despite their diminutive size, they were not anywhere close to harmless. The spear nosed beasts had been driven into a fury by their land born cousin’s hammering and began diving down like arrows to try and skewer the princess.

”Fuck fuck fuck” she yelled in a panic as her mount fled from the living arrows, weaving its path and causing one or two to slam into the snow, which softened their landings enough that they simply fluttered up again afterwards. Those that didn’t miss the princess did her best to guard them against, a small shadow hand snapping out slapped one down and then grabbed and crushed another, while the princess parried a third away with her shield.

”Buzz off sky rats!” she demanded of the others, stabbing at the air with the knife she had charged while the initial volley was coming in, shooting a thin beam of lightning that struck another out of the sky. Yet even after that there were still more than half dozen left, and their larger landborn kin was now charging after her.

A frustrated princess growled in frustration before snapping her fingers and uttering a ”Wait, ha, got it!” before standing and jumping off the back of her mountain again, then dismissing it a moment before it got skewered. Then she used a shadow hand to draw halfway up a tree and then hauling herself all the way to the top in a flash, while summoning her vibrava in the wolfos’ place.

It was better suited for fighting the aerial foes, but with 1 vs 7 it wasn’t going to be an even fight.

For them

”Come and get me idiots” Midna taunted as she clung to the top of the tree with dragon clawed gloves and boots, while raising her shadow hand up and channeling a dark energy zone around her. The quickly expanding like field or orange and shadow warded off the flyers for a moment, weary of this unknown effect, but a dragon breath from vibrava striking down one and another braving the field and finding nothing brought them all charging right into her trap, at the exact same time as the Pendran came in to try and club down her tree.

”Gottcha” Midna elated, snapping her shadow hand’s fingers and unleashing the field, momentarily stunning all of the fliers and letting her vibrava dart to and fro, crunching the skulls of the immobilized and marked for death deegahla. As it swooped to and fro in a flash, the princess formed a twilight gate on the trunk of the tree and pulled out the massive and unwieldy spiked ball on a stick that was the Clubba Club, which she promptly casually dropped down on the head of the head of the Pendran.

The plummeting club bashed in the brains of the poor draconian, causing it to sway once and then burst into ash as the spirits of the smaller deegahla drifted down around it like falling snow.

The princess sighed in relief that that was over, taking a moment to sit and rest on a branch, before shivering as the damage done by the battle caught up with her. Namly being showered with snow twice, which left her clothes damp and unpleasant.

”Ok. Fine. No more reading,” she told to herself, before drifting down to collect her fallen club and the spirit’s of the fallen. The lost book could stay lost for all she cared, this was all its fault after all.

---

Later, the team grouped back up (Midna found them again by following the light on her friendship bracelet while being much more watchful for ambushes and avoiding any other fights) and found a giant imprisoned in a statue that was bolted to a tree.

”Then we’ll deal with that when we deal with it” was Midna’s response to Jesse’s very mild paranoia about the trapped figure being a villainous one. The princess wasn't exactly fond of eye for an eye punishment, so if this man had done something so terrible as to deserve this monstrous fate, then in her opinion it would be best just to kill him rather than let this travesty go on.

Unfortunately someone who did think this kind of punishment was just fine and dandy was the victim of it, of all people. As she drifted close and tried and failed to find a simple opening mechanism the man told her to lay off and leave him to his fate, a request that shocked the princess enough for her to back off and let him say his piece.

Once he was done and would speak no more, Midna floated down to collect the little thimble and then drifted back to look up at the literal giant of a man, sealed in iron and calmly awaiting his fate. In any world where the dead did not turn to ash, it would have been hard to tell if he still even lived.

”Goddesses, what kind of mad place did he come from?” she asked with a half whisper, before looking up, up and up towards the peak of the mountain they were climbing to where the place he had spoken of must rest, and knew that there they were now destined to find out.

---

They kept going until they found a frozen keep, perched upon the side of a cliff. Though from the outside it looked quite vacant, upon entering they found it occupied by a small cadre of silent old men known fittingly as the greybeards, along with one who spoke for them, a Master Arngeir.

He advised them against ascending in such great a number, and offered them a different way up the mountain, one free from snow, if one no less freezing cold.

”Given a choice between cold, windswept and wet and cold and dark I’ll take cold and dark thanks,” was a temporarily mask-less Midna’s opinion on the matter as she took advantage of some of the fires to deal with some of the outside’s worst aspects, namely all the snow that had been dumped on her and had soaked her X-naut uniform. Her faithful wolfos meanwhile did as the canines did and shook itself clean of snow, though not before being directed outside again so as to not soak any nearby friends or old men in the process.

While her clothes were drying out she did some spirit management. She got her hands on the awful mimic hat, and while wearing it crushed the spirits of the stinger nest and the small spear nosed Deegahla, while the Pendran she infused into the wolfos she had ridden while fighting it. It had been a decent opponent, and she suspected her mount could do with some cold resistance if they were to keep climbing higher.

World of Light

wordcount: 852 (+2)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (17/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Baur’s Reach

”Lighting the laps, lighting the laps, if this doesn't do shit I’ma break you aaaaall” Midna said to herself in a sing song voice as she rode from lamp to lamp, baring the fire via burning branches broken off of trees. Once the last of them was lit her wolfos padded back from the scene so Midna could take in the fruits of her labor and exact her judgment on the lamps.

Clearly fearing for their existence, the lamps did as lamps do and burned warm and bright, and in the process thawing some of the frozen pools around the clearing and revealing first and foremost a classic sunken treasure chest within one of their waters.

”Alright you get to live. Court is adjourned because it is fishing time” she informed the lamps with an approving nod before getting her wolfos to pad over to the bountiful pool so that she could extend her shadow hand and lower it into the water like a salvage claw, plucking the chest from the water and then dumping it into the thawing snow. The princess hopped off of her mount, flicked open the locks and then in time honored tradition dramatically threw up the lid of the chest and then leaned in close, practically tipping over the edge into its interior to get a hold of its contents and then finally pulling them out and raising her prize aloft triumphantly.

You could almost here the “du-du-du-duuuuuuun” jingle playing as she finished her treasure collecting. Then the moment was over and she stopped showing the items and instead brought them down to eye level where she could actually examine them.

”Huh. Knives. Good job chest, you know what every girl wants.” she praised the chest as she examined the artfully made and ornamental decorated pair of blades. One was regular knife sized and decorated with a small gold skull, the other long enough to almost be a short sword in the impish woman’s hands. Both were styled with gold and sported a ruby gem on their pommel which may or may not have had a tangible benefit, but certainly did make them quite stylish. With the ornamentation in mind she gave them a discerning eye to see if there were any hints of magic involved or if they were just lovely, and expensive, pieces of craftsmanship. Unfortunately for the chest, its reward for holding such a nice prize ended up being hurled at a giant wasp a few moments later as the thawed out stinger hive incident occurred, the chest crashing into one of the wasps and shattering into splinters and metal fragments.

”Sorry, did I do that?” she asked rather rhetorically as the incident died down ”I mean look on the bright side, no one got hurt and someone gets to wear that stupid hat and crush an evil beehive spirit. Won't that be fun?”

While they were at that, and just before things froze over again, Midna rode over to pick through the tent. The beans and matches got tossed in with the other travel rations/supplies, while Midna picked through the other items herself while saying ”Huh, well that’s convenient. I was just thinking about getting some reading for the train rides earlier” as she inspected the tomes to see if any of them were worth an idle peruse. Said perusing was something she could do while riding in fact, thanks to her mount being more than smart enough to follow the gang’s lead while keeping its eyes peeled for threats.

So, after briefly dismissing her wolf and just floating up the waterfall after the troops, she spent a bit of the mostly uncontested ride through the snows covering the shallow slope leafing through the books and making the odd throwaway remark on their contents to anyone who would listen.

Sure there was the odd monster or pack of aggressive denizens that tried to pick a fight, but like the wasps, the rather large gang of heroes made short work of anything so stupid as to mess with them. Midna mostly left them to it and enjoyed the ride till they came across something of interest. Or rather something disturbing.

”Goddesses, what the fuck is this?” she had to ask as they came across a man who had first been entirely entombed in a statue that was bolted to a tree (which upon its branches it bore the little salty fruits that had been served in the spa last night, only here they were frozen solid by the winter snow) and then after that, to add injury to imprisonment, he appeared to have been shot with arrows.

”Hello hey. Are you OK? No wait of course you aren't your stick in a metal statue in winter. Are you alive?” she asked, riding closer to try and work out if the statue had, say, latches or something which could be undone to unseal its victim. ”Just hold on a little longer, and we’ll try and get you out” she told him as she did so, already committed to freeing this sorry soul from his torment.

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

The lance shaped jetbike Q-T had managed to get Neilsy to give up after a personal appeal was a wonder of engineering when you got down to it, far superior than a mere hoverbike in numerous ways. The most important one as far as Q-T was concerned was speed. It wasn't one she was using to its full capability now, as the last thing she wanted to do was race towards the megafauna, the ‘dragons’, at a full clip and provoke them. But if things got hairy, or scaly rather, then oh boy, did the Ai want to know she had the way out of the situation they had available.

Other than herself and the bike, she also had a pod that had rapidly been hauled out of deep storage at her request, that contained a 300+ year old experimental device optimistically called The Universal Translator, built at a time where the possibility of encountering sentient aliens was still considered a possibility and not a pipe-dream. It was a dumb Ai coded with every human language that was still known at that time, and numerous theoretical ways of bridging the interstellar language gap between humanity and alien kind. It had been tested and proven to work with human derived languages, both real and fictional, but today she’d be seeing if those old folk’s blue sky passion projects would finally pay dividends. If she could convince the dragon to speak enough to fuel its need for data that was.

Other than transporting the experiment and running away if necessary, she’d also intended to use the jet bike to go up to the dragon’s level, something that became unnecessary when said dragon broke half a dozen laws of physics and shapeshifted into a human(-ish) form. She almost skimmed right past the beauty as her mechanical mind fell over itself trying to work out where in the universe the rest of her mass had gone, before she gave herself a metaphorical slap on the face to knock that off and focus on the mission. She signaled back to the ship that was going to approach, and then did so.

She slowed, turned the bike to one side and then carefully drafted it down to hover at the ground level at a polite distance from the humanoid dragon, after which the short bot hopped off of the, put on her best disarming smile.png and waved to the woman as she spoke a language Q-T predictably didn't understand. If the dragon had instead spoken to her in perfect Mandarin or English or something she would have flipped. Instead she pinged the ship with a status update, something she kept doing whenever she remembered to do so from here on out during the encounter, which went along with a direct video feed of what was going on, and then began the likely lengthy process of trying to communicate.

”Hello, I know you can’t understand me yet, and I can't understand you, but hopefully if we keep talking then this machine” she pointed to the steel sphere which was currently blinking in a computational manner ”will be able to work out-”

“Language shares features with several found on the Indonesian islands ...” the blinking sphere helpful informed her at that very moment.

”... what?!” That managed to push her over the edge for just a second, the Ai turning on the translator device while throwing one one pair of arms up in the air while the others angrily gestured it in a combination of shock and, frankly, disgust.

“Analysis complete: Language seems to be an older version of Indonesian, likely that used during the Majapahit Empire. Beginning translation process now” it then informed her, the old human’s masterwork having bridged the communication gap in only a handful of seconds. It was a little rough at first, but quickly got up to speed with more information as the conversation went on.

"You seem distressed? It is just a language issue… Why is that box speaking over me?" the Dragon, now suddenly understandable thanks to the universal translator acting as an intermediary, said, quite clearly annoyed about the fact that the machine’s way of doing the translation was speaking her words in Q-T’s tongue with only a few moments of delay, resulting in it sounding like it was speaking over her.

”Ahh, no sorry it’s translating for us while we speak. Hang on let me just quickly internalize the language” Q-T replied hurriedly, the box doing the same to her overlaying translation as she spoke, and getting an "Ahh" of understanding form the dragon, who calmed her ire before the bot had even finished explaining due to her speaking being a demonstration of what was being done. "How interesting. And quite annoying, by I suppose I can make do"

”It's ok, you won’t need to. I’ve routed the new language into my own systems, so it’ll do that translating internally and pre-translate my vocalizations. I mean you’ll still need to put up with that with most of the humans…” Q-T said in near flawless Pataliputran, though she was still babbling a bit as a result of the shock of finding out the alien dragon knew a human tongue.

"I see." the dragon replied, too proud to display ignorance on whatever the little machine had been talking about just now, and instead inquiring about her little panic attack "May I ask why you seemed so alarmed for a moment there?"

”Oh. Well. uh. You really shouldn't be able to speak a human language, so the fact that you can kinda took me by surprise?” Q-T began saying and got an affronted look for her undiplomatic efforts. The Ai shook her hands as if she could wave away the accidental insult while trying to correct her mistake ''Wait wait. I’m sorry. That’s not an insult. It's because… ok look can I start from the beginning?”

"You may," was the dragon’s somewhat terse reply, the woman folding her arms while staring down at the robot, now clearly judging her.

The bot gave her a half bow in thanks and then started speaking in a far more professional tone, wanting to try and do over the fist contact moment with the dignity it deserved ”My name is Q T Brackman, and I am currently representing the crew of the explorer vessel Thucydides and, by extension, out home, the Commonwealth of Humanity. We come in peace, and apologize for landing on your territory un-announced. You see we had an engine issue that forced us to, ah, set down here so we could repair it,” she explained, deciding to undersell just how bad things work just in case "Despite the unfortunate circumstances that brought us here, it is an honor and a marvel to meet you and your kin, and I hope this will be the first step towards a long friendship between our two peoples.”

"And I am Galmira. I speak for the elders of my kind, who are very concerned about your crashing upon our land. Your words of peace will no doubt alleviate some of their worst fears." the dragon introduced herself and not so subtly informed her that she wasn't buying the ‘landing’ part of their turbulent arrival, before saying "However, I have traveled and wide, and have never heard of this ‘Commonwealth of Humanity,’ nor seen anything like this vessel of yours. So from where exactly is it that you hail?"

”I should have been clearer. We are not from this world and instead came from space. You see the Commonwealth of Humanity is an interstellar civilization” Q-T tried to explain and then realized that the two thousand year old language did not have terminology to explain this simply, so she had to improvise ”We are. Hmmm. We come from a star. Well several. You see, the stars are just other suns that are very far away. They have other worlds around them, and on one of these, Earth, is the birthplace of humanity. From there they spread to and settled other worlds, one of which I myself call home, via craft like the Thucydides. The Thucydides itself is an exploration vessel, made to explore other stars, which is what brought us here, to you. Does that make sense?”

Galmira pinched the bridge of her nose saying "That. Is a lot to take in." before latching onto a somewhat trivial part of it that she could ask about, mostly to buy her time to take in this revelation with dignity "If you are representing the Commonwealth of Humanity, then why are you not a human? I would much rather prefer to converse with one of your creators than a mere proxy, if that is what you are"

”I am Human. Legally, to be exact. I am simply here instead of one of them because I am built and trained to handle dangers, such as yourselves if you had turned out to not be friendly.” she explained, simplifying centuries of legal arguments back and forth on the topic into the spirit they now represented.

"Hm. Well now that you know that we are friendly, would they care to speak with me in person? You could take me to your leader, perhaps?" she asked, incorrectly believing that what the bot said was not really the case. Both self assured in terms of her not being able to handle the dangers of the dragons and somewhat doubting that she was really an equal to the humans of this commonwealth she spoke of.

”The captain actually wanted to speak with you, ah, remotely. Let me set that up and you can discuss meeting in person with her?” the bot suggested, a touch downtrodden but also understanding of her desire to go directly to the woman in charge.

"You may" Galmira replied, accompanying her words with a dismissive gesture.

Rather than display the captain’s face on her face, that would be weird, she instead went for a decent sized and incredibly rugged tablet that came as part of the jetbike’s EVA equipment. She pinged the com’s officer while she was getting it, and together they quickly set up a connection from it to one of the consoles on the bridge. Then followed the officer’s instructions with how to initiate direct communication between the captain and Galmira.

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

Q-T wasn't exactly a big plant person herself, so mentally she primarily boiled Zoe’s report down to ‘great, my friends won't be starving to death’ which was good but it was also a touch reductive. She kind of knew Zoe from going out on expeditions with her, so she was pretty confident the woman knew what she was doing regarding the other stuff. She did however made a mental note to make sure to prioritize soil and water samples back once they went scouting, because she was pretty sure the that would make the botanist happy if she wasn't allowed to go out herself at first and it would help her keep keeping her friends alive. Both good things.

As for her own report, Q-T was internally quite relieved that it had gone over without any complaints. She wasn’t exactly used to reporting straight to the captain after all. Captain’s in general? Sure, she'd done that. But that was basically always on smaller operations than this which gave dealing with them less gravitas than the captain of an explorer vehicle who had 300+ years of experiences under her belt.

Maybe the time they would have spent together reviewing the functioning equipment and then going out on a mission together would have chipped away Q-T’s wall of nerves, but unfortunately grander events called them and put a stop to that as the native wildlife she’d been wanting to go out and find decided to come knocking at their door instead.

And what wildlife it was, if it could even be classified as that.

If you’d asked her, the others were taking the appearance of mythological creatures, or aliens that look way too similar to mythological creatures than anything had any right too, way too well. Then again she herself didn’t give away the fact that she had been mentally sent reeling either. You’d have had to have be keeping a close eye on her face to see how it had gone still (and who would be looking at her instead of the flipping dragons!) as general astronaut training intended to ensure they stayed cool under pressure kicked in and was then stretched to its limits when the captain almost casualty suggested she be the one to initiate first contact if these did in fact turn out to be sentient alien dragons. Which would be wild.

”Yes captain, I’ll get ready to head out right away!” she replied to that particular while frantically messaging Neilsy.

Q: Is your jetbike fixed?

N: Yeah they fixed her right up while I was waiting on your metal ass to finish swimming in toothpaste.

N: why?

Q: I'm going to need to borrow it

N: Wow. Hey now. what for?

N: Also do you know why everyone's getting rushed back inside? it's chaos down here

Q: There's dragons

N: …

N: So like some big dinosaur things or ?

Q: They look exactly like dragons, captain's calling them dragons and she wants me to go talk to them because I'm the only one here who’s fireproof

N: On my bike?!

Q: That's your biggest concern here?

N: Well you are fireproof

Q: jnjadsbkfhjkbfdasumzxqiweu

At this point Q-T just wanted to A: scream and B: spend several hours doing the checks every Ai knew that let you figure out if you where in a simulation or not, but instead she was running through the halls to get ready to go do her job, and maybe make history. or get eaten by a dragon. Which in a way would be making history too if you thought about it.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,217 (+2) (+15)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (124/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (137/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(64/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

While Bowser and Jr got themselves some new minions Rika and Kamek both ended up with a sort of intrinsic increase in their worth as the spectral currency claimed from the fallen spirits attached itself to them.

”How strange” Kamek commented as he looked down at himself in a failed attempt to see a physical manifestation the wealth he had gained. Rika meanwhile was quite enamored with the situation saying “neat. I’ve never had my own money before” only to then hesitantly ask Kamek “it, it is mine right?”

”Of course” the mage replied without a second thought.

“Great! I am going to buy so many sweets when we get out of this place” she said, quite delighted at the prospect. The mage softly laughed good naturedly at this childish desire before telling her that ”I’m sure you’ll be able to afford plenty, just do be careful about your teeth” before quietly sorting his new magical teacup, this one far more useful than the mug he had found in the Maw as it seemed to be making him feel more invigorated merely by holding it. He added the unclaimed hook to this, finding that it too had similar passive qualities which he could make use off

The fish meat meanwhile lasted all of a minute before being eaten by Bowser as a snack, which was how they found out that the king could apparently now restore his physical form by eating as a few minor scrapes closed up upon consuming the fishy morsel.

---

Down in the caves below the island, the Troop’s scouting did not trigger anything of concern which gave them some false confidence as they all passed on getting footsie with the slugs and instead just went flying over them. Kamek and Jr could do this by default, of course, while Bowser summoned his trowlon striker Carrie to hover board over the sluggy sea and Rika pawned a ride off Kamek’s toadies, who hoisted her by her shoulders and. After getting them to simply follow the lead of her scout planes, which she could dedicate mentally, she found she could get a fair bit of aerial maneuverability out of the deal, which was neat.

What was not neat was the third (for Bowser and a few others) appearance of the, or a, master hand, who showed up to once again block their way to the area’s boss. The Troop were among those who immediately launched into trying to blast the glove to pieces, with Rika just following the lead of three who were in the know without a second thought.

Kamek stopped trying to kill the clearly incurable glove first out of all of them, before saying, and then shouting, ”Sire, I dont think it's working. Sire? SIRE!” to get the one of them who didn't stop wasting energy on their accord to also hold fire.

”Huh what?” Bowser stopped to ask, and in so doing gave the ting time to actually speak and lay out its plan.

“Curse? There’s a curse?” Rika said half way through, picking up on something weird in its words that the rest of the Troop couldn’t see due to their inherent animosity towards the hand. Kamek thought it was strange too once she pointed it out, but there really wasn’t time for discussing things as the master hand laid out another challenge, and looking back at it, they all really had been challenges, and this one was a doozy. Five minutes, three challenges. Do or die.

Bowser followed his heart as soon as the count down stopped, and was hot on Princess Peach’s heels into the trial of Desire. Within they came face to face with a wretched fish thing, that seemed to the king like a combination between the angler fish murlocs and the lady like sea snails that had grown to colossal proportions. He was entirely wrong in his assessment, but that didn't really matter. It had to die.

”Forget playing around or holding back, let’s go for broke. KAMEK! Supersize me and let's end this wet witch before she can even blink her gross eyes!” Bowser commanded dramatically, only to stand there posing while nothing happened, before looking back with a confused ”Huh?

”uh, dad? I think he went the other way. After Rika?” Jr, the only Troop member who had come with him, pointed out.

”What? Why didn’t she come with us?” the king demanded to know.

The answer to that Rika herself didn't even know at first as she found herself heading the same way as Bella. Something was calling her down into the Abyss, the former foot soldier being affected by the calling command far harder than the slight tug that might have been touching the princess’s mind.

”Rika, are you alright? Wait up” Kamek called after her, following in the wake of her and the others and, as a result, coming in dead last to see the utterly unfair fight the hand had put up against them. He found Rika stumbling back in horror as Bella visibly deflated at the sight of not one but two abyssal princesses and, of all things, their apparent master, all arrayed against them. The math in Kamek’s head did not look good but whether it be bravado, bravery or foolishness Sakura did not share her allies' qualms, stepping up to fight without fear or hesitation.

Exactly like a… well, exactly what Sakura was.

”This looks to be one unfair fight
So what we need is a hero tonight!”

Kamek, no hero, hung back to take cover while chanting as both he and his green clones directed their wands towards the woman, all of them channeling a different magical boon and granting Sakura more power to back up her pride.

The short schoolgirl grew tall quite suddenly, shooting up to challenge the mighty armaments of the princess in size. Green energy burned around her wrist wraps and trainers, while her body gained a protective barrier shaped in a loose approximation of a sleeveless karate gi, the magical armor weightless except maybe for the burden of living up to the inspiration for it’s form. Finally sakura’s body seemed to glow from within as her muscles gained magical invigoration to let her push past her mortal limits.

It was power, pure and simple, and acted as heavy emphasis for Sakura’s confident words that shook Rika out of her stunned staring fear. She glanced back at Kamek who gave her a strained but encouraging nod, before turning her sights back towards the abyssal titans. The fear in her heart had not disappeared entirely, how was she supposed to stand up to those built to be her betters, but here the mage and the martial artist who had freed them where, standing against the one who’s vile grasp they had freed the ship girls from.

How could she not stand beside them in this hour.

Besides, they’d gotten through the maw. Compared to that, this was surely only the second worst thing they could face together.

“Come on! We can’t let her fight them alone!” she said to Bella, before running after their hero with Kamek’s toadies hoovering along side her and his clones swooping to and fro above, preparing to render more aid as soon as they had recharged.

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

Q-T was glad to see she was not the only person who was a mess, with Dr Zoe being as dirty as you’d expect a botanist to be on a hard day, or maybe even a good day because Q-T thought that you probably had to like getting dirty to be one, while Acting Chief Engineer King looked like she’d been working in a volcano from all the soot on her uniform, but she did still feel bad about dropping the odd drip of coolant on her the captain’s floor.

”Yes captain, sorry captain” she replied/apologied to the orders to get a shower, before finding somewhere to stand and waiting while ACE King gave her report, the Ai splitting her focus between listening and compiling her own report from the details Riley had put together while Q-T had been busy swimming in coolant.

From what she heard while skimming through files, things were pretty bad, but it was nice to know that they weren't going to explode, and that she didn't have to worry about the ship, and therefore her, running out of power. It didn't look like they were going to be getting off the ground any time soon if ever at first until the captain pulled something out of the archives that might let them haul themselves back into space. She was briefly skimming this Chang program when the conversation shifted to her next.

”Ah, let me see here” she said, bringing up Riley’s report again, and displaying a little icon on the side of her monitor that looked like turning pages that indicated what that brief silence was being used for, her kind had learned from experience that blankly staring while doing internal stuff others would need devices for could be very disconcerting for humans, before beginning her own report.

”So. Crew first. We had one injury in the crash, and Jame’s isn't doing to bad according to the latest check in we did with him, so people wise were near fully operational. Equipment is where things get a bit worse. As you know, the more fragile transports got pretty banged up, but our more specialist and, ah, rugged equipment has fared better. The garage and EVA crews that haven't been pulled to ship duty are slowly going through repairs but numbers wise we/they have personnel number suited more for for ongoing maintenance, not retooling half the inventory, so it’ll be a while till all of the softer equipment is up and running” She explained, giving a rundown of the state of the EVA crews, their status and their gear’s status, before addressing the FTL drive and aborted expedition situation.

”For the drive, EVA teams are at your disposal acting chief King, especially for anything like that coolant leak. I’m not really familiar with FTL drives, but if there's anything like radiation leaks or other artificial hostile environments being generated by the damage, we’ve got the kit to endure that. Otherwise, if you just need more hands then we’ve got those to spare,” she spread her four hands out as a little joke to go with that last, before hesitantly making a suggestion regarding the outside world.

”Also if I could make a suggestion? While the drop-ships may be out, there’s some gear on hand that can do some of the scouting you wanted without distracting the engineers from the FLT work… or even taking EVA people away from helping out now that I think about it. We could put out some high altitude surveying equipment,” basically fancy weather balloons when you came down to it, ”to give us a basic idea of the world we’re on, and maybe, depending on the atmosphere, get us some star maps that could let us work out where it is. We could also send out some pu-” she caught herself half way through using some slang and coarse corrected to call them ”- terrestrial scout drones to check out the area around us, give the security team info about what kind of alien life they might need to ward off. Plus get some seismic readings, bacterial samples and other data we can use to make sure we’re not going to have anything unseen ruin our days while we’re working.”

”Both would eliminate some unknowns and give us some peace of mind about what’s out there, which I think would be both useful and, ah, also good for moral?” she certainly wanted to know about where they were, and she expected a niggling curiosity/concern about the world beyond the ship’s walls was something everyone was dealing with, so it would likely be nice for them all to have some peace of mind regarding that big question mark.

World of Light

wordcount: 620 (+1)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (15/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Baur’s Reach

She knew she’d been on to something with the tickling when she got some similar near sneezes, but the leaf alone wasn't enough. She ended up having to use her twin-tails as little ticklers, which put her right in the firing line hair when both the inevitable and the unexpected happened, as the bear sneezed itself awake as intended, but also sneezed so hard it catapulted itself out the other end of the cave

”FuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck” went Midna as Newtonian physics did their thing and she was hurled past the group and away into the woods somewhere.

The bear, presumably the bear anyway, then spoke in their minds about spring trapped under ice to which Minda’s response was to pull herself out of the bush she had landed in and yell ”Then maybe don’t live on a freezing cold mountain then!” at the bear, but alas, her advice fell on deaf ears as the bear promptly went back to sleep.

She was then given a moment to think, and it was clear that this was probably the best possible outcome. The way was unblocked, and they were not in the midst of being mauled by a giant bear. Now Midna had suspected it might have been some kind of mystical guardian or something like the light spirits of Hyrule, but it had been a touch of a gamble. Fortunately it had paid off and the worst that had happened was Minda being forced to pick leaves out of her hair and sticking close to Sectonia for a bit to heal her bumps and bruises.

The sight on the other side of the cave, of snowy vistas, falling water causing a hanging mist all bathed in the pink light might have been worth being sneezed on, but unfortunately Midna took one look at the place and immediately had the pattern recognition bit of her brain lob ‘torch puzzle’ at her frontal lobe as she saw the set of unlit lanterns scattering the place and the prominent lit one sitting in the middle of it all.

She ended up spending a bunch of time hovering around, using dry-ish branches to ferry the fire around to light all of them, because she knew that she’d not be able to let it go if she didn't, but not before getting dressed for the winter weather.

Midna’s gab specifically consisted of the uniform of an X-naut, that she’d gotten back a Rocket HQ. The nice warm set of gloves, boots and bright red crossed jacket all snuggled up around her body, though her being a bit (but only a bit) lankier than them made her not the perfect picture of a x-naut down there (she wasn't round enough either by far) but fortunately this was all about heat, not infiltration. Up top her neck and flower face were snuggled in the cozy white ruff while her eyes were double protected from snow and snow glare by a set of goggles worn atop her mask and helm. Finally the hat sat on top of her fused shadow (replacing the sombrero) which caused the little flaps on top to stick up like alert bunny ears.

All in all, very snug. Amusing the outfit even came with a nice red and black striped stocking that wrapped around her flygon tail keeping even that added limb nice and snug and thematically on-brand.

Her ride meanwhile got no such luxuries, but fortunately her wolfos was still nice and snug in its soft fur, and likely would be just fine for a fair bit of climbing yet.

With that all sorted, the princess, having been able to dress herself in a flash thanks to the way the alternate costumes worked, and her steed set about bounding around the clearing lighting up all those torches to see what, if anything, would happen as a result while they waited for everyone else to do their more traditional, and therefore manual, wrapping up.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 880 (+2)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (107/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (120/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(47/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika

As the body of the beached beast began to decay and the least threat was dealt with, it was time to start covering their slain flows into power and resources for use on the road ahead.

Jr scooped up one of the mundane murlocs and raised it up above his head, calling a swarm of their spirits into the first and taking them all on as another striker mob for his growing legions.

Kamek meanwhile took 4 of the luminous ones and crushed them for materials, fishing for magic trinkets, useful do-dads and tricks he could fit up his sleeves while Rika did the same with a pair of the diseased ones.

Then, finally, once the others were done scavenging the body of Scylla and it had rotted into ash, Bowser stomped into the fading soot of the titan’s body and then crouched down to pick up her glowing spirit.

”You might have been a stupid monster, fighting me when I tried to help, but you where strong, so you get the honer of fighting for me” he told it simply, before then turning and moving on from another failure. He was, after all, incredibly used to them.

”Then just don't cast magic on him then. Whatever it's his loss” Jr was saying to Kamek when the king rejoined the rest of the troop.

”But I just don't understand what the problem is?” Kamek replied, finding himself more frustrated than he felt like he should be about being more or less unable to help Ace anymore, at least directly. Frustrated enough to talk about it to the unsympathetic ear that was Jr anyway. Rika at least tried to answer the question, suggesting that “Saying a bunch of words and then suddenly having a big Bowser is kinda unnatural tho, right? Maybe he just finds it spooky”

”It’s not unnatural! It’s magic, there's nothing more natural than magic. It's a part of everything and everyone” the mage replied, doing the inconsiderate thing and making this about him not Ace.

”Can it Kamek” Bowser told him, before pointing all of their attention towards the Hat wearing kid was pointing down the well ”you can complain after we get out of this rain” he said, the king just assuming that there was more stuff down there than just a water source, as if it was a warp pipe to an underground area.

Sure enough, one look down found them a rickety ladder leading into some kind of cavern system, though out of all of them only Rika had to use the ladder, which involved removing her gun gauntlets and strapping them to her back so she could actually handle the descent properly. As she climbed own in the middle of the group (so she wouldn’t be left vulnerable while taking the gauntlets on r off at either top or bottom side) Kamek and Jr simply hovered down into the underground, while Bowser took one look at the ladder and flicked on a lucky bell, before cat claw sliding down the inside of the well.

The underground they found was no 1-2. Instead it was just as dank and wretched as the rest of the island had been but ”Hey, at least we’re out of the rain”

Most of everyone was more than happy to take advantage of that. Kamek shook off his bedraggled robes and then gratefully accepted a close brush with Bowser’s firebreath if it meant warming up and drying off a bit, after which Rika and anyone else who wanted to take turns did so as well. Jr meanwhile took a moment to upend his clown car in-order to tip the pool of water that had formed at his feet out of it.

They all felt a bit better after that, and Kamek found his frustration with Ace dropping away as he warmed up and dried out. He was still confused, but he now remembered that now wasn't the time or the place for dealing with whatever that guy’s deal was.

Once everyone was ready the troop moved on once more, skimming on or above the shallow water that was apparently inescapable in this place. After a bit of marching they suddenly exited the natural cave and instead entered a more artificial place akin to the rotting village above, just buried underground. Most of it was just dank and dreary, but the massive pit below the structures held another lovely horror, or rather a multitude of them, namely piles and piles of sea slugs and some humanoid looking ones that certainly went no Bubblainian.

Blazermate wanted to, of all things, go down and zombify them all.

”If you wanna be stuck here all day, then sure, we can do that. But I don't know about you, but I’m sick of this place” Bowser replied ”And sick of hauling this busted airship around too”

”If they are useful in a fight then I would not want to tangling with all of them at all to be honest” Kamek pointed out, before sending the three non lantern carrying toadies and his clones forwards to see if they where, and also to give the branching paths a bit of a scout to see if any where faster, safer or more interesting than the rest.

“Do you think you could get that dispenser thing out for a bit while we work out how we are getting around? I’d like to stock up on ammo if we’re getting close to the big nasty of this place” Rika asked Blazermate as Kamek’s expendable minions checked the place out for them, the ship girl sending out her pair of scout planes to do the same after she remembered she had them.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 2334 (+3)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (105/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (118/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(45/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika and Link (+3)

And that was the end of them. Well. almost all of them. You could almost forget that the giant half dead beast was laying there, looming over them all, until the violence came to an end and the quiet of all but the rain allowed its haggard breaths to be heard and drawing the attention of the koopa king while the traditional post fight spirit distribution/mulling over was going.

”We should do something about that” Bowser said, with what might be seen as uncharacteristic empathy for the horrid beast. Or maybe him doing stupid things to help monsters was entirely expected, this one just coincidentally didn't happen to also look like a curse child.

”Kamek!” He barked

”Yes sire?” The mage in rather bedraggled robes replied.

”Shrink that thing for me so we can toss it back into the ocean.”

Kamek glanced at the giant monster, then back at the king. He looked like he was going to object, but thought the better of it, instead drawing his wand and waving it slowly while chanting.

”This fish’s size is truly obscene,
I’d much prefer if it was the size of a sardine!”

Before thrusting the wand forwards and sending a shimmering projectile towards the beached monster. Stuck as it was, it proved unable to avoid the slow shot which stuck home with ease. For a moment it seemed to be taking effect, but before the creature could get even a few percentage points smaller, the hex broke and returned it back to normal size.

”Hey what gives!” Bowser complained as the mage looked down at his wands, up at the fish and then back at his wand.

”I’m sorry sire, this has never happened to me before!” the old mage replied, before trying once, twice and thrice more. ” I think my magic isn't strong enough to affect it sire.”

”Gahhh. Do I have to do everything myself!” Bowser complained as he stomped forward and demanded that Kamek ”Size me up and I’ll push it in!!”

”I’m not sure that that is the best… oh dear” Kamek tried to stop him, but knowing that the king would likely stubbornly march up to the jaws of death at his usual size if he didn't do his job, the mage was forced to comply

A distant observer, if there had been one, might be taken aback as the beached titan was joined by one more seemingly out of nowhere, the king expanding under his mage’s magic to be a towering juggernaut standing face to face with the almost dead thing which he told ”Alright stay still, this’ll only hurt for a second” before trying to rudely manhandle the thing back into the water.

Instead the leviathan’s six tentacle arms lashed out, directionless but dangerous, to beat across the rain-soaked koopa king’s face, body, and limbs. Though devoured, harvested, and otherwise abused to the fullest extent of marine cruelty, Scylla tenaciously clung to life, animated by sheer malice and spite to exact whatever punishment it could on those around it. As incredible as it seemed, covered as Scylla was in grisly wounds and filled with both parasites and blight, this creature was just too angry to die. Broodlings crawled from its body to protect their mother as Scylla wrenched back and forth in death throes, trying to attack whatever it could get its claws on.

”Oh dear” Kamek sighed as he palmed his face with his free hand in contrast to the panic of the other two members in the troop who raced to his defense by hammering one of the leeches with gun and firepower.

”Ow hey no I’m just trying to help you stupid fish freak” Bowser yelled right before getting stabbed in the mouth.

“You really need to learn your lesson” Marie Korbel, the former skullgirl now striker informed him as she materialized and summoned a horde of skeletons that charged in over the king's shoulders before stampeding over his thick dome and leaping onto the oceanic titan “this one doesnt even look like kid”

”It’s not my fault it made me feel bad laying there!” Bowser tried to say, but the blood in his mouth made it mostly unintelligible.

“Bowser!” Link called out, his voice reaching the troop just moments before he skatted up quickly enough to impale one of the parasites that had crawled out of the wounded monster with his trusty brandistock. As the monster dissolved he looked up at the titanic struggle playing out before him and wondered just what the Koopa King had expected to happen. Luckily this was only the third biggest sea monster they had encountered today, but the sight of Bowser’s bleeding mouth still sent a prickling feeling crawling across his brain. “I need to get up to it’s head.” He said, hoping Kamek or Junior had a solution for him. He couldn't climb Bowser himself to get up there in the weather.

”I can bring you up!” Jr called over and down and was about to descend to do just that when Marie, finding her legions unable to finish the job and ruining out of time, decided to speed things up as as she summoned a wall of skeletons beneath the hero of the wild, launching him up about a third of a way there before Jr swept Link’s flight to catch him and bring him the rest of the way, following the hero’s directions as they ascended to help his father, clown car straining under the additional weight but managing to climb nonetheless.

They ascended up, up, up, and as they leveled with the monster's head Link urged the boy to go higher still, until they were above the creature's thrashing head. Thanking Junior, Link leg go from where he had caught onto the clown car and whipped out his bow as he dropped. He knocked an arrow, pulled back, and a familiar feeling of calm washed over him. The wind rushing past his ears seemed to quiet as his perceptions and reaction time sped up. Time, for Link, slowed to a crawl as he aimed at the creature's thrashing head. Eye’s were always a weakness, and this thing had six of them.

He let three arrows fly, each one burying itself into one of the creature’s red eyes. They burst like Chu’s, and the combined shock stilled the creature’s head for a moment. Link felt time move normally again as he swapped the bow for his Sahagin Trident and dropped, prongs down. He drove the Trident down into the creature's skull as he landed, the weapon absorbing most of the impact as it sank in.

Though no legendary weapon, and damaged catastrophically by the weight and strength that drove it home, the well-aimed polearm did the trick. It plunged through weakened, brittle armor and malnourished, diseased flesh to break bone like an eggshell, and pierced the yolk within. Already on death's door, Scylla couldn't sustain the critical hit, and with a wretched howl that rolled across all of Carcass Isle she finally died. Her body began to disintegrate, aided in it's dispersal by the pounding rain, but it would still be a long time before the monster melted away completely--long enough for anyone to honor the tradition of picking over the corpse for anything that might be of use, if anything worthwhile still remained.

Link tumbled off as Scylla’s head crashed to the ground, again finding himself at the feet of the Koopa King. “Are you alright?” He called up to him.

”Gah, mouth hurts” Bowser complained, clutching the side of his mouth as he started shrinking down again as kamek ended the spell and shooed his healer clone forwards to see to the kin’s wound, only for it to be added too when a bone bonked him on the head.

He grunted and looked up to see and hear Marie shouting “Learn” before peaceing out.

He grunted again and then sighed ”That’s what I get for trying to help, huh? Stupid fish monster.”

“Nothing that comes out of the water in this sea turns out to be friendly.” Link said, dismissing the spear and gesturing at Rika. “Wait till we get back to where the water is blue. People there, at least, seems to appreciate your help.”

”Well I suppose it's another few spirits for the pile” Kamek said, trying to get a bit of positivity out of the situation, before looking at Link and nodding towards them, to suggest he take first pick, both as the slayer of the beast and as thanks for bailing the King out.

Link looked back at the slowly dissolving monster, considering. The situation seemed like it was finally quiet and he felt, at least for now, the anxiety flow out of his body and be replaced by the old curiosity. “I wonder if it had any more surprises in it’s stomach?” He said, walking around the beached beast to the hole Tidehunter had made when he had extradited himself from it, which had only widened as the monster began to turn to ash. Hopping up and holding his breath, he took hold of the squishy edge and pulled himself up to peer inside in search of treasure, more survivors, or possibly the spirits of those that hadn’t been hardy enough to survive inside the monster. Spotting something interesting, he unequipped all his armor and pulled himself inside despite the blood, guts, maggots, and blight pooling within.

For Link

You have acquired:
Gold x1325
Yellow like fading hope. Valued by all, if not as currency, then for its utility
Scraping Spear x2
A barbed, bladed polearm whose myriad reverse points are adept at causing damage in passing, rather than directly. Excellent at harvesting organic matter in bite-sided slivers, but also nasty for its tendency to degrade the durability of weapons and armor
Scissorman’s Shears
A pair of enormous, bloodstained scissors whose sharp blades can cleanly sever soft targets, although their size and the precision needed make them impractical in combat
Harrowing Crescent
Grants a charge every 10 seconds, up to 3 charges. If an ally is nearby, damaging abilities and attacks against enemies consume a charge to manifest 20 gold. Alternatively, ‘casting’ the hook consumes a charge to create a Stealth Ward that grants awareness of anyone in its small radius. This hook also confers minor increases to physical attack damage, health, and mana regeneration. After eleven charges are consumed, the hook will break
Abyssal Lantern x3
Lanterns that shine with the eerie bioluminescence of severed murloc lures. Since they function on a chemical level, no fuel is needed, and the lantern will neither explode nor stop working if broken

In just a few moments an eerie blue light started shining out of the hole, and you could track Link’s movements inside the monster from the movement of the light and the squelching sounds as he walked around. A few minutes later a wickedly barbed spear came flying out of the hole, embedding itself in the earth. Link followed, pulling himself back out of the hole covered in gunk but with a look of satisfaction on his face. As he put his other arm over the lip of the edge he was holding onto a pair of shears even gorier than him, the bloodstains caked on and uneaten even by stomach acid. After dropping out he clipped the shears a few times. “I’ve used a lot of weapons, but nothing ever like this.” He said dubiously, before dropping them and lifting up the spear instead before sharing the rest of what he had found inside the monster’s belly. “You guys want these scissors? I can’t carry any more weapons in the slate. Apparently, this doesn't count.” He said, producing the Crescent and offering it freely along with the scissors and two of the lanterns. “I think these might be magic. They glow without fire.” He was keeping one, definitely. He’d attach it to his belt as soon as the rain was finished washing him off.

”I could take one of those” Kamek replied, getting his toady to take one of the lanterns and then combined it with the pole lantern he had uprooted before to make a biolumions lantun on a metal pole that, carried by the Toadie, made for a nice hoovering lightsource.

”I uh, guess I’ll take these?” Bowser said, before picking up the oversized pair of scissors with one hand, seemingly intending to wield them more like a bludgeon than anything else, and then sort of awkwardly handed them to his tentacles for them to hold (the tendrils wrapping around the blade like a sheath) while he wasn't using them.

That still left a lot of things on the table, including the host of spirits from the battle, to distribute.

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

Riley refrained from pushing the mass of inventory data she had been compiling up for the very very busy hanger technicians the spare EVA crew were helping out directly to the captain when the technicians team’s head asked her to send up a report in her stead, and instead started a recording of the primary vehicle bay on her tablet.

”It, hmmm, well it could be worse” she said, over a recording of the bay, which at the moment had a small number of people (mostly EVA crew) trying to tidy up a mass of scrap metal using a combination of futuristic forklifts and old fashioned brooms, (Riley deliberately avoiding recording Neilsy doing a ‘my poor baby’ routine over a slightly dented jetbike sitting in the specialist EVA equipment section of the bay) while the actual staff were hard at work on other, actually salvageable vehicles, before shaking her head and deleting that response.

The captain was busy enough without having that ambiguity coming in on her head.

It really could have been worse and, indeed, it looked worse than it was. One of the vehicles had torn itself from its moorings during the barely controlled descent, and had more or less rolled and tumbled all around the bay for the rest of the crash, scattering bits of itself across the room and impacting several of the others in the process. That was, however, in terms of damages. The free rolling one’s death had just been very messy.

”One vehicle likely irreparably damaged, several others undergoing inspection and repair” she reported with an image of the utterly trashed machine, before adding a sub folder of images of the damages caused by the rolling vehicle and other, nor related, damages that had been caused by the crash landing.

That, plus a touch more details and some tables with accurate accounting of everything the hanger technicians had come across put in another sub-folder, was the report that got sent up to the captain about the dropships and various other vehicles. She was in the midst of carrying spare parts around when she got what initially thought was a simple follow up to that first report she’d sent. Instead it was a personal summons to the captains quarters, relayed from the ships com's officer.

She raised an eyebrow at that and then stepped over to show Neilsy

“What do you want? Can't you see I’m in mourning” the woman, who was currently sprawled over the front of the jetbike, replied in response to her leader’s attempt to get her attention.

“You know that would be incredibly bad taste if anyone was dead,” Riley pointed out

“Well no one is, so I am 100% in good taste”

“Doubtful. Anyway look at this” Riley said, before showing her her tablet

Neilsy sighed and craned her neck up to see and then actually perked up a bit with interest “Oh wow. Personal summons by the captain. Since when were you such a big shot?”

“Not me”

“Huh”

“Look at who it’s addressed too”

“Q-T? Why’s the captain want her. And why are you getting her mail?”

“Because-”

---

The world was a sea of frozen neon blue, and Q-T was a crab, skittering through its depths. Here and there, other denizens of the ocean could be seen, their bodies seized up due to the earth shattering cold, drifting between crumpled furnishings and ironically burnt out machinery. Fortunately none of those denizens were human (or Ai), and instead were they consisted of three dumb remote robots that had been used in the first attempt to fix the coolant leak, a set of sorry looking potted plants and one very unfortunate roomba 9000.

The captain’s forced quartering during the crash had ensured that no one had been in this room when the coolant pipe running through it ruptured, and then emergency shutters had sealed it off before the near absolute zero fluid had managed to flood out into the corridor beyond.

“You should be approaching the pipe now, Miss Brackman” came a voice from just behind her shoulder, which Q-T knew to actually be coolant engineer Jane, who was safely out behind two more blast doors, sending her communications via a data plugged into the back of her head which let her communicate with the coolant expert despite the lack of signal here, within the frigid sea. Accompanying the data cable was a power cable and a simple winch, one to ensure she had all the juices he needed to run in this extreme environment, the other to pull her out in case anything went wrong.

”Picking it up on sonar. Should be in visual in 3. 2.1. There it is” Q-T replied as, sure enough, the gash in the wall out of which the coolant was leaking came into view. ”Huh, it’s smaller than I expected. How’d so much get out”

“It’s at a lower pressure now hun. The stuff you're swimming through is about an eighth of the density of the stuff in the pipes” Jane explained through the line before asking “can you get closer?”

”There’s a bit of a current but yeah, I can” she replied, pushing through the flow of coolant and getting right up against the pipe

“Now then. Let’s see what the issue is” Jane, who was sitting in an office chair staring at a tablet that showed Q-T’s view, said while thoughtfully tapping the device’s side with a pen. The bot thought it was pretty obvious, there was a hole in the pipe they needed to seal, but having an expert on hand proved its worth when Jane’s answer was instead “Valve malfunction. Two, no, three steps up from the ruptured. Jonson get on it before we get any more breaches like this”

She gestured to a subordinate who indeed stroad towards the door to do just that, only to have it flung open in his face by Neilsy, who had been pried off of her bike and forced to do something useful.

“Hey, Q-T. You in here?” she asked, much too loudly for Jane’s taste, the woman giving her a death glare as Jonson rubbed his face and then hurried around the astronaut to go do his job

”Is that Neilsy?” Q-T asked through the feed.

“Yes” Neilsy replied, coming to speak with the tablet, only to be shoved aside by Jane who told the Ai that “It doesn't matter. Miss Brackman, please apply the FLUD unit to the crack”

”Can do Ma’am” Q-T replied, as she reached behind her and hauled the device, that looked a bit like a big suction cup if you were a layman, off of he back, and then began to apply the butt of device over the crack in the wall with mechanical precision while asking ”But what is Neilsy doing here?”

“It-” she began to say before Jane cut her off again with “is it an emergency?”

“well uh-”

“then it can wait. Please continue Miss Brackman, this should only take a few moments once Jonson has-” she glanced down at a notification coming up on her tablet and smiled “-ah good, the valve issue is already sorted. You may activate the device when ready Miss Brackman”

”Rodger!”

---

A few moments later and the device had clamped the hole shut, the binding had been thoroughly tested for stability and then the Ai had been towed out of the coolant and released from the emergency fluid lock set up around to let her in and out without letting the coolant itself escape. Said fluid lock would now be used to slowly drain the room now that the flow had been stopped and the risk of sealing one hole causing another had been prevented.

She stepped out of the door, frost crackling on her frigid metal body and gave a wave to Neilsy ”Hello! So what are you doing here>”

“I wouldn't be here if you could read your emails” she replied

Q-T ‘s face showed a ? for a moment before she got it ”Oh right, I set work emails to be forwarded to Riley while I was in there. Why what’s the matter?” she asked, and then went to check her emails and found the one about her being summoned.

”The captain wants me?” she asked with rhetorical surprise.

“Yup” Neilsy replied, looking smugly at Jane for a reaction to that and not getting the one she wanted.

“I’m sure the captain will understand a delay is the price for not having her ship flooded with coolant” she replied to the look with an unconcerned shrug “which we have you to thank for, Miss Brackman. That frame of yours really is something”

”Mmm hmmm. I commissioned it to be able to handle, well, basically everything” she replied absent mindedly while rereading the summons, still a bit taken aback.

“Looks like it paid off. Guess Riley was right about that promotion huh?” Neilsy said clapping the Ai on the back and then hissing and shaking her hand at how cold her metal body still was.

”I don't know about that... Oh? She’s asking for a report too? I’ll need to get on that too” Q-T worried, but fortunately she had been covered on that front.

“Riley already handled it already. James got scratched up, the idiot, but that's it. Some of our gears got bagged up a bit though, which is why I’m on runner deputy and not outside crawling over the ship. Or dangling from a dropship rappelling cable.” Neilsy said, wandering off of and then getting back on topic “anyway you should get going”

”Right right. Thanks Neilsy. Good luck with the coolant drain Ma’am” she said, before hurrying out getting a wave from her friend and a nod from Jane as she raced to not be later than she already was.