Pyromania99

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

"Alright, let's go." Jess said, following behind the group as they left. [color=green]"Come on, fish boy. We're going to leave you behind."[/green] As the group left the cargo bay and peaked around... There was nothing but a southwesterly wind and the sound of the waves washing against the cliff they were situated on. There was a slope down to a beach one way, but that's not where they needed to go. Instead they headed towards the signal, through the jungle. The heat was high, though their proximity to the ocean helped on the humidity front. There were some signs of small animals. They seemed to be birds, though there was a possibility of reptiles as they could notice things rush up trees. Obviously, nothing wanted to entertain guests. If Sprinklestar tried moving close, they'd run away in an instant.

After about one click, they found something interesting. A wreck of some starship. A small fighter by the looks of it. Easily enough, this was not what they were looking for by distance. There was nothing growing on it, indicating that it was relatively recent. There was a small fire in the rear... Or at least, what appeared to be the rear. It was mangled up, so it was difficult to tell what the make was. "I don't think that's Myrkith or Human. I'm not the most familiar with ships. Hmm, captain, did you have a camera or something? We can send a picture back and I think Harisa is fairly knowledge in that department. Did you guys want to take a look or move on?"

Meanwhile, a group of small mammal like creatures started to gather off behind them. They were cute lemur-like things that had a total of three eyes. They didn't look hostile, perhaps more curious. By count, there seemed to be five and all stood on their hind legs to get a look.

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

@rabidanubis Did you still want to continue or are you done?

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

As the group left the cargo bay and peaked around... There was nothing but a southwesterly wind and the sound of the waves washing against the cliff they were situated on. There was a slope down to a beach one way, but that's not where they needed to go. Instead they headed towards the signal, through the jungle. The heat was high, though their proximity to the ocean helped on the humidity front. There were some signs of small animals. They seemed to be birds, though there was a possibility of reptiles as they could notice things rush up trees. Obviously, nothing wanted to entertain guests. If Sprinklestar tried moving close, they'd run away in an instant.

After about one click, they found something interesting. A wreck of some starship. A small fighter by the looks of it. Easily enough, this was not what they were looking for by distance. There was nothing growing on it, indicating that it was relatively recent. There was a small fire in the rear... Or at least, what appeared to be the rear. It was mangled up, so it was difficult to tell what the make was. "I don't think that's Myrkith, Human, or Elven. I'm not the most familiar with ships. Hmm, captain, did you have a camera or something? We can send a picture back and I think Harisa is fairly knowledge in that department. Did you guys want to take a look or move on?"

Meanwhile, a group of small mammal like creatures started to gather off behind them. They were cute lemur-like things that had a total of three eyes. They didn't look hostile, perhaps more curious. By count, there seemed to be five and all stood on their hind legs to get a look.

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

"Are we leaving that way?" Jessica asked. "Well. whatever. Guess you're the boss here." She added, shifting on her heels and wheeling over to the Cargo Bay. She made it there quickly since the Engineering Bay was close. Kiri arrived with the elf Sprinklestar right behind her. "Hey, so, we gonna get going then?" Jess asked, "How did you want to proc--."

The Engineer was cut off by Cherche coming up on Comms. "CAPTAIN! We.. Uhh, well. Two things. First of all, I've located the position of the signal. Three or so clicks northwest, through the jungle. More importantly though... Well, the terminal down there. I'm sending a video from the front camera of the ship." She sounded worried, so it was good for the three to walk to the terminal in the bay. Usually, it was for taking stock of items... But...

Once the video started, it showed the trees slightly rustling in the wind. Nothing seemed amiss for the moment... Until the trees started to shake unnaturally. A shadow became visible in the shade of the trees as some of the smaller ones were pushed aside or toppled completely. The shadow exited the jungle canopy and looked around. By human standards, it was approximately seven meters tall and at least 2 across. It looked frightening yet familiar. "The hell... Is that a giant toucan mixed with a dodo bird or something?" She asked to herself more than the others.

It did resemble some unholy cross between toucan and dodo. It's eyes had a similar look to a felines though in the position of a toucan's. It's beak and head shared definite similarities with a toucan for the most part, aside the spike on the tip of the beak and the apparent teeth that seemed to line the top of it's slightly open beak, but not the bottom. The brown colored lower body was fat like a dodo, with small stubby wings that in no way could allow it to fly. It looked around, as if knowing that something had been here. After a couple of seconds, it seemed to decided that there were nothing here and turned back to the forest, angrily smashing into a medium sized tree on it's way back. "A giant... Toucan Dodo. Can't say I expected a giant one of those things. Or... That it looked so ready to gore someone to death. Teeth means it eats meat after all."

"It umm, it's heading the way you're going to be going. I don't need to tell you all to be careful, right?" Cherche added, "Play it safe out there."

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

"If I'm going to be paying attention to that signal... Tearch, I'll send you coordinates to land. I think I'm tracing the signal to the planet. I think there's a clearing we can land in. Try not to disturb the wildlife too much, right?" She teased a bit before giving the exact coordinates on the planet. As for exact... Well, it was a measure of degree north of what could be considered the equator of the planet. The latitude was easy enough, Longitude... Well, she just marked the general area and there would be some eyeballing involved. "Anyhow, it'll be north of the equator so it'll be cooler. It seems we're looking at some place near the ocean."

While the pilots sorted that out, Harisa and Jessica returned to the Engineering Bay. Jess requested a bit of assistance with setting up some first time equipment. "Alright, Harisa old girl, are you ready for the grand fusion of energy equipment and cybernetics?"

Harisa just sighed and pulled two bracelet like objects out of a metal container. "Just don't cut any of you fingers off, it'll be hard to replace those." The asian woman warned, setting one of the items on it's place... Jessica's arm. She made sure it was connected to Jessica's hook up node and it was suppose to be tight enough that it wouldn't slip... Though the node was great. "There's one." The second one was easy enough with the experience of the first. "Alright. Done."

"Wonderful!" Jessica said, checking the items herself. "I wonder if the captain will be amazed." She ignited her energy blade on her right arm (at a safe distance from anything.) A blade of light extended from the bracelet like device and extended for about a foot and a half. "Seems to be working. I'll check the ranged weapon later off the ship." She turned to leave, "Alright, Harisa do me a favor and teach Malia a bit about the systems sh-- He doesn't know about."

"I can do that." With the confirmation Jessica left to meet the captain. Meanwhile, the pilots collaborate on bringing the ship down to the ground level. After they break the atmopshere and reach a point where they wouldn't be burning the ship, Cherche switches the active shields to stealth mode.

As the ships lands, Cherche looks around from where she could in the cockpit. Looks like they were sitting on a cliff-like area that overlooked a beach. There was a giant jungle-like forest in from of them. The most important thing though... "Captain, we've landed. The area looks clear... Though... That signal is strong around here. I had us land here since I thought it was coming from around here. I think it's close by."

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

"Readings." Cherche muttered to herself, trying to remember where exactly those scanning options were. There! "Hmmm. Sent the drone out already. It's reading an atmosphere similar to Terra... Well, rather, it seems like the amount of oxygen on the planet is similar to the Myrkith homeworld. Humans and Elves that go down will probably want to take a bit to prepare for the difference in levels. Nitrogen is in safe levels, similar in the amount as Terra." Cherche continued. Well, the atmosphere seemed livable at least. No real problems so far. "With the jungle and high heat on the planet, it's a bit difficult to get a reading of life signs of course... Well, to specify, high heat in the equatorial area. Humidity is also fairly high." Cherche noted, recalling the atmospheric drone. That was as much as that thing could read. With the giant jungle, I think it's safe to say there was likely life beneath the jungle canopy.

"So, who's going down? I'll go. I want to see what's down there!" Jess said, looking at the planet. There were some many materials possibly down there! Maybe ancient ruins of some unknown civilization! How amazing.

"Huh..." Cherche muttered, looking at her panel again. "It looks like we're getting a signal... It's really weak though. Give me a bit to look into it. Put that on the back burner for now, probably nothing." She added.

Jess nodded, "Come on, Captain, let's search the ground a bit! It could be great! Who's all going!?" She asked, looking around. Cherche seemed busy and Harisa didn't seem interested. Captain was going... Malia not so much... The ant pilot would need to stay on bored just in case. She then looked to the elves seeing what they were going to do.

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

"I'll 'moth-handle' when I need to." Jess said. As the ship lurched forward, she felt her weight going back. Instinctively, she grabbed onto a small pole for just such an occassion. Her other arm grabbed the Myrkith engineer and held tight. Well, Jess should have expected this much with a Myrkith captain and pilot. She took a look back at Harisa... Well, she prepared Mag-Boots for when they needed to go to the exterior of the ship to repair. "How smart of you." Jess stated to the woman as the ship went into warp and stabilized. She released her hold on the moth and patted him on the head. "Hope you didn't mind a little 'moth-handling' there."

---

In the cockpit, Cherche was just glad she was sitting down. Her entire body was tense from the sudden take-off. Had she been prepared she'd be fine but... Actually, was Engineering fine? The Med-bay? She was about to turn to question the captain when she heard a voice come over comms. "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL!?" The voice exclaimed, angry or irritated. That was definitely Miss Yamada. "Make sure you warn us next time you decide to stress the ship like that!" She continued. Yea, that was definitely angry. "You're damn lucky all the tools were mag-locked down cause it'd b-- Hey!" The voice seemed to be faint... Until another picked up.

"Hey! Yea... Please give us a warning down here next time. Or, you know, take it easy? Inertia is still a hazard even with artificial gravity. We have dangerous tools down here. Fragile ones even. Will be up on deck when warp ends." That was Jess, trying to ease Yamada it seemed. She didn't give the captain time to respond either... Well, there was a bit of time before warp ended.

---

Warp travel shortens the amount of time traveled significantly, and the time to their first destination was only about four hours, compared to the many hundreds of years on thrusters. Cherche had stepped away for a bit. There was little to do as far as pilots go during warp, so that much should be fine. The engineering bay had gotten their things back in order, though that was mostly their not feeling like jelly. She returned to her seat and looked at the estimated arrival time... Five minutes. She tapped on the comms unit set into the dash that called to the whole ship. "Ladies and Gentlemen. We are about to come out of warp, if you'd like to witness this first step in our exploration then please come to the front of the ship."

Whoever showed up on time was lucky to witness the first planet in the ECS Stellaria's history. What came into view was a lush world of green. Eyeballing the one side, it looked like 50% of the world was forest of some kind and the other was water. The planet definitely seemed habitable. There were a couple of massive mountain ranges though. Without a thorough reading yet, Harisa estimated they were likely the size of Mt. Everest back on Terra. In orbit, there were actually two moons circling the planet, one seemed similar to Luna back on Terra and the other looked highly metallic. Like a giant ball of iron got trapped in the planets gravity. There were two points on the planet one might call the north and south poles, though there was a very, very small amount of snow at the very tip tops. The planet seemed a bit hot over all.

"What a beautiful first planet to encounter. I'm excited to get down there and see what's there." Jess said, hopping up and down on her heels.

"I'll just stay and watch the ship." Harisa wanted to make sure she wasn't expected to leave.

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

Jess laughed a bit, "Geez, 'Captain' a little please wouldn't hurt here and there." Jess said as she snaked over to Malia and throw her arms around his. "Now then! How much do you know about our engineering? What's that? Not much?" Jess said, barely giving the moth time to reply. She cleared her throat and began to sing a bit. "Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of human engineering. Take a look, and you'll see, into our imagination!" She sung, rather in tune at least, as she pulled the moth along. Harisa sighed, gave the captain a salute, and walked after the two.

Cherche watched as Erka walked off himself, giving a small glance back as Jessica started singing and walking off with the Myrkith engineer. She felt... Worried, about this trip. Either way, this was the crew. Shaking her head, she chased after Erka, following him to the cockpit.

---

When the Engineers entered the Engineering Bay, Jessica let go of Malia's arm and patted him on the head before checking the stations and bringing up a computer, looking at the status of the ship. "Alright then, unsurprisingly, engine is in tip top shape. Weapons are fine, we should do a few test fires at some debris once we hit some in the vacuum. Shields are working and stealth seems to be working. No real experience with that though. Do you, 'Yamada'?" Jess asked her other human engineer.

"I was present for a few of the tests, but it seemed to work then. I did help install it too so I have an idea on that. It should work." Harisa said, examining their work stations. She double checked to make sure they had all the tools necessary. Power tools, plasma cutter, electric screwdriver and drill... "Well, we have all of our tools. So, I think we're good to go. 'Helmheim' can you go check the lab and workstation? You're the one that's going to use it the most."

"Yea, sure." Jess said, nodding and walking through one of the doors in the back of the room. There were two. One that went to the engine core, and the other that led to the lab and workstations. One to examine and experiment on things they found out in their travels, and the other to work on projects. The lab was as expected, fully stocked with essentials to see the properties of materials and all. The workshop.... Well, that was as to be expected too, but not in a good way. It actually seemed a bit worse than the one at home, though that might just be because this was smaller.

After her look over, Jess clicked on her wrist-mounted computer that luckily had a comms function installed. "Alright, Kiri. Everything looks good down here. Ready when you are." She reported. She cancelled the comm function and looked to Malia. "Alright, shall we explain some of our devices here to you before departure?"

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

"Oh! Yes, yes! Question, question." Jessica asked, raising her hand and hardly giving the captain a moment to answer. "Do we have a first place to check out yet? Or do we need to search for ourselves? How much danger are we expecting? Do you think we're going to have to worry about some weird alien parasite latching onto our brains and taking control of our bodies?"[ Some of her questions were more serious than the others.

Harisa sighed at the dumb questions but asked her own. "How long is it scheduled before we return to Terra for our first full scale report? Supposing everything goes according to schedule of course." She was much more respectful about asking. Cherche meanwhile, stayed silent near Erka.

The ECS Stellaria - A Sci-fi Fantasy exploration adventure

Harisa and Cherche both arrived with their respective parties. Cherche took a spot along the wall with Erka while Harisa stood with her fellow engineer. They arrived before the captain and both would salute her as she entered. When Jess and the Captain entered, Jess would give a small nod to the Captain and walk off to where she saw Harisa... Then she'd notice the Mothraki. She gave a harsh look over and then smile. "Gya! You are adorable!" She said, hugging the moth boy. She knew all about these creatures! "Oh, you make me want to swing for the correct team, you're so cute."

Cherche on the other side of the room just rolled her eyes. "I feel like I must apologize for her on behalf of all of human-kind." The woman said to Erka while the Head Engineer did what she did.

Harisa stepped in though, and lightly pushed the woman away from Malia. "Miss, while I understand the feeling... We are here for a brief. You can do this later. Or better yet, not do it." She stated, looking the woman in the eye.

While at first Jessica looked irritated with that, she resigned. "Yes, yes. You're right." The woman sighed and turned to Kiri. "Alright, 'I apologize for my outburst, Captain. Please proceed.'" Jess added with an obviously rehearsed phrase. She obviously did not have a military background.