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May 2023 It's been hectic this last year, but we are alive and celebrating our fifth year of adventure and tales. A lot has been worked on to help make the Monoverse one that everyone can enjoy and explore their story while becoming a part of the greater cosmos. All of you, new and long time players, stay safe, and see you in the Sea of Stars!
With the Kromus resurgence and the renewed declaration of war, the Galactic Federation seeks to expand the reach of its police branch, both to preempt Kromus aggression and to supplement local defense fleets. An abandoned colony world towards the edge of GalFed space, TX-661, has been identified as a potential staging ground for such a sector patrol fleet. As no GalFed presence has set foot on the world in over thirty years, an open bounty has been posted for those willing to survey it and, if needed, neutralize potential groundside threats in advance of GalFed forces. As should be obvious, Kromus presence is highly possible on the planet, so proper preparations are advised.
Renown bonus toward any relevant ranking for registered Bounty Hunters, the offered monetary bounty, and further rewards to be decided upon completion of the Survey.
With a tap tap tap, a ceramic digit skitters across the screen of a typical tablet as it displays the home-page of the Galactic Federation Police Forces Website, Bloodless eyes stare unblinkingly at the latest updates, settling on one item of particular interest. An Open Bounty Survey Mission The Automaton's other hand twitches slightly as the thought of doing something in line with it's specializations flashes through it's arcane processors.
A quick glance over to a small box filled with slightly rounded shapes triggers another hand-twitch, there were many things that could be examined on this trip. Speaking of things to be examined, the Robot turned to check on it's medical kit, particularly the items intended less for healing and more for study... A speck of rust, unacceptable...
Closing down the browser on his device, the Android brought up the communications interface and opened one of the three contacts saved in it: ... Attention Comrade Eligos, A New Job Has Been Found And It Is "Hella L33t" Or Whatever It Is You Spurmen Say. I Am Already Making Preparations, Notify Me As To Whether You'll Be Participating Or Not. Further Information In The Attachment.
The message sent, the Imperial Emissary tuned the ship's radio into the local news network and began to conduct preparations... Damn, just more celebrity talk, where is the politics when you need it.
Seeker glanced over to the shrine he'd set up, the first of the now many modifications he'd made to his vessel, The Founder and The Trickster had protected him so far, he'd need to make an offering or two in appreciation... I wonder if HQ would let me download the Schematic for Incense... should probably check the local varieties first.
This world had gone dark many years ago. The saying was more ominous than the reality of the natural world simply taking back what it had loaned to the settlers but in wartime, one’s derelict colony was another’s hidden military base. That’s the job that Czyereck had signed up for. He wasn’t thinking of it much during his descent nor the few times the knife-ship had flew across its atmosphere a few hours earlier, observing it quietly for any unusual activity. Now descending with a specialized parachute attached to his back, the wraithscourge commando was descending rapidly towards a specific landing zone. A marsh didn’t sound very pleasant but for an insect, the filth, grime, and muck were far more familiar and even welcoming than most.
It helped, he thought as his legs dug into the murk, that the silk-like substance that comprised the parachute was biodegradable. Trailing behind him like some enormous piece of fabric, its pristine white had begun morphing into a sickly brown-green like rotten spinach as it melted into the water. It smelled much worse but where others found foulness in this filth he found comfort. The liveliness of the bog swept over his senses from the worming creatures wriggling under his feet to the fetid reek that graced his antennae. Every inch of it swarmed with life and activity and every death whether microscopic organism or massive tree emerging from the cover of the algaic blanket over the waters simply birthed more ravenous, hungry, desperate activity.
On a free day, this would be a place to explore and indulge in the carnal and the uncivilized but iron-clad duty tensed his senses to a razor sharp focus. This world was wild and unknown to those who once ruled it and it was his work to see if it could be ruled again. Quietly, he moved through the marsh not as the commando he appeared to be but something more primitive and bestial. A shambling shape on eight legs, crawling over logs, climbing up trees, snaking around tall grass, and creeping at the bottom of the obscured waters. His destination was the riverside settlement, approaching in the next 12 minutes or so. Would it be deserted? Would it be populated by the kromus? Or would someone else have turned this into their home?
He had a very specific method to deal with the second.
Back in the Cargo hold of the vessel, Eligos was busy maintaining his physical fitness. Cybernetic limbs offered him strength and speed beyond the limits of the flesh, but maintaining the health of his core and organs was a must. Not only did it allow his body to accept the stress of the limbs, it prevented rejection. As such the human was currently along the floor of the vessel busy with a set of crunches, music blaring loudly from his headset, laying on top of his simple bed. Being the only organic on board, the entire living area showed signs of him sprawling about, clothing being thrown every where, his gear spread across the area, and the very fact that he rarely bothered with putting on clothing...all things he suspected annoyed the owner of the vessel.
As the communication linked with his headset it stopped the music, the loud industrial sounds being replaced by Seeker monotone voice, causing the human to stop and just lay down, cringing at the automaton's attempt at leet speech.
"No that is not what we say...Seeker you need to stop using vocabulary you find online it...it really doesn't translate well into day to day..."
Eligos pushed himself off the floor, wandering over to the fridge, digging past the piles of highly nutritious, but not necessarily tasty, meals to fetch an energy drink, punching the seal with his cybernetic thumb before reaching for his datapad. Oh boy...a survey mission, but one that might as well be a combat one regarding where they were going. The money was good tho, and heck, if Seeker wanted to go for it he might as well be a good sport and provide backup. Putting the datapad down and fetching a towel, he would clean off the sweat before picking up the headset, tapping the side until he found the comm function.
"Count me in. I'll prep up my gear. I should be good to go by the time we arrive."
The planet was peaceful as the various intruders made their landings. The wild life scattered at the sounds of ship drives bringing their weights to a rest. Many were herbivorous lifeforms, seeking shelter from something not heard in the area for nearly thirty standard years.
It was quiet once those sounds of roaring engines died down. The natural elements had begun reclaiming the once populated colony city, abandoned since the horrifying outbreak of the Kromus War thirty years prior. Once rumors of planetary burnings had been confirmed after the destruction of Beacon, not less than fifty light years from the heart of Confederation space, even those territories belonging nominally to the Galactic Federation had taken heed.
Within weeks, the small colony had been evacuated in totality, or so official records had been noted. None remained now but the imported fauna and the native wildlife, the former of which was dwindling in population without the settlers to help maintain them. Most of the transplanted animals species had been hunted by native predators or died out in competition with the native life for food.
Whether these were the only things inhabiting the planet and its biomes remained to be seen.
A Silvery Vessel hangs near silently over the trees as it reaches out with it's numerous scanning systems, turning the area into the galaxy's worst Rave as LIDAR beams and a couple more intense beams dance about the landscape. Seeker basked in the flood of data as he went about executing the standard survey procedures he'd come to find comfort in over his 20 years of isolation, he *knew* how to do this stuff. A momentary shift of focus to the single camera within the cargo bay brought him reasurance as well, the Spurman was adapting to his artificial habitat quite well, although a few of those items would have to be relocated so as to maintain a clear path; the nesting behavior was strange, but not entirely different from that of some kobolds back home.
The Automaton had chosen an area away from any decaying signs of civilization to conduct his initial scans, having learned from prior activities, and after a few minutes, he guided the ship towards a wide clearing withing a short run of a crumbling settlement. Some basic searching may reveal that the site was recoverable, and if not it would be relatively easy for the bounty-posters to simply level the place for reconstruction.
As the Revenant brought the craft down, he secretly hoped that one of the native predators would attack, it had been a long time since he'd dissected something. The Vessel hummed lowly as it settled down and the engines were cut out.
"Comrade, we've touched down near a former settlement, recommend exercising caution, possibly hostile native fauna. I request that you leave any native life at least partially intact, the data that a more in-depth analysis would reveal may be of value."
With that, the Scout disengaged from the pilot's interface and began his own preparations.
While still hidden underneath the moss and plate-shaped plant floating above him, Czyereck noticed the turgid water shake and vibrate as if by some motor. A few of the multi-limbed critters dashing and stopping suddenly froze before diving away from the surface and the writhing creatures digging around beneath him began burrowing quickly. Maybe it was a predator or some distant tectonic movement; maybe it was visitors. From beneath his armour something clicked and detached, darting out like a disc-shaped beetle and moving to one of the piers by the water.
Climbing up onto the rotting mold-covered surface, the dripping drone would scan the collapsed doorway of the house, noticing a large gnarled tree with long gloomy branches emerging through its roof. There was little furniture inside and the machine slowly crept over huge roots and competing undergrowth foliage before its claws settled on the rough bark of the tree. Climbing into the curtain like cover of the willow-esque plant, he distantly caught the sight of something descending from the sky. A ship but the specific build he could not make out before it disappeared behind the trees along the winding and now partially grass-covered path to the riverside.
He had oxygen reserves but it was best not to test them. Like some slimy bog creeper, the pulled himself onto the shore and slinked low and quiet into the house, nearing a shattered window and slowly unholstering his rifle. There was a chance whatever just landed nearby wasn't hostile but if it was, he'd be ready to take advantage of the cover the building provided. His tree-hiding drone would zoom in as much as it could, waiting to see what would emerge into his sight.
As Seeker took care of the initial analysis, Eligos began his preparations for the mission ahead. From what he could perceive from the info forwarded to him, the environment was mostly natural, with decaying urban sites being slowly overtaken by natural fauna and flora...Not exactly his favoured terrain, but nothing he could manage. Digging through his clothing, throwing them into a ever-growing pile on top of his bed until he found what he was looking for. A pair of black construction work pants, with patches of resistant material studded somewhat haphazardly through them, with their length ripped right bellow the knee, effectively turning them into shorts, a plethora of clips short belts and chains hanging from the waist. He didn't even remember how he got those but they would do just fine. Slipping them on and a black tank top he set about gathering the gear he needed.
"Minimal collateral damage then? Very well, I'll go melee-heavy and avoid explosives and my ranged options, since they tend to be...messy..."
His is fingers flexed as the diamond claws extended, short sparks of electricity dancing between the ceramic-covered digits as he tested the battery output. The heavy talons on the tips of his digitigrade feet deployed, slightly scratching the plated floor of the vessel as he flexed them, testing their mobility. Everything seemed to be in order. Finally he would simply grab his "lockpicks" and his automatic weapons, strapping both to his torso before starting to head towards the exit, picking his gas-mask and headset on his way. He would however, pause before his duffel bag, currently containing little more than a few energy bars, a cold sports drink and about a dozen of prepared molotovs...he shouldn't but...better safe than sorry. He picked it up and slung it over his shoulders, connecting it to a few of the clips on his belt to avoid too much swinging or getting it snatched on vegetation.
The Arrow's Ramp descends to reveal a lightly armed Scout jumping out as soon as possible. Seeker, with his standard gear and his scalpel collection, was prepared af for some good old SCIENCE (tm). Momentarily Consulting the map he'd taken from the Arrow, the Revenant glanced back at his comrade and gave a short head-jerk in the direction of the derelict settlement.
"If you can't tell, comrade, I am very excited at the prospects of again performing science in the good old fashion. Direct data acquisition awaits us."
Mag-Pistol and Shockblade at the ready, the AI begins to stalk through the unkempt grass with the sort of confidence that one can only get when one has already survived multiple Green Zone expeditions on Unity. The odds of something being as nasty as the specimens back home existing here were non-zero, and the Robot was looking forward to employing his tools.
Post by Eliza Silvermantle on Aug 18, 2019 3:49:31 GMT
Eliza glanced over the mission details in the data package as the Dancing Goddess exited Slipspace just beyond the atmospheric boundary, shaking her head irritably at the disappointing lack of useful intel. Then again, if they had that information, they wouldn't need us to do this mission, she mused silently. Preliminary sensor scans hadn't detected anything of note, so she made little effort to conceal her descent on what appeared to be an abandoned spaceport. An ashen-white brow perked up as, upon breaking past the cloud cover, a ping came up on her sensors. A ship, still cooling. Curious, but not entirely unexpected. Contracts like this were valuable for those trying to work their way up the ranks of bounty hunter, so it made sense that she wasn't the only one present. The question was, did she make her presence known, or remain as covert as possible? Eliza contemplated the riddle for a span of seconds, then adjusted her landing vector to set down perhaps 100 meters from the curious vessel.
"Hmm..Well ye're a new design.." she muttered aloud as the Dancing Goddess settled onto the earth below, then began powering the sleek transport down before heading to the small armory/storage cabin aboard to gather her equipment, opting for a few nanolaminated titanium glass armor plates that affixed to her combat suit, a helmet of similar material, her favored MARS hand cannons with a pack loaded with spare ammunition, breaching charges, a few grenades, a medical kit, and a gauss rifle that fired similar ammunition as her MARS, albeit at a much higher velocity, the last of which she strapped to the side of her pack. She hoped there wouldn't be a fight, and the Witch would avoid combat if possible, but the mission description had warned of a high probability, and she was not about to go in with sidearms alone if it turned out to be as dangerous as that warning implied.
Once fully equipped, Eliza made her way down the boarding ramp silently, sealing the ship up behind her before she stalked off further into the abandoned city in hopes of finding clues as to why the colony had gone silent.
There seems to be a quiet that progresses as the intruders from the sleek winged craft close in on the old colony city complex. Even insect life seems to be absent once one is within three kilometers of the main city walls. Once inside the walls of the city complex, there is a peculiar silence, the emptiness of three decades. A few scattered pieces of what looks like carapaced shell are strewn about the streets here and there, and any attempts to scan for life signs give various interpretations of the same results: silence.
Further exploration reveals evidence of an attempted bombardment as several buildings are shattered through and scorched, while patches of the streets are fused from energy blasts of some kind in the past. Any scans with handheld equipment reveals little, save that the blast burns are less than twenty years old based on residual particles.
Water rippled down the marsh river. Local wildlife became scarce the further downstream one followed, leading into a crudely formed "trench" that came to a halt in the form of a crashed ship. Covered in moss and various plant life, the vessel was clearly the cause of the divergence in the river. Strangely, natural fauna was nowhere to be seen or heard, not even smaller insects or amphibious life.
It is hard to determine the age of the wrecked vessel, but it appears to be roughly the size of a small transport, between seventy to eighty meters in length. Any familiar enough would recognize the design aesthetic as Kromus from just at the tail end of the previous war. The lack of visible weapons damage would seem odd, given the position the ship was in.
Outside the stirring of water, there is no sound at all.
From its shaded perch high up on the tree, the drone had a commanding view of its surroundings. Woods stretched out before its sight and behind it the long river which he had traveled earlier, reeking along every foot of its winding length. He waited and waited as the drone quietly rotated on its perch, scanning for anything unusual in terms of movement. Soon however it paused as Czyreck noticed an odd sight down the river; a split in the flow of its turgid waters. He had noticed it in passing before but there was another detail that had passed on him earlier, obscured by the rocks and jutting logs.
The ocular cameras of the drone zoomed in and the finer details became present. A sloping gouge in the murk, too smooth to be by stone or beast, one that deepened the further its sight travelled on its path before disappearing into the distance.
Quickly, the drone crept back down the tree and into a storage slot. Quickly slipping through the door, Czyereck moved into the brush and tree cover around the river. His fingers slid into dials and switches in the hellhammer rifle and its barrel extended as its stock pushed against its shoulder. Another weapon was quickly pulled out from across his shoulder; a grenade launcher, its rounds kept in a sac-like pouch and its body gnarled like a dried out carcass and the barrel a ribbed, jutting length of carapace-like matter.
Its munitions storage opened and his various limbs quickly swapped out a number of the spherical rounds within, swapping them for a sextet of dark blue counterparts each one with a lightning bolt symbol upon them. Electroshock grenades; less killing capacity than high explosive or fragmentation but they had other uses beyond pure lethality.
Crouched low and cautiously scanning his surroundings, one set of eyes followed the trench as it deepened into a wound upon the earth. His body tensed, sound slowly exiting as he neared a massive shape half sunk into the riverbed. Kromus, transport vessel - multiple eyes flipped through a number of vision modes. Heat, electrical signatures, x-ray, structural weaknesses, but through each one he saw little of interest. The vessel appeared undamaged, something made eerier by the silence around him.
It wasn't just that. The many scents he'd normally detect were absent, leaving him with just the soft olfactory touch of the moist soil and the still plant life crossed with the wetness of the marsh. No insects rushing from under the undergrowth, mammals thinking they were unseen as they darted off in the distance, or reptiles quietly slithering over barely bending branches.
His weapon raised and Czyereck began to circle the wooded area surrounding the ship. Perhaps there would be some clues as to the absence of anything animal in his immediate surroundings. No larger fauna was one thing but the lack of any insect life was another. Poisoning from chemicals was a possibility, so was some sort of signal emission driving them away. One set of eyes remained watching the ship while his others made a thorough inspection of the woods nearby for anything unusual.
There was an unacceptable lack of specimens to examine... The smattering of arthropods found prior to entering the proximity of the derelict settlement simply wasn't enough, where was a good old Green Zone Horror when one was desired? Nonetheless, the AI was a couple bugs heavier as he crossed the threshold into the settlement. The lack of fauna was disconcerting, nature has a tendency to fill any voids that happen to appear, which meant that there was no void to fill here. This either meant that the locale was inhabited by some sort of aggressive life-form or it was simply incapable of supporting non-plant-life. Other possibilities existed, but those were the two simplest explanations. Seeker quickly changed from excited scientist to wary soldier as he began to check every corner, and he activated his helmet's combat enhancer programs, observing as numerous points of interest were highlighted within his proximity.
"Locale deemed highly suspicious, recommend exercising caution. This excursion better not turn out like previous ones lest I be highly displeased, Spurfolk can't all be mad can they?"
The Scout continued to go about collecting samples, but at a much slower pace now that he was keeping an eye out for ambushes, he did not want to have to perform a head-replacement in the field. He had a sinking feeling that he probably wouldn't get to use his scalpels on any of the local fauna this day. There is a quiet buzz that rises in pitch into inaudibility as Seeker primes his shock generators in case he's blindsided.
Post by Eliza Silvermantle on Aug 18, 2019 17:39:49 GMT
Silence. Not unusual for an abandoned colony with regards to sentient life, but for nothing beyond plant life to be present? It was more than slightly unnatural, Eliza felt. It made the quiet feel oppressive, almost, setting the Witch on edge as she crept through the overgrown streets. As she moved through across the somewhat unsettling landscape, she paused, taking notice of the signs of long-past conflict and fragments of carapace littering the ground. Recalling the mission debriefing's warning of potential hostile forces, Eliza readied her rifle, then knelt by a pile of carapace fragments to analyze the composition in hopes of identifying the creature it had belonged to. She held her suspicions, but if they proved true, then the mission could prove even more dangerous than she had prepared for. Caution was her ally, it seemed, more than ever.
I should probably let the other hunters know, if this is what I think it is, she thought grimly as she waiting for her scanner to complete its reading. To that end, Eliza quietly began to scan the comms channels in the local area, listening for chatter on her headset.
The silence only continues as these intruders move deeper into the city complex. Here and there, a few weapons can be found; older plasma pistols and a few outdated M41I-13 burst rifles, but no sign of those who might have carried them. More pieces of carapace shell fragments can be found, and any examination with handheld scanning equipment reveals these are pieces of various Kromus subspecies and their exoskeletons.
Toward the center of the eight kilometer wide city complex is the primary power and management quarter. To the north side is residential blocks, which bleed into the processing quarter on the eastern side. The south region is landing zones and aerospace management, while the west is mainly an enclosed recreation and education center for colonists children. Should one bother to look, the blackened remains of the Galactic Federation's emblem can be seen on the standing ruins of the city management building. Someone had attempted to blast the center of the city apart from orbit, and had managed to get a few shots before something had stopped them.
The partially sunken vessel is quiet as any who might dare would approach it. Around to one side is an exposed airlock chamber that has been torn open from grounding impact of the transport. This would appear the only way in. Outside of this, there would seem to be no other visible entry or exit into the ship. A few deep gouges and what looks like old acid burns make the wracked frame around the entryway, while inside is only darkness and a wet smell of something...
