World Tree MUSH

    Perhaps the distress signal was caught. Or perhaps it was heard of and a Vine to the supposed location was taken. Or, perhaps, it's just rotten luck in taking a wrong turn. Whatever the reason for stepping through the Vine, it doesn't lead to what is a normal location for such things. Usually they are near some kind of action, or a habitat of some kind, or something like that. But this? This is weird. The Vine opens up into a... field. A large field. Grassland, that's all. A grassland with some forests off in the distance, a few miles away, and the only sign of habitation is a large automated machine off some ways that appears to be crawling through the tall grasses. It looks pleasant. Idyllic even.

    But it's just a few moments before the weirdness sets in. For one thing, the horizon is... wrong. A faint mist is in the distance, but there's a weirdness to the way everything in the distance looks, like perspective is skewed. And the bright blue sky with the mid-afternoon sun doesn't seem to have the light coming directly FROM the sun, just the bulk of it... as if the blue sky itself is glowing. Which makes sense, because every few seconds there's a 'glitch' showing pixelation or artifacts, or a brief hole in the hologram to show the pipes, ducting, and holo-projectors in the ceiling a mile above, revealing that this is a truly massive artificial complex.

    IN SPACE:

    Those arriving in space, either through the spaceborne Vine or via translating in from their own FTL systems, will see an interesting sight. A roughly-oblong starship, drifting now, with an asteroid stuck on the hull and large ruptures along the hull. The asteroid is about two thirds the size of the ship, which might seem tiny at first... but the velocity that the ships are going is checked, and the sensor readings, revealing that the sight is still quite some distance away! The starship is truly massive, clocking in at around 80 or so kilometers in length at its longest point, and roughly egg-shaped, though with obvious decks and ports to make it look like a ship, not some sleek futuristic egg.

    One foot before the other. Claire whistles a tune to herself as she comes out of the Vine. She doesn't realize that being out in the open is anywhere unusual, but she squints at the sky, realizing it's off before the glitches happen. Once they do, she reaches into her backpack for a few red orbs and attaches them to her belt, and just casually holds onto her slingshot. "This place feels like Joja."

    Valerian is already here! A mercenary always finds a way to wind up somewhere interesting. He inhales deeply and sighs happily, "Aaaaah, smell that industrial grime. That pollution. The stale air that is overly filtered so that it tastes sterile. That fake sky meant to assure people to distract them from the grim reality." 

    Valerian lets out a happy noise, "It feels like home~. I never thought I'd find another post-apoc shithole world~." He rubs his hands together happily, "So. I wonder who became fascists in this apocalypse."

    Circe hadn't travelled much via vine, and she hadn't really planned it this time, having been in the middle of a Russia hiding from a wide variety of people who wanted to murder her for an equally wide variety of reasons.
    The arrival has her a bit dizzy, not being terribly used to being able to see long distances in atmosphere to really realize that things are wierd. At least up until glitches start. She'll reach up to rub at her red eyes, and when her hands move away, there are little glowing lines within them from where her amplants are kicking in, scanning for signals and trying to get a sense for just how much of this is real at all.
    She won't draw too much attention to herself from the others nearby, not recognizing any of them right away and not wanting to identify herself, what with the murder and bounties.

    "Captain, long range sensors indicate a massive object at approximately 20,000 kilometers in real space. Automatic translation in progress." announces Minerva as the elf wakes up. "Nnnrg? On screen." Justina rotates the chair from reclined to upright, and rubs her face. "Report."

    The long, bulbous frame of the CEFS Sanctuary is absolutely dwarfed by the massive construct as it comes to rest a couple hundred klicks from the derelict. "Unable to get a clear scan of the interior. The hull is defracting my scanning arrays. I am picking up life forms aboard and can teleport a Doll to them. Standing by." the AI states as Justina finishes getting ready and settling into the rig. "Do it, Mk. XII Boarding-action rig. Fit it with the Type. 3 repeaters and Frost Knife bolts." The half-elf settles back into the projection rig and between blinks appears inside the teleported Doll.

    Inside the ship, Claire and Valerian might come across a sleek, slightly hunched robotic frame with reverse jointed legs. It's clad in thick plating and has a clear section that contains 'something' on one shoulder. It's face shifts from blank, to a quintet of orange optical points, to blue-white optics as it comes online. "Minerva, comms check can you read me?" a beat. "Comms confirmed. Will maintain contact, if I go out of contact for more than two hours, initiate emergency recall procedure." The robot then turns to find the source of the life signals that Minerva picked up.

    Catching distress signals is part of a bounty hunter's job. Sometimes acting as a first responder before proper authorities arrive can mean all the difference between a saving some lives and getting a paycheck, or not.
    And on picking up the signal from a system away, Samus Aran, the most legendary bounty hunter in several galaxies, diverts her gunship's course.
    [Breaking out of FTL now.] ADAM, her ship's onboard AI announces as the sleek purple figure of her ship emerges some distance away from the oblong egg-like vessel.
    "What are we looking at, ADAM?" Samus murmurs as her fingers dance over the gunship's controls.
    [Uncertain. But that likely won't stop you from investigating, will it, Lady?]
    "You know me too well, ADAM." The bounty hunter says softly as she swerves her ship in close, looking for a docking station or port she can link her ship to and board via.
    "Looks like we're not the only ones investigating." She does consider on seeing Sanctuary arrive. "Send a handshake to Minerva and tell her I'll be boarding if she wants to put us through to Justina."
    [Yes, Lady.]

    It is a weird mix. Artificial in many ways, yet wholly natural in others. Valerian makes a comment about pollution but... on breathing in, there doesn't actually seem to be much of that! In fact, there's a scent of nature, of trees and grass... though not overwhelming, since the air IS filtered and circulated. But right here in the middle of the field of grass, it's smelling more like clean air and nature than expected. Yet there IS an undercurrent of something... off. Like a staleness in the air, or perhaps like a moldy piece of bread behind the sofa that can be smelled but not located. Not quite right, but not bad either.

    The machine in the distance abruptly stops... and turns to head toward the group gathered. It looks large... not huge, like a truck, but probably the size of a minivan, with a trash-can like front and a bin attached behind. It sways as it approaches, and a glimpse of legs can be seen, rather than treads or wheels. It also has four angular arms with strange implements on the end. Mostly sharp ones.

    As for the ships, the scanners ARE in fact throwing fits. Lifeforms keep coming up weird, with some scans saying there are thousands or millions, and others only a handful. But it is clear that there are a few means of ingress... but probably not the huge rents in the hull, as the scanners are probably being thrown off by the simply obscene amount of radiation that those areas are under. The ship has numerous docking ports, though. The question is which one to use, though Justina's arrival may point to one close by the others.

    "Well, then you'll like this." Claire digs through her backpack and pulls out a blue soda can, 'Joja Bluu Cola' "According to their scientists, this does not cause significant damage to your stomach lining." Claire sounds like she'd not trust Joja's scientists if they told her the sky was blue. Claire waves to the robot with the backwards knees, "Excuse us, please, it seems the sky needs maintenance where do we go to report this?" She glances towards the machine further out, and casually palms one of the red orbs, gripping her slingshot.

    Valerian absolutely happily takes the can from Claire's hand and inspects it. Then he cracks it open with a hiss and takes a sip, "Tastes kind of like a Red Bull. Definitely, DEFINITELY will eat your stomach lining, though. I can tell right away this could kill someone." With that statement made, the Juicer proceeds to carry the can with him as he wanders around, sipping from it on occasion as he holds out his other hand, "Valerian Railton. Import/Export specialist and hired merc. Nice to meetcha. If you ever wanna sell monster parts, I'm your guy. Or buy em." 

    He looks over towards the robot, "Oh snap. Justina! You're here? Been a hot minute. How ya doin?" He looks towards the other approaching robot, "Haha, who wants to bet it tries to kill us. My bet is janitor robot that thinks we're trash."

    A call of distress has gone out into the World Tree, and it seems such news travels far, wide, and fast. Somehow translated through multiple different mediums in order to best reach as many realities as possible.

    And so Tyrael is here, floating in the fake glowing sky. It becomes apparent that this is some kind of illusion, but it's still not clear exactly where the problem is or just who might be calling for help. He spots the machine coming toward the group below, and begins to approach it as well when Claire addresses it.

    Circe tilts her head, now starting to feel a little concerned about the potentially killer robots and other people around, and begins allowing her implants to simply passively scan for any sort of computer networks or signals she could maybe do something with.
    For the moment, she takes a quick drink from a flask she has on her, then heads in the direction of the machine in the distance, continuing to try to probe at it for signals as she does. "Bet you all that thing has some valuable data on it about this place, if nothing else." She'll say, before glancing at Claire. "...I don't think I know you." The goddess will add, at least implying that she knows everyone else in the immediate area. "Call me Aida."

    The quintet of optics shift to Claire. "I am unsure where to go, I am here to investigate this vessel myself." the voice is clearly organic coming through speakers, not some synthesized replica. Justina's about to say more when Valerian speaks up. "Mister Railton, it's been several months, last time we spoke was on that colony world, correct?" The robot shifts on its wide feet to watch the local construct approaching.

    Meanwhile,

    Minerva receives the handshake from ADAM, "Patching you through now, ADAM. Good to have you both.

    The robotic machine moves closer ... and fortunately, it seems... friendly? Just really dumb. The sharp tools on the ends withdraw, and it states clearly, "Humans detected. Engaging safety protocols." A quick light shines over everyone. "Error, unknown model detected," it says of Justina. And then... does nothing about it. "This area is off limits to non-designated crew, please present identification or move to the designated area." It then beeps once. "Contaminants detected, please present yourself to the nearest medical facility." This one is clearer though... it is definitely scanning over Valerian when it says that.

    Fortunately for everyone the robot seems... friendly? Just confused probably, and not very smart. Tyrael's presence up above can see this, but it's pretty 'boring' for the most part. just grassy fields for several miles, a forest over here, a... actually toward one side, the forest looks weirdly overgrown and is a strange bluish color. Maybe even a bluish colour.

"Claire, farmer. Adventuring as a hobby." Claire's eyes focus on Valerian when he offers to buy monster parts, "Got a dozen barrels of slime, a fridge full of monster bug meat, three crates of monster bat wings, two chests of solar essence and a chest of void essence. What can you offer?" She steps towards the approaching machine. "Sorry, we're lost. What way to the designated area?" She smiles to Circe, "Good day, Aida. Drop by the farm sometime to buy some fresh produce. Much healthier and tastier than the crap Joja sees fit to sell."

    The scans of the ship sure are coming out odd... But once ADAM and Minerva are linked and Samus has a general idea of where Justina is in the ship, she boards via the nearest docking rig.
    She's already in the purple-white plating of her Chozo power armor by the time she links up with the group.
    "... Aida huh." The skepticism practically drips from the Hunter's tone as she joins the others.
    "Railton, Thyme." She greets, those two, before her helmet dips in a nod of greeting to Claire.
    Her attention turns towards the Not-Justina-Machine though.
    "Is this the only thing you all found?"

    Tyrael watches the interaction between the confused machine and the rest of the group. But whatever that thing is, it doesn't seem like that's the source of the problem. He ascends again, searching for anything else out of the ordinary...that's when he notices that one section of the forest seems to be different from the rest. So he'll head in that direction.

    Valerian reaches into the front pocket of his large apron, which apparently functions as a bag of holding in some fashion, and pulls out a calculator, "Let's see. Slime isn't that valuable. Bug Monster meat is used in a lot of potions. Solar and Void essence are used in crafting an enchanting, probably." He taps at his keys a bit and then says, "Mn. Probably like eight thousand for the whole shebang. Ten grand if you really wanna break my balls over it." He puts the calculator away and sips at the Joja Bluu in his hand some more. 

    "Yo Samus. Nice to meetcha, Aida." He gives them both a wave. Tyrael gets one as well, but the archangel seems distracted at the moment. Then Valerian looks towards the robot as it scans him, "Oh. No, the contaminants are normal. I take drugs. Because I'm a winner. Winners do drugs." He sips the soda some more as he looks the robot over, "Where is the nearest medical facility?" He asks the robot in a curious tone.

    "This is a proxy unit, can you direct us to the proper area, are there any crew we could contact?" asks Justina as the local construct scans and speaks. She looks over at the others, then nods to Samus when addressed. For now though, the Doll-user waits for the others to pick a direction to go in.

    "Yeep." Circe says with not even the slightest hint of shame in her voice in spite of Circe knowing for an absolute fact that Samus knows who she is. She'll look at the robot, a little surprised, and continue failing at even remotely hiding her actual identity. "Huh. Normally I don't read as human to scans anymore. Maybe that's just back home where they know what to look for, though."
    She's specifically talking about her own scans, so she probably is wrong even at large. "I'm not really that interested in produce.. but we can talk about drugs later." She'll add, getting distracted from that worry now that she knows the giant robot isn't going to try to murder her.
    "..Maybe we should try to find some kind of computer access port so we can, um, access the computers here." The goddess of hacking will suggest, deciding making it clear that that would be unauthorized access might not be wise in front of the maybe-not-murderbot.

    The robot seems to ignore the chatter between the others. It has a few to actually answer though... and when directly asked, seems willing to provide answers all right. Claire first, with a quick lift of one arm pointing in a direction, seemingly right between the two forests. "Central Spire is in that direction. It should also have medical facilities or robots ready to attend to any injuries or contamination." Which also answers Valerian!

    Justina, however, gets a more interesting response. It already answered the first portion of her question, but the second? "Upon this unit's activation 31,277 hours ago, no crew had been awakened. Please find and request crew data from a command and control unit or station. Crew whereabouts are not in this unit's databanks."

    Well, Tyrael decides to wander off on his own, approaching the blue forest. Flying over there will rapidly show something is not right. A weird carpet of fungus is all over the canopy. Ever seen the old live-action Mario movie? Like that. It's a blue fungus though, and the trees look strangely twisted, getting worse the further in toward the forest it appears. Going farther would be basically exploring a completely unknown terrain all alone.

"I can get twelve grand from Mayor Lewis." Claire's got a 'work with me' voice. "And I don't want to do you dirty, I ain't keen on the way the likes of Joja do business, but I am running a business here." She does some mental math, "That's a little over three and a half years. Was still working my desk job back then." She puts the orb back on her belt, "Shall we head for the Central Spire?"

    Tyrael descends into the fungus-laden part of the forest, cutting away any branches that might be in his way and takes stock of the situation. He was aware that this was an illusion of some kind, but perhaps something in reality was causing this part of it to appear different. He plucks off a handful of the infected leaves, examining them.

    "Facinating... automaton-run ship, with the crew in some kind of suspension state. Indicates a pre-FTL culture, some kind of long-term generational colony ship perhaps..." the musing continues, as the Doll falls into pace with the others if they set off somewhere. It might be a bit weird, the organic voice coming out of a robot moving with perfect mechanical precision, where it was moving with all the little quirks of an organic person, including fidgeting and shifting of weight.

    "Fair enough. I can match twelve grand and go another ten percent over. We'll round up to thirteen-five." He says to her they negotiate, "It's hard to do cross-world negotiation without knowing the economics, so I have to pivot some time. Never been to your world. Keep in mind, you'll also be supporting sustainable witchcraft and alchemy on other worlds, which prevents the overharvesting of endangered species. Railton Imports and Exports focuses on sustainable supply of monster parts to prevent unicorn extinction, griffin extinction, things like that." 

    He nods in agreement, "Central spire sounds good to me."

    "Mmmhm..."
    Samus, for one, does not believe Circe in the least. For obvious reasons. But the Hunter doesn't bother with busting the goddess' cover. There'd be no real point to it at the moment.
    While Claire and Valerian haggle, Samus starts heading in the direction of the central spire. Which seems like the way to go anyway.

    Circe mutters to herself. "Sustainable witchcraft, is it?" She won't otherwise interfere with the negotiations, though, lifting an arm up to her mouth and kissing the head of the snake bracelet wrapped around it, following along behind Samus at a very slight distance.
    The snake will come alive, dropping off of her hand as she walks and starting to go towards the spire before her, sending a signal directly into Circe's brain courtesy of her implants. It's going to try to avoid anything that seems to be moving, however, not being a drone that's built for taking part in a heated battle or anything.

    TYRAEL:

    The angel breaks through the canopy easy enough, slicing through a few branches and lifting some leaves... which tingle with a mild acidic feel, though not enough to melt anything. It's more like an itch, kind of like an irritant but stronger. However, a few moments after doing that, wooden spears and vines erupt all around, making a deadly and intricate assault from the shadows of the forest, jabbing and assaulting the winged emissary with at least two dozen different attacks from different angles.

    GROUP:

    When nobody has any further questions for it, the robot just... turns around and goes right back to what it was doing, which was scanning the ground. Of interest is that it is a walker, with eigh mechanical legs trudging through the grass, and long footpads to distribute weight. It moves through the grasslands with a minimum of permanent damage, no more than a large animal might when trotting through the growth.

    Speaking of large animals, that's an unusual thing to note. While birds are few, there ARE birds out here, and small gazelle-like creatures - maybe even actual gazelle? - that dart the moment they hear anyone coming. Actual wildlife, but no humans?

    The Central Spire, though, is quickly coming into view. The mist thins enough to see it, a large column leading up to the ceiling, with boxy attachments all over it. Also, at ground level, bright flashes of light can be seen... and the distant sound of weapons fire.

"Deal. Getaway Farm, Stardew Valley. Ferngill Republic. Vine's at the bus stop, you want to go the opposite direction from Pelican Town." Claire finalizes the deal. At the sight of violence, she gets her orb and slingshot ready. "I don't discriminate on customers. Even growing some void chickens because the shadowmen and goblins love void eggs."

    Lost in thought, it takes a few moments for the flashes to register, and the sound to process... well it doesn't but it takes a moment or two for Justina to notice the alerts popping up in her HUD. "Wh-- weapons fire!". The Doll shifts stance and the right arm appears to 'morph' into a curved blade, and the box on the shoulder unpacks into a compact repeating crossbow. The first bolt that locks into place has a series of runes etched into the broad almost oversized head that glow with pale blue light.

    Justina then interposes her bulky frame between the firefight and Claire. "Stay behind me, use my body as cover." She's not telling the woman to hide, just be safe.

    Tyrael tosses the leaves away after examining them, and that was when the forest itself seems to lash out at him. Most of the attacks just break against his armor. However, there's enough of them that a some manage to get between the plating in a few places, drawing a glowing white liquid that dribbles out and falls to the ground. That is, before a golden energy barrier appears around him, at least temporarily shielding him from the assault.

    Thanks to supernatural senses, Valerian perks up, "Yes! Sustainable witchcraft supplies! You can't have witches running out of newt eyes, salamander tails, or basilisk livers because people overhunted them! It's an important market with a big impact on the ecosystem. Sustainability is all the rage in modern business!" He says to Aida (Circe) and gives her a thumbs up. 

    When the sounds of weapons fire is heard, Valerian frowns a bit and starts to adjust his stance. The hand not holding the half-empty Joja Cola Bluu comes up to grip a bundle strapped to his back as he moves forward, "Combat ahead. Energy weapons, probably." He starts to take point by instinct.

    "I've been retired from witchcraft for.. a long time now, but why would you need any of those things? It's mostly just about herbs and poisons and blood and rituals, not.. livers or eyes. Well, and magick, of course. That just sounds like people are making it much too complicated for no reason." Circe will complain, right up until weapons fire happens.
    Once that happens, the goddess - who would probably survive being shot unless they were exceptionally knowledgible or lucky - will nevertheless dive to the ground, reaching up to pull her earrings off her ears, ready to throw them if she needs to. "Are we being shot at?"

    Moving right along, the distant flash of light and the familiar crack and report of weapons causes Samus to slow as her helmet's visor starts picking out distant details, a hand gingerly resting atop the barrel of her arm cannon. Her gait takes on a subtle shift; turning from naturally predatory to cautious.
    She actually lets Valerian take to the lead of the group, as she braces for conflict.
    "I see it." She says softly to Justina. "Let's try to not jump in recklessly if we can avoid it."

    TYRAEL:
    Once the barrier goes up... well at first a few spears splinter on it, but then it goes eerily quiet. The angel has gotten himself a bit of a breather. A bit. Then there's a little ping off the barrier. Then another. Small nuts are falling from the trees, one or two at first, but soon a few more, starting to 'rain' against the shell lightly and accumulate on the forest floor. How weird.

    GROUP:

    The others will, yes, see combat after moving forward a little bit. Two groups of... creatures? They're human-shaped, but not human, with somewhat 'faceless' faces. Hollows for the eyes, thin slits for the nose, kind of alien in look. One group, the smaller one, is holding down an area behind a number of blasted-out robots and crates, used for cover and guarding a door to the spire. This group is uniformly a light pasty grey in color, but have varying builds, with the 'leader' having a muscular and tall build, while others appear to be male or female and have differing builds. The other group is a collection of muted colors, blues and reds and the like, with a similar diversity of builds, and have a ramshackle collection of barriers built from a few destroyed agricultural bots. Most of the weapons employed seem to be lasers of some kind, but the colorful ones are setting up a more complex, larger piece behind cover.

    Tyrael notes that the attacks stop when the shield goes up. So, it seems that the forest, or whoever may be controlling it, is quite aware and smart enough to respond to changing conditions.

    And then small nuts start to fall from the trees. How odd, indeed. Was this another defense mechanism? Or was it meant to be some kind of test, given it seems this entire place is an illusion? He keeps the shield up and begins to move through the forest again, searching for whomever may have sent the call for help, or who might be the source of this strange...corruption.

    "The only reason I don't see the local witch much is because I'm friends with the local wizard, messy breakup those two. Witches need good ingredients, too." Claire stays behind Justine, "If you insist. Should warn you, these are bombs." Claire approaches closer but holds fire. "If you wouldn't mind pausing your conflict, we're lost and were hoping to find someone who could help us." She yells.

    "Shit uh... is this a civil war? This feels like a civil war. Or a mutiny? Hard to pick a side in a weird alien mutiny." 

    Of course, Claire wants to talk it out peacefully. Valerian is fine with facilitating that! The hand holding the bundle rotates its wrist and pulls up over his head. There's a loud whirring as something comes to life and the fabric around the bundle shreds to pieces to reveal the sword-handled chainsaw that Valerian wields. 

    Rather than hit a person with it, he slams it into the wall, causing a horrendous screeching of metal on metal and a very visible fly of sparks from the motion, "HEY! THE LADY SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN!" 

    He gives Claire a thumbs up.

    Justina nods to Samus. "I am fully aware of standard combat procedure." she replies, then gives Claire a look with a pair of optics that swivel down toward her. "This combat frame is rated against bulkhead breaching charges. A few close strikes from your projectiles should not be a problem." She remarks, but then mutters under her 'breath'. Something about auxillary power and hull plating. This is visible in a few extra plates forming over center mass and a couple of extra moulded pieces around the joints to deflect incoming hits.

    Claire shouts, then Justina steps forward and projects her voice like a built-in megaphone. "Attention! We are responding to a distress signal received from this vessel. We request you cease conflict and ask for clarity on what caused the distress." She's expecting to get shot by one or both sides, especially that heavy weapons site being set-up.

    Circe is evidently not feeling particularly brave today, because she's going to stay on the ground, two shoulder-high robot piggies forming up from where she tosses her earrings and providing the goddess with cover.
    "I admire you all trying for peace, but if you want I can probably come up with a gas that will make them much more eager to talk? Just give me like five, ten minutes without them trying to shoot at us." Of course, if they can get that much time, Circe's poison would probably not be needed, but it's the thought that counts probably. She's just going to stay right here on the ground.

    "Sure looks like a civil war." Samus remarks mildly in agreement with Valerian. Though she can't helpt but glance back over her shoulder when Claire so brazenly asks the conflict to just come to a halt for the party's sake.
    Hopefully Valerian's display and Justina's diplomacy can facilitate that as the Hunter braces for the possibility of the conflict turning towards the group.
    "We just want answers."

    TYRAEL:

    The nuts falling are strange, mutated like everything else. Turning to walk through the forest is... maybe not the best idea. It's just a few steps before one of the nuts... detonates. Literally detonates. It's not a fire explosion, but more like a wave of concussive force... which also starts detonating other nuts. The trees just sway a little, despite the fact that so much force should immediately uproot them, as a series of powerful concussive wave just propogate through the forest, which only seems to be getting thicker. Theres no sign of technology here, so far, but surely the wall can't be TOO far away?

    GROUP:

    Well, Claire and Valerian and Justina sure are attracting attention. Both groups notice them... and the first, near the door, has the leader make a series of hand signals which sends a trio out with a deployable screen, hurriedly setting up cover near the group. The second set of creatures starts immediately peppering Justina with laser fire, and even her frame will start to suffer damage if kept under this assault! Fortunately, cover is arriving if she wishes to take it.

    One of the group calls out, "We were not aware any of the crew had been revived. Are you suffering from sleep sickness? Are your memories restored yet?" One of the creatures stands up straight, "Ready to serve! Companion model-"

    He's quickly yanked down out of the line of fire by his comrade. "Sorry, some of the old programming remains, and we've had to draft Companion and Worker models into the ship defense. It looks like the android virus is much more widespread than we thought."

    Claire does some quick thinking. "I don't think we were supposed to be." She decides to go with it, "We were told we should be heading for the central spire. What's this android virus?" She nocks a bullet on her slingshot, and returns fire to the ones aiming at them. "Dreadfully rude not to pause this violence after I asked so nicely."

    "So much for diplomacy." remarks Justina as she hunkers a little under the incoming fire. Once the barriers are set up by the 'friendly' aliens, the Doll darts forward. It closes ranks with the colourful hostiles with its arms crossed to absorb hits. The repeating crossbow tracks onto the more dangerous looking hostiles and fires with a solid sounding 'TWOK'. The heads shatter on impact, and release a grenade-like burst of ice magic, flash-freezing the surfaces of anything within the blast radius.

    The ethical conundrum of which group to side with has been settled. Kill the people shooting at him, "Hey shitlords! I said knock it off!" 

    Valerian overhand throws the chainsaw like it was a throwing axe towards one of the robots. Immediately, he follows the chainsaw in a sprint, closing the distance as he roundhouse kicks another robot with enough force to dent the side of an armored vehicle. Hit or miss with the first throw, he is now deep in the thick of it. His chainsaw cuts in wide arcs as he tries to make scrap metal of the robot fighting force. 

    Laser shots easily glance off the dragon hide armor he is wearing, some of them even singe the bare skin on his wrists or face, but he seems really in the zone about this whole robot murder thing at the moment.

    Circe, from where she's hiding, will call out towards the group. "I can probably help clear out any sort of programming if you really want me to! Or take a look at this.. android virus, you said? But we're not part of the crew or anything. Call us unexpected surprise passengers! Or space pirates, maybe!"
    Circe has been a space pirate a few times. She forgot her space eyepatch this time, though.
    She'll peer up over her piggie bot, wondering if these are all androids and she can maybe actually do something helpful to disable the other side. For now, she's just scanning for any sort of electronic signals in the air, though.

    Suddenly, the strange small nuts begin to explode in a somewhat sequential manner as they seem to detonate each other. The shield absorbs the force of the explosions but only to an extent, so as it cracks and dissipates Tyrael flies up again, away from the ground where the nuts had been accumulating. He passes through the canopy and continues upward, recalling that he'd briefly seen some kind of machinery up there earlier.

    Look at that. It IS a civil war. Some kind of android civil war. And as one group seems to be more friendly than the others, brings over deployable cover and all around seems to be more talkative than the other faction- who are still shooting, Samus makes her decision on who she's going to help out, here.
    "I'm not part of the crew." The Hunter says matter of factly as the barrel of her arm cannon splits open, a missile with a blue warhead locking into place with a soft click.
    Taking aim at the other faction Samus launches an ice missile as she nimbly darts out of the line of fire and into cover.
    Ice missiles are the Hunter's less than lethal option; designed to unleash an incredibly potent payload of coolants and chemicals that flash freeze anything they hit on contact.
    With that out of the way: "We came responding to a distress signal."
    Pause.
    "Ignore her." She means Circe.
    Samus is not a space pirate, she's not crustacean enough.

    GROUP:

    In a large enough group these guys could be a danger, but fortunately there aren't a ton of them. The laser blasts do hurt, but without the larger weapon set up they probably can't bring full force to bear. Valerian's chainsaw(and subsequent melee) tears into the group... revealing mechanical parts, though arranged in a weirdly organic manner. A strange bright fluid is in several tubes, which spurts wildly when they're torn apart. Samus uses ice missiles, which do seem to work and freeze them solid, and the explosions from Claire are blowing several back and starting to route them. Crossbow bolts do seem to hurt too, but the ice is more effective...

    Largely because, some might note, they still seem to operate fine when dismembered to a point. A missing limb is no trouble, even if that limb is a head, but tearing enough off will 'kill' them. The most aggressive are definitely the dark red ones, the other colors quickly bolting and giving up.

    This is a relief to the others, and the leader steps forward. "Space pirates or not, you're humans and we have to protect you unless you try to access restricted areas of the ship," he explains. "And we aren't sure. We think a terrorist cell infected one of the android vats, they're trying to gain control of the ship. At least one of their plans involved shutting down the cryogenic suspension of the crew to kill them. Others have just been mutated and tend to help the Killer Android faction, though a few are just acting oddly in a way that isn't a threat. We don't know much more than you, we're an emergency activation."

    TYRAEL:

    Once breaking the canopy a few 'nuts' are thrown toward Tyrael, but they seem to be parting shots and there's a distinct feeling that the forest is sulking. Flying away is probably the right answer until some info can be gained, but toward the ceiling... well it's a mile up, so it will take a while, but it seems to largely be lighting for the plants. Is it getting dimmer? The illusory sun is definitely starting to set, so that would make sense. But there are also pipes, vents, and other things here.

    "Oh okay. I see what this is. We're in a situation where you all are three laws compliant and they're not." He thumbs towards the fleeing robots as he smashes the skull of one under his boot and twists his foot a bit, "Does that mean you can't stop the terrorists or whatever that are taking over the ship because they're organic?" 

    Valerian says as he wipes some robot fluids off his gloves and onto the front of his apron as he lets out a tired sigh, "So it's a colony ship, then? An Ark?" He probes.

    Justina cleaves through one of the red androids with her blade-arm, then stomps on its 'head' for good measure. As the other models turn tail, they're chased by a few more of those ice bolts before she collapses the crossbow and dismisses the blade, turning toward the 'uncorrupted' locals. "Half human." she corrects curtly as she steps over. "Terrorist cell, mutation... elaborate." she says next, folding arms over chest and locking five different local androids with an optic each, the camera-like apertures whirring faintly.

    "Well. I'm not sure what happened to the crew, but I'm generally an expert in viruses, technology, and programming. And I've used cryo tech before, though not from this world. If you can get me to it, I can find out if I can pull any of them who are still alive out of hybernation. Though it sounded like they were, um.." She thinks back to what the robot had said earlier, and does some calculations on her implact. "..Three and a half years or so overdue to have been woken up? If the pods have been kept intact that should be fine, but it sounds like maybe not?"

    GROUP:

    Valerian's statement gets a nod! "Yes, we are three laws compliant." He doesn't seem surprised this is a thing that is commonly known. "But currently no humans are awake on this ship except for you four and a half. We are having difficulty because of malfunctioning ship systems and mutations caused to the onboard ecosystems, both colony ecosystems like this level, and the mold and rat infestation on other decks. The terrorists must have infected a vat before launch... it was a wartime launch."


    He looks at Circe and Justina now. "CS Warden, sometimes called USS Warden, bound for Alpha Centari. Launch date 2288, due to arrive in 2291." Which means there IS an FTL drive of some sort on here, if a slow one. "Currently overdue by..." He pauses. "112 years. Impact with the asteroid has caused continuing errors that the ship has failed to correct. Robots proved incapable of handling the situation, which is why the android vats were activated. It is likely the military humans in cryogenic suspension will be awakened if the situation continues to deteriorate." He tilts his head. "I can offer you medical care and supplies, but without clearance of some kind I can't offer you access to the rest of the ship or ship systems. I'd be happy to accept any valid clearance you can provide. We're a bit desperate here, but for now we just need to secure the area."