World Tree MUSH

    Those arriving would find the Vine exiting into... an enclosed space! The locals have set up some kind of base-station around a newly formed Vine on a nearly airless little rocky planetoid that's actually some kind of giant machine. The station covers a massive crater, sealing it like a capstone and allowing free access to the teleportal platform at the bottom. The ground is dusty, a fine particulate that has a greenish hue, probably from copper deposits. Justina is here, on the platform; her robotic body is a light framed model looking almost like a vacuum suit instead of a robotic frame. "We'll need to get you vacuum suits before we proceed into the central nexus. We have attempted to bring oxygen generators and power systems through the teleportal but the devices cease functioning within the nexus. Some kind of dampening field prevents them from channeling Primus." she remarks, gesturing to a rack of tiny suits that look like doll clothes. "For those who weren't here before, twist the neck ring, step into the suit, then twist each wrist and the suit will form to your body. The Helmet and auxilary gear attach to the suit at the marked positions, just hover the device over the area and it will activate the clamps." Morrigan can probably demonstrate this.

    "Ah, i-it's good to see you a-again." comes a male voice from behind a set of boxes. A mousey looking human male with big glasses steps out and half-hides behind a tablet the size of a clipboard. Patrick. "We've made several discoveries, but decided to w-wait for you to return before pressing forward with our research... Y-you're going to find this f-facinating." he says.

    Morrigan is here! And so is Mary Contrary.
    The Warlock and her Familiar Shinki are lingering by Justina's mechanical DOLL frame, chatting casually with the astral-projected Half-Elf. At least as casually as can be, knowing Justina's socially awkward demeanor.
    "It's good to see you again, Justina. Hey, you know how much fun I usually have on these outings, or course I'd stop by for this~." The witch says mildly as she steps into her suit and shows the others how to don and vacuum seal it.
    Beeeeefore Patrick shows up.
    "Oh hey. It's you. What kind of discoveries are those, huh, Pat?"

     Celesta Jones is on the case! Well, it's not really a case, at least not yet. She just wanted to go into space again, and this time do some walking around in it as opposed to being confined to the inside of a spaceship. Isn't it every girl's dream to jump around on the moon?

Following the directions given by Justina for the suit, the NYPD rookie gives herself a few glances as it clings to her, whistling appreciatively. "Man, I look good in this. It's almost like one of those action movies." she remarks, drawing the blaster pistol she nicked off an Imperial Stormtrooper and striking a few poses just for the fun of it. "Pew pew!"

    "Haven't worn one of these before." Claire follows the instructions carefully, following Morrigan's example. "I'm Claire." She looks around her surroundings, "You'll warn me if I put these on wrong, right? I don't quite fancy suffocating."

    Two newbies, one experienced... could be worse. "It's agreeable to see you too, Ms. Lar'osa." replies the scientist. "As for our discoveries, it would be best to show rather than tell. Follow me please." The robot turns once everyone's suited up. Patrick helping finalize Claire's suit-up and assisting with putting all the gear in place properly. It's pretty simple.

    Justina then approaches the big dias at the center of the platform, holds out a hand and a large orb floats up to hang in front of the palm. Justina 'grasps' the orb of blue-white light, turns her wrist and then; ZZWIP. She's gone.

    "Just touch the orb, and navigate by turning your hand to the Central Spark." says Patrick from a distance away. "One at a time, the machine doesn't really w-work with multiple people at once. We lost a Doll-arm to a miscalibrated translocation." he warns.

    Once her vacuum suit is on and it looks like Claire has her own in order, thanks to Patrick, Morrigan slings her backpack over her shoulder and watches as Justina ZZWIPs off.
    "Huh." Is all she says at first, before her attention shifts.
    "Claire huh? Hi, I'm Morrigan. Travelling witch, soothsayer, dealer of the macabre and agent of SHIELD." She says without missing a beat as she nudges her shinki.
    "Okay, into the backpack, you."
    Mary salutes and clambers her way into Morrigan's backpack as the Warlock approaches the dais and pauses.
    "Wait. Wait wait wait. You're telling me this thing can *SPLINCH* me?" She shudders. But then goes for it.
    ZZWIP!

     Giving the blaster a twirl before replacing it at her hip in a convenient holster, Celesta grins at the others and says, "Oh, yeah, I'm Celesta Jones. Just in case we haven't met." But now it's time to head off, and she follows Patrick's instructions very carefully so as not to have her ass sent to a separate part of the galaxy from her head. "Here we go!"

"I'm a farmer. Dabble in adventuring." Claire examines the machine they're supposed to use to travel, "Are you sure this is safe?" Nonetheless, she goes after the others, carefully following instructions to avoid unplanned mitosis.

    Patrick blinks owlishly at Morrigan before she ZZWIPs away. "... Splinch?" he asks the empty dias once everyone's through, before turning back to his tablet to try looking up this strange word...

    Meanwhile, inside the center of this gigantic machine, Justina stands patiently about ten meters from a dias rather similar to the one on the surface. Beyond where the robot-body stands is a truly gargantuan construct. Made of the same material as the dias and pulsing with an almost heart-beat like rhythmn of some kind of power. Lines tracing the framework glow and fade in a steady pattern, running along the edges and meeting in the center. At the center is a dias similar to the one they arrived at, only far larger. "This is the machine core, for lack of a better term. This device as far as we can tell, is a Megastructure scale translocation device... meant to take a user across the star system." says Justina, turning to approach the construct. It's further away that it appears!

    As the group approach, they would notice a floating spherical construct loitering around the construct, within a green-yellow 'bubble' surrounding the platforms. As they get closer it speaks, in a synthetic, high pitched tone. "Is anyone theeeere~? Oh- Hi!" once it spots them. It hangs in the air, watching like a security camera.

    ZZWIP!
    Morrigan appears! And she is NOT splinched. As though to make SURE of this the Warlock starts patting herself all over very vigorously to make sure she has not experienced sudden bifurcation upon any part of her body. After a momentary panic through this process before she finds herself satisfacorily in one piece and the witch heaves a sigh.
    "Not splinched... Phew!" She declares before making her way over to Justina.
    "So this can go across systems huh?" She asks before something snags her attention.
    It's the construct.
    "... Hi?"

     Celesta makes it through in one piece as well, though she can't help but pat herself down to make sure everything /is/ in the right place. "Well, that was a new experience." she says blandly, before her eyes are caught by the strange gigantic device and its glowing lines and... "Ohh okay, big teleporter thing. Got it."

The arrival of the talking ball gets a smile and a friendly wave from her. "Hello!"

    "Okay sorry I might be an idiot, but could you explain that to me like I'm five?" Claire states after some time thinking. "Ahh, big teleporter thing. Thank you miss Jones." She waves to the floating sphere, "Hi. I'm Claire."

    The floating sphere bobs a little, dipping down to get far too close to Celesta. It's smooth surface ripples briefly, then it speaks again. "Somebody new~. Anyone else but you.", it sing-songs, the 'you' clearly not anyone present. Justina hops up onto the platform, causing the bubble to ripple faintly in her passing. "Not systems, just this one. This construct is linked to a whole series of others in this system. Each planet is another of these constructs." she says, stepping toward the dias. "That is not all though. There is another construct, in the upper corona of the local star that seems to be a hub of sorts." she reaches out toward the dias and a much larger sphere dips down and engulfs the construct. It lifts her up above the dias and, ZZWIP. Away she goes again.

    Morrigan sort of blinks, still staring at the construct as it sing-songs at the party.
    Justina ZZWIPs away again but the Warlock remains, curious.
    "Well yes, apparently I guess I am new. Who are you?"
    She glances over her shouler at Celesta and Claire as though to wordlessly ask the two 'You ARE seeing this, right?'

    "I'm not seeing anything outside of my expectations." Claire tries to follow Justina along. "That's all uh... a bit beyond me I think, I hope you can clarify what I could help with? Surely not the engineering, the most complicated thing I can build is a good high explosive."

     Celesta shrugs to Morrigan and Claire. "I don't really get any of it either, to be fair. Technobabble was never my strong suit." she says, before stepping up to the dais as well to follow Justina. Where will it take them next?

    On Edge:

    The construct does a spin, backs off as Celesta moves to the Dias, and then spins upside down before righting itself again. "Since you've awakened Her again. We'll depend on you~." it sing-songs. Clearly it's speaking an esoteric language that's not really fully translating. Clearly it's as ancient as the megastructure it inhabits.

    On HUB.

    Justina is striding away from the arrival platform... the area is entirely artificial and the prominences of the star lick over the edge of the large 'bowl' station. A line of diases similar to the one bacl at Edge are at the center of the platform, seeming to form a line. The outermost of these is raised like the one at Edge, the reset are inert. There is a raised platform with a star symbol etched into it, where the teleport dropped those who followed Justina.

    "I am a witch." Morrigan points out to Celesta. "Do you really think technology is my strong suit?" She asks. "Sure I have a slick new smartphone and a shinki--" Said shinki pokes her head out of Morrigan's backpack curiously as she is mentioned. "--But, yeah I hardly understand any of this myself."
    She then turns back to the construct and just stares at it.
    "I have no idea what it's on about, do you?"
    Moving on, she follows after Justina and Claire though.

     Celesta shrugs again at Morrigan, just following along and pretending like anything makes sense. "Nah, it's like in those movies you know? Teleporters and aliens and stuff. We'll probably get to shoot a big slimy tentacle monster at some point." she suggests with a grin, tapping the grip of her blaster.

    Justina turns and starts to explain. "These pillars are apprently linked to each planet in this system. Note the markings on the pillars?" She points to the one raised pillar. It has markings etched exactly like those on the construct at Edge. "We're setting up expeditions to the next planet in, we're calling it Loop, as it's on a highly eccentric polar orbit of the star. The world itself appears to be an ice-ball but scans show it has a breathable atmosphere." She looks between the others. "Any questions so far?"

    "Oh, so they're like the pillars the Wizard is trying to convince me to buy for my farm." Claire finally connects dots to something useful. "I think the biggest question is simple, what kind of help could you see me providing, I'm good at farming, fighting and making things go boom, mostly."

    Morrigan raises her hand.
    "I have MANY questions." The Warlock says.
    Most pertinently: "Are these suits designed to withstand the cold?"
    But when she's eyeing the markings and purses her lips.
    "How many planets are in the system exactly?"

    "Well, we are uncertain if there will be any issues on the planets. Such as remnants of defensive systems, hostile fauna on the habitable worlds, etcetera." Justina replies to Claire. Then to Morrigan: "Additional auxilery items will be provided for the cold climate. A personal shield emitter and a flame ward to provide heat within, for example." The robot then tilts its head in thought. "There are nine pillars here, and we have detected only eight bodies. Perhaps one is on a highly eccentric elliptical orbit and only comes into the system every few months or so. I'll ask the Achilles to do a long-range scan for errant stellar bodies."

    "I can help with security, sure. Seems interesting." Claire examines the pillars in more detail, "Are you counting the star as one of those bodies?"

    "Okay cool." Morrigan won't be freezing her ass off on an iceball. That's good to know. But then she purses her lips.
    "Huh nine pillars but only eight planets..." It IS very possible that there's a planet that only shows up every few months or...
    "Or it's hidden by other means." Pause. "Spooky means."
    Leave it to a Warlock to be suspicious of the stars. "Anyway count me in."

    Justina gestures to the raised platform the group is stood on. "This platform represents the star. It's etched with the iconography indicating stellar phenomena... Prominences, flares and the like." as she says 'Prominences' one licks over the station, causing a shield to flicker and shimmer with the wash of matter and radiation. "We are in the upper corona of the star right now, for example."

    The scientist muses on Morrigan's words. "Possible, perhaps the final planet is cloaked or obscured somehow, and unlocking the other eight pillars will reveal it. A theory to keep in mind as we explore."

    "So there we have it." Morrigan says.
    "Let's get to unlocking the pillars and find that hidden body." She says thumping her fist gently into an upturned palm. "Who wants to take bets on what we find? My bet is some kind of sanity rending extradimensional horror from beyond the veil."
    Warlocks, man.

    "My bet's on some megacorp that didn't think whether or not they should after they realized they could." Claire makes her guess. "But megacorps are sanity rending horrors, they're just of our own creation. Close enough, probably? I'm in."