World Tree MUSH

    So what's been happening? It's been a fair amount of exploration! The bio labs are a huge mess right now, and apparently Epsilon City, where the crew would normally be living if they were awake(and apparently many are frozen there) is run by an android community of fascist and controlling androids that have some weird propaganda about 'humandroids' going on. This is, no doubt, another mess that the whole disjointed lack of control the main AI has over the ship seems to have caused. Exploring Epsilon City is dangerous, since they did dictate that an escort would be needed if the group left the residential area. But... how else are these problems going to be solved?

    The current group is left with a choice of where to go that is varied. Push on through Epsilon City, or try something else.

    'Aida' is going to rub at her eyes and make a proposal. "We really should be trying to get access to the central computers over everything else, I think? I'm not sure any problems we fix will really be permanent unless we can do that, at least. Things will just decay again. This place seems even more hazardous to us than the bio labs were." She'll admit, though Circe has a decent amount of protection against biological threats so her sense of scale with that might be off.

    If she can't convince the group to try elsewhere, she'll play along, though. Going by herself would be too much work.

Itana leaves the choice of what's next to people who know more about space stuff than she does. If not for the fact that she's getting /something/ out of this, frustration would've taken over by now and chased her back to the deserts of Damcyan.

She fusses with the cuff of one of her fortified suit gauntlets, wiggling her fingers a bit deeper into it - as if she possibly could. As much as she's getting used to wearing what is effectively latex with some framing elements, it still feels odd.

    /Maybe it's the light here. Nothing feels real./

"That seems like a wise plan," she concedes with a nod towards Circe, largely because she herself has no better plan than to stand around grumbling about weird whirry clicky flashy future stuff.

    "You're right." Claire agrees with Aida, "Really seems we have to get to the root of it before we can fix anything. Now, here's a question." She pauses for dramatic effect, "How do you propose we get there?"

    "I'm going to have to agree with Aida on this one." Samus muses. "That sounds like our best bet at making progress so far so I'm willing to go along with it." The Hunter says quite simply. "So unless anyone has any other suggestions, I vote we follow her lead here."

    "One of our options on the elevator was for an administration and security center. If there's anywhere where I can get better access than what we have now that we can get to, then it seems like a very bad naming job, yeah?" Aida asks. "This ship is stupidly big though. I keep thinking we must have seen the largest areas and..."

    Well, FORTUNATELY the iron fist of the 'Humandroids' is all too eager to see those gold-badged invaders walk right back out to the elevator. It's something to try, right?

    As 'Aida' said, the ship is stupidly huge, and given the position of the Administration area, it is not much smaller than the grasslands ecology system. What could take up that much space? The elevator doors opening reveals... a hint. For one thing, it's set up to be somewhat comfortable, with little parklike forests dotting the area, and the entire level sectioned off into large portions that have different labeled purposes. Administration seems to cover paperwork and acquisitions, but if Security is here there must be something more, right?

    This level is also under tighter control than most. A large robot with eight arms and bristling with weapons is waiting for the group when the doors open, and it rises up on large treads and rolls forward, scanning the id bands. "Please do not loiter. May I provide assistance to expedite your visit?" Somehow, that sounds... threatening, despite being an offer of help. Maybe it's the multiple armaments pointing toward everyone.

Itana accedes to the suggestions with no complaint. She's all too aware of her role here: Dumb muscle.

/The longer I stay here, the more I feel their city-people way of thinking sinking in,/ she reflects with a certain bitterness, which she leaves unvoiced as she files after the others. She keeps her bow over her shoulder, declining to pose a threat just yet.

That commitment almost doesn't last beyond an eight-armed metal horror.

Itana's eyebrows peak sharply as she takes a single step to the side, but tenses afterwards as she resists the urge to start fighting the abomination instantly. There are too many weapons pointed at her to get a shot off anyway. As much as weird future stuff is opaque to her, she knows the meaning of a menacing-looking flashy whirry doodad pointed at her face.

    Circe, who had assigned herself a multitude of lower-level roles and priviledges in her earlier hacking, is going to attempt to double down on her current lies. "Oh, we're here to perform some maintenance. I need to do quarterly updates and revisions to the consoles in the security divisions, the records show they're way, way, way, way out of date. Decades, even. These two are here for security to watch me." She'll wave vaguely at Itana and Claire.

    After a moment, she adds "That janitor's here to clean up if I make this messy" and jabs a finger at Samus.

    Claire smiles at the robot while she lets 'Aida' do the talking. Hand on her sword just in case it's needed.

    That sure is a menacing robot.
    Samus does not show that she is menaced, if she is in fact menaced at all. She's very stoic like that.
    "I prefer the term 'maintenance technician'." She asides to Circe when she's called a janitor.
    She warily keeps a weather eye on the machine in case it turns hostile, but makes no opening hostile moves, herself.

    The lack of hostile moves probably helps. The robot seems to think a minute, then backs off to allow passage. "Please move along in an orderly fashion," it states. "Records indicate that radiation cleanup completed 176 days ago. This level is deemed safe for human habitation." Well... safe as can be, considering the overtone of hostility from the robot. And it isn't alone.

    Even going to the nearest security station, roving robotic sentries - some of which are more maintenance than guards - all pause and just... watch. Creepily even, camera lenses focused on the group until they pass by and then motion resumes. But none confront or attempt to stop the group. For now.

For a few heartbeats, Itana is possessed by a cold thought:

    /I am going to die on this horrifying austere whirry-clicky star boat thing without ever getting to kill that bastard Golbez./

The thought sinks away sullenly when the robot lowers its guns. Itana lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Wrapping her arms around herself, she begins to move along behind the group.

Watchful eyes would be one thing. What the machines maneuvering through the core fix upon them is another. Itana's shoulders come up as a chill races up her back beneath the intense scrutiny of those inhuman camera lenses. She glances from one mechanoid to another, doing her best to maintain her focus.

Outwardly, it mostly works, but her inner monologue is growing increasingly tense. At least the coloured androids could talk. These things don't even seem /alive./

    Circe does manage to put up a reasonably brave face, but she's also spent a lot of time working with people with guns who were obviously annoyed at her. It's an acquired skill.

    She'll head straight for the security station, beginning to poke at it to see if it might have the ability to elevate her accesses, or at least get her a better picture of the state of the ship and all of the areas they hadn't been in yet. She'll firmly try not to look at any of the robotic sentries that are watching them all now.

    She's also, WITHOUT actually saying as much to anyone she's with, try to get a sense of if she might be able to update the security protocols from anywhere at this station or in this area. Possibly to give herself command over the robots with guns. For now, she's mostly just accessing the possible rather than actually acting.

    Funny enough there's someone here with a gun who is obviously annoyed by Circe.
    But Samus doesn't openly say such things. She's more concerned with watching the mechanical watchers keeping an eye on the group.
    "How are you holding up?" She does ask Itana, who seems visibly agitated.

    Claire glares at this security and opines quietly. "If it wasn't for all the people on board, I'd say we should just tear the place down." Someone's unhappy.

    At least they aren't attacking. The robots are definitely not feeling friendly, and Circe can quickly suss out why... and why the ship is in such bad shape. It looks like inter-ship communications broke down rather quickly after the asteroid hit them, due to a massive amount of radiation disrupting the comm lines. More weirdly, the radiation would periodically return, or show up in different places, over the course of time.

    As for what can be done here... getting more access to the ship is unlikely. Not directly anyway. Some maps are available, but to get to the command deck, where more info and clearance can be gained, the only available way would be through indirect means like maintenance tunnels or to bust in from the exterior. What CAN be gotten here is that there are apparently a large number of 'restricted items' stored on this level, and unlocking them would be easy.

    The bad news is it's very, very obvious that all the robots on this floor have had their programming badly corrupted. They don't appear to be rampaging, but there's a brief note that many of them had to be scrapped, and even the ones left don't seem to be following their original programming.

Itana is trying not to look agitated, but it's not easy. She glances at Samus sidelong and nods stiffly. "I will manage," she murmurs before fixing her eyes forward.

She does give Claire a glance, privately not sure if she disagrees. "This is a fairly colossal task for a small group of, effectively, mercenaries," she muses with a cant of her head. "There must be some way to do something effective without having to slog through every square foot of this entire vessel."

There are a lot of square feet. Itana stopped counting after awhile, and not just because she can't read or do advanced math.

Case in point: She can't read the bits about restricted items. She settles for falling in with Samus, figuring the big power-armoured woman will have the right idea.

    Circe will sigh. "We'll need to get to the command deck for getting more real access, but there seem to be some valuable items stored on this level. I'm afraid we should move them out of here, since they're likely to get hit with radiation in this area; it's been really bad." She says that last part loud enough for the corrupted bots, and then does what she needs to do from this console in order to unlock those restricted items.

    Easier to get them away from Samus later than it would be to carry them by herself, after all, and they can only help with the ship! She's hopeful she can trick the robots into not blasting her and maybe the others for taking them though.

    Claire listens to the news as it's being described. She keeps an eye out for any robot action while others attempt to access the restricted items, trying to look relaxed while being ready to draw her sword at a moment's notice.

    "What kinds of valuable items?" The Hunter asks, brow arching behind her visor.
    "I suppose getting them off this level before the radiation returns is a good idea though." Pause.
    Assuming the robots let them.
    But that can be a problem for Future Samus, who nods when Itana says she'll manage.
    "No luck on any better access though? Damn."
    It was worth a shot at least.

    No luck getting better access... but this level isn't 'far' from the Command level. The only issue is that it's a half mile above. And as for items... well, they're all stored separately, and most are less useful than it might be guessed. More wristbands for security, lots of deactivated security robots, a number of the various weapons available, and a large number of power cells for various equipment. The most useful may be either those or... the sealed environment suits available some distance away, locked in storage.

    Unlocking them doesn't seem to be an issue. Whether the robots will allow them to be taken off the level is another story entirely. In fact, one of the smaller security drones hovers in and questions, "Requesting estimated time to completion."

    Circe will make a decision. "I'm afraid we're going to have to conduct extended repairs in the maintenance tunnels, and I'm requesitioning environmental suits for the three of us who don't have ones already off this floor. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the maintenance will be completed really quickly within the next business year." She'll offer a slight bow to the security drone, hoping that a useless but definitive answer will get all of them off their backs, especially with the promise that they're going to be doing work elsewhere.

Itana shrugs back at Samus. She's the last person to ask about access, unless it involves accessing things through a smoking hole. Or an arrow-sized one.

If nothing else, climbing's not a problem. She'll be able to do that without too much incident.

She glances at Circe, pressing her lips together as she realizes what's being asked of them. "I'm not sure I will be able to assist with that," she murmurs.

    The little drone that prods the group for a time estimate makes Samus' head turn.
    "The environment suits might be the best bet." She suggests. "For those of you who don't have power armor." Noted mildly before-- Circe answers the drone.
    Hopefully that works.
    "I don't think we're really doing that." Samus says to Itana over a secured line so that only she can hear it and spare the archer some embarassment.

    The drone backs out, probably unable to give permission anyway. But since the group is not leaving this floor(supposedly) it doesn't seem like any alarm is being sprung? That's good.