World Tree MUSH

    New Targanine, a world on the frontier of civilisation. It was meant to be a shining jewel of the Alliance...
    But then it went silent. It's orbital facilities dormant, its population dead, dying or missing. A scout flyby of an unmanned droneship reported unprecedented devastation. No signals within the system. Not even beacons.

    Nothing was left. Everything gone. The world was burning, consumed in some kind of plasma storm.

    That was one hundred and twenty seven years ago

    Now, a distress beacon has activated on the planet, blaring out a cry for help. Not exactly the same as another universe's codes, but the same urgency. Code Black: Lives in danger, immediate assistance needed, save us.

    Centrian command received the signal, and dispatched every available ship in range to attend, but they also picked up a fleet of Klon'gan warships vectoring into the system too. The two fleets will arrive within minutes of one another and so that is the situation the out-versers will arrive to.

    On the surface the world is barren, the ground cracked and peeling like burnt parchment, buildings barely standing, gutted by the ancient flames, ash blowing in choking winds and making storms of debris that span for kilometers. Nothing lives here anymore, save for a crashed ship, surrounded by CEFS troops, fighting against Klon'gan warriors, pitched melee and the occasional bolt of plasma, cast of spell or volley of crossbow exchanging between the two sides.

    The Vine spits those arriving by it out next to the ship's airlock, where one of the crew is hunkered down with a slug thrower, taking potshots at the Klon'gans who try to break through the line. He's some kind of humanoid dolphin, sheathed in a gleaming purple field and wearing a modest vacuum suit with reinforced plating.

The ONE bloody time Talia uses the vine to save time, it spits her out in the middle of a pirate raid. She was surprised visibly as a plasma bolt spits past her head, narrowly missing her by inches. Swiftly and with purpose, Talia grabs her lightsaber and leaps to act! Her emerald blade swats at energy bolts while she tries to protect the dolphin man. "Stay behind cover!" She calls to him.

>> SUMMARY[Talia Kyras] >> Byoosh, kdck kdck!

    Lancelot arrived on the scene in an incorporeal form. The Servant silently wondered just how useful the ability was, so loathe was he to use the trick, but as the bullets flew by he warmed to the idea. Arms folded, the Knight of the Round Table took in the scene, looking around to not only take stock of foes, but friends, his eyes lingering on weapons both free and used. The abilities of the Counter Force that empowered him began to fill his head with emotionless data about the situation and weapons. His own weapon, Arondight, rested as usual within its chained scabbard on his hip. Eyes lingered on Talia, remembering the fighting style of another with a similar energy sword, though this person was foreign to him. He considered fully materializing, as he likely had nothing to fear from the weapons of the Klon'gans, but he had committed to this mission to learn what he could, in order to bring help to his dying homeworld.

    A horsedrawn carriage comes out of the vine, carrying a giant cauliflowers and boxes of regular sized fruits and vegetables. The farmer spots trouble, and immediately dives for cover, drawing her slingshot and reaching for one of her bombs. She takes a moment to get a good look at the situation before returning fire to the Klon'gans.

How fitting how that the vine would take Holly to a ghost planet. The question is where are the ghosts besides Servis and Lavaux. The witch finds her arriving in the middle of a firefight. The plasma bolt aimed at Talia goes right through Lavaux. "Okay, where did you drag us this time Holly?" That was a new record for someone trying to kill them again.

 "I think one of the space places...Talia and Claire are here though!" At least there are some familar faces here that aren't trying to kill her.

"Hopefully the Space Inquisition isn't here to hunt witches." Servis wonder what they did to draw fire so fast.

    Code Black.
    A distress signal akin to Baby's Cry: A call of the utmost urgency.
    It does not go unheard.
    A single, small, gunship breaks from FTL travel in the system, just in time to catch the arrival of the Centrian Fleet and the Klon'gan.
    [This will be a bumpy ride, Lady. Are you sure you want to go through with this?]
    "It's a Code Black. It can't be ignored." The pilot replies to her ship's onboard AI as the spacecraft zooms amidst the orbital debris and oncoming ships, weaving through a hailstorm of weapons fire.
    "Besides. We can always jack up the pay on account of the hazard, later."
    [Affirmative.]
    Blazing through the atmosphere, the gunship streaks through the sky, weapon systems kicking to life with a soft hum of energy as targeting computers calculate and calculate again.
    Those survivors of the crashed ship who know Samus Aran's signature purple gunship will find solace in her presence.
    Those Klon'gan who remember the Hunter's purple gunship may feel the thrill of knowing a fight has come to them.
    Right before they get atomized in a hailstorm of high energy, high heat, blaster fire from the gunship's cannons.

    The dolphin-man 'speaks'... its voice echoing through people's minds instead of via soundwaves. And it turns out to be feminine. "I am in cover! And you're blocking my shot." it says, cracking a shot off and drilling a Klon'gan between the eyes with the distinctive snap-pop of a gunpowder firearm, with a high pitched zwipping sound of a gaussian coil accelerating the bullet before it leaves the barrel.

    Holly's ghosts aren't really drawing fire, they're just catching the stray bolts from missed shots, or the random fire of a dying warrior magdumping on the trigger as they go down. "Hey lady! Get in the airlock if y'don't wanna get shot!" comes the dolphin's voice to Holly specifically.

    Claire's explosive shot catches several Klon'gan in the blast radius, sending one sailing several feet through the air... this unfortunately draws some fire from the otheres nearby, the plasma bolts slamming into the side of the cart as they try to suppress the explosive weapon.

    And then, Samus comes down in the gunship. Several Klon'gan roar in challenge at the gunship before they're vaporized by high energy plasma fire from the purple vessel.

    All this is observed by Lancelot, his data set showing the magical spells, the specifications of the repeating crossbows and the plasma weapons the Klon'gan are using. The material readout of the Klon'gan bladed weapons and basic specs of the few Dolls present. These ones are autonomous.

    The dolphin woman (sorry) was met with mild surprise for Talia for all of a second before she returned to focusing on the battle at hand. Hard to tell if Klon'gan remember the green skinned warrior with the matching laser sword, but they sure will get a reminder as Talia deftly chops a Klon'gan in half for getting too close. There's no time for mercy, these guys are here for blood. They'll get it, their own or the enemies it doesn't matter.

    "Claire? What are you doing here?!" Talia says, before Holly joins the fray. Also, a ghost!? So spoopy.

    Lancelot completely ignored the farmer, her carriage, and her slingshot attacks on the enemy. Holly's arrival, and subsequent vocalizations, were regarded and categorized. Lancelot, however, cast his eyes skywards as Samus Aran made her entrance with sound and fury. He smirked, a smile borne of one warrior recognizing another, one that would likely have been shared with Talia had he not initially thought she was someone else. It nearly caused him to materialize, draw steel, and attempt to make an equally impressive entrance. However, he felt his mana reserves at a lower state than usual, and interpreted this as the Counter Force being disappointed with his efforts thus far. So, for now, he continued to observe, though Samus Aran definitely went into the 'recruit' column.

    Processing all of the incoming data wasn't too difficult, especially as it was mostly combat information, and Lancelot was nothing if not a combat stan. The main weapons of the engagement were dismissed - 'Too much Mystery for the World' - and it was only moments later that Lancelot realized he said this aloud. Floating above the airlock. Right at a quiet moment. He sighed and shook his head. Maybe next time he could do that during class, while nude, or whatever the current nightmare was for Humanity. He willed his form down to the ground to get a level view of things, making sure to keep out of Dolphin Girl's line of fire. He may have been a Knight in life, but the magic of the Servant System gave him knowledge of such things on the fly. Arms folded, he continued to take in the goings-on.

>> SUMMARY[Lancelot] >> Good guy Zasshu pose for now.

    "The vine dumped me out in the wrong place. I was just trying to find a buyer." Claire answers Talia, and realizing that these guys are shooting at her valuable produce, she takes a more proactive approach, drawing her magical sword and rushing into the fray. Farmer she may be, she's an adventurer too, and clearly knows how to use the weapon. "Hey Holly, cover me?"

Holly gets in the airlock as instructed, she's still hurt normally by energy rounds after all. She has to breath air too, which she's doing a lot of as she gasps. She wasn't expecting to need a weapon, the question is what she should summon to deal with the incoming warriors. She would prefer to deal with this non-violently but that doesn't seem to be an option. The witch points her candy shaped staff at the airlock as Claire asks for cover. The magical weapon glows orange as she summons several pumpkin bombs which release multi-colored smoke. Well, that's a form of cover.

    With a strafing run complete, the gunship swerves off before return fire can be mustered. Samus will not be continuing this engagement in the gunship as it lands by the crashed ship.
    [Good luck, Lady.] ADAM says as the ship's hatch drops and the Hunter emerges, clad in her full suit of powered armor.
    Breaking into a sprint, the bounty hunter unleashes a series of blasts from her arm cannon towards the approaching Klon'gan warriors a she makes her way towards the downed ship.
    "Talia. Claire. Small universe." She comments, calm and cool as ice in spite of the situation. "What are he Klon'gan after here? Or do they just want a fight?" She asks of the dolphin woman next.

    The psionic dolphinperson gives the psychic equivalent of a snort. "Wondered when you'd show your face, you just here to voyuer?" she comments toward Lancelot, before cycling the chamber and firing another rail-enhanced bullet down range.

    Talia's blade earns the attention of one of the Klon'gans, a burly man with a prosthetic arm. The connection point shows the telltale signs of being severed by something really hot. "Green Warrior... You took my arm, I now challenge you for yours in return." he growls, drawing a pair of smaller curved blades from paired sheaths at the small of his back.

    The smokescreen is appreciated by both the dolphinperson and the CEFS troopers, who fall back into the smoke screen and continue to volley fire as the Klon'gan have to advance on them.

    Claire's charge is met with a furious bellow as one of the warriors breaks from their firing line and draws his crescent-shaped blade to meet the Galaxy Sword. "COME HUMAN! OUR BATTLE SHALL BE TOLD IN THE HALLS OF HE'LAV'KAHN!"

    Samus's question earns a look from the dolphinperson. "Klon'gans are always lookin' for a fight. They don't need any other excuse. Even if it's a bunch of merchants whose engine broke and stranded them on this hell... wait, what's that?"

    About the same time as the dolphinperson says it, a call comes over allied comms. "Ground team, alert. The station above the crash site just went live... it's launching some kind of pods to the surface. ETA 20 seconds."

    Just as the CEFS and Klon'gan are about to reengage... something SLAMS down in the middle of the battlefield... then another, and a third... and a fourth. The pods explode open, revealing a compact tank, just barely larger than an SUV, some kind of quadrupedal walker with a cannon turret on the back, and a pair of bipedal robotic walkers standing around 15 feet tall, bristling with weapons.

    Talia nods to Samus as she ducks a plasma blast. "Samus, Holly, Claire. It's good to see you all. And nice to meet you!" She says to the ghost, saluting before she sees the cyber-armed klon'gan.

    "I'm afraid I don't quite recall, I've taken a lot of limbs in my time. You don't have to do this. But I suppose I know the answer to that, so instead..." She brandishes her lightsaber, adopting a defensive Soresu stance. "Your move." Talia says, beckoning the alien warrior in an almost mocking gesture.

    "Come and take it."

    "I doubt our fight will be one you'd like people to talk about." Claire answers, rushing forwards to strike, wielding the blade in one hand and reaching for a bomb with another. She's looking for a good opportunity to pull her stunt, and the heavy equipment slamming down gets her just that. A quick feint with the sword while she tries to throw the bomb between the legs of the Klon'gan.

Holly finally notices Lancelot, she was distracted alright. "Oh neat a ghost knight! I don't think I summoned him though..."

 "I think we have bigger problems." Servis can't help but to note the tank and the walkers.

 "For Holly's sake, I hope those are on our side. If not, well I bet she can lift the tank."

Lavaux figures she can do that much at least.

"Ehehehe..." She laughs a bit uneasy at that, hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

    So there's a knight standing by the airlock.
    "Who is that?" Samus asks bluntly. But she doesn't let her focus linger for too long in the middle of an active battlefield, if he's not attacking. She'll keep an eye on him, but focuses on returning fire at the attacking forces once she has her answer.
    If it's a fight they want it's a fight they'll get.

    Claire's gambit pays off. The Klon'gan goes flying, trailing pinkish blood from shrapnel wounds before slumping into a heap, the adventure farmer claiming an inglorious victory... well, at least the others seem to enjoy the show.

    Talia faces off with the warlord, their battle shall be an epic backdrop to the warmachines coming slamming into the battlefield. They turn their weapons on both sides, opening fire with weapons unlike either sides techbase. Lances of coherant light strafe both lines, causing the ground to explode a moment later.

    Luckily, the grounded ship's shields are still functioning, the hexagonal 'plates' of energy deflecting the beams hemlessly away into the air. "By the Sisters... those are, it can't be!" the dolphinperson shakes their head. "Soulless Ones? Here?"

    The Klon'gan's weapons seem to be lightsaber resistant ,which is reason enough for Talia to take this fight seriously. She duels with grace and speed, careful to remain out of reach of those curved blades as she practically dances to the beat of blaster fire being traded.

    Credit where it's due, this warrior's not an idiot. He's clearly learned from losing an arm, among other injuries suffered in many battles. He's good at what he does, and what he does is _kill._

    Nozraki steppe raiders would find common kin with these Klon'gans, Talia thinks to herself.

    And there are apparently 'Soulless Ones'. Samus can only infer that this refers to the machines that had dropped from the skies and turned their weapons upon both sides of the engagement.
    Claire and Talia are dealing with the Klon'gan so that leaves...
    The Hunter heaves a soft sigh and turns her attention on the tank, and the walkers, arm cannon spitting missiles in a flurry of fire, intent to both get attention and damage the vehicles.

    Claire judges the situation, and decides to decide later on how to handle the new arrivals. There's more Klon'gan, and so after taking down her first she moves on to the next. "What are these soulless ones?" She does yell, as her blade rises to meet her adversary.

"Souless ones?" Holly looks even more confused as the group enters a three-way war. There are certainly a lot of factions in this universe. "So they're haunted machines?" She's not that great with technology but mechanical ghosts are still ghosts.

 "I don't think they want to be friends, regardless of what they are." Servis warns her. She tries to get closer to them without getting blasted in the process.

    As the machines start to maneuver, the orbiting fleet comes on comms again. "Away Team Actual, CIC Argo, we're getting a transmission from the platform, how copy?" the CEFS troops leader, huddling behind a broken off chunk of ship hull radios back. "Solid copy, but we're being attacked by some kind of automated AI drones down here, if you can get the platform to call off the attack dogs we'd be grateful!"

    Talia's dancing is met with a more controlled form of Klon'gan combat arts. Each of those curved blades moving to block the lightsaber. These ones even seem to resist the energy blade even better than the regular material. Perhaps custom designed for his vengeance. This warrior is no Jedi, however and eventually gets disarmed again. This time not so literally as the blades simply fail against the lightsaber, leaving him weaponless. "I yield, this time. You have bested me, but I will come for you again." he taps an emblem on his armour, and zwooshes away in a teleport. The others in his group also retreating in similar fashion.

    Claire engages the next warrior, who meets her blade with a shorter weapon, brandishing his plasma pistol in the other hand. He seems warier after his companion got summarily exploded, watching for another bomb being drawn out.

    Samus engages the drones, drawing the attention of the quad walker as the missiles slam into its sideplates and causes one of the legs to buckle as they slam into the knee joint, dropping it awkwardly at an angle as the leg crumples. It elevates the barrel of its turret, turning to fire that deadly lance directly at the bounty hunter.

    Holly then gets close, close enough to touch the hull of the disabled quad walker... what she does with this only she can know.

    It seems the warrior at least knows when to fold 'em, as Talia fights the weapons eventually give out. Before she can demand surrender, the Klon'gan makes her job easier by teleporting away. Damn things are so befuddling, she's never seen anything like them before she began going from vine to vine.

    She doesn't pursue, they seem to have been routed for the moment. Instead she rushes to assist Samus, running towards one of the quad walkers. Her lightsaber strikes against the menace's leg, right on the knee joint where Samus's missiles had struck, intending to lop it right off!

    Nimbly leaping away from the lance of fire sent her way, Samus goes in for the kill. With a whine of energy building and particles of red hot light gathering at the barrel of her arm cannon, the Hunter vaultes. It's an impressive leap that carries her sailing over the machine as she unleashes a salvo of charged, red hot, plasma beams at the damaged walker with intent to take it from 'crippled' to 'out of commission'.

    Claire takes a hit to her side, and smiles as she redoubles her efforts in turn. She grabs what appears to be a bomb with her free hand, but doesn't activate it. She just has to it threaten and force her opponent to keep an eye on it and her blade, so she tries to catch an opening.

Holly notices there's a magical presence from the walker, she would have to study more in-detail when she has a shot. Seeing there's no ghosts or people inside of them she doesn't have to feel bad about destroying them. Samus manages to beat her to the punch though and she narrowly avoids getting fried by plasma. No burning the witch. She looks a bit disappointed though.

    The quad walker puts up a valiant effort, but one of those charged beams punches clean through its top-plate and out the underside... coring out the Primus Core within. It jerks like a living thing for a moment, then collapses the rest of the way in a smoking wreck.

    "Away Team, CIC Argo, we've got a dialogue going with the Sub-Persona aboard the platform. It's sending a shutdown order to its drones now. The Klon'gan appear to be retreating, can you confirm?"

    As the orbiting commander asks, the remaining Klon'gan, including the one locking blades with Claire, all teleport away... though the one in battle seems upset by this development.

    "Solid copy Argo, the drones are shutting down now and the 'gans are pulling out. The merchant ship looks totalled, we got room for the crew to get them home?" 
    "Confirming, how many crew survived the crash?" 
    "About thirty, all Andarian, they have a few wounded, but nothing more than a broken bone, how copy?"
    "Solid copy, the Caduceus has medical facilities and enough space for all of them, we'll send shuttles down. Teleporting through this debris field could have someone scattered across the sector."

    That done, it seems this battle is over. The dolphinperson slings their rifle and frowns at the drones. "Soulless Ones... why are they here, on this dead world?" she muses mostly to herself, though the psionic emanations can be heard by anyone close by.

    Talia stows her lightsaber, and approaches the dolphinperson. "I'm missing a bit of context. What exactly are these 'Soulless Ones'?" She asks, feeling some kind of weird magical presence, the same one Holly did, just as the Soulless Ones are felled. "Perhaps there's more to this world than meets the eye."

    Landing from her leap, Samus doesn't bother looking back at the walker as it collapses behind her.
    Badasses never look at the explosions happening behind them, after all.
    With the Klon'gans pulling out that just leaves a few things unfinished. Just evacuating the survivors and collecting her pay.

"There's certainly a lot going on!" Holly nods in agreement with Talia. "So much to study! Why there's anyone besides ghosts if the world is dead?" She can't help but to wonder that as well.

 "I'm guessing they're looking for something here, maybe magical artifacts?" Servis suggests to the others.

 "Well, that's certainly worth checking out if there are no spirits or anyone else they belong to around!" She sounds quite excited about that idea.

    "Delphy Finrider. Captain of the Crescent Shallowtail and all I know is the legends... some ancient machine intelligence, born from the magic of creation itself, seeded abominable life in its own image. These seeds drift on interstellar winds, until they hit a planet where they take root, and sear all organic life from the surface to make way for the mechanical to come."

    Sounds a whole lot like 'the planet got consumed in a plasma storm'.

    "In any case, I'd rather not stick around t find out the truth... my crew are my priority." As they speak, the purple hue around their body fades, their energies bottoming out as they stop channeling their psionic powers into the shield.

    "Talia Kyras, Jedi Knight. My friends and I heard you could use some help." Talia says with a bow of her head. "You handled yourself well, I must say."

    She scritches her chin as she glances downwards, at the ground. Perhaps something underground caused all of this. "You may have a point, the wounded need top priority. How can I help?" She offers. If nothing else she can provide basic medic training, maybe spare a bacta pack or two.