World Tree MUSH

    The war against the weird alien menace is still ongoing, but... slow. Apparently the brief invasion of their asteroid lead them to be a little more cautious, which has given the defending androids and mutants a little breathing room. Not enough to actually make a decent push back, but some.

    Enough to get a message out. A message requesting help with a desperate plan. And many of those who were already exploring the ship may be curious, but the android now speaking(a different commander, given their short lifespan) is perfectly willing to lay it out. "We think the Residential deck has not just the manpower we need, but weapons to help make a push forward. They're... reluctant to leave though. And they don't take kindly to normal androids visiting. That's the best idea we have to make up for the manpower shortage."

    "And you think they're going to take kindly to us just walking up there and asking for help?"
    Samus Aran is here, and the bounty hunter seems fairly skeptical of this plan. The last time she had been on the residential deck, the androids up there didn't instill confidence in her, with their fascist rule. She's already in her power suit, but her helmet is clasped lightly in one hand so there's no problem seeing just how skeptical she is by the look on her face.
    "I don't think they'll be easy to reason with, but if it's on us to get them to mobilize, we'll do what we can."

    Belle doesn't even pretend to understand all this stuff. Yet she also finds it pretty fascinating, this whole space colony on a ship thing. But desperate times, she can undestand! To what Samus says, she points out, "I mean, you got a better idea? I don't have an army in my back pocket, do you?"

    She checks her back pocket, just to be sure.

    Circe had been laying low herself, of late, but this message was enough to draw her out from whatever backwater planet she'd been hiding on. She's rather depressed, on some level, to see that it is a different android in charge, and probably mostly different androids all around. She had wanted to spend more time trying to jailbreak those lifespans, but... oh wel.

    "I'm sure we can come to some kind of an arrangement with them, right?" She suggests, after frowning at the thought. "Not that I love this plan, but it's not as though we're really making any progress otherwise."

    The android gestures at Belle. "As she said, if you can think of another idea, we are open to it. For them, if the aliens take over the ship, they'll be put down as well. But if the ship is fixed, they're considered malfunctioning, so... they may end up losing either way."

    He points to the elevator. "It's up to you how you want to approach it. I only know we can't last too much longer. Maybe if we had two or three more vats that worked properly, we could just make our own, but that's an even tougher ask, and it wouldn't solve our equipment issue."

    "At least you have a back pocket." Samus replies.
    Power armor, am I right?
    But the Hunter purses her lips. "Might as well give it a try." She says, starting for the elevator.

    Circe will follow along towards the elevator, seeming at least a little bit more morose than she usually does. "There really doesn't seem to be a good answer in any direction, but I thought things were a little bit less bad than this. Don't suppose either of you might have some of the technical skills or resources to rebuild the vats, do you? I could probably help at least a little bit, but it's certainly not something I have every skill that would be needed to manage."

    Maybe she just doesn't want to go hang out with the fascist androids. That would be at least a little reasonable of her.

    Circe probably has a point, and Belle makes a face. "Yeah... huh. I'd... I'd probably rather try to convince the superintelligent slime mold to help, honestly. If we can figure out a way for it to help, anyway." She checks her bracelet and heads for the elevator as well.

    "I mean, unless the mold is a nazi too," she muses, doing that random tangent of thought that she sometimes does. "You think it is?"

    On the way out, the android hears the question and actually manages to catch Circe to answer real quick. "If you want to help with that... you can either fix the bug, or manage to find the original code somewhere, and the means to patch the existing systems. We don't have the authorization to do the latter. But the system maintenance, we have specialists for that."

    Now the elevator is going up and the group has a choice. The idea is to recruit the androids in the city, but there are options, if riskier ones. Try to find the original code for the vats, and some means of equipping them? Or try to figure out a way the mold in the maintenance ducts can help, and convince it to do so?

    "I don't know." Samus initially replies to Belle. "The mold didn't give me a skeevy 'this is a nazi' feeling that some members of the Galactic Federation did." The Hunter muses before shaking her head. "Unfortunately I don't have that skillset." She admits on the topic of fixing the vats, but does consider.
    "If it's code, though, I'm sure ~Aida~ can fix it." She says looking pointedly at Circe as the elevator moves.
    "Ideas, you two?"

    Belle shrugs, "And I'm just out of high school! You're both WAY older than I am, even if you're still looking great for your age." She crosses her arms and leans on the wall of the elevator. "If we can find the code then I'm all for that. After all, I'd really prefer to not have any nazis around me. Call me squeamish. I'd rather talk to the mold, but I'm not sure if there's a way it can help us. Maybe some way of taking care of the aliens? Don't they use mushrooms or something?"

    "I'm actually pretty sure the mold had no strong political organization at all. Kind of more a one colony, one vote system, and there was only one colony. I can definitely try to fix the bug, or we can go look for the original code. I kind of like that idea better. If they need authorizations beyond that, I'm likely able to get at least some of them, although this ship has been surprisingly resilient against letting me truly have the keys to it." Circe admits that last part fairly reluctantly.

    "I can't really do much about their equipment problem, but it might give them better tools for dealing with the jerk androids, at least." She gets distracted by the mentions of age, though. "...Depends on how you count, for my age. It's complicated. This body is fairly young, at least."

    "I'm leery of the fascist androids, too." Samus admits, sliding her helmet into place with a hiss as her suit pressurizes.
    "What say we give finding that code a shot, instead? It'll give them more manpower at the very least."

    "Sounds good to me, if we have trouble we can always ask the mold, it's not going anywhere," Belle reasons. "Where would we go to find the code, you think?" She turns to the elevator to figure out what to push, since she has some pretty high clearance, as she recalls.

    "I think the best place I can think of is the bridge, if we can get back there. I can't remember if it's gotten sealed off again or not." Circe admits; it has been a little while since the last time she was here. "If the mold requires one of us be given to it to help, I nominate Samus." She adds, after a few moments of thought.

    The bridge is normally off-limits even for the clearance of the trio in here, but since Circe has already been there, she's put on the allow list... even if the ship AI is none too keen on letting the hacker come near it. But the elevator opens anyway, revealing the dead-seeming level of the bridge, though thankfully right now it's a bit lax on killer robots.

    Well, there's one that wanders by, but it's dispatched easily and quickly, as it seems to have been lacking a good number of functioning armaments. The ship AI lights up the deck as the trio approaches. "Have you found any information that may be useful?"

    "Denied." Samus says quite simply to being given over to a sentient mold at Circe's suggestion.
    She already is a strange mix of human, space chicken, and alien jellyfish DNA in her, she doesn't need to add something else into that into the mix.
    She also puts down the robot with a bolt of superheated plasma. She'll let Circe and Belle actually speak for the party right now though.

    Letting Belle speak? That's not a great idea? "Uh, sorry mister Emergency Command Hologram sir," she scratches her head. "WE're looking for... android code or... something? Like, a lot of the android vats are broken and spitting out human-killers or nazi androids. Aida here can explain it better, I think, but that's one of the reasons the ship can't mount a defense."

    'Aida', who definitely isn't going to be doing any hacking today no sir, will frown over at Belle before looking back at the ship AI. "...Yes. We need to conduct repairs to some of the vats, including finding a copy of the original code involved if you don't want me to attempt to do a, mm, unauthorized repair. We were hoping you would either have it or be able to direct us to where we might be able to find it, as well as equipment that the not-crazy androids might be able to use in order to defend the ship without having to get help from some more... awful sources."

    The AI hums and spins up, the holographic lights making a sparkling pattern as it 'thinks' and pulls up a ragged, incomplete map of the ship. One area is highlighted. "I no longer have the code in an uncorrupted form, but here in the maintenance corridor, near the Zoology deck, there appears to be a backup node that should be intact. This will have the original specifications for the androids. From this location, you should be able to disseminate it to the rest of the ship."

    Another section lights up, this one just beneath the city. "The spare armory cache is here. There are also a number of armaments on this deck, but they are in varying states of disrepair. It may be enough for what is needed, and is much easier to access." Since it's literally down the corridor.

    "So we need to get to the Zoology deck." Samus muses. The spare armory cache being nearby is a nice enough thing though so she won't look a gift horse in the mouth but.
    "We should probably be careful in the maintenance corridors though."
    No telling when the party will run into more killer robots after all.

    "I'm getting a little sick of killer robots," Belle grumbles. "When can we fight some werewolves? Or maybe zombies? Nice, simple zombies. The slow kind, not the cheating fast kind..." She stops and thinks, "Oh I think we fought those before too."

    "I could probably make someone into a wolf, if you really want someone to fight." Circe will suggest, glancing over at Samus. Whether that's her potential wolf or she's looking for more peopel who might want to fight, who could say? "Let's see if we can get there without too much trouble, though. I could snag a sample of wolf DNA from the zoology deck, too, maybe, get my nanobots a taste of what they're going for before they try to meld it with Sam... Sambody."