World Tree MUSH

    After a planning session with the androids and badders, the various and sundry preparations had been made! Special suits for the androids and badger-folk, and of course the ones for the others here. Along with a special rebreather that is tiny compared to the others, wonder what that's for? It's a smallish squad, no more than a dozen... four badgers and eight androids, all suited up with the best weapons they can get. "These are the best we have at using the advanced tech," the android says, pointing to the badgerfolk.

    Looks like everyone is ready though, and the main assault is gearing up. There's a ruined ship nearby at a docking port, which has been shoved aside to make room for Samus's ship to dock. Things can get underway whenever everyone is ready!

    Belle's ready! Of course wearing a suit, she doesn't expect to hulk out much, so her bow is already there and readied. She's adjusting the seals of her suit, and glances up. "I managed to get ahold of a little help on our end. Wasn't sure he'd come though, or if he'd be able to give any aid at all. Thought he might be too chicken for you."

    She steps aside to make room for Bi De to get suited up.

    "This Bi De greets you all, and hopes to free this place from its unwanted capture," the chicken says, giving a bow as well. The androids were warned ahead of time of course, and the rebreather is for him! The rooster strutting forward with a calm demeanor, then looking to the ship. "It is good to be out in the open air again. Or space, as I understand the air is not there. What a strange phenomenon."

    Circe is there, suited up already. She's taken off her earrings, rolling them around in her hand rather than maybe needing to get to them under the suit; the good news for her is that the little piggy drones don't need to breath, anyways, so the lack of suit will hopefully not cause too much in the way of problems for her. Maybe some decontamination later.

    "Oh, more help?" Circe asks, a little relieved to hear it. "That's good. I wasn't really looking forward to doing all the heavy lifting while our friend here stands between us and the danger." That's before the form of that help is revealed, however. Circe seems... less concerned than one might expect by a talking chicken, though she does look like she might be slightly doubting the amount of help Bi De could be, eyeing him up and down and trying to determine if he might be one of her relatives in disguise, perhaps plotting to while away the time after the fight with Belle or some such.

    Samus Aran is also in a suit. Her suit. Of power armor.
    She's gearing up, doing the last flight checks on ehr gunship when...
    "Too chicken?"
    Turning around in the pilot seat, she's faced with...
    Bi De.
    "..."
    There is a notably long pause from the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter.
    "Revered Bi De, your presence is most welcome."
    She was raised by birds, after all.
    Space birds, sure but. Still birds.

    The androids all look at one another, but the badgers just shrug, marching onto the ship. It might be a little crowded but it's a short trip! The lead android has a hand-drawn chart. "We think this is the best place for insertion, if you can get us there. At least the asteroid doesn't seem to have external guns, but that rocky exterior will be hard to get through."

    Hard... but it looks like they think there's a sealed entrance there, so it should be doable.

    Bi De nods to the others, and seems dextrous enough to fit his rebreather. "Fear not, I am well-versed in protecting my charges. My skills lie in wing-to-hand combat, even against armed foes. If you wish to remain behind me I will protect you, young lady." He bobs his head again, before turning to board the ship. "Another vessel of the stars. So many strange means of conveyance in the worlds beyond my own..."

    Once everyone is aboard it's... Yeah it's pretty cramped. Samus' gunship was not meant to hold a lot of people, but it should manage the strike team well enough.
    "I'm not worried about the exterior." Samus says thumbing several controls as the gunship takes off and heads for the asteroid.
    With a hum the gunship's weapons stir to life as Samus reaches the entry point.
    All it takes is the push of a button before the spaceship's weapons flare, pounding into the rocky exterior in waves of superheated plasma.

    Offering to protect her. Right. Circe dismisses any thought of that being one of her relations, then.

    Also the 'young lady' part. None of them would call her that, either.

    "Oh, this one's kind of a junker, we'll have to get you on to some nice ships sometime." Circe says, instead, even though that's not at all true; she's just trying to annoy Samus. "You can call me Aida. It's a pleasure to meet you, Bi De." She'll offer, as she closes her fist and deftly tries to not look at the screen. If she pretends the weapons aren't firing, then it's like everything is normal!

    Squeezing onto the ship isn't a big deal for Belle, even if she's a bit tall. She grins, "I've seen him work, Aida. Don't worry, he actually does know what he's talking about. Kinda funny to watch but he's like, a kung fu master with mystic powers. He killed a bunch of bandits when I first met him."

    She holds on tight as the weapons fire, putting her mask/helmet on and readying her bow. "Wonder what kind of defenses they'll have inside."

    That question about defenses will be answered soon! True to the guess, the 'armor' is thin there... mostly rock, actually, and puncturing in leads to a rapid, but brief decompression. It lets the ship latch on and allow exit, the androids and badgers pouring out first, taking up some defensive positions and quickly lasing down the already-dying mushrooms in the small chamber. Fortunately it appears no aliens were here, just some mushrooms.

    Already the breach is getting some organic foam sealant though. There's plenty of time to get in, but going out again will require a blast through. Definitely easier than getting in though! It's only right after everyone has unloaded that the nearby 'door' opens, an irising shape that hisses open faintly, little air here yet to carry the sound, to reveal a staggering, half-decayed insect creature with a pulsing grwoth on its back. An older host for the alien parasite, it would seem, but the nearest one that has weapons, firing off a strange 'lance' of somehow black energy at one of the androids.

    As soon as the entrance has been blown open, Samus shifts the gunship so that the boarding ramp can descend into the asteroid and everyone can disembark.
    Rising from the controls the hunter starts to disembark too.
    "It's show time." She says, indicating that everyone should get off and do their thing.

    As promised, Bi De is out the door! A minor vacuum doesn't bother him, at least not for long, so long as he has air! He should probably be worried about spores in his feathers, but we'll wait for that if it happens. "What strange and horrifying creatures," he mutters.

    But he's also going to defend just as he said! The bright shimmering barrier of moonlight flares to life as he leaps forward, blocking the shot at the android, or at least trying to deflect it. Hopefully a Qi barrier works against whatever this is.

    Circe is slightly less eager to get into the fight than Bi De seems to be, or maybe she's just staring because it's her first time seeing him in action. Probably a little bit of both. She'll shake her head as he dives in a way, muttering a curse to herself in Greek, before flicking her wrist and letting the earrings go. They'll hit the ground, rolling forward and growing to their full size, taking up a more offensive position as they do.

    Which is to say, as the two piggies form up, they're both pointing their guns at the host.

    "Can you tell how much we need to do to seperate this thing from the ship?" She'll call out, hoping that one of the androids will already have an answer to that question. She just got here and she's already thinking about leaving.

    Belle hangs out near the back, and nudges Circe. "See? Told you. And I'll leave that up to you guys with explosives and stuff." She nocks an arrow and aims at the creature... then adjusts aim to the pulsing parasite she can actually SEE this time. "I'm pretty sure killing the parasite kills the host, but let's find that out. It'd be nice if we could save them, right?"

    Since this one is old, she's hoping it'll be easier, letting the arrow fly toward the 'brain' of the creature. That is, the parasite controlling it.

    Well. Strangely enough, Bi De's shimmering barrier... it does take a hit on his Qi, but less than expected. It flickers, and the energy is immediately dispersed! It feels... slimy though. Like decay itself brushed his soul.

    Fortunately, there's not going to be another chance to feel it. The arrow pierces the growth, and the host spasms, shudders, then goes limp. Technically still alive, but it appears that becoming a host for these things, either immediately or over time leads to brain death.

    The android gestures, "Thanks! And... if we got down this way, hopefully we can set an explosive or vent some atmosphere to tear it loose? I'm up for ideas, I've never done this thing before! I might as well have been born yesterday!"

    Pause.

    "Bit of android humor there."

    As soon as the android points in a direction, Samus takes lead. Though she pauses long enough to glance over her shoulder at the humor.
    Really?
    Nevertheless, the bounty hunter sweeps the area with her scanner visor and keeps her weapon at the ready, "I've got explosives. We can cross that bridge when we get to it."

    The lack of response makes Bi De pause and ruffle his feathers. "That was extremely unpleasant to feel, but did not really hurt," he notes. "Hopefully all their weapons are like that." He takes point with Samus, leading the small group of androids and badgers as best he can. "Work as swift as we can, yes?" He doesn't intend on staying in this atmosphere for long.

    "I can see about changing the computer systems to preprogram future androids with better jokes, if it would help?" Circe offers, even though she is most likely not capable of that particular thing.

    Also, she might have played goddess enough with the androids already, anyways.

    She stays well back of her piggies as they follow themselves well behind Samus, ready to blast anything and offer supporting fire; hopefully there won't be any friendly fire 'incidents.'

    "Let's move quickly, though. They'll probably catch on to what we're trying at some point, and I don't really want to test how well the parasites can work with a neural chip."

    "Hopefully the frontal assault keeps them busy," Belle offers. "Kind of weird they don't have better communications... but I guess that's what makes these aliens all... alieny. Wouldn't be the first time a world-ending threat got stopped because they didn't understand the convenience of the cell phone."

    Season 2, Episode 9.

    She nocks another arrow, and the moment she sees anyone who might be a danger, she'll let fly. These things don't get any mercy from her.

    It's good that people are prepared. The distraction out front can't last forever... but it makes for a relatively easy time going through! Future hosts seem to be fresher, but not as used to their bodies, most of them badger-types that fumble with laser weaponry. They get a few shots off, possibly injuring some, and do manage to down one android before the team can penetrate far enough to find a larger, spacious room with several control panels.

    Blowing this will probably work, though it could be risky. The toxic fumes are heavy here, though, so not a lont of time to figure things out! But if that weird organic computer can be figured out, maybe that venting atmosphere trick can be done manually?

    Samus snaps off a few blasts of superheated plasma at the various hosts and parasites in the way, but when they get to their target she pauses just briefly enough to survey the room and assess the situation.
    "Aida." She says motioning for the organic computer thingy. "Figure out what you can do with that, I'm going to start setting some bombs."
    Just like that, right then and there, Samus... Uh...
    She curls up into a small ball.
    The Samus-ball starts rolling around the room setting bombs in strategic places. Just like she said she would.

    Circe will pause for a moment, because there's nothing she wants to do more than hack into an organic computer, but a close second place to that on her list of current desires is not following Samus' instructions. There's a moment's war in her own mind, but in the end a mixture of wanting to play with the computer and wanting to show off with the closest thing she has left to a pure expression of divinity wins out over wanting to spite Samus.

    Barely.

    "C'mere, piggies." She mutters, the drones jumping back up and dropping into her hand, the nanotech they're made of reforming into plugs and scanning signals and generally doing its damnedest to interface with the computer. It's the kind of thing that absolutely shouldn't work on any reasonable technical level, but a lot of gaps get filled in place by more or less magic, Circe sweating in her suit from the effort of trying to establish a connection she can use to project herself and the piggies in for a momentary hostile takeover of the computer, trying to vent the gasses out into space where they definitely will never cause any problems.

>> GAME >> Circe spends an Edge for: Technical Enchantress usage

    Bi De will, in this case, just settle beside Circe while she sends her mind into the computer. "I will safeguard this one while the rest of you secure this area," he says, though the way he does so is less military and more practical. The chicken has little to do beyond protection, at this point!

    Belle nods to Bi De, "Got it!" She will check out other doors, peeking through and whistling a warning if she sees anything interesting, helping direct the androids and badgers. "Everyone okay? Let's try to not lose anyone else, all right?"

    Now she just has to wait for six hours while Circe gets a solo adventure in the Matrix and everyone else sits around doing nothing of interest.

    There are still very few troops to spare. A small exchange of fire happens during this whole mess, bombs settling into place and Circe standing comatose next to the computer. But, really, it doesn't take too long...

    INSIDE THE COMPUTER...

    It's weird in here. Chaotic, really. It takes but a moment for Circe to realize this is the terminal of the ship, but the ship isn't exactly sapient like the AI of the Warden, it's more like a giant insect that largely reacts on instinct. This actually makes venting in a specific way a little difficult, but the piggies are there, fortunately. Siezing several of the control nodes temporarily alerts the system something is wrong... but only a few moments are needed to send the instructions. A staged release that causes the asteroid to shudder and groan, as the toxic gasses his section by section out of the side, twisting the asteroid some... before the final venting blasts into the Warden itself! The sectional release was more difficult, but it means that the majority of toxic gasses were released to space, and only the mixed atmosphere vented into the Warden to give that final push, also bowling the occupants out into the deck. It does leave a few straggler aliens there, but without their home turf they're quickly cut down with minimal losses.

    Back in the room, Circe is only silent for a few moments before the ship shudders and a weird, droning noise can be heard. Time to go.

    Protection is a good idea - Circe's rather unguarded in the physical world during this otherwise, since she took both piggies with her. She must really trust this chicken's skill! The shield display earlier had been rather impressive, though...

    The instinctual nature of it is a little weird to work with, but she's got a clear purpose in mind; she doesn't need to keep it for very long, just long enough to get the venting going. The shuddering around all of them is probably a sign that it's time to go; Circe's lack of immediate running and the clear glowing circuitry visible in the iris of her eyes through the hood probably means someone should grab her and yoink her along while she's recovering from that little dive into hivemindishness

    Believe it or not.
    Once the bombs are set, Samus un-morphs from her ball form and stands guard over Circe. When she comes back to, the bounty hunter is standing right by her.
    "Whatever you did seemed to have worked." She says as the ship shudders.
    "We should get going."
    Samus actually grabs the hacker goddess and starts urging her along while she recovers.

    Belle doesn't want to pull Circe away when her mind is absent, but as soon as she is free enough to start responding, Belle also urges her on! Just like Samus! "Bi De, keep an eye on our tail just in case they follow us!"

    And when Circe isn't moving fast enough, the schoolgirl just picks her up and tosses her over a shoulder to move along, not even bothering to ask the androids for help! Or the badgers, but they're lil guys, so that'd be weird.

    "A good idea," the bird agrees, lagging behind long enough to usher the badgers to scamper along. He eyes the shuddering door sealed away, then squawks and flaps wings, doing long leaps after. He is from a fairly primitive world, but he does understand the concept of 'vehicle' and 'vehicle about to go boom' it would seem.

    As the gunship shudders and pulls away, the astroid can be seen finally drifting away from the Warden. The massice colony ship's engines flare to life, moving it away from the obstacle at last, before dimming while it goes into repair mode before replotting course.

    The gunship accelerates, doing a quick curve away, heading back toward the docking collar on the Warden. As it speeds away, a rippling explosion can be seen shattering many of the parts of the asteroid from within, further crippling it and keeping the aliens from pursuit!

    The Warden is safe. The Galaxy is at peace!

    Now all that remains to be seen is what the massive colony ship will do from here...