World Tree MUSH

    EARLIER

    "It's too much of a coincidence. A Stellaron Hunter showing up at the site of a Stellaron Burst and then she hijacks our communications and just hangs up! So rude. Stelle, you used to know her, right? Was she always like this?" That's March as she and Dan Heng walk out into the Parlour car from the Residential one.

    Stelle shrugs. "I don't remember much apart from her name." she replies truthfully.

    Dan Heng frowns a bit, but remains silent.

    As the trio arrive at the gathering, Himeko is calling the vote. "Those in favour of going to the Xianzhou Luofu, and investigating the Stellaron Burst, raise your arms. Those against, keep them lowered by their sides."

    March, Stelle, Welt and Himeko raise their arms. Dan Heng keeps his down. When the others cast theirs, Himeko takes the tally.

    "Statement: I will abstain." Svarog states for the record. "I will leave the decision in Clara's hands. There is still much work to be done on Jarilo-VI, however if she decides that this investiga--"
    Svarog doesn't get to finish that statement before Clara's hand shoots up.
    "..." The gigantic mechanical man falls silent for a beat here before he nods. "The decision is made, on our part."

    Jessica actually hesitates for a few moments, tapping fingers together. Then she raises her hand. "I guess we should." She seems reluctant, given the lack of intel, but...
    "I don't really know what's going on either way." A bit of an exaggeration.

    Talia slowly raises a hand. There is no time for deliberation here. "I get the strong impression this burst will end up affecting us either way."

    The rooster shakes his head, but his wing goes up. "Although it is clear we are being led along, I cannot refrain from suggesting we handle this. Let it be known that I dislike it, but understand the need."

    PRESENTLY

    "That's 8 to 1... we're going to the Luofu. Dan Heng, I suppose you will be staying aboard?" Dan nods. "Yes. I'll be staying." Himeko nods in return. "Alright then, Welt, are you up for an expedition? I know you've been champing at the bit ever since Jarilo-VI. Keep the youngsters safe." Welt smiles wryly. "Don't worry. With our outversal friends along too, we'll be fine."

    "The Astral Express is about to make the jump, please remain seated. 5...4...3...2...1!" Pom Pom counts down the jump, then the entire train shifts Quantum, then lurches into Warp Jump. March goes tumbling across the parlour car just like last time as she was trying to stay standing during the jump, and then, space reasserts itself, and the looming mass of a vessel that dwarfs Jarillo-VI comes into view off the port side, titanic solar sails many kilometers across billow languidly in the stellar winds between star systems, lights glitter along its dark-side surface from settlements built into the massive ship... and the gargantuan docking hangar doors, easily 5 kilometers in diameter, looms large... and closed, before the Express.

    "This is the Astral Express calling Luofu traffic control, respond please... We have arrived in Xianzhou claimed volume and are requesting docking clearance. Luofu traffic control, respond please...." Himeko calls from the console near the window, as everyone gets a good look at the huge construction.

    The Astral Express gets ready to make the jump!
    Clara, like a good girl, sits her butt down in a seat and gets ready for it.
    Svarog opts to remain standing...
    The Express makes the jump and---
    A still-standing Svarog is helping March to her feet like a gentleman.
    While that happens though, Clara shifts to sit on her knees as she looks out the window.
    "It's so big..." She murmurs. A pause. "They're gonna open the doors for us, right?"

    "Not unless you want to go out and knock." Talia says dryly after the jump. She had been through countless jumps to light speed, this was little out of the ordinary.

The system of vines were complicated. A maze of intertwined intermingled worlds that formed together as an intricate tapestry of possibilities. Jo had been logging what she could, using the world she arrived in at the start as an origin point and mapping from there with Each "wormhole" a line leading to yet another circle. 

 Jo checked her MFD. Of all the refits and upgrades, her fighter's sensors was one of the things that required only minimal modification, the cold metal IRST and radar eyes peering into the void only to confirm what the pilot was seeing with her own. A big space train with a looming gigantic structure lurking silently just beyond it. 

 Jo keyed her comms. 

 <<"Unidentified vessel, this is Arclight. I just uuuh...">> 

 How to even phrase this? 

 <<"Just followed a vine here. Mind telling me what this place is?">> 

 She aligned her craft with the train with a quick burst from the RCS thrusters, the sleek fighter jet hanging level with the Astral Express. The voice sounded friendly enough at least.

    "That isn't a good sign," Jessica agrees, worriedly. "The um... lack of response I mean. I um... I think maybe we should prepare for trouble." The cat rummages into her bag to start holstering some weapons, tucking her pistol away.

    She frowns, ears splaying as she lifts up her spare pistol... then tucks it behind, under her jacket, as a backup. "Better make it double," she reasons.

    Her ears perk up as SOME reply finally comes through. Sadly, not a door opener.

    Bi De doesn't have much to contribute, since he doesn't have equipment. His body is a weapon, yadda yadda. "I do hope this will not prove troublesome like the underground did," he muses.

    "It sounds as if someone else is as lost as we are," he notes. "Or moreso. At least we have a reason to be here. Be wary."

    March blinks as she's righted by big, strong metal hands. "Urgh..." she blinks, then pokes at Svarog's chestplate. "That doesn't count y'know! Being a robot is totally cheating when it comes to this!" she announces, folding her arms and huffing mildly... but then her eyes open and take in the Luofu. "Whoa... that's the Xianzhou Luofu!? It's massive! It might even be bigger than Jarilo-VI!" Dan steps up beside her and Svarog, "For the Xianzhou natives, these vessels /are/ their planets. Terrestial environments are merely cradles that allow civilisations to grow and develop in relative safety. Some of those civilisations progress further, reaching for the stars... The Xianzhou Alliance is one such civilisation." Dan Heng seems a bit, melancholy. "I've only glimpsed it a few times, but... it's still as magnificent as I remember."

    As Joanna's comm-line comes in, Himeko switches frequency to respond. "Arclight this is the Astral Express, Navigator Himeko speaking. This is the Worldship known as the Xianzhou Luofu. We're currently attempting to contact their traffic control, but aren't receiving a respon---"

    That's when a staticy, intermittent signal finally comes back. "Wel-ome -o... Lu-fu Sk--ort... St---kiff Hav-n... Please awa-t trans-er... P-ease -wait --ansf-r..."

    As it continues to repeat softly, Stelle pipes up. "That sounds like one of those automated customer service machines... I got stuck talking to one when I contacted the IPC about my game." she mentions idly, gesturing with her phone.

    Welt grunts contemplatively. "... Something's not right."
    "The signal is still repeating, but noone's picking up the transfer request and guiding us in."

    March chimes in now too. "Maybe the Stellaron Hunter was telling the truth.... A vessel arrives at a deserted spaceport... isn't that how a lot of horror movies begin?" she asks.

    The signal continues to repeat for a few minutes more... then the huge gates begin to slowly grind open, moving multiple meters per second, but being so vast their bulk seems to be in slow motion. "The Jade Gate is now opening. On behalf of the Xianzhou Luofu: Welcome, guests from afar. Please proceed to dock according to guidance."

<<"Arclight copies Astral Express. Just what is that th-">> 

 Crackly and distorted as it was, the gargantuan craft's massive transmitters easily completely overpowered those of the fighter, even as it hung in space right next to the Astral Express. It was so powerful in fact that the pilot tensed in her seat, its signal screetching and hissing painfully in her ear. Took her a moment longer before keying her comms yet again, a slight buzzing now refusing to leave her hearing. 

 <<"That was weird.">> Rather deadpan considering. 

 <<Guess uh, guess you got your reply Astral Express. What exactly are we even looking at here?">>

    "Horror movie?" Clara asks innocently, looking up from the window, blinking.
    "Pay March no mind, Clara." Svarog says firmly while shooting March a cycloptic glare from his smoldering optic.
    "Ah who's that?" The girl does ask when a radio transmission comes across from the fighter outside the Express. But Himeko gets the line.
    Clara can't help but frown at the garbled signal.
    "This is kind of creepy..."

    Talia swallows slowly. "I have a bad feeling about this." She murmurs as she hears the transmission. Perhaps, this was a bad idea after all. But no takebacksies, as they say.

    "Creepy is right," Jessica mumbles. "Is that normal? I don't think that's normal." She glances at Talia, nodding in agreement with the Jedi, before scooting to try to get a better look.
    "It sort of sounds like everything is on automatic... I don't think it's a trap but I do think something happened." She looks again, at Stelle this time. "Is it possible they're all monsters? Or zombies?! I've fought zombies running around on a space station before, it's really scary!"

    While Bi De remains outwardly calm, maybe that's just because he has a beak. He's letting those more familiar with such technology handle it, but he has to sound puzzled at some of this.

    "So a stranger appears and..." he stares at Jessica. "That is a very specific situation, I think."

    "We'll answer those questions once we're on deck... follow us in Arclight, and take a dock nearby... we'll meet on the platform in five minutes standard. Express, out." replies Himeko to Joanna. "Get ready... and be careful."

    Welt nods. "We'll be careful. Stay vigilent on the Express, Himeko." he says, an earnestness in his voice... almost pleading in its tone."
    Himeko giggles. "Don't worry so much, you'll give yourself even more wrinkles. Besides, I have Dan Heng with me."

    The Express starts to turn, relatively nimbly for a giant space train in space. It slinks off in a graceful little arc toward the open Gate, slipping past and nestling into a berth that seemed custom made for a vessel exactly like the Express, including a set of tracks for it to settle on... a few of the rear-most carriages hang in space, but they're not wafting about. Joanna would find a Starskiff berth that can accomodate her fighter, it even morphs a bit to accomodate the geometry of the undercarriage and cradles it like it were built for it.

    Welt, starts leading the group out of the Express. "Alright, let me set the groundwork for our expedition here. The Stellaron Hunters have given us a lot to consider, a lot to doubt, but the most important thing is--"

    Stelle completes the sentence. "The Stellaron." her hand lifting to touch her chest with a pensive look."

    Jessica's question earns a shrug from Stelle. "It's my first day." she states blandly, giving the cat a deadpan expression.

    "Even with the Stellaron Hunters having ulterior motives, there's no doubt that the Xianzhou are currently dealing with a Stellaron. That said, the Alliance and the Express haven't had any previous dealings... so they may not be welcoming us with open arms... but, as Trailblazers, we're not in this for fame or recognition. We're here to stop the Stellaron."

    He's waiting for Joanna to join before he explains all this. "But above all this, remember the Way of the Trailblaze: Explore, Understand, Establish and Connect."

    Stepping off the platform, the group would encounter a labyrinth of containers, huge shipping containers as far as the eye can see, but no people, no dock workers manipulating the cargo, noone manning stations... no welcoming committee. This is clearly a cargo dock, not a passenger debarkation dock, so whoever opened the door, sent them here.

    March is clearly creeped out. "Huge port area and not a soul in sight..." she murmurs, holding herself. Stelle leans over a bit. "But someone did open the door for us."

    March shudders visibly. "Ugh, stop talking! Whoever they are, they're in my bad books already!" she announces.

    "Our first objective is to find out who opened the Jade Gate... if they're hostile, they've at least made our job easier. If they're just doing their job, we can ask them what's going on... keep your wits about you, and move out."

<<"Arclight. Roger. On approach.">> 

 Her eyes scanned the length of the strange train-ship as she did a quick burn of her engines to accelerate on past. How did it even work? 

 How did it get out here in the first place? 

 Why'd it look like an old steam locomotive? 

 The list of things that made sense to her was still short compared to the array of things that made none. At least setting her craft down was easy enough, those same thrusters that translated its movements in the void easily allowing it to hover down onto the pad. 

 Wssshhht... kachunk. 

 Engines slowly whirred down to silence as the canopy hissed open to reveal this military looking pilot waaaas... a fox person! At least at first glance anyway. Sandy coloured fur, defined pointy features, big ol' ears that flick-flicked out as she pulled off her rather face concealing helmet and placed it down inside the cockpit of her fighter. 

 "Hey there." She said, starting to climb down a conveniently placed ladder provided by this strange platform. "Gotta say, whole lot of questions right now."

    A visitor! Talia perks up as the Jolteonmorph arrives, and she brushes herself off as she sits up, "Hello there!" She greets cheerily enough. "It seems like you're a good way bit from home. Welcome aboard! I'm sure we'll be able to get through those questions together."

    Jessica splays her ears. "Oh... I think that Stelle and Bi De and Talia are best for the understanding part," she mumbles, moving up behind the others with her pistol ready. By 'ready' it isn't drawn, just easy to access. She's geared up though, so it should be okay.

    "Hello! It's fine to be confused, I am most of the time," Jessica reassures the jolteon. "My job is just to keep everyone else alive, I've decided!" If anything she's a little more relieved to see Joanna. A military-esque person, she can understand. Ish.

    "... Zombies?" Clara blinks her scarlet eyes owlishly. "What's a zombie?"
    This is coming from a girl who has never seen a horror movie in her life.
    "Nothing to worry about, Clara." Svarog says firmly.
    Smash cut to stepping off the Astral Express.
    Clara's bare feet pad quietly onto the platform as she looks around. Svarog, having cloaked himself, is nowhere to be seen nor heard now.
    "... There's no one here..." Clara points out the obvious with a nervous fidget.
    Then Joanna arrives after this season's free 10-pull.
    Clara waits patiently for Stelle to manually select a party of four members for the combat formation, involving character tiers, rarity ratings, and equipment optimizati--
    Wait this isn't a gacha game.
    "Oh um. Hello."

    As Joanna joins them, and the others discuss, Bi De offers a smoother explanation. "We have encountered a situation involving a powerful artifact, most likely. However, the results of this are unclear. We ourselves do not know exactly what has happened, only that those who should be here are not responding."

    The chicken - yes, a talking, if large, rooster - has a warm baritone voice, and has a precise and elegant tone to his words. He continues with a bow, wings spreading. "I am Bi De of Farahm. Please do not engage in battle without care, until we have determined what we are fighting."

    "Express, this is Expedition. Setting up Space Anchor in Skyport, Starskiff Haven, register and connect." states Welt as he drops one of the 'seeds' the grows into the strange Space Anchors the Trailblazers use. "Confirmed Welt, connection established, Anchor is online and supplies available." comes Himeko's reply.

    Welt looks to Joanna with a kind, fatherly smile. "Welcome, Miss... Arclight? I take it that isn't your name, but a callsign? I'm Welt Yang, one of the Nameless of the Astral Express... I'm sure we can answer your questions in time. For now, as I explained we should locate who, or what, opened the dock for us." he says, then points down the widest corridor between container stacks.

    A few dozen meters down, and turning a corner in the container stacks... a group of local guards by their armour and the broken weapons laying around them, are strewn across the deck. One is laying on his back, breathing but barely. "Mister Yang! Someone's hurt!" calls March, jogging over and skidding to a slightly ungraceful stop to kneel beside the downed man. His eyes, barely visible behind the helmet he's wearing, crack open and he lifts a hand to shakily point on ahead. "Up... Up... ahead..." he croaks, wincing as a wound along his side seeps a bit more blood from the effort.

    "You're hurt, son... try not to talk." says Welt, kneeling across from March. "March, use your six-phased ice to stop the bleeding, go easy we don't want to add frostbite to his list of injuries."

    March places a hand over the bleeding wound, and prismatic crystals start to form along the line of the gash, sealing it over and dying a pale pink from solidified blood.

    Welt straightens, and adjusts his glasses, "This area saw heavy combat not long ago... lets keep searching, there may be other survivors." he gestures the same way the guard pointed. He's unconscious again, but the bleeding's stopped. Hopefully local aid can reach him in time now. The other bodies are cold, their life force already seeped away in the pools of discoloured red surrounding them.

    Aheady, the port facility sprawls like its own small city... a whole metropolitan complex of cargo, frieght and the distant specks of transport skycraft, most likely automated... the next wide courtyard, a transfer yard, from the docks themselves to the internal transfer docks, that take the unloaded cargo to where it's headed within the vast vessel, is filled with wounded Cloud Knights. Some are holding onto their glaives, using them as crutches. Some are leaning against smaller cargo boxes, a few lay motionless on pallets in one corner... but one thing is clear... there were no civilians caught up in whatever fighting happened here.

"Most people just call me Jo." The fox lady gave the nameless man giving his name a polite smile before turning to give a similarly friendly greeting to the rest of them. "Callsign makes it sound way too fancy." Her expression hardened a little, she paused, nose twitching as she smelled the air. Blood. For sure. She was hearing movement too, those big ears not just for show after all. "Hang on something doesn't smell right. Smells like-" She was cut off by the shouting, breaking into a jog to follow only to skid to a stop in front of them. 

 She reached for her pack, hands gripping onto a small medkit before 

 Well 

 Magic. She supposed. 

 Slooowly she put it back. No need to waste the supplies. "Okay then, this just got a lot more ominous."

    "You're better off not knowing." Talia asides to Clara, to help protect her innocence. It's probably for the best.

    Once they're off the Astral Express, Talia is on guard even though there's little present. That might be just why, the lack of any presence is very off-putting to everyone.

    "Talia Kyras, Jedi Knight." she introduces herself to Joanna, bowing her head before they're off to advance.

    "There's a lot ahead of us, it looks like."

    "Having any survivors at all is better than what I expected," Jessica admits, her ears perking up a bit. She lets the healers handle healing, and moves up next to Joanna, since this seems like their area of expertise. Her sidearm is out - the one that uses Originium slugs, not the 'traditional' one.

    "We shouldn't rush, it could be a trap," she warns, worriedly. But she'll move on ahead...

    And now finding so many wounded, well... "Wait, if they were here, just hurt, why didn't anyone answer?"

    Clara purses her lips as... Okay she's kind of staring at Joanna.
    She's never seen a pokemon before, let-alone a pokemon-person.
    It probably is for the best that she doesn't know about zombies though, so she nods to Talia, understanding NOTHING.
    Soooo she's following the others, still staring at Joanna a bit before the party comes across... Corpses... And one injured guard.
    Clara covers her mouth to stifle a small gasp. Thankfully March stops the man's bleeding, but Clara... Has to walk carefully to step around the blood on the floor.
    "This is bad..." The girl says.
    It only gets worse when they find more injured guards.
    Clara skids up to the first person she can, and she's already rummaging through her things for medical supplies.
    She... Doesn't have a lot... Maybe enough to help one person at best and she hesitates.
    Maybe if she rations the painkillers she can help more than one person, but there's only enough bandages for... And then that's not even covering how much antiseptic will be needed-- and... And... A-and...
    "Uuuu..." The poor girl looks to be on the verge of tears as she tries to at least help ONE person.
    "What happened here...?"

    One of the guards, one of the still able ones at least, brandishes his glaive... his hands shaking, his stance uneven. "L-leave us alone... I'll fight if I have to." he says, his voice on the verge of breaking.

    Clara skidding over to help one of the ones sitting eases his terror a little, and March and Stelle step forward wit placating hands. "We're here to help... what happened here?" asks March.

    "Mara-Struck... whole squads fell to it in a blink... luckily we'd already evacuated most of the docks on orders from the General..." he explains, staggering and planting his glaive on the ground again to steady himself. "Those who could still fight and run unaided took the last group of civilians toward the Starskiff Haven transfer port... they went that way--" he points. "If you hurry, you might be able to catch up and get on the Skiff to Central Haven."

    A distorted howl comes from the direction the Knight just pointed, and his eyes widen. "Oh no... Lady Tingyun and the others must have encountered the enemy. Please... see if you can reach them."

    Running off, a few clearly 'corrupted' CLoud Knights can be seen... they're fused into their armour, with strange root and vine-like growths forming blades on their forearms, and flowers bloom from inside their helmet visors. They're escorted by strange bird-like creatures of living lightning and wind distortions. "Be careful, we've not encountered lifeforms like this before." alerts Welt, as he grips his cane a bit more firmly, glancing down at it, but merely lifting it to tap the foot on the floor... a gravity distortion opening up to swallow one of the birds into a spatial abyss that snaps closed as quickly as it formed.

Jo reached for her own sidearm, then, she paused. Reconsidering even as her hand was on the grip. She could smell more blood, see even more chaos around her. Yeah this wasn't gonna cut it. She reached into her bag again, though instead of a medkit she pulled out some sort of AR platform carbine in two big pieces. "Wouldn't have minded if everything was just empty." 

 Click... clack... 

 It was a well trained, well practiced movement. Attaching the barrel, slapping the magazine in and racking the action done almost as if it was one fluid motion. She gave a moment to check the sights, the little red dot flickering to life. 

 She hadn't actually noticed Clara staring, though yes! Indeed a pokemon person! To the untrained eye, she'd probably just look like some sort of humanoid fox person though to one with a little bit more know-how, the pilot was absolutely a Jolteon. Just quite a bit taller. 

 and with thumbs. 

 And right now with a rifle in her hands. 

 She looked like she was about to say something Jess, turning her head slightly, a hint of a half-smile starting to form on her features before... 

 Yeah what the hell even was that? Whatever it was, she's definitely shooting it, shouldering the weapon and cracking off a few well placed short controlled bursts 

 "Contact front!"

    Talia is quick to rush towards one of the guards, helping him sit in a resting position. "Take it easy, let me help-" She jabs him with a neustim syrette for both pain and healing his wounds. But the howling gets her attention quickly as she grabs her lightsaber hilt.

    The corrupted Cloud Knights are very much hostiles, and Talia is quick to jump into the fray with her lightsaber. It flashes to life with that ionized hiss of light, and Talia storms towards the lot of them, her lightsaber slashing and thrusting once she joins battle. She's quick to make herself scarce to evade Joanna's shots, blue-on-blue would be a poor first impression for either of them.

    Jessica, in the meantime, squeaks! "Oh no..." she whimpers, stepping backward with tail lashing. Her pistol is up, grasped in both hands as she flinches and shrinks back from the sight of the strange creature. "A-AH! Help!"

    The catgirl wails a bit, but the others have probably learned not to pay much attention to her. Jessica's form with her pistol is solid, textbook even. And the three quick shots she snaps off are with excellent accuracy, despite the distance.

    Stupid Imposter Syndrome.

    Clara does her best with what she can but she can only carry so many medical supplies. But it's... Not a lot.
    The howl makes the silver-haired girl flinch and look up when... The corrupted knights appear.
    It is as Joanna opens fire in controlled bursts and Talia draws her lightsaber... That Clara can be heard squeaking in dismay.
    One of the bird-creatures got too close to her, but before it can actually HURT the girl there's a *CRUNCH* as the creature just... Halts in the air and *breaks* as though a giant hand just wrapped around it and casually crushed the thing.
    There's a flicker of motion. The air itself ripples, distorted and bent light refracting off something massive...
    The others know Mr. Svarog; Clara's stalwart protector and father figure.
    Joanna gets her first glimpse of him now in this very violent first meeting as the ten foot tall machine-man suddenly deactivates his cloaking systems. He had been deathly silent before, but right now?
    He just *apeared* from out of freaking nowhere. He raises his arm, and the energy emitter in his palm glows a hot white...
    Before he unleashes a searing hot lance of a high energy, high heat, death ray at the corrupted knights.

    Stelle summons her bat, leaping into melee alongside Talia. The Trailblazer isn't a Jedi, but she's got enough combat savvy to be able to 'dance' with the lightsaber user, jinking in to take a blow and strike back where Talia's back would be open. Even Jedi have their limits, after all.
    March, for her side, draws her bowstring, infusing the arrow with that same prismatic ice crystal she used to stem the bleeding on the downed knight they saw first. She looses it into one of the wind bird-things, causing it to erupt in a jagged ice crystal that stabs into other monsters near it.

    Joanna's and Jessica's shots land true, punching through already-compromised armour and seeming to drop the Mara-Struck Knight... but then, the flowers wither, the roots grow pale and sickly... and the Mara-Struck monster GETS BACK UP again, bellowing raspily in defiance.

    Talia would find the same happen. Her lightsaber cuts through clean enough, bisecting several Mara-Struck... but they knit back together and get back up again... though the blooming plantwork on their bodies has withered in the act.

    "It's not hard to knock'em down!" calls Stelle, slamming her bat into the helmet of one of the recently re-risen... this time apparently putting it down for good. "It's gettin'em to STAY DOWN that's the trick!"

    It's no small wonder how these things overwhelmed the Cloud Knights, especially if they were caught off-guard by their friends suddenly becoming half-plant zombie monsters.

    Svarog's laser punches clean through one of the beasts... and it still gets back up afterward... the hole in its chest closing up with bark-like growth.

    All told, it takes a good few minutes of beating down to clear the field... then a distant voice can be heard. "Miss Tingyun! Please, fall back!" The gruff soldier can be seen past a few turns, with a small group of his comrades, and a tall fox-eared woman shielding a small group of civilians from more of the part-plant monsters. The Knights stand their ground, engaging in pitched melee combat. The fox woman spots the arriving group. "Hey! You there, we need your help!" she calls, waving frantically as she shies back from sparks flying from blades clashing.

Jo stepped forward, doing a quick sweep of the immediate area, being careful to avoid flagging anyone with the barrel. Satisfied enough that nothing was about to jump at her or the party in general from the shadows she finally let it lower slightly. "Clear. For now." She let her weapon lower from her shoulder slightly, though still holding it in a ready position. "Anyone know what these even are?" 

 She crouched down, trying to get a closer look but barely even got a moment. More noise. More clashing. She shouldered the weapon again, peering down the red dot. Couldn't get a clean line. Too many people too close to the, well, she was just going to call them zombtrees. 

 It'd work for now until she thought of something more creative. 

 Every so often she spotted a small enough break in the melee, one of the 'zombtrees' getting thrown back by a knight or, at the very least a big enough gap appearing in the fighting. Click. She switched the weapon to single shot, sighting in on one of the monster's heads! 

 Remove the head or destroy the brain. That's how it works in the movies, right?

    It... Got back up. Even with that massive laser-induced hole in its chest.
    "... Fascinating." Svarog muses as he lowers his hand thoughtfully.
    Clara, to her credit IMMEDIATELY scoots to the back row of the party so she's out of the way and not at risk of making her teammate's life difficult in any form, opting to hide behind Jessica for now.
    Because Svarog almost casually approaches the melee.
    Now... Here's the thing.
    Svarog is a ten foot tall ancient machine from an era long gone who weighs... A lot.
    He reels back one arm.
    The plant-monster-cloud-knight-thing unfortunate enough to be in his way when he swings that fist, well...
    It gets fucking isekai'd because Svarog hits with all the force of a truck and then some.
    The sheer shockwave of Svarog's monstrous haymaker bowls over another Mara-struck creature.
    In the next instant he's looming over the falling zombtree... 
    This is followed up with the ancient machine focusing on that unfortunate creature. Svarog lifts his boot...
    He just starts stomping it.
    He stomps it like Isaac Clarke mashing the R2 Button in Dead Space. All his weight. All the force he can muster. Repeatedly. Until it's just a pulverized mulched mess under his boot.
    This is about when Clara asks a VERY important question...
    "... Are these zombies?"

    "Oh no..." Jessica squeaks, seeing all the trouble the bullets are having! But she has fought zombies before, so she sorta knows how to deal with that. Sorta. True to the guess, she switches her aim for the NEXT targets to the head, taking more careful aim and shooting.

    This is harder when the next group calls for aid, because safely shooting into a melee is HARD. Jessica lines up a shot and takes it anyway, before turning to Clara.

    "Oh! S-sort of, but not really," Jessica sputters. "These um, plants seem to have transformed them into these things! So um... we should call them..." Hm hmm.

    BLAM BLAM!

    "Oh, I guess we call them Transformers."

    Talia's lightsaber seems to not be just enough to actually keep these creatures down, and she edges away to keep out of range of their blades. "Not good!" But when she sees Jo actually aim for the head, she gets the idea and engages by slashing at the neck, intending to decapitate these creatures. It's a grisly, if effective strategy guaranteed to take out most opponents in a single stroke. This won't be different, right?

    Right?

    Svarog wades into the melee like the embodiment of death. His punch is enough to crush the form of one of the unbroken Mara-Struck, the punch also launches it across the plaza. It's regenerating while in flight... but it strikes a crate with enough speed, that its body snaps like a twig over the corner, just befre the metal buckles, a resounding crack like a gunshot echos, as the thing dies on impact, its body dissipating into withered leaves... That one's gonna wake up in some fantasy world with a headache the size of the Luofu.

    Joanna's practiced marksmanship earns a few takedowns... but even with precise shots to vital areas, whatever animates these things doesn't care about the integrity of the body, it reanimates them all the same. "Overwhelming force! Keep hitting them so they can't regenerate!" comes that gruff soldier's voice, as he sparta-kicks one of the Mara-Struck away from him to clear some space. "Cloud Knights! Reform with the outsiders, lets push these monsters back!" he rallies, the other Knights forcing their opponents back.

    Talia's decapitating strikes work... but the body gets back up with a gnarly tree-thing now in place of the head... until she cuts that out too of course... these things seem to have 'insta-kill' immunity, or at least a one-time super-regeneration factor.

    It takes a few tense minutes, but the fighting subsides as the last Mara-Struck is felled.

    Stelle frowns at Jessica. "These are plants, not robots." she states plainly, hands on hips.

    The Cloud Knights pant, some having taken hits from those plant-blades... but taht doesn't seem to be a source of infection. The fox-lady bows. "Thank you benefactors. It would be rude of me to depart without saying such. My name is Tingyun. I'm the Amicassador for the Sky-faring Commission's merchant guild." she says introducing herself with a hand on her chest.

Jo did another quick check, eyes scanning, sweeping the corners. 

 Clear. 

 She again let herself relax into a stance that was slightly less 'battle ready', rifle lowered, barrel pointed to the floor. She took a moment to examine one of the fallen infected, though naturally keeping her distance from it just in case it didn't like the idea of staying dead. "So what even are these things? These plants look like something out of a cheap horror movie. The Night of the Living Shrubbery." 

 She looked to the others as the fox spoke up, figuring that they would probably be the better candidates for speaking with an ambassador. 

 At least she was *pretty* sure that's what she said.

    "Threat index lowered to acceptable levels."
    Svarog seems content that the threat has, for now, been taken care of.
    Clara peeks out from behind Jessica, now too.
    "... I don't think we should call them Transformers."

    The chicken shakes himself, hopping back from his brief scouting mission where he actually missed all the action. The corpses get some eyes from him, but he clucks softly and rejoins the others.

    "Perhaps given motion by some external power," he presumes, which is probably pretty close to the mark. He gives a bow. "Greetings, this Bi De is glad to see you have survived. Do you need assistance?"

    The tree is certainly a new one. She's seen bioarboreal lifeforms before, sapient ones even, but this was definitely a new one. "Ah, hello there." She greets Lady Tingyun with a pleasant enough smile, bowing her head. "Talia Kyras, Jedi Knight. I'm here with the crew of the Astral Express, we heard about our situation and sought to intercede on your behalf."

    There it is, clear and concise. "Seems we arrived to a horror show in progress. Pity, that."

    Jessica looks thoughtfully at the corpses, maybe taking mental notes. "I guess we should use more explosives... oh but that might be a bad thing to do in space, yeah?" She frowns worriedly, trying to think of a safer thing.

    She'll let Bi De do the talking, mostly, but will look around, "Does anyone need emergency care?"

    March dismisses her bow, Welt adjusts his glasses as his cane also disappears... notably it flickers away like the gravity well he created at the start of battle. Stelle steps up with her bat resting on her shoulder. "I'm March 7th, this is Mister Yang--" she gestures to Welt. "Ah, Mister Welt Yang... and this is--" she's cut off as Stelle shrugs the bat off her shoulder, flourishes it and lets go so it spins away into those blue-white particles. "I'm the Galactic Baseballer." she announces confidently, hands on hips.

    Tingyun smiles pleasantly, the face of one who's dealt with all kind of people, some you want to strangle, some you just want to escape from, and far fewer ones who are gentuinely interesting and engaging to converse with... a mask of politeness. "My, what a diverse group." she says, looking from the others to the Express trio. "And such a heroic sounding name~" she adds to Stelle's introduction.

    "DOn't mind her, she likes to get creative with her introductions." remarks March in a long-suffering tone.

    "Need I remind you, that the last time we gave our actual names, we ended up on the most wanted list?" retorts Stelle, frowning at the archer. "Next time remind me before I give up my name!" hisses the archer in return.

    "I see... well, thank you for coming to our aid, but there is something I still don't understand..." the foxian's tone shifting, pitched lower, the bounciness leaving her voice... this is a negotiators tone. "Starskiff Haven is currently under lockdown... and since you're not Xianzhou residents, may I ask how you came to be here?" The Cloud Knights stiffen a little, heeding the warning carried by the foxgirl's tone... but they don't prepare to attack.

    Jessica doesn't see the harm in answering, though she looks puzzled at the hostility. "Why are you getting all uptight? We took the train, like normal people would."

    Bi De straightens up. "While the feline one speaks true, I am afraid I myself am... less familiar with the device that we used to travel here. I come from a world where such things are long forgotten wonders. I was the protector of a place where rice and food was grown, and my task was to awaken the workers, remove foxes, dangerous rats, and of course defeat any bandits that may raid it, as any rooster should. So I cannot answer your question. I simply rode."

    He pauses, glancing about. "We were told there may be trouble here, though not of what nature."

"I was going to go with 'zombtrees'." She stepped back in line with the others, looking over at the suggestion of explosives and giving a slightly shrug. "Depends how these things spread. I'd think burning them might be the best bet but that could release spores or, I don't know. Something. We're not going to get infected just standing here, right?" 

 Then the tone shifted. 

 "If that's the case you didn't give much warning beforehand. Maybe a message would have been nice before whatever automated docking syste-" Jessica's comment cut through, Jo actually barely holding back a laugh at that one. "-Nice. Ahem. Automated docking system just waved us on through."

    One can almost hear the record scratch as Jessica's reply causes Tingyun's brain to reboot. "The... train...?" she asks distantly, her ears splaying askew and her tail floofing up like a fuzzy balloon, before she fully boots back from safe-mode. Ears realign and tail resume normal floofness levels. "I... see..." she adds, blinking at Jessica curiously. "I'm afraid that isn't a good enough explanation, dear... if none of you can provide one, these Cloud Knights will have to escort you out." Said Knights grip their glaives tighter. They look like they don't want to do that, but their duty is to uphold the law and safety of the ship.

    "Miss Tingyun, allow me to explain." That's Welt, stepping in and gentle gesturing to Joanna to calm a little. A placating little wave. "We contacted traffic control for port transfer but only got the automated system, but then someone opened the Jade Gate for us. When we landed, there was noone to be found, so we started making our way to what we assumed would be an information center, or at least a worker gathering site to ask."

    Tingyun frowns a little, but her tone shifts a little, from that negotiators interrogative, to a more concerned musing. "But, how could that be? My ship was the last one to dock before the Jade Gate was closed, the Sky-Faring Commission has already locked down Starskiff Haven entirely..." She cups her chin, looking into the middle distance as her tail swishes behind her.

    "Check the access history on the Jade Gate. We're telling the truth." asserts Welt earnestly. "We found it just as strange that the Gate opened but there was noone to greet us."

    Tingyun then seems to recall something mentioned earlier. "The Astral Express?" she asks, turning from Talia and Jessica, to Welt and the other two Trailblazers. THe latter two nod in agreement. "You've come at a bad time -- The Xianzhou Luofu is suffering from an incident, so whether you're here for leisure, treatment or trade, I'm afraid you won't be able to go through with it. For your safety, you should head directly to Central Starskiff Haven to take refuge. I will take you to Madam Yukong of the Sky-Faring Commission. She will decide how to proceed."

    "Like I said before, we received information that this was going on." Talia explains. "Much as I'd love to take in the local atmosphere, it seems we've got some trouble ahead of us. We'd like to offer our assistance in any way we can, if you'll have us."

    Bi De hmms, clucking softly and then leaping up to perch on something. "We would be remiss if we did not attempt to find the cause of this. My Master would frown, and his Grandfather would insist." He pauses. "Though Grandfather is a hunter of demons, so perhaps not the best example of behavior."

    Shaking his head, he gets back on topic. "Please, tell us what you know of how this happened? As you may have guessed, we have experience with... unusual matters. Talia's offer is not done out of whimsy."

There was a small sideways glance from the Jolteon, one that was perhaps a little displeased looking at being shushed like that but shushed she was all the same; deciding that staying quiet would probably be the best bet. At least for now anyway. Probably better to let the people more familiar with space trains and what have you speak up first.

    After a little thought, Jessica also chimes in. "As you just saw, we're very good at shooting trouble!" She actually doesn't have much to contribute other than, you know, being the heavily-armed short girl, now that Rebecca has wandered off.

    "Your actions have already revealed your kind hearts to me~" that polite bounciness returns again, and that mask along with it. "Unfortunately you're outsiders, and only Madam Yukong has the authority to consider your offer. Worry not though, Mada Yukong is kind-hearted too... please, allow me to lead the way~."

    As the group moves, Stelle drops another one of those Space Anchor seeds. It unfolds and pulses briefly, helping to restore fatigue in the group as they pass by.

    "Those, monsters back there..." begins Welt questioningly, only to be cut-off quickly.

    "THose were not monsters!" the lead CLoud Knight, the one with the gruff gravelly voice interjects.
    "Those are not to be confused with monsters, Benefactors... they are what we call 'Mara-Struck'(Long-Life Curse)."

    The group have to navigate a few 'move the container' puzzles. Previous groups probably moved the containers into place as roadblocks to stimey the advance of the Mara-Struck and Fragmentum monsters. Something Tingyun says on the way may be of note.

    "As an Amicassidor of the Sky-Faring Commission, I've been to many worlds, and seen more than my fair share of Stellaron Corrosion... I thank you for coming. Even if it turns out for naught."

    It doesn't take all that long, and only a few minor confrontations with some Fragmentum monsters before they arrive at the Starskiff pier... but standing in defiance is a larger Mara-Struck, heavily armoured, with a short spear and a tower shield... much like the Lieutenants of the Silvermane Guard... but this one has tree-stuff growing out of his armour. He bellows in a scratchy, distorted shriek, and slams his shield into the ground in challenge.

    Perhaps 'monster' isn't the right word for it. "Is this some kind of plague?" Talia asks, as she lingers near the space anchor seed to regain a little HP and MP. Anything to keep her pep in her step.

    Cutting through more of these things, now that she knows what's necessary, is pretty simple for Talia. Her lightsaber cuts through Mara-Struck, splitting them apart. All she needs to do is make too much of a mess for these things to glue together. But the big one, that might be more of a problem. "Stay back!" Talia says to Tingyun, as she rushes to attack the big Mara-Struck, vaulting behind it so she can jab her saber into it and cut upwards.

    Encountering a new 'cursed' one, Jessica is actually in a good position! This is because, when these moving blocks were encountered, she did what came naturally to her.

    Thus, she is perched atop a block, climbing over to a nice little vantage point for her to use her firearms from. "Some kind of infection, I think?" Jessica is going to guess. "Hopefully it doesn't explode." She chambers an originium magazine, and as soon as Talia backs off for defense, fires two shots, aiming for joints. Last time these things got back up, but maybe removing limbs will make them less effective?

    Talia does a backstab maneuver, while Jessica is shooting. Bi De waits calmly for the shots to finish, then he dashes in, without a word. The rooster glimmers, shining with silver light, then splits into two. One silver-hued, the other pitch black, the two chickens split away from one another and move to either side of the creature.

    "We should move quickly," comes the rooster's smooth baritone, as the silver one kicks out an empowered talon at a knee joint.

    Svarog is very good at moving containers.
    He is large and in charge.
    And then there's a shield-bearing tree zombie.
    "Stay back, Clara."
    Clara obediently stays back.
    Svarog, moves in to engage the large Mara-Struck.
    he politely knocks on that large shield.
    With a haymaker that would make a god dizzy.

If that wasn't a 'monster', then Jo wasn't quite sure what would qualify in the eyes of these knights. She checked her weapon again. Maybe it would work, though suddenly she was having doubts about 5.56 being able to punch through something with that much armour. 

 Click. 

 Safety on, she moved to hold the weapon in her left hand leaving her free to raise her right. 

 Her fur stood on end, static charging the air- 

 KRAK! 

 Two blinding flashes, one from the woman's hand and another when the bolt made contact!

    Multiple things happen in rapid succession. Svarog steps up and slams his fist into the shield... The being holding it isn't a god, but he does manage to tank the blow with a dented shield and a shattered arm... it regrowing with more wooden vines, spikes piercing out of the bracer and epaulette as whatever animates these things reacts to the damage.

    Jessica fires shots into the joints of the armour, making the things legs buckle. More vines grow and anchor it in place now, an immovable object.

    That's when Talia and Joanna's attacks land. The Lightsaber bisecting armour, and allowing that Thunderbolt to hit directly at the former man's body instead of scattering over the metal armour, the powerful electric attacks scorches flesh, burns plant matter and leaves the thing smoking, but regenerating.

    FInally, Bi De's two-prong assault comes in taking out the legs and knocking the beast over. It topples like a tree with its trunk cut out from under it, falling over and impaling itself on the spike at the center of its broken shield.

    A few moments later, the Cloud Knights and Tingyun leave their cover, the body of the fallen Mara-Struck dissipating in golden leaf fragments that waft away on an unfelt breeze. "Finally..." sighs the Foxian, "Look at how many tail hair's I've lost on the way! My beautiful tail.." she says plaintively, cradling her fluffy tail like one may a cherished pet." she gathers herself, then gestures. "That was a difficult start, but things eventually got easier~ Look, that's the barge I was talking about!" she says, a large Starskiff hanging over the open atmosphere at the edge of the dock. It looks large enough to carry several large crates if stacked properly... or several dozen passengers with space to sit on the deck.

Jo gave a glance towards the deeper voiced knight she heard talking before, her fur slooowly starting to unfluff. 

 Still looked at least slightly ridiculous right about now though. 

 "Still not going to call that thing a monster?"

    Jessica's own tail flicks back and forth, as she hops down from her perch. "So... is this what you're going to use to evacuate or something? Because it sounds like you don't want to be here very much."

    She gestures to the barge. "Can you tell us where they are coming from?"

    Talia eyes the barge. "Think we might be able to get that running?" She asks Tingyun, "Should be enough to get us out."

    A quiet chirp sounds out as Bi De's duplicate vanishes, and the silver-colored one returns to his normal coloration. "It does concern me that this is happening. We should at least investigate the cause." He's pretty sure he knows what it is but...

    The Cloud Knight takes off his helmet, revealing a scar running down the right side of his face... "Would you call me a monster?" he asks plainly. "The Mara-Struck are us... every one used to be one of us. It's part of the Plagues Author(Yaoshi)'s 'Blessing' on our ancestors... we live long lives, but all eventually succumb to the Mara once we exceed our natural lifespan." he puts his helmet back on, brushing past the Jolteonmorph. "Do not thing you understand our ways, Short-lifer... you can't even begin to."

    "Certainly, Benefactor~" replies Tingyun to Talia. "It is why I led you here after all." She then looks to Jessica and Bi De. "They are coming from our own people, the Xianzhou natives, that is... and this current spike in incidents is related to... that incident, I'm certain." she adds, stepping up onto the Starskiff, and heading to the pilots position, a very watercraft-like array of controls set into a slightly elevated platform at the back of the craft. "Everyone aboard, next stop, Central Starskiff Haven, and the Sky-Faring Commission."

    Talia doesn't hesitate to follow along, boarding the skiff. She gives the captain a look, a mournful one. It's an awful gift they've been given, one that there's no apparent fix for. "There's always a price with longevity." She muses softly.

    Jessica blinks, "Oh, that sounds awful!" She huffs, "I'm not sure how long my people live, we usually die before we get old."

    Tingyun manipulates the controls once everyone's aboard. The vessel lifts from the level of the port it was moored at, and smoothly accelerates into the sky, moving to join a procession of other Skiffs on some kind of curated skyway. The journey is uneventful, but gives a good sweeping view of the ship, the settlements on the ship, and the Central Starskiff Haven and the seat of the Sky-Faring Commission as they approach. The Luofu defies most normal classifications, as parts of the ship that are required to operate it as a starfaring vessel, are merged seamlessly into everyday life. Exhaust ports, moving pistons and other such things are ubiquitous in the arcitechture of the vessel.

    Tingyun sets the Skiff down on a long pedestrian pier at the southern end of the Haven, dismounting and dismissing the Cloud Knights with a smile, she turns to the others. "Welcome to Starskiff Haven. On the Xianzhou Luofu, all matters relating to aviation, navigation and trade go through the Sky-Faring Commission, one of the six Commissions of the Luofu. As the biggest port on the ship, Starskiff Haven is also under jurisdiction of the Sky-Faring Commission. Please make your way to the Navigators Pavilion, the large building at the center of the Haven. I will go on ahead to inform Madam Yukong of your arrival." Tingyun then turns, and scampers off at a brisk pace. Not exactly a jog, but quicker than a walk. She soon disappears in the midst of the crowd of people, many refugees from afflicted zones, some nursing non-critical wounds, and several squads of Cloud Knights overseeing everything.