World Tree MUSH

Jius looked at the datapad the shift supervisor gave him and sat his ration pack down. Eyes closed as he took a deep breat. "Alright. Before I read your official report. I want your unofficial opinion."

THe shift supervisor's mechanical head bowed, its lights dimly blinking in time with the voice emminating from the chassis as its all too human arms clasped. "These Anomolies are making a fix next to impossible and even if we could radio for assistance I haven't heard anyone out there."

"Malfunctioning equipment?" Jius took a slow breath as he skimmed the report, glancingbetween the expenses of ammunition and machinery lost, potential profits from salvage already gathered, and the market forces of the grineer salvage team they had the misfortune of having to deal with. The numbers left a hollow place in his gut. 

"Sir," The ship's helmsman walked into Jius's ready room. "We've transitioned through the anomoly and..."

"Yes?" Jius cally sat report down and followed helm out to look at what the main screens showed. His eyebrows furrowed, "THat," He declared on seeing a single blue and white planet circled by a single moon with none of the debris, patrol ships, or any of the destruction to its moon his old eyes had grown accustomed to seeing ever since Lua was returned to the skies. "That should be impossible." In fact the only artificial structures in place were primative chemical and solar powered devices. Something was going on here.

            ***

At the same time Kela T'lok was staring out of the viewport of her ship's bridge at the blue and white world hanging disturbingly close. "Helm," SHe snapped. "That is Earth." SHe kept her voice level, attempting to hide the greater partof her irritation from her crew. "Why are we not recieving anything from command?"

"Unknown Ma'am," The helmsman on deck turned his bulky armor clad body to face his commander. "Comms reports weak radio traffic using bandsand encryption far outsideof what Corpus would use. Equipment checks out, but nobody's there."

"Impossible."

            ***

SEVERAL HOURS EARLIER

"Alright," Ash was dressed in a bulky suit that could haveeither been intended for space, or perhaps deep sea diving. THe plates of the suit's helmet were retracted, allowing his hair to blow in the slight breeze as he looked over those that had answered his call for aid. "We are going to hopefully pressure both sides currently fighting eachother over salvage rights to sit down and negociate. Both sides have a long and vested history of hating the other and may not quite realize they aren't still within their home 'verse. I have paid for Star Wolf's services both to act as our way to the station and if need be backup to ensure the station itself is taken and under my control."

He would take a deep breath as he waited for these words to sink in. "I would really prefer it if both sides could be made to stop fighting as both have skillsets and manpower that would be useful. Plus I would rather not have to kill if absolutely not nessicary. However," His tone grew hard as he shifted his gaze from his audiance to the pair of transport craft they were set to board.

"Fighting may be nessicary. I am going in the second craft to the station's secondary dockingring to try assuming control of the station's systems while you try negociating. I am leaving my ship and warframe out of this because until negociations are concluded both sides will be on edge and quite happy to start shooting, and any whiff of Tenno presence will cause all attemptsat peace to go out the airlock. So no mentioning me, my warframe, or that you have anyone familiar with either side. IF they ask about the second shuttle, just explain it's an engineering team sent to investigate a power spike. If it all goes well none of you will need to fight. IF worse coems to worse? Fall back to the transport, and clear out. Are there any questions before we go?"

     "Just to clarify, while you think about what all you want to ask," speaks a voice from nearby the two transport ships. Those two ships are made to hold troops and are of a design originating from the Planet Venom in the Lylat System. They are a little blocky-looking with white, gray, and red markings but are made for quick deployment of ground troops in hot zones. The back loading ramp is deployed on each and the insides are visible; they could each hold between ten and twelve troops comfortably. 

     The one speaking is from that star system. It's Wolf O'Donnell, leader of the group helping to backbone the job. "Let me quickly cover the details of the two groups you'll be forming. Squad A will be the foremost group responsible for meeting the occupants of the roaming space station at the Primary Docking Ring, whether they like it or not. If you have good negotiation or social manipulation skills, Alpha will be a good choice for you. HOWEVER, if things go sideways, Alpha will be on that station in a section with the highest density of possible enemies to deal with. If you are good in a straight up brawl or firefight, are good with defense and support, or otherwise completely lack the skillsets required for Squad B, Alpha will be a good choice for you." 

     While Wolf has plenty of practice delivering briefings in such a way, there's definitely Cornerian Academy experience bleeding through in it. He continues, "Squad B will be the secondary group and they will be responsible for a stealthy insertion through the Secondary Docking Ring with the objective of infiltrating the Spawn Room. You may encounter roaming patrols and scavengers along the way, but it is imperative that you raise no alarms or suspicion as you do so. If you have skills that grant you stealth, obfuscation, misdirection, or tactful and silent breaking and entering, both electronic and mechanical, then Bravo will be a good choice for you. Any alarms raised by Bravo will completely compromise our main plan of action and spark or increase their attacks of retaliation, especially on Alpha." 

% "Once you have decided on a Squad, also decide which of of you on Squad A will be the leader. I recommend that it be somebody with tact, leadership, or diplomacy skills. I will be accompanying Alpha: as its pilot, as an inside eye, and as damage control if things are botched." Wolf turns toward one of the troop shuttles, yet continues to speak, just not in as booming a voice. "...please don't make me have to risk the lives of my men to clean up after you. That's me asking nicely. Ash, I have a pilot in the other ship ready to fly Bravo under your lead. My boys are waiting above. We'll each have two fighters as escorts and a squadron of three are awaiting the arrival of our target in order to broadcast our diplomatic demands. I can have my men do it, or we can link comms to you or me." Wolf's heavy boots clomp against the ramp as he walks up it to board the dropship. At the top, he pauses, turns, and speaks loudly once more. 

     "Nonlethal combat if at all possible, if it comes down to it, but don't hesitate to drop somebody if your life or the life of a Squadmate is in danger. Robotics will be present and those are expendable. Concussive sonic shotguns are available in this craft, along with flashbang grenades, if you require nonlethal arms. Smoke grenades and noisemakers are available in the other craft for Bravo. Use them if you need them. You can thank Ash for buying them for you." O'Donnell disappears further within while the briefing continues.

Sasuke Uchiha was at the briefing and now he's here, in the midst of it all. Honestly, Sasuke is easily the best suited for Alpha team. But he might also be the quietest member. His form is covered by that black cloak that wraps about his neck, and comes down to his shins. His eyes ever forward, analyzing who else is in Alpha. 

 Nonlethality? No problem. Sasuke didn't quite like killing anyway, even if he was prepared to. So instead, Sasuke just remains silent, and continues to listen to the briefing.

    An ear flicks as Renya tilts her head a little to one side while listening to lowdown on what they're getting into. Two sides that deeply despise each other and more likely to shoot than talk, and they're suppose to get them to negotiate peacefully? She chuffs softly, giving the brim of her hat a light tug. "Sounds like trying to get pirates and navy to parlay."
    Hey, it might work. MIGHT.... She'll just be ready for if and when it doesn't.

    "Well, either way it's going to be interesting ain't it now..." She does regard Wolf more closely for a moment. With that eyepatch and gruff commanding demeanor he'd fit right in on a grand galleon... Though by the sound of this 'Star Wolf' he already captains something similar. Could be worth looking into later as well.

    At least, despite her antagonistic tendancies, Renya has little problem with 'kill only as last resort', that's her usual methodus operendai. Though as she saunters aboard she grabs one of the sonic guns, even if her own weapon does have nonlethal capabilities. Never hurts to have options. Or free weapons.

Anna's joining in because Ash is her best bro, and she doesn't want to let him down. Spiral is staying back home on their Earth, because she doesn't want to have to be the one to tell Anna's parents that she broke her promise to let them know if she was doing anything more dangerous than her real magical girl job.

"Yeah, I'm on team A," Anna says dryly. The tall young woman with the fairly androgynous voice is already in her magical girl costume. She'd stick out like a sore thumb anywhere. "Noooo stealth whatsoever! I won't need any weapons, either." She raises a hand and waggles her finger, producing a pale blue glow.

She doesn't have the slightest problem working alongside Renya, even though she fought against her crew several months ago. That's just the magical girl way, really, even (or perhaps especially) in the World Tree. Yesterday's enemy is tomorrow's ally, and all that.

After the briefing, Miwa moves to join the rest of Alpha team on the drop ship. She's a bit nervous about all this, knowing how important this is for Ash and that she's never really been in such a high stakes diplomatic situation before, even if she has spent plenty of time working with people on her world and a bit of solving a few conflicts between humans and the wild Pokemon in her own region. She certainly didn't want to be the leader of this operation though, that was for sure.

 But stealth was definitely not her strength, at least not on land. It's hard to miss her approach as she flipper-walks over to join the others, doing a bit of a breathing exercise in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Hello." She offers to Anna, probably giving her or anyone else a good run for who sticks out the most in this group.

Perhaps Ash was amused at everyone going on the Alpha transport. Perhaps not. Either way his face remaned impassive and anyone that could detect emotion would actually feel a deadening of his feelings as he descended into the same sort of calm he did during other battles. "this actually works out pretty well. Mixed unit greeting party will pot both sides off balance. you have until we dock to nominate who's leading negociations."

He would then look to Wolf, "I am paying you for your services, but I still appreciate you being here." Then a look to those that had assembled. "Ordis is uploading a rough map based on last known good data from the station's interrior. Both factions will have set up barricades and varying emplacements. With any luck once we make station fall they will realize sitting down and talking will bein their best interest. If not..." He left the rest to the group's imagination.

                ***

Hours into their ascent both transport craft as well as the attendant escorts encountered automated warning beacons. First one of a comparitively primative slapdash design. the other more technological. Both giving essentially the same message to turn away, this is contested space and all intruding ships will be fired upon.'

"OK," Ash took a breath and signaled to Wolf that he wanted to attempt to negociate. "To both parties contesting over this alien structure." THe filters distorted Ash's voice, changing its pitch and tember, making him sound older in the process, "We are going to land at what looks like a docking ring at the central point of the station to evaluate this structur's risks to our population centers. "We request landing clearance."

"Negative Unidentified Craft. We have rightful claim to this derelict structure." A slightly filtered and synthetic sounding voice intoned.

"We have been given Authority by the Twin Queens servant Sargus Ruk to strip this structure of any and all resources useful to the Grineer Empire." A second voice, feminine, rough and almost horse, countered. "We will not yield. Approach at your own peril."

Ash frowned from his seat in the rear of Bravo Craft before resuming radio contact. "Here is what will happen. We are going to dock our craft and inspect this structure to ensure either it or you are not threats to our populations. You will stand down and allow us to do this job. As you are also in dispute over the salvage rights to this structure? We are going to offer services mediate-"

A cluster of craft approach, some bulbous and appearing more like armored thruster packs for armored personnel. Others were sleek robots humming closer on twin ion drives.

A deep breath from Ash before he Radio'd wolf. "OK... that's actually promising. They aren't dropping everything to shoot us out of the sky."

One of the bulbous armored troopers fired a warning shot in the vague direction the transports.

"Also Grineer don't usually give warning shots. That..." Ash took a deep breath. "I'd say disable, but you nick that rig and it'll explode. Aim for the robotics. See if you can scare the fleshies away in the process. If not. Clear us a path but don't shoot at anything fleeing."

     In Alpha Squad's transport, Wolf O'Donnell pilots the craft while two wingmen take point in what appear to be fighter craft. Over in Bravo Squad's craft, the ship is piloted by one of Wolf's men and has another sitting in the back. That can't be all the backup he's bringing, is it? Just in case anybody in either ship has any question about this this far in: 

     Yes, this is happening. 

     The seats used to be outfitted with securing straps for people sitting down in order to strap in, but, as all occupants no doubt have discovered since lift off, there is hardly any sense of motion inside the craft. There is a distinct vibration from the engines through each vessel that can be felt while sitting or standing, but there is nearly no sense of momentum despite the course corrections made or changes in acceleration after clearing the planet's atmosphere. While any would be able to see through the main viewport at the front to know this, a screen in the back where the most seating is available shows the current course and flight plan along with an estimated time of point of contact. 

     Before the beacons are encountered, however, there may be some sense of awe for those being transported at encountering a small army's worth of fighters forming something of a wall there in space -- it's a blockade? The ships are, however, of very similar design to that of the dropships being escorted. There are flashes of light scattered around the dormant forces as various engines flicker to life amidst the vast darkness of space as Alpha and Bravo deployment ships approach and then pass. This armada tails behind in the approach slowly, but follows nonetheless. There is various radio chatter being coordinated amongst the pilots of the dropships with those of the escorts and fleet. 

     The beacons are reached and the warnings are received. All passengers can clearly hear what is posted over comms so they understand what all is going on and the nature of the situation. On Ash's ship, the pilot -- a monkey named Pavel -- switches comms over to him for his attempt to hail and negotiate a peaceful solution. The reply, no, replies from the two heads of contesting factions spell it all out simply enough. The refusal is probably no surprise, for who would want to willingly give up claimed salvage to strangers just because you're in unknown territory.

     Wolf sighs at this audibly. Sure enough, fighters inbound and shots fired. Warning shots, though. He would probably do exactly the same in their shoes. Ash's voice over comms details the nature of certain weaknesses and O'Donnell speaks up. "All right, gang. Move the armada up -- double-time it! I want to see engine lights in the next ten seconds. You heard the boy: watch your fire. These people don't want to spend resources fighting us, they want to scare us off. Evasive tactics, pick off the unmanned ships and devices, and drive them right back in the hole where they came from. If they want to press their defense, keep them occupied. These dropships are carrying private contractors; We need to reach those docking rings in the confusion of the sortie. They'll be expecting Alpha to land exactly where advertised." 

     A glance is given over the gruff lupine's shoulder. "Hold on to your butts, people." 

     Outside the troop vessels a number of lights scream by leaving afterimages of the engines powering the fighters' thrust. More lights streak about as the Star Wolf fighters' energy cannons retaliate against the Grineer ballistics. It likely takes less than half a minute of time for the local space to become an all out battle. Ahead from within the Alpha Shuttle, where the image of the tall station and the two ships docked with it can be seen, the entirety of the view of space and the destination at hand begins to turn around a single axis before swinging away out of sight. The back of one of the escort ships slides into view before it, too, rolls and dips to one side. Throughout this, again, this is almost no feeling of movement, as if sitting inside a large vehicle with a video game screen at the front. 

     "Watch it!" That illusion should come crashing to a halt as Alpha Shuttle gets glanced by a hail of gunfire. The shielding can hold against something so miniscule, but it -does- cause the shuttle to shake while the noise of the multiple impacts, combined with the buzz of the shielding around the ship recovering, fills the interior. "Don't make repeat myself, Michaels. Watch my starboard!" 

     Over in the Bravo Shuttle, the ride is a bit smoother, but that's a combination of trailing behind the Squad A group taking point in the advance and, well, luck. The pilot, Pavel, is very very focused at the moment to the point of almost looking zoned out. He is dead silent. The same bobbing and rolling of evasiveness changes the view ahead as well as the infographics on the monitor in the back. For what it is, if there weren't the threat of real mortal danger of getting the ship ripped in half and then having all occupants exposed to the vacuum of space, it might be very...Zen. 

     Over the comms or in the craft itself, O'Donnell's voice speaks up. "Okay, mercs. Listen up. You need to prepare to offload the moment we connect to the docks in about -thirty seconds-. Double check your gear, then help check the gear of the person beside you. These docks weren't meant for our ships. We're going to be bleeding atmosphere from within the ship and docking bay once we connect, so when we pop the door open and go -clear- you need to MOVE IT!"

Well, could be worse. 

 But Sasuke has always been a man of few words. It was easy since everyone was pretty much on the same squad, so...here's hoping everything just goes smoothly. But the one-armed ninja looks to Wolf as he continues the briefing. Select someone to be in charge of negotiations? 

 Sasuke was definitely not the person for that. So he just stays silent. 

 But, he looks to the door, then to Anna, then to Miwa, then to Ash, then back to Wolf. This should be quite a mission. He doesn't judge any of them, and instead awaits the door to open.

    The lack of reverbrance is actually rather off-putting to Renya. For someone accustomed to roll of waves or the rattle of winds against the airship hull, the null feeling was... weird. Weird enough that she was not nearly as chatterboxy as usually, sitting in her seat with her tail flicking back and forth around her legs and constantly reminding herself that the craft is moving. She can't feel it but it is moving. It is definately moving, even if you don't feel it, it is certainly going to be movi--

    --The outbreak of a fight trying to scare off their approach though, that snaps her out of it as a much welcome distraction. Much more familiar feeling. The vixen practically sprung to her feet at the instructions, with only a little bit of wavering to resituation her balance without the familiar deck motio--oh wait, there's a bit of shaking from the combat, that's better. Now she feels back in her element.

"Ye heard the pilot mates. Move to be shipshape by the time we gotta ship out, this bucket ain't gonna sit still for long." She grabs the sonic gun she'd picked up earlier and twirls it playfully before tucking it into her belt opposite the side her calisabre is slung from. "Let's get that heave a-hoin'! I've seen barnacles move quicker!" No one really seemed to vote on leader so the Captain just naturally slipped into getting the landing party moving.

Anna smiles and gives Miwa a wave. "Heya!" Good to know someone else is good for being on good terms!

...

Now, Anna just sighs softly at how badly this has gone; her costume is looking slightly rumpled as she sits there strapped in. She can't resist muttering a quiet, "'Hold onto my what?'" at Wolf's comment.

... right before the ship shudders. "WHOA!" She grabs the straps. At Wolf's command, she glances down at herself; still no gear. Then she looks at the others around her, though she isn't entirely sure what she's looking for. Yep, everyone seems ... fine!

She smirks faintly at Renya's haranguing. "Then get ready to be impressed!" she says. It's not that she objects to having someone taking charge over her. She's just ... not naturally inclined to being ordered around.

Miwa also finds the fact that they are moving but there is no movement inside the ship odd. Though she is glad this means that with no straps on the seats, it means everyone isn't left sliding or stumbling around, or at least trying to brace themselves against the movement, as she knows she would not have as easy a time with. 

 She nods back to Anna and smiles, then turns to Renya as the ship suddenly comes under fire and she quickly drops low to try and keep her balance as the ship is rocked a bit by the impact. After recovering from this, she offers an idea while already letting a frigid power build inside her. "I can try to make a seal between the ship and the station with ice when we dock. Probably won't hold for long, but at least it'll keep some of the air in while we move out."

    Renya pauses in her getting a hustle going to cock her head and peer at Miwa a moment as if trying to figure out what she actually is. "Ye be the oddest mermaid I've ever laid eye on lass, but that sounds like a banger of an idea. Just make sure we don't slide out on our poopdecks, hah!"

     The image of the station grows larger and large for each respective ship. While the dropships are sizable for what they are, they pale in comparison to the ivory majesty of that which is both built -and- grown organically. The approach is dead-on for the ship piloted by the eyepatch-wearing biker-dressed Wolf. The nearer one gets to the oddly-created space station, the less room there is to actually fire at them without risking damage to the very thing they're trying to defend from these 'poachers' forcing their way aboard. 

     Bravo's shuttle, on the hand, takes a sudden indirect route completely breaking away from its escort and the two escorts immediately break away to join the fray. This sudden burst of speed curves it into a vector to intercept the Secondary Docking Ring at a docking point, does a controlled 180, and then cuts engines. The shuttle begins to coast quietly toward its destination in as stealthy a maneuver as can be managed. When it makes contact, it is soft and barely noticeable. When the back door opens, it experiences something very similar to what the other shuttle does. 

     Alpha's shuttle experiences something similar, only without cut power. On the contrary, the ship burns a trail hot and fast while the two escorts trail behind to offer more shielding from the shots that DO get fired their way. And then, the swing about! The front viewport frames the scene of the space melee before all those aboard. Various machines powered by lights, shooting various types of weaponry, glancing blows flickering shielding -- something suddenly explodes in a ball of light! There is fire, but only briefly, and whatever debris remains from the tragic fate is lost to the blackness of space behind it. 

     "You do what you have to do, Miwa," voices Wolf, calling the unique individual by name with some familiarity from hearing her voice alone, but his next statement is to everybody else. Comms are open, too. "I hope you all picked a squad leader on the trip over. I'm not your dad. I have my own things to handle. Bravo Squad, acknowledge landing upon boarding. Alpha Squad, prepare for contact in five..." 

     Wolf O'Donnell doesn't bother to count the rest of the way down, but almost as if perfectly on cue there is a groaning from the shuttle making contact with something else. Engines apply some automatic thrust to counter atmospheric pressure that will aim to push the ship away from the dock without a lock. The back door clicks, but nothing happens. And then still nothing happens. And just when it seems something must be wrong, the door snaps open but there is no ramp to deploy. There is some immediate depressurization, but nothing severe. It still makes a whistling sound as air pressure pushes from the open shuttle doors and the docking bay through the gaps between the back end of the craft and the docking point itself. 

     "Clear!" Time to move.

At the primary docking ring Corpus salvage units as well as Grineer marines hesitated. Neither side wished to be the first to break the shakey stalemate they had achived. Then a Corpus salvager raised a hand over an energy barrir he had been hiding behind. "Hey!" He shouted Then when he pulled his hand back and saw it wasn't shot to pieces he grew bolder. "I've got tellimitry that the dock aft of us is about to open up. I don't like you lot much but I like dying less." No profit in dying. "Think we should go make the new lot misirable for a change?"

The salvager's coworker watched, lights on a very robotic head slowly winking off and on as Grineer immediately rushed away. "I can't believe that worked." There was a nervose laugh.

"It's not a trick love, we're about to get a lot of unknown company and it's got bossman uneasy. We're supposed to go to the central courtyard." The pair of salvagers surveyed the emptying hallway that had been home to a twelve hour stalemate. Were they really doingthis, aligning with these Grineer?

Elsewhere in the station both Corpus and Grineer units had gotten word of the impending intrusion. Each side would glance at the other, maybe make the occasional rude gesture, but it seemed common enemies made for strange bedfellows. It worked when the Infested were around after all. then again that was a less coordinated affair and more 'we'll stay outof your way and glass the area if it eats you.' Barriers were arrayed at the airlock door. Some of these would be inflatable kevlar bags. Others would be sloped energy barricades. There would be maybe a dozen or so units of each faction there plus an additioanl dozen corpus robots. Some of these flew, otherswalked on three toed backward knee'd legs. It was fortunate for the fliers that the cielings were high.

The docking bay was grey on grey with 'artistic' swirling designs striped through the walls all the way up to the archof the room's high cieling. Similar swirled lines in the floor swirled and mingled leading to the inner airlock door. Anyone that could read Tenno script could tell these swirls were destination markers. One line leading to 'ops' another marking itself as 'research' and so on. All lovingly etched into the floor.

The inner doors would open as soon as everyone is inside and the outer door re-seals. They would hear muffled noises outside in a combination of languages that were hard if not outright impossible to make out. Sounds of bickering. Then a single shotgun blast before a loud male voice bellowed. "KAAAMM AUT SKOOM!"

Miwa nods to Reyna and chuckles a bit. "Well, that's because I'm not exactly a mermaid at all, I'm a primarina, name's Miwa." She offers before turning her full attention to the fact that the ship is moving into docking position. She hears the door click, and tenses up, but as nothing happens at first, she just waits and watches closely. When the door finally falls away and the air in the drop ship starts getting sucked out into the vacuum of space, she quickly goes to work. With careful aim, she expels a column of super-chilled water from her mouth which freezes on contact with the edge of the docking port, creating a solid seal between the ship and the station. She keeps at it to reinforce the seal a bit, then quickly joins the others in rushing to board the space station.

Looks like it's timed to move. He waits until Miwa has created that ice seal between the ship and the station, before Sasuke gets moving. He doesn't draw his blade, but it already seems as though their presence isn't entirely welcome. But..that's what happens in intrusions. Sasuke takes a moment to activate his Sharingan...then he moves with blinding speed, a blur, really, into the station as SOON as that shotgun blast is heard. 

 It definitely didn't sound good. But Sasuke is ready for a fight. 

 As hopefully everyone else is. Because warm welcomes these days are a thing of the past.

    "Captain Renya Rhimehart. Pardon me if we don't spend time on lengthy introductions, lass." They need to move quick enough that Renya doesn't even go into her usual shpeel (not spheal). She's already in business mode, and as no one seems to have objected to her taking the lead, take the lead she will even if it isn't her ship and crew. Though she does whistle at the ice formation. "Nice." Before jumping out and skimming down the formation on her boot heels which are made for such things. She only said no sliding on their butts after all. That'd be awkward and not really a good impression to make.

    At the other end she takes a little hop, boots clanking on the deck as she kips a little to arrest her motion. A flick of the tail to reassert balance as she rights herself, straightens out her greatcoat, and gives her tricorne a tug back into the right position. "Now then. Let's see what we--"

    The shotgun blast and screaming of almost incomprehensable words does give her pause if only for a moment. "--Guess the locals already be restless." She shrugs a little, and saunters up to the hatchway leading farther into the base. And stops there, already putting on a show with her smarmy ostentatious charm. "Ahoy there space hearties! Be hearing you have a bit of a discourse going on." If anything the vixen doesn't show a drop of fear at the fact that's likely walked into numerous weapon sights (it's hardly the first time). "We be here to help with settling things, preferably before there be no one left to collect afterwards."

    They were suppose to try and negotiate first, after all. Though behind the gleaming smile and snake oil sleekness a scrutinous eye is looking over the motely opposition. Then she leans a little back to off-side to the rest of the group. "Is it bad that I can say this ain't the weirdest welcome party I've seen?"

>> SUMMARY[Renya Rimehart] >> Negotiate? Or at least try? If nothing else Renya does do what she does best -- Grab attention.

     O'Donnell engages an automatic twenty seconds of reverse thrust. Combined with the ice seal, that should make things quite stable for unloading securely and afford those aboard more comfort in time to assess the situation and act without rushing. Once that thrust ends the seal won't last much longer, but everybody should be well aboard by then. 

     Even Wolf leaves the pilot's seat. He nonchalantly walks over, picks up a couple flashbangs and secures them on his belt, then clomps his heavy boots over to pull a concussive shotgun from the secured weapon rack, then rests the metal device over his left shoulder with his left hand. While his back is turned to the exit onto the station and all those that have left, removes his eyepatch and then pulls out an HMD to slip onto his head. The blue lens of the head-mounted display covers his scarred left eye and lights up. 

     Turning his head to view the boarding process, Wolf takes in the sight of the welcoming party as he steps free only just as the thrust ends, the ice begins to crack from the pressure, and then undoubtedly shatters as the shuttle floats away and the docking seals shuts. ...was that supposed to be the way out? 

     The tall wolf doesn't bother to take cover. His pace is slow as he reaches inside his vest to turn something on. "Actually, I'd believe it." The middle-aged space pirate speaks up, though. "Listen to the woman." He then turns half-away and mutters under his breath. "Or don't." Wolf doesn't care about being a target. "Alpha is aboard," he says casually over comms. "Register Bravo's boarding, then pull out. Let's give them a show of good faith."

Anna is ready at the same moment. She grins as Renya takes the lead, and saunters in after her like a bodyguard. She's ... decidedly not the most combat-ready person here, or at least she's the least-experienced, to the extent that her acting like she's going to defend Renya is probably backwards. Still, best to put on appearances!

Magical girls are all about appearances, after all. Or, well, once you get past the whole friendship and hope business, at least. Teamwork is totally acceptable here, isn't it? (The magical girl shows Anna has watched have not properly prepared her for the World Tree. Fortunately, she actually knows this.)

She grins at Renya's latest comment. "No, you're good," she says. A grandiose shrug, "I mean, welcome to the World Tree!"

Miwa follows after Reyna and Anna, though is careful to stay behind them and preferably also some cover. She assumes that the likelihood that the forces they will be up against will be armed with weapons of a similar level of deadliness to what Ash has available to himself, and she'd rather not get her skin perforated if she can avoid it. Otherwise she stays quiet, letting Reyna do the talking, as she seems to have a good handle on the negotiation so far.

ELSEWHERE

"Commander T'lok." Jius did the best he could to not sound overly concerned that he was being hailed now, rather than weeks ago when their fight overwho wouldget to salvage the Tenno station started. "To what do I owe the pleasure." One might be forgivnen for thinking the commander of a ship belonging to peoplewho worship the very concept of profit would have opulant quarters. In this instance one would be mistaken. Jius had rather sparce livingarrangements. No viewscreen, only a standard work terminal, a single person bunk. No decorations save for a Fortuna poster his crew gave him.
    he woman's voice at the other end of the communication soundedfar less relaxed. "Save it Sheld," the hard accent of the grineer commander's voice twitched her words into harshness. "We've got invaders. I've got word of my men deserting their posts. What corpus backstabbing gutless trick are you pulling this time?!" The accusation was spat, venom practically dripping from the comms.

"My dear commander," Jius practically smiled. For once he had an information advantage and even if it ws a relatively minor victory he would take it. "For once this is nothing of my doing. If anythign I would accuse you of finding colonists from some profit forsaken hole as they're prioritizing my drones over your clones. Howver sinceit's clear this is a true third party causing our forces to... ah... perform unauthorized joint ventures perhaps it would be in our best interests to remind them of their places." Though Jius hated the idea of going out into a combat zone, he had come to respect commander T'lok. She was forthright and no-nonsense in temperment as well as unit disposition, and unlike every other grineer scavanger he'd come across she wasn't one to waste the lives of her men pointlessly. 

As he grabbed his plasma shotgun and headed for the umbillical connecting his ship to the Tenno station he lamented the fact they were enemies.

            ***

On the other side of the airlock bulkhead a muttered curse in indecipherable language then the same loud voice as before again bellowed, "KAM AUT OR VE KAM EN!" The bulhead swung open to reveal a half dozen humanoid figures all seven feettall if not taller clad in bulbous bulky armor. All of them with weapons that loooked like a crude mix of stamped together parts and indavidual modifications. "INn Name of KWEENS," The voice was only margenally quieter as one of th armor clad figures spoke from behind a white mask. "You trespass on fairly found loot." The speaker raised a crude looking assault rifle.

One of the blue jumpsuit clad figures wivled its robotic head to the armor clad speaker, "Oi! Now that claim's still in a bit of a dispute innit? THe wierd looking vermink lookin lass here says they come to sort thsi out. I say we lsiten." Then lower he muttered. "Better than getting shot at all the muckin time."

Then a second armor clad figure raised a shoulder mounted weapon that lookedlike someone had slapped a square aluminum casing together and called it good. "Surrender!"

    "I be taking back what I said earlier," Renya quipped. "This is worse than trying to parlay with the Navy."

    The robot(?) people want to at least try to listen it seems, but the big loud thugs are drowning it out with their bellowing, posturing and readying weapons with trigger fingers itchier than a babboon with poison ivy. Tch. So much for negotiating the 'nice' way.

    Guess it's time to negotiate the Pirate way.

    In the same amount of time the armored figure hefts up his shoulder launcher Renya smoothly pulls Frostbite from under her coat, aims and fires. Though her aim is to freeze over the weapon before it can be used as the calisabre fires a frigid blast of freezing cold. It's still nonlethal! It's also a show of force in a way, as it seems like having some weight to back up their words is the only thing these space lugs are going to maybe listen to.

    Some frosty mist trails from the muzzle as Renya holds the weapon up against her shoulder. "So! Ye blokes ready to actually talk with more than yer overcompensation toys," with a finger she clicks the lever that deploys the sabre blade from her weapon with an audible sheen, "Or do we have to make ya all sit down and shut yer rumholes first?"

Well, things are breaking down about as well as expected. But Sasuke knew be- 

 Where did he go, anyway? 

 Well, Sasuke is directly behind the fellow who raised that shoulder mounted weapon, his incredibly sharp sword out of it's hidden sheathe and points it at the back of the fellow. "We do not come with hostile intent. We would like to discuss this in a civilized fashion. If you are unable to do so, then we will gladly humble you." 

 Sasuke's eyes blazed the crimson red that could only belong to a wielder of the Sharingan. "Kindly let us negotiate." Sasuke looks to Renya in a kind of 'well, this is doomed to end terribly' way. 

 But..something tells him there's much more at work here.

Anna raises her eyebrows at Renya and Sasuke's ... responses, and then breaks into a grin, nodding with approval. She looks around at the other members of Alpha Squad. "Whatever happens next, guys ... it was nice knowing you," she says in a conversational tone of voice.

She's really obviously on a hair-trigger now. Anyone with any ability to anticipate an enemy's next move would be able to see this. She's about to start running off to one side ...

Miwa follows Reyna's lead and once again fires a beam of ice from her mouth after taking aim at the masked figure's assault rifle, covering it's business end in a thick layer of ice and also likely making the weapon itself rather cold to the touch, hope these guys aren't sensitive to the cold. She considers doing the same to the rest of the weapons in turn, but holds off for now to see if these guys decide to play nice from here. 

 "We'd really like to have a civilized talk with you all without guns being pointed at each other, but from here, that's up to you. If you want to fight, we will fight back." She speaks as she does her best to sound brave, though anyone paying attention might notice her tail flippers twitching nervously.

     It would be incorrect to say that Wolf isn't paying attention as he stands there, concussive shotgun over his left shoulder, talking seemingly to himself as he stands, even still, blatantly out in the open not far from the docking hatch still lined with slowly melting frosty crystals. He clearly takes note of the standoff, the potential for some kind of launcher to be used, the retaliation, and the gearing up for others to follow suit as the Alpha Squad's apparent leader, Renya, sets the stage for others to do exactly as she. 

     Rather, he doesn't seem all that worried or he just doesn't care. He's the odd one out, certainly, as he doesn't seem to be actively participating in this particular flavor of diplomacy. His purple-colored right eye follows Anna briefly as she decides to change her position before his gaze falls upon the doorway. After all, if the occupants of the station don't want to play nicely, then this is all just a matter of buying time. Now that the team is aboard, there is little more sense of urgency to be had from the mercenary, although his features remain just as cold as the ice attacks being used. "Fine, but I want you keeping an eye open, anyway. I smell trouble and I'm not going to be caught in here blind."

Both Grineer and Corpus look from the frozen rocket launcher to the animal person that fired. "You... Tenno?" A grineer pondered out loud as the armored figure looked at the weapon frozen in his squadmate's hands.

"Naw mate If they was Tenno your buddy'd be an ice sculpture," One of the Corpus offered. "Besides Tenno are like... weird freaky void demon children that can melt you with laser beams." That same corpus worker looked around and held his hands up, attempting to surrender, or at least show nonviolent intent.

        ***

"Bravo team in." Ash's voice was soft as he peered around the edgeof the inner airlock door and into an empty hall. "No enemy contact. You can pull your ships back now Wolf."

Ash used hand signals to motion for the borrowed soldier from Star Wolf to stay behind him. Though the trooper was likely experianced, Ash knew these halls, knew where the best places for an ambush might be. He didn't want this kid to die on his watch.

        "Welcome to th Platinum Star." An elderly man's voice reverberated through the station's hallways. Jius strode calmly in lockstep with T'lok beside him as he addressed the invaders. "All hostility will cease and my personnel will fall back to subsector N4."

Then T'lok made a similar proclamation. "As much as I hate agreeing with this... Banker," The wordsounded almost like a swear, "My men are ordered to fall back."

"Muckin... WHAT?!" One of the corpus sworkers stared in disbelief at Miwa, "It's a... it... Talks?" 

The grineer snarled and continued aiming a very large caliber gun as it and several of its comrads slowly fall back. Its eyes never left the Ninja's.

Was it really going to be that easy? 

They would see a very large armor clad woman with a pair of sword handles at her backwalking in lock step with an elderly man firmly holding a large device that probably was a gun of some sort. "You say you have come to negociate?" THe gun was aimed firmly at the pirate captain before something very much like a shotgun pump was worked. "To what end? What is in this arrangement that works to your favor?"

    Well that worked. It sort of worked, technically the other sides are being told to withdraw, but Renya will take it all the same way. Though it's likely not the end of it, and it shows in the way she gives the rest of the group a 'stay on your guard' look before turning her attention to the newest pair of arrivals. Also evident in the way she lowers her calisabre from pointing at anyone but doesn't actually put it away.

    "Ah, finally, someone actually in charge I take it." With her free hand she grabs her hat and pulls it off into a sweeping bow that's just low enough to be polite without actually taking her eyes off the pair. "Aye, negotiate. Would prefer to not marr this grand find with more loss of blood than necessary." Renya steps right back into being smarmy charming without missing a bit, flicking the tricorne back onto her head as she stood upright once more. "We have our reasons. Enough to rather see things given even share than wasted in stalled conflict." Followed by a faint smirk. "Certainly there be enough to go around lass. No need to shoot up everyone else over it and possibly gain nuttin is there?"

Sort of worked. 

 That's what happens when 'aggressive negotiations' are wisely utilized. Though, Sasuke kept his blade out, shifting to hold it in reverse hand as he slowly returned to his group, letting the leaders do the talking because...well, Sasuke was the furthest thing from a diplomat. So what to do instead? 

 Nothing. He's happy to see people actually pull away, until he stops next to Renya, lowering his blade before he looks to the pirate captain, then to Miwa, giving her a nod at her tactful use of her power. 

 Peace talks were never his forte. Anybody hear about the Five Kage Summit? No? 

 Then we'll just leave that there.

Anna relaxes slightly. Okay, it looks like she doesn't have to jump straight into the fray after all!

Or, well. She's still a little tense, except there isn't any specific direction she's planning on leaping into. She takes a deep breath to steady her nerves as Renya continues talking. On the other hand, the way Renya's talking does slightly make her nervous about diplomatic prospects, sooooo yeah.

At the reaction to the fact that she can speak, Miwa regrets once again not thinking about the fact that people often assume she's just some dumb beast who is someone's pet, and thus using that to her advantage. Oh well, hard to negotiate without talking anyways. She does let Reyna again do the talking though, as she's not feeling like explaining why they're here, not to mention she's afraid she might slip up and mention Ash by accident. Instead, she takes a moment to watch these robots and grineer, studying their movements, trying to learn as much as she can about them in case this goes bad, which she is pretty sure is still quite a likely outcome.

     "Roger that. You heard him, boys. Time to pull back. Give them some breathing room. Keep your eyes open, but we'll be just fine." 

     The two figures that make an appearance may or may not hear the order come from O'Donnell as he stands there in the back which will, no doubt, result in additional intel fed to Jius and T'lok confirming that the fleet supporting the trespassers on the salvage claim are, in fact, pulling away to disengage and provide more 'breathing room' for talks. 

     After that, for the moment, communications seem to go fairly quiet. Wolf clears his throat and takes in the talks for a moment. It's good to see that others are taking the act of diplomatic negotiations seriously, even if the peace is shakily balanced on the edge of a knife. It's almost like this whole thing could just as easily fall apart if somebody did something stupid. 

     Meanwhile, the battle-scarred Kubrow(?) Person totally not involved with the 'talks' removes a small device and places it on the ground near his feet before turning it on. It gives a beep in affirmation of power before the top lights up in a slow pulsing softness. Following this, he additionally removes a datapad from his inner vest pocket and scrolls over some information with his thumb. "Hmm, looks good," he says to himself, only not at all to himself, because he says it 'to himself' while being loud enough to be understood by anybody else in the room. 

     Wolf then inhales deeply and lifts his gaze from the pad over to Renya. Clearly Renya was the leader of this little outfit? Or...if the Kubrow Man gave orders to the armada, does that... Uh. "Captain," he addresses, but there's no humor to his voice. "I think it's wise to just rip the bandage off first thing and tell them about the multiple universes, the World Tree Construct, how this is our universe and not theirs, and how, if negotiations don't work out, we'll be forced to use our Quantum Neutralizer to forcefully take command of this free-floating space-bound platform in order to protect our planetary space." The glance down at his feet at the device and the pad in his hand seems to be a reference to reference to those things, but... What the hell is he talking about? Is it more dangerous to play along or not play along? Because, well, the cold calculating poker face that O'Donnell wears shows no hint at even remotely joking around. 

     As if to emphasize the point, Wolf's gaze moves from the datapad...directly to Jius and T'lok while his thumb hovers over the screen.

"THat's what I had been trying to get across to the lady here," Jius gave a rather warm grandfatherly smile to the pirate lady. Herstrange looks to one side she spoke much sense. This station was a treasure trove containing whole other treasure troves. "However my opposition here sees it somewhat as a mattr of... ah..." He inclined his head to T'lok, wearily stepping away from the large woman, and quite noticably not lowering his weapon. Seems politeness only went so far.

"I was given Orders," Hard to place the woman's accent. In some earths it might be seen as eastern european, "Directly from the Twin Queens as relayed from my commanding officer Sargus Ruk to secure 'any and all' artifacts from the old war." She looked to a grineer body that was left on the deck. Not one any of the newcommers had killed, but still. "No matter the cost that was my order...." Regret lanced through those words as she hardened herself. Her visor lifted showing a woman with a pair of yellowed irisis and a surprisingly healthy complection given Ash's rundown of the grineer's pysiological difficulties. "I won't let my losses be for nothing." This last a quiet whisper. "I can't..."

    
***

"They're doin what?" A corpus worker asked in disbelief as he watchedfrom a drone's camera feed.

"WHAT?!" A grineer bellowed from his own entrenched position. "KOWARDS!" The armor clad brute bellowed. "TRAITORS!" The grineer charged through hallways far from the actual impromptu negotiation bellowing the whole time, and amassing a not insignifigant trail of followers.

        ***

Ash and his escort moved in bursts gong from cover to cover, ignoring many 'straight' paths and instead taking several turns that strangely enough lead to the exact room they wnated to be in. Ash took a moment to look at the barrin room with the twin pillars that acted as trading and treasury posts. Each lined with terminals of one stripe or another, but all showed static now.

"Alright man, radio bossman we're in.. I'll need a couple minutes." Ash pulled a fist sized bauble out of his kit bag, looking at the soft glow of pale energy comng from one end of it. "Wolf, is The Device operational?" Ash boosted the volume on his end so hopefully those standing near to the mercenary would overhear this bit of theatrics."

    
***

T'lok's eyes narrowed at this two legged kubrow. Jius looked thoughtfully at the device, his mind working through the potential explosive power of such a small device. Then he eventually asked a relevant question. "That device, what is it supposed to do?"

Both considered everything being said, the fact several of these intruders were animalistic in one way or another. Others had strange tenno-like powers yet did not match the physical description of Tenno. His expression grew thoughtful.

    There's a soft sigh and an eyeroll from Renya though it's all part of the show and she really isn't that annoyed. "I was trying to prepare them for the hard stuff, but ye may be right." An ear twitchs against the brim of her hat as she picks out what's going on at Wolf's end. And it seems like everyone else is still standing ready should things again start going south.

    The white fox pirate takes a step forward and holds her arms out for a moment. "Everything he says is true, mates. Just look at us." She turns partially sideways and gestures towards the rest of the party. "No way we could all be from the same world. Hell." She turns the other way to wave at Wolf being the other anthro present. "Even us two, despite the similarities, ain't even from the same -universe-."

    There's a pause as she lets that sink in, as she readjusts her own position again. "The point is, we could push our full advantage and just subdue the position, but we came willing to negotiate." Renya flicks up her weapon to point upward with the blade. "There are those out there that would of just blown your asses outta space without a second thought to take the station for themselves. So you see," the weapon is twirled to tuck under her arm, "we are actually being quite gregarious offering to negotiate at all."

Sasuke finally sheathes his sword back into the sheathe that remained hidden inside of his cloak, before moving near Renya. Eventually though, he speaks up. "Your universe is not the only one. As it happens, your world appears to have come to ours." His sharingan deactivates, but it doesn't stop him from making sure no one on the stranger's side was making a move. 

 "In quick words? It won't be harmful to you." He rests his hand on the pommel of his sword.

Anna nods to Wolf. "Yeah, good thinking," she says, just playing along. And letting him do the actual talking about what the Device-with-a-capital-D supposedly does ...

She immediately winces at Renya's snide comment about gregariousness. "I mean, okay, yes," she mutters, "but that's kind of the opposite of being diplomatic."

Miwa watches these aliens, wary of how they may react to how bluntly Wolf has summarized their situation, and how Renya pretty much points out that they have little choice but to play along or be destroyed. She decides to speak up and add her own piece to the 'negotiations'. "Many of our worlds, varied as they are, do strive for peace with other worlds and cultures, I know I can at least speak for my own in this sense at the very least. However, there are many worlds, and I don't think any of them are going to take kindly to some hostile new neighbors. So, it's in your best interests to work with us, than against us."

     "Yes, the QN is primed and in physical contact with the platform," confirms Wolf O'Donnell over comms once more. Therein, according to quantum physics, both objects interacting with one another are in a constant state of exchanging information. Through this, any device capable of using such sciences would be able to affect the state of things sharing information, but...to what extent? Honestly, such a thing would be amazingly dangerous. Thankfully, there are none present to understand how such a device would simply stink of Doctor Andross. 

     "I shouldn't speak out of turn, but I suppose it's important that you understand our position." No. No, he's not quite a kubrow. After all, he does have quite a tail and his nose isn't the right shape. This becomes apparent as the tall stout figure turns to the side to look over Sasuke, then turns again to look to Miwa and then Anna. 

     "As I said, this device is designed to be able to override security protocols in order to lock things to our biometrics. We don't want to have to take that step. We've already gone through so much trouble just to get here to talk to you on behalf of this universe you've entered. I mean, it's just the few of us against all of you." Wolf gives the shotgun on his shoulder a wiggle, but does not lift it. "Even our firearms are nonleth-" 

     O'Donnell cuts himself off, as if he made a mistake and said too much. Sure, that doesn't discount the lethality of blades or hand to hand, but surely there's no way riot control guns could do anything against such forces and technology and arsenal. There is just the smallest tick of the corners of Wolf's mouth downwards in a micro-expressive frown that breaks his stone-faced stoicism at his 'mistake'. Could he be bluffing? Could they all be lying? This is all a purely intentional calculation. It's a game of trying to force the hand of another. Who will give in and either fully fold or call the cards to discover the bluff?

"How many anomolies did we go through?" T'lok mused to herself before grabbing at a communicator, "Helm. I need a count of how many spatial anomolies we drifted through in the past dozen cycles." Her subordinat'es voice was unitnilledgable even without the accent. T'lok's face went white. Her mouth worked but no noise came out.

Meanwhile Jius nodded thoughtfully, whiel slowly lowering hsshotgun. "If we truely are in new markets then it would be in my business'sbest interest to asess where and what our niche in these new markets will be." He gave a wry smile first to Renya then to Wolf before musing, "I wonder if we have any kubrow or kavat shampoo in the holds."

"TRAITOR!" A voice thundered right as a volly shotgun fire from a half dozen sources ripped through the air at not just hte newcommers, but at T'lok. IN fact these seemed aimed more at her and if anyone else is hit, well that's how it rolls. "YOU BETRAY OU RKWEENS!" A hulking armored figure spoke from behind a white skull-like mask. As he worked to reload several other grineer started opening fire.

"What is the meaning of this!?" T'lok, if she had been hit, and judging from the fresh marks in her armor she had been, gave no indication the shots had hurt, or even inconvenienced her as she drew both swords from her back. "You mutanous piece of garbage I'll put you down like a rabid kubrow!" ANd thus T'lok charged into the fray against her own now mutinous soldiers.

Jius waited. While good sense told him to just put several rounds into the whole lot of them. He had i nfact dreamed of this opprotunity in the past. The situational dynamic had changed.

***

"Alright!" Ash grinned as station control transferred over to him. The readouts in his helmet display were not promising, but for the most part everything was stable. "We got signal." He then started fiddling with systems, trying to add Wolf's devices as an authorized clan member with permissions needed to make changes from his end. That'd make this far simpler.

Then warning beeps in his ear. He skimmed through diffrent warnings of this and that needing repair. Mantinance overdue. No connection to Lotus. Then his eyes narrowed at a specific alarm. He isolated it. 

One of the labs were busted apart and had been for months. Growths of flesh were all over the walsl and cieling. "wolf. Evacuate everyone. Right Now. Tell the grineer and corpus you're picking up uncontrolled infested growth from the bio labs Feed's showing incubation pods and our team comp isn't suited for infestation control."

    You don't need to be a Pirate Captain to know a mutiny when you see, but it definately helps. Reflexively she snaps Frostbite around in her grip and stabs the blade to the deck, causing a cluster of aetheric ice to form up in front of her. Only to get wittled and chipped at by the gunfire seconds later.

    Though even Renya is impressed when the armored woman takes the shots and more or less shrugs it off to confront her own crew for it. For a moment she has a little daydream to herself of stomping around in such an armor and really scaring the willies out of the Imperial Navy. But no, such armor would way her down way too much for appropriately swashbuckling. Nor is this really the time and place for hope spots.

    But Jius did give her just enough information in his comments for her to improvise on, the vixen reaching over to give his shoulder a tug. Maybe even pull him closer to the ice shield she made. "If ye wish to see those potential markets mate, I suggest ye get your men and yourself off this interstellar scow. Why settle for a stalemate over twiddle twat with these bilgerats when ye could be the first of your kind to broach the much greater and diverse potential of infinate realms?"

    In a sense Renya is still sort of negotiating. Though now it's as much for her own potential interest and future connections. "I'd sing ye about whole new worlds but this ain't no time for a musical number!"

Sasuke takes a deeeep breath. Perhaps mild annoyance on how people are beating around the bushes. "I believe she means to say it?s best if you all get off this station as soon as humanly possible." which is pretty much what Renya said...but in English! 

 ThoughSasuke looks to Wolf for any kind of confirmation...because he knew that plans can change on a dime in the field.

The hairs raise up on the back of Anna's neck at Ash's sudden urgency. Well then! "Okay!" she says. "I'm a speedster, I could probably help with the evacu--"

She stops. She looks over at the heavily-armored groups that came to "greet" them. There is no way she's strong enough to help physically move them at speed. "... Actually, no," she says dejectedly. "I ... really can't help anyone with the evacuation, can I."

Miwa gives a sharp cry of surprise as shots are fired, though they appear to be mostly aimed at the lady in the skull mask, which now that she thinks about it, reminds her of a certain criminal organization back home... She quickly dives behind a couple of boxes for cover and begins to form several spheres of water, and begins to sing a song in the Alolan language, using her voice powered aquakinesis to suspend the orbs of water in mid air. For now, she doesn't go any further than that, but if anyone starts shooting at her or anyone else in Alpha Squad, well, we're about to find out how how well Sparkling Aria's exploding water balloons works against Grineer armor.

     O'Donnell sighs. It's always something that comes up to ruin a very well-crafted gag. This is why he's so dour on missions. He tucks the datapad into his vest. Pity. He really wanted to take a picture of the looks on T'lok and Jius' faces when the control really did swap control over with his 'Quantum Neutralizer'. 

     Some of the stray fire does hit Wolf, but that also gives away the fact that he has a bubble of a shield around himself. It flickers from the high-velocity contact. If anyone had tried to shoot the protected 'QN' or the datapad, it would have also forced their hand. Double damn. That picture would have scored him free drinks on Macbeth. "Listen up, Alpha Squad!" addresses the lupine person even as the group is being attacked by insurgents. "You, too, Mister Shotgun," the gruff-guy says to Jius; if you don't like the nickname, introduce yourself next time. Of course, the tone he takes is not one of a subordinate. If he's not a subordinate but also giving orders when Renya is the leader, then...he must be a third party. "I don't like repeating myself, but I said:" 

     "LISTEN UP!" Wolf thunders. 

     "We've got reports of some sort of biological contaminant on THIS VERY DECK that scans show is a Class 7 Threat. It appears to be some sort of biological mass with high potential lethality so this space station is now officially under Quarantine by order of Star Wolf. You are to get your people under control and have them evacuate to your ships and undergo additional quarantine procedures. Your ships are not to leave this station. If your ships leave, we will absolutely destroy you in order to maintain quarantine. This is not a negotiation. This is not a request. This Is An Order. ...do I make myself clear?" 

     And not a single mention of Tenno-gained knowledge on the matter. 

     "Pavel, I need you to pick up Bravo and then swing up to our dock for emergency evacuation. Boys, I need a secure perimeter around the station and its ships. If anybody tries to leave, engage primary weapon systems and engage." Wolf's hard stare doesn't leave the mess now started or the 'leaders' in close proximity, engaged with their own units or not. There is a harder call to make, though: he may have to order Pavel to abort the evacuation. 

     "...Bravo, is there... What is the chance that we could already be infected?"

Jius's eyes go wide, "By the VOid... the infested samples." To his credit he quickly tapped his in ear communicator. "We have signs of uncontrolled infestation. Evacuate everyone /IMMEDIATELY/ I will be with you shortly."

For her part T'lok halted her persuit of mutinous crewmembers and snarled before turning to Jius and these outworlders that intruded on their squabble over this station. "I will have burn teams assemble after non-essential personnel are cleared." It didn't matter to her that she'd been fightign Jius and his meen for over a month. Infestation translated to 'drop everything before you're eaten. "Get your people to set up quarrentine screens in case the spoors have spread past the labs."

And then something meaty and vine-like grabbed the shotgun happy mutineers and pulled one through a doorway complete with gunfire and screaming truncated by a sickening SNAP.

***

"Ordis," Ash's voice was hard. "De-cloak. Get my lander here. Now."

***

Jius's expression grew almost hopeful. "We're being hailed by a tenno craft that's been in persuit for the past... five jumps." He held his shotgun ready as twisted shapes started lumbering through the halls. Recognizeable grineer and corpus shapes could be seen beneath the twisted growths. Each gurgled as it lumbered about.

"I don't care how long or which. IT could be Valkyr Herself for all I care. Better to take my chances with the Devils than this."

T'lok's face grew grim before it was hidden by her visor dropping down, both swords were heald ready. "Given the situation," There was an edge to her voice, "Requesting evaccuation via your craft. We will assume truce pending end of this crisis and resumption of peace talks."

And then something lunged for her only to be splitby a single powerful sword swing. "If any of you can fight I don't care who or what you are. Fight or Die."

     "Pavel? Belay the order to wait! Get up here now, I need you two minutes ago!" 

     Ash had his own demons. Those resurfaced with Ash's help on that space station being torn apart by the Red Dwarf Solar's gravity. This- This is a fresh wound. Whatever monstrosities these were...far too close to the hive-minded Aparoid menace that threatened to consume all of the Lylat System. It hadn't been that long ago. "Paaaaveeeeeel?!" 

     "Everybody to the dock hatch that's getting a lift. Now! Bottleneck them in the entryway, let their corpses block their own path!" It is a rare thing to see Wolf draw his pistol. It is a rarer thing to see him use it unless absolutely necessary. The sleek hand cannon/knife combo is massive for a pistol. Then again, Wolf is a large person. As he has been enar the docking port the entire time, he actually takes a step forward to help provide covering fire. "Behind me, form up, and prepare -- we have to get out the moment that door opens!" He's shouting. He's not exactly the most calm. 

     The rounds discharged from Wolf's gun result in a ball of energy about three inches wide, superheated and ready to burn a hole through most things twice as large as its diameter, and take a few seconds between each shot. Anybody with thermal imaging can see that the pistol itself quickly grows very hot from this repeated use. In fact, the continued fire on his behalf causes the firearm to start burning his glove before finally faulting, out of charge. 

     A loud bang comes from the docking gate as the shuffle on the other side hurried impacts with the station itself. One second goes by. Then another. Then another. "PAVEL!" 

     The gate finally opens, but it's not a good seal at all. In fact, there's a gap about two inches in-between the shuttle and the gate. Debris is blocking a closer fit. But it's a means to escape.