World Tree MUSH

    New Blossoms open up all the time, with first contact varying. This recent on was a little unusual, but only a little. It was quickly determined to be post apocalyptic in nature, but with enough groups trying to get organized that contact with it did happen. Of course there were also numerous requests to explore the area... and most recently, a posting at the local Gardener's post had asked for people to check out an area where explorers had gone missing, in a region of unusual climate.

    Anyone taking that job, or just wandering toward the weirdly-colored field of flowers, will discover what unusual climate means. First, it has rained recently, leaving an oily sheen over all the trees and rocks nearby, but no scent of actual oil. If anything it smells pleasantly of strawberries. Also, the very rough map of the mountains and areas around them indicated that just a few dozen miles to the north it abruptly turned bitterly cold, so cold that scribbled warnings were all over the map.

    In the current area though, things are more immediate. In this strange post-apocalyptic wasteland of bright colors and pretty trees, a ruined concrete road provided a landmark to guide... and a more usable, less crumbling dirt road beside it showed fresh tire tracks heading toward the distance, where a field of tall purple grasses had a column of black, foreboding smoke rising up.

Having heard of the strangeness in the area. DAvid is out exploring, he's in his Guyver Armor. For the most part looking like a bipedal insect without a mouth. He is scanning the area as he walks. hands open occationally flexing clenching his hands as he is trying to see what the area is like. He's glad the Guyver protects him from the bitter cold.

The sensors on his head swival back and forth keeping an alert for anything. Sound, Thermal, UV, bio-electrical, even magnetic forces can be sensed. So as he is moving carefully he is staying in the open as he walks across the ground, occationally kneeling down, to take a hand full of dirt or rocks to get a better look at them.

    "Oh wow. American Infrastructure Week." Shin says aloud as he holds up a camera and takes a picture of a ruined roadway while walking around the new Blossom. He's not actually here on any particular job, so much as he kind of just pops up places and tends to faff about wherever he goes. 

    "I should make sure Kiyo gets a picture of this! She'll be so jealous I went on an adventure without her~," Shin remarks to himself as he takes another picture and starts wandering towards the column of smoke. 

    That's the telltale sign of story progression, "Oh man. Looks like a protagonist left his home town on an errand."

    "The Gardeners huh... Interesting name considering all these new worlds are connected by... A tree, was it?" 9S says, hands folded behind his head.
    The click-click-click of high heels and boots along the old crumbling concrete road are pretty blatant as two figures in black come walking along.
    "Still, this is our first time off Earth. It's kind of exciting to see what other worlds are like... Though uh... This one seems kind of... Not too different from what we're used to huh?"
    "Focus." 2B cuts him off, walking along with a purpose in her stride. "We were tasked with finding missing explorers."
    "You know, with how colorful everything is around here... I'm sure Operator 6O would be extatic if you sent her a few pictures of some of the flowers and trees."
    2B pauses.
    "Pod."
    "Acknowledged." The floating boxy construct at her side pipes up in a mechanical voice. "Surrepetitiously taking snapshots of visual data for later cataloguing by unit 6O."
    "..." 2B rallies fast, though, at her Pod's lack of subtlety. "There. Smoke. We should head towards that."

    Well, David can probably pick up that there are a lot of living things around. Way too many! Lots of weird creatures, like snakes that turn out to be large slugs, weird creatures that look like insects but give off a lot of heat... all kinds of wildlife. Extra senses are helpful, but there's a lot of noise to filter through. IR fades quickly but the warmth coming from that column of smoke is still visible. There are a lot of creatures that way.

    In fact it's pretty easy on approach to see that the smoke is a campfire. Figures are up ahead, human by the looks of it, though the grass obscures them partly. A battered jeep is parked near the fire, with a flag hanging from the antenna. Looks like a faded 'University of Wisconsin-Madison' banner.

    There are three figures there, poking at the fire, and they'd be easy enough to sneak up on if people wish.

The smoke was detected, but he doesn't want to simply rush off into danger or into a situation where he makes the wrong conclustion. But David does move off in a much faster pace walking no jogging on foot so that he can get to an area where he can get a good view of the source of the smoke. Careful to make sure he won't step on or in anything possibly dangerous. The devistation reminds him of the aftermath of the Zoalord attack on his world where plenty of major cities were destroyed. Just to cull the population somewhat.

Jumping up onto a large rock so he can get a good view of what is going on and around. He doesn't want to just stumble on them, as he will stand in the open his emerald green armor nice and bright very new looking. Relaxing his hands he will look in their directions he calls out, "Greetings." David's voice travels perfectly thanks to his sonic emitters projecting it properly to carry clearly as he holds his position waiting to see if they are hostile, if so he is ready to dodge an attack.

    Well, this isn't the first time Uni's gone off into some other world. Dimension-hopping's kind of par for the course for her and the other CPUs by this point. She's at least tried to acclimate her outfit to her environment this time, opting for a rather light outfit instead of her usual black dress. She's wary of local wildlife, and is currently sporting a pair of micro-smgs, one in each hand. She tracks with them, but generally doesn't appear too twitchy, just vigilent in an unknown area.

    She approaches the others, after spotting them, making sure she's seen by them before she gets too close so as not to startle them... but does stop short when the three figures around the fire come into view. "Huh... wonder what's goin' on over there..." she muses to herself, dismissing her weapons for the time being in a burst of blue pixels.

    Shin is still walking along with his phone out. Specifically, he is trying to google a picture of the banner so that he can reverse image search it. He is... NOT being all that stealthy. But he's not disrupting anyone else's stealth either. 

    "University... of... Wisconsin... Rivals..." He taps into his phone before looking at the screen while approaching the men, "Hello! Hello! I'm Shin Tokuyama! English not so good!" He is actually speaking in broken English instead of his usual Japanese that people understand because of local translation rules. 

    "I greet you! Americans! Very good greeting!" He taps his chest a couple times, "Ahem... University of Wisconsin Badgers suck! Go Minnesota Golden Gophers! Best team! Hoorah!"

    Pod getting snapshots of the local flora aside, 2B and 9S make their way towards the origin of the smoke. And it looks like they aren't the only ones.
    "2B! Look! Humans-- I mean more humans. We're actually going to get to interact with humans!"
    "Mn."
    Whiele the youth at her side certainly shows a measure of excitement, the silver-haired woman's expression doesn't change awfullymuch behind the folds of her own dark blindfold.
    "Oh come on, you can't tell me you're not excited."
    "It's not that." She murmurs as the pair and their Pods approach and...
    Shin Tokuyama is their sudden and jarring first contact with a true human.
    ". . . What."

    "What is that?"

    "I don't know, this place is full of weird shit."

    Two of them are saying that, but sound kind of... depressed about it? The third, a woman, stands up and waves her arms, "No, turn around, it's an am-"

    An ambush? She was going to say that, but the trap is sprung early anyway. While the robot woman and the robot boy are odd enough already, Uni is also dressed awkwardly for thee region. Shin is the most normal and he has an obvious and severe case of Shingus Beingus. And David just looks like a mutant! But while the other two are looking at David, the woman is trying to warn everyone.

    Thing is, Shin just insulted the badgers, and that's what appears from the brush. "TAKE THAT BACK, HUMAN!" One of them roars this. Yes, they talk. They're about four and a half feet tall and swarming out from the brush, a half dozen of them, and angry, and bearing rifles. Looks like some kind of AK-47? They were clearly supposed to surround anyone coming into the little clearing, but they're now facing off against the incoming group, which leaves it more of a face to face thing. At least they outnumber everyone?

    Uni sighs. "Of course, I put my guns away and then someone pisses off the locals." she straightens, summons her micro smgs again and takes aim. "Alright, everyone calm down, put your weapons down and lets talk this over." she calls, though she's only a teenager in body and voice, hardly intimidating or demanding of respect.

    "Trust me, you don't want any of what that guy's selling, you're gonna get into a world of hurt if you try taking us on." She takes a semi-relaxed pose, one gun held up beside her head, the other handing down by her hip, as she flips her goggles down over her eyes in preparation.

David Looks over at Shin as he turns his head and shakes it. Looking over at the Human shin, he heard the Japanese he sighs. "BLOODY IDIOT." He half Screams. He's Debating allowing Shin to get the shit kicked out of him and then he narrows his Eyes he calls out shouting as if he was twenty feet tall calls out, "CAn everyone please sit down so we can talk about this like civilized beings. Yes I know he insulted you, I don't think he knows anybetter."

David Jumps down from a rock to the ground and is more or less casually walking, "You GOpher boy. Not a smart thing to insult someone you just met with such a metaphor... they might get violent." David doesn't want to let this get violent... if it can be avoided.

    "I will NOT take that back!" Shin shouts, switching back to his normal Japanese as he scowls at the badgers, "Look at this! You think you're SO good just because you got guns!" Shin waves his hand a bit and laughs, "How about you check out..." 

    And then, in a move that you can BE COMPLETELY ASSURED that he spend DOZENS OF HOURS practicing in front of a mirror, Shin reaches up and grabs his shirt and suit coat by the collar and pulls it off in a smooth motion, stripping himself down to the midwaist as he tosses the coat dramatically. Like a Yakuza Protagonist. Specifically like a boss from the Yakuza games. Across his back is the Sujibori (Japanese outline tattoo) of a Chinese dragon. 3 of the scales are colored in red so far. 

    "HOW DO YOU LIKE THESE GUNS!?" Shin says, immediately robbing the drama of his own moment by flexing at the gun wielding badgers, "Fuckin' .50 Cals, baby! 4 MDC a punch, bitches!" 

    And then David jumps in to try to salvage it. 

    "I'll fight all of you at once! Ignore that guy! I am DIRECTLY picking a fight with you right now! This is EXTREMELY INTENTIONAL! I am completely unassociated with him and his desire for diplomacy, negotiate with him separately from me! I insist you try to kill me!"

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Shin asserts, in response to David, that this is EXTREMELY intentional and he is doubling, even tripling down. He does assert that David is separate and they should probably talk to him like a normal person.

David blinks at the Lunatic and steps out of the way. "On second thought, I'll sit back and enjoy the show." And David steps out of the way to lean against a tree.

>> SUMMARY[David] >> David leans against a tree and hopes Shin gets the ever loving shit beat out of him.

>> SUMMARY[2B] >> What even is this???

    "Uhhhhh."
    "..."
    It was a trap, huh?
    "Analysis: Local wildlife staged a diversion in order to gain tactical advantage. It was a trap." Pod says the obvious rather helpfully.
    Needless to say the pair of YoRHa androids are halted in a moment somewhere between shock and confusion.
    "2B these things are weird. Think we should kill them?"
    "They are threatening the human." 2B replies to her companion, as David leaps in and suggests diplomacy and Uni starts the beginnings of a mexican standoff, with her own weapons re-drawn.
    Pod pipes up: "NFCS activated. Short range weapons systems online." As 2B starts to draw an ornate, white, katana.
    Only for Shin to really really assert that he's out for a fight right now.
    ". . . Well. He's confident at least." 9S says bemused.
    "Scanning: Subject displays abnormal levels of testosterone." Pod announces helpfully.
    "I can see that." 2B mutters.

    The posturing works better than David and 2B might expect though. The badger-men stare at all this, and look at one another quickly. The biggest one braces himself, but doesn't fire yet, snarling in a way that would look cute if he weren't packing an assault rifle.

    "Jarf..." One of the other says. "They're all armed I think..." He isn't sure about David, but it's obvious now that all of the beings here are ready to fight, and the badgers had planned on people to just give up when facing six heavily-armed creatures.

    Another one twitches an ear, then looks up in alarm. Sensors that reach far enough, or sharp hearing, can detect more heading this way. And it's a march, regular and even, disciplined like a marching band... or trained troops. This other badger barks, "Bonapartists on the way. I told you we shouldn't run this thing in their territory."

    The leader, Jarf, slowly backs away, keeping rifle trained on Shin and looking at the katana and SMGs 2B and Uni are using. "Rrr... fine." Looks like they're headed for the jeep, backing away toward it and keeping everyone covered. The three explorers are more intent on just staying put and letting it happen.

David was not even in an attack postion leaning against a tree as he will lift his hand up as of to say hold off, I'm not involved with this lunatic. But he will make no hostile action as he sighs and clearly is annoyed Captain Ego (Shin) did not get a dish of humble pie.

When the group is starting to back away looks over to 2B, and Uni and offers a shrug. "No idea what is going on, Captain Ego over there started picking a fight I was willing to let him get his ass kicked."

    "Stupid bitch-ass badgers," Shin mutters as he picks up his dress shirt off the ground again and starts to button it up carefully, "Honestly a disappointment. I was hoping I might get an actual, good, solid brawl here for once." He grumbles, tucking the dress shirt back into his pants and throwing on the leisure suit jacket over it. 

    Shin takes a pair of sunglasses out of his suit pocket, "For the record, I probably coulda taken like five or six of them easily. More if I was willing to bring out the mystic arts. I might have broken a few bones, gotten a couple bullet holes, but I woulda settled out fine." He fires a pair of fingerguns at David. Not literally, just making a fingerguns gesture. 

    "Besides, close in at this range, their assault rifles were a liability to themselves, not me. They'd be more likely to shoot eachother in a crossfire."

    Uni quirks a brow at the badgermen, red eyes tracking them as they back off. "Well, that could have gone better." she mentions idly, dismissing her weapons once the creatures are fully commited to leaving. "What do you guys think they meant by 'Bonapartists'?" she asks, looking over at 2B and 9S. "They were kinda archaic weapons though... looked like standard pattern AK-47s, probably produced from the 1953 refit pattern." she steps forward towards Shin. "Only the big guy had ammo and any kind of marksman training the others were holding them all wrong, more like clubs than anything."

    She flips her hair and pushes her goggles up back onto the top of her head. "Something spooked them, might be some others coming."

    2B and 9S are definitely armed, considering the more boyish android had drawn his own black katana a moment after 2B had pulled her own weapon. But it looks like the badgers have decided that discretion is the better part of valor and withdraw.
    "Phew. That was looking pretty hairy there for a second." 9S says, putting his blade away.
    "That. . . Was incredibly reckless." 2B addresses much more directly to Shin.
    "More importantly, I think," 9S interjects. "Does anybody know what a Bonapartist is?"

AS David sighs and soon a burst of steam escapes his mask as he he shakes his head, David doesn't under estimate his enemies as he looks over at Shin. Not directly, but through one of his sensor medallians he is getting a good read of the egotistical lunatic. The Bio energy a person has, can reflect their strength and abilities. He is starting to get a good idead of how strong some people are due to that energy it is a far cry from accurate. But he knows how powerful Zoanoids are. From normals, to hypers, to Zoalords.

DAvid listens to the talk of something Else coming as he looks around the area during a thorough scan of the area, searching for anyone that might be coming, his range is very good but with all the energy here it can be hit or miss on anything but sound, thermal or visual based detection.

    Since nobody seems inclined to rush them, the six badgermen climb into the jeep and start it up, sending the wheels spinning as they take off. One of the three humans heaves a sigh. "Well, they took our supplies, but I'm guessing a Vine is still pretty close." Looks like they're offworlders.

    The woman confirms, "We were exploring. You guys look like you're offworld from here too... probably. It's pretty hard to tell. Creatures here are weird. As near as we can tell, Bonapartists are an organization, also called the Ranks of the Fit, that control this region. Very military and follow some kind of giant mutant bear named Napoleon Bonaparte II."

    It's a thing.

    Looking toward the opposite direction, there ARE some large figures coming. And large heat signatures. They are fanning out, and the first ones to appear are some large... rabbits? They dart in, pause, then back away into the brush to allow... something VERY large to appear.

    "Humans. And something else," rumbles a loud voice. It looks like a large... porcupine? Yes, massive, like eight feet tall standing on two legs, though he is moving on four when he arrives. He only rises to unsling the ancient chainsaw at his side. "State your business. Which of you are the robots?"

    And then from behind, a more clear voice, "Easy, Nicholas. We don't know if theey're even aware of it."

    A very tall man over six foot arrives next, wearing advanced but battered power armor, with a massive cyborg wolverine padding behind him. The man asks, "The question stands, but lower your weapons and we will talk."

David honestly did not want this to turn into a slaughter he didn't know what was going or if the humans were hostages or what not. But he was interested in avoiding a fight. But When the others come over the rage David instantly has a sensor turn in the direction of one of the Rabbits as he turns his head in their direction.

When the Large figure on the massive wolverine comes into view he will narrow his eyes.

"We are from off world, explorers from the world tree. Sort of an interdimensional highway."

David voice is modulated, but it is not electronic. more a reverb of sorts. Still David will stand more ready for combat. This guy seems more willing to actually fight than back off. David moves closer but he doesn't look like any sort of robot thankfully.

    "Yooooo! Uni, yeah? I haven't seen you since we rescued Weiss-Cream Sundae from that plane crash. How ya been?" Shin asks cordially as the Goddess walks up to him. 

    When David attempts to scan Shin for Bio-Energy, Shin gives off weird readings. Like some kind of unpredictable metric that might be somewhere between 'Nothing' and 'A lot' and it sure can't decide which he is so it whiplashes between various ratings for him. 

    Of course, Shin is more pre-occupied immediately talking to 9S, "Yo yo, bro! Reckless is the only way I know how to live my LIFE, buddy. Bring it in." 

    Shin walks towards 9s, "Gimme Five!" If Nines actually high-fives him, he gets roped into a complicated handshake, "Okay, now the fistbump." Shin fistbumps Nines after the high-five, "Okay, now bump the elbows." Shin tries to bump elbows with 9S, "Okay, now the fist again." Shin daps the Scanner fist-to-fist, "And then bring it out with some fireworks." Shin draws his hand back and makes a slow explosion noise, "Awww yeah. Nice." 

    "Oh man. More of you guys. I thought I was in Wisconsin, not Pittsburgh in the first weekend of July. Or Mid-November in Rosemont, Illinois. Or Atlanta, Georgia in a weekend that seems to progressively shift later every year like what the fuck is up with that? It was in May last year." 

    "Anyway, naw man. I don't really wanna pick a fight any more. I got bored with that for now."

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Talking to Uni, scan results for David, teaching 9S about Human High Fives, making a REALLY esoteric joke.

    2B and 9S exchange a look.
    A giant bear named Napoleon Bonaparte II?
    With the blindfolds on, the two have nearly impossible to read expression, at least 2B does anyway. 9S looks like a kid in a candy shop even with his visor on.
    But it looks like 9S and Uni's questions are about to be answered much more directly.
    "Warning:" Pod 042 speaks up. "Unidentified heat signatures inbound."
    And then... Giant animals come bounding onto the scene. First the rabbits. ... Then a chainsaw-wielding porcupine.
    "What next, a giant panda?" 9S murmurs.
    "We've already met one of those." 2B points out and turns her head-- just in time to see 9S curiously raising his hand when prompted. ... Only to get roped into the most complex of human greeting rituals either have ever experienced. And though he looks bewildered... 9S is a hideously quick learner. Because once that's done.
    "2B! 2B! I just learned the most incredible ritual from that human! Here, come on, you try! First you hold up your hand and--"
    Annnnnd 2B casually turns her head back to the massive animals paying her Scanner no further attention, only cautiously half-lowering her katana. "Talk without chainsaws involved, right? We just came to look for the missing explorers."
    "Right! And we're not robots, we're androids." 9S adds in, naively.

>> SUMMARY[2B] >> 9S learned new gesture: 'The Shin Five!' 2B leaves 9S hanging.

    The porcupine growls, lifting the chainsaw. "A ridiculous story! Other worlds? Show some respect! You stand in the presence of the future ruler of the world, soon to conquer all! Thos who disrespect Scar will face Nicholas the Saw!" He grips the machine tightly.

    The bunnies peek out. "Saw Nick! Saw Nick!"

    The wolverine heaves a long-suffering sigh that actually gets the porcupine to pause, and the man gestures gently. "Put it down. That one is not anything from this world... off-planet at the least. That means from the sky," he explains patiently to Nicholas. "The other is using a long-forgotten ritual of the Pure Strain Humans, one of the more uh... elaborate ones. And THAT one is possibly a mutant, but I am not certain." He points to Uni. "These others appear to be Pure Strain Humans as well, and not combatants. I doubt they are scouts for the Knights. Put some of the troops together and see if you can't catch those bandits, put some of that vaunted speed to use, Nicholas."

    He turns toward the others. "I would apologize, but you are trespassing. Since it appears to be an accident, let's start again. I am Nort, and this big guy here is Scar." He gestures at the wolverine. "You are welcome to camp here if you are not hostile, but recent assassin robots mean we cannot allow robotic life in this region. Your claim of extradimensional passage seems to check out though. These models are much more advanced than Harlan's, and designed more for cosmetic appeal than his."

As David looks to Nort, "I am Human. This is biobooster armor." David will look to the porcupine with the chainsaw as he will eject one more burst of steam, and then the seams of the armor will flash white as the armor pulls off of him leaving a young man there dressed in new jeans and clothes. The armor leaps off him and then vanishes into to thin air.

"The Vine that we came through should be close by. Also from what I understand if you block access off the vines simply reconnect to a new place."

    "That's a good kid, right there." Shin says, making finger-guns at 9S, "Yo! We should swap cell numbers sometime so we can text, guy. Name's Shin Tokuyama! I am absolutely sure we will meet again." 

    Shin looks towards Nort and Scar for a few moments. He gives the pair of them a long look, as if picking his next words carefully, "I guess it's easy to tell... which one is the top and which is a... power bottom?" Shin says, kinda half-grinning and making another fingerguns festure, "Nice to meet you both, though. Shin Tokuyama. Wandering Sage of the Martial Arts. Heir Apparent to the Geiha Genkou-Ryu." 

    "I don't actually plan to hang around, though. I was just wanderin'. I'll probably gone by sundown." He assures both Saw Nick and the Nort and Scar pairing.

    Shin makes fingerguns at 9S.
    9S looks down at his hands curiously... Forms pistols with his fingers...
    And pew-pews right back at Shin. "Oh uh. Right. I'm 9S. That's 2B, but I think she's a little... Focused at the moment.
    Focused, yes, but also lowering her katana and passing it off to Pod, which grips the weapon in his little arms, to float it off in a display of non-hostility.
    "We're not assassin units. But that's fine. We're willing to leave as long as there are no hostilities on our way back offworld. 9S, we're leaving."
    "O-oh... Uh. Well... Seeya?" 9S says, finger-gunning people and animals left and right as he follows 2B off.
    Pew pew pew.

>> SUMMARY[2B] >> 9S learned new gesture 'High Noon At Tokuyama Town'!

    "Not interested in blocking it off until I see some of it anyway," Nort says. "I'll put together a few scout teams, and take a look for myself. If new players are on the field we should know about it."

    As 2B and 9S take their leave, and the others disperse, Scar rumbles and Nort adds, "We have good reason to ban robots and androids. I'll make this call for myself." He looks at David. "Biological technology. Alien tech here. Most of what I do see is more crystalline in nature. I'm not an engineer though, couldn't tell you how it worked. You're definitely from somewhere else."

David with out the Guyver is just pinching the brow of his nose. Clearly exasberated with that lunatic. He means Shin. And hopes that he won't have to deal with him any time soon. David turns to the three humans as he says, "I wasn't sure what was goin on with the guys who got away with the truck and your stuff. I can at least escort you back to the vine if you want." David's not really interested in staying here for the time being. He might be back sooner or later. "I honestly have no clue who those three were, with vines you can have the oddest people meet up at any time and place."

"Not Arguing with you Nort. If you want I can lead you to the Vine. BAsically there are two types of worlds connected to what is called the World Tree Buds, And Blossoms. Buds are worlds that connect just long enough to belch someone out, my world... what's left of it is such. Your world appears to be a blossom, fully connected." And not really knowing what else is out there he will turn to head to the direction of the Portal. "Not sure what sort of possible hostiles are around so I'm gonna armor up again."

"Guyver." And then instantly he is surrounded by an energy field as the armor appears behind him pulling him up and into the larger form.

"If you have any questions I will try to answer by I am still somewhat new to the Tree myself."

    "This area is ruled by the Ranks of the Fit, but I'd use that term loosely," Nort explains. "Armoring up is a good idea. Dangerous creatures all about, and humans are not very welcome here, as they are most often at odds with the Fit. The humanoids to the to the east and west are all right, but to the north Harlann has his cyborg armies. I'd avoid that place."

    He unshoulders a rifle while walking, but then with a surprising ease, leaps up onto Scar's saddle. The wolverine doesn't seem to care. "This is a harsh land sometimes. I'd be curious to see how many of these other worlds have intelligent animals... or which are not yet in an apocalypse."

"If there is anything left of my world, it might be like this. I have been to a couple of worlds with anthropomorphs. Interesting places. You have some worlds with a mix of humans and anthros." And will explain some of what David's seen and be more than willing to go into a lot of detail.

    Nort hmns, "Anthropomorphs, eh? We'll see for ourselves." He reaches down and ruffles Scar. "Won't we, big guy?"

    Scar rumbles, speaking for the first time, "We will scout ahead ourselves. The Ranks are too unfamiliar with the technology we may meet out there, if they use pre-fall tech. Be careful, Nort."