World Tree MUSH

    The ship was a lot more spacious than starships normally seem to be. Perhaps this was a cargo hold? It certainly was a large room that the Vine opened up into, at least for a starship. Not empty though... a number of metal boxes and lockers were about, further hinting that this was a storage area. But let's step back a bit.

    FSS Minnow. A strange name for such a large ship, really, but that was what it had been called. Apparently, a DoD research company had commissioned it, and the records were lost. It was at least a few decades old, and while there had been stops and shuttles to restock, nobody had actually gone on the ship until it had changed course for Earth. At first it had seemed like a collision course, but the charts indicated a course correction that would put it into a terminal orbit toward the sun. While this would solve the problem, a lot of people were VERY curious why it wasn't responding to hails... and what had happened to the investigation team.

    So back to current time. Popping into the bay showed several doors, and a quick map of the ship revealed aft and fore engine rooms, as well as a bridge. The map was easily accessible by the... large map on the wall of the room.

    More concerning? The voice announcing over the PA upon arrival.

    "... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Activating Delta."

    "Delta complete. 16 Deltas performed. Next Delta in - three hundred - seconds."

    "Drift is at 3.6% and holding. Within tolerance."

    Already in the bay when people arrive is... a terrible and scary Alien!~ 

    But not really. It's actually a short girl with white hair and purple eyes. She's wearing a frilly white dress. She is holding a tablet in one hand and scowling at it as she looks down at the surface of it. Her brow furrows before she taps at the screen. 

    "The mapping system said take the first right onto the vine and then... I'd be at the concert location..." She murmurs as she taps at it and looks around in frustration, "This does not look like a cute little japanese bistro! This looks like a big, dumb spaceship! UGH. I hate when new Vines form! Shouldn't this stupid app have updated!" 

    She grumbles and tucks the tablet into a messenger bag across her shoulder, "So the real question. Where am I?" 

    https://puu.sh/EaL1h/406732b683.jpg

    Vine roulette has become one of Cayde's favorite pasttimes, or maybe just -a- pasttime, of late. Really, what all else do you do when most any pathway leads to roughly the same in regards to the great unknown? While it's certainly a mixed bag, it's all in the name of adventure and maybe, just -maybe- some potential loot so long as you manage to make it out in one piece.

    There's a clang from a less than graceful transition that has the Exo bumping one of the metal crates, followed by an insistent 'Shhh-shh-shhhh!'

    The glowing blue eyes aren't at all difficult to spot even as he drops down behind the crates for cover from... Hm. Beside him, the floating polyhedral form of his Ghost twitches as she scans for anything of import. 

    "Huh." Cayde slowly unfolds from behind the metal containers, noting the girl who looks more out of place than he does. He exchanges a look with Sundance, shrugging before he holsters his gun. "Now -that- is an excellent question and who what-" He glances up and around at the voice that speaks up on the PA. Optics shutter just slightly. "...is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

    Suit up. That's what Athena's done, and stepping into the room was done with some trepidation. She'd worn power armor and gone all out... though her usual slugthrower was not the best idea on ship, so she'd added a blade at her side. Lances might be better for her, but on a starship it might not be the best fit.

    And already things are going off the rails when a young girl shows up. Sigh. "Really?" She can't take it for granted that they're helpless... travelling the Vines is something few people do alone she hopes. So as she gets herself straightened up and Cayde tumbles past, she sighs. Oh wait. She knows this robot. "Hello, Cayde-6. Been a while. I'm not sure what that is, but 'within tolerance' sounds like a good thing? 3.6% seems pretty high though."

    Little Owl detaches and makes a few whistling noises at the Ghost, but Athena ignores her drone's flirting so long as it scans the area.

Y'know what minnows are? Small fish, yes. But d'you know what else they are? They're what you use to lure big fish in so you can hook them. So in a word?

Bait.

Hopefully Luigi's not one of the 'big fish' this ship's trying to catch.

But it does seem that Luigi is one of the ones the Vine has deposited here in this here cargo hold! His presence is heralded by the usual effect of the Vine appearing... and then a very distinctive, "Waaah!" Right before something green-and-blue tumbles through the open Vine.

Humanoid, yes. Though his proportions are not quite human. Close, but not exact. The green and blue is his outfit -- a green shirt and blue overalls. He's also wearing white gloves, brown work shoes, and white gloves.

He also fell on his head when he fell through the Vine. And made a CLANK sound. Admittedly that was probably the red vacuum cleaner thing he's got on his back that made that noise, but who knows?

The fellow rights himself, wobbling for a moment before breathing a sigh of relief. He retrieves his green hat, and puts it back on his head. And he looks around. He has much the same question -- where is this? But he's noticed the girl here, and figures if she was here first maybe she'll know more. "H-hello!" he greets. He tries to sound chipper, but he's a little nervous, since he has no idea where he's at.

The PA's voice startles him, and he jumps. Literally. Quite high actually, and when he hits the ground again, he hunkers down and waits for something else to happen. He holds the hose attachment of the vacuum cleaner as he waits. When nothing seems to jump out, he sighs, relaxing a little.

Right up until Cayde drops down. Then there's a repeat performance of the yelp-and-jump. He points the hose attachment at Cayde, shaking, but when it becomes clear he's not going to attack, relaxes.

Athena doesn't startle Luigi quite so much, since he's ready for the weird now. Also because she didn't fall in or leap in or anything like that. So he offers her a wave with as much cheeriness as he can muster under the circumstances.

    Well, it's not Salome Highscribe's first rodeo aboard a starship. Though space is not her forte and she can't exactly ride a broom through space, the elf witch is more than happy to sit in the back of a pod puttering through the stars on a course for the Minnow, stroking her black cat, Pierce, to pass the time, while weighing the fresh contents of her purse in her other hand.
    "You know. I usually work alone. This should be interesting for a change." She comments idly to her pod-mate as it docks into the bay with a hiss and pop of hermetic seals.
    The witch rises to her feet, strutting for the exit with the swagger and poise of a supermodel with deadly intent, black cat on her heels as she lazily twirls a pistol on a finger, humming to herself.
    "She's just a devil woman, with evil on her mind~ Beware the devil woman, she's gonna get you~." crooned lazily as she steps aboard the Minnow proper, high heeled boots clicking audibly before she pauses.
    There's a girl there.
    "Well I do declare. Here I thought this was supposed to be a ghost ship. Well hun' hit me. Are you a ghost?"
    And there's Athena.
    "Oh my. Oh my, oh my. Well if it ain't the spitting image of Wisdom herself, Athena how you doin~?"

Salome's pod-mate shrugs. "Jobs are safer if you have someone watching your back." The short but well-armoured knight follows Salome out of the pod, and pulls down her helmet's visor. She is quiet when Salome addresses the strange girl and addresses Athena, from behind her visor those red-ringed eyes stare at both, trying to assess them.

    Well it looks like our heroes are together! Or... 'heroes' as they may be. Soon that's going to need clarification. Just as everyone is getting settled and figuring out where they are... one of the doors to the aft hisses open to the sound of energy blasts.

    Two armored troops spill in with guns up, whipping them back and forth. As hostile as this seems, one of them yells, "CLEAR!"

    The other motions, "Armed civilians, probably offworlders, in the sector, Sir!" Obviously into a communicator, of some kind, but it's just a moment later that a few more soldiers rush through, and after eight have come through, a ninth and tenth arrive, backing into the room and firing their rifles into the corridor behind them.

    All this happens in just a few heartbeats before the door closes and there's a muffled boom and a shudder through the floor of the ship.

    The voice calmly announces, "Explosive decompression on Deck 3. Six hosts presumed lost. Beginning prints. Estimated time: 18 minutes, 37 seconds. Warning: time to replacement exceeds two scheduled Deltas, third Delta will be postponed - 592 - seconds."

    It looks like the space marines don't consider the newcomers a threat, though they definitely have the attention.

    One of the men pants heavily, "I hope you offworlders have a way off, this isn't a tourist attraction." Strangely he doesn't seem angry.

    "EEP!" The white-haired girl shouts as Cayde-6 bumps into a crate nearby. She seems startled by the appearance of someone else in the middle of her ranting conundum. And then she looks up at the PA announcements. 

    "Look!" She says to Athena, wagging a hand back and forth, "I'm not here by choice! Stupid Vine formations, appearing out of nowhere and throwing off my mapping software. How is Clairvoyance supposed to get me anywhere if stuff changes without warning?" She asks, holding up a smartwatch that is currently going haywire trying to give her directions. 

    "I am /not/ a ghost, tee-why-vee-em." She says to Salome, grumbling a bit as she crosses her arms, "I'm an idol. Travel blogger, singer, performer, foodie. I do it all! And my fans love it!" 

    She twirls around and kicks up a leg while flashing a V to Salome, "The one, the only, the magnificent! Magi*Mari!" She shoots Salome a smile, "Like, follow, subscribe, and shout me out on your Insta! Follow my RSS for new episodes of my Podcast - 'Going Out On A Limb With Magi*Mari!', updating every Sunday as I explore the tree!" 

    And then she looks to the space marine, "Nope. No way off. Kinda stranded! Will YOU help me~?" She asks, batting her eyelashes.

    Dagnabbit, recognized! So much for style points. Cayde spins around, mouth aglow in a way that somehow exaggerates the semblance of a smile the Exo manages to convey. "Althea!" 

    "-Athena..."

    "/Athena!/" he tries again at his Ghost's correction, laughing off the earlier flub. "Yeah! It's been a while! Good to see you." He's not familiar with owl-ese or drone mannerisms to figure that Sundance has something of an admirer. Otherwise he'd be teasing her for it. It seems that even Sundance is a little unsure of what to make of Little Owl's noise-making as she offers a slight tip off her axis in greeting.

    "Whoa there, don't shoot," Cayde warns as he holds gloved hands up in Luigi's direction. He pauses a moment before snap-pointing. "-- Yeah, not gonna try with your name because I'm -real- sure I'll botch that one up too but I remember that hat. And the...vacuum thing." It looks like this gathering's just becoming a regular little party, which the old Guardian's all for in the instance that he has no idea what else is going on- an occurrence which tends to happen more often than not.

    Reflex and old habit kick in the moment troops bust into the room, and it's like magic for how quickly Cayde's got his ol' handcannon drawn and aimed, having done so without a second thought, all traces of his earlier joviality disippating like a morning mist. His finger caresses the trigger but he's experienced enough to keep from pulling it prematurely even as he eyes two men. It's only when they seem to lose immediate interest in them that he lets his arm relax. 

    "Well, now it's a party," he mutters to himself, gesturing for Sundance to stick close. "There a problem here, boys? I'm not sure what half of the announcements going on mean, but it sounds like something serious going on. If you need an extra gun..." He shrugs, spinning the ol' Ace of Spades. 

    Athena was just reaching for Luigi to offer a hand up and speaking to the girl(Merlin) when all this happens. "Salome. And someone else. Nice to see you." Her words are icy. And to the girl, "Um... well you might have ended up in a-"

    This is when things happen. Soldiers. No, worse. "Marines." She glances at Cayde. "Yeah, these guys tend to not want anyone getting in their way and..." She stops and stares at the comment from the apparent leader, and even Little Owl is distracted from flirting with Sundance to whip around and beep curiously.

    "Okay, that's weird. I'm not an offworlder, but I know how to fight. What has a bunch of space marines running scared? It sounds like you just knocked off a bunch of units and it's making more? What are you fighting?"

The arrival of Salome and her podmate Temulin gets a blink -- he's not sure he's met them. However, he offers a wave of greeting to them as well. Though he's not given much time to consider this as someone with a gun comes in. Luigi hunkers down again, grabbing his hat and pulling down a little over his eyes. Yeah, he's definitely not meaning any harm to them, so there's that. The call of 'clear' draws him to peek out from under his hat though.

A lot happens, and Luigi stays where he is, though he startles at the muffled explosion. Finally then he straightens, though he's clearly still confused. And the mention of a way off? "Well, uh... the Vine put-a me here," he states. "That usually happens when I can-a help! What's going on?" He's willing to at least try.

'Magi*Mari' and her antics kind of confuse him for a moment since he's not sure what all those things are that she's mentioned. But he gets the idea that she's someone famous at least. This is a bad place to be stranded, particularly for someone who doesn't seem to know how to fight. That's right, Luigi's going to assume. But he's also going to quietly assume!

Cayde though, gets a friendly wave here. "Sorry!" Luigi offers. "Startled me!" As for his name? "My name's-a Luigi," he offers with a smile. It doesn't even bother him to have to remind him. At least Cayde isn't calling him 'Green Mario'. Or 'the other guy'.

Athena's words of assistance get a nod, too. "Aha, yeah!" He seems to remember something, a thing that her words reminded him of. "That's right. I can help too. I can fight!" Even if he's been acting like he can't.

    "Sally and 'safe' don't mix well." The black cat says to Temulin. But the witch's attention has already shifted, as she leeeeeeeaaaaaaaans herself WELL into Luigi's personal space, regardless of the threat of his vacuum cleaner.
    "Hmmmmmmmmm...!" She muses to herself, arching her brow.
    Her hat-- her grinning, fang-mawed, drooling, snarling, hat also quirks its brow as it leers at the plumber. "HMMMMMMMMMMMMM~!" the hat mimics its wearer in perfect echo.
    But then she's leaning back, attention back on Magi*Mari.
    Salome's gun goes away. Instead she produces a cellphone and throws her arm around the girl's shoulder. "Oho, hold on a sec-- selfie~."
    The snap-click of the phone's shutter goes off before the girl has a chance to deny her apparent fan.
    And then... And then the space marines. Busting in while her arm is still around the idol.
    "I'm sorry who are you people? I keep hearing this is a ghost ship, but everywhere I look there are people and that is kind of the opposite of ghost."
    Though to Athena's frigid tone, the witch smiles quite warmly, flashing her fangs, hat also smiling, but far less nicely.
    A~ny~way! Temulin', darlin', we have work to do. Deck 3 wasn't the way you folks came from was it?"
    No, the space marines cannot have Salome's pod.

Temulin shrugs at the Black Cat, "My job is to keep people alive while they do their thing, or to kill the people who get in our way. Safe is always relative." She answers, before taking a good look at who else appears to be there, and trying to gauge their aptitude. "Quite the crowd." She mutters to herself.

"Temulin, of the Dotharl Tribe." Temulin introduces herself at Athena's 'Someone else' "Adventurer for hire." The dark knight keeps her tone neutral, and then the locals arrive and she instinctively reaches for her weapon, though she doesn't grasp the hilt as she hears their words, "Sir. I'm here to get a job done, are you going to let me do that job or are your relatives going to get to cash in on that life insurance policy?" She answers them coolly, before heading to follow Salome.

    The Marines seem to be sitting and leaning against walls. Resting? Their commander takes off his helmet, and does seem out of breath. He glowers at Temulin, who had the most aggressive reply, but says, "You know, if you want to handle something here, be my guest. They didn't pay us to fight zombies."

    One of the Marines looks up. "I thought you said they weren't zombies, sir?"

    The commander shrugs, "Looks like a duck, shuffles like a duck, rots like a duck. It's a zombie." He looks again at the others, warily eying Magi*Mari especially. "Yeah, well... don't go that way until the repair systems have repressurized it. We've gotten a breather. These things all pause during those delta sequences. We think they're some kind of experimental hive mind gone wrong. Thing is, when it prints those new bodies it talks about? They start rotting right away. You can't smell it here, but it's /bad/ further in the ship."

    One of the other Marines speaks up, "We could still blow the core, but Dan - we lost Dan earlier - thinks that might start a self destruct or something."

    The Commander turns to the others and squints. "So. What we got is a bunch of armed civvies. Walking right into danger. I DON'T want you in our way, but hell if we know how to deal with this. The more we kill the more delay we have. Maybe we can get the printers to run out of material if we blast enough."

    He sighs, "Good news is they aren't the unstoppable zombies. Hit them enough and they go down. This isn't some kind of offworld magic... I think. Bad news is, they're cyborgs, so getting them hurt bad enough is hard. And they... learn. Even when they die the others learn. So, hive mind. But we aren't picking up any signals beyond the delta updates."

    He grins at Cayde, "Heh, though I guess even if they were the 'bite to transmit' kind a few of you wouldn't care."

    Rather than try to resist the picture being taken with her by Salome, Magi*Mari has professional-quick reflexes and flashes a V-sign with her fingers, "Piisu~!" She chipperly states in a Japanese accent before lowering her hand and then turning to listen to the Marine as he briefs everyone on what is going on. 

    "Oh woooooow, that sounds like a lot of trouble." Magi*Mari digs around in her messenger bag and eventually pulls her out her secret weapon: A stun gun. It looks like a remote, but when she presses a button on the side, "All I have is this for when I need to deal with fans that get too handsy! But I will try my best and stay out of everyone else's way!" She declares firmly. 

    She is saying all of this despite the fact that Salome has an arm around her and dragged her over to the marines directly, causing the idol to raise her hand a bit and twiddle her fingers in a bashful fashion. 

    She looks back over her shoulder to Athena, "Might have ended up in a what?" She inquires, prompting her to finish the statement.

    There's just a brief moment where Cayde stares at Luigi as if to say 'Really?' Well 'Louis' would've been kinda close, right? He shakes his head, making a quick appraisal of the others here. The kid, he has no idea what to make of, but he's learned pretty early on to never underestimate random, lone children in strange worlds. And hasn't he seen that witch lady somewhere before? He arches a brow at both Salome and Temulin as it seems at least some people do happen to be here on purpose. He emits a low whistle at Temulin's words to the marines in particular.

    "Zombies? Why's it always zombies?" he finds himself asking. Okay, he knows that it isn't -always- zombies but coming across something of the sort seems to happen more often than not. He sighs, checking his ammunition as the troops give the rundown of the situation.

    "So basically what I'm getting is that this whole thing's a right mess. I'm not sure how this all works out exactly, but I'm assuming with the whole printing thing there's some kinda programming to it? Is there like, a main computer system to 'access'" -he inserts air quotes here because he of course means 'hack'- to shut it down or something?" A meaningful glance is cast to his Ghost partner before he considers the next bit. ...so they're dealing with hivemind cyborg zombies. Yeah. That's... Huh. 

    "Well, anything can get blowed up if you hit it enough."

    A quick smirk is tossed in return towards the commander. "All the same, wouldn't care'ta get chewed on."

    Athena listens, and thinks... and then comes to a conclusion. "Soul rot. The zombies are soul-rotted humans. Something has messed with their soul, and it makes a perfectly healthy body just decay even while alive. It's been a problem recently but a whole ship..."

    She looks around, grimaces as Magi*Mari is not seeming useful at all, and glowers at the two mercenaries. "Well. Whatever is going on, Cayde's right. There has to be a control center and we won't be getting anythign done just waiting. With a squad of Marines and all the rest of us, maybe we can punch through during this... delay thing if we hurry."

    Little Owl bumps 'accidentally' against Sundance before darting over to follow Athena as she makes for the door leading to the bridge.

Luigi is confused at suddenly finding a Salome in his personal space. And that hat? He hunkers down with a squeak. That hat is scary and it looks like it wants to eat him! Fortunately, a moment or two later, the witch and her scary hat is distracted by the idol singer. Though he does breathe a sigh of relief, he's still a bit concerned. He doesn't want the hat to eat the idol singer.

There's a moment too when he's apprehensive about Temulin as well, with how she reacts to the Marine. The last thing they need right now is a fight between these guys and one of the offworlders. So he desperately tries to get the Marine's attention. "W-well, it looks like we're... m-mostly here to help with whatever's going on anyway... s-so let's do that! I don't think anybody here is going to get mad if something ha-happens to them while they're here. I'll try to stay out of the way!"

He's trying desperately to smooth things over. And also hoping very much that the Marine doesn't decide to start shooting! He doesn't want to have to fight him to keep anybody safe. Particularly not since that's apparently what the Marine is trying to do.

Once the problem has been explained? Luigi looks scared. "Z-z-z-zombies?" he echoes. But no, despite the obvious fear, he's applying thought to this. "W-wh-where is this printer?" he inquires. He suggests, "Are there m-m-maintenance tunnels? M-m-m-maybe we can bypass most of them that way, get to the thing that's printing them, and turn it off?"

Cayde's stare gets an odd look, and Luigi tilts his head in clear confusion. Then again he tends to have a bit of a vacant look most of the time anyway, but at least he's got a little bit of brains behind it! Good thing that's not what the zombies want!

    "Oho I think I might like working with this one." Salome muses at Temulin more-than-low-key-threatening a man. She does unhook her arm from Magi*Mari though. She's not about to drag a girl through hell unless that girl wants to follow; but she pulls out a stungun and it looks like there's no helping it.
    She draws a gun from the folds of her coat; an 1875 Schofield revolver, and in her other hand she pulls a much more archaic pepperbox pistol as she twirls the revolver on a finger. She's already whistling merrily to herself.
    "It's always zombies because there's no rest for the wicked. Even when dead." She comments idly to Cayde, while perusing the map and taking as much of it into memory as she can.
    But she casts a glance over her shoulder at Athena as she explains 'Soul rot', but also starts for the bridge as well, gun twirling..
    Her hat probably does want to eat Luigi, too.

    Athena is already moving, and the commander sighs, "Yeah, we should move too. Break is over! All right, Fire Team Phoenix, you're the only one still at full strength, go with Marshall and try to find the printers again. We'll go with these civvies toward the bridge." He won't stop Luigi or others from going with the Fire Team if they want, but he does seem to be assuming they'll stick together.

    "Sir!" Four of the men break away and head down a tunnel. The one who was speaking before explains to Luigi, "There are tunnels, but they're for maintenance robots. We might run into a few zombies, but losing that many gave us a few minutes respite. We can probably make it most of the way to the bridge before they start moving again."

    That's the idea at least. And going through the door... it's a few steps before the stench of ROT envelops everyone. It does seem to be lessening as the scrubbers work overtime, but it's going to be lingering always, if these things keep rotting. It was a well-timed departure though, because down the hall the horrifying zombielike visage of one of the 'things' appears, blank eyes glowing red in the pupils as it turns and shuffles toward the group. Rotting flesh hangs from cords of metallic muscle and bone, but it only makes a few steps more before falling over with a grunt and a flicker of eyes.

    "Delta postponed. Holding for integration and backup until new units are online."

    "What a regular ray of sunshine you are," the Exo dryly replies as he looks at Salome again, but he figures she's got the right idea in studying the map, which he has his partner do likewise so she can pull it up if they need it. Luigi gets a quick wink. "It'll be fine!" They've got a bunch of people with guns and stuff. This can in no way go wrong.

    Anyway, they need to move sooner than later, and with Athena doing so, Cayde isn't long in moving to follow. Sundance jerks back, vertices spinning as she looks quizzically after Little Owl after that 'accidental' bump. Cayde gives her a little pat, grinning. "I think someone liiikes you~" he chuckles as he moves along. His Ghost just stares at the back of her Guardian's hooded head before moving to catch up.

    He taps his gun against his shoulder, glowing gaze shifting from side to side as they enter the corridor, narrowing at the stench. With the first sign of movement not of their group, he's brought the weapon out and trained it on the thing down the way. And then it collapses, and he blinks. 

    And then he shoots it, because he isn't trusting something that's being called a zombie not to wake up and start moving again.

    Athena moves warily, glancing back at the others to make sure they're following and safe. When the announcement comes, she halts and, even through the armor's face shield, the Reborn's face can be seen to pale. "Integration and backup..."

    Athena looks back again, then gestures, "Move. Faster. We don't have much time. This isnn't a hive mind, it's just one person, forked over and over. Forked enough to be the entire crew, then pulled and reintegrated every... what, five minutes? Every five minutes the entire crew is integrated into one person, then split into however many there are again."

    She almost sounds ill. "No wonder there's soul rot. The soul can't figure out if it should be in one body or dozens. It probably keeps hopping around trying to figure out where it should go. Or maybe it's just stuck in the core. But there's never enough time to gather or create a new one even if there was a spare..."

    When Cayde shoots, she doesn't stop him. "Maybe that will give us a little more time."

Luigi's relieved to be away from the scary hat and equally scary witch! But hey, there's a job to do, and he's not about to let being scared get in his way! He nods to the mention of the maintenance tunnels. "So they'd be too small for a person, I guess."

It's worth noting that Luigi does have a human-like height. He's kinda short and a little bit pudgy, but he's not a Gnome or Halfling in comparison to anyone here, or anything like that.

He'll keep with the rest of the group, yes, though he does send a worried look at the Fire Team. And he stays behind Cayde when Cayde shoots the falling-over zombie. "Delta... that's when it starts making more zombies, right?" he inquires. "If it's holding off, maybe we should try to get as close to the central computer as possible."

    "Ain't I just?" Sally replies to Cayde rather chipperly. It's as the smell of rot hits that she makes a face, but keeps any complaining on the internal.
    And there's a zombie!
    Salome raises her gun to shoot, on reflex.
    The zombie keels over on its own.
    Cayde shoots it for good measure.
    "... So that just happened." She mutters. "There a reason that 'delta' thingy got put--"
    Athena explains it.
    "Well. Sucks to be that guy huh. But let's go find him"
    Then! Another gunshot rings through the chamber as... Salome puts a bullet in the corpse, too.
    "Didn't wanna be left out~."

Temulin has been feeling really uncomfortable around this scenario for a while now, and Athena's explanation gets a nod. "Ugh. I thought the so-called Paragons were bad about souls not having a proper home." She mutters, before going forwards, darkness pouring around her blade as she slices her way through anything that looks like it might be moving and part of this scourge.

    It doesn't take long to get to the bridge, but there isn't too much time. As the bridge approaches, Temulin gets to try out her blade, shredding a 'zombie' that shambles forward. Then another one comes, but this one specifically moves to pick off one of the Marines, coming up from behind Temulin so the Dark Knight can't easily attack.

    It will be easily taken care of by anyone who tries though, and getting to the bridge, with a group with this much firepower, is actually trivial. One or two more might get in the way, but the bridge opens without trouble... revealing a young man frantically darting back and forth between the consoles. A single, non-rotting man with a shimmering fan of light on either side of him, elaborately glowing from the nodes of cybernetic implants in his back.

    The man looks up as he taps in coordinates, breathing hard, his eyes a little crazed. "Ah... no no, you should leave. I'll take care of it. Fixing it. The core is broken, but I can still fix it. Still fix it. Just need more of the source. More light." He starts mumbling again, but isn't moving to do anything else.

    Temulin gets a vision, briefly, at this point. This young man speaking to an image. The image states, "This is a grand experiment. Project: Legion will allow us to deploy an entire crew within minutes if we need to, with an expert crew that works together perfectly. Tactical soldiers that can coordinate instinctively. Don't screw up this time, boy."

    Meanwhile everyone else is getting the missing piece. "The drift... it's cumulative. It keeps drifting. Error correction. The mind has to grow. But if the growing is wrong the computer doesn't know. The mind grew. Adapted. Poor Artie. Nothing left."

    The zombies are much easier to deal with than a lot of the things Cayde's had to pick off in his own backyard. It's just the potential situation as Athena'd explained that twists this whole matter into a whole new wrongness. A few shots here, a well-aimed stab to the face with his trusty Hunter's knife there. Taking the bridge is almost anti-climactic.

    Except for the fact that they're not alone in here, and all the babble isn't really clarifying anything, at least to him. He throws a look at Athena, gesturing at Sundance. "You know more about what all's going on than I do- it safe to let Sundance do her thing and try shutting things down directly through the system or you have a better idea?" A pause as he regards the man. 

    "Also would it be bad to do so while he's plugged in like that."

Temulin drops to her knees and grabs her head, and for a moment seems out there. When she gets out of it, she gives a simple statement, "Pray put the poor sod out of his misery." She states calmly, and if no-one beats her to the punch or stops her, she'll just step forward, wrap her blade in darkness and bring it down on his head.

    Athena nods, "Yeah... go ahead and do what you can. I think this needs shut down." The man's manic and probable insanity worry her some, and the reborn goddess instead moves to try to adjust the flight path to something that can... be recovered. But...

    "I would see if I could mark this experiment a complete failure," she points out. "Normally I'd say this is something that nobody should know about, forbidden knowledge, but I think in this case..." She looks at the ranting youth. "The lesson will be not to overreach."

    No, she won't stop anyone from trying to kill the man. Instead she sighs, "I think he's fated to always die of overreach..."

Luigi's actually being useful if they do have more of those zombies coming at them. He's got both fire and ice, and he can burn and freeze them. If they're weak enough he might even be able to shatter them -- they may freeze completely and a punch or a kick can shatter them. Or he can throw thoroughly-frozen zombies at other zombies. So he's going to be useful, at least, in getting to the bridge if any more of those zombies come at them.

The nonsense babbling of the guy with the weird cyborg parts doesn't escape him, but... well, he doesn't know how he can fix this. So, since Athena seems to know the most what's going on he looks to her. "I'll-a follow your lead," he notes. And since she's letting Temulin deal the final merciful blow, Luigi himself heads to the computer and tries to look at the device. Mainly he's just looking on to make sure that the babbling man's death won't make something explode.

Also it's a good place to look so he won't have to see the blood. Ghosts are one thing, but... death of living beings is quite another!

    Sundance will find that shutting down the process from the bridge is... well, not EASY but it is much simpler from there. Finally the integration stops, though there are still 'units' moving around. They should STAY dead though, and the marines immediately start moving to take that sweep of the ship.

    The man looks confused as his ship starts to fire jets and realign. "Eh? No, no we need to... oh my." He looks down at his chest, where the dark blade is leeching his life and making his eyes come to a sudden clarity. "Oh no... I messed up again, didn't I father? I'm sorry..."

    Then he slumps, and the fanned out light beams sputter and fade away as well. "Ahh... I told myself I wouldn't do it again. Always too close to the sun, huh?"

    It's a challenge Sundance readily takes on, although with nothing to do on the outside but wait, Cayde looks on anxiously. He watches on grimly as Temulin takes care of the young man, bowing his head as the guy finally comes to himself. Icarus, huh? 

    Arms folded, he leans against the console, glancing over as his Ghost finally reemerges from it in a shimmer of light. "It's done," she says, simply

    Cayde looks to the others, nodding solemnly. "Seems that's that."