World Tree MUSH

    It's a new Vine in the region, and it's acting weirdly. For one, it's relatively stable despite the planet it's on - and thus the immediate area - being pretty much empty of intelligent life. For another, while the Vine's entrance and exit on the planet is stable, it keeps dumping people in without warning. This usually results in some confusion and a shrug as, since the Vine doesn't vanish like they usually do in these cases, the visitors can just turn around and leave, but it is strange. The Gardeners have flagged it as something to explore, offering a reward for information, and teaming up with the Extrasolar Exploration Committee(EEC) from the world that claims to be the destination.

    Anyone who actually looks things up before arrival can dig up what's publicly known. During the Religious Uprisings of some time back, a splinter group sent a colony ship here where they could practice in peace. One of the more non-extremist ones, the government was willing to ignore them and let them have their place, but rapidly lost contact and assumed the colony was lost, given the vast distances involved and lack of FTL transport. Their concern is that they did, upon finding out the Vine had 'landed' there, send a team through the Tree the long way around to end up on planet... and lost contact with them only a few hours after arrival.

    Which brings us to now. The Vine opens up not far from the colony ship's 'landing site'(though technically the bulk of the ship is in orbit), where the shuttle used is settled on a small plateau leading to a more mountainous region. The river that cut the plateau is still around, but has drifted away, leaving the decaying, obviously stripped-for-parts ship all by itself. Alloys used for space travel don't normally rust, but this is obviously falling apart in some way.

    To the east, the river runs into what becomes a marshy swampland, while to the west the mountains rise up, neither one far but it is known the colony drilled into the mountain to make its first homes and buildings.

    Somewhere in space, "Captain..." begins Minerva. "Don't tell me, another Vine, tracking us. You've tried to maneuver out of the way but it keeps shifting to intercept."

    "..."

    "You know procedure. I'll rig up and get ready for deployment, take us out of Linespace and head through at sublight."

    Presently,

    The Sanctuary gets spat out in orbit, the bulbous ship juking to avoid the orbiting colonyship, then settling into a high, geostationary orbit above the shuttle landing site. At the site, a bulky, reinforced looking robot appears on a glowing magic glyph, unpacking itself before green optics flare to light and it begins to look around at the area, taking in the scene before choosing a course of action. "Minerva, I'm on site now... scan for any other responders and patch me through to them if they have wireless comms."

    "So they fled Capitalism. I hope this place is full of weirdo vegan hippies." Valerian states in a pretty flat tone. He is, much like last night, wearing an industrial grey suit of power armor (that has a few scorch marks across the chest and shoulder from errant space pirate blaster fire) and has an assault rifle across his back. The helmet is gone because this isn't actually a vacuum, so he doesn't need it. 

    Otherwise, he's holding... some type of sandwich? And a drink. After arriving from the Vine, he mills around. It turns out, what he was holding was a Bacon Double Cheeseburger and a milkshake from a stopover at a space station in Samus Aran's world, of all places. Though it probably has a hokey space tourist name like a Double Porker Battleship and Cosmic Stardust Shake to trap in tourists from her new world. 

    "I've read about them in books. Vegans, I mean. But I never met one. They're totally extinct in my world. No one can afford not to eat meat and all." He says to the person with him.

"Why do these briefings talk about a lack of FTL transport as though the cosmic speed limit was merely a suggestion that we should really just ignore?" The floating mechanical doll-like person complains out loud. She's currently four feet tall, including the mechanical umbrella she holds up from which several arms extend. Both her dress and the umbrella contain thrusters, though the more powerful ones by far are inside the dress.

She notices the ship up above and recognizes it, and quickly looks around for the Doll she expects to be here. "Justina Thyme. Are you here for the mission that has been issued, or one of the people randomly encountering the place. If the latter, would you like me to share the mission briefing packet with Minerva?"

    [RISK LEVELS: Unknown. The prior team sent through the vine ceased contact within hours of arrival. MISSION PARAMETERS: Discover what happened to the lost colony. The bounty for this mission seems appropriate. Treat their lost assets with care, Lady.]
    Samus Aran is paying more attention to her gunship's onbaord AI while Valerian goes on about vegans and hippies.
    "Mmmh." She murmurs to give the impression that she's listening while her mind is already on the mission as they emerge from the vine; her gunship parked nearby. Unlike Valerian, the Hunter's helmet IS on; though there's likely an empty brown paper bag with a burger wrapper and an empty shake cup stashed on the gunship somewhere.
    [Please use a trash recepticle next time.] ADAM chides over the radio to her suit.
    "Right, right."

    The air is crisp, despite being rather warm, a balmy 25 degrees Celcius. There's a certain scent to it, tangy yet with a hint of... ripeness. Not really a pleasant smell, but not a stench either, wafting up from the swamps. The Vine's location is stable only in the gross sense, as it does drift about the area, but it hasn't drifted so far that the signs of the previous team are gone. A cluster of three tents and a few crates of equipment are nearby, though it looks largely to be the start of a base camp, with just rations sealed up and some sensory equipment that hasn't even been assembled yet.

    Justina turns to Bryllu, "We were enroute to a frontier world to perform field tests on a new Doll frame, but between an errant Vine grabbing us last night, and this one now... it seems we're destined not to reach our goal. Any information would be appreciated." replies the Doll-bound Half-Elf. Minerva then sends a handshake signal to Bryllu for data transfer.

    When Samus's gunship arrives, ADAM would also receive a handshake request from Minerva, as would Valerian if his suit is capable of linking like that. Thankfully for everyone involved, Samus wouldn't need to restrain herself, as Justina's not using the XE-MI Doll this time. It's far too valuable to 'waste' it on a potentially hotile environment that it can't adequately handle.

    "Diverting auxillary power to Hull Plating." intones the half-elf, causing several additional plates of metal to flash-forge around the thighs, chest, back and upper arms of the Doll frame.

"Honestly, Valerian Railton, killing other beings to satiate your own energy needs is... well, it gives organics a bad name." Bryllu is looking towards Samus when she states this, "Don't you agree?" Clearly Bryllu is under the misapprehension the Hunter is a synthetic being like herself. "Oh right, I should introduce myself. Bryllu Zibhu MLDVII."

The space miner uploads all mission data to Minerva, and then returns her attention to the situation at hand. She's looking in the infrared and sending out sonar and radar pings, while scanning for electromagnetic radiation that might indicate communication technologies.

    Unlike Samus or Justina, the suit that Valerian is wearing is fairly basic in its functionality. It can receive the handshake request, but honestly Justina could also probably crack it wide open like a walnut she really wanted. It's not all that protected or secured against that kind of thing. The Coalition doesn't think of stuff like Super Hackers and he's not wearing a Glitter Boy. 

    "I guess I could see that side of it. But when you come from a hostile environment where you don't have the option to choose between those things, you don't really care what people think about you. Survival is pretty much numero uno on the hierarchy of needs. Actualization and philosophical fulfillment are dead last." Valerian explains. He hardly seems offended, mostly because Bryllu has admitted to 'Scarcity' being a fairly foreign concept to her, so he hardly minds being the more organic viewpoint on that kind of topic. 

    He inspects the camp a bit, "Judging by all the crap they left sitting around, this seems like it happened pretty fast and without a lot of warning." He sniffs the air a bit, sort of like a dog trying to catch a scent. Because that's exactly what he's doing.

    ADAM accepts the handshake and quickly puts Minerva and Justina through to the radio integrated into Samus' power armor for her.
    Her heart rate remains at a normal level this time on hearing Justina's voice, now that the half-elf is NOT piloting a DOll that looks way too much like an EMMI unit, which is all well and good, before Bryllu addresses her.
    The Hunter is silent for a moment, head turning to face that green-glowing visor upon the digital human.
    "... All life has value. The difference is in respectfully taking life to sustain your own, or squandering it." She says.
    Spoken like a hunter.
    But then she too is investigating the tents, swapping her visor between its integrated scanner and thermal visor modes.
    "They didn't just wander off." She says. "They wouldn't have gone far without reporting it, something is off." She agrees with Valerian's assessment.

    The camp looks tidy, but abandoned... it's already quite dirty and there are marks that animals have gnawed on it here and there. Not many, since the actual food is sealed so not leaving a scent, but a few scratches and marks. Rodent-sized though, nothing that would worry a human... and besides, from the equipment and the bootprints, the team here came in power armor of their own, if something more like Valarian's rather than what Samus is wearing.

    Sniffing the air unfortunately just provides an idea of how alien the place is. Many of the plants aren't native to Earth, though they clearly have some compatibility. This area also has... grass. Definitely terrestrial grass, though it shifts to a different hue further away and looks somehow odd, which must be the planet's native grass equivalent. Obviously, lots of life around, most of it in the swampland eastward.

    No active broadcasts of communications are ongoing. The ship appears shut down, and there are signatures that could be powered equipment emitting EM both west, in the mountains, and east, in the marshes. Fairly far though, and not distinct enough to tell much at this range, not without much more powerful and focused sensor arrays.

    Justina opens the datapacket in her HUD, then glances around at the markers showing up with incoming datapoints from Bryllu's scan. She doesn't say anything; instead turning to approach the mountains with heavy footfalls crunching the ground beaneath her step. The Doll is /heavy/, likely meant to survive encounters with large, hostile creatures and not get knocked over.

"Oh right, you guys haven't got matter-energy convertors and have to make do with energy allocation levels that would be deemed cruel and unusual even at the end of time. I forgot, sorry." Bryllu keeps her sensors active, "No nearby signs of sophonts beyond ourselves. Detecting electromagnetic signatures both west and east." She reports, flying a little higher. "Or taking a life to prevent greater death. An equation that must sometimes be made, even if we do not like it. Many have sacrificed themselves to ensure energy allocation levels for those that remain would stay above minimum acceptable levels."

    "There's a swamp to the east," Valerian says in a flat tone he sniffs the air. After that, he picks up a ration off the ground and attaches it to his belt in case he gets hungry later on in this mission. 

    "It gets even worse on the tree. Sometimes worlds appear on top of eachother. It's called a Collision or some shit like that. It's messy because only one world can occupy the same space, otherwise both get destroyed." Valerian adds, responding to the great Calculus of sacrifice in an absent tone, as if it were just a side thought while he was thinking of someone else. 

    "So they all took off. They split up. And they left all their equipment behind." 

    "None of this adds up." He unslings his rifle and grips it in both hands of the power armor.

    "Mmmh." Samus murmurs on the topic of taking life. It's nothing she's a stranger to, but for now the purple-armored galactic warrior puts her mind on the mission.
    "I'll check the ship." She announces simply and starts heading for the shut down, stripped ship, swapping back from thermal visor to her scanner, arm cannon held low for now but her head on a swivel as she approaches the gutted shuttle.

    Justina just heads right for the mountains. It's not that far to them, though splitting up between them and the swamps would, of course, be quite a distance all told. The actual point of interest in the mountains is really in the nearby foothills anyway though, not the mountains themselves. Moving that way, Justina can make out an entrance, half-clogged with drooping vines, that's obviously artificial, sunk into a hillside. While the actual technology is doubtless new to her, she can pretty quickly make out that it was some kind of automatic structural deployment.

    Those still lingering at the base camp don't see any signs of danger here, though! It's hard to tell which way the team went, after this long, but lingering there finds plastic map that does indicate 'Colony' to the west. There's no guarantee they went there before vanishing, though.

    Samus checks out the hulk of the ship. It's VERY large, but also very empty, stripped for parts almost completely. The massive engine casings even show signs of salvage, with one of the engines gone, intentionally removed, while the other casing appears to be still sealed and intact. Some small animals are scurrying about in there, but nothing major. The only item of interest is a tripod set up, now out of power, with some kind of scanning device. It looks like some kind of slime built up on the solar collector, causing a shutdown.

    Valerian lingers at the camp for a bit before... starting to march! "Map says colony to the west. Gonna go check out the opposite direction! Someone let the girl who flew off west know!" 

    He says it reasonably loudly so that anyone around could hear him before he actually just starts marching off to the east. His logic on this one is pretty simple: If there's a colony to the west, and everyone in the camp knew about it, then it makes no sense for there to be signs of people to the east. 

    Therefore he should march east.

Bryllu begins to head for the swamp, making sure to link up with Miranda to keep positional data updated and have functional communications. "Sounds like it'd be even messier than the great collide. That was a very long time ago, but it's when the Andromedans and the Galaxians had to work overtime to prevent too much death and to ensure star formation would only happen in beneficial environments." The digitial answers Valerian over comms.

"They didn't entirely manage. A few dozen million years of lightspeed communications wasn't quite enough to really work out a solid plan, considering the diffuse natures of our societies and the sheer distance. Though as the collide approached, the communication lag did get easier." Sounds like she's mostly talking to keep herself focused, "That reminds me, in most worlds where it could happen, the great collide hasn't happened yet, has it? Like, Andromeda and Galaxia colliding and fusing."

    "I've found an entrance to the colony... some kind of automated structure deployment. Marking it's location for a group search." remarks Justina over the shared comms. She fabricates a steel spike, slams it into the ground, then turns to join the nearest other person of the group, which would be Samus at the Shuttle.

    Spending a moment examining the ship with her scanner and finding nothing of value from the ship itself, Samus turns her attention to the device on the tripod. Wiping away the accumulated slime on the solar panel.
    She'll let that charge and come back to it later to see what's on it, but then Valerian goes marching for the swamp eastward.
    Justina returns.
    "The others went east." The Hunter says matter of factly. Valerian seems to have some sound logic or a lead that has him investigating that way, so she moves to follow after him and Bryllu.

    The signs of habitation in the structure Justine found are... well, given the mossy overhang, it's either empty, or the housekeeping is utterly awful. It does explain where the signal was coming from, though!

    Bryllu's position up above can see... well, the swamp that Valerian is headed for! And, as he approaches, there's a glimmering of light from the swamp. No, not just a glimmer. It's flashing, in a regular but not steady pattern. A flash of a few moments, then another, then a brief flicker. Another brief flicker...

    As for Valerian, the ground is getting spongy rather quickly, though the actual swamp is still some distance away. Jackpot, though... even at this distance, after walking for a while, he can get a glimpse of what appears to be a small shack buried under the canopy, resting on stilts to keep it out of the bog.

    The tripod lights up after a few moments, indicating it's building a charge again. It will probably take a little time before it is usable though. As Justina tromps over to join her, the bounty hunter seems to have finished. It's eerily quiet, they might notice now. They've been here a while now, but no small animals have come out to investigate, nor have any birds been by. It would appear that for whatever reason, the local wildlife avoids humans and those that look like them.

    "No idea." Valerian admits to Bryllu, "Most civilizations don't last beyond a few thousand years and dead worlds don't connect to the Tree. So I've never seen a situation like yours. So I guess the short answer is: No, in most worlds I haven't seen a situation where two galaxies combined into one." 

    As he walks through the spongy swamp, he is glad that the suit is environmentally sealed and he doesn't have to deal with wet socks. Arguably, wet socks the number one destroyer of ground soldiers in any army over a prolonged period of time. 

    "I see a house." Valerian calls back as he heads towards that lifted structure on stilts to check it out, rifle raised.

    Like Samus, the Doll-user remains mostly quiet unless necessary. She follows along after the Hunter, heavy footfalls overwhelming the less loud ones of the much more advanced and light power-suit the Hunter is wearing.

"Admittedly the great collision happened way before I came into being. I think I'm from closer to the end of time than the collision was to the beginning of time." Bryllu muses, "I kinda wish I came into being back then. It must've been an exciting time. A universe that's slowly dying, where there's nothing to explore, nothing new to learn. It kind of sucks." She pauses, "And I feel guilty being here, with a future, with no way to help my people. My parent likely won't even know I've gone missing for another hundred of your earth years." She pauses when they make it to the house, and goes through a full sensor sweep, including radar in multiple frequencies, sonar, and checking for any noteworthy EM emissions.

    Samus will be coming back to that device... Later. Call it curiosity, or a hunch. But for now she... pauses.
    "No animals." She points out over radio. "Not a trace."
    It's too quiet and there are no animals.
    It's a harsh opposition to everything she had grown accustomed to on Zebes.
    Now her hand is resting on her arm cannon as she approaches the swamp house with Justina. She moves through the swampy mire and muck with ease and grace, not hindered by the slogging swampy water in the least thanks to the Gravity Suit, as she makes to join the others and check the house.

    Samus can sense SOME animals, but they're all quite firmly staying away. Regardless... everyone is now converging on the house, after having taken a quick look about. A small 'house' that is more just a shack, half-abandoned. Only half, because while clearly in disrepair, the inside is cleaned up enough to rest in, with a cot and a small desk there. Someone has taken a plastic sheet and tacked it to the desk, but without going in to fully investigate, it's unclear what's on it, if anything. No signs of anyone in there right now, though.

    Valerian keeps his rifle up as he talks to Bryllu, "You know, it's okay to want excitement. And it's okay to want to do something new. Nothing to be guilty about there." Valerian comments as he nudges the door open with a foot and then takes a look around, "They're not in right now. Possibly may come back." 

    He sweeps the room efficiently with the weapon before going back to talking to Bryllu, "Maybe you should make yourself a flesh body, if you can. Stepping out of the synthetic body might help you see things from a new perspective. Heck, I bet I could change your mind about 'inefficient energy conversion' with a hot fudge sundae or something." He teases.

"I wouldn't even know how. I'm just a miner, not an engineer or scientist. There's a reason I use sharp implements rather than long range weapons, because I don't know how to make them. If I can't even figure out a firearm, what makes you think I can work out a nervous system or a digestive system?" Bryllu clearly doesn't reject the notion on principle. She reaches forward to untack the plastic, see if there's anything of note underneath the sheet.

    <Alert, ground stability insufficient for frame traversal. Alert>

    Justina comes to a sudden stop as the ground becomes mire-ish very quickly. "I will return to the abandoned shuttle and wait there... this frame is too heavy for this swamp area. It will sink if I continue." she announces as Samus just walks in like some elf stepping across the top of a snowdrift. The heavy Doll pivots, then tromps back the way they came, though she does make a call, and flash-forges a blade for her left arm, and a long blunt 'rod' for her right, the weapons enveloping the forearms up to the elbows, and projecting another forearm length beyond where the hand manipulators were.

    While Valerian sweeps the room, Samus sweeps the other half while he works. But once it proves clear (for the time being), she lowers her arm cannon.
    "Check on the scanner on that tripod while you're back there." She says when Justina decides to head back.
    Samus will investigate the desk.

    The desk is pretty normal, and like the rest of the shack, looks to be basically thrown together without the help of modern fabricators. Good old hammer and nails! Though yes, they are nails, they're more like 'shaped splinters of metal' than true nails, and look to be regular, everyday iron.

    The plastic, however, is much more modern tech, and has been written on with some kind of heat source to burn the words in. Words that are quick and scribbled: 'GET OUT AVOID RED FLAGS TRUST NO ONE'

    Those with sharp senses or sensors - basically everyone at the shack - will then detect a large creature, about the size of a human, heading toward the shack rapidly, or at least rapidly for being in a bog. It's about the pace of a swift walk.

    Justina, retreating to the scanner, will find it has recharged enough in the few minutes to at least play back its function, if not fully operate. It appears to have spent a lot of time analyzing the wreck, in order to extrapolate from the damage when parts were stripped and which were stripped first. It also appears to have a function to find its remote, which doesn't look to be anywhere nearby.

    That raises alarm flags. The Hunter silently stares at the burned in scrawl on the plastic before she motions for the others to join her.
    "Look at this."
    Then something approaches.
    Turning to face the door, arm cannon raised, Samus backs into a corner of the shack and...
    Where did she go?
    One second she was there. In the next, she seemingly vanishes from sight to the naked eye, little more than a transparent blur in the corner of the room as she slowly takes to a knee.
    Sure, anything that comes into the shack will see Valerian and Bryllu first. What they won't probably expect is the bounty hunter hidden by her Phantom Cloak waiting to get the drop on them if need be.

Bryllu in turn floats upwards and next to the door, on the side where the door opens, maximizing the time between whatever is coming entering and being noticed. She quietly contacts Miranda to relay the news to Justina.

    "Really? Guns are pretty easy. It's just a propellant, a tube with grooves in it, and a projectile to throw through it. The grooves spin it for accuracy." He then whips around and levels the rifle at the door. 

    He stays center and visible, hoping to draw the attention so the other two can get an ambush going on the potential intruder even if it attacks him, "I don't like this place..."

    The trio in the shack are quick to react, huh? One hiding, the other just trying to get out of direct sight, and the third confronting the newcomer. A newcomer whose approach is... not silent, but quieter than expected for the speed of the approach, a swish like cutting through water in a very precise swim stroke, perhaps. But then there's a tap on the boards of a foot, and a tall, tanned figure stepping inward, his motions easy and fluid. There's something off about his face... a lack of expressiveness even as eyes flick over Valarian and the armor, but he doesn't seem afraid despite his lack of armament. Simple, rugged clothes are all he has, with a bracelet on one wrist and a belt holding some supplies. The pants appear to be something like denim, but the water from where he waded here just flows off without leaving them damp.

    "Why are you here? Go away," Is what he opens with, but then looks again at Valarian's armor. "More newcomers. Stop coming here. Go away. We will force you out if we have to."

    "Believe me, guy, I wanna go away. Just tell me where the last team went and we'll get them and get out of here." Valerian offers as he slowly lowers the rifle. If the guy isn't going to be scared of it, Valerian really doesn't see much point in waving it at him. Instead, he lets it fall and hang at his side from its sling.

"We've been asked to investigate. There's a stable vine that's redirecting people here." Bryllu answers as she gets out from her hiding spot, "So a lot of people coming here aren't coming here by choice, and we're just trying to figure out to ensure that the only people here are people who want to be here. We'll be going as soon as we've figured out how to do that, neither the intention nor the desire to stick around."

    Samus does not de-cloak nor announce her presence, silently keeping her armcannon trained on the newcomer from her hidden place in the corner in case he makes any rash moves towards either Valerian or Bryllu.

    Justina's heavy frame approaches the device. Seeing it powered on, and no hostiles nearby, she dismisses her weapons, and deploys an interface unit from her right forearm. It seeks a port, and scans it to simulate a proper connection. "Minerva, begin downloading the files, distribute to the network and begin playback of latest entry... she says, letting Minerva handle the data routing, while she checks the logs and reviews the last entries. She spots the remote finding application, and triggers it off, just before getting the signal from Bryllu that there's possible hostiles.

    With that in mind, and being linked to the device, the half-elf deploys a pair of turretted repeating crossbows from their shoulder pods, the weapons unfolding as the shells dissipate into motes of energy that absorb back into the Doll frame. These begin to scan the area, in case something comes sniffing around.

    It's true. The man seems to not care about the gun, nor even look at it. If he sees Samus, he makes no note of it, but Bryllu's odd appearance at least gets a lingering look. Then he... simply shrugs. "We have seen no others except for the colonists. Many of them died from the feeders, and more died when they did not leave our home. If others followed then perhaps the feeders got them as well. They live in the rocks." Chatty fellow isn't he?

    Then he turns around to just move back toward the swamp. "Now leave, or we will eat you." Something there... doesn't sound like it translated right. He certainly doesn't look like a cannibal and why tell people that?!

    Justina scans the area, and while she doesn't see any hostiles... she does manage to connect. Despite the alien technology, it interfaces well enough to get some data. A quick fast-forward of the ship being stripped for parts, starting with the cargo hold and one engine, and then some internal walls and mechanisms. After a small delay - which represents a few weeks or months - suddenly the ship is stripped again, this time of optic systems and backup power supplies. And then nothing since, that being at least six months ago.

    It's not playing back what actually happened, just reconstructing it from the damage to the ship. This is a military unit, though, and the notes do state that the engine could be used as a weapon or as part of a power supply for a colony. It then notes that the optics systems and power supplies were almost certainly intended to build weaponry.

    "So that first party is probably dead, then. Killed by Feeders. Makes sense." Valerian sighs and then folds his hands behind his head, which is honestly kind of impressive range of motion from the power armor he is wearing, "Listen guy. You're getting kinda cocky here. You aren't gonna eat me. Bigger things than you have tried and failed to accomplish that." 

    Still, he doesn't stop the man from leaving as he tries to figure out the next movie from all of this mess, "Something is way off on this planet. I guess I was wrong about the vegan hippies thing. It tilted in the opposite direction and we got weird, mutant cannibals."

    Before the newcomer leaves; Samus still remains hidden... However a quiet mental command to her suit and the visor mode shifts from targetter to x-ray vision as she stares at the man, but otherwise lets him leave before she finally de-cloaks.
    "Between that and the feeders I think we can assume what happened to the last team."

"I believe you will find me quite inedible." Bryllu answers calmly, but she prepares the limbs that end in blades regardless. "And I will warn you that while I have no real desire to hurt you, I will inform the relevant authorities, and if there's anything I've learned since coming to the world tree, it's that organic beings can be quite attached to this notion of vengeance and tend to treat predation on sophonts as a much bigger deal than predation on other life forms." She states calmly, "And before you think of destroying me to prevent word getting out, this conversation is being broadcast to a spaceship in orbit which will deliver this message regardless of my survival." Quietly she adds a comment to Minerva, < "You getting this, right?" >

    Once the download is successful, Justina disconnects from the terminal and begins making her way back to the basecamp. The turrets continue to pan as she walks, heavy footfalls leaving obvious tracks in her wake.

    There is a brief pause at what the others say on his way out, but it's to look more carefully at Valarian. "You are right, we cannot consume you." Strangely he says nothing about whether he can 'eat' Bryllu, huh? "This is our nest, you are trespassing as the colonists did. When we return you will be gone." He turns again and wades into the muck... and despite its thickness, he passes through it as easily as if he were walking on solid dry ground.

    It's very strange for Justina, who is passed word of these 'feeders' and the like. Because even now she's picking up... nothing significant. A few scurrying critters getting out of her way, but not many. Nothing that would seem to indicate danger like what would kill an entire experienced exploration team with this kind of tech... nor necessitate weapons beyond a simple rifle or even bow and arrow.