World Tree MUSH

The good ship AT39485-3997 was one of many slow automated freighters handling shipping throughout this particular solar system, with little enough to distinguish it from its many, many sister ships. The most distinct part at the moment is that for unknown reasons it has decided to land on and stay at a particularly large asteroid, rather than proceeding on to one of the colonies at Enceladus, Saturn's icy moon, with its supplies.

Circe - under the name Adrienne Salvador - had put out word that help with a rescue mission was needed, to recover the supplies that were more time sensitive and repair the ship. With particular desire to obtain a larger vessel than Circe herself was capable of getting hold of, to retrieve more of the goods. This word also claimed that the ship's computer had glitched writ large, and that the automated security systems were likely to resist the recovery effort, and so those with more combat-oriented skills were likely needed. Payment was promised based on the amount recovered and sent with 'Adrienne' to the colony.

Whether on her own definitely stolen shuttle-sized ship or someone else's larger and better one, in person 'Adrienne' is a short woman with messy black hair and red eyes, wearing a gold serpent bracelet and with earrings in the shape of pigs, an oxygen mask covering much of her face. She'll fuss with the bracelet every so often, generally not meeting people's eyes unless she's directly spoken to.

    The Paragon's LEgacy was in the area when she got the message about a rescue mission. Being a responsible spacer and Jedi, Talia Kyras could hardly say no to such a request. She emerges from hyperspace, eyeing the ship. "AT39485-3997, this is the Paragon's Legacy." Talia messages over comms.

    Endee-Seventyseven beeps something sarcastic. <That sure rolls off the tongue when you organics say it out loud.>

    "Says the droid." Talia says dryly, before she floats in to dock with the lost vessel. "Alright. En-dee, you have the conn."

    <Yep, don't die, kids.>

    The Jedi throws on a space-worthy EVA suit. It's nothing too fancy, intended for shipbreakers out in space, but with extraneous equipment stripped off. She can maneuver herself with the Force perfectly fine in zero-g, thanks. "Alright, time to go for a walk..." With that, she and Adrienne begin their spacewalk. Her passenger has been provided a spare suit, if she needs one.

    Riding along with Juno on the Rogue Shadow were two passengers. One was... well, not exactly normal, given that he was wearing a battered but fully functional suit of power armor that he didn't seem inclined to take off, not even the helment. Other than that quirk, Nort seemed amiable enough, though not much of a talker. He's checking weapons and nodding slightly, but doesn't seem to be the type to want to read the ship scanners or anything.

    The other passenger is... quite a bit different. An utterly massive mustelid, the wolverine was huge, big enough to ride on, and rippling with muscle. He also had numerous cybernetic implants, including eyes and dermal plates. He'd been quiet and well-behaved through the trip though, which made it... not the best for conversation, but at least any initial misgivings had probably quieted.

    As the ship approaches the other ship, finally Nort speaks up. "Since I have full environmentals on my suit, I might as well scout things out first, just in case."

  Some people will still do anything for a quick buck. That much hasn't changed for General Juno Eclipse. She may live a frugal lifestyle, but her ship, the Rogue Shadow, is an aging prototype that was once the bleeding edge of the Imperial fleet. It's effectively a money sink, although Juno is good enough an engineer to keep it flying.

  Fly it does. Today the Rogue Shadow carries whoever needs carrying in the cargo hold, although the ship is cloaked and keeping its heat signature relatively low.

  In the cockpit, Juno shifts uncomfortably in the pilot's chair, tiredly aware of a tweak in her lower back that's been shrieking at her for the last two hours. She sighs, shifts the other way, and checks her instruments. A brief glance back at the passenger jumpseat, where Nort barely fits in there with his power armour. Every time the chair's moorings creak, she winces.

  She's not much of a talker, either, although she's not hostile, and answers any questions politely enough when asked. There's an edge of sorrow about her, even to those who can't supernaturally sense emotion; an edge of anger. Both simmer just below the surface in equal measure.

  She looks about the same as she'd seemed to the companion pair. Maybe a little more tired.

  "Be my guest." Juno waves a hand. "I don't typically carry environmental suits. Normally I haven't much use for them. Can you key into the Rogue Shadow's comm band? I can lend a hand if there's trouble. Or pick you two up fast."

  Ah, shades of the old days. Her expression flickers so quickly that the pain it shows for a moment is fleeting; there and gone in the blink of an eye. Or the flicker of optics. Juno reaches up to flick a few toggles overhead. "PROXY." The droid's been riding in the engine room, checking systems in transit. "How are the stygium crystals looking?"

  <As well as they can be expected to be, General Eclipse. The forward and central stygium banks are beginning to show signs of stress fractures. According to my analysis, we have perhaps four hours left of-->

  Juno sighs at the droid's tinny voice over the comm line. "That's all. Thanks, PROXY." She glances back at Nort. "Do me a favour. Tell me it's an easy job once you're down there. I could use the damn credits." Her smile is hard-edged as she flashes Nort an irreverent parting salute. "Stay safe out there, you two. We'll stay docked for a moment or two, just in case you need to head back."

    Adrienne hesitates but does eventually accept the spacesuit, seemingly not having brought one of her own, struggling a little to get the unfamiliar design on. 

    The automated, unmanned freighter does at least have a comms system. However, the response the ship's primary AI gives may be.. less than promising to Talia, or any of the others listening in. There's a high pitched buzzing sound for a few moments, before a raspy, obviously artificial voice replies. "Enceladus Port Authority Authorization not detected. Hostile oink intent assumed. Attempting to board without proper authority will be met with oink sublethal force and cortical stack will be retained for arrest." This is follow by a loud, robotic snort, and then the message repeats once. Including the snort.

    Adrienne is rubbing at the back of her neck as she overhears that over her own communications implants, for some reason.

    However, both Talia and Juno on approach can easily tell that the freighter has no external weapons at all, and won't be a threat to any other ship barring suddenly attempting a ramming manuever. The cargo ship has several airlocks that make for obvious possible points of entry, with enough force or with skill to bypass the computer locks.

    "I'll trust in all of you to secure entry. If you do want to scout first, that is completely fine. The ship should have five security droids." Adrienne will broadcast, using her implant. "Try not to do too much damage to the rest of the ship if you can avoid it, of course. If we can secure the computer core, I should be able to perform a hard reset and fix whatever this glitch is, and then we can take the cargo that would otherwise expire before the ship gets to its proper destination."

    "Juno." Talia says over comm, with a crooked smile beneath her helmet. "I see you brought friends too."

    She'll take Adrienne's hand as they float towards the vessel, and Talia uses the Force to 'push' them closer to it. THe AI is...more than a little suspicious to Talia as she quirks an eyebrow at Adrienne. "Did the job offer mention anything about pig people? Like...gamoreans?" Pause. "I don't even know if those oink. Hmm."

    Taking out her lightsaber, Talia cuts a hole into the airlock's hatch, big enough for the two women to enter. "I hope there's a backup hatch, otherwise we'll have opened a hole in the ship we can't patch later."

    Nort can, in fact, hook into comms with that suit. So can Scar, not that the wolverine is talkative right now. For now, just Nort heads over, to secure a hatch with the others. Over comms, "No blasters then, got it. Hand to hand and low-power lasers only. Probably a good idea on a starship anyway. It's been a long time since I was out in space."

    The armored man latches onto the ship with a little spurt from the jets on his back. They aren't meant for true flight, but here in space they work just fine. A few moments later, the wolverine is actually heaving out into space as well, to cling to the outside of the ship. For now, he's going to use the hatch Talia cut open. "Scar, see if you can find a cargo hatch to get in through." Surely there's something.

  <Kyras.> Juno's voice is staticky over the comm. The equipment sounds as old and tired as the general using it. <Watch yourself in there. I've got a bad feeling.>

  In the cockpit, Juno frowns, leaning forward and cracking her knuckles with slow deliberation. The light of the pilot's console casts a sickly blue glow over her haggard features; picks out the silver hairs in sharp, contrasting relief.

  "Time to get to work," she murmurs to herself, flexing her fingers and grinning sourly. Just like old times.

  <Watch yourself out there,> she advises Nort and Scar, reaching forward to key in a few commands on the console. <I'll see if I can slice into any of the security cameras. If I can get into this system, I'll be able to direct the lot of you.>

  She's silent for a few moments after that, fingers flying over the controls as she attempts to slip into the unfamiliar system as surreptitiously as she can. Quiet and stealthy she may be, and subtle in her interactions with the freighter's camera systems, but she's also surgically precise and elegant in her slicing. Neither is she above ruthlessness in her determination to get in -- she'll target and sabotage parts of the system if she has to.

  ...Greater Good, yadda yadda yadda...

    "It's an AI; they get a little weird if they're in service too long. It also landed half a solar system away from where it was supposed to." Adrienne will point out. The environmental suits will remain completely necessary, as the ship had been under relatively low pressure even before Talia ripped a hole through the airlock. Adrienne will make a noise somewhere between a gasp and a squeal of excitement, and then over comms, with much enthusiasm: "Ooooh where did you get a metal cutter with that much efficiency behind it? I could do so much work with something like that. I bet you could even use it as a weapon in a pinch!" 

    This might be a little bit of a distraction from a more immediate problem that might be that 'pinch', as while Nort is going to not use blasters, the security droid entering the breeched section that Talia, Nort and their escort-ee are in will have no such compulsion. Adrienne will cower behind Talia as it opens fire at the group, aiming for Talia in particular since she caused the breech.

    Scar will have several other options for cargo ports; every side of the ship has at least one, for maximum efficiency in loading and unloading. With a quick consultation with Juno, it's even apparent that the one on the opposite side from where the group at large is will be the easiest, since the other security droids are rapidly converging on that airlock.

    Everyone will get another broadcast from the ship. "Pirates who have oink taken over Enceladus Port and are attacking this ship, be aware that continued resistance will be met with death and up to fifty years in a medium security prison facility. Surrender to local rightful authorities or be oinked."

    Talia chuckles. "It's...actually more than that. You'll see, I imagine." She says as she stows her lightsaber, turning it off. She peers from cover as a droid opens fire upon them. "Damn, stay down." She tells Adrienne, before her lightsaber comes back out.

    She blocks the energy bolts, already feeling quite at home. "Blasters, so typical." She murmurs softly as she advances to attack the droid.

    The Jedi moves with nimble grace as she runs across the wall, wuxia style, before she severs the droid's weapon arm before splitting it in half and finishing it off by aiming for what she assumes is the droid's braincase...which seems to be in the head if her guess is right!

    "I'm sensing there's more to this than we thought. We'd better get going, before they throw more of these oinking machines at us."

    "Hmm..." Nort parks himself nearby while Talia is handling the robot. This makes him a little annoyed. But... he sends his senses out, scanning the area for more security bots. Robot detection IS one of his powers, though melee weapons are not so much a thing for him.

    Scar will work on prying open that cargo hatch while Nort relays positions. "I'll see what I can find on the robots. If we can get to where the crew was, I may be able to figure out what happened here." He can fight, sure... but he'd rather make himself useful in other ways. He's never liked combat, and the others seem just as content as Scar would be in trashing the defenders.

  It takes only seconds to subvert the system. Once she's in, Juno reaches out to flick a few toggles and key a few commands, bringing up security camera feeds on the co-pilot's console. With one scrolling through data readouts and the other tracking the party, Juno looks to be in her element. This is a place that's comfortable and familiar to her. It's almost enough to even forget her grief and her rage.

  "Hmm." She narrows her eyes, keying in a quick series of commands and side-eyeing the camera feeds one by one. After a few seconds' reveiw, she's quick to direct the party to the least troublesome airlock. With her command of the system, she has a bird's-eye view of the freighter, or as close to it as she can get.

  Fingers tap distractedly against the edge of her console. Juno tilts her head, lips thinning as she reviews data absently.

  <...Does anybody know why the bloody hell the AI sounds like a Gamorean? Is all that bizarre grunting supposed to be normal?>

    Circe is going to just.. stay low. Though, since the Jedi is charging forward, she's going to move over to hide behind Nort, which may or may not be something he's okay with. He can certainly sense the remaining four droids approaching, in any case, and two of them are going to be in sight of Talia now. Whether or not there's any sort of actual brain in the droid, removing the head and cutting the weapon arm off certainly leaves it immobile!

    "The crew is the AI; there weren't any people on board. Well, not.. exactly people, anyways, not yet." She'll hedge, giving another glance Talia's way. "..She's very enthusiastic, isn't she?"

    Scar's less violent entry isn't unnoticed by the security system, but the droids are all busy responding to the very well-armed pirates. There's plenty of choices for where to go from there, though perhaps the most obvious would be flanking the droids if Scar wants combat or heading for the computer core if they'd rather avoid it.

    Speaking of, Juno will, on the edge of one of the cameras, catch a glimpse of the computer core Adrienne had mentioned. It's a thrumming system, including a small holographic monitor, above where there is currently the image of a cute, cartoonish dancing pig as the prior message about death and prison is repeated, with the addendum of 'An additional 10 years will be added on for every destroyed defensive oink system'. Once the message ends, the pig blinks out of existence once again.

    Nort, despite his comments that he's just a zoologist, doesn't mind Adrienne hiding behind him. He is, in fact, well over six feet tall, not exactly a scrawny guy. "Be careful, I may decide to turn on a defensive screen," he remarks wrily. He doesn't do it though, and instead just activates the force field. Not quite what people may think, it just sort of blunts impacts and energy, not fully eliminates them unless they're very weak. "I'm not sure I'd be able to pick much up from an AI, I've never tried," he admits.

    Scar, meanwhile, is latching onto the hull finally, and trumdles along. He does, in fact, go right for the robotic defenders, moving to not just flank, but the moment he lays eyes on them he... lazes eyes on them. With eye lasers. The duo REALLY hates droids.

    Talia tilts her head. "Automated ship, huh? I figured the crew was mostly dead save for any machines." She flourishes with her lightsaber as two more come their path. She blocks laser bolts deftly, focusing on the robotic twosome as she goes for the legs of one, letting it fall to the ground as she spears its head. Then, with grace and an air of detachment, Talia aims for the waist of the second robot, stabbing before cutting upwards to bifurcate the security droid.

  Juno is about to comment, but before she has the chance, Circe says something that rips through her focus. One can almost imagine the record-scratch sound effect.

  <Oh?> The old general's tone is soft and very, very focused. <What exactly is 'not exactly people, not yet' supposed to mean...?>

  There is a slight undercurrent of rising suspicion and irritation; Talia may well feel it all the way from the Rogue Shadow. Juno's hackles are officially up.

  <What aren't you telling us, Miss Salvador?> Juno's voice is soft and razor-focused. Uh oh. The cranky old lady's onto something. Bleary, bloodshot eyes track over to the co-pilot's monitoring station, skimming over the displays--

  Very slowly, Juno frowns. She stares somewhat blankly at the cartoonish dancing pig, narrowing her eyes as it winks out of sight.

  <...Well, that was interesting,> she mutters into her headset, but her tone sounds like she's mostly muttering to herself. <There's something very strange about this system.>

  Half a glance is spared to the robotic slaughter. Even Juno has to lift a brow at Nort and Scar's action.

  <You two really don't like droids, do you...? Remind me never to get on your bad side.>

    The droids are not resistant to laser eyes, it appears, any more than they are to laser swords. Between Nort and Talia, the remaining droids are quickly dispatched, leaving the computer's AI screaming at the intruders in protest but not really to any effect; the pig will blink in and out of existence as that happens.

    "Hmm? Oh, I'm pretty sure I told you this ship was sending biomedical supplies, right? It's mostly the materials needed for the manufacture of clones." 'Adrianne' will answer, over comms. "Some of that is quite valuable, and it will spoil before this ship gets to the proper destination with this little side trip. There's a couple of pieces of equipment I need to recover in particular, but they aren't very large. That's all the defenses, yes? I can point you all at the right cargo for you to take, and then we can reset the computer AI and be on our way, okay?"

    The piggy computer, meanwhile, seems to have realized that traditional threats and defenses have failed and is falling back on an emergency option of begging over comms. "Please, oink beg of you, think of the damage the loss of this ship could cause to the company's profit margin for the quarter. It could be as much as zero oink zero zero four percent! Can you truly live with yourselves after committing such a heinous oink?"

    Turning her lightsaber off, Talia nudges a robot's smoking remains as they continue on. "Cloning technology is very expensive. Only the Kaminoans regularly manage to do it, and they tend to charge high prices for it." She comments. "So I wonder what kind of technology so valuable gets this kind of bizarre security. I doubt the AI started off oinking and snorting like a drunk gamorean." The Jedi muses, looking for any signs to guide her towards the cargo bay. "Forgive me, I'm just thinking out loud." Talia says, very pointedly at Adrienne for a moment.

    Nort notes, "I'm not particularly good with computers, and I'd prefer if we just shut down the AI or put in a killswitch. Nothing good can come of AI like this." He's grumbling though, which seems to be reflecting Scar's mood, as the titanic wolverine has taken to er... chewing on one of the dismembered robots with a low growling rumble.

    Still, Nort picks up a little from the comment on biomedical. "I see. Cloning technology. Not something my world has available any more. I know a little bit about that, though it was always my coworker's specialty. I'll make sure that gets transported safely at least. I know a bit about how to move that kind of cargo. SCAR! Biomedical supplies, help them move them!"

    He turns and says, "On second thought, Scar is much better for this, and he knows just as well how to handle delicate equipment."

  The old general is very quiet as the finer points of cloning are discussed over the open frequency. While she's glaring at her pilot's console as she listens, nobody else can see that, and she slowly moves her jaw side to side as she considers.

  <Raw materials.> Fingers drum against the console's edge again. <All right. Take what you need. We'll load up whatever we can sell for a profit.> Juno snorts on the heels of Talia's pointed observation. <I have to wonder the same.>

  She eyes the piggy AI as it begs and pleads from the corner of a camera feed, considering for a moment while staring at it blankly. Seriously, who sets up an AI like that? Really? Was this somebody's idea of an unprofessional joke, or has somebody else already compromised this system? If so, then who? Something caused the freighter's navigational systems to fail. Juno's mouth twists to one side in thought.

  Can you truly live with yourselves after committing such a heinous oink?

  Juno thinks about this for seco--

  <Yes.>

    The cargo is mostly in self-refrigerated vats, or in cases of computer chips. Adrienne finds one particular crate near the vats that contains what appears to be finely made tools of some sort, taking one of those and finding a way to store it within the spacesuit, then asking. "Can you make sure this one gets loaded? It's most of what I need."

    The vats are heavy, but they're valuable, and it'll be a reasonably lucerative haul. Even though it's now becoming kind of obvious that this was less a 'recovery' mission and maybe more in the way of 'active piracy against a probably-evil company'.

    Adrianne will kneel down next to the computer core, pressing her hands against it through the suit. Her red eyes glow very briefly with the inner light, from one of her computer interface implants, and then... The pig shuts up. And flickers back out of existance, before being replaced with the image of a man clearly modeled after the default player character in an MMORPG, somehow having an appearance so generic that it loops around to uncanny.

    "There we go!" 'Adrienne' will say, as the computer speaks again in a much calmer voice. "..Reinitializing navigation system." Calmly goes out over comms.

    Juno, however, still sliced into the systems of the freighter, will get a rather interesting log message.

    PIGGIE anti-navigation system disengaged, authorization CIRCE-00001.

    "We'll never really know what caused it to glitch." Circe will say, idly, to Talia. "Like I said. AIs can get weird if they're left in service too long, and this is just one of hundreds of ships they have."

    Never really know. Right. Nort's former best friend might have been able to pick something up, but Nort and Scar, despite being QUITE familiar with high technology, are really just users of it, and really ARE just zoologists! Well, 'mostly' just zoologists.

    Scar rumbles, and for the first time, he speaks, "Careful, just ease it up onto the saddle and I'll do the rest. You can tip it on its side, but don't slosh it around too much." He says this as if it were perfectly normal for a giant cyborg wolverine to give 'handle with care' instructions, and helpfully carries the tank over to the ship.

    Talia will let the towering wolverine anthromorph handle the heavy lifting, as she looks around for a hoversled of some kind. "What a mystery this was. I imagine we'll need to mark the site for a scrapping crew later." She says, then gets to moving the cargo, or at least helping with carrying cargo. She radios ND to park the ship over towards the airlock to dock, for Scar to leave the big tank.

    Circe will make a humming noise at that. "Well, we can. The ship will probably try to take off once we leave, though. I guess we'll find out whether it's still spaceworthy with a hole in the side, huh? But there's not really anything to be done about it but to save as much cargo as we can."

    She'll help direct the cargo selecting to prioritize the more valuable bits, but unlike her earlier sandbagging she genuinely isn't holding back in not being very helpful in moving great quantities of cargo, being on the small side and only slightly stronger than a peak human her size. "It's been a pleasure working with you all, though. Would you like to be contacted about future job opportunities?" Circe will ask, when, at the last the cargo is done and the trip back has been taken.

    "We'll be in touch," Nort replies while Scar loads. "I have my own problems to take care of, but this has been... informative."

    "Mm. I'll consider it." Talia answers and nods. "I suppose I DO need to carry you off this ship, Adrienne." She answers, before guiding her along to the docking bay where the Legacy is connnected.