World Tree MUSH

    What's going on with New Constantinople?

    The same team(roughly) has been coming by now and then, offworlders hired by the Conglomerate Megacorps looking into possibly expanding development here. The problem is it is now looking like the Vine is not going to be stable forever... so any chance of a 'quick trip' to colonize is unlikely. Nevertheless, scuttlebutt is that the corps are thinking of sending in a fire team to just burn the swamp out and set up a long-range station, eventually building it up to another colony of their own.

    The thing is, they actually can't do that unless the current inhabitants leave, or most of them do. And right now... said inhabitants are considering it. At least a good chunk of them are all packed up and ready to go. The first five came through earlier today, but the rest?

    One last checkup on the threat level of this 'Lyra' is on the schedule today, but those arriving by Vine will now see that there's a large cluster of people nearby, with one on a box lecturing the others. He appears to be pointing out that they left the occupied space to be free, and going back will be admitting defeat, so on and so forth. Point is, they're trying to figure out if they should go somewhere else, or try to dig in here.

    Might as well make use of the convenience before it vanishes! And that is the logic behind Valerian emerging from the Vine and stretching a bit. Strapped across his back is his usual equipment: A wrapped-up Juicer Chainsaw and a backpack to hold some limited supplies. 

    He's dressed in combat fatigues and smoking something resembling a cigarette as he looks around. The crowd of people is the most visually interesting thing, so he wanders over that way to listen to the man and see if he can make a convincing argument about why people should stay.

 
 Is it Kombat time yet!? 
 
 Cyber Frost had been pushing for attacking this Lyra individual ever since she sort of butt herself into this particular mission. She wasn't doing it for the goodness of her heart either, it was clear that Frost's main priority was to fight and not so much help any refugees. Still- peace through superior firepower and all, as long as she focused on taking down whoever was making people's lives miserable she was the lesser evil in all this, at least that was her reasoning. 
 
 "Come on.. let me at her!" Frost clenched her fist, icy blue eyes burning with hatred. "I have your reason to stay right here; just take down Lyra! I will lead the assault myself if I have to! You won't even have to do a thing." Which might sound like she is being selfless but in reality Frost was only looking to hog all the glory for herself. 

    Once again, the CEFS Sanctuary appears in orbit over this hotly contested planet in another universe. The ship establishes communications with the ground, and teleports an Ur-Doll to the surface. This soon activates, and the sleek white-armoured frame of the XE-MI click-chitters before shifting to a bipedal posture. It emits a robotic voice. "Primus nodes, Online. Sensor systems, online. Fabrication units, Online. All systems nominal." it bweeeblips, then steps towards the other off-worlders gathering together. "Mister Railton, Miss Frost... good day." she remarks, clacking the claws that substitute for hands on this frame, the optic ball 'head' sweeping back and forth between the two.

    That's about when the Hunter emerges from the Vine. Samus arrives clad in her sleek purple and red power armor and surveys the scene before her with half-lidded eyes through her suit's glowing visor.
    Frost gets a silent look when the cyber-ninja volunteers to do epic battle with the beast of the swamp. Samus does not voice agreement here.
    "Getting rid of her won't make this place any less dangerous for them, you know." The bounty hunter points out. "She's just one of several threats." Especially when there are things like the feeders are still around, and who knows what other things could be on this planet.
    They probably knew it wouldn't be easy from the start, Samus muses silently to herself as she folds her arms across her chest to also listen to what the man on the box has to say, for the moment, with Valerian.
    Samus bristles under her armor at that chittering. It's a good thing ehr visor hides her face, because the Hunter's expression under her helmet is not a fond one at Justina's choice in Doll for the outing.

    Listening to the man seems pretty straightforward. "This is our new home! We knew it wouldn't be easy!" Mirroring what Samus is thinking, but in an empassioned plea.

    It's near the end though, and one of the crowd steps forward. "Look. Lyra's in the swamp, most of the rest of the planet will take years to make habitable, and the feeders are underground. If we could just solve one of these problems, maybe it'd be okay. But right now? There's just too much. We can't even fly because of those... things that shoot us down!"

    The leader sighs. "Yes, well... maybe we can figure out a way to handle the feeders. Or-" He pauses seeing newcomers. "Or maybe our friends over here know of a better place to colonize!" That may not be the request expected, or maybe he just isn't bold enough to ask some hard-bitten mercenaries(as he thinks of them) to exterminate either threat.

 
 "Hey, what's up?" Cyber Frost greeted the curious looking robot first before she heard Justina's voice, then she glanced over to Samus and raised her eyebrows at her disapproval. "Bah.." The cyber ninja huffed, thinking for sure that if anyone had her back on this it would be Samus, but it appeared she was mistaken. 
 
 "It would be a start." She tried to defend her case albeit half-heartedly, Frost was no public speaker, she solved problems with overwhelming violence and when she couldn't solve them that way she was more akin to a kid throwing a hissy fit. Buuut she wanted to epic fight the boss, you guys!! And so on so forth. 
 
 "Huh??" What could be seen of Frost's face due to her face mask twisted when the man came over to seemingly ask them if there was a better place they could colonize. "I dunno jack squat about colonization. I'm offering to kill Lyra for ya, that's all I got." 

    "You know..." Valerian takes out his phone real quick and starts browsing something. Eventually, he holds his phone out to the man on to the leader, "They sell these online to keep moles out of your yard. Why don't you just get a bunch of these, but more powerful, and drive off the feeders?" 

    On the phone screen are... ultrasonic rodent spikes. The ones you put in a back yard to emit a pulse and keep gophers and stuff away, "Seems like if you put a bunch of these around where you wanted to build, those things might get driven off?" 

    "I could also go help convince Lyra to move. Or kill her. Either one."

    The Feeders... those things are going to be trouble to deal with.

    But, just maybe they could kill two birds with one stone. "Mister Railton, Miss Frost, Captain Aran, a moment if you please." the Doll turns, gouging a few furrows under the lower set of claws, as she walks away from the group. If the others join her, out of earshot of the locals, the half-elf begins to lay out her idea. "We could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak; if we could lure the Feeders out of the mountain, into the swamp we could have them deal with Lyra, and then while the swarm is distracted, assault the source and have both problems dealt with. Even if the Feeders don't win, it could leave Lyra weak enough for us to finish off."

    "Violence doesn't solve every problem." Samus notes. "I can admit it solves a lot of them. But not all of them. It would be a start, but this planet reminds me of my old homeworld, where the entire ecosystem was practically out to get you."
    That would be Zebes.
    "You eliminate one threat, another comes crawling out of the mud to come after you."
    But it looks like the general concensus is to go deal with Lyra in some form though and the Hunter's helmet dips in a nod.
    "Alright. So we do go deal with Lyra." She relents, but then holds up her left hand. "But I have an option." She offers upon the table as her gauntlet displays a hologram of a star chart. The text is all in Chozo hieroglyphs, but it's still a star chart and it zooms in to focus on a particularly green planet.
    "It's called Lli Ferun Nalima. 'The Altar Planet'." She says. "It's an old Chozo colony world that has been long since abandoned. There's still one thing for me to handle there but it shouldn't be a problem as long as people stay away from the ruins."

    Huh. The crowd quiets down, some of them having not seen the strangers yet, so there's a wary curiosity there. The leader is one that has been spoken to before, and he hops down to give a little more detail. "Yeah, but Lyra isn't native to here... I think. They're right though. If we can just get rid of her or something it'd be fine."

    The holographic map gets a long look, and then a nod. "I see. We'll discuss that... though it'd be even further away from our own civilization so we'd prefer to stay here if possible. I'll tell the rest about this just in case we can't stay here."

    That does leave the question of how to handle Lyra though. Fortunately there's also some advice for Justine's plan. "You'd have to lure Lyra to the feeders, not the other way around. They don't go above ground, at least not in large numbers. Underground, though, they seem attracted to power sources. Our xenologists think they use the energy in their breeding or something."

 
 Huh, Cyber Frost had no idea Samus could be this soft hearted, apparently she had read her entirely wrong. The cyber ninja even leaned a little closer whilst rubbing her chin, as if about to ask 'who are you and what have you done with the real Samus?'. However, Frost realized she just assumed Samus would be as bloodthirsty as she was because she looked like a badass space marine and didn't actually know the bounty hunter personally, so she relented. 
 
 "A lot of problems solved is usually good enough." The kunoichi insisted. For her part, violence was the -only- option for Frost, even the most kind hearted participant of the Mortal Kombat was at their core a ruthless killer, Frost killed as easy as she breathed. 
 
 She glanced towards Justina's direction, or her robot thing, and listened to her plan. "Hm..." Frost looked deep in though as if she was considering all the pros and cons, but what she wasn't saying was that she was under the impression that Lyra could control the feeders- she never did bother reading too much into it. "That seems doable." Decided the Kunoichi. "I dunno, you sound smart." She said of Justina. "If you think it'll work I'm willing to give it a shot." Or adjust to it accordingly since now apparently they would have to lure Lyra to the feeders and not the other way around. 

    So Valerian's idea has the man hmning, but someone else steps forward. "We tried normal deterrants like that, couldn't find anything that worked. We're still working on it." She sighs, rubbing her temples. "I'm sure we will eventually... but we need a solution NOW don't we? Or at the very least, something that will last six to eight months, long enough for us to put together a more permanent solution."

    Valerian takes a long drag from the stimstick in his mouth and then exhales some as he replies to Samus, "Violence isn't the only answer, but there are certain people like me who can only really solve problems with violence. I didn't become a dragon-powered supermonster to solve problems with my engineering skills." He says to the armored woman as he drops the stick underfoot and then snuffs it out. 

    "I'm down to follow whatever plan you all come up with." He says pretty simply, putting his hands in his pockets and letting out a slight yawn, "What if we can lure the feeders over here? Run a cable underground to her ship from the den. Then flick on her power and light the cable all up at once like a trail of bait to get them over here?" He thumbs a finger over to Samus to indicate he is referring to the Samus ship, rather than someone else.

    "Adapt the plan, do we know anything that could lure Lyra away from the swamp... anything she might desire beyond anything else to the point of abandoning reason and caution?" asks the Doll-clad Elf-soul. She looks at Valerian briefly, then to Frost. "I am a trained combat mage, Captain of a Centrian Expeditionary Fleet Ship and creator of the Ur-Doll system. I would hope I am smart." she snarks briefly, before turning to Samus. "We do still need to delve into those ruins, or memory serves." she remarks. "I would not suggest violence if I saw any hope for peaceful solution. Every encounter I have attended with Lyra has ended in combat and aggression."

    "It's an option." Samus nots in reference to her star charts. "But I understand." She knows full well that sometimes the best suited individuals to a situation can be people like Valerian or Frost. ... Or even herself when it comes down to it. Though Old Bird and Grey Voice did their best to instill her with a level head and taught her the difference between being gentle and being 'soft', at the end of the day, she is still the Hunter. She is not bloodthirsty, but she's not quite soft, either.
    Glancing back to the sleek purple figure of her ship at the entrance to the Vine, she nods at Valerian's suggestion. "Might work." She admits. "I'm in."

    "Can you dig a tunnel that quickly?" The man asks, curiously. That's the only downside he can see... getting the cable run before people have to bail. "I heard the corps were thinking about trying to come down soon. If we're all here they can't do anything but a fire team might want to put a stop to all that."

    Someone else chimes in, "You CAN talk to Lyra! I wandered too far once, and she let me go once I explained I was lost. I thought she was going to kill me but she didn't seem to care once she realized I was trying to leave."

 
 Cyber Frost chuckled as Justina assured them all of her intelligence. Frost liked smart people like Justina, she came up with the strategy and she allowed people like her to execute them. It sounded more than fair to the cyber ninja-just as long as she got the lion's share of the praise of course. In the end, what really mattered was that they all agreed to attack Lyra, so it seemed that at the minimum she was going to get her desired Kombat. 
 
 "That's true." She snapped her finger as someone in the crowd suggested simply talking to her, but Frost had something else to add to that. "That fool Lyra has an ego. I bet we can just straight up taunt her into following us to the lair of the feeders. Hell, I bet I could cuss her out enough to follow me.." Then she glanced at Valerian. "Or maybe him." She said with narrowed devious eyes. "I bet he could really get under her skin.. he did rip her head off once after all." 

    Justina goes quiet, the Doll shifting into a stiff-looking 'idle mode' as the Elf within contemplates things. She's still present and will respond if addressed, but largely doesn't have anything more to really add for the time being.

    "I mean. If I were going to really piss it off, I'd just walk up to the edge of the shore and scream I was Heracles and here to challenge it to a fight," Valerian says as he sighs a bit and runs a hand through his hair, "That'd probably get them out here really quick to deal with me."

    Samus, having no idea about ancient Greek mythology, has no idea what Valerian is talking about.
    "I might have an idea for digging." She considers.
    "Or we can talk to her. If that doesn't work then we can shoot her and the feeders."