Mass Effect: The Heralds of Civilization [IC]

[Hazuki]

When Kanri gets to the door to Manos' den, the button to open it flickers with the message "Busy".

[Ramsus]

"Awwwwwwwwwww." Kanri says aloud to herself. She looks around as if that will present her something to do and eventually decides on just finding the best viewport and enjoying some staring at space for a bit.

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch as she receives Roscius' history. She gives it a cursory glance before uploading it to her omni-tool so she could read it more privately later. Setting it to one side, she focused on the more mundane tasks of managing ship to Citadel communication for the Sparrow as a whole.

[Hazuki]

Vatia's next message comes from her contacts in the Turian Hierarchy, presented without personality hrough a secure connection. The rest of the ship's communications, of which there are a lot, seem perfectly safe at the moment.

Her information on Amygdala Affiliated proves to do little more than confirm what she knows. They were a splinter company of Conatix Industries, created by a young scientist by the name of Evie Sterling, who caught the eye of many rich people. Amygdala Affiliated purchased a small, half-built station in the Arcturus System from which to conduct their business, which provided them with ample access to important figures heading to Arcturus Station or through to Earth itself.

They paid for rights to old, disused research by other, alien companies into biotics, and through that, made connections that allowed them to purchase a few old colony rights. They weren't making much headway on their own research, despite Evie Sterling's promising beginnings, but did begin a colonization effort on Mytal. As far as the records show, the materials and prefrab units they purchased for the colony were brought through ordinary channels.

Considering the rumors about Conatix's own actions in the past, and Mytal's low eezo scans, the Hierarchy did some small investigations into the colony. But, there were no significant purchases of eezo, or connections with The Alliance, that warranted enough concern to investigate further. Amygdala Affiliated went bankrupt as Evie Sterling's investors lost interest in her supposed brilliance, as her research had yielded no profitable results, and its employees went on to other private companies, or else The Alliance's Ascension Project.

Evie Sterling, once free of bankruptcy, went on as a consulting scientist for various companies that she had befriended while heading Amygdala Affiliated. None of their research, if they did any, has ever been sold.

[Comissar]

Vatia opens the message about the Amygdala Building with some curiosity. Her mandibles twitch as she scans through the report, a frown forming at the explicit mention of low Eezo deposits on Mytal and Amygdala's focus on Biotic research. She frowned, tapping her finger on the desk in front of her. It sounded an awful lot like Evie had set the colony up as her own test grounds, but the Eezo must have been an under the table purchase to enable the unusually rich deposits in the area.

After a few moments consideration, she sent a response back to the Hierarchy.

Vatia's going to note that there's an unusual quantity of Eezo under the colony that's adversely affecting the health of the population. Given Amygdala's research priorities, she's requesting a run down of any known blackmarket Eezo deals of significant size prior to the set up of the colony. Not necessarily deals by Amygdala themselves, just sales of large size, prioritising those near the Mytal system.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

As Kanri reconnects to the extranet, and hence the programs that connect to her extranet accounts, her omni-tool flares to life. The first of her messages is a newsletter, from one of the contacts (J.O.Y) that got her a handful of shady jobs once the merc deal went bad. It usually contains a few odd jobs that her contacts can contact her about.

Fraud

---

Burglary

---

Muscle

---

Companionship

---

Misc

---

Kanri notes that it's very unusual for the newsletter to be completely blank. J.O.Y. would normally leave some kind of comment if she had nothing in a section, but to have no jobs at all and no comments is particularly strange.

The second is a name she vaguely recognizes from her days before the merc gang, Rograde, a technically-inclined Batarian with a penchant for information-gathering.

If you're getting this message, I may be dead. You read the title, right? I don't expect none of you to come to my funeral (We Batarians eat our dead. Did you know that?), but I thought you might like to know. I hope it was a good death, not getting my face stuck in a shuttle door or some ****. And I hope the rest of you have gone somewhere better with your lives. One of us has to deserve it.

-Rograde

Also, I've buried a million credits behind the pink tree on the Presidium. Good luck.

The final set of updates are from her casual piracy programs, listing shows, movies, and games it has collected.

The Cyborgs of Kahje
Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy
The Eezo Way Out
The Spectre's Creed
Vaenia
Sands of Memory
Trials of a Warlord
Serial Flexo
Prothean Infiltrators
Hot Hot Blue Babes In The Totally Nude Nude: The Trouble With Tentacles 4 - This Time It's Tentacle


And then a quick message pops up, from one of the crew.

You know that we can see what goes through our connection, right? I'll just block your programs for now, but if it happens again, I'll report it. You're lucky the Turian didn't catch this!

Good taste, though.

~Tiri

~

Vatia

The next message Vatia receives is from Octarine, regarding the armor worn by Super Dragon and his companions.

They're from a junk sale about a year ago here on The Citadel, Zakera Ward. Old Turian merchant, Denarius Inculta, was selling all his stock so he could retire to Digeris. A bunch of junk armor and weapons, which match the ones in the footage, were purchased by a Turian called Misophis Halate.

[Included is a list of the exact models exchanged in the transaction.]

~Octarine

[Comissar]

Vatia makes a quick note of the Turian buyer's name as well as the merchant who sold the armour before sending off a thanks to Octarine. She frowned to herself, contemplating which route to take next. C-Sec seemed like the likely best next step. Drafting a message to the C-Sec chief of Zakera ward, she spent a few minutes wording and re-wording before sending off her request.

Going to be asking whoever's in charge of Zakera ward currently if they hold footage of the merchant area and, if they do, if they'd be able to provide footage of the transaction Octarine mentioned. Failing that, Vatia will ask if they have a file on Misophis they could provide her. She's asking in her capacity as an agent.

[Ramsus]

Kanri looking over her messages winds up saying "Huh." to herself a lot. She disables (not deletes) her piracy programs and makes a mental note she needs to go talk to more people on the ship since it seems like she gets a message at least once a day from someone she doesn't even know exists.

She sends a message to J.O.Y asking what's up with the blanks.


Rograde, don't be dead. You were the only tolerable Batarian... yeah.

-Kanri


There is a very raised eyebrow at "Vaenia". She smiles at seeing The Cyborgs of Kahje since season 1 was ~amazing~ and she has no doubts this season won't be just as good.


Whoops! Sorry they were just on auto, didn't even think about it. But also bah, lame!

Why is it good 'the Turian' didn't catch it? Is she super judgy or something?

~Kanri


Once her messages are done she can no longer hold her curiosity back and loads up Vaenia to see what it is.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

Vatia gets to deal with the usual shuffling of feet and tedium of dealing with bureaucracy, especially when it comes to C-Sec and doubly so when it's across bodies of law. But, eventually she gets the information that she's asking for.

She finds that C-Sec has no records on Misophis Halate.

The video file that she is provided comes from behind what seems to be the desk of Denarius the merchant, with obvious signs of aging on his frills. He's sitting down and is soon approached by a relatively young turian, not long out of mandatory service, with a red carapace and silvery markings around his eyes. He's wearing the usual fashion seen on Turian men in the last couple of years, and seems to share a genial conversation with Denarius before paying for the armor and weapons via omni-tool. Although Vatia has only seen Super Dragon in tiny-hologram form, and with a helmet, the Turian in the footage does seem to resemble him.

Since Nihilus was red, I've decided that red turians are just an uncommon feature among turians. Like ginger people, but with souls.

~

Kanri

I don't think she's taken her eyes off of her terminal since she sat down. I've never seen any body stare so hard at a screen without naked people on it.

~Tiri

When Kanri puts in Vaenia, she's treated to a very artsy and very naked tale about two incredibly beautiful asari lovers. From the setting and techniques used, it's obviously a fairly old movie.

[Ramsus]

I would take that prime opportunity to play a prank. But that's just me. No pressure.

Speaking of naked bodies and pranks! Do you think you could forward this Vaenia movie to everyone on the ship aside from Vaenia, the captain, and people who you know would ruin the fun?

~Kanri

[Comissar]

Vatia nods to herself as the video confirms her suspicions, though of course it did little more than show his source of gear right now. Sending a quick message to the Hierarchy requesting any known interactions between Misophis and the Amygdala Corporation, she switched over to the more mundane tasks that would be expected of a comms worker.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

I could? Yeah, I could. But, why? Vaenia put you up to it?

~Tiri

~

Vatia

Vatia soon gets a reply back from The Hierarchy, detailing no known connections between Mesophis and Amygdala.

Have I missed anything else Vatia asked about?

[Ramsus]

Huh? No... I was saying to do it as a prank on her. Or is this something she and everyone else are already aware of?

~Kanri


Kanri looks up from the omni-tool and looks at space some more, seeing if there's anything she can recognize in particular.

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch as she receives the news from the Hierarchy. She'd been hoping there'd be a nice, obvious link. Apparently not, though. Interesting that Mesophis would want to hang around such an isolated colony, though. She shook her head slightly. It'd probably take another conversation with him to get to the bottom of it, and now wasn't the time for that. She blinks, rubbing at her eyes before looking back at her screen with a less interested expression. She still had some time if something else came to her, but for now, drudge work.

Nope, you answered everything. Vatia's going to just do the mundane tasks for the time being, figuring she's got a bit of time to think of something else if she needs to.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

It's a classic! I think somebody found out about her modelling days? I'd be happy, really. Vaenia sounds so much nicer than Vol.

~Tiria

Kanri definitely recognizes the star at the center of The Tides of Folly system, Lax Morality, as well as some pieces of space debris floating in the far, far, very far distance.

~

Vatia

Vatia notices that the meeting in the conference room seems to be dying down, so particularly high attention might not be needed, and the crew are starting to have the bulk of their downloads and messages finished with. She won't have much longer with access to the extranet.

Also, a nearby comms crewman has been sending a lot of intra-ship personal messages. Those humans, so easily distracted and presumably not spies for their government.

[Ramsus]

I'm so very confused now.

~Kanri


With that, Kanri basically gives up on that whole thing and decides to try and look up what the space debris is from.

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch as she leans forward slightly, propping herself up on her terminal with her elbows as she glanced idly around the deck. She was curious to know how the meeting had gone, but she'd have to wait to ask. A faint frown crosses her face as she notices the high traffic going through her colleague's comms terminal. Odd that they'd be sending a lot of messages within the ship when they had access to the extranet for the first time in a while. First taking a moment to try and make sure her observations would go unnoticed, she brought up the message log to see who they'd been talking to.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

So...you wanna get a drink sometime?

~Tiria

Vatia

Vatia sees all of Tiria's correspondence with Kanri.

[Ramsus]

After this conversation I sure could use one! =P

~Kanri

PS: In case you're reading this Vatia, don't get up too quickly. ;)

[Comissar]

Vatia raises an eyebrow at the correspondence, mandibles twitching in amusement at the frivolity of it at parts. Content that neither party was a likely security risk, she contented herself with making a copy of the shadier looking addresses that contacted Kanri before dismissing the conversation thread. Out of curiosity, she quickly scanned through the rest of the outgoing communications, looking for anything that might be particularly damning.

Vatia's not interested in anything minor, just anything along the lines of 'Bombs are in place, time to blow it' :smalltongue:

When you're monitoring a merc. organisation, even a legitimate one, you expect some shadiness.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

Kanri receives no further messages from Tiria, or even Vatia. She's left with the stars.

~

Vatia

Vatia finds nothing very damning in her brief scans. There are a few large files from Abanda's account, but it seems like they're just non-damning pictures and recordings set to upload when the extranet is connected to. Everything else is the normal chatter she might expect.

[Ramsus]

Kanri loads up Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy, a game that can be played in short burst where your goal is a combination of finding then chasing your love target, Guy (who will be a random sapient species). It's like a cross between the detective parts of an Arkham game, racing, fighting like in Arkham/Assassin's Creed with with moving around on buildings to go with it, and a bullet hell (though this combos with the fighting to some degree as it involves a lot of dodging and shoving people). Depending on the difficulty you'll go through more segments, which get more and more absurd. In the final level on max difficulty you're fighting off Specters, Asari Matriarchs, giant robots, all sorts of geth, the occasional starship of varying size, and space-thresher maws in addition to a slew of enemy types from earlier in the game while "running" through a ongoing high action space battle as you run and jump and briefly pilot from ships that are being destroyed/are about to/are already wrecked.

[Comissar]

Mandibles twitching as she considers what to do with the short time of extranet access remaining to her, Vatia decides to download a few e-books for herself, focusing on swords and sorcery fantasy stories. A friend of hers had once tried to get her into crime thrillers, but she found the inaccuracies to be glaring enough that she could never properly immerse herself in them.

[Hazuki]

As is wont to happen, times goes on, and eventually it's time for the Sparrow to depart the loving arms of the extranet and return to Angel Valley. The people gathered in the comms room make their way out, with Captain Hrux heading to his Captain's chair and Yomim waddling down the stairs to his quarters. Vatia is treated to the sight of Deadangle slinking down the stairs, soon followed by Vaenia.

Kanri's omni-tool beeps to the tune of "Hey work now go get to it slugger".

[Ramsus]

Kanri exits the game and goes over to the lab, though she doesn't make any particular rush to get there.

[Comissar]

Vatia leans forward on her desk, idly watching the comms briefing break up. She finds herself wondering what the topics of discussion might have been. Bringing up her omni-tool, she tapped out a quick message to the Captain.

Mind sending me a highlights reel of the meeting? Not urgent, when you have time.

Vatia.

Sending the message off, she frowned to herself as she considered what to do next. Talking to 'Super Dragon' in person felt like the best next step. The people in the colony had already demonstrated a lack of awareness of the Amygdala building's purpose, but the fortuitous arrival of 'Super Dragon' and his mercenary band still felt off. It'd need to wait until she was no longer officially needed on the bridge, though.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

Kanri passes by a few members of the crew along her way to the lab, many of them seeming quite pleased at having had a chance to get on the Extranet again. Eventually, she finds herself standing beside Vaenia (After a round of decontamination), who has prepared a necropsy of a large, blubbery creature with a rocky pattern on its back and a pair of powerful flippers.

~

Vatia

Vatia gets a message from Hrux just before she's no longer needed on the bridge, once they get out of rnage of the comm buoy.

Yomim has secured teams to fix the comm buoys. Convinced 'em with philanthropy and the future colony.

Vaenia's got the medicine ordered, but Fairlight's paying for half of this batch. Need to find a way to pay for, or synthesize, the medicine on Mytal.

We've sent some information on the colonists to a few contacts, and Ralli's owners in Serrice Council. If we can't find a way to pay for the medicine, we're hoping for a permanent solution.

[Ramsus]

"Have a good.... meeting?" Kanri asks failing at an attempt at making an ice breaker before they get to work.

[Hazuki]

"There's no such thing." Vaenia says, as she leans back to examine the giant creature on their operating table. "This may get messy."

[Ramsus]

Kanri looks down at her suit and shrugs, then asks, "Where do you want me?"

[Comissar]

Vatia types back a quick Much appreciated, thanks for the quick response.

As her shift on the bridge wound to an end, she stretches, downloads her conversation logs to her omni-tool, then clears them from her station. Leaving her seat, she makes her way to a quiet part of the ship, idly flicking through the parts of her research related to Misophis Halate. Once she was content she had sufficient privacy, she attempted to make contact with 'Super Dragon' again.

I seem to remember Vatia having access to Super Dragon's 'number', but I might be misremembering and it was done through the Captain? If so, let me know and I'll edit accordingly.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

"Securing the carcass." Vaenia replies, as she pulls up her omni-tool. "I trust you know why it'd be unwieldy otherwise." A moment later, some arms emerge from just below the top of the examination table, which Kanri vaguely recognizes as braces for making sure the corpse won't move.

~

Vatia

It takes quite some time before Vatia's attempt to contact Super Dragon's ship bears fruit, and she's put through by a fatigued individual before Super Dragon appears in holographic form on her omni-tool. Like last time, he's wearing his armor complete with cloak.

"Good day, Vatia!" Super Dragon claps his hands together. "We really must stop meeting like this. People will start to talk." He chuckles and shakes his head. "Just a little joke, there. What can I do for your fine self today?"

[Ramsus]

Kanri tests out the braces a bit before just throwing herself into trying to use them immediately. When she's confident she won't be getting any surprises she does as Vaenia asked. "So... how bad does this thing smell not through a filter?" she asks conversationally. Sort of.

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch at Super Dragon's joke, and she tilts her head to one side. "Well, it's funny you should mention that. I was actually hoping to meet you in person, have a face to face chat. I understand you're a busy man, so I figured I'd give you the chance to set the time and date?"

[Hazuki]

Kanri

Kanri manages to get the braces into place without upsetting any small children. "Do you know the scent of a blue rose on a Spring morning?" Vaenia asks. "It smells nothing like that."

Please roll for science. Let me know if you're going to start up any conversations with Vaenia, or if you'd like me to time skip through it.

~

Vatia

"I'll have to check my schedule, but I'm certain I can manage to arrange a meeting." Super Dragon seems to reach for a terminal off-screen. "What spurred this particular urge, Vatia? You don't mind if I call you Vatia, do you? I can't imagine wanting to trade your dashing uniform for a place in our humble abode." He laughs.

[Comissar]

Vatia nods at 'Super Dragon's' agreement to a meeting, before shaking her head with a chuckle at his jibes. "Just Vatia's fine. And I'm just curious about you and your group. I suppose I could just ask you over the connection I guess." her mandibles twitched, "But talking in person just feels more... personal, don't you think?"

[Ramsus]

Kanri gives a little snort of amusement.


[roll0] + 2 Clever + 2 Stunt = 5

Probably just skip through it. Like I mean... it would make sense IC for Kanri to be making little sciency comments and questions but I wouldn't know what. So if we could just say she did those things that'd be great.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

"Indeed! One can hardly share a meal, or a sporting card game, over comms." Super Dragon bobs his head in agreement. "Where were you thinking we might hold our little rendezvous? Planetside?"

~

Kanri

Kanri proves an able student of the silicon carbide scalpel, as she and Vaenia tend to the guts of the large creature and, a few hours later, find themselves with a good deal of data. It would seem that this one, in particular, bears only the mildest traces of biotic mutations, and certainly not enough to manifest a mass effect field. They manage to get through the process with no barbs, as Kanri does her job well and has managed to get a good grasp on her new omni-tool.

"I'm going to organize the data before the next necropsy." Vaenia informs the Quarian, after they've properly disposed of the corpse and all its insides. "I wouldn't recommend eating anything in the interim."

[Ramsus]

"So what you're saying is I shouldn't leave on all this goo slathering my suit and go give the crew slimey hugs?" Kanri replies dryly.

[Comissar]

Vatia nods, "Planetside sounds good. We're on our way back there now. With the comms buoy down at the moment there's not much work for me on the ship," she tilts her head at Super Dragon, "So I think it's up to you when we meet, really. I'm sure I can fit my schedule around it."

[Hazuki]

Kanri

"It doesn't make your company much more unpleasant." Vaenia replies, without looking up from her omni-tool.

Vatia

"Why don't I meet you there?" Super Dragon suggests. "In a few hours, perhaps by the lake?"

[Ramsus]

"Ouch." Kanri replies, again dryly, as she cleans herself off.

[Comissar]

Vatia seems to consider the suggestion, checking the time on her omni-tool. "... Yes, I think I can manage that." Nodding to herself, he looks at the holographic Super Dragon, "I suppose I'll see you there."

[Hazuki]

Kanri

Vaenia nods, as she pulls up a seat beside the nearby terminal and boots up a few science-y looking programs. It seems like Kanri will have to find her own way out of the room.

~

Vatia

"If that will be all...?" If Vatia doesn't contradict him, Super Dragon claps his hands together. "Let's make it sunset. I hope you have a pleasant day, and goodbye, for now. Do send Captain Hrux my well wishes!" He syas, before closing the call.

[Ramsus]

"So..... do I need to stay in here or just go and make sure my suit is thoroughly cleaned?" Kanri asks, not looking forward to the idea of hanging out alone with Vaenia with nothing to do for hours.

[Comissar]

Vatia nods, mandibles twitching at Super Dragon's suggestion to make the meeting a sunset one. Dismissing the omni-tool, she frowned and rubbed her forehead. Having the journey back to plan how she was going to play the meeting was both a blessing and a curse. First thing first, though. Calling her omni-tool up, she sent a message to Captain Hrux.

Will be meeting up with Super Dragon when planetside, want to try and determine his role in the colony's current situation. Will be at the lake. She frowned at the message, before adding, If not back by morning with no contact, assume capture.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

"You can activate the cleansing tools in the decontamination chamber." Vaenia tells Kanri. "Then you're free to...exist."

~

Vatia

We can set up a sniper or somebody to shadow you. Then we can know that you've been captured, which is much more convenient.

[Comissar]

Vatia frowns, considering Hrux's message for several long moments.

Only if they're good. Sniper cover is good if things go wrong, but if they're spotted then things are more likely to go wrong.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya sighted down the scope Twopunch had recently fitted to her assault rifle, looking at the targets downrange. The range wasn't much more than ten yards -- even that was a lot of empty space on a frigate like the Sparrow -- but the computers and sensors could extrapolate to accurately test much longer ranges. Shandrya was simulating at near the maximum range of her assault rifle. She exhaled slowly, then squeezed off a few rounds. After a few more bursts, the asari examined her accuracy rating, and sure enough, Twopunch's tinkering had dramatically improved the weapon's long range performance. "My deviation at this range is down nearly half, Twopunch. The new scope is nice, but that shouldn't have been enough to make that dramatic a difference over the old one. Did you recalibrate the barrel or something?" she asked, turning on the safety and setting the rifle down. She was wearing her white tanktop and simple black pants as she usually did around the Sparrow, and her pistol sat dormant on her right hip.

Shandrya spent a lot of her spare time in the combination shooting range/workshop that served as Twopunch's primary residence on the Sparrow. She felt something like kinship toward the other asari; she was no krogan, but she had a gun fetish to match one, and being another asari still counted for something to Shandrya. She would frequently come down to Twopunch's workshop to reconfigure one of her weapons, really just to have an excuse to come talk. Still, today's modifications were more substantial; Shandrya had been eagerly waiting for Fairlight's most recent supply shipment specifically for parts Twopunch had ordered on her behalf. The gunsmith's work had exceeded all of her expectations, if these initial tests were any indication.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

Ver0nica's a steady choice, but I can give you some other names if you want to choose your own. Not like we've got a shortage of gunslingers.

~

Shandrya

Twopunch sits perched on a nearby crate as Shandrya goes about testing her latest modifications, her omni-tool alight on her arm with two holograms. One, a live recording of the weapon testing, and another a thoroughly-marked blueprint of the gun itself.

"Rodam variance modulator 5.19 SvE, just released, patched into the KF harmonic capacitors. Just enough to get those Wegner calculations - y'know, that human who worked with the Commandos - working with short bursts." She explains, without actually looking up at Shandrya. "First shot pulls in the others. Don't know how it'll affect maintenance."

[CozJa]

As usual when his shift's over, Jahedo decides to pay "Pill" a visit before going to the lab, or borrowing some holo-vid on human and biotic history from Ralli.

One of the advantages of being part of a high-methabolism race is that of having a lot more time in the day to do what you like, which was sadly countered by the fact of having way less days to use in a lifetime than the others.

Even if Jahedo spots a generally pleasurable mood, he sometimes feel the toll of his years; "More toward 40 than 30... I'm getting too old..." He finds himself thinking quite so often lately. One of the best way to cope with it (other than discussing the issue with the centuries old captain of the ship, not the brightest idea...), is to annoy Loren Ceren, the drell chef.
After all, she is a useful reminder of the good old times on Kahje.

"So Pills, how you're doing. " He says, observing her, or rather her environmental suit, while she is working.
"I'm still thinking at that recipe you told me last time. Are you really sure that humans like to eat those tentacled, Hanar-like* things?"

Not even Jahedo knows if he really wants to hear the answer but, after all, knowledge is knowledge, and who knows if in the future he'd have to come up with a plan to release the fury of Kahje on the citizens of Fairlight?

"Low-probability scenario" he thinks to himself, waiting for the drell to answer him.


*Octopus, yep

[Comissar]

Vatia rubbed her temple as she stared at the name Hrux had provided her.

Who spells their name with a number?

Shaking her head to herself at the thought, she messaged back If you trust them not to get caught, then that's good enough for me.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

I'll let her know to meet you when we land.

~

Jahedo

"People'll eat anything you can convince them to eat." Pills says, as she flits between a couple of workstations in her kitchen. And it is very much her kitchen, because so few of the residents want to earn her ire when she's cooking their food. "Everything else, you can mash until they can't tell what it is."

~

Lucinia & Kanri

"You should register your omni-tool in the medbay." Vaenia informs Kanri, just before she passes through decontamination. "Emergencies and authorization processes don't mix."

Meanwhile, in the medbay itself, Lucinia has just had to deal with a young human who had to be informed that medigel is for serious injuries, rather than stubbing her toe in the shuttle bay. It's just after the human has left that she spots one of the few Quarians on board the Sparrow entering the medbay - Kanri'Umoth, if she remembers her medical records correctly, and her suit seems especially shiny today. Just-got-out-of-decontamination shiny.

[Ramsus]

"Hey doc number two, doc number one says I need to get this thing registered here to please the bureaucracy gods lest they smite us with the dreaded Decease & Persist form in triplicate." Kanri announces upon entering the medbay, waggling her omni-tool in Lucinia direction.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya smiles at Twopunch. "I actually met the Commando unit Wegner worked with while I was on Thessia. It was a point of pride for them. They wanted to recruit me bad," she replies, "As for the modulator, Rodam parts are typically pretty reliable, but I'll bring it to you if I have any trouble." Shandrya adjusts the settings of the shooting range and resumes simulation at a shorter distance, and her spread is still tighter. "One of these days when I have money to set on fire I'm gonna commission you to make me something from scratch. If this is the kind of work you can do with modifications I'd love to see what you can make happen with a custom job," the Tuchankan says with a grin.

[CozJa]

Jahedo

"I think so" ha answers laconically to the chef. The Salrian know how much she generally dislike the presence of other people while she's working, but he can't help passing by, just to be sure his ability of understanding drell's language and habits is still good enough. After all, he always thinks, 87.54% of the Drell I knew were potentially lethal threat.

Observing her work for a while, he snorts and ask her: "Have you already considered using the local fauna as part of your recipes?"

[Hazuki]

Shandrya

"I'll make a gun that can kill your target and all their ancestors." Twopunch glances up from her recordings, but only briefly. "Problem with the gun - if you miss, rest of the shots in that burst are gonna miss. And it's useless for crowd control. Sure you want the mods?"

~

Jahedo

"Yep. We traded some of our rations for their stuff." Pills says, as she gets to chopping. "If we don't use it, it'll go to waste. This isn't one of them, but I'm thinking a salad. I am making a salad, but I'm also thinking of it." She pauses. "But the Dextros can't eat any of it, so..."

[Comissar]

Keying back a quick Appreciated., Vatia closed her Omni-tool before heading to her locker. She hesitated as she opened the door. This was always the part that jangled worst against her instincts. Military training demanded that she always carry some form of weapon when facing an unknown quantity, but she was trying to gain his trust. Reluctantly, she left her pistol stowed in her locker alongside her armour. If it came to it, she'd just have to rely on her shadow.

Vatia frowned to herself, pinching the brow of her nose as her mandibles twitched. "Am I overthinking this..?"

Shaking her head, she checked her omni-tool again, reading the time off of it. Just enough time for a quick workout. Picking up a towel and change of clothes from her locker, she made her way to the sparring room.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya flashes a smirk at Twopunch. "The mod helps the most at long range, and the closer I am to my enemy, the less I rely on guns in favor of my sword and biotics. I'm okay with that tradeoff," she replies. The asari compresses the rifle into its storage configuration and slings it under her arm. "I think that's enough lab testing, and lunch should be ready soon. I'll talk to you later, Twopunch," Shandrya says as she heads for the door to drop her gun off at security.

[Hazuki]

Shandrya

"And I thought I'd be free of you." Twopunch flashes the briefest of smiles as she collapses the holograms on her omni-tool and hops off of the crate.

[James_Beckett]

It was a Krogan battle song that burst onto the med-bay's speaker system as Lucinia finished bandaging the girl's foot, and she had to admit that she took a little bit of pleasure in the way the human winced as the thrashing, industrial drumming crackled into life. Moments prior, the air had been filled with the dulcet strings and quivering harmonies of a popular asari love ballad from the early 1430s. To go from those soft melodies to the fuzzed out bone lyres and pounding synths of ClanFlesh's latest 20 minute epic seemed to shock the young girl more than the brief sting that usually accompanied injecting medi-gel into a fractured human toe.

Lucinia was glad to see her carefully curated playlist was having the intended psychological effect. Being one of the crew's medical officers came with many different kinds of setbacks, most of which were rather bloody and more or less inevitable, given Fairlight's line of work. One thing Lucinia could prevent, however, was the insidious onset of chumminess between her and the crew. Occasionally, some of the greener members of the team confused to position of "Doctor" with "Best Friend". Fortunately, all Lucinia had to do was put a little fear of the gods into them every once in awhile to set them straight.

Or, in this case, the fear of the all consuming and infinite Rachni horde. Either way.

Listen, I've been told fractured toes are partciularly painful for humans, but next time can you at least try administering the medi-gel yourself? There are emergency kits scattered throughout the ship, and each personal bunk has at least two. They even come with colorful picture manuals, so even a newbie like you can figure it out."

The girl stood up without a word, her pale skin flushed red in either embarassment, or anger, or both (Lucinia found this particular biological response exceedingly funny in humans). The young human quickly put on her boot and gathered her things to leave, and as she did Lucinia started to feel she might have been just a little mean. She had half a mind to offer the kid a pick from her stash of small liquor bottles (levo-amino friendly, even!) but when Lucinia looked up, the girl was already gone. Over the speakers, Kanrot Ghorl spat viscious, profane insults to his imagined Rachni foes, while dueling electro-lyres raged in the sonic background.

"Ah, well," Lucinia said. "Maybe next time." She had begun putting away her things, humming quietly along with ClanFlesh's infectious drumbeat, when the doors to the medbay whirred open yet again.

It was a quarian, one of the few actually on-board the Sparrow, so Lucinia was actually familiar with her, at least in reputation. Kanri'Umoth was her name, if she recalled correctly.

"Hey doc number two!" the quarian chirped as she strolled through the doors, waggling her omni-tool in her hand. "Doc number one says I need to get this thing registered here to please the bureaucracy gods lest they smite us with the dreaded Decease & Persist form in triplicate."

"Tch." Lucinia clicked her mandibles audibly. She grabbed the omni-tool in one hand, using her free fingers to swipe at the holo-pad to her left, switching up the music from ClanFlesh to her "Leave Me Alone" playlist. The shuffle landed on an old Volus chant she remebered buying one night when she had had a little too much to drink, and a few spare credits buring a hole in her account. Volus folk music was know from being some of the most cacophonic in the galaxy. Over the speakers, it sounded as if a marching band made up exclusively of out of tune lute players was being violently mauled by a thresher maw.

Lucinia kind of liked it.

"You know," Lucinia said to the quarian, "I didn't get into this job to play tech support. If this omni-tool manages to get de-synced before the next mission, I might have to slide you down on my list of 'Priority Bullet Wounds." She began fiddling with the keys, hoping all the while that Kanri wouldn't try striking up a conversation.

[Ramsus]

Kanri mentally explored a short string of expletives and thought to herself, "Of course BOTH doctors on this ship are the biggest pains in the butt possible." and briefly wondered what she'd done to deserve a life devoid of a single encounter with a medic or doctor who would recognize bedside manner if it became a council race. Then she remembered her life and figured she should not ask if she deserved these things and just be annoyed she couldn't have a better life anyway.

Not one to take sass without giving some in return she replies, "If I have a bullet wound and I'm not at the top of the list you're probably out of a job. Though your terrible prioritizing system is less likely to kill me than your taste in music. What is this garbage? Some new experiment in keeping the place germ free by getting the bacteria to commit suicide?"

((Kanri's first part here is suggesting the idea that she has a bullet wound that involves a still open tear in her suit exposing her to the outside world. Unless the suit is seriously messed up it doesn't actually work like that and would patch itself and due to all the cybernetics she's a lot less fragile than your garden variety sapient. So she's basically just playing up a falsehood about how dangerous the situation would be for her as an excuse to sass back. In reality she probably is already near the bottom of the list, only above any krogans.))

[Rhaegar14]

Tag: Vatia

Shandrya heads out of the shooting range and stops by her locker, checking her rifle back in with the security detail and stowing it with her armor. She realizes that based on the time of day Pills will have lunch ready soon, and her father taught her to work up an appetite before a meal whenever possible. She changes into her workout clothes in the middle of the locker room without any thoughts of modesty, donning what is essentially a looser, dirtier version of her casual clothing. She walks quickly into the sparring room to head toward the weights, spotting Vatia. Shandrya passes her with a polite nod, stepping to a pull-up bar. The scars on her arms shift subtly as she grabs the bar and easily pulls her chin over it, before shifting her grip and pressing herself further upward until the bar is level with her waist. She continues to perform muscle-ups as part of her warm-up routine.

[Comissar]

Vatia returns Shandrya's nod before heading over to one of the punching bags. Settling into a fighting stance, she threw a couple of warm-up punches, jabbing at the centre of the bag. As she continued, the blows began to be mixed with occasional knee strikes. Letting herself fall into a rhythm, her mind begins to wander to the upcoming meeting again. Were there enough good vantage points that a sniper wouldn't be spotted? Would Super Dragon have his own cover set up? How would she try and get away if things went south?

Without quite realising, she slowed to a stop, simply standing in front of the bag and staring into space, arms still raised as though ready to attack.

[CozJa]

Jahedo



"Yep. We traded some of our rations for their stuff." Pills says, as she gets to chopping. "If we don't use it, it'll go to waste. This isn't one of them, but I'm thinking a salad. I am making a salad, but I'm also thinking of it." She pauses. "But the Dextros can't eat any of it, so..."


"When your thinking will become making let me know. I'm curious to taste what can come out of this 'salad' reserved to levo. Anyway, let me know if you want some help, else I'll go waiting for when you're done ."

Says the salarian, not sure about what to do, and not wanting to disturb Pill more before dinner's ready.

[Hazuki]

Jahedo

"What did you come in here for, anyway?" The Drell asks, not unkindly, as she flits between the counters of her kitchen.

[CozJa]

Jahedo

The Salarian right eye twitches briefly before he talks

"Nothing meaningful, really. being there reminds me of... old times. I'm sure that a drell can understand better than anyone else the importance of remembering the past. Oh well, " he stops, reclining his head before speaking again: maybe reliving it, in your case."

[Hazuki]

Jahedo

"Oh. You've met the clan of Drell chefs in environmental suits?" Pills asks, and Jahedo spots a smirk behind her visor, which is suspiciously free of the steam that swiftly fills the kitchen. "I hope they didn't tell you why I was exiled."

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia rolled her eyes at the quarian's smart-aleck response, though she had to smile a bit too; she appreciated when someone could give it as good as they could take it. Most of the people on the ship had about as much of a sense of humor as a krogan with a skin rash, which was to say absolutely none.

"I'm sorry if my music isn't to your liking," she said. "I'll see if I can't find something a bit more appropriate." She shuffled through her playlist again until she landed on a smooth warbling of ancient pipes and what sounded like the bristle and baying of fauna in the background. "There wo go. This is a song composed by an elcor named Xelvin Fenn, who specializes in musical therapy for pediatric purposes. I believe this one is meant to help young ones who struggle with soiling themselves in their sleep." Lucinia had finished syncing the omni-tool almost a minute ago, but she took a few extra seconds to meaninglessly fiddle with the device, letting the song sink in. After about thirty seconds of pyjack chittering, she decided to have mercy on the girl, and returned the omni-tool.

"There we go. It's done. Now, if you don't mind, I have about a hundred things to take care of. If you manage to tear a whole in your exo-suit or, spirits help you, actually see combat, then come find me. I'm the closest thing this company has to an expert in quarian medical biology, you know." Lucinia eyed Kanri with an exaggerated squint. "A kid named Utor'Veddah once came to me with enucleation of the eye; the damned thing kept bopping around against the inside of his helmet like some kind of pets' toy. That kid, though, appreciated krogan thrash ballads." Lucinia hit a button, opening the door to the med bay with an audible whoosh.

[Rhaegar14]

Finishing her first set, Shandrya drops off the bar, then looks across the room at Vatia as she goes still. The asari tilts her head, approaching the contemplative turian and grabs the bag to coach her. "Focus, Vatia," she chides gently, steadying the target. Still, her green eyes betray some amount of curiosity and concern.

[Ramsus]

Kanri gives an amused snort at the anti-bed wetting music and replies, "Well given I live in this thing and it filters what it has to, I don't think that music is going to be much help."

Taking back the omni-tool and re-equipping it she says, "That's... gross. Still, good to know I have an alternative to Vaenia. I think she might leave a scalpel in me 'on accident' if she had to operate." She makes the finger quotes at the "on accident".

Rather than actually leaving just yet, she just sort of steps out the door and sends Vaenia a message asking for confirmation that her paperwork is in order now and if/when she should return to the lab.

[Comissar]

Vatia blinks, twitching in surprise as she was shaken out of her reverie. Lowering her arms, she shook her head, turning to face Shandrya. "Sorry, was miles away."

Seeing the Asari's intent to help her workout, she raises her fists again, starting her workout from the beginning. "I think you've got the advantage on me here, I'm not sure I've seen you here before..?"

[CozJa]

Jahedo





"Oh. You've met the clan of Drell chefs in environmental suits?" Pills asks, and Jahedo spots a smirk behind her visor, which is suspiciously free of the steam that swiftly fills the kitchen. "I hope they didn't tell you why I was exiled."



"No, I don't usually look into my crewmates dossiers." Says the salarian, perfectly aware of his lie: he usually looks into his crewmates dossiers, it's just that he didn't have much time to do it without being noticed, and preferred to use the little he had to concentrate on more important people in the ship.

"Something interesting?"

[Rhaegar14]

"Shandrya. Ravanor Shandrya," the asari replies with a lopsided smile, "We've spoken once or twice. I'm not very surprised you don't remember. The doc once told me that asari recognize the faces of different species better than others. It's supposedly a trait that evolved due to our 'reproductive flexibility.'" Shandrya chuckles a little at that, holding the bag steady. She wonders if the turian recognized the name of her krogan clan. Shandrya is still slow to warm up to turians -- old habits die hard -- but she has learned to be polite and friendly in her time with Fairlight, and on Thessia before that.

"Hit it harder. Show me a kick. Try and knock me off," the asari urges, her eyes lighting up. "Either that or tell me what's got you distracted," she offers.

[Hazuki]

Jahedo

"I taped the residents of the Hanar embassy together and set them on fire." Pills claims, "They didn't appreciate the irony, I got kicked out, and no amount of sexual favors could get me back in." She sighs wistfully.

[Comissar]

Vatia nods, "Shandrya, then. You'll forgive me for not remembering," Her mandibles twitch as she throws a couple of soft jabs, "it's nothing personal."

She raises an eyebrow as the Asari pushes her to hit harder, shaking her head in amusement at the suggestion of divulging her secrets as an opt out. Rather than offer a verbal response, she attempts to throw her weight behind her punches, doing what she can to demonstrate her capabilities.

Making some rolls! Shandrya's asking for a show of force, so Vatia's going to be trying to make some forceful punches.

[roll0] +1 - Total of +2! Not too bad

[CozJa]

Jahedo

"Sounds like an... interesting occurrence, if a rare one, by drell standards. But that would explain your passion on that human habit of cooking octopuses. one time You'll have to tell me the whole story."

[Rhaegar14]

For the sake of the learning experience, I suppose I'll make an opposed roll for Shandrya.
(4d3)[3][2][2][3](10) comes out to +2, which with her +3 Forceful comes out to 5, yeah? Also, it's not big deal in this situation, but is there any way to roll and then write a post without killing the dice roll or double posting?

Shandrya holds the bag steady and smiles at Vatia. It is no friendly smile, but a hungry, challenging look. "Is that all you can do, turian?" the asari asks, not so much as budging as Vatia throws her weight behind the blows. However, as much as Shandrya enjoys pissing off turians for its own sake, she is also hoping that her taunting might motivate Vatia to work a little harder.

[Comissar]

Vatia raises an eyebrow at Shandrya's provocative choice of words. Leaning into her blows, she let loose with several more powerful strikes, mixing in punches and palm strikes in an effort to push the Asari back. Despite her renewed efforts, however, it didn't feel like she was shifting it significantly more than she had been. Her mandibles twitch, of course shows of force weren't the only ways to win a fight, but you can't exactly feint against a punching bag.

Making the forceful rolls now to see how Vatia compares to Shandrya's evident strength, will edit in the results once I know how she did. :smalltongue:

[roll0] +1 - Total of +3! an improvement, but still not overpoweringly so

[Hazuki]

Jahedo

"I'll see if I can make some time," Pills says. "But I'm pretty busy lately, waxing my omni-tool, defragging my visor..."

[Rhaegar14]

Here's another Forceful check: [roll0]

Less impressive. With two -1's and a +1, and her +3 Forceful, Shandrya gets a +2.

Shandrya grins wolfishly as the turian increases her power, driving into the bag. Her eyes go wide as she feels her feet slip, Vatia pushing her backwards. "Good, turian! Show me your strength!" she yells encouragingly. After a few more blows, she lets go of the bag, tilting her head at Vatia. "Do you mind if I work in a set with you?" she asks.

[Comissar]

Vatia frowns at Shandrya, stepping back from the bag as she lowered her arms. "... Sure. And it's Vatia."

Taking up position, she prepared herself for the Asari's turn at the exercise.

[CozJa]

Jahedo

"Oh, yes... I suppose those are... important duties" answers the salarian, unsure if Pill is being serious or not, "well, I should go now, still got things to do, and looks like you have a lunch to complete."

[Hazuki]

As things usually go on The Sparrow, the lunch timetable is updated according to Pills' shift, which means most people organize their sleeping times around their shifts to make room for it. Everyone receives a little boop from their omni-tool, announcing that lunch is being prepared and that everyone should get to the mess if they want their grub. Seeing as the Sparrow is soon to arrive back at Angel Valley, where they'll be able to meet up with the few crew who stayed behind, most of the awake people are eager to get there.

Most of the significant figures of the ship are in the mess hall, including Vaenia, Deadangle, one of Manos' drones (Just for conversation), and even Captain Hrux. It seems like just about anybody could be grabbed, as long as a seat can be found beside them, whether it's Waffles the Turian or Vatia's future sniper-buddy Ver0nica.

The Levos are eating something called Angel's Embrace, which is apparently a new recipe of Pills' with the ingredients gained from Angel Valley, while the Dextros have Krispa (Oma) Ker Chilli. Except for Carim'rin - she gets nutrient paste, delivered straight through the kitchen hatch.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya cracks her neck and brings her hand back for a powerful punch -- then hears the alert on her omni-tool. She checks the notification, licking her lips. "Oh good. Lunch is ready. I can finish later, I'm starving," she says, dropping out of her fighting stance. "You coming with me?" she asks Vatia with a playful smile as she heads back toward the locker room to change.

[Comissar]

Vatia leans into the punching bag, ready to receive Shandrya's blows. She pays little heed to the omni-tool ping until the Asari drops out of her combat stance to check the message. Straightening up, she briefly glanced down at her own tool to check what the message was about. At Shandrya's invitation she shrugged, releasing the punching bag as she followed the Asari back to the changing room. "Sure. Though I don't think 'I was hungry' works as an excuse for dodging a work out."

[James_Beckett]

As she worked on recalibrating the largest of the medi-gel injectors in the med bay, Lucinia was lost enough in her thoughts that she almost missed the little dings ringing out from her omni tool. When the alarm on her wrist began to buzz along with the bell, she turned down her music and saw the brightly blinking word flashing up at her, as timely as always:

FOOD. FOOD. FOOD.

Lucinia glanced at the time and saw that it had been a solid six hours since her last meal. She turned to her desk to grab one of the protein bars she kept for just such an occasion. She cursed quietly to herself when she realized there was nothing in there but some discarded wrappers and dirty utensils leftover from prior meals, along with a couple of stale cans of dextro-cola and a couple of back issues of Fornax (She really did need to find a better place to keep those). Lucinia briefly considered downing the cola in hope that it might hold her over until the ship landed, but an impeccably timed twisting in her gut reminded her that soft drinks did not, in fact, make for suitable meal replacements.

FOOD. FOOD. FOOD.

Lucinia slapped her wrist and dispelled the obnoxious alarm, but the little bastard had done its job: Now that she thought about it, she was hungry, and an empty stomach was one of the things that managed to irritate her more than unwanted visitors. The only thing was, those dextro-bars had been the last of her supply, so if she wanted any grub, Lucinia would have to hit the mess hall. And that meant socializing.

Lucinia eyed the dextro-cola one last time. Maybe is she portioned it out over the course of the evening...

Her omni-tool buzzed to life again, this time delivering the more eloquence and official memo, straight from the company itself:

"Lunch is served. Please make your way to the mess hall."

"Alright, alright!" Lucinia muttered, her mandibles clicking in irritation, not for the first time this morning. She pushed her drawer shut and begrudgingly made her way out of the med-bay and towards the mess hall. If she was lucky, she might be able to make her way through the line without having to talk to anyone.

Or maybe you'll actually try and play nice for once. This was an option too, Lucinia supposed, but in the months she'd been with Fairlight, it wasn't one that came up often, mostly because people didn't want to make friends with the lady that was stapling their wounds shut. This was fine with Lucinia, up to a point, but she had to admit things were a little more quiet in her life than usual.

She wouldn't make too concerted an effort, she decided, as she curved through the halls and towards the mess. But if she bumped in to the someone worth talking to, who was to say? That quarian from earlier, for example. Kanri, was it? She seemed like more fun than most anyone else she'd run into on this spirits-forsaken ship.

[Ramsus]

Kanri as it turned out was still pretty nearby. She turned around seeing Lucinia and greeted, "Hey Doc number two. Excited to try out whatever Pills has whipped up for us this time? I always am because it's always better than nutrient paste."

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya raises an eyebrow and smirks at Vatia as she steps into the locker room. "Is that a challenge, Vatia?" she asks, pulling her shirt over her head. "Regardless," the asari says with a quiet giggle, not waiting for Vatia's reply, "I'm a biotic. We use more energy than you do. Can't work out on an empty stomach." Shandrya quickly changes back into her casual attire without any regard for whether the turian is looking, sliding her pistol into its holster. She waits for Vatia before she heads toward the mess hall.

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch in amusement at Sharyndra's defense. "You know, in the Hierarchy we have a word for when someone uses biotics during a training session, we call it 'Cheating'." Changing out of her workout clothes, she chuckles, "When you're ready to have a real sparring session, I'd be more than happy to oblige you."

As the pair head toward the mess hall, she shrugs, "Might even be worthwhile when you've got fewer excuses."

[James_Beckett]

As if on schedule, the Quarian appeared, her peculiar brand of seemingly sincere sarcasm an unexpectedly pleasant surprise.

"That depends, I suppose," Lucinia said. "I have been feeling a little bored around the lab, so I suppose a round of food poisoning for all of the levos on board would keep me busy enough. As for us, I have to admit that I don't visit the mess hall often enough to have an opinion, myself. I will say, though, I have a very high opinion of food paste, so don't go setting me up to be disappointed."

[Rhaegar14]

The asari scoffs playfully. "Please. I needed biotics to keep up with the boys back home. You think I need help with one turian?" she shoots back, "I'm just overexerted from all the biotic... things... I did earlier this morning." Shandrya chuckles and shakes her head, her excuse for her hunger already falling apart as they enter the mess hall. She grabs a tray and takes some of the Angel's Embrace, eyeing it curiously and giving it a cursory sniff. The smell reminds her of the valley, at least. She waits for Vatia to get her dextro food before sitting at one of the mess' many long tables. "Got any exciting plans for when we land?" she asks.

[Ramsus]

At that Kanri gives a kind of cackle-laugh. Only because she knows Pills isn't anywhere nearby to hear it. She doesn't want actual food poisoning to occur. Not to her at least. As they walk to the mess she says, "Well, if you're bored I'm sure there will be stuff to do on the planet soon enough. Just don't jump off any cliffs. The locals get real upset about it."

[Comissar]

Vatia shrugs, "Couldn't say, no punch was thrown, you gave nothing to gauge." She frowns to herself as she browses the selection of food available to her.

'The boys back home'... Not Thessian then, and there aren't many races that naturally show more brute strength. Turian? Perhaps not with that dismissive attitude. Krogan, then?

Piling a plate with Chilli, she follows after Sharyndra to the table the Asari's picked out. Shaking her head, she sits down, "Not planning on doing much. With the buoy out, there's not much call for me on the ship, so I was just going to make use of some of my shore leave." She takes a bite of her food, continuing to speak around it, "Th'rs s'me nice sc'nery, mmm..." Swallowing, she continues, gesturing at the mess hall with her fork, "Some nice scenery there, better than brushed metal, anyway."

[CozJa]

Jahedo

Some moments after leaving the kitchen, Jahedo Omni-tool starts blinking, sending the "Lunch ready" message routine.

"Oh for... I was there right before." thinks the salarian, putting off his Omni-tool and going back to the mess hall. He lines up right behind the group
"A new plate for tomorrow effectively using indigenous species... interesting choice. And I suppose that food poisoning is not improbable" He says, turning toward Lucinia
"the use of unknown species for food is still considered a risky habit in 132 colonies of the Outer Council Space."

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya puts her fork into the food, examining it, smelling it. "Mindful" eating was something they had taught her on Thessia to get the most out of her food, and she found that when she has the time to eat slowly it does improve the experience. "It's boring. Though I suppose better than the inside of the ship. Still, I'm getting antsy. I need to kill something," she says as though it is not at all a worrying statement. She slowly lifts her fork to her lips and takes a bite, savoring the flavor of Pills' cooking.

[Comissar]

Vatia frowns, looking up at Shandrya from her food. Her mandibles twitched for a few moments as she tried to work out what to say, and more importantly if the Asari was joking. Carefully, she returned to her food, "... It sounds like you needed that workout more than I thought. Perhaps once I'm back from the surface we can work a bit of that aggression out."

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya smiles as she chews; Pills' original recipe is good. Her eyes suddenly go wide. "Oh, I'm sorry! I've made you uncomfortable. Rest assured, Hrux is my battlemaster. I've been here twenty years. Nobody in Fairlight is going to be on the receiving end of my pent-up aggression," she explains, trying to reassure the turian. She smirks. "Of course, I would bring shame upon my clan if I were to refuse a challenge," she teases.

[Comissar]

Definitely Krogan...

Vatia shook her head, mandibles twitching, "No, it's ok. Just... Not what I was expecting you to say." She takes another mouthful of food, apparently considering what Shandrya had said, "Well, I suppose we have ourselves a match, then... I'll try to go easy on you."

[James_Beckett]

"I can only imagine!"Lucinia chuckled. She hadn't engaged in small talk in a good while, and though she was sure was more than a little bit rusty, this seemed to be going well. She'd been with Fairlight long enough, and though she certainly wasn't ready to make best friends with anyone, it seemed appropriate that she actually start getting to know the crew she was helping to patch up. Her sarcastic nicknames would only get her so far, especially when she was starting to forget which name went with whom. Her optimism was burgeoning little by little with every step they took towards the cafeteria, and it promptly deflated the moment they cleared the main doors.

It was the murmur of the crowd that hit her first, the incessant thrum of chatter that always reminded Lucinia of a machine rifle primed to fire. A sea of only barely familiar faces greeted her, and it struck Lucinia all at once just how few of these men and women she had actually bothered to know. Scanning the crowd, Lucinia picked out faces she recognized more through their medical charts than any personal interaction they'd shared. Even when she'd first come aboard the crew, she'd been given her room, her station, and her equipment, and then left almost entirely up to her own devices. She usually considered that a blessing, but in this particular moment it only made her feel all the more disarmed.

It took a moment or two to realize that she'd been standing just in front of the doorway for just a little too long. Not wanting Kanri to notice her hesitation, Lucinia strode onward.

"Let's see what they've got for us dextros today, then," she said, making her way to the cafeteria line. Pills seemed to be serving some kind of indigenous creature today, some kind of gelatinous cresture colored in a suspicious shade of opalesence.

"I, er, take it this isn't for me, is it?" she asked the chef.

Edit: For me being dumb and missing a detail.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya grins hungrily, and starts to open her mouth at Vatia when she looks over the turian's shoulder to see one of the doctors come in. She tries to remember the name... Lucinia? She had insisted on treating Shandrya for an injury early in her tenure, a flesh wound she would have gotten a loving "suck it up" for on Tuchanka. But then, that attitude is why I have so many scars in this day and age, so maybe there was SOME merit to it, she thinks as she puts her hand up and waves. "Hey, Lucinia! Come sit with us! I want to ask you something!" she calls, her voice surprisingly loud and clear over the general din of the mess hall.

[Ramsus]

Kanri grabs her portion of food along with Doc#2 and then hears her being called over to sit with another unfamiliar face who is accompanied by Vatia. Given that she doesn't know that person, she gives Vatia an exaggerated shrug as if to express "Gee. Nice to feel loved too?"

[Comissar]

Vatia glances over her shoulder as Shandrya calls over Lucinia and, by extension, Kanri. She nods her greeting to the two, "Hey. Had a good morning?"

[Ramsus]

"Well... I had a goo morning. Close enough?" Kanri replies with a laugh at her own joke as she walks over with her food.

[Comissar]

Vatia raises an eyebrow at Kanri's joke, "... Messy morning in the lab..?"

[Ramsus]

"Yeah. Then I had to go do bureaucracy stuff. So either way, not good enough a morning for that last letter." Kanri replies, taking a seat.

[Hazuki]

Lucinia

Pills peers through the food hatch and uses Kanri's patented condescension-through-a-helmet technique. "Unless you're a really ugly Asari, no. You get chili." She shoves another plate of the relatively-famous dish of Krispa Ker Chilli through the hatch.

One of Manos' drones buzzes through the mess hall, floating listlessly along. Oh, what terrible days, when an Elcor can't regularly fit through the doors of a spaceship to join his comrades at lunchtime.

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia received her chili with a dull wet *plop*, and almost simultaneously she heard the asari call her over from across the cafe.

"Hey, Lucinia! Come sit with us! I want to ask you something!". Kanri made a comment about being loved, and Lucinia couldn't help but return her ambivalent shrug. Strange, to go so long successfully avoiding most social interaction, and on the one day Lucinia decides to branch out a little bit, the people arrive in droves. She didn't know whether to be grateful, or irritated.

Making her way over to the girl, Lucinia realized that she did recognize her. She had an early encounter with the asari, Shandrya, after one of the first missions. Shandrya had stubbornly insisted that the oozing gash running down her leg was "just a scratch", and in fact Lucinia had to practically wrestle her down to apply the medi-gel and sutures. If she remembered right, the girl's father had been a Krogan, which explained <i>a lot</i>. Lucinia hadn't spoken to Shandrya in weeks, though, so only the spirits knew what she could possibly be inquiring about.

"Er, hello there, Shandrya," Lucinia said as she took her seat. "It's nice to see you again." Setting her tray down on the table, the bubble rose from the chili and burst with a conspicuous squelching noise. Lucinia chuickled in a way that she hoped came across a way that didn't betray her nervousness.

"How's the leg treating you?"

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya grinned. "It's good to see you too. Leg's fine. No scar. Which brings me to my question; you're a doctor and a turian, so presumably you know a lot about turian anatomy," she says, immediately launching into her inquiry. "Vatia here and I have a sparring match scheduled for later. She's kindly offered to go easy on me. So my question for you is this: how many of her bones can I break before she's beyond your ability to fix?" the asari asks, maintaining a straight face for just a moment before shooting Vatia a sidelong grin. "If she's gonna go easy on me I need to know when to stop."

She turns to Kanri and nods in greeting. "Sounds like your morning could've been worse, at least. Kanri'Umoth, right?" Shandrya asks.

[Ramsus]

"Well I've certainly had worse mornings I guess...." Kanri pauses trying to remember this person's name and eventually gives up, "...person whose name I don't remember."

[Comissar]

Vatia has to stop herself from from spluttering on her food at Shandrya's latest jibe. Mandibles twitching as she cleared her throat, she shook her head, looking back at the Asari as she did, "I don't think it counts if you take me out through choking." She coughs again, looking over to Lucinia, "Besides... Sounds like you leave yourself open if you let your leg get hit hard."

[CozJa]

Noticing that the turian medic approaches a table with other people, Jahedo calls to her, while approaching the group. "Hello Kanri, hello Lucinia, I'll just sit here, since there is still space."

After all, considering that he joined the expedition briefly before the departure for this voyage, the salarian didn't have much time (or particular interest) in getting to know all the other members of the crew, apart from other salrians and Pill.
But Lucinia and Kanri were exceptions: Vaenia was too strange even for him, and he always found it easier to search for the turian doctor, instead than the salarian one.
Kanri, on the other hand, is a 'Quarian biotic', and that is more than enough to make her an interesting person in Jahedo eyes; he also finds it quite interesting that she gets to open her helmet to eat food, while Pill is unable to work without her suit to prepare the same food.

"So..." he says at Lucinia while sitting, "were you able to listen that Hanar Requiem I told you about?"

[Ramsus]

Kanri gives a small nod to.... wow she REALLY needs to look over the ship's roster again.

Kanri turns her head over to Lucinia with pointed (sardonic) interest in the answer to Jahedo's question.

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia paused a moment, unsure as to whether or not the asari was serious. Shandrya's sidelong grin at her turian companion seemed to indicate that it was all in jest, but based on what she knew of the asari girl, she still wasn't a hundred percent sure. Not wanting to seem like the only one out of the joke, though, Lucinia chuckled (maybe a bit too heartily) and replied:

"Well, I suppose that all depends. Turians have about sixty more bones than the asari do, and nearly all of the extra ones are the most fragile, surrounding our softest bits,
you know? If you're only aiming for the core limbs and their relevant joints, the humeri and radii and ulni and the like, then a turian's fairly comparable to an asari. After twenty or thirty breaks in the right spots you'll be more or less immobile." Lucinia saw the table’s interest mounting, and decided to try her hand at some morbid humor. The soldiers on Palaven had always enjoyed that, so odds were these mercs did too. She grabbed one of the plastic forks off of Shandrya's tray, flexing it and twisting it in her hands.

"It's those unique parts of our anatomy that you might want to watch out for, Lucinia continued. Take the tarsus for example. It's that small bone that connects the tibia and fibula to the feet, about yea long." Lucinia measured gap with her hands about 25 centimeters long, tiwrling the plastic utensil in her hands all the while. This bone here is what gives us turians that crook in our step that you asari love to poke fun at so much. The tarsus is special because, in order to provide us turians with our galaxy renowned flexibility, it's actually just a little bit softer than the main bones of the leg. If your target isn't wearing a tarsal-guard, or Spirit forbid, no armor whatsoever, then a single swift kick can be enough to crack it but good. Once I ran with a crew that liked to play turf wars with the krogan gangs on omega. A friend of mine though she was tough enough to take one of them on in hand-to-hand, which, as I'm sure you are all aware, is an especially dumb thing to think. Even worse for my friend was the fact that this krogan was a little more up on his turian anatomy than most of the dummies running around on that station. He brought his boot down on her tarsus so hard that her armor might as well have been made of pyjack skin. The snapping of bones was audible—"

Lucinia took this opportunity to snap that plastic fork between her fingers, pausing for some dramatic effect.

"Though not quite as audible as her screaming. And please, don't even ask about all of the fleshy parts we hide beneath our bones, because then we would be here all day,
and I'm sure you've got better things to do. The moral of the story is, yes, going for the legs would be ideal in both of your cases."

[Hazuki]

Elsewhere on The Sparrow, Vaenia sits comfortable in her position as "least horrible Doctor on board".

[Comissar]

Vatia clears her throat and shuffles in her seat as Lucinia describes, in fairly graphic detail, how to break her bones. Frowning, she commented, "Maybe a step by step guide isn't the best way forward, though..." Her mandibles twitch as she attempts to recapture some levity, "I guess it might level the playing field a bit more."

[Hazuki]

The already-busy table suddenly feels that much stuffier, as the grey-haired Ver0nica appears over Vatia's shoulder. "Vatia." Her artificial voice addresses the turian. It doesn't seem like she has eyes for anyone else at the table. "I'd like to go over our plans for the meeting."

[Comissar]

Vatia turns in her seat as Ver0nica approaches. She nods, turning back to the rest of the group as she pushes her chair back, "If you'll excuse me, I'll see you all later."

Without waiting long enough to allow anything more than a brief acknowledgement, she turned to leave the mess hall with Ver0nica, leading the way to a more secluded section of the ship, "How much has Captain Hrux briefed you on?"

[Hazuki]

"You'll be meeting with the turian leader of a bunch of untrained colonists with crappy weapons and armor." Ver0nica stands by the door and looks Vatia over. "You need protection that isn't obvious and preferably long-range."

[Comissar]

Vatia nods, "Accurate enough. Ideally, this is going to be boring for you." Her mandibles twitch in amusement as she folds her arms in front of herself, "But the Turian I'm meeting, 'Super Dragon', is an unknown quantity. He's... Not someone who was part of the original colony and, while he's claiming altruism, the talk we're going to have will hopefully clear that up one way or the other." She chuckles, "I doubt bringing a gun along would get him to open up to me, so it's up to you to watch me. The one thing I will say is, if you're in doubt, wait rather than shoot. It's easy to take words back, much harder to take back bullets."

[Hazuki]

"Really. That must be why I have no friends." Ver0nica replies, without malice. She pulls up a holographic map of Angel Valley, around the lake, which has a few positions for her to be - including on a nearby hill, in the trees on the opposite side of the lake, and in a tree that provides a decent view of most areas of the lake, but is firmly in the forest.

[Comissar]

"I find keeping the safety on helps."

Vatia frowns as she considers the options for Ver0nica's lookout position. After a minute or two of contemplation, she finally taps on the position across the lake. "I think here. You've got tree cover if they try and watch from the air, a clear shot across the lake if you need it, and you should be tricky to spot on foot."

[Hazuki]

"Our armor won't do any good in the woods, so I'll just bring personal shields." Ver0nica says. "If it does come down to a fight, aim for the tarsus, right?"

[Rhaegar14]

"Ravanor Shandrya. I've been with Fairlight for 20 years, I remember most of the people. Especially a standout like you," the asari says to Kanri, neglecting the fairly obvious reasons the quarian stood out. She turns to the salarian next. "Hello," she says, remaining polite but a bit distant. She is not particularly fond of salarians for the same reason she is not particularly fond of turians. Shandrya listens intently to Lucinia's explanation. This was valuable information, useful against the enemies of clan Ravanor if they should go to war with the turians again. She wanted to remember it. "So don't go for her legs if I want to leave her fixable. Got it," Shandrya says, raising an eyebrow as Ver0nica speaks. "I'll meet up with you later for our match!" she calls eagerly, waving as Vatia walks away.

[Ramsus]

Kanri gives a flick of her short cape to signal agreement that she stands out, clearly in the best of ways.

[Comissar]

Vatia considers Ver0nica's question with a frown. "... Yes, probably best. If he's disabled he can still be useful. Dead, not so much." She shrugs, looking up at the other woman, "If you're a good enough shot, the arms might be better, keeps him from using a weapon, makes him less able to fight generally."

[Hazuki]

"Sounds good." Ver0nica scratches her cheek, which sounds something like sandpaper. "Know how to handle yourself so you don't get taken down?"

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch in amusement at Ver0nica's question, "Well enough to get through a melee, not well enough to dodge bullets. If it comes to a firefight, I'm taking cover."

[Hazuki]

"But you're bringing personal shields, right? Please tell me you're bringing personal shields." Ver0nica asks. It seems earnest, despite the lack of pleading.

[Comissar]

Vatia chuckles softly, "I suppose you could twist my arm, being shot isn't too high on my priority list." Her voice takes on a light-hearted tone, "If I get asked about it, I'll just say someone insisted it wasn't safe outside and I was too soft-hearted to say no."

[Hazuki]

"Maybe say your boss insisted." Ver0nica suggests. "Seems more likely for a Turian."

[Comissar]

Vatia shrugs lightly, "That works too. Though of course, it only matters if it even gets spotted." She looks over to the other woman, "Got a plan for if he's got cover of his own and things go south?"

[Hazuki]

Everyone

Lunch goes without incident, and the crew is in high morale after both accessing the extranet and having their bellies filled. The crew disperses, some of them heading to their posts for landing, a handful heading to the armory to handle the crew who stayed in Angel Valley, and the few scientific hands on board are preparing for studies of local fauna and flora. Or plans for studies. There's an open call for any who think they could contribute, including pilots for the Fenix shuttles.

When the Sparrow comes to land, Vatia gets a little message on her omni-tool.

Super Dragon's ship landed a short ways away from the colony, according to the scanners. We'll keep an eye out for movement.

-Captain Hrux

When Vatia heads down to depart, Ver0nica is there waiting for her, in her normal clothes, but carrying a sniper rifle collapsed on her back and a pistol on her belt.

[Ramsus]

Kanri makes her way back to the lab. Seeing Vaenia already there she asks, "So what's the plan for today Doc number one?"

[Hazuki]

Vaenia pauses in her adjusting of her omni-tool to look at Kanri. "You've never called me that before."

[Ramsus]

"I hadn't met Doc number two before." Kanri replies with a shrug.

[Hazuki]

"At least you know who's the better." Vaenia remarks, turning back to her omni-tool and lighting up a nearby monitor, which flashes with a series of medicinal data. "We're looking for components that can recreate the medicine Angel Valley's residents need, with things that can be found on Mytal. You might be thinking this will be difficult, and that's because it will be."

[Ramsus]

"So..... for me is this field work or lab work? I'm really hoping it's field work. I wouldn't mind getting off the ship for a bit." Kanri replies, not commenting that Vaenia is just Doc#1 because she was the first one Kanri met.

[Hazuki]

"I could let go of you for a moment, I suppose." Vaenia remarks. "You may be better equipped for examining components in the field than most of the crew."

[Ramsus]

"Probably yup. Anything in particular I need to be taking with me? And do you have a list of what we're looking for in particular?" Kanri asks.

((Hazuki don't feel obligated to make up sciency stuff for me here, I just need to know if Kanri is carrying extra equipment and what she's going out to actually try to find.))

[Comissar]

Vatia spends her time before landing going over the plan in her head, confirming to herself that Ver0nica was in the best position and trying to predict what Super Dragon may or may not do. As the ship's descent began, she fitted her personal shield on beneath her clothing before heading down to the shuttle bay. Captain Hrux's message came through as she did. As she walked, she tapped out a quick reply.

Understood. Keep Ver0nica updated when we're planetside. Wait until I message you before sending me updates once the mission begins.

Arriving in the bay, she nods at Ver0nica, "Ready?"

[Hazuki]

Kanri

"Those." Vaenia nods at the information on the terminal she just lit up. "I've given you permission to access those files, no need to thank me. You'll need to scan anything that looks like it could contain any of those components - flora and fauna, if that's not specific enough. Be sure to bring sterile containers for anything promising."

~

Vatia

Ver0nica looks the same as she just the rest of the time - save for the compressed sniper rifle on her back. "Ready. I'll leave a couple minutes after you."

[Ramsus]

Kanri nods, reads through the files, and collects up what containers she has and then realizes that this could be something of a trek and there's no way she can carry in her hands any containers for large animals and a vehicle of some sort is going to be required. As well as other people to assist her with the task.

The first thing she does is check the job roster to see if Vaenia has already set this kind of thing up.

[Comissar]

Vatia nods and sets out to the agreed upon meeting point, only pausing on her way out of the ship long enough to say "Hopefully I won't see you until we're both back here."

As she made her way, her gaze unfocused and she let her mind wander. It wouldn't do to turn up already tense, not when she was hoping to speak to Super Dragon with his guard down.

[Hazuki]

Kanri

It's easy to find the schedule for the rest of the ship, and people are already signing up for the recovery and examination of life on the planet. The only small vehicles on board are the Fenix LU shuttles, however, which means transport of anything large will require one of those, or a very well-timed throw. It does occur to the Quarian that she won't need huge samples of promising parts in the field - even just the splanch would do.

~

Vatia

As Vatia walks back through Angel Valley, she spots the returning crew of the Sparrow, who seem to have made some decent strides in getting to know the locals. Abanda spots her as she passes by, but seems to notice the Turian is busy and decides to continue showing off her muscles instead.

When Vatia reaches the edge of the lake, she spots what would seem to be Super Dragon waiting in their designated spot. The colonists don't seem to be bothering him.

[Comissar]

Vatia offers Abanda a brief nod of acknowledgement as she passes, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at the human's decision to hold an impromptu gun show. As she approaches the waiting Turian she takes the time to enjoy the scenery. Drawing closer, she raises a hand in greeting. "Hi, hope I haven't kept you waiting too long."

[Ramsus]

Kanri goes down to the shuttle bay to see if she can requisition a shuttle for her mission. While on her way there she looks over the names of the people signed up for it.

((Note: This is me giving the other players an opportunity to come do something and have us roleplay something together besides eating.))

[Hazuki]

Super Dragon turns to look at Vatia and rises from his rocky perch. "Good day! And what a pleasure it is to meet you in person, Vatia." His mandibles spread wide. "We're fortunate to have such weather, although I don't need to tell you that." He chuckles. "It's been no trouble at all. I've even met a few of your Fairlight friends, lovely people, just wonderful."

[Comissar]

Vatias mandibles twitch as she offers Super Dragon a handshake in greeting. "I'm glad you're getting on well with them, I trust they haven't said anything too embarrassing?"

[Hazuki]

Vatia

"Oh, don't you worry! They were quite keen to get back to work with the colonists." Super Dragon assures Vatia, after giving her a firm shake of the hand. "It's a solid crew you're a part of. If I weren't busy with my own endeavors, I might consider joining up myself!"

~

Kanri

When Kanri gets to the shuttle bay, she finds that both of the shuttles are already claimed for reconnaissance of both land and the medical components she's seeking. It will be possible for her to join either one, should she so choose. Before she can get too far in that line of thought, or sink into the dread of having to walk, she feels a looming presence by her shoulder.

Namely, a Fairlight humanoid clad entirely in combat armor who stands at about a head higher then her. "Hey." A husky voice greets, slightly filtered through the helmet. "I need more grenades."

[Ramsus]

"I, what? I'm not a grenade farmer guy." Kanri replies indignantly.

[Hazuki]

They seem to stare at Kanri for a moment, look over their shoulder, then back at Kanri. "I don't think you look manly at all."

[Comissar]

Vatia seats herself down, tilting her head to one side as she does so, "I don't think you ever really mentioned the work you do, presumably it's pretty tough going if it keeps you on ships all the time?"

[Hazuki]

"Oh, it's not so terrible!" Super Dragon leans against the rock. "It mostly involves securing supplies for Angel Valley, getting them used to handling a ship, their guns... It's quite a pleasant little community we have, and we can't keep an eye out for pirates from the ground." He chuckles.

[Ramsus]

"Thank you!" Kanri replies and flourishes her cape and sticks out her chest, proud of clearly not having a mannish figure.

[Hazuki]

"...here?" The figure utilizes a verbal raised eyebrow.

[Ramsus]

"Who?" Kanri replies.

[Hazuki]

"...I need more grenades." Says the mercenary.

[Ramsus]

"You sure do big guy." Kanri replies, not even trying at this point.

[Comissar]

Vatia gives Super Dragon a look of surprise, "Oh! Your crew are colonists?" She frowns, "Or... You're training them using your ships..?"

[Hazuki]

Kanri

The mercenary stands there for a few moments. "Can you help?"

Vatia

"My whole crew are residents of Angel Valley." Super Dragon confirms with a bob of his head. "It was rough going at first, but we got the hang of it."

[Comissar]

Vatia leans back a little, tilting her head as she did, "So... What happened to the crew you came here with? They retired now?"

[Hazuki]

"Oh, no! I had my ship towed here." Super Dragon explains. "Went over a few of the basics with the crew they had to spare, then they left with the towing ship, and I went on to meet the colonists!" He beams. "I don't think I could've spared the expense to hire a crew of my own!"

[Ramsus]

"Uh... sure!" Kanri replies, having actually very little idea how she would know any more than this guy, but interested in the idea of acquiring some grenades for herself. She leads the way to the armory.

[James_Beckett]

I think that went well, Lucinia thought, making her way back to her room after lunch. She'd missed having lunch with people, she realized. After all, she'd been here long enough. Coming up to the doors that led into her, she found herself pausing. It was quiet. This in and of itself wasn't abnormal; she'd actually chosen to work on this side of the ship specifically to avoid the hustle and bustle that surrounded most sections of the ship. After having what felt like her fist real conversation in ages, though, the quiet seemed somehow heavier than usual.

Lucinia flicked her omni-tool to life, her fingers twitching along the screen until she brought up the list of appointments registered to her for the rest of the day. The blank spreadsheet buzzed softly, the screen devoid of any names or requests for treatment. This was, of course, a good thing - Lucinia hadn’t quite gone so far as to start hoping for people to get injured so they could keep her busy. Still, restlessness was beginning to set in. Boredom was not a problem Lucinia was used to solving.

Come to think of it, didn't the crew mention something about a job on site about specimen research and recovery? That was almost the same thing as medical work, and what Lucinia lacked in zoology experience she more than made up for with her ability to mend wounds. Her skill at shooting things also probably helped.

Lucinia turned and made her way to the armory, knowing she'd need more than a scalpel and an admittedly badass visor to get the job done planet-side. At the armory's entrance, she spotted Kanri and the others, who were presumably also dressing themselves to the nines for the occasion.

"I'm glad to see you haven't left yet," she said as she approached them. "Any chance you've got room for one more on that little outing of yours?"

[Ramsus]

"Yeah, it'll be good to have an actual medical expert with us too. Though at this moment I'm helping this guy find grenades. For some reason." Kanri replies and gives a shrug.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya bursts into the armory, panting and holding a metal case about three feet long in her right hand. She looks up and sees Kanri and Lucinia, lets out a sigh of relief, and grins. "Thank the goddess, you haven't left yet. Collecting samples means killing stuff, right?" she asks, walking to her locker and pulling her shirt over her head. "I assumed that when I signed up for the job. All that time in space made me antsy," she elaborates, changing into her white and yellow battle armor with little regard for who may see. She leaves the locker room for a moment to collect her assault rifle, along with the key to her storage case from security detail, then returns with the gun on her shoulder. She sets the case on a bench and swipes the keycard through the lock, opening it with a click. She retrieves her treasured blade from the case, normally kept at the foot of her bed, and slides it into the sheath on her left hip, built into her armor. "When do we leave?" the asari asks, impatient now that she is no longer worried the others will leave without her.

[Ramsus]

"Uh.... well we're not intending to kill random animals. But it doesn't mean the possibility we have to doesn't exist. It is a whole planet full of animals. Some are bound to be predators." Kanri replies.

[Hazuki]

The armored person stares at Shandrya as she decides to strip down in the middle of the armory, then seems to wait for a lull in the conversation. "Sirum." They say, and point to the scaled pink Salarian who's standing near the guns in uniform and all. "He has grenades."

For those in the know, Sirum is one of the Armsmasters in Fairlight, which basically means he controls the armory. He's relatively young,
and has no use of his hands, but has been with Fairlight for a few years and is good at his job.

[Comissar]

"Towed..?" Vatia leans forward, curiosity in her voice, "I have to say, you know how to spin a tale, every answer gives me more questions to ask."

[Hazuki]

Super Dragon chuckles. "Oh, stop! You'll leave my mandibles twitching for days. After I purchased the gear, the ship, and some supplies, I scarcely had the money to pay for a crew, and, as I was pondering the matter, I chanced upon an idea! I could simply pay another ship to tow me to Mytal, so I found a band of mercenaries willing to perform an easy job, and here we are."

[Ramsus]

Kanri walks up and says, "Hello Sirum? This guy here apparently wants some grenades. I guess I do too. Do any of you guys want grenades?" Kanri turns around and looks to Shandrya and Lucinia.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya scoffs at Kanri's mention of predators. "Anything they'd call a predator here would be lunch back home. Besides, what kind of scientific expedition goes out looking for samples of flora, but not fauna?" she replies, double-checking her armor. She covers her mouth with her hands and then lets out a low, somewhat disturbing giggle at the quarian's offer of grenades. "What kind of krogan would I be if I said no to explosives?" the asari asks.

[Hazuki]

The armored one turns their head at Shandrya's last comment. "That's not how it works."

Sirum looks at Kanri, then at the armored one, then shakes his head. "As I told Cryptid, she's not allowed any more grenades until she can safely store them. She's already strapped with enough to give a dreadnought heartburn." He says, as he flicks through en enlarged omni-tool display.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya ignores Sirum, her mouth hardening into a line. "That's not how what works, Cryptid?" the asari asks coolly, though she already has an inkling.

[Ramsus]

Kanri shrugs and says, "We're looking for fauna too but it doesn't mean we have to kill them to get what we want. Necessarily. Anyway..." at this she turns back to Sirum, "So I can get some grenades then?" and she makes this "gimmie!" motion with both hands.

[Hazuki]

"I'm not a Hanar." Cryptid answers, their helmet turning away from Sirum and Kanri. "I'm me."

I'm offering a Fate Point for compelling Itdentity Crisis/Rage Like a Krogan for Shandrya to get into a confrontation with Cryptid. You can decide exactly what confrontation means.

Sirum snickers at Kanri's grabby motion. "Let me check the approved requisitions..." He hums as he pulls up a different display on his omni-tool. "You're Biotic, aren't you? We have some Ser.Tec LG-05s, er, Lift Grenades, if you haven't memorized the catalogues."

[Comissar]

"You know, most people would probably hire the crew first instead of as an afterthought." Vatia chuckles, shaking her head, "So why come out here in the first place? Just feeling charitable?"

[Ramsus]

"I would love some of those! But... I can still get something that goes BOOM too right?" Kanri gesticulates wildly at "BOOM". She hasn't really thought out what she'd be doing with grenades but the who cares? Explosives are fun for the whole family! (This has nothing to do with the fact that Kanri doesn't have any family.)

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya's face darkens. Before her time on Thessia, Cryptid would have already been thrown across the room, her helmet cracked from where Shandrya had headbutted her. Even now, she considers it for a long moment before speaking. "I could tell you were thick, but I assumed you understood not all of us are daughters of Thessia," she growls through clenched teeth, stepping closer to the massive figure. Those who cared to look at their omni-tools, or could see the difference in the movements of her mouth, would know she had changed from speaking Thessian to fluent Tuchankan. "Rest assured, sister. I am Ravanor Shandrya, daughter of Ravanor Krenth, krogan by birthright and by rite of passage, acknowledged by chieftain, shaman, and clan," she declares, throwing her arms out wide in challenge. "If name and pedigree will not convince you, perhaps the ease with which I can shatter your spine will," the asari threatens with a snarl.

Though angered, Shandrya has been with Fairlight long enough to know better than to throw the first punch. Threats are one thing, but starting a fight would be the easiest way to see herself shipped back to the Citadel. Responding should Cryptid strike first, however...

[Ramsus]

"I'm sure not." Kanri quips offhandedly and without even looking in Shandrya's direction in reply to "not all of us are daughters of Thessia".

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia watches with bemusement as the Shandrya and Cryptid stare each other down, wondering if perhaps she should have just stayed in her office after all.

"Goodness, girls, I had no idea this was going to be that kind of slumber party. Perhaps I'll pack a few extra pack of medi-gel, just in case." She notices a rack of hand-cannons nearby the grenades, and wiggles into the no man's land the two have etched between themselves, leaning in dramatically to nab a freshly polished pistol. "I'll just go ahead a nab one of these, if nobody minds..." she says.

[Ramsus]

"If I said I minded could we have a lady macho contest too?" Kanri replies, the grin evident in her tone.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

"That's the long and the short of it, my friend." Super Dragon spreads his arms in a way that makes his cloak flutter dramatically. "If there's anything I can do to help, then, by the spirits, I'm going to do it!"

~

Kanri & Shandrya

Sirum checks the list again and shakes his head. "No can do, sorry. Boom Grenades aren't allowed on this outing."

Cryptid stands stock still as Shandrya makes her position known. There are a few moments of silence, aside from the snickering Dextro Duo, followed by a simple question. "Where's your hump"? She asks, befuddled.

[Comissar]

Vatia chuckles, shaking her head as she does. Falling quiet for a few moments, she lets her gaze drift out over the lake ahead of them. Breaking the silence, she commented softly, "I think they've got quite a high opinion of you here, I don't think I've heard any of the colonists say a bad word against you."

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya looks incredulously at Lucinia for a split second before her look turns to a glare. "Move, turian. Now. This isn't your affair." She considers Cryptid for a long moment, her face frozen in a snarl, unsure if the woman is taunting her or not. "You want to see a hump, smartass? Throw a punch, I'll show you my hump," she says, attempting to push Lucinia aside should she not move of her own accord.

[roll0] = 1 + 3 = 4 for Shandrya's Forceful effort to move Lucinia aside if necessary.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

Super Dragon's mandibles twitch and he shrugs his shoulders. "That's wonderful to hear. Let's hope I don't let them down any time soon."

~

Shandrya, Lucinia, & Kanri

Cryptid seems to stare in response to Shandrya's snarl, taking half a step backwards. "Do you want a hug?" She asks, finally.

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia sees the asari gearing up to shove her out of the way, and takes a step to the side.

"Alright, alright, I get the message," she says, backing off. "Still, I maintain that we should save the posturing for when there are actually monsters and bad guys to shoot. I'd really hate to waste my omni gel patching you two up before the ship even hits the ground.

[Comissar]

Vatia shrugs, "Just keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure you won't. I think it's doing them good to have a dependable ally." She turns her head to look over at Super Dragon, "I don't suppose you know what made the original investors pull out? That abandoned building above the current colony site looked like it used to be pretty state of the art, hard to imagine what made them abandon the colony without attempting an evacuation."

[Hazuki]

Vatia

"I'm not entirely sure." Super Dragon looks over the lake. "But, as it is with many things, I suppose the money just ran out! Staff and equipment don't come cheap, as I well know!" He chuckles. "And Angel Valley is a viable colony, else they couldn't have done so well after all these years! Aside from the comm buoys, it would be one of many perfectly suitable frontier colonies."

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya glares at Cryptid a moment longer as Lucinia's words sink in. Finally, she spits out a slew of curses that the translator seems not to pick up. "Forget it. You're not worth killing," the asari says as she steps away, her face locked in a grimace. She breathes out noisily through her nose as she turns to Sirum, trying to forget Cryptid exists. "Can I have a few of those grenades? You know I can put them to use just as well as Kanri," she says, trying to lighten the situation but still noticeably tense.

[Hazuki]

"Lift Grenades approved." Sirum says, tapping at his omni-tool and gesturing to the box of discs

[Ramsus]

"Ok then, we all done here? Come along Doc Number Two and Anger Management Issues. We're off to see a girl, planet, about a dog...-like... creature... maybe!" and with that, Kanri leads the way back to the shuttle.

((I wasn't ever sure if Cryptid was coming along or was just the best random encounter ever. If she is, that's fine by me though.))

[Comissar]

"That's true." Vatia concedes, "And we should have the comms buoy situation sorted before too long, it'll be good for the colony to have regular contact again."

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya shoots Kanri a glare, considers mentioning her seniority over the quarian to cow her, then decides such a thing would come off as childish. She takes the grenades and puts them in a belt pouch with a sigh. "Yeah, let's be off. Now I really need to kill something," the asari says, following after Kanri and hoping Cryptid remains behind.

[Hazuki]

Kanri, Lucinia, & Shandrya

When the group piles into the shuttle, they're greeted by the backs of the heads of The Heralds. A peculiar song is playing as they wait for everyone to pile in, to the tune of "Fly, merc pilots fly, so hiiiiiiigh~"

~

Vatia

Super Dragon nods his head. "You are planning to stick around, aren't you?"

[Ramsus]

Before getting in Kanri double checks that all the right equipment for this bug hunt is loaded up.

[Comissar]

Vatia raises an eyebrow at Super Dragon's question, "In Angel Valley you mean?" She leans back, propping herself up with her hands behind herself, "I... Hadn't really thought about it to be honest. My plan was to stick around long enough to make sure everything was working, then move on to the next job." She paused, taking in the scenery for a few moments, before looking back at her fellow Turian, "What makes you ask? Going to miss me when I'm gone?"

[Hazuki]

Super Dragon looks impressed by Vatia raising an appendage Turians don't have. Then he laughs and points at Vatia, as though recognizing her joke and affirming that, yes, he got it, and is amused. "Maybe, maybe. But aside from losing your splendid company, I am quite concerned with, well, pirates. Thus far, Angel Valley's 'dead' status has kept it protected from such dastardly folk. I fear that they'll crawl out of the woodwork, so it were, should Angel Valley start communicating with the greater galaxy..."

[Comissar]

Vatia nods thoughtfully, "That is an important issue to consider. Do you know if there's heavy pirate activity in the neighbouring systems?"

[Hazuki]

"Not heavy activity, but it's not quite Citadel space, either." Super Dragon nods sagely. "I hesitate to use the word, but scavengers of a sort would be a fine word for them. Not ambitious, I suppose."

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia nestled into her seat aboard the ship, fidgeting with the safety harness a bit before finally getting comfortable. It had been a while since she had been out on the field, though she always fell right back in to the routine fairly quickly. The twang of the music on the radio was a little more harsh on the ears than she would have liked, so she tapped her visor a couple of times until her "Getting Ready to Shoot Things and Get Shot At Playlist" buzzed into life in her ear. She leaned back, content, leaning her head towards Shandrya.

"You know, if you're looking to soothe those tense nerves of yours, I have some musical recommendations that might help. Have you heard of Tarruk's Dirge? They've got this Krogan who sings funeral songs over a backing band that has two drummers. One of 'em is a krogan, and the other' s a volus. Can you imagine?

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya flashes a familiar grin at the Heralds and waves as she takes her seat. The doctor slides next to her and starts making music recommendations. The asari looks at Lucinia like she has two heads. "Whose funeral am I listening to a song for, turian?" she asks with a scoff, strapping herself in and making sure her weaponry -- especially the grenades -- is secure. She silently prays that there will be enemies, or at least predators, that need killing on their little excursion.

[Comissar]

Vatia nods, "I'll bring it up with the Captain when I'm back on the ship, see if he can arrange something through Fairlight. Unless you know someone who might be able to help?"

[Hazuki]

Vatia

Super Dragon considers the horizon. "Well, I don't think I have many favors left to call!" He chuckles, and it somehow still sounds genuine. "In the end, I suppose, the only long-term defense would be, well, securing Angel Valley itself."

[Comissar]

Vatia sits forward again, pulling her knees up in front of herself, "Yeah, setting a few big guns up couldn't hurt, but was it really that tricky getting yourself out here that you had to call in favours? ... Just eager to get away from it all?"

[Hazuki]

"To be honest with you, I didn't have a great many favors from the start! I'm not terribly long out of mandatory service and, well, I can't say I was the life of the party there." Super Dragon admits. "But, I made enough friends, just enough, to get what I needed and come here! A happy ending, all in all, wouldn't you say?"

[Comissar]

"Aside from the worry of pirates and scavengers?" Vatia's mandibles twitch in amusement, "Sounds like the perfect set up."

[Hazuki]

"Oh, they'll stop being a problem eventually." Super Dragon laughs. "So! Is there anything else you'd like to discuss, now that we have the opportunity?"

[Hazuki]

Lucinia, Kanri, & Shandrya

The sounds of a quiet confrontation can be heard from outside the shuttle, as Sirum explains to Cryptid that she can either go on the task or play with her grenades. Given that the shuttle remains relatively roomy, and the door closes not long after, it's easy to intuit the result. Within moments, the shuttle has smoothly departed the Sparrow and is on its way to pick flowers for science. The Heralds talk softly between themselves at the front of the shuttle, although it's not particularly interesting, as they relay instructions and adjustments to each other.

[Comissar]

Vatia shrugs, "Well, you don't have to answer if I'm getting too personal, but it'd be interesting to know a little more about you. What lead you to the life of daring philanthropy you find yourself living today?"

[Ramsus]

"Just so we don't have any confusion, I believe I'm in charge of this mission being the most senior science officer right?" Kanri asks. She really wanted to be telling, but didn't feel much like risking upsetting "the Blue Krogan" in a confined airborne space. Also she figures the Doc might be smart enough to point out that, at least so far, Kanri doesn't actually have any such title in any official capacity.

[Rhaegar14]

Shandrya closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths, lengthening her exhales to calm down. Her frustration is not accomplishing anything and directed at someone who is no longer present. "Suit yourself, Kanri. But on the off chance that we come under attack, I'm in charge, because I definitely have seniority over you in security," the asari says with a slightly forced chuckle.

[Ramsus]

Kanri turns her head to see what Lucinia has to say about this.

[Hazuki]

Vatia

Super Dragon's mandibles twitch. "Well, somebody has to do it, don't they"

[James_Beckett]

Lucinia bobs her head the the rhythm of the music playing through her visor, though she can hear the others' conversation perfectly. It is a familiar one; she can't remember how many squabbles over hierarchy and leadership she'd had to endure since leaving Palaeven and taking up the life of a walking medkit for mercs. If there was one thing she might almost consider admitting she missed about the Turian navy, it was the fact that everybody knew their place in the pecking order. Your role was your role, no questions asked.

It was what had endeared her to service the most as a child, and what eventually made her abandon it completely.

"Don't look at me,"she says without opening her eyes. "My job is to patch you guys up when you've got holes in you that don't belong. If you need advice on multi-vitamin dosage or how to proerly amputate a limb, I'm your girl. When the shooting starts, though, I follow the bloodtrails, and not much else."

[Ramsus]

"Great! I'm in charge of something already! I thought it'd be at least a year until I got to be in charge of anything." Kanri says in a self-congratulatory manner.

"Of course it's not like there's any opportunity to steal anything or get up to any other kind of mischief on this job really, so that's probably the only reason none of the higher ups put a 'Do Not Let Kanri Be In Charge' stamp in bold red letters on the mission briefing between every paragraph." She thinks to herself.

[Comissar]

Vatia tilts her head at Super Dragon's non-answer. "... Therefore that someone has to be you? There are plenty of charities in the galaxy, I doubt they expect their volunteers to give up everything to work on the frontier with merc's towing their ship and leaving them behind."

[Hazuki]

Super Dragon chuckles. "True, true. A fine point from that mercenary." He says, wagging a finger at her. "It's more of, not quite that, but something similar. I feel, quite strongly, that we, in particular, should be making an effort to repair the unpleasant atmosphere between us and humans."

[Comissar]

Vatia's mandibles twitch as she considers Super Dragon's comment. Eventaully she nods, "... That's a noble goal to aim for. There's a lot that went wrong during the relay incident."

[Hazuki]

Super Dragon nods slowly. "And nobody wiling to take the blame."

[Comissar]

Vatia sits silently for a few moments more, contemplating the difficulties of inter-species relationships. "Well... It's a good start you're making here regardless."