The Hunting Grounds IV: Drops Contain 0% RNG

[Reinholdt]

Crashed Ship - Rein

Yuck. Wet webbing was the worst. It's doubly bad cause that means it's fresh. On the plus side at least, there's actual muttering? Rein thinks that might be a plus. If it's someone caught in the webs, then it might not be that great. But if it's whoever made the webs, well at least they can communicate. And if they can communicate, they can be reasoned with. Rein enjoys reason.

No guarantee they won't be hostile immediately though, especially if it's an actual escaped prisoner, so Rein will try and remain quiet, floating out of the vents and continuing to clear a path with an increasingly webbed pole and scan the area from within the room. Normally he'd maneuver to peek inside first, but the risk of accidental webbing is just too high maneuvering around at that many angles just to poke his head in, even with his anti-webbing stick.

[Zefir]

You know what's worse than food that's too hot?
Food that's too hot and then disappears!
The centipede hisses its anger at Ifrit and the world, and turns on Anchor, chomping through the trunk of the tree she's hiding in with a single bite.
She responds to this by jumping forward, over the monster's jaws and onto its (extremely long) back.

This can only end well.

Karl can certainly hide amongst the rocks and be safe. For at least a few more moments.

Karl takes a few breathes. Then he stands up and looks over his hideout to observe the situation. The big one is going for his friend? Not sure if friend is the right word.

Now how could I help her? Ifrit is surly to injured to be summoned again. Carbuuncle is only defensiv which might not be usefull, since that thing would still swallow him whole. The skeletonsare way to weak to deal with this thing. There seems to be no other way then to summon shiva now. No time to worry now. He just goes on starting his summoning.

It will take a turn befor the summoning will appear but the bright blue light will surly tell everyone around where Karl is.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra nods. She's picked up the broadcast on her own internal comm, but there's no reason to mention it now. Instead, she simply takes up the point position, in a manner that suggests she's a very experienced soldier.

"It will be easier if you can fly, but I believe I can carry both of you up through the hatch if that's not an option," she says, as she leads them quickly back the way they came, back towards the bridge.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

"Stay hidden from exposure or help me prevent an outbreak. If it does get out, it will come back to you, one way or another. If you cannot help, I suggest barricading the entrances to your sections of the ship. If I can obtain a prisoner manifest to check against and better know when everything is safe, all the better. Either way, I have to move out and get a map of this ship." Two's drawn, well, her two pistols, not bothering to do any customary checks, as she already knows they're in perfect working order. They're oversized for her stature, or for most humans really, but the cybernetics seem to make it work.

Well, the cybernetics and her powers to let her actually do that remotely practically.

[Recaiden]

Karl takes a few breathes. Then he stands up and looks over his hideout to observe the situation. The big one is going for his friend? Not sure if friend is the right word.

Now how could I help her? Ifrit is surly to injured to be summoned again. Carbuuncle is only defensiv which might not be usefull, since that thing would still swallow him whole. The skeletonsare way to weak to deal with this thing. There seems to be no other way then to summon shiva now. No time to worry now. He just goes on starting his summoning.

It will take a turn befor the summoning will appear but the bright blue light will surly tell everyone around where Karl is.

Maybe-friend?

The monster is twisting around trying to get at the little human on its back when the bright light appears.
Whatever. It can't eat light. It ignores Karl for now.

Anchor manages to speak that sharp-edged spell of pain, but it rolls over the monster with no affect. It's too alien to be hurt in that way.
Then the monster twists and she's thrown off of it to the ground.

It would be great if Karl's summon arrived before the centipede can finish her off.

[Zefir]

[Forest]

For a moment the light fades and in front of Karl stands a beautifull half naked woman. Her skin ice blue and the area around her seems to freez.

"Hello Karl." her clear voice rings through the air. "What ca...."

"Not much time. Just Fuse."

"What?"

"Oh come on. Giant centiped thingy going to kill me otherwise."

Shiva glimps at the monster. "Fine." she says and another light consumes Karl and Shiva.

A moment later A lance made of Ice darts at the monter like some kind of ballista bolt. Hopefully this will be enougth to penetrate the skin. Should it do so, then the area around the lance will freez. Would a human be hit he would be frozen solid, but such a big creature should be able to withstand it.
On the place where Karl was now stands a knight ina shining ice blue armor. He just threw the lance and in his hand another one appears. In the ground next to him lays a hellebard also in a bright blue material. The person appears much taller then Karl and a bit more muscular.

[Recaiden]

The centipede rears up over Anchor and-
Gets stabbed with a lance, the bolt of ice tearing into its armored hide and starting to freeze it from the inside out!

That gets its attention. It turns towards the fused knight and surges forward, trying to catch him in its pincers. It's a little slow, stiff, unable to work the frozen legs under its wound.

[Hattish Thing]

[Crashed Ship - Together Again Trio]

With a somewhat panicked expression upon her face, Anulhi proceeds to grab a few more silver bars before following the others.

[Zefir]

[Forest]

After Karl got the attention of the monster he uses the ice lance again.
The lance hovers above his hand, but his armor seems a bit different. It appears like it is slowly melting. The energy used to maintain Ifrit and to summon Shiva has taken it's price. He needs to wait for a chance when the monster is close and can't dodge the lance as his target is the head. That's the best spot since he got no ide where it's heart is. So he will wait untill the monster is up close and shoot the lance right where the monsters eyes are. At best the monster will flinch wich will give him the chance to roll to the side, picking up his hellebard and dodging the attack. At worst the thing will just go on and consume him on the spot.

[UncleWolf]

Heart of the Jungle

Glavvy hesitates for just a moment when he sees the eye, not quite sure of what to make of it, but he doesn't hesitate long enough that he's caught by surprise by the underground motion. He wrenches his tail out of the ground before slamming it back down, directly in the path of the oncoming movement so whatever it is will end up likely spearing itself on his super-heated tail unless it changes direction.

Crashed Ship - Trio

Glavvy wasn't a stranger to smelling fear from people he'd fought, but it was certainly new to smell it when it wasn't directed at him. Prey naturally ran, and sometimes so did predators when they encountered him...but he'd never really seen hunters run away like that before. He watches them oddly for a few seconds as instincts start ringing in his head that he needs to leave and leave fast. To them, he just pauses, watching them for a moment before he lopes over to his wrecked nest to grab a couple wheels of cheese in his mouth. As soon as he's gotten his own precious cargo, he begins running away as well.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

The two let her lead the way, but as she goes Kendra might notice the itching in her hand won't seem to go away and even grow a bit worse. If she knows anything about nannites, she might realize that whatever this colony was, it certainly wasn't dead.

Crashed Ship - Rein

The mess hall is pretty well covered in webbing from floor to wall to ceiling. Much of the airspace is clear, but he'll still have to navigate through several hanging body-shaped cocoons. The grumbling seems to come from the kitchen as a drider shaped form rummages through cabinets to try and get anything valuable. "I know you're there!" She calls out, shoving an arm full of cutlery into a sack made of webbing. "Ain't got time anymore though. If ya want out quickly, cut down that third cocoon on the left an' hand her here. Don't know about you but I'm cuttin' my losses and skedaddlin' before I get shut in here."

The drider is female and sports a shimmering green lower body. Her lower body looks quite a bit like an ambush spider's, made for leaping and pouncing, but overall she actually wasn't all that big. She only stood five and a half feet tall even with her spider body. Her upper body is covered by an oversized and baggy upper half of an orange jumpsuit.

Crashed Ship - Two

The slime seems unhappy, and rightfully so. Frustrated too. Even so, it steps aside and gestures at the wall of slime mold. It peels back slowly, showing a console. It was running off of what little backup power was left, so unless she had a way to put more power into the system, she would have a limited time to finish finding what she wanted.

Elsewhere, the slime mold filled space suits start heading towards the airlocks, trying to make sure at least some of the entity made it out "alive".

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

As they get out of the ship Violet will keep jogging along with Ravanys and Anulhi until they stop, at which point she'll try to slap Ravanys on the back of the head while they're recovering from the run.

Thanks. She says afterwards, before she spots Glavvy start running after them. Oh hell yeah time for round 2! She spins her spear around once, getting set to charge the glavenus again.

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

Well that was certainly an odd sight. He's not terribly familiar with driders in general beyond the whispers he's picked up in the Black Dragon's Den about their ruthlessness. Judging from the outfit she was either an engineer, or more likely one of those prisoners. But why on earth steal the cutlery? They can't be worth much. He'd understand it if this was a luxury space cruise liner or something, but a cargo ship? Those had to have been the cheapest whoever owns this felt they could get away with.

Despite the strange choice in loot, those body shaped cocoons were extremely troublesome. Ugh. If he had more time, maybe he could deal with the situation properly. At least he won't need the flamethrower. This was clearly not another swarm. Conventional weapons would probably be enough if it became necessary.

"Fine," Rein says, revealing himself. He's not wholly surprised she knew he was there. Half the point of webbing is to feel when something vibrates it right? Rein puts the flamethrower back into the hammerspace and drops his overly webbed stick to the ground, in favor of pulling out a machete and complying with her request. Cutting down the third from the left and half-tossing it to her. "Just tell me. How many of these are people? Did you kill them?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra does indeed have experience with nannites, having her own set as part of her auto-repair system. Her body has defenses against them, but they haven't been updated in quite some time. Considering they came out of the doctor, and the doctor seems to be human enough, she's reasonably sure that they won't cause her too many issues. She ignores the itching and continues on, more concerned with getting her charges out of the ship before it's locked down, than possible nano-contamination.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Trio]

Ravanys does not appreciate getting slapped in the back of her head. At all.

So her response is to whip her tail at Violet's legs, attempting to trip her.

Leave that thing alone. Sheesh. Already almost killed you once. I'm not helping you take it out again.

[Recaiden]

After Karl got the attention of the monster he uses the ice lance again.
The lance hovers above his hand, but his armor seems a bit different. It appears like it is slowly melting. The energy used to maintain Ifrit and to summon Shiva has taken it's price. He needs to wait for a chance when the monster is close and can't dodge the lance as his target is the head. That's the best spot since he got no ide where it's heart is. So he will wait untill the monster is up close and shoot the lance right where the monsters eyes are. At best the monster will flinch wich will give him the chance to roll to the side, picking up his hellebard and dodging the attack. At worst the thing will just go on and consume him on the spot.

The monster doesn't flinch, but the lance strikes it right between the eyes and knocks it off course. It's front few segments fall on the side, splintering a tree that it collides with.

It isn't finished, the monster, but it won't be biting anyone anytime soon. It's thoroughly frozen.
It still squirms about, its frozen bits swinging clumsily, trying to keep track of Karl.

Anchor says a few words over her gun, a spell to keep it on target, and fires at the centipede.
A pinprick to such a big monster.

[Halae]

Heart of the Jungle

Glavvy hesitates for just a moment when he sees the eye, not quite sure of what to make of it, but he doesn't hesitate long enough that he's caught by surprise by the underground motion. He wrenches his tail out of the ground before slamming it back down, directly in the path of the oncoming movement so whatever it is will end up likely spearing itself on his super-heated tail unless it changes direction.

[Heart of the Jungle]

Glavvy doesn't quite strike the moving thing, because of how thin it is. It's like an incredibly long needle made of wood, and as it surges forward, it attempts to stab Glavvy in the flank. It may quickly become clear that this is a probing attack, as it's not likely to get through the armored plating in Glavvy's sides, the wood breaking before it can get through his flesh, but still. And once it becomes clear that the creature thinks it has his measure, even more eyes begin opening up in the nearby trees, all at once, to stare at him from every angle... and shooting spikes towards him from under the ground. One has to assume that these won't be so weak as the first.

[Zefir]

The monster doesn't flinch, but the lance strikes it right between the eyes and knocks it off course. It's front few segments fall on the side, splintering a tree that it collides with.

It isn't finished, the monster, but it won't be biting anyone anytime soon. It's thoroughly frozen.
It still squirms about, its frozen bits swinging clumsily, trying to keep track of Karl.

Anchor says a few words over her gun, a spell to keep it on target, and fires at the centipede.
A pinprick to such a big monster.

Not what Karl expected, but you take what you get.

He takes his weapon and dashes backwards to overview he creature.

With it's frozen parts he should have less problems getting away from the clumsy swings. He needs a moment to gather his breath. Things haven't been easy here.

The next moment he charges forward. Why? Well he doesn't have any more power to shoot the ice lace adn the best way to find a weak spot is close up.

"Shoot something between the segments." he shouts. The voice sounds different then usual. a lot more feminin and higher then Karl would normaly talk.

He himself tries to get close enougth to jump on the creatures back or at least distract it.

[Recaiden]

The first three of its fifty segments are coated in ice, stiff and unmoving, as are two about a third of the way down it's back where the lance first struck. Its eyes are frosted over and its jaws aren't moving. Although Anchor's last shot didn't look impressive, the legs near the wound are limp, poison spreading across them. These might actually be fatal injuries. It probably needs its head. It was a pernicious poison.
But it hasn't stopped fighting yet.
It's certainly capable of squishing someone like...well...a bug.

Jumping on the creature's back would normally not be the best idea. But slow and injured as it is, Karl manages to do it!
The centipede rears up on its many back legs and whirls about, hoping to force him to let go. If he's got enough strength he'll manage to hold on, though. If he's really unlucky he'll get thrown against those rocks.

"Got it!"
Anchor holds out a hand, and her shadow passes a spear into her fingertips.
So armed, she charges the monster, aiming for the joint halfway down its length...

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

"If you must leave, move quickly. I know it just happened and you haven't been exposed, but they won't see it that way, nor can they, after they get here. It will take time for them to get here, thanks to hostile monitoring preventing us from keeping a base in the region, but after they get here the time for lenience will have passed." A pause. The next time she speaks, her monotone breaks. "Tell no one else we've met, much less that I was lenient. I'm not supposed to be capable of thinking to do that."

She doesn't seem to bother actually interfacing with the console at all, rather, immediately 'asking' every question with her hyper-awareness. If it contains a map of the ship, it will rapidly be committed to her augmented memory. If it has the vaguest directions, so too will they. Using a computer for something as simple as data access is beneath someone like this, unless that power doesn't work on the computer itself for whatever reason.

[Heart of the Jungle]

It starts with a feeling, a nagging sense of wrongness, growing further into rising dread and understanding. If the beast succeeds, she would be next.

First she tries to ignore it, believing herself ill-prepared for a return, not yet ready, but it's quickly apparent that it will come to her, no matter what.

The winds above begin to swirl and circulate, seemingly conjuring a storm from nothing. The tropical climate here will make for a terrible rain once it builds up.

[UncleWolf]

Heart of the Jungle

Glavvy isn't agile enough to dodge the probing attack, but he's no fool. He realizes he's being tested when the attacks start coming from all angles. He was going to be hit, and he was likely going to be hit hard. There was no way he'd be able to dodge all of them, but he could at least keep moving and avoid some. Despite having wanted to try and protect himself and fight defensively, he charges forward with his tail swinging low to the ground and at his side. He turns as he runs, trying his best to intercept not just a handful of the attacks with the bladed tail but also to use the burning edge to cleave right through one or two tree trunks that the eyes seem to be sprouting from.

As for the intruder into his fight, he definitely senses the disturbance in the air. Rain certainly hadn't seemed likely before, but the unnatural weather incoming made his instincts scream to run. Even so, he had a fight to deal with.

Crashed Ship - Trio

Violet is rewarded by having a wheel of cheese thrown at her while the Glavenus runs past. He wasn't too keen on fighting, but he'd take a cheap shot at least.

Crashed Ship - Two

"Some of us shall escape. Some will stay." The knightly slime explains as he just sits down cross-legged as if it were somehow relaxing for the mold to actually be positioned like that despite not having a real body to worry about.

There is indeed a basic map, but there seems to be some degree of data corruption as patches of the hold and engineering areas seem to be missing. It seems to be the same type of "corruption" or static that surrounds the slime mold itself. The real question is which came first. There isn't a prisoner manifest though. In its place she'll just find a large weight of "Miscellaneous Organics" stored near the front of the ship. Everything else is heavily detailed in tonnage but that seems awfully vague.

Crashed Ship - Rein

"All five are people, two were killed by my hand. This one is alive and so are the others but they can stay." The Drider explains as she effortlessly catches the body and rests it on her abdomen as if the person was a set of saddlebags. "They all deserve it, to be fair. Unrepentant guards for the most part. This one...well, she was the only one that I met that actually bothered talking to me so I won't kill her." She states, reaching around to pat the bundle before closing her satchel full of cutlery and placing it next to a second one that was full of canned and packaged food.

"Got a question of my own though." A bloody knife is gently picked up from the counter, not held threateningly but certainly ready to be used. "Is that ultraviolet glow in your pocket the power core to the ship or are you just happy to see me?" She asks, a cheeky smile crossing her lips. "Not that I want it or anything, but, uh, can't be healthy." She points out before gesturing with her knife towards the back of the kitchen. "Emergency corridor is open. Couple rights an' a left and you'll come out a bit above surface level where a few escape pods seemed to have launched. If you see a big fiery t-rex lookin' feller, give him a boop on the nose and a hello for me. I'm going to grab a bit more in the way of perishables before I get goin' with the Missus." She explains, patting the body on her abdomen once again.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

If Kendra is capable of getting any sort of alerts from her nannites as to the nature of the new invaders, she'll be informed that they aren't being overtly aggressive just yet. Instead they seem to be taking stock of what their new potential host has.

On the way to the exit, it seems mostly just as it had been left, but there's a new scent of formic acid on the air that's growing quite a bit more powerful. And quickly. She might also notice the sound of skittering within the walls while Angel Slayer certainly has. He picks up the scientist, ready to defend her as Kendra leads the way.

The bridge is found again, but it is there where the arm-length centipedes seem to burst out of the vents to try and find flesh to rip into.

[Halae]

[Heart of the Jungle]

Glavvy's strike is rewarded - cleaving through trees with eyes in them clearly causes pain to the creature, if the erratic, pressurized thumps in the air mean anything. While its earlier attacks only did minimal strike damage, it's redoubling its strikes to try and hit Glavvy, as it apparently wasn't particularly impressed with him before.

What's interesting is that Glavvy may note that there's small, almost fleshy tendrils inside the wood he cut apart, writhing after having been disconnected. Where did they come from? Are they controlling the trees?

Meanwhile, overhead, the one controlling the weather will find some... difficulty. Almost like something is pushing against their mastery of the sky.

[Reinholdt]

[Crashed Ship - Rein]

Rein frowns but doesn't protest the fate of the guards. It's hard not to sympathize with the Drider. Ah well. The ones left behind and still living would be rescued by the quarantine. Presumably.

"Healthy?" Rein glances down. "I suppose not. I was in a rush. Am in a rush. Unnatural death swarms and all that." Ugh. Still, she was right. It could be unstable and explode or something. Reinholdt moves to a table and pulls out a metal box, fiddling with the combination to get the lid open. "Regardless, I think I'll stick with you. Not that you have any reason I know of to lie to me about the directions. But I don't know of any reason for you to tell me the truth either." Plus he doesn't want to put her directly to his back. That's pretty risky.

Ah, that was the combination. Once the lid is open, Rein will use the cloth from earlier to pull out the power core and put inside the padded interior of the box, before closing it again. "There. That has all sorts of wards." Mostly against cursed magical objects, but it probably at least dampens the radiation output. It's just more awkward to carry this way. And he definitely can't put that powerful an energy source into his hammerspace. That would just collapse the whole thing. "Back to the hurrying, I will buy you dinner and a month's worth of groceries if we leave now please." Whatever amount of food it takes to get them moving!

[billtodamax]

Crashed Ship - Trio

Violet tumbles as the wheel of cheese lands on her, knocking the wind out of her.

What the f- Violet you aren't allowed to say that. Is this cheese? She asks incredulously. She doesn't put it down though. Her cheese now. Whatever, I'm sticking around to watch whatever thing that announcer guy has planned. If you decide not to be a little baby about it we can track down that thing later. She tells Ravanys, before curling her legs into a crossed position and leaning back to watch the ship.

Successful hunt!

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Crashed Ship - Duo]

Ravanys gives a slight snort of laughter, shaking her head a bit.

So that thing nearly kills you, and you wanna fight it again? Stubborn much?

Ravanys takes a seat next to the crazy woman, her legs out in front of her.

Remind me of my daughter with that. That girl is crazy stubborn.

[Zefir]

The first three of its fifty segments are coated in ice, stiff and unmoving, as are two about a third of the way down it's back where the lance first struck. Its eyes are frosted over and its jaws aren't moving. Although Anchor's last shot didn't look impressive, the legs near the wound are limp, poison spreading across them. These might actually be fatal injuries. It probably needs its head. It was a pernicious poison.
But it hasn't stopped fighting yet.
It's certainly capable of squishing someone like...well...a bug.

Jumping on the creature's back would normally not be the best idea. But slow and injured as it is, Karl manages to do it!
The centipede rears up on its many back legs and whirls about, hoping to force him to let go. If he's got enough strength he'll manage to hold on, though. If he's really unlucky he'll get thrown against those rocks.

"Got it!"
Anchor holds out a hand, and her shadow passes a spear into her fingertips.
So armed, she charges the monster, aiming for the joint halfway down its length...

[Forest]

Karl is currently a bit exhausted. The whole fight has drawn more strength then he expected and on top the creature musses some grips. So when Karl is close to fall he tries the last thing he can think of. He tries to get the blade of the hellebard between the centipeds segments and hopefully hooking up. With that he got something to grab and maintain his position.

If there is no hook up for his weapon, then Karl will be thrown off the creature.

[Recaiden]

Luckily, the centipede has lots of creases and protrusions. Karl's halberd catches around one of the monster's legs and Keeps himself steady.

And Anchor, following Karl's advice, drives the spear into the gap between two of the monster's segments, and tears it open.

Finally, all at once, the strength goes out of the vast centipede. Most of its legs go out from under it, though a few still twitch and work, and it collapses to the ground.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

Two shakes her head at the console like she's snapping out of a bad case of zoning out. "Ugh, what is this? This isn't right, it's like I'm getting data not found errors, that doesn't happen. You can't just make actual information not exist. Actual data corruption is one thing, but I would know if that was all, and it's not, it's on you as much as this system. And in here, it's exactly where anything sensitive would be. For secrecy, or safety? Would you know?"

[Heart of the Jungle]

The presence above continues trying to manipulate the winds, but absent anything else, shifts to scanning in the meantime, seeking a more specific target. The heat from the Glavenus tail might just be a dead giveaway.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Crashed Ship - Kendra

Kendra's auto repair system reports the nano-contamination to her, but she ignores the report. The nannites will find that her body is that of a fairly advanced android, albeit one that reports its age as being several thousand years old. She's been designed for combat as well. There are integrated weapons systems in her forearms that allow her to manipulate destructive energy in various ways, and a number of systems that seem to indicate that she was designed for aerial combat as well, though curiously, she seems to be missing some of the hardware required to actually fly. One further curious bit is that her own system reports various functions as operating well beyond 100%, though none of them seem to be reporting errors. There are areas that could definitely be improved, but it might take a bit of analysis before the nannites can figure out what they can start improving.

Kendra herself throws her arms out as the centipedes burst into the room, and a massive shockwave of compressed air emnates from her, whipping her robe/cloak about, and revealing the purple armor underneath it. It's form-fitting and futuristic, the greaves encompassing the entire lower leg, and ending in a heeled, armored boot, though the others probably don't see much of it above the waist. The plates are a bit battered, but definitely still seem to be doing their job, as is the black bodysuit just visible underneath. Around her waist is a belt, with several large pouches hung from it.

The shockwave is powerful enough to throw an ordinary human from their feet, and she's hoping it will knock anything that gets too close back long enough to acquire and eliminate it, but if not, they'll find she's less than a soft target. Angel Slayer, as large and heavy as he is, should have no trouble standing through it, though.

[UncleWolf]

Crashed Ship - Rein

"Deal!" The Drider shouts, stopping her looting and heading to the exit. "Don't blame ya for the mistrust though. Under other circumstances I'd probably have tried to mislead you." She admits, skittering through the emergency corridor. She goes the exact route she mentioned and there's a small array of escape pod bays. A quarter were damaged, half were launched, the rest working on their own power reserves, and one of them was open to the outside air. When she gets there she reaches into a web pouch to pull out a keycard. "Want to take a pod, or just climb down to the ground? No guarantee about the distance they'll go but I imagine they'll launch a fair ways."

Crashed Ship - Two

"Both, actually." A voice rings inside of Two's head. It seems to come both from inside her head and from the entrance to the Officer's quarters. When she undoubtedly turns around, there's a walking [EXPUNGED] stopping at the entrance. "Oh, pardon me. Let me make this easier." A moment after the entity says that, a faceless man wearing a neatly tailored suit, purple paisley tie, and a bowler stands there. His hands are gloved, but he finishes twisting a ring on his left pinky. "To answer your question, it is for safety, secrecy, and security. And yes, you can actually destroy data and all its relations. It just isn't easy." He explains, reaching up to adjust his hat and tie before pulling a brass-topped cane out of thin air to rest on.

Two will find that despite having no face at all, there's still suggestions of facial features from the bone structure underneath. "I am Administrator Orthos, and I assume you're the one that sent off that quarantine message. I must advise that it would really be a bad idea to have your men try and enter the parts of the ship that you can't find on the map. There are more than a few memetic hazards on this ship and Agent Twelve here was supposed to secure it all before this ship made its rendezvous which is why it was on board. I am pleased to at least see that there's been a partial success though."

Despite being able to see Administrator Orthos now, no information at all will spring to Two's mind about him. The same static feeling as she had trying to figure out the slime seems to come from him, possibly as a result of that ring.

Crashed Ship - Kendra

The invading nannites don't act just yet apart from finding a place to hide and grow without harming their new host. Enhancements, "corrections", and replacements aren't going to happen for a while.

For now, there are more pressing concerns such as a sentient swarm hungering for her flesh.

Angel Slayer stands nice and tall against the wind pressure, though the rescued scientist has to cling to him. The man simply strides forward, crushing parts of the swarm under his heavy armored boots. A few of the centipedes try to impede his progress, but he just pushes through despite them taking a few chunks of the woman in his arms. She hisses, grabs what she can, and crushes them in her grip but if they stall too long they'd inevitably be swarmed so the pair just push out of the sphere of air, grab onto the ladder up to the escape hatch and begin climbing. They seem entirely intent on leaving Kendra behind to deal with the ever growing swarm that continues to grow.

Heart of the Jungle

Several of the roots puncture Glavvy's hide, deep enough to cause pain and bleeding, but they'll find that his body is too hot to stay in as they'll burn. Any other entity would probably be interested in what was inside the tree, but he moves on and continues charging. He swings his tail around, trying to cut another tree or two down as he starts his path of destruction towards the center of the Heart.

[Darkcomet]

[Crashed Ship - Two]

Two turns and freezes when the 'Administrator' arrives and begins his explanation, neither moving in aggression nor relaxing.

There's a long pause while she tries to figure out exactly how to respond to this situation. Obviously an agent of some intelligence agency of some kind far more advanced than even Chimera's own, basically carefully crafted specifically to counter her, but he doesn't know about the ways out she has, or at least didn't before this moment and won't necessarily have a counter to them. A fight to avoid, but maybe he might be vulnerable to bullets, and she can still flee.

"So when a clear clandestine operative drops in like this, it's either to give a job offer, kill someone, or give a job offer on pain of death," she works out. Her tone is strange now, neither her purely monotonous act nor her exaggerated emoting. It's closer to the former, like she's just not used to speaking normally and sounds a bit flat.

No time to worry about how she comes across, it seems.

"And I should warn you, killing a Class A has potentially apocalyptic-level consequences, so you should not, unless you want an incredibly angry entity with an eternity to grow more enraged to regain the faux-omniscience attributed to beings described as deities, making it much more likely that it regains its other three biggest fragments of power. So please don't? We're in agreement that these things on the ship need to be destroyed, but I lack the means without the quarantine force, unless this ship's power supply is sufficiently explosive. The memetics and other hazards escaping here is an unacceptable risk that could contaminate multiple realities."

She immediately attempts to ascertain the potential volatility of the ship's power supply from the nearby portions of the power grid. That could be important if this goes badly, too.