[IC]TotMG:LF The Lost City of Pandtlantis

[Hal Henderics]

He thinks to himself.

 

Well, his current age is perfectly respectable for his skill level, he's even a bit more skilled than some others his age.

 

"I'm ten years old.  Most Shinobi graduate at twelve to become Genin."

 

"Because I had committed it.  I stole forbidden scrolls in an attempt to subvert my clan's Caged Bird seal."

 

Akihiro pulls up cloth wrapped around his head, revealing some kind of purple tattoo.

 

"I decided at an early age that I disliked it's ability to cause my death if a member of the main house decided so, and began using my Byakugan to steal classified information to negate or otherwise prevent it's activation."

 

"According to the ninja sent to capture me, I am referred to as "Thief Walker" internally.  This may be in reference to my method of walking past secure areas, and using my Byakugan to read closed scrolls through the walls."

 

He says, as though reading off a report.  It would be best if she understood his history and some of his capabilities accurately, if they were going to work together.  Considering the scrolls he lacks now, it's unlikely that anything he shared at this point would be worth much in a betrayal.  His skills and knowledge are simply too impacted.

 

"Obviously, allowing my eyes to fall into enemy hands is unacceptable, and my covert theft of secure scrolls would lend credence to the theory that I meant the village harm, and that I was prepared to divulge clan secrets to outsiders, or worse."

[Endlessblaze]

"You were still asleep. It shouldn't be long until we have to go, so get up, and do whatever you need to do to prepare."
 

 

[Yours Truly]

The young girl/woman? pouts at Stella some more, hugging tightly to the blanket like cloak that had fully formed over her dress by this point, "Bluh, fineeee, but only because this floor is really dāchī." The former blanket pile starts to unsteadily get up on her two feet before she took a couple of steps closer to Stella and asked, "I'm cold, where are we going anyway? Is it far? I don't really like walking." She examines the rest of the colorful cast a little more before she realizes something, and lets out a slight eep before she starts to try and cover up more of her face and body with her blanket hoodie before she quietly says, "..._{my name is Doctor Hirata by the way.}"

[Chevaleresse]

Ten? Well, the way he made it sound, it wasn't that uncommon among his people. . . but that didn't make it a good thing. "So basically, they're trying to kill you for not wanting to die?" Talk about a rock and a hard place. "Sounds like they weren't worth the loyalty in the first place." She was curious, though; he had some method of reading things through walls? Didn't sound like a mindhack by description, and not something that could be explained by the augs she knew of. Then again, he was supposedly from a different world or something, so that made sense to her. "You mention your eyes and this, uh, Byakugan? I can't say I've heard of the latter before, and I've been around for. . . a while, what's that about?"

[Hal Henderics]

"I have a bloodline limit, an ability that I inherited at birth, which grants me these eyes, the Byakugan."

 

"Supposedly, I will potentially be able to see several kilometers away, and magnify my vision to the cellular level, all while seeing through all obstacles and illusions."

 

"Right now, however, my field of vision is nearly three hundred and sixty degrees, I am able to see through any obstruction, and can read closed scrolls at a range of roughly 50 meters without fail."

 

"My eyes also afford me the ability to see Chakra, if you are aware of what that is."

 

Everyone here is from another world, they might not even know what Charka is. 

 

He considers to himself the fact that this woman doesn't even know about the Byakugan, and that's... a very well known thing.

 

"I suppose it's unlikely, considering I do not see any chakra in anyone other than myself."  Left unsaid is the utterly foreign things that he sees in place of it.   Something that almost disturbs him.  That disturbation however, is immediately overshadowed and washed away by a burning, overwhelming pang of curiosity.

 

He collects himself and continues.

 

"This all said, I do not necessarily blame my village for the precautions they took.  The Caged Bird Seal, in addition to being able to cause pain and death on command, also automatically renders my eyes inert upon my death, with my seal negated or removed, an enemy could harvest my valuable eyes and use them against the village."

 

He pauses.  He can't help but wonder why on earth he is even DEFENDING the village, all things considered.  Some twisted sentimentality, maybe.  He decides to clarify.

 

"My desire to not die simply outweighs my respect for the village and it's safety.  Nothing more, nothing less."

 

 

[Chevaleresse]

"Sounds like they haven't got a lot of respect for your safety." She wanted to say that the idea of killing a ten year old and harvesting his eyes to get at his augmentations (this sounded like something else, but it was close enough) was shocking to her, but she couldn't quite muster up that emotion at that point. Disgust, maybe, and a tinge of horror, but it wasn't actually the worst thing she'd heard of in the last week or so. . . though it was still pretty bad. Torture/kill switches on kids? "Guess I can see why they'd worry about those eyes, though. If they're even half as effective as you're saying, they'd be invaluable in all sorts of spec ops." That's right, he'd said something about. . . shinobi and genin or something. Ninjas? She vaguely remembered something having to do with ninjas. "Well, I probably won't shoot you, I can promise you that at least."

[Hal Henderics]

He nods, smiling like that's a glowing achievement of camaraderie.  Considering that the act of two strangers working together in his world is perfectly capable of ending with one of them dead, to him, it probably is.

 

Akihiro fails to realize that she could be lying, instead taking her statement at face value.

 

 

[StormLord]

Mechanical stomping can be heard approaching from outside only to stop just beyond the door, a quick click and whoosh signals the door's opening.  A broad shouldered vaguely humanoid robot stands on the other side painted yellow and white like everything else.

"PLEASE FOLLOW ME."

 

It's tone isn't exactly pleasing to the ear and it's voice is obviously synthesized with little inflection.  Those that follow quickly behind are led through several hundred meters of corridors while listening to what sounds less like a guided tour and more like a self advertisement for Hyperion corporation.  Those that don't are quickly ushered out by several more loaders and made to follow anyway.

 

The view through the windows is fairly nice at least, showing glimpses of a large planet below covered in orange/red soil and little water.  Eventually you all make it to a large room with many ports and airlocks, nearby signs indicate it's some kind of docking site for maintenance shuttles.  One port opens and you're all processed through the airlock into the ship on the other side.  The interior of the ship isn't much to marvel at being primarily an empty metal box with seats along the walls, a few supply crates secured in the middle, and a terminal at the "front".

 

"THIS IS AN ECHO DEVICE.  IT ALLOWS FOR LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION.  KEEP IT ON YOU AT ALL TIMES."

 

With that the loader produces a number of devices that look like some kind of high tech tape recorder, at least they're small and fairly light.

 

Eventually the loader activates something on the terminal then the ship breaks off and starts a slow drift towards wherever it is you're headed.

[IntSys]

In all honesty, the robot guide didn't make the best first impression on Vepr-12's digimind. Sure, they could boast all about their "impossibly high standards" with weapons, but man did they really slack off with the robotic vocals.

 

The marvel behind the windows was truly something else for our T-doll here, though. A magnificent planet in a yam's shade, like what could've been a terraformed Mars had her world not gone to the dumps after Collapse Fluid contamination and a third World War. Or maybe that was exactly what it was, who knew.

 

And then it was back to disappointment, with the "compact" spaceship they were assigned to. She grabbed the echo device - which evidently looked better than the ship - and took her seat. "Is it just me, or is this Hyperion corporation actually horrible at everything beyond weapons?" She complained to no one in particular.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

T1-N

 

"Lack of funding towards unneeded components" T1-N replied bluntly as he grabbed his own echo device, a small storage compartment opening up in his chest before he slid the device into it, "But yes, some parts could use some work" he added, glancing at the Loader Bot with them. It was large and strong, that was obvious, but T1-N could already notice its weak points, especially since they had no defense on its joints. There were numerous problems with the B1 Battle Droids, but they at least solved their issue of weakpoints by having their entire body be a weak point. These machines were clearly more expensive and made for better combat, but a few well placed shots would easily cripple them.

 

No one seemed to understand the fundamentals of creating a war machine it seemed.

 

With that, T1-N made his way to the terminal, presumably once the Loader Bot stepped away, if it did, investigating it himself to figure out what he could do with it.

[Endlessblaze]

Stella glanced around intending to simply jump out of the airlock, before realizing whatever idiots had designed this place had put the airlocks entirely station side, and hadn't even secured the ships well enough for it to be worth the trouble of opening one without taking one. 

On top of that the ship was...Less then stellar. It looked more like a crappy escape pod or emergency dropship to her. Admittedly practical for what they had and what the ships were most likely for, but being a goddess who also frequently interacted with alien space ships and tech, in addition to various machines and heavenly devices Stella was used to far more impressive looking transportation. 

At least the communicator looked a little intresting, mostly by way of its unusual appearance. 
As she took a seat she nodded at the girl with a gun

"Not just the ship, the landing bay is a mess to. Even with the inferior technology the way the airlocks are set up is just bad design."

She turns the Echo device over in her hands and pokes at it, the arms of the disc behind her back extend and bend. The things on the end opening up to reveal shifting purple and black patterns and odd parts and markings, "Looking" at the device.

"Hmmm, they have FTL communications though, so at least they figured that trick out." 
 

Spoiler

Craft: 26 vs 23, Quality: 70, The device is equipped with long range communicator, voice recorder/playback, remote uplink to wireless network(s), and other assumed functions. She could integrate the tech into something else or flat out produce a copy without much effort.

She pockets the device, knowing that the local humans probbly weren't very used to telepathy, nor would any humans at the station be able to initate it if they needed to call.

 
 

 

[kj1225]

Jack took his echo device, looking around a bit before finally shoving it into his belt. He had no idea what it was or how to work it, but he was used to winging it with these futurey bits and bobs. He paused for a moment with a look as though he was trying to remember something before finally snapping his fingers. "My ship! I don't have my... shit, what happened to my..." Jack looks annoyed before pulling out the echo device and smacking the side of it. "Oi, Boss Man Jack, what happened to my ship and crew? It's gonna be annoying to get around without them you know."

[DragonRage]

Zoe pockets her echo device, still grumbling at how she wasn't able to get anything good out of the walls.  "I admit to having flown in more questionable scrap heaps than this one.  Not by choice.  Those of you who don't have a space suit should probably start hyperventillating now in case something goes pop and you need to hold your breath.  Remember to breathe out if it comes to that.  The air's coming out either way, but your lungs will rupture slower if you do it that way."

 

Zoe checks the seals on her powered armor to see if the emergency anti-void/gas systems are still working.  In theory, it can provide half an hour of oxygen, heat, and pressure for emergencies, but the suit's taken quite a beating since the last time she had a chance to work on it.

[Hal Henderics]

Akihiro, meanwhile, just stares.

 

He's in utter rapture at the sight of the planet, of properly seeing space FROM space.

 

While presumably, there are few who would be willing to kill to see a sight like this, to Akihiro, that's the only thought that can fit in his mind right now, excluding thoughts of interstellar beauty.

 

The thought being that he would be willing to kill, if it meant seeing sights like this.  He's never killed a person before, but eh, he doesn't think about the obvious consequences of doing so.

 

He has to be prompted to get on the ship, which he does, looking back at the windows once or twice.

 

There's so much he could learn here.

[Chevaleresse]

"This is better than the Sled, at least. Thing is such a piece of shit. A reliable piece of shit, sort of, but still a piece of shit." She shook her head. At least there were no overworked docking officials harassing them about crunching up their docking clamps for the umpteenth time to be concerned with at the moment. "Gotta wonder why they're trying so hard to sell a bunch of mercs on this shit. That kind of corporate bullshit doesn't work on people who've actually gotta put their lives on the line, and every time you mention how high your standards are, the more convinced I get that your goddamn rifle is going to misfire and explode in my hands as soon as it gets damp." Her voice held the bitterness of experience; there was a particular experience on a boggy world that she was not exactly keen on repeating. That would teach her to trust cheap chemically-propelled weapons.

[Powder Miner]

Jack didn't seem overly bothered by the ship's bare, spartan state, even if he did comment a "Say what you will about the NC, they do make their vehicles nicer to be in than this. Hah, oh well, it's not like it really matters," in a jovial tone. His head turned over to Scarlet at her grousing, though his eyes themselves weren't visible behind the large sunglasses on his face. "Ah, that's just how suits work, yaknow? They can't turn it off. They're always in full corporate shill mode, I think they've kinda just done it so much that they don't actually know how to act normally, anymore. Advertise, advertise, advertise, until they can't figure out what NOT advertising is like. That's my two certs."

[Chevaleresse]

"Suppose you're right. Suits gonna suit." She shrugged, settling back into what passed for her seat and pulling several parts that looked like they could be a shaving kit if one didn't look too closely out of her pockets. "Thought I was done with corporate jobs, though. Corps tend to not like me, and I tend to really not like them." A rag was produced from somewhere in her clothing, which she then took to several pieces that looked like lenses and emitters on her assorted bits. After she finished each one, it was fastened to another part; it didn't take much of this before it was recognizable as some sort of weapon that had previously been disassembled. 

[Powder Miner]

Though Jack had an arsenal that overall beat out Scarlet’s in size, he didn’t appear to be particularly bothered with maintaining them. ”Naw, where I come from the corporations are the best option, they’re not making you pay lip service to glory and duty or crazy cult shit, maybe to “freedom” at the most, as if any of it really matters, but they’re the least demanding. And they pay more, too, gotta love the bonus checks. Biggest thing I really gotta put up with is getting shot by my buddies more than I think the others do but, hell, really that’s part of the fun of it.”

[DragonRage]

Zoe Walker, feeling rather competitive, starts gearing up to show off her admittedly currently limtied arsenal.  Then, remembering that she really should prepare for entering a combat zone, she instead pulls out her holo-tablet and stylus.  Thus armed, she starts scribing arcane diagrams and cuneform text on the tool, grumbling to herself about the lack of good spell components available.  Some crushed rubies or dried newt tails with chili powder would make these way easier to prepare.

[Chevaleresse]

Scarlet shrugged, then idly nodded along as she continued her maintenance. She wasn't about to argue the merits of corporate jobs - being well aware that her bias was an unfair, if deeply-rooted one - with some guy who seemed pretty content with his. At least, until he mentioned getting shot by his allies. Friends? "You mean paintballs or stunners or something, right?" It would take being shot by an ally intentionally all of once for Scarlet to pick up and move to a different crew entirely, barring some batshit insane plan involving it happening.

[Powder Miner]

Jack turned to Scarlet, paused for a moment, and spoke in the sort of tone of voice that suggested that he was raising an eyebrow at her. ”Paintballs yeah, occasionally, but that was mostly just on special events when some Nanite Systems engineers were having fun and making a bit of money. Usually it was just our normal gauss weaponry. Stunners... if you mean non-lethal stuff... man, that’s a weird thought. But... stun weapons are pretty fucked up, aren’t they?”

[Yours Truly]

Hirata did what any other lazy bastard would do in this situation, and simply stood there and pouted and whined until one of the loaderbots picked her up and carried her off to the ship anyway, not even paying attention to what the loaderbot was saying by this point as she did her best to curl up and get some more rest. When she finally arrived at the spaceship itself, not even Hirata knew if the yawn she let out was due to the boring corporate spiel, the fact that she was still feeling kinda sleepy, or the fact that the entire fleet of spaceships seemed to have been designed by a singular man with a ruler, and a very steady hand. And her interest wasn't piqued again until she was unceremoniously dropped off by the uncomfortable loaderbot onto the equally uncomfortable ground with a cassette tape thing, and she drifted over to the supply crates to see just what cool scifi guns they apparently had at their disposal.

 

[16]
It's mostly ammunition, a few medical supplies, and some guns.

Hyperion BLR 48 Repeater:
Deals 1d2+[Dex] damage, +1 damage for each consecutive use.

Hyperion Transmurdera:
Deals 1d4+[Dex] damage with 60% miss chance, +4 damage and -20% miss chance for each consecutive use(miss chance reduction caps at 60%).

 

Only to find herself being disappointed by the apparently low caliber of the weapons they had at their disposal, and her flopping over to a nearby seat to take one apart just to find out what made it tick.

[76]
Hirata finds that it has a gyrostabilizer that is spun up by the actual firing mechanism, once it finally does get going it'd be incredibly accurate and powerful its just....well it's pretty shit before it gets going.

Potentially to someone else's horror, Hirata almost immediately took out a bunch of rubber bands after she disassembled the submachinegun and tinkered about with the complex gyrostabilizer system, seemingly intent on doing something to 'improve it' as she mumbles to herself about fixing obvious design faults, and rubber band propellers.

Crafting: 17 vs 11,
Quality: 23,

Hirata adds:
Level 2(craft): The first time this weapon is used instead of firing the user may spin up the motor, this counts as two consecutive uses instead of one.  If the weapon stacks 6 or more consecutive uses the rubber band has a 50% chance to break and need to be replaced with another.

After a couple of awkward moments passes where Hirata and various handy appendages coming out from her backpack somehow transforms the rubberband and several miscellaneous metal bits that people probably won't be missing into an odd looking, but functional under barrel modification to the Transmurdera, she points the submachinegun at an empty spot, pulling the rubberband motor back while making firearm firing noises, before she engages whatever passes as a safety and tries to fall asleep on the chair with her arms wrapped securely around her new weapon.

[Chevaleresse]

Scarlet blinked. Then blinked again. "Wait. You mean to tell me you willingly work with people who shoot you with live rounds on a regular basis? I'd say that's a lot more fucked than a stun weapon." This crew might actually be weirder than the one on the Reunion, at this rate, and that was an impressive feat. Though she doubted anyone here had "ceiling spider" in their playbook. Which was a bad thing, really; Boris's unique flavor of ultraviolence was always a welcome addition to any mission gone pear-shaped. Still, this guy made her uncomfortable. If he was used to teammates shooting each other...

[kj1225]

Jack looks up from trying to get the echo thingy to work. After taking a few moments to get his bearings on the current conversation, the shirtless drunk decides to chime in. "Aye, that sounds a might bit odd, but let's not get all up in arms over nothin' just yet. Could be him and his crew are under the effects of some kind of voodoo cure, making them unable t' die until it's broken. Those voodoo types are real assholes with cursing people for no reason you know. I know a guy that was cursed while he was just a babe to only speak with the most shocking and disgusting of profanity. We don't talk to him much for obvious reasons." Jack finishes his story with a small shrug and a "What can you do?" smile.

[DragonRage]

"Did somebody say they're cursed?  I can fix that," Zoe offers with slightly worrying enthusiasm, "I am a SPACE WIZARD!  SPAAAAACE!  So I'm qualified.  I promise it will only hurt a lot."