Ordivacian RP

[aireona93]

First, some notes!
(1) This RP is open to anyone interested in joining!
(2) Xalia and Starfyre, this first posts opens up Ordivak to bounty hunters through an offer that Corin has sent out into the greater universe. However, your characters don't need to have arrived on the planet for this reason if you'd prefer otherwise. Basically, the offer of the bounty gives any characters an excuse to land on an otherwise closed world. The Federation has interests in Ordivak as well, so if you are interested in sending characters that are too good to be involved in a bounty, one potential explanation for their answering Corin's call might be to serve as a Federation spy, or whatever works best for your characters. :3

Now for the first post!!

The Corin Inc. ambassador straightened her jacket, cracked her neck in a manner that was characteristic of her efforts to get into the character that the company required of her. The spaceport employees were familiar with the woman's quirks, and despite being chronically left out of the loop of information concerning Ordivak's visitors, they could glean enough from the ambassador's behavior to guess who their visitors are. Someone important was coming on this day, that much was clear. The ambassador looked stiff and nervous, which was unusual for the well paid woman, and she was dressed to impress this afternoon. Her jet black suit glittered with shifting holographic patterns that were indicative of being of Spacer make, and anything besides food that was imported onto Ordivak was considered a luxury especially things from as far away as the Testasodo Alliance.

As if sensing that she was being scrutinized, the woman turned her angular face and hawkish eyes towards the spaceport workers. The look was withering enough to make most of them turn away in silence.

"If you all don't get back to work this instance, you can expect to be spending the night in the city!" The woman's voice was as sweet as the candied honey that they all coveted in the winter months, but there wasn't a single worker in the Corin compound that wasn't aware of her cruelty. Since her arrival nearly a decade earlier, several workers had disappeared without a trace, and as time wore on, she did little to hide her enjoyment of sending people out into the clutches of the ravenous dragons that Corin had been consistently trying to eradicate while keeping their corporate hands clean.

What the workers didn't know, however, was just how desperate Corin had become in its desire to clear Ordivak its draconic inhabitants, and the evidence of the company's past transgressions. Within few months the company had begun sending out bounties into the Nexus and the surrounding galaxies in hopes of finding anyone interested in dealing with the problem- preferably, someone who wasn't so familiar with the plight of the savage sentients that lurked in the darkness just outside of the walls of the Corin's compound.

Not that anyone who arrived would be able to destroy many of the Ordivacian dragons, but according to the information that the company had been gathering, a new leader had taken the old city spaceport that the dragons constantly warred over, and this female was different than anything that they had seen before. She had begun to truly organize her people, and she had held onto the port for longer than any other pack leader that Corin had ever seen. Moreover, the Ordivacians had become oddly silent in the last few months, and the company had begun to worry that something was brewing outside of its walls. As dangerous as this new leader was, she also represented a weakness in the Ordivacians that had never been present before. Her death would be a powerful symbol to the dragons.

Or so the ambassador and those higher in the company hoped.

Today, the black suited woman had come to Corin's spaceport in order to meet with any of the people that had come to answer Corin's bounty, and she was nervous. She didn't like dealing with peons, let alone offworld, non-company bounty hunters. One could never guess what kinds of people the universe would produce…

[StarFyre]

A few notes of my own:
(1) A minor bit of fast-and-loose play with a single piece of New Eden technology, specifically the Clone Vat Bay that can be put onto a Rorqual (well, and other capitals, but since the ship will be Lajira's, it'll be the Industrial ship that I'm using) -- gameplay says that the CVB only has Jump Clones, but I'm expanding that to medical clones as well, on the understanding that, if the CVB isn't activated (as in, the Rorqual is in movement), the brain scan of the capsuleer to be transplanted into their med-clone is held in memory until the CVB can be activated. This opens up an entirely new factor of oh-god-oh-god because if that Rorqual gets blown up, there's a high probability that the brain scans will be either lost (if no chance to transmit the data is given) or corrupted (if transmitted but interference happened or the ship explode mid-transmission). Understandably, very few capsuleers would take this sort of risk with their immortality. (And also, I think, why CCP doesn't let CVB's hold medi-clones.)
(2) I'm also going with the fanon concept of "soft clones" -- aka clones that retain a set of memories up to a certain point, and trigger in order to prevent real-death, at the cost of losing all memories from the point of the soft-clone's update until death -- because I seriously can't see capsuleers getting involved in dicey non-ship things if their immortality is actually on the line at any point.
(3) Also, I don't play DUST514, so I'm kinda making up things about the DUSTers (specifically, personalizing them)

Onward!

Lajira watched as her brother heaved himself out of his pod, wires and cables slowly retracting back into their proper place and the ever-present pod-goo clinging and dripping everywhere. Karjan wobbled for a moment, poised between falling forward onto the metal floor or back into the pod, before finally overbalancing and toppling forward, hitting the deck with a thud.

She turned away, busied her hands with collecting towels and clothes, giving her brother the privacy every Capsuleer she knew, including herself, needed in those vulnerable minutes between godhood and personhood, where everything felt empty-wrong-slow and phantom impressions of thrusters and weapons and sensors and a-thousand-and-one other bits zipped through neurons accustomed to reading the state of a ship, not that of a tiny flesh-body. That she was even allowed inside the capsule chamber with him was proof enough that he hadn't lost himself to the mind-break and paranoia endemic to their people, she didn't need to push that by staring at his flesh-body.

"You sure I've got--" Karjan broke into a coughing fit for a moment, voice rusty from months of disuse, "--to come with?"

She glanced over her shoulder, then shrugged. "You're the one who wanted an adventure-- and I quote, 'Ji! This place has dragons! Like honest to nova storybook dragons! Let's go!' -- you do realize that to interact with 'honest to nova' dragons we have to base-line... right?"

Her brother groaned, sitting back on his heels as he tried to accustom himself to his body and the drastic shift in perspective from camera-drone to human eyes. The dazed-distant look in his eyes chilled her to the bone, even if she knew her own eyes had looked like that not long ago, and so she tossed the towels she had gathered at him, managing to land one atop his head. A pale hand reached up and awkwardly grabbed the material, pulling it down into his lap and allowing Karjan to fix her with a cold stare as she began to giggle. Like an affronted feline, Karjan rose to his feet and padded - slightly unsteadily - out of the capsule chamber and into the adjoining refresher, towels held in a loose grip.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Lajira allowed her laughter to die and her face to blank. "Aura, status."

"Systems stable. The Clearview has reached optimal distance of 50 AU above the solar plane, cloaked, and deployed its CVB. Both medical and jump bays are reporting green. Systems detecting no large-scale cosmic anomalies which could interfere with optimal function. Do you wish status of ship Genthier and all available sub-capitals, Capsuleer Lajira?"

Lajira made a noise of acknowledgment in the back of her throat, mind and implants cycling through options and routes as she continued to listen with one ear to Aura's ongoing report of their entire two-Capsuleer expedition. This... was not exactly a situation she really wanted to be in -- impulsiveness was her brother's gig, not hers. Her gig was the safety and profit of high security space, of mining and hacking and research and manufacturing, all conducted from the safety of her pod or Captain's Quarters. But someone had to keep her brother in line (and perhaps there was a tiny niggling of responsibility, of a distant promise made decades ago, to come when the other called, to support, to care, to never forget) and that someone always ended up being her. As it is, they had a grand total of two Logistics-class ships and several Heavy Assaults, with some frigates and shuttles to spice their available ships up. Hardly the vast array of resources and options both of them were accustomed to, though she had packed a small tower and all the requirements for a manufacturing outpost into her Rorqual's bay, so if worse came to worst, they could conceivably survive at a level they were, if not accustomed too, then at least comfortable with.

"Capsuleer Lajira, requested meeting time will occur in an hour. Estimated time of travel from ship Genthier to planet's surface is thirty minutes."

"Thank you, Aura. Have the DUSTers ready by shuttle one in ten minutes."

"Understood, Capsuleer Lajira, orders sent."

"Telling my ship what to do, eh?" Karjan spoke up as he made his way back into the capsule chamber, voice muffled by the towel he was using to dry his short hair.

"No more than you do to mine all the time," Lajira rejoined as she handed him the outfit she had chosen for their first meeting with the local authorities.

Karjan frowned as he tossed the towel aside and eyed the clothing she had chosen. "Really? You want to go down onto a desert planet wearing these?"

"Capsuleer Karjan, observational reports indicate that chosen planet is of class Terraformed-Barren, with a world-wide biome of Cold Desert. Given these conditions, the garb that Capsuleer Lajira has chosen meets both Climate and Non-Gallentean Professional requirements."

"Getting sassed by my own damn AI," Karjan muttered as he pulled the deep blue military pants and boots on, followed by the blue and white undershirt and finished with the mid-thigh overcoat the same deep blue as his pants, with heavy embroidery in a wide band along the edges and up the front. On the right shoulder was his Corporation patch - a winged skull - and on his left his Alliance patch - a large gold start surrounded by a ring of eight smaller silver stars. It was a bit more traditional than many Gallente would have chosen to wear, but both Karjan and Lajira, who was wearing a similar outfit tailored for her body, though with thinner embroidery bands and with only a single patch on her right shoulder - of a blue bird rising up with a silver half-circle behind it - had enough experience in the greater universe outside the liberalness of the Gallente Federation to know that conservative appearances made a better impression than the... more preferred outfits in their wardrobes.

"I would like to remind you, Capsuleer Karjan, that I am not your AI, and that this unit lacks emotional programming that would allow for 'sass'."

Lajira snorted into her hand, then gestured to the door and began walking out. "C'mon hotshot. Lets go meet a politician about some dragons."

The walk from the capsule chamber to the shuttle was a short one, crossed in silence and thought, undisturbed by the few human crew that were walking the halls and quickly pressed against the right wall to get out of their way as they approached. The two light-armor DUST marines saluted as they approached, and stepped aside to let them board the shuttle first.

Lajira kicked back in the passenger area, allowing her brother the honor of conveying the four of them down to the surface.

"Pardon, Capsuleer," the marine on the right started, as her faceplate retracted. "But what, exactly, are we getting ourselves into here?"

"Enough backstabbing and he-said-she-said to make a Capsuleer feel positively at home." She gave a sharp-edge smile as the two marines exchanged wary glances, then looked back at her. "Situation is as follows, based on preliminary examination of sub-quantum relays: the human population of this planet claims that the 'savage and dangerous' draconic species are a danger to them and their production, and wish for the draconids to be eliminated."

"What's the catch."

Lajira gave another sharp-edged smile, all teeth and dominance. "You're learning quickly, DUSTer. Historically, the situation is much more akin to the treatment of the Minmatar by the Amarr, with the draconics being the Minmatar."

"So, er, they're not 'savage and dangerous'?" The second marine asked, voice wary.

"Oh, they are! I have no doubt that they would choose to eat you and your armor given half a chance. They are, however, fully intelligent." Lajira took a perverse joy in confirming what both the marines had suspected. It wasn't often she was privileged with watching the color drain from spacer-pale skin before both marines managed to regain their equilibrium. "However, like the first Gallentean aid given to the Minmatar, we must persevere through such hardships and--"

"Pardon, Capsuleer, but inspirational speeches adapted from old Freedoms For All campaigns aside, why are you really helping?"

"You wound me so, DUSTer." Lajira laid a hand over her chest. "Right here."

The first marine snorted and shook her head, "That would be more effective if it wasn't well known that Capsuleers do things as small as buy a Titan to as large as destroying entire Alliances on a whim and an 'I'm bored' or 'I felt like it'."

"Well then... I'm bored and I felt like it." She smiled smugly as both marines groaned and put their helmeted heads into their hands. It may have been Karjan who was bored and felt like it, but she had a reputation to maintain as well, and while she was here, she might as well enjoy it. "Careful inquiries and communications with off-planet resources has revealed the presence of another 'Federation', which has a general attitude similar to the Gallente Federation. We will not, however, pretend to be from this 'Federation', although Capsuleer Karjan has begun the process of opening communications with it in hopes of a temporary alliance further down the line. The current plan is to speak with the representative of the humans here, then make our way into the draconic sector and make contact with any available leaders there."

"Which is why you are insisting on coming along, against standard operational procedure of Capsuleers remaining in space and DUST on the ground."

Lajira shrugged. "That, and we want to see dragons."

Turbulence from entering the atmosphere kept the incredulous marines from responding, and by the time Karjan had landed the Gallentean shuttle (with a delicate flair that contrasted the high-speed entry) on the tarmac, both marines had replaced their face-plates and rose to exit first. They took positions on either side of the ramp, standing in a ready-at-ease position that conveyed that they were not active threats... yet.

Lajira disembarked first, though her brother quickly settled into place on her left side, his expression not so much cold as just... blank. Empty, as if he was unaccustomed to using his face to reflect emotion for extended periods of time. His dark grey eyes were flat and considering, calculating. Inside, his mind was racing, specialized implant connecting to his sister's mind and then bridging the vast distance to their ships in order to access a minute portion of the data the two of them were accustomed to handling. He was... excited, adrenaline beginning to spike through his system as he took deep breaths of unfiltered air for the first time in decades, the true danger of what he was doing truly hitting him for the first time. If he died now, only his soft-clone would awaken, and he would recall none of this. HE as a being would cease, memories and experiences lost forever as a hopefully less foolish version of himself would awaken to take his place, his companions... his sister. He was unsure how he felt about this, but as that clone would be him-but-not, he supposed it didn't truly matter.

Lajira, however, was making more of an effort to appear human, though her effort was spoiled slightly by the sharp edges that lingered on the borders of her smile, the touch of slightly-too-toothy combined with the calculating glint in her equally dark eyes. It was the smile of a predator who smelled blood in the water and fully intended on coming out on top. She allowed Karjan to handle scanning and surveillance, while she focused on the woman who was clearly in charge.

"Ambassador," Lajira greeted the other once they had approached within easy speaking range. "I, Lajira Amahel, and my brother Karjan, greet you this fine day. We have heard news of your plight and came to offer our assistance in the matter."

((FWEW, that was a long and difficult one to write. They just did not want to get off that ship... ANYWAY: Karjan's image and Lajira's image. They're both wearing the overcoats that they've got on in those images, and the Corp/Alliance symbols (Corp on the bottom left, Alliance on bottom right) are what they have in patches on their shoulders, with the Corp patch being on the right shoulder and Karjan's alliance patch on his left. The two currently nameless DUST marines are wearing Gallente light armor (Upper right corner, green armor right next to the Gallente symbol). Please bear in mind that the DUST marines look a LOT more intimidating than Ji and Karj, not just because of the armor and associated weapons, but because... well... both Karjan and Ji are lightly built, and neither have overly distinct muscles.))

[aireona93]

((Sorry for the slow reply! I had 55 12 page essay finals to grade over the past few days so it has been crazy!))

-Hm. There's another ship landing in front of us.- Zuri said as they began their decent through Ordivak's atmosphere. Smyth sat up and studied the alien craft.

"Well, that's going to throw our plan for something of a loop," she watched as Zuri displayed some diagnostics on the strange craft. It was unlike anything that the Federation had encountered before… or so Zuri's databanks showed. "I thought we had limited Corin's bounty calls." Smyth could see the shimmering gold of Corin's space port through the shifting dust of Ordivak's angry atmosphere, and knowing that it would soon be time to disembark, regardless of the state of their plans, she reflexively checked the readouts on her rifle and side arm. Green all around.

-That was the idea anyway,- Zuri's screens flickered in a manner that Smyth had come to associate with the AI thinking, or scanning… whatever she did. Despite being classified as an AI herself, Smyth's level of functionality was closer to that of a human, while Zuri operated on the level of a small super computer thanks to the vast Federation networks that she had been able to set up shop in for the past four decades. -Looks like Corin was broadcasting on networks that we weren't aware of, and they have coded some of their messages. Very intriguing- this is something that I will have to look at while you are planet-side.-

"Sounds like they are on to us," Smyth wasn't happy about that. She still wasn't used to missions with unexpected twists, and this was a big one.

-I'm not surprised,- Zuri huffed as the ship settled onto the landing platform beside the alien craft. -The Federation has been breathing down Corin's neck for nearly three years now, and I'm sure that they realize they can't keep shoring up the bullshit forever.-

"Well, this might be the last time I see you, Zuri…" Smyth got to her feet, secured her firearms, and then started towards the back of the ship.

-Oh, cut the sentimentality, Smyth! We aren't organics. I backed-up all your systems before we even left the Shinta. One way or another, I will see you when this is over.- Smyth smiled grimly to herself. It was nice to know that death was as distant from her as ever…

* * *

The ambassador couldn't help but find herself feeling somewhat surprised by the formal attire of the bounty hunters that emerged from the Gallentean ship. Of course, she had never dealt with any bounty hunters before, to begin with, but the ambassador had imagined something of a more rag-tag group... at the very least, she was expecting people that she felt immediate superiority to, and that was not what she was getting. It made her feel uncomfortable, and she could feel the eyes of the port workers on her. The scum were always watching for any sign of weakness.

"Ambassador," the female in the group said. "I, Lajira Amahel, and my brother Karjan, greet you this fine day. We have heard news of your plight and came to offer our assistance in the matter." The ambassador regarded the visitors with her chin held high. So what if their clothing was nice, and their entourage was more that she was expecting, this was her world.
"I am ambassador Kalli VicSarren," said the Corin representative. "Welcome to…"

"Good thing I didn't miss the introductions," a gravelly female voice made the ambassador start. "Name's Smyth, self-employed dragon hunter." Kalli stared wide-eyed at the tall woman that had appeared out of the shadows of her better-dressed counterparts. She was human in appearance, and her matte grey and black armor was more indicative of the bounty hunters that the ambassador had imagined. She would need to watch this one… make sure that she wasn't encouraging the field workers to more drink than they were allowed… sleeping with the males… It was already clear that the woman's manners were rudimentary at best.

"Yes," she said, keeping her voice soft and diplomatic. "Corin has invited many of you here. If you have all reviewed the files sent in your briefing, you will already be well aware of the size of the problem that we are facing."

"Of course," Kalli continued. "We don't expect the lot of you to be able to kill of the dragons that have invaded this world, but if you can kill their leader, we believe that the rest of the hordes will turn on one another." Kalli turned and waved for the group to follow her. A silver, streamlined vehicle had arrived on the edge of the landing platform, and the ambassador climbed in, expecting the rest of the group to follow suit so that she could finish filling them in.

"That being said," Kalli gave Smyth a scrutinizing look that was meant to belittle the woman, but it didn't seem to bother her. The bounty hunter fearlessly locked eyes with Kalli as the ambassador spoke. "The company cannot abide by the presence of these dragons or much longer. If you are not able to eradicate their leader within 72 hours, we will initiate an orbital strike which will wipe both them and you off the surface of this planet. The CEO of Corin would like to avoid seeing such needless suffering, however, it would tarnish the company's good name, and I believe that you will all understand that we don't want that."

By the time that Kalli had finished her short speech, the transport had cleared the wall of the corporation fields and was hovering over the crumble grounds of the ruined city on the other side.

"On the positive side, the hunter that returns the head of the dragons' leader to us will receive enough gold, uranium, and ships to set them up for life; so I imagine that the risk will be well worth it. Good luck to all of you."

[StarFyre]

((Fft. Not a problem, I know how grading finals goes, though luckily the finals I had to grade back when I was student teaching were programming finals, so were mostly short answer, multiple choice, and true/false. So much easier to grade than essays.

Anything inside ^blah^ means that they're speaking pure Gallentean amongst each other, instead of Standard. (well, in EVE it's said that everyone has a translator either implanted or nearby, and that no one bothers to learn anything other than their native language because machines take care of the rest, which results in no real "Standard" language. In this case, I'll say that my four are using their translators in order to understand and speak the language they've found in this new region of space, probably after getting hold of language data from the Federation =P) ))

::We are unexpected.:: Karjan transmitted to his sister through their implants, as he took in the ambassador's minute tells. The slight tightening at the corner of her eyes telegraphed discomfort, the lift of her chin bespoke pride and superiority, the very poise of her body attempted to cow and put them in their 'rightful' place... all very textbook human reactions.

"I am ambassador Kalli VicSarren," said the Corin representative. "Welcome to..."

::She expected--:: Lajira began to respond, then silenced herself as a newcomer made themself known.

"Good thing I didn't miss the introductions. Name's Smyth, self-employed dragon hunter."

::That.:: Lajira finished, a touch of amusement carrying through the link as she examined Smyth.

Karjan's calculating gaze drifted over to the unexpected addition to their group -- Aura had picked up on the ship's arrival and descent not long after they had begun theirs, but it was one thing to know that there was another following, and another to see another and know for certain that their 'goals' were the same. Armor and weapons, consistant with the declared profession (but wasn't a rifle and side-arm too light of an armament to deal with dragons? He directed the query towards Aura and allowed the AI to sort through the information they'd gathered.), combined with a confident gait and easy dismissal of the ambassador left him with the impression that Smyth was exactly what she presented herself as -- a hunter, and likely a skilled one.

Karjan dropped back slightly in order to walk alongside one of the marines as they moved towards the transport they would be taking, ^DUSTer Shaltach, what are your thoughts on our new companion?^

^Dangerous, sir. Though something about her...^ Shaltach turned her helmeted head to face Smyth, allowing her HUD to focus on the other woman. ^My scanners can't get a clear read on her like they can on the ambassador. I would advise caution.^

Karjan nodded briefly, allowed his eyes to focus on Smyth for a moment longer, then turned his attention back to Kalli as he took a few long strides to be back at his sister's side.

Lajira settled calmly into a seat in the silver vehicle they had been led to, her brother sitting next to her, while Shaltach and the other DUSTer took seats close enough to be able to guard them. She listened to Kalli's speech with a growing sense of familiarity at the situation -- there were so many episodes in the Empires' pasts of just such an event that even the most sanitized history books had mention of more than one orbital bombardment being performed by each of the four Empires. In fact..

^Capsuleer,^ the second DUSTer spoke up, choosing to keep to their native language. ^I know you compared this to the Amarr and Minmatar, but doesn't this remind you of Caldari Prime?^

^It rather does, doesn't it?^ Lajira mused, before giving a sharp-edged smile to Kalli. "Pardon, ambassador, my compatriots are merely interested in how similar this is to an event in our own history. We mean no disregard in speaking our native language, and quite look forward to proving our skills this day."

But not to you. Lajira finished mentally, as she turned her attention out to the crumbling city. Even Capsuleers such as herself, who lived in Empire controlled territory, had little use for the praise and acknowledgment of non-Capsuleers beyond a certain point. If she had to give this group a familiar label, it was almost akin to running a mission for a pirate faction -- lucrative, but only useful so long as they could keep their activities from the local Empire. That, and she and her brother were here more for the curiousity of it, rather than the rewards.

A map flashed through her mind, courtesy of her brother's open link to Aura, and she compared the orbital scan to what she could see. It was... a mess. While she had no doubt that she and her brother would be in no true physical difficulty -- their bodies were carefully maintained by their pods, after all -- the prospect of having to walk through such a ruined landscape was at once thrilling and off-putting.

"The old spaceport is in this direction, is that not correct?" Lajira asked absently, fully aware that she was correct, but needing to present a certain appearance. Already, she had forwarded the map to both DUSTers, putting her faith in their experience in the field to get them through the shortest, safest path possible.

[aireona93]

Smyth was hardly worried about anything that the ambassador was saying; you couldn't trust a company puppet as far as you could throw them. Smyth knew from the data that Zuri and she had dug up on their way to Ordivak that Kalli was a particularly distasteful Corin representative. She had an intense hatred for the Ordivacian Dragons, and she been happy to explain in detail during a variety of public speeches just what her plans were for the draconic being on Ordivak. Most were violent, and those that weren't involved re-enslaving the population. Smyth herself found it incomprehensible. Where she was from, looking different from others wasn't something that was looked down upon, and most people that she knew assumed that most living beings, AI or organic, wanted much the same things. For that reason, Smyth just couldn't see why Corin didn't just offer the dragons transport off of Ordivak. Would it really be so expensive for them? Surely it was not more expensive that an orbital bombardment. It was a sure sign that there was something that Corin was refusing to share about this planet, but Smyth and Zuri had been unable to find anything in the company's databases about anything deeper… there was just a conspicuous lack of alternative plans.

Smyth halted her musing at the sounds of the alien language that her companions were speaking to one another. They were certainly something different. She had seen a few different types of humans during her time with the Federation, but despite this, these individuals seemed particularly strange. Perhaps theirs was one of the older human ancestral lines in the universe, or maybe they had modified themselves in one way or another. If it seemed like they were on good terms, which was somewhat doubtful after Kalli's abrupt announcement of a competition, Smyth would have to ask them about it. She wasn't after Corin's money, after all, but she also wasn't here to fulfill Kalli's dreams of Ordivacian bloodshed. Smyth eyed the humans curiously. She wished that she could talk to them directly now, before they were exposed in the city, but she didn't want to cue the ambassador into anything that she didn't need to know about.

When Lajira pointed out the direction to the old spaceport, they had settled just close enough to the ground for the visitors to jump out without breaking a limb (most likely) but far enough from the ground for the transport to make a fast get-away should any hunting Ordivacians appear. Whoever their driver was, this wasn't their first time on the other side of the wall.

"Yes," Kalli confirmed. Her face had settled into a sour, proud expression that made Smyth think that the ambassador would like to see them all get fried by an orbital bombardment, assuming that that was something that Corin was actually planning on doing. "The dragons seem to be especially watchful on the main roads, which offer the shortest route from here, so you may consider some of the smaller byroads. So far, no one has made it down either." Smyth knew that was a lie… although, judging by the discarded alien weaponry scattered across the disheveled stone roads, she couldn't be sure how much of a lie it was.

"I'm sure between your soldiers and this… dragon hunter, you'll have better luck," Kalli's smile was ice cold, and Smyth was tired of her entitled attitude. She would need to tell Zuri to add her name to the Federation's investigation list, she was hiding something, and Smyth had little doubt that the scrutiny would do anything positive for the image that Kalli had created for herself in the past few moments.

So, when the transport stopped over a relatively uncluttered section of old highway, Smyth took the hint and jumped out, energy rifle in hand. The self-described hunter cautiously scanned the area around her for any movement, all the while trying to pay attention to the strange humans that she had come with. Right now, she could trust them little more than Kalli herself, as she had no reason to believe that they might not be willing to try offing her just to lessen them competition.

Almost as soon as she started looking, something was in the process of leaping out at her. For a moment, as her underlying coding took over from the conscious part of her mind, time seemed to slow. Smyth could see that the creature approaching her, no… desperately running at her was not an Ordivacian. It was some sort of humanoid with a disgustingly thin body that made it monstrous. Its face looked to be permanent set with an unwavering expression of fear, as the words that were bubbling endlessly… mindlessly out of its mouth were excited. It was screaming in joy at the sight of the transport. Somehow, it had held out hope that Corin's gilded silver transport would offer it protection from the prowling creatures of the city. Smyth doubted that this was the case, and at any rate, the thing seemed all but set on tearing her apart in its effort to get to what it perceived as safety.

Smyth leveled her gun at the creature, and as she did so, several others from all directions appeared.

[StarFyre]

Lajira's eyes narrowed slightly at Kalli's admission of others having arrived and been tossed out into the crumbling city just like they were.

::Change of plans,:: she sent to Karjan. ::Have a pilot prep shuttle two and be on standby to pick us up the moment we call.::

A wordless acknowledgment let her know the beginnings of their evac plan was on its way. The more time she spent with this... Kalli... the more on edge she was becoming. Kalli was far too much like some of the most mind-broken Capsuleers she'd met: heartless, deceitful, and unlikely to follow through with any promises except those of pain. There was nothing they could do about it except make sure they made back-up plans for their back-up plans, and hope that Aura was recording everything just in case their soft clones had to activate.

"Capsuleer," Shaltach's voice cut through her musing, drawing her attention to Smyth's jump from the transport to the ground below.

Lajira spared one last look at Kalli's frigid smile, gave a shark-grin of her own, and allowed Shaltach to grab her around the waist and carry both of them out the opened door. Armored boots hit the ground with a solid thump as Shaltach landed on the ground, followed shortly thereafter by the second DUSTer. Lajira regained her balance moments after being released by Shaltach, as did her brother upon being released by the second marine.

"Halt!" the second DUSTer commanded, his voice sharp.

Seconds stretched slow, as Lajira's implants kicked in -- there, a humanoid figure was leaping at Smyth; there, more figures appearing. Desperation-hunger-hope-fear-insanity--

The crack of weapon-discharge from behind her kicked her into gear. She ripped the ion pistol from the harness at her hip and leveled it coolly at the closest of the figures approaching her, unhesitatingly pulling the trigger and watching as the charged plasma tore through the unprotected body of the humanoid. Beside her, Shaltach drew her much larger assault rifle and purposely fired a charge into the ground in front of several others as a warning shot, before leveling the rifle at the figures.

Behind her, Karjan calmly took aim at the next figure to approach him, ready to fire another round the moment the figure got close enough for a sure kill. The second DUSTer also had his assault rifle out and aimed at those approaching.

"What a welcome," Shaltach huffed, as she turned her head to see as many of the hostiles as possible at once.

The second DUSTer grunted. "You'd think people would avoid company like ours."

"Desperation does interesting things to a man," Karjan interjected clinically. He then directed his words at the figures, though with little hope that they would understand, much less obey, "Now then, we can purge all of you like we did to your friends there, or you can calm down and act rationally."

[aireona93]

Smyth leveled her rifle at the first skeletal humanoid that had erupted out of the debris, and didn't hesitate to blow it away. There was a slim chance that there was still some rational being inside of the thing's head, but the hunter didn't have time to find out. Judging by the creature's lack of weapons, its out stretched hands, and long dirty fingernails, it had meant to simply tear her apart. If she had been organic, Smyth might have worried about any diseases that this zombie-like being might have been carrying… on top of the fact that being clawed to pieces was no way to die.

In the midst of the rising noises of chaos that had swept over them, Smyth managed to hear the sound of Karjan's diplomatic plea to the once-hunters that were converging on them all. His words, however, seemed to fall of deaf ears. None of the humanoids that Smyth could see were slowing down, and some had even attempted to jump into the Corin transport. Kalli, much like her driver, appeared to have grown used to this, however, as she had apparently slide to doors shut as soon as the lot of them had disembarked, and none of the ill-prepared, crazed humanoids were able to make it to the ambassador. Kalli herself had turned away from the window, and in the brief second that Smyth had to glance up at the retreating transport, she could see the bright blue reflection of Kall's com on the sharp traits of her face. The woman had grown disinterested in the violence below.

Smyth had no desire to watch her any longer- Corin wasn't going to help them, they were disposable if these creatures were any indication. The hunter spun on the other gathering humanoids, whose goals were quickly shifting from escape to the second most important motivation of wild Ordivak- food. Still plump from their cushy lives off world, Smyth and her companions looked like little more than a tempting meal that might just feed the whole lot of them. Some of the less picky members of the group had already started on the creatures that the new comers had already shot down. They ate the meat like animals, ripping at it with their ill adapted teeth.

The hunter fired at the humanoids closest to her, taking out her unarmed enemies with ease. Although she wasn't able to spare the time to glance in their direction, Smyth could only guess that Karjan and Lajira and the soldiers were making even shorter work of their attackers. There was little doubt in her mind that within the next few shots, things would quiet down. They were either be able to off the rest of their nearly mindless attackers, or the creatures would have some ounce of sense returned to their adled and starved minds and they would retreat before a energy shot to the head ended their recently deprived lives.

Just as Smyth was almost sure that she was going to be able to finish of the last of her attackers, she felt a tug at her lower leg and looked down just in time to see a crippled humanoid desperately trying to naw at her armored calf. The creature was so focused that it didn't seem to notice that its efforts were doing little more than chipping its once-well-cared-for-teeth. Smyth fired a shot into the creatures head, and then she made her way to the prone bodies of the humanoids that had made it to the transport first and fired at both of them. Their failure to make it onto the vehicle had left one with a fractured skull, and the other with a broken femur. Smyth didn't think it was a great idea to let either one drag itself off… not that their were threats anymore, it just seemed cruel.

At that moment, it occurred to Smyth that the air had taken on the distinct smell of cooked meat, and blood- a sure sign that dragons would soon be on the scene…

[StarFyre]

The continued forward movement of the humanoids was enough for Karjan to decide enough was enough. Barely taking a moment to aim, he calmly put a bolt of plasma through one after another.

"This reminds me of fighting Sansha slaves back on that lava world, eh Shals?" the DUSTer beside him bantered.

"Except for the lack of lava, the lack of other DUSTies, and the lack of Sansha idjits firing from behind, sure." Shaltach's voice was amused, even as she unloaded into the starving mini-hoard then planted a boot into the face of one poor sod who'd begun crawling towards her in desperation and kicked him into the air. "Idein, hup!"

Idein, the second DUSTer, set his assault rifle on his shoulder upside down and shot without even turning around, before bringing his gun back down and continuing to take care of those in front of him. "Score?"

"Not bad," Shaltach hummed thoughtfully as she watched the two pieces come back to the ground, putting a final bolt into the poor sod's head just to make sure. "Missed the center, though - just tore an arm off."

Lajira snorted from her position next to Shaltach, then smiled a sweet-sharp smile at the marine. "Would you like some lava? Can't do anything about the Sansha, sadly, but I'm sure the Gentheir has more than enough munitions packed to liquify some land."

"Nah," Shal waved one hand absently, as she slung the rifle over her shoulder and watched the last few enemies skitter off into the rubble. Oh, she knew there weren't gone, per-se, but the attacks had ceased, and it wasn't like the skeletal humanoids were that terrifying. She turned her attention to the self-proclaimed 'dragon hunter' that had been dumped out here with them, watching as the woman executed the injured humanoids that had lept for the transport. "Lets leave that to the ^slaver-dung^ that runs this place."

Karjan reloaded and holstered his pistol and absently brushed at some dust and rock-fragments that had landed on his sleeves from a shot that had barely missed one of the humanoids and vaporized part of the surrounding rubble. "I suggest we get moving. Nothing gets attention like a massacre, and I'd rather not get into the middle of a clusterfuck like what happens out in Null."

"Hey, hunter!" Lajira called out just loudly enough to reach Smyth. "We're getting out of here, and I suggest you come with. Five might not be much better than four, but it's definitely better than one."

Karjan fixed her with his flat stare, one eyebrow delicately arched to show his incredularity at her decision. ^Really? An outsider?^

^We can pick her mind about a native's opinion on the Empire that rules much of these parts.^ Lajira responded with a shrug. She finished reloading her pistol and flicked the safety back on as she holstered it, then gestured at Shaltach and Idein. ^Well? Lead the way. The two of you are the experts at ground combat.^

^So kind of you, Capsuleer,^ Idein responded, tone this side of outright sarcasm. He promptly rested his rifle on his shoulder much like Shaltach was and glanced around, orienting himself in the map that Lajira had uploaded to his HUD. Taking into the account the reported activities of the 'dragons' that Kalli had given, he immediately blackened the major thoroughfares and any path that had significant open zones. That left barely a handful of viable paths that led all the way to the spaceport without doubling back or getting into really dangerous looking zones.

"Alright, this way." Idein gestured towards the direction he had finally chosen after a few seconds of processing available data. It wasn't exactly the best path available, being one of the longer ones, but he didn't trust some of the shells of buildings that lined the best path, and most of the others had larger open areas that he wasn't sure he liked the idea of. Considering the legends, dragons flew, and breathed fire, and he'd rather have cover available rather than a shorter path.

[aireona93]

Smyth considered her companions for a moment, still somewhat unsure about whether or not she should trust them. The two soldiers in the group seemed very skillful in their killing abilities, and between the four of them, Smyth was fairly certain that she would be an easy target. Furthermore, they were able to communicate in a language that she couldn't understand. She trusted that the Fenda:soan implants would soon begin translating, but for the time being, the programs didn't have enough recorded material to allow her insight into what these people were saying to eachother at times. Not only that, but perhaps these people were more devoted to Corin than it seemed to Smyth; she had no idea what sort of relationship these humans had had with the company prior to their arrival. Surprising as it was, there were plenty of organizations in the surrounding galaxy that had strong trade relations with Corin.

Despite all that, Smyth followed as one of the soldiers led the way down one of the city's smaller streets. There was more to be gained from a successful alliance, than there was to lose if these humans had plans to kill her and take Corin's prize for themselves. For one, Zuri had assured her that she could not be killed. Smyth wasn't entirely certain that she believed this; being outside of her homeworld made her uneasy. Her instincts told her that death was final out here, but her logic reminded her that Zuri knew much more about Fenda:soan technology and these new worlds than Smyth did. Smyth was new to all these things. Furthermore, these humans might turn out to be interested in helping Smyth with her actual mission here… it was still up in the air if this was the fact, and it was time for Smyth to see if she could find out more about these people. Things were quiet for now, and she was certain that they wouldn't be for long. From what she knew about them, the Ordivacians would most likely come to courtyard where the hunters had all made short work of the left-over treasure seekers, and after they consumed what had been left behind, they would follow their scent. Most likely, the smaller, weaker dragons would start after them even before that, the thought of fresh meat tempting them to leave the larger dragons to the skeletal remains of the humanoids.

The street that the group was walking down was in surprisingly good repair, and Smyth could tell that their leader had chosen this route due to the possibility of attack. There was plenty of cover here. Large blocks of rumble were scattered here and there, providing human-sized cover while leaving the central part of the road open. The road itself, cobbled with massive flat stones that were fitted together perfectly despite their varying shapes and sizes. Smyth couldn't help but wonder about the methods the Corin had used to build the city, and it seemed likely to her that the ancestors of the Ordivacian dragons had built the street with their own sweat and blood. The buildings had once been similarly intricate, and in some places, Smyth could still make out hints of old paintings and frayed tapestries. Many of the doorways down this road were human sized. This could potentially help hide and protect them from hunting dragons, and it was likely that their humanoid attackers had found some semblance of sanctuary from those who hunted this city. The architecture hinted at something older as well- it was a remainder of the segregated world that Corin had built.

As chilling as it was, Smyth felt oddly comfortable here. It was a good choice of a place to travel, of that she was certain.

"So," Smyth trotted up to the strangers. "What brought you guys out here?" She was hopeful that their answer might shed light on whether or not Smyth would be able to disclose her own purposed for being on Ordivak, but she had no idea what her companion's reply might be.

[StarFyre]

^It truly does feel like Caldari Prime,^ Lajira spoke softly. ^Can you sense it?^

Karjan slid his gaze over to his sister, a tiny frown on his face, before he looked back at the ruined city they were walking through. If he ignored the odd architecture which had little in common with Caldari or Gallente styles and instead focused on the feel... He shrugged. Unlike his sister, much of his time had been spent in the untamed regions of space, concerned with Capsuleer affairs, not the affairs of the great Empires that had spawned them. ^I suppose.^

^Segregation and oppression,^ Shaltach broke in. ^Except I don't think there's going to be a grand liberation by the rest of the Empire wanting its homeworld back.^

^I don't think there is a 'rest of the Empire' out there.^ Karjan said. His implants cycled through the data Aura had been able to procure for him, sorting and searching for any mention of the Ordivacians. ^No. Except for the Federation which seems like it pushes for freedom for as many races as possible, these Ordivacians have this world and a few who managed to get free, but those are in no position to bring freedom to the rest^

Their conversation came to a halt the moment Smyth trotted up to them, both Capsuleers turning their attention to her.

"So, what brought you guys out here?" Smyth spoke

Several heartbeats of mental give-and-take (you!--no, you're the voice--no, you brought us here--no, I dislike baseliners--oh for nova's sake, lazy-ass) and Lajira flipped her brother off. "My brother and I were curious about the signal and decided to hunt it down."

Idein made a strangled noise, like a choked off laugh, and managed to get out the word, "Capsuleers!"

Lajira fixed the DUSTer with a narrow-eyed looked, to which Idein turned his helmeted head away in a blatant show of surveying the area, though his shoulders continued to quiver like he was snickering to himself. She shook her head.

"DUSTers!" Lajira huffed good-naturedly back at him, then turned back to Smyth, her dark eyes sharp and considering. "And you? The mission as stated by the Corin ambassador seems a bit too difficult for a single hunter to reliably manage."

[aireona93]

"You came all the way out here because you were curious?" Smyth regarded the "Capsuleers" with a look of disbelief. "Weren't you the least bit worried that this situation might be a little too dangerous to just come out for curiosity's sake? I mean, there must be more to it than that." Smyth was about to mention the age-old adage about curiosity killing the cat, but she stopped herself, unsure that these strangers would understand what she was talking about. Even if most human groups were found with domestic cats and dogs in close tow, that wasn't always the case. At any rate, she couldn't bring herself to believe that all four of these people would have been willing to explore a planet as blood thirsty and dead as Ordivak just because two of them wanted to find out more. Then again, humans hadn't become one of the most common species in the universe for nothing.

"And what are Capsuleers and DUSTers? If you don't mind me asking," Besides just being curious herself, Smyth was hoping to get a sense for whether or not she could disclose her own purposes for being on Ordivak. Of course, as her thoughts had dwelled on the idea more than once this afternoon, Smyth relished the idea of have more support rather than less on this mission, even if she was expected the Ordivacians themselves to join her team. As much as she hated Corin, Smyth couldn't help but worry about whatever facts the company's claims about the dragons being backstabbing cannibals were founded on.

"As for myself, I didn't actually come alone," As if suddenly remembering this fact, Smyth put her hand just above her eyes to block out the blaring, desert sun and stared up at the dusty sky, searching for her partner. "I am here with a powerful AI, who is currently controlling the ship that I came here in. She's got a good amount of fire power at her disposal. Besides that, travelling alone on Ordivak has its advantages. Even in a group this size, we may stand little chance against a full grown dragon that has turned to savagery due to starvation. Stealth may be our best defense against the Ordivacaians." As much as her instincts desired for her to be with a group, Smyth's words range true and reminded her about the dangers inherent in traveling in the open in even the semblance of large numbers.

As she waited for her companions to answer her questions and process the information that she had been willing to offer up, Smyth scanned the surrounding buildings. The city was ghostly quiet at the moment. There were no native animals on this world. No birds to fill the air with reassuring chatter. Not even the buzz of insects was present. Without Corin, Ordivak would have been a silent, peaceful world, content to continue on as quiet and dead as it always had been. The crumbling city seemed to Smyth to be a testament of the world's refusal to welcome any sort of life on its surface. Life could do terrible things to a planet, and for some, it simply wasn't worth the risk.

Despite all that, the Ordivacians had no other place to call home. Those that escaped this dusty, angry world ended up in the hands of slavers and worse. Once the Federation took this world, as it was seeming more and more certain that they would in due course, things might change here. It would take some negotiation, and the Fenda:soan spiritual leaders would need to consult with the spirit of the planet itself, but there were ways to coax a world into supporting life. If that could happen here, Smyth was certain that the Ordivacian way of life would improve. If Three and her followers were any indication, these dragons had the intellect and ingenuity that was common to most draconic species.

[StarFyre]

"That's Capsuleers for you," Shaltach responded with a shrug. "Past a certain point, all of them start looking for things that are new and different to poke their noses into." She and Idein been around long enough, and worked specifically with Karjan and his Alliance often enough, that the idea of curiosity driving them wasn't a stumbling-block so much as a fact. It happened, when you were alive long enough and knew that the 'reward' for death was just some experience and a few million Isk loss from a wallet that could potentially contain billions. "We have a saying, 'Capsuleers will do as Capsuleers will do.'"

"Usually followed by 'Oh, not again...'," Idein broke in, voice amused.

Lajira sent both a quelling - if slightly put-upon look. She knew exactly how her kind were viewed by the equally as long-lived DUSTers, who were about the only non-Capsuleer humans left in the Empires to comfortably interact with the oldest of Capsuleers. While she and her brother couldn't lay claim to be the eldest, they could certainly claim to being up there, having shed their humanity back in the first decade of the publicized program.

"Capsuleers," she began, "are independent space pilots. DUSTers are independent marines that usually work side-by-side with Capsuleers. Both are separate from the Empires from which we are born into and often work as mercenaries, explorers, and similar either for ourselves, each other, or even the Empires." No mention of the bloody swathes they cut through each other on a daily basis, the paranoia and shifting alliances that came with immortality and the same restless sense of lets see what happens that drove many of them to become Capsuleers or DUSTers to begin with. No mention of the standard conceit of godhood that bloomed early amongst the pilots, the heady rush of power derived from interfacing directly with ships and waking up heartbeats after losing it.

No. These things... these things were not spoken of outside of the Corporations and Alliances that her people formed themselves into. Baseliners whispered but rarely knew, the support crews knew but rarely said, the Empires understood but usually ignored...

"As for myself, I didn't actually come alone. I am here with a powerful AI, who is currently controlling the ship that I came here in. She's got a good amount of fire power at her disposal. Besides that, traveling alone on Ordivak has its advantages. Even in a group this size, we may stand little chance against a full grown dragon that has turned to savagery due to starvation. Stealth may be our best defense against the Ordivacaians."

"An AI?" Karjan perked up slightly, speaking for the first time in a language Smyth could understand. Normally, he would have continued to mostly ignore her -- a bad habit, he knew, but one he had gained out in Null, where only the immortals mattered, not the fragile baseliners that lived and died by the whims of the Capsuleers that had dragged them out there. "I was wondering if you had a partner you left in your ship, since it took off not long after we got into the transport. It's about a minute's flight that way." He gestured in the direction of the sun, where Aura had reported the ship being. Initially, he had wondered if Smyth might be the local equivalent of a DUSTer, partnered with a Capsuleer who didn't want to take the extreme risks that he and Lajira were. But an AI... that was a interesting result as well. One powerful enough to fly itself, and likely open fire by itself as well, if he was reading Smyth's words correctly. Though Aura could be relied upon to do as ordered, she did not quite have the freedom of thought required for true independent action... Karjan wondered if the same was true for Smyth's AI, or if it was a higher-order one.

The rest of her statement Karjan and Lajira merely shrugged off. It wasn't like the four of them really had something to worry about. Death here would cause them to wake up on the Clearview in the Clone Vat Bay, even the DUSTers who normally kept their respawns close by on the ground instead of up in space. The option wasn't often used -- in fact it was a fairly new one, created from the necessity of worlds destabilized enough that a land-based respawn was... unwise -- and required trust between the Capsuleer and DUSTer, but they had chosen to do so here.

Idein and Shaltach were slightly more wary of her statement, though only because they would remember their deaths, unlike the two Capsuleers who would wake up as soft-clones with only the recorded events to stand as testiment to what occurred. Being eaten wasn't really on their lists of death-styles to try.

[aireona93]

((I think Smyth is getting a little freaked out by your characters. XDDD You are doing a great job making them seem not quite human.))

Smyth found that conversation was doing little to warm her up to these strangers. Despite her questions they have divulged little… not that they should be expected to spill their guts to her, but she got the sense that they were hiding something, although she couldn't be sure what. What was it about her questions that made them need to be so… short? 'Capsuleers will do as Capsuleers will do.' What was that even supposed to mean? Whatever it meant, it didn't incline Smyth to be any more open with them than they were being with her.

"An AI?" Karjan asked. For the first time, the man decided to regard Smyth and his sudden interest made her realize that he had been ignoring her this entire time, speaking in another language. It was a rude thing to do, a very… human thing to do. Smyth felt like she had a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't appreciate being disregarded and judged.

"Yes," Smyth didn't bother looking at Karjan when she replied. "An AI." She was starting to really second guess her previous desire to team up with these people. Maybe their secrecy didn't mean anything, after all, they didn't know that they could trust her either, but Smyth definitely got the sense that none of this really mattered to them. They had come here out of curiosity, not concern for what was happening here, not out of the need for money… shit, not even out of loyalty to Corin. Was this some sort of game to them? They didn't even seem bothered by the hungry dragons that were no doubt watching them from the roofs and shadows. Zuri had assured Smyth that death here wouldn't be the end for her, and besides that she had gone on many a mission that she knew death wasn't really an option… that didn't mean that she regarded it to flippantly. One never knew what could happen.

"So, being here out of curiosity," Smyth said, "What is your plan? Are you just here to check things out, or are you here for the prize money that Corin is dangling in front of everyone? I mean, there are plenty of shitholes in the universe… probably in your own neck of the woods, and besides the fact that there are dragons here, I don't see the value of coming all the way out here. Why not one of Corin's lovely designer worlds, or any of the Nexus worlds, which are literally teeming with draconic species?"

Smyth wasn't sure that she would get any more of a detailed answer out of the group as she had previously, but it didn't hurt to keep prying.

In the mean time, she knew now that she couldn't rely on them- at least, not until she knew a lot more. They were wildcards for now; keeping things to themselves and exhibiting behaviors that Smyth didn't associate with normal humans. These weren't just pilots and soldiers- she knew plenty of human pilots and soldiers, and none of them were quite like this.

Smyth caught a glimpse of a familiar building in the distance. It wasn't the space port, but considering her growing unease, it was just as much a relief as Three's fortress would have been. Despite the destruction all around it, this particular tower looked nearly untouched. Yes, there were the burnt remains of energy discharges on the lower parts of its walls, and there were claw marks here and there. But it hadn't succumbed to the decades of warring and disrepair that had pulled much of the rest of the city to the ground. Much of its walls were still covered in brilliant, tiled murals that depicted beautiful seas and forests… not of this world. It was Corin's old headquarters, built to stand nuclear fall out, and if the histories were right, never taken by the dragons during the first war. It had simply been abandoned once Corin had built the wall and retreated behind it.

[StarFyre]

((*primly* I have absolutely no idea why Smyth would be freaked out by such outstanding examples of Capsuleer-hood. Why, compared to some, Ji and Karj are positively sane. =P But yeah, if you want to know the filter I view these four (because I see DUSTers as a version of Capsuleers, powerful and godlike in their own sphere) through, look to the short I posted on Deviant-Art called "Descent of Monsters". Also, do you know how bloody exhausting moving boxes and crates of dusty junk is? So pleased my grandmother's house sold and we're finished clearing it out. Also-also, they didn't want to shut up, and Karj and Ji decided an argument would be an awesome idea and then Idein decided to annoy Shaltach and Shaltach decided a knife-at-the-head was the best option to get Idein to shut up and... yeah =P ))

"Yes," Smyth replied, "an AI."

Karjan continued to watch her for a few moments longer, waiting to see if she would say more. When she didn't, he turned away, bored. He could hold on a gate for hours, waiting for the order (or to give the order) to jump through, but outside of a combat situation... well. Like many Capsuleers, patience was a virtue that he had an odd relationship with -- he could play the long game if it suited him, but for things that were only a passing fancy he lost interest quickly.

"So, being here out of curiosity," Smyth said, "What is your plan? Are you just here to check things out, or are you here for the prize money that Corin is dangling in front of everyone? I mean, there are plenty of shitholes in the universe... probably in your own neck of the woods, and besides the fact that there are dragons here, I don't see the value of coming all the way out here. Why not one of Corin's lovely designer worlds, or any of the Nexus worlds, which are literally teeming with draconic species?"

Lajira snorted and flicked her hand in a dismissive gesture. "As proud Gallenteans, it is our honor and duty to investigate and stamp out oppression wherever it may be." Really, she couldn't help herself sometimes. The sour tilt to her brother's chin made her snicker inside -- it was a well known fact (well, to those who knew Karjan) that he saw the idealistic ramblings of the 'Freedoms For All' campaigners as an insult to the intelligence of the universe. In his mind, freedom wasn't gained through pretty words and peaceful rallies on already-free worlds, but through hot plasma, skill at arms, and a daring disregard for every law that stood in the way. To him, freedom had to be won or stolen, not given by the oppressors.

It was why he admired the Caldari as much as he did -- they wanted the freedom of their origin world, Caldari Prime, and so took it, through skill and guile, from the Gallente who had held it for centuries.

"More Freedoms For All quotes, Capsuleer?" Shaltach said, voice amused. She had had very little interaction with Capsuleer Karjan's sister before this point, as she was rarely in High-Sec and Lajira was rarely in Null, but it seemed to her that Karjan was correct in his appraisal of his sister's character. Lajira would do almost anything to get a rise out of her brother. "Capsuleer Karjan, I take my words back. Your sister is worse."

Karjan smirked, the first real show of emotion in the entire time he'd been on planet. "You can pay me when we get back onboard."

"Wait, you bet on me?!" That wasn't in her script! Outraged that her brother had finally gotten one up on her, she sped up a bit then turned to face him and fixed him with an unblinking stare, walking backwards in front of him as she did.

"Just a minor bet of a few million." Karjan's smirk widened, though he did link his optic implant to the link between them and create a running 'vision' of what was behind her. This let his sister continue walking through the ruined landscape and hold her stare in the process.

"On me!" The secondary vision was disorienting for a fraction of a second, but it swiftly passed. They had done similar while in their ships, sharing vision to let each other know what was going on.

Shaltach and Idein shook their heads in amused exasperation. They'd gotten used to this sort of sniping between the two during the trek through wormholes to this uncharted region of space. Very little would break the two out of the circular arguments they were currently engaging in (albeit softly, to not draw attention to the group), which left answering the rest of Smyth's query to them.

"Capsuleer Lajira's habit of quoting ancient propaganda to annoy her brother aside," Idein began. "We're here, because they were curious, and a curious Capsuleer is an insatiable beastie."

Shaltach picked the thread up from her partner. "The value of coming out here is the same value as any initial Capsuleer venture. Knowledge. Power and wealth follow after, because only information can lead to power that lasts and wealth that accumulates. And if we wanted 'designer worlds', or even worlds teeming with alien creatures, there are plenty such in the Empires to visit." She would know -- she'd fought and died repeatedly on several such worlds at the behest of one or another Empire, and several times at the behest of Capsuleers attempting to steal said worlds from an Empire.

"Only in the shadows can we understand the light," Idein added almost pompously, though the effect was ruined when he had to duck under the knife Shaltach hurled at his head, which them buried itself hilt-deep in the rubble right next to him where his head had been.

Casually, he reached up and plucked it from the rubble, held it just long enough to begin charging the plasma on the edge, then hurled it back. Neither of them paused to consider how their casual attempts at murder might appear -- to them, the thrown knife had been play, as they had barely charged the plasma, and thrown it a touch slower than full combat speed... for a DUSTer; an enhanced, immortal, super-soldier.

"What is it with all the quoting of ancient propaganda?" Shaltach griped as she caught the knife and sheathed it. She was much of the same mind as Karjan was about the whole thing -- freedom was taken, not given, and she was pleased the campaign had died a violent death during the recent Caldari-Gallente war.

"I know a good thing when I hear it?" Idein shrugged. Really, he was doing it to rile his partner, because it was funny, aaaanndd... he had to duck again, as the knife practically materialized in the rubble where his head had been a moment ago. He pulled it out and waggled it in her direction, "Careful, might put an eye out."

"Ass."

Meanwhile, Karjan and Lajira's quiet 'argument' had devolved into more of a dick-waving contest about bets each had won and lost, during which they slipped back into Gallentean. Before the language shift, however, the tamest number thrown around was in the thousands (for a simple 'guess my true age' bet) and the most extravagant was in the billions (for a bet about mining). In fact, even without the ability to understand exactly what the two are discussing, Smyth could interpret at least a bit from the repeated hand gesture that both are using -- that of an extended hand, palm up, ring and pinky finger curled in while the pointer and middle are used to make a short 'come here' hooking motion, followed by a quick motion of the thumb to rub over the tip of the two fingers for a moment.

Idein and Shaltach were amused by the ongoing argument, though that hardly made them complacent. They also knew that, no matter how it seemed, both pilots were keeping an eye out as well, though using the sensors of the Gentheir rather than their eyes (which were still locked in a staring contest). Like the well experienced marines that they were, they took note of the unbroken tower, and used their maps to trace a quick route to the place just in case. One never knew when a good piece of solid construction was needed to hide in.

[aireona93]

((Sorry for the slow reply! I went on a trip for the holiday. ))

The Federation translation implant that was integrated into Smyth's mind indicated that it had had the time to process the conversations that her current companions had been having in in their own language. There was enough data now for it to carry out running translations (with a few holes here and there until she had spent more time with them and heard more of their speech) of their conversations. This would make Smyth a little more comfortable dealing with them. Karjan and Lajira seemed like they might have other ways of communicating, and perhaps the "DUSTers" did too, but at least there was a little less secrecy among them now.

Their current conversation did little to gain Smyth's confidence, however. On the one hand, Lajira' comment had briefly made Smyth think that there was some hope for an alliance between them. But the rest of the group's reaction quickly indicated that this was little more than a joke to them. It rubbed Smyth the wrong way. The Federation not always successful in their attempts to uphold their ancient tenets of freedom and protection, but that didn't mean that Smyth or any other Fenda:soan thought that these things were empty… or jokes.

"Knowledge, power, and wealth," Smyth mused as the strangers playfully fought with eachother. "That sounds more understandable." The brief moment of hope for some common ground between them left Smyth with a pit of disappointment in her stomach. She knew that the simulation of the emotion would be short-lived, however. It wouldn't be too hard to ignore.

The group dynamics were becoming more unwelcoming, so Smyth carefully edged away from the Capsuleers and their companions. She didn't want to be hit with the knife that they were throwing around. Even if it wouldn't permanently damage Smyth, it would be a tiring experience, and she needed to direct her energies else where right now. There were things that needed to be done, there was a lot hanging on the success of what Smyth did here.

While the conversation had been less than enlightening, it had filled the time that it had taken the group to reach the old headquarters building. They had been lucky to not have been attacked so far, but it made Smyth think that perhaps something was brewing. The Ordivacians weren't ones to let a meal escape their claws without a fight. With that in mind, Smyth approached the main doorway to Corin's old head quarters and tested the massive doors. They were made of some kind of dark, heavy metal inset with thick panels of cut glass that depicted the form of a dragon coiled around a human with its arms lifted up. Perhaps it had once been meant to be inspiring, but Smyth just found it disturbingly ironic. These particular doors, unlike the buildings that they had passed thus far, were also dragon-sized, suggesting some sort of past integration between the groups of Ordivak. Smyth couldn't imagine what that would have entailed, but it was intriguing on some level. The doors themselves were locked, however, and Smyth's attempt at opening them didn't even rattle the massive structures. It figured.

There had to be another way in. Smyth pressed her hand against the smooth, tiled surface of the building's outer wall. As she walked around the perimeter, she felt for anything that might indicate a door where none was visible. As it was, finding the way in didn't turn out to be that difficult. There was a small, unadorned door that had been clawed open at some point and left ajar. The markings looked to have come from a smaller Ordivacian, perhaps a young dragon. Smyth could only guess that there might be some of the small, vicious creatures within, but she would need to brave whatever was lurking inside.

Smyth glanced behind herself at her impromptu companions. Would it hurt to tell them what she was up to, at least in terms of exploring this particular square of hell? She didn't relish the thought of more of their confusing comments, but there was still a chance that they might be helpful once she got used to them.

"This building is the old Corin headquarters," she informed them- although she guess that their schematics of the city had already informed them of this. "There is some old data that I need to find here- potential evidence for Corin's motives for their current… extinction program." Smyth would leave it up to them if they wanted to follow her. She positioned her rifle and then dove into the dusty darkness within. Several pairs of glittering eyes greeted here, accompanied by the hungry growls of young Ordivacians.

[StarFyre]

((Oooh, a trip! Did you have fun?))

^I don't like this,^ Idein murmurred to the other three, as he absently caught and tossed Shal's knife back to her. They'd stopped with the active attempts at death and were now just flipping the blade between them, leaving it uncharged and therefore harmless. It was a way for them to keep the adrenaline that their altered bodies produced in check, so they weren't as likely to twitch-fire on a friendly. ^Can you feel the eyes?^

^I'd rather a proper fight,^ Shal agreed. Her gaze went up to the roof-line, though she didn't move her head. ^But they're just... waiting. Watching. Do you think that has something to do with our companion?^

Karjan made a noise of agreement, breaking the banter between him and his sister. Truthfully, the stress was beginning to get to both of them -- this wasn't what a Capsuleer was meant to do. Neither he nor his sister had spent this much time out of their capsule in... decades. Perhaps almost a century, if he pushed himself to remember. It had been fun at first, a nice adventure, but being restricted to human senses, a human shell, human weaknesses was beginning to grate. Even the trickle of data coming from Aura was barely enough to satisfy his mind, which was beginning to crave the stimulation of the pod. He looked thoughtfully up at the mostly intact building they were approaching, eyes landing on the giant door with a mural of dragon and man together; it was an interesting image, heavy with symbolism he could only begin to guess at. He watched as Smyth attempted to open it, though made no offer to assist, rather stayed a bit back and answered Shal's query. ^It's possible. We know she's here for a reason other than the bounty; she's too interested in our reasons for that to be true. I suspect she's from their Federation, going undercover to get the truth behind Corin's lies.^

^Do you think they suspect?^ Lajira asked. She, too, was examining the mural, and even went up to the door to run a hand over the glass thoughtfully. The image... reminded her of something. Nothing pleasant, either.

Karjan shrugged, then began to follow Smyth as she started to walk around the perimeter of the building. ^Maybe. Maybe not. But you realize there's no way back outside of our own shuttles. That wall they built is solid, and the only way back in is by their permission.^

^Which they won't give,^ Idein said sourly.

^Which they won't give,^ Karjan agreed placidly. This was the sort of thing he thrived in -- the politics and betrayals that practically defined Null were his bread and butter; where no one was trustworthy and everyone was out for themselves, even Corp-mates. ^Even if we succeeded. They'd just spin it so that we heroically died freeing the world of the newest terror -- win-win: they don't have to shell out the rather extravagant reward they promised, and their problem is solved. Conveniently, they also get a martyr to hold up if they want.^

Lajira pressed her lips together in a sour expression. She despised politics, even if she could play the game almost as well as her brother; there was a reason she had remained in High Sec, and it had very little to do with the safety of the Empires. The sight of an ajar door was a welcome relief from her thoughts, as were Smyth's words.

"This building is the old Corin headquarters," Smyth informed them, needless though it was. "There is some old data that I need to find here- potential evidence for Corin's motives for their current... extinction program." With that said, she adjusted her rifle and dove into the darkness.

"Capsuleer?" Idein asked, even as he brought his rifle down from his shoulder and flipped the safety off. No matter what order Karjan gave, he needed to be ready to take down the things his HUD was highlighting in the darkness beyond. Beside him, Shaltach sheathed the knife and brought her rifle to bear as well.

"Go."

As if released from leashes, the two DUSTers moved, flowing through the intervening space with the deadly grace of the killers they were, plasma already ripping through the air towards their targets. They fired as quickly as their weapons allowed, continuing to move as they did, not wishing to be pinned down by the little creatures. Even so, crackling sparks lit up the darkness as their shields intercepted claws and teeth and tails, protecting them from harm that the restricted space kept them from dodging.

Meanwhile, Karjan and Lajira moved to the edge of the doorway and fell into a crouch back to back - Lajira facing into the darkness and Karjan facing out. Both had their pistols out and armed, and both were warily watching the world around them, forcing their optic implants to the max. They had nothing more than low-grade shield generators clipped to their belts -- good enough to handle a few blows, but nothing compared to the DUSTers' shields, and unlike the marines, they had no real armor equipped. Together, they kept watch.

[aireona93]

Smyth had just a few short seconds to take in the dim room adjoining the open doorway, before her companions burst in behind her. The room itself seemed to be some sort of old storage locker, and it was large enough to for both humans and dragons to fit in easily, despite the small size of the passage that Smyth had just stepped through. If Ordivak was ever taken by the Federation, she could imagine that the history and architectural studies would be fascinating. Even to her untrained eyes, the buildings seemed to tell a story about the subjugation that had built this world. The walls of the room were lined with large shelves, some of which were still lined with unopened, unmolested canisters and boxes. Smyth guessed that that this meant there was no food on those shelves, because most of the other stores here had been ransacked long ago, most likely by young dragons similar to the ones staring down at her from the shelves now. A few of them were growling hungrily at her, while the warning sounds coming from others had a distinctly defensive tone.

Smyth was just considering testing the water with these little dragons. On the one hand, they might not have any clan affiliation, a lot of young Ordivacians were eaten by their mothers, which led many of the weaker ones to flee their clans. This building would be a perfect place for just such dragons to hide away in. On the other hand, Three's leadership had led to a variety of changes for the better, and Federation studies had shown that levels of mortality for young Ordivacians had fallen substantially since her rise to power. Her clan's territory included Corin's old headquarters, so these might be some of hers, and for that reason, it would have been helpful to talk to them… or at least attempt to talk with them.

There wasn't any chance for that, however, as the DUSTers burst into the room behind her, their plasma weapons flashing. The aim of these soldiers was nearly flawless, no doubt guided by implants and decades of experience. The little dragons stood little chance against the onslaught, but Ordivacians, even the weak ones, weren't creatures to give up without a fight. Almost immediately, their colorful bodies lit up by the flashes of plasma blasts, the young creatures that hadn't been shot attacked.

Two of the dragonets pounced directly at Smyth, their knife-like claws extended towards her face, the only part of her body unprotected by her armor. Reflexively, Smyth pulled up her rifle and fired into the mid-section of the body of the first dragon. The energy blast cut a smooth hole through the dragon's body, killing it instantly. She dropped her two-handed hold on her rifle, leaving only her trigger hand to hold the gun, while she whipped her free hand up to meet the oncoming attack of the second dragonet. Smyth was nearly pushed to the ground; close range combat, however, was something that she was all too used to, and she managed to stay on her feet.

The dragon itself missed Smyth's face, and its claws grasped uselessly at her armor. Smyth grabbed the dragonet by one of its stubby, youthful horns, and pulled its head back. This particular attacker, though slightly more muscled and healthy looked than the first, was still weak with hunger, and its scrawny neck could do little to prevent Smyth from pulling hard enough to break something. Despite Smyth's snap reaction to the first young dragon, she wasn't all that interested in killing these creatures- not if she could help it, anyway. Instead of snapping the little creature's neck, Smyth threw the dragon on the ground and then used her weapon to slam it into unconsciousness.

There was little other chance for mercy. One dragonet leapt up onto Smyth's back, as another slinked out of the shadows beneath the shelving units in an attempt to get at the prone body of the dragonet that Smyth had just dislodged. Unconsciousness appeared to be little better than death here, and Smyth knew that she should have anticipated that. She shot at prone dragon's attacker, and simultaneously slammed her body, and the attacker that was latched onto her back into the metal edges of the shelves behind her. There was a sound of cracking ribs, and the dragonet let out a cry of pain that was oddly childlike despite its ferocious attack.

[StarFyre]

The fact that they were killing children, no matter how vicious or oddly shaped, barely phased Idein and Shaltach. Not even the child-like cry of one Smyth body-slammed backwards caused them pause -- this was neither the first, nor likely the last, time children would be involved in combat. Though generally regarded as abhorrent by the Empires, the pirate factions were hardly as moral, and child soldiers were cheap and simple to indoctrinate and throw in the path of DUST marines as a delaying tactic.

Shaltach ducked under a leaping dragonet, her left hand dropping its hold on her rifle and unsheathing her knife. The blade began glowing as the heated plasma ignited along the edge, and the dragonet let out a pain-filled shriek as the blade plunged into its side and deep into its organs. Casually, she ripped the blade free, making sure to do so in such a way that the dragonet was dead before it hit the ground. They were killers, but hardly heartless... too, playing with their prey left too much to chance. Better a quick, clean kill rather than allowing a chance for retaliation. Realizing that the space was too tight, and the dragonets too close, to continue to use her rifle successfully, Shal slung her rifle back onto her back where her suit grabbed and held it in place. In its place, she drew her second knife and fell into a fighting stance, both blades shining brightly with hot plasma.

Meanwhile, Idein was using his rifle to block a frontal lunge by a slightly larger dragonet, the creature's teeth having clamped onto the barrel and refused to release. A swift kick to the creature's ribs shattered them and wrenched its body around, but even as the light in the dragonet's eyes died, its jaws refused to release. Idein muttered a sharp curse in Gallentean and ripped the creature's lower jaw from its body, before hurling the body part at another dragonet that thought to take advantage of his distraction. Warily eyeing the scratches on the rifle barrel, he muttered another curse and slung his rifle onto his back like his partner had.

Together, the two DUSTers settled into a back to back stance, both with two knives drawn and glowing with hot plasma.

^Almost as bad as slaver-hounds,^ Idein grumped as he booted another dragonet away from him.

Shaltach nodded, ducked under another lunging dragonet and sent it flying head-first into the wall near Smyth with a backhand. ^Why do we follow Capsuleers again?^

^Because they have money.^ Idein stabbed his knife up through the roof of a snapping dragonet's mouth and into its brain, then promptly booted the twitching body away.

Truthfully, while his answer was correct for younger DUSTers, who jumped from piece of work to piece of work, uncaring of their employers or jobs, those of their age had been around long enough to form firm ties with certain Corporations... or, more specifically, with certain members of certain Corporations. He and Shaltach would follow Karjan anywhere the man pointed, simply out of loyalty and the knowledge that very little he did actually failed.

Sometimes, though, they really had to question his logic...

[aireona93]

Smyth felt the dragon that was clinging to her back slip to the ground, and then she gave it a fierce kick to the face without any forethought. The dragonet's young skull splintered, and its organic, internal processing centers slopped gracelessly onto the concrete floor. Smyth was immediately sickened by her action, not because of the gore, but rather… because she was surprised at her own thoughtless brutality. It made her efforts to save her first attacker look even more thoughtless.

She glanced into the shadows where the prone dragonet had been laying when she had been attacked from behind. The youngling that she had tried to save was gone, and a trail of bloodied foot prints led into the next room. The dragonet that she had shot was the source of the blood trail, and not because of the plasma blast to the face that it had taken. In fact, it looked as though the dragon that Smyth had saved had taken a moment to tear the throat out of its attacker before it retreated. There was little room for sentiment among the younglings here, and Smyth supposed that it made sense to insure that any disloyal members of the group were taken out as swiftly as possible. Perhaps the youngling that she had saved was the leader of the group. She certainly seemed strong enough, considering her rapid recovery, and her immediate action to protect herself. Ordivacian leaders were often set apart by just such traits.

Meanwhile, as Smyth took in the result of her brief tussle, the DUSTers had taken out more of the young dragons, and the rest of the little creatures went scuttling. Some ran out the doorway that the hunters had just entered through, into the warm light of the day, and the rest followed the bloody footprints into the interior of the building. Smyth couldn't help but let out a sigh of frustration. Every single dragonet that had disappeared into the darkness of the old Corin headquarters was just one more potential ambusher, along with all the dragonets that hadn't been in the storage room to attack them upon their entrance. This meant that it would take her even longer to find the information that she was seeking… even longer to get to Three, and every second that ticked by put them all closer to getting being erased by Corin.

With that in mind, Smyth followed the dragons through the doorway that led into the building. She grabbed the door's handle, and clutched at it like a shield as she switched on the light that was mounted to her rifle and pointed it down the hallway that was on the other side of the door. It was a dead end, blocked by rubble that didn't look as though it come from the building itself. It looked as though someone, or something had blocked the passageway years ago, but Smyth couldn't guess why. The only other thing on that side of the hallway was the crumpled form of a dragon's skeleton. It looked recently gnawed- perhaps it was lunch before the hunters had burst in on the young dragon's fortress.

Smyth pushed the door open all the way and peered down the other side of the hallway. The bloody footprints faded away down this way, past several other doorways, all blocked by rubble. There was only one way to go, and as Smyth cautiously began to follow after the fleeing dragons, she couldn't help but feel that they were being funneled… guided into the gloomy darkness. Perhaps there were traps in that darkness, or a larger dragon. It didn't seem right, but Smyth continued onwards anyway. She needed to get to the information that was tucked away in this building, information that Corin had hidden away for decades, and information which could be used in the Federation to allow a direct attack against the company that had ruled this world with an iron fist for far too long.

((Feel free to set up a trap or come up with something else interesting for our characters to deal with next!))

[StarFyre]

((>.> Hopefully this is acceptable...))

Lajira shoved herself -- and thus her brother as well -- back from the entrance as a few dragonets darted blindly into the day, not even paying the two of them any attention. Lips pressed into a thin line, she rose from her crouch and moved forward into the room.

::Six limbs.:: Karjan sent, dark eyes tracing the path that the little dragons had taken in their bid for escape. ::And, of course, free to gather reinforcements.::

Lajira's lips thinned even further, eyes gone obsidian-cold and face blanked, even as her implants whipped through paths and patterns and what-ifs and considerations. ::Too questionable. They turn on each other, starving rabble.::

::Not worth laxity.:: Karjan gave his sister a pointed, frigid look, then nodded to Idein and Shaltach.

"Aye, sir," Idein spoke, as he turned and followed after Smyth. He left both blades active, rather than going for his large rifle, and the bright blue glow of the heated plasma cast eerie shadows across the walls.

Behind him came the two Capsuleers, optical implants driven to the max in an attempt to deal with the dancing shadows and darkened edges. Behind them, Shaltach followed up, playing rear-guard.

It was Lajira who noticed it first; the irregularities, the wrongness of the stones. Who, incapable of giving voice to her thoughts quickly enough, sent the data in a panic-burst to the party: careful seams and balanced rocks and disturbed patterns that spoke of haste and gentle trembling in a rock RIGHT. THERE.

"Get down!" Idein released the knife in his left hand, grabbed Smyth, and yanked her back and down. The ceiling crumbled right over whether they would have been a second later, kicking up a great billow of dust and sending fist sized chucks of rubble pelting at them. Doorways, previously blocked completely, were suddenly ambush points, as the topmost rocks were kicked outward, badly aimed but no less dangerous.

Idein's hand shifted to cup over Smyth's nose and mouth -- not cutting off her breath, but doing what he could with armored hand to shield her from inhaling as much dust as possible. Behind him, both Capsuleers tucked their faces into the heavy fabric of their overcoats and knelt, crouched close to the wall on either side of a blocked doorway.

"I hate buildings," Shaltach growled, as she crouched and attempted to peer through the dust to take stock of how badly off they were. This day was getting better and better.

((Depending upon how you have Smyth set up, she might be able to catch the edge of Lajira's broadcast -- she wasn't being very tidy with it. Capsuleers and DUSTers have two different styles of implants, so in order to send to both as quickly as she did, she got a bit sloppy with the exactly frequencies and so there was some spill-over into other frequencies.))

[aireona93]

To say the least, Smyth was surprised when she saw that half of the building looked to be crumbling down on all of them. She was expected some sort of trap at the end of the passageway, perhaps a group of dragonets waiting to ambush them, but nothing like this. Of course, now that she thought about it, if she had the strength of a dragon, she might just do something this dramatic as well. She did have to wonder how they had caused Corin's fortress to crumble; it had stood the attacks of dragons for decades. Then… Smyth's mind snapped back to reality. There wasn't time to be pondering the structural integrity of buildings when she stood the chance of being killed (or not killed, if Zuri was right, but Smyth wasn't exactly sure how that would work out). Lucky for her, one of the DUSTers had pulled her out of harm's way, and made sure she didn't breath in any of the debris, not that that would really be a problem. On top of everything else, it was rather surprising that her companions would save her. Their behavior was hard to understand, but then, Smyth really wasn't any sort expert on humans- this trip was reminding her of that fact again and again.

At any rate, Smyth really needed to force herself to focus on the important things at hand right now. For instance, the large dragon that was using its bulk to smash down the building around them, while others were kicking in the rubble that had previously blocked the other doorways. Smyth wondered how long the dragons had been planning this trap, and why… it seemed like more than a hunting strategy. But then… Smyth supposed anything that resulted in death was a hunting strategy on Ordivak.

There was little more time for Smyth to ponder the details of her situation. She was loathe to kill more dragons, but they had left them little choice. Smyth untangled herself from the arms of the DUSTer, and then trained her rifle at the nearest, now-open doorway. She charged her weapon and then fired several times into the swirling dust that was spilling out of the darkness beyond. Smyth's weapon was designed to handle large prey, not dragons… exactly, but it was effective against them, nonetheless. After a few shots, she was fairly certain that she could at least push her way up to the opening and use that as a fairly sheltered attack point. After all, the collapsed ceiling had effectively stopped their forward movement, and trying to concentrate on all of the ambushing dragons in the hallway seemed like it might be less than fruitful. Better, it seemed to Smyth, to push forward and surprise them.

With that in mind, she forced her way forward, up and over the rubble, until she was able to see into the next room. It looked to be some sort of remnant of a banquet hall. There were still some sections of floor with its wood tiling intact. Not that Smyth could see it well enough to tell, but she guessed that it had once been quite beautiful. There were massive tables pressed up against one of the walls, some of them smashed. Whatever had done that was powerful. The open floor of the room was now being criss-crossed by smaller dragons, young ones like those that had already attacked them. They seemed oddly organized for a horde of younglings…

Smyth knew that she couldn't hesitate this time- not because she didn't like shooting dragonets, despite their savagery and the danger they represented, and not because she was getting into the bad habit of thinking too hard about things. She open fired on the dragons before they got wind of her presence, and it took a few second for the little creatures to figure out what was happening to them. In that time, Smyth took out as many as she could… before a wave of new attackers were upon her, and she could just make out a rumble in the floor that suggested something bigger might be coming for them all.

[StarFyre]

((sorry for the delay. This week hasn't been fun... between learning we have three weeks to find a new roommie and needing to clean the apartment out... yeah. -.- ))

Idein knocked a few pieces of rubble away and grabbed his knife from where it had fallen. A ping against Shal's implants was enough to confirm their 'plan' as it was -- she would continue to guard their rear, while he dealt with the problem ahead.

With that in mind, Idein slowly moved forward, still in a crouch and knives extinquished for the moment. He paused a bit behind the hunter, using the moment to examine the data his HUD was feeding him, before deciding to sheath his blades and pull his rifle free again. Moments later, Smyth's shots were joined by Idein's, taking care of more of the swarming dragonets.

In the hall, Shaltach and Lajira were firing upon the dragonets that were that part of the pincer, though Lajira's smaller pistol was only truly effective when she managed to get a shot at the softer parts of their attackers. Because of this, she was firing much less often, making sure of every shot before pulling the trigger, eyes narrowed in concentration.

Karjan was firing as well, though less precisely than his sister. Instead, he was slowly making his way up the pile of rubble that had fallen and only picking off dragonets that looked to be getting near his sister. Mostly, though, he was examining the pile of rubble and the area it had once been attached to, and sending the sight to his industrialist sister.

::Cut marks.:: Lajira confirmed when he sent his sight. ::And stress fractures. Be careful. That entire level is likely weakened by those fractures.::

::Just what I wanted to hear.::

The pile of rubble under his feet began to shift, settling more firmly in place, and Karjan quickly jumped free before he could lose his footing and fall. ::Million Isk there's a big one calling the shots.::

::Too easy. Look at the dust.::

Karjan glanced back at the rough edges of the collapse, and frowned as dust and tiny fragments jostled loose on a cyclic pattern. Implants sped through calculations, running estimate after estimate, even as Karjan continued to fire upon the dragonets that were harrying them.

"We need to get away from that collapse," Karjan announced. "Big one likely hunts from the floor above us, and it'll be here within five minutes."

[aireona93]

Smyth found herself firing at a more rapid rate as the rumbling in the floor got stronger and stronger. The dragon that was leading this particular horde was getting close very quickly, and Smyth wanted to be rid of as many of the small ones as she could. It was a horribly practical thought, considering that she was killing children. Smyth wished that she could get away from that consideration, but no matter how many of the little ferocious things that she killed, nor the fact that they would offer her no similar pause in thought before killing her, she just couldn't get away from it. It didn't feel right to her. Sure, she made her living killing things, but never younglings. Despite that, Smyth kept firing, and her shots were precise, with all but a few killing a dragon in one hit; it was an easy indication of just how much the hunter had used her weapon in the past.

Smyth managed to off a few more dragonets, forcing the horde to keep its distance because between her and the DUSTer that had come in behind her, there was little chance at attacking them from this direction. Any small dragon that really wanted to have at them, would have to go around, through one of the other passage ways, but Smyth hoped that the others would watch their backs. Otherwise, there was little that they could do other than be overrun… retreat, at least for her, wasn't an option. She needed to find the data that was hidden here… no matter how many dragonets she needed to deal with on the way. If they could save this world, more would be saved than she could ever kill, and if she failed, Corin would deal with the Ordivacians in its own way- time had run out for this wild world.

Suddenly, as if it had been tracking with her musing about running out of time, the larger dragon that had been coming bust through the floor above the massive room that Smyth was facing. Its claws tore easily at the floors and walls as it burrowed its way down from the floor above. Once the opening was large enough for its body to fit through, the adult dragon jumped down, cracking the crumbling foundation and ruining what wood flooring was left. It also seemed that the creature had crushed more than one dragonet on its way down; it didn't care. Its gaze was set firmly on Smyth and Idein, and its intent was utterly clear. With a deep and powerful roar, the dragon began to come towards them, and Smyth began to fire.

She aimed for its eyes, because despite the Ordivacians lack of scales, their skin was thick and their ability to ignore pain was legendary, but Smyth hoped that the creature might be slowed down if it is was blinded. The first plasma blast hit the dragon right where Smyth had intended, and it let out a horrible shriek of pain. It lashed out with one of its clawed hands, and set several of the smaller dragons into the walls. Most appeared to have survived the strike, but a few didn't rise after the larger dragon's fit of anger. A palpable sense of fear began to pervade the room- not just that of the hunters, but the young dragons as well. The attacking dragonets broke their scattered lines, and began running in all directions. The adult was more danger than the humans were worth, and perhaps its presence was as unexpected by them as it was their attackers.

The large dragon, favoring its wounded (perhaps disabled eye) with a closed eyelid wasn't thwarted by the pain it was in. Smyth attempted to continuing firing at its face, but the creature had wizened up, and with one of its massive claws shielded its face as it drew within range of the hunters.

[StarFyre]

Behind his helmet's visor, Idein's eyes widened at the sight of the adult -- it was huge compared to what he was accustomed to seeing, a great beast of muscle and teeth and talon that dwarfed most native species that he'd ever had the displeasure of running across during missions. It was a bit frightening to think that the little ones they'd been killing turned into that, and it spoke volumes on exactly how badly off this place was. The sheer amount of food necessary to grow to that size had to be astronomical, and nothing he'd seen -- either first hand or through reports the Capsuleers had compiled -- had given any indication that this world was capable of producing like that.

Smyth's shots and the resulting shriek of pain snapped him out of his momentary funk. Idein admired the nicely placed eye-shot, even as he reloaded and resettled his rifle properly on his shoulder. A few carefully placed shots showed exactly how resistant the thing was -- the claws shielding its face barely blackened even when faced with the charged plasma, and the shots against its chest had burned and wounded it, but not deeply. Not critically.

Great. The things got tougher with age.

He was not looking forward to getting eaten. Karjan better properly compensate them for this clusterfuck it was turning into!

His HUD was scrambling to find weak points, scrambling to identify anything that could help, but it wasn't designed to handle nonhumans. (And he'd have to approach Capsuleer Lajira about that later, if they were to remain in this region for long. The lack of data was like a missing limb.)

He kept pouring fire into the initial wound in the creature's chest, each shot reaching slightly deeper, wounding slightly more, until he was sure he could see a flash of bone through the char. Unfortunately, his efforts were simply motivating the thing further with rage and pain.

[aireona93]

The odds didn't seem good that they would be able to take down the adult before it got to them. Smyth had shot it in the eye, and had made attempts at the unprotected parts of its face, but it was still coming. Idein was firing repeatedly at the dragon's chest, and each shot dug deeper and deeper into the thing's chest. Smyth thought that she caught sight of some bone, although it was hard to tell among the charred flesh that surrounded the wound. It didn't seem to phase the dragon… and it was getting closer and closer… the room was big, but not big enough, apparently.

Smyth kept firing, despite the fact that she would need to reload soon, and that might just be the time that the dragon needed to draw near enough to attack. Her mind was racing for some alternative way of fighting this thing, but besides retreating back the way that they had come, she saw no other options but to just keep hoping that pain might drive the dragon back, or perhaps it might be wounded enough to get it down. Retreating seemed like a way to be crushing into the crumbling building, as this dragon obviously didn't have trouble (or any qualms) with ruining the structure.

Just as the hunter found herself feeling particularly resigned, however, the dragonets began to swarm back into the room. For a moment, Smyth thought that the little creatures were rallying to their leader's side, and that they would come sweeping out from under the larger dragon and consume them all. It seemed pretty hopeless, and she could only hope that Zuri wasn't lying to her just to get her to get out of the ship… the AI did seem pretty concerned about Ordivak, and it wasn't as though Smyth and her had had the time to get very close…

Smyth's nearly panicked thoughts were cut short when she realized what the dragonets were actually doing. They weren't swarming to the adult dragon's aid, they were swarming all over the adult, literally. They were clawing their way up the creature's legs and tail. The bigger dragon cried out in surprise, and turned to face down the smaller creatures. Some were crushed by its flailing limbs, but there were enough of the small attackers that several managed to make their way up onto the more vulnerable parts of the adult. These dragonets sunk their teeth into the flesh of the elder creature, and began to tear away at its flesh.

Smyth didn't think that the little things could manage to kill the adult before it managed to crush and rend the remaining little ones, but perhaps with the hunters' help they could all get rid of this tyrant. Smyth took a few steps forward on the uneven ground of the rubble, trying to get a better aim at the wound that Idein had been working at. The creature's face would be too hard to fire at with it struggling to upset the little creatures that were clinging to its back, but that growing wound was still easily within sight. She yanked the nearly spent clip out of her rifle, and slammed a new one into place.

After that, she fired in time with Idein, and watched as their plasma burrowed its way into the large creature. The Ordivacian did better with pain than Smyth might have expected, the dragon continued to fight even after she was almost certain that she was seeing the inside of the creature's chest. Eventually, its biology got the better of it, however, and the dragon crumbled to the ground. The dragonets seemed to finish whatever job there was left to do, tearing at the adult's throat.

When they were done, the little creatures paused in their violence to regard Smyth and the others. Smyth paused, and then lowered her gun, hoping that it would signal to the little ones that she meant them as little harm as possible. They seemed to get the point, and turned to feast on their fallen comrade.

[StarFyre]

((*twitches* Death to RL! Death to the oppressor!))

Seeing the dragonets swarm the big one, crawling all over it like ants upon food, gave Idein heart. The thing would die, and he wouldn't be eaten, and he could properly rib Karjan for this whole mess. As Smyth poured her own fire into the wound he had made, timing her shots to his with a nice bit of accuracy, he found himself... approving. No matter what direction the Capsuleers chose, he felt a certain kinship with the hunter -- warrior to warrior. Not enough that he would betray them, but enough that he would push for words first, weapons last.

When the dragon fell, and Smyth lowered her weapon, it took Idein a few seconds to follow suit. That the dragonets didn't immediately swarm them left him a bit wary, but it was... understandable. They had ample food available in the form of the adult and their dead brethren, so why continue fighting those who had proven so dangerous?

Idein slung his rifle onto his back, feeling the mag-clips activate to hold it in place, then turned to examine the three behind them.

Bodies of dragonets littered the ground, soaking the floor with their blood. Shal had holstered her rifle as well, and was examining one of the more intact bodies with curiosity, using one lit knife as a light source. The Capsuleers, however...

^Capsuleer?^ Idein asked warily, as he approached where Lajira was sitting on a piece of rubble, her torso bare of everything but a simple breast-band and blood running down her side from a set of slashes on her left shoulder and lower back. The circular plates of the capsule-jacks down her spine glinted silver in the light of the chemical torch that her brother was using to see by.

Lajira waved her right hand absently. ^One managed to sneak up on me using the dead bodies to hide behind. I'm fine, but I'll need to recycle this body when we get back, it got a claw into the lowest jack and ruined the contact.^

Karjan made a noise of annoyance, as he poked his sister to get her to hold still to let him place disinfectant over the wounds. ^Be glad it didn't rip the whole thing free.^

"You and Smyth?" Lajira ignored her brother's griping, as she examined Idein carefully for signs of trouble. "We heard the... adult?.. break through the floor."

"We're fine. The adult is dead and the rest of the little ones are currently feasting on it." Idein reported. "Now that the big one isn't ripping the place apart, how stable do you think it is?"

Lajira hummed in thought, staring up at the edges of the floor above them. "Go light that up, would you?"

Pulling out another chemical light and giving it a shake to activate, Idein carefully climbed the rubble and held the blue-green light near the edge. Below him, Lajira's eyes narrowed as she examined what the light revealed. He had no idea how much she could see from her seat below him -- nor what she could gather from the metal-and-crete mess. All he could see was, well, a mess.

Lajira, however, was pulling upon her experience as an industrialist. The rubble she was sitting on was well made, and had only failed due to stress. Picking up a small pebble of crete, she brought it close to her face, tasting it, smelling it. With a noise of satisfaction, she spat the grit out and flicked the pebble at Idein. "Good enough, get back down here before you unbalance. So long as there isn't another large one here, the rest of the place should be safe."

[aireona93]

((I hope things are working out for you guys!!! <3 I also wanted to give you a heads up that I will be out of town till next Tuesday- July 1. So, I won't be able to reply again until after that. :3 ))

Smyth took a moment to catch her breath. The young dragons were distracted by the sudden opportunity to gorge themselves, and the Capsuleers and the DUSTers had regrouped. It seemed, from what Smyth caught of their conversation, that Lajira was hurt, but it didn't sound too serious. The few seconds of relative calm and silence felt well deserved, but Smyth still had an important job to do.

The hallway that they had been planning on following into the building had been destroyed, and Smyth wasn't even sure that it was a smart idea to stay in this half of the building. It had stood war for several decades, but being gutted was dangerous even for the strongest architecture. It seemed that the only way forward down was the passage on the other side of the great room… on the other side of the dead dragon, and all of the starving dragonets. It looked like Smyth would have to cross over. It was a stupid plan, to be sure, but she didn't see what other options she had.

She reloaded her rifle, preparing for the worst, and then she slung it over her shoulder, and she carefully picked her way down the mound of rubble that Idein and she had been fighting from the top of. She would have liked to have managed that quietly, as the idea of drawing any attention to herself was distasteful, but it was nearly impossible. The rubble was too loose, and several large chunks of the crumbled concrete tumbled down and clattered on the floor. Smyth glanced nervously up at the horde of dragons gathered in the great room that was now on even ground with her. All but one of the little creatures ignored her.

It was the dragonet that she had saved before. Smyth recognized the particularly beautiful flash of bright yellow that made up the little Ordivacian's facial markings, and the smooth turquoise that characterized the rest of her body. If Smyth didn't have to wonder at just how hungry and desperate this dragon was for food, she would have found the dragon rather beautiful. As it was, however, Smyth didn't find herself thinking that, because the little dragonet was moving towards her, its predatory yellow eyes locked onto hers.

She was in the middle of reaching back for her weapon, when the dragon stopped in its tracks. Smyth froze as well, and chose (as stupid as it might have been) to wait to see what the dragon would do. In an oddly familiar gesture, the little dragon raised one of its hand-like foreclaws and waved in a gesture that seemed to suggest that the dragon wanted Smyth to stand down… Smyth couldn't help but wonder why she could possibly think that this wild Ordivacian child would know any human gestures of the sort, but she lower her hand anyway. The little creature took a few more careful steps forward, but paused at a respectful distance.

"What do you want?" The dragon's common was surprisingly perfect… Smyth almost didn't know how to react, but she managed to force the words out.

"Corin sent us," Not a great thing to say… but Smyth wouldn't have been surprised if this little dragon was already well aware of this. Humanoids didn't just waltz through the city on their own on a daily basis- not unless the company was involved. "But I'm not working with Corin; I just needed access to the city…" Smyth trailed off for a moment as a look of confusion and disbelief washed over the dragonet's face.

"Perhaps you have heard of the Federation before?" Smyth offered. "Three knows of us…"

"Three? The dragon that has the spaceport?" The dragonet shook her head. "She doesn't have any power here, or at least, she didn't." The little creature glanced back at the dead adult that was sprawled across the floor.

"At any rate," the little creature continued, "I don't know of any Federation, and just because your group knows Three doesn't mean anything for us here. What do you want with us? And what was Corin planning?"

"Well," Smyth wasn't sure where to start. "Corin is on the verge of glassing the city, as far as I can tell, but I was hoping to get ahold of some evidence against them that might allow my people to step in…"

"Glass the city? What do you mean?" The dragonet's confusing had melted away into pure suspicion, and in considering her answer, Smyth had to wonder just how blunt she should be with this youngling. Then again… as young as she was, this dragonet was used to cannibalizing her own, and her parents may have tried to eat her, so…

"They are going to burn everything to the ground from space. They will save their fields and destroy the city along with all of the dragons. It would solve a lot of problems for them."

"And you are here to help us? Why?" The little dragon was sharp.

"I don't think Corin should be able to erase what happened here, and I don't think that your people deserve to be killed without any chance at a better life," Smyth said, and felt a little preachy, but she couldn't help herself. "But look, I don't mean you guys any harm, and I really need to find this data sooner rather than later. I doubt Corin will wait much longer to take the easy way out of this situation."

"Fine," the dragonet said. "I'll help you. I don't see what harm you can cause digging through the old files here, and if you're telling the truth, we have a lot to gain from helping you."

"Helping…?"

"Yes," the girl was very matter-of-fact. "I will take you to the database. It'll be faster if I go with you."

[StarFyre]

((They're slowly working out. It's been a lot of little things clumping together and demanding attention. Not fun in the slightest, but, eh... Hopefully you enjoy yourself while out of town!))


Karjan finished tending to his sister's wounds by pressing a final pseudo-skin over the last of the scratches, then stood up and stepped away from her. Being that close to another was... a bit uncomfortable, even if she was his sister in blood. How many decades had it been? How many long, blurry years since he'd spent even this much time out of the pod? He could not recall, and that...

Well. Aura's queries into human nature revealed he should likely be feeling terror, or horror, or even revulsion at what he had become. Instead, he felt... apathy. He was a Capsuleer, and a Capsuleer was his ship, not this pitiful shell they wore while b-lining.

^What should we do?^ Idein asked, helmeted head turning to watch as Smyth conversed with the dragonet. Waiting. Poised. A slaver-hound looking for orders, for direction. Across the hallway, Shaltach stood from her examination of the corpse, turning the same poised attention onto Karjan.

Near him, even his sister was watching him, dark eyes emotionless and cold as she pulled her bloodied and torn undershirt on, then the overcoat, uncaring of the disarray both pieces of clothing were in. She spoke, interacted, demanded of others-- of outsiders-- but he was the undisputed leader between the two of them.

(What must we look like? A fragment of himself wondered, even as his own frozen eyes turned to fix Smyth with consideration. Weighing. Judging. How do we appear to these outsiders; these people with no idea what it means to be Capsuleer. To be DUSTer.)

He knew he could order Smyth's death right now, and none of the others would question him. Idein, despite fighting alongside Smyth mere moments ago, would turn his rifle on her simply because it was an order. Shaltach would have even fewer qualms.

(Foolish, a fragment whispered, dark and dangerous. Turning her back on unknowns.)

He himself would feel nothing - non-Capsuleers were barely above animals in his mind, putting one down was hardly worth a note. He was disinterested in her fate, in the fate of the world they walked upon, in the fate of anyone not Capsuleer or DUSTer. Those who were not were doomed to die, to fade and pass and cease mattering. It was the way of the universe, the natural order of things -- what care did a man have for the ants crushed underfoot?

He wondered if she could sense that, that apathy towards whether she lived or died, whether she failed or succeeded. He wondered, with a fragment of his (old-cold-broken) mind, what action she would choose to take towards them in the end. Would she try to kill them? Would she break, fleeing their inhumanity? Would she confront them, try to make them care, make them warm?

In the end, it was that curiosity that saved Smyth's life. That desire to know how she would move, how much she would tolerate, how far she would go. For better or for worse, she had caught his momentary fascination.

---

Shaltach waited, ready for whatever order Karjan would issue. She could see Idein's similar poise out of the corner of her eye, along with the slightest of weaknesses in it.

It was natural, after all. He had now fought alongside the outsider, had now taken down a beast out of legend together with her. No matter his loyalty to Karjan, Idein would hesitate to fire the killing shot, even if only for a heartbeat. He would mourn; in the brief, fleeting manner of a DUSTer, but he would still mourn for the hunter, for Smyth, who he had fought and killed alongside.

She doubted anything else would occur, though. Idein was too practical, too much a DUSTer, to have formed much of an attachment beyond 'battle-sibling', but he would still feel the briefest of regret.

But it would not come to that, Shaltach realized. Not yet, at least.

(She could read him, frozen eyes and immobile face aside. All Capsuleers lied, but those lies told more truth than even they liked to admit. Karjan was no exception.)

^Corin has nothing we desire.^ Karjan finally passed his judgement.

The three of them relaxed, loosened from the hold of preparation. Shaltach watched as Lajira's emotionless visage gave way to her calm smile, the veneer of humanity back in place.

(And that was the most terrifying of the lies any Capsuleer told, the 'I care for you, I care for your struggles, your worries, your efforts' lie. Capsuleer Lajira would smile and praise and worm her way into your confidence, like a deadly poison awaiting the best time to strike. Shatach was glad so few of the elder Capsuleers could pull it off.)

Shaltach joined Idein in climbing back over the pile of rubble that Idein had fought from, just in time to hear the dragonet and Smyth converse about Smyth's goals in the city.

"We will assist," Lajira spoke as she hopped the last foot to the bottom of the rubble pile. "The more eyes you have on task, the quicker you can find what you need. Corin leaves a bad taste in my mouth - the ambassador reminds me too much of a Sansha."

There had never been an intention of following through, Shaltach realized; Corin would crumble beneath the disregard of the Capsuleers they had summoned. Being associated with Sansha's Nation was as good as a death-sentence to these siblings, and the Corin ambassador had managed that within minutes of introducing herself.

The only question had been whether Smyth would fall as well, victim of a Capsuleer plot.

[aireona93]

The dragonet wrinkled her nose at Smyth's companions, and then pointedly determined that she would not address any of them.

"Two of us might travel faster," the little one said, and Smyth could pick up on the creature's discomfort… distrust. It was likely that all the thoughts of doubt that had gone through the hunter's head was going through the dragon's mind now. Unfortunately, this little creature didn't have the promise that the death of her physical body wouldn't be the end for her in this universe, so she couldn't risk associating with these strange people. Then again, death was always near at hand for an Ordivacian… and maybe it was preferable to be shot, rather than eaten alive.

Smyth glanced at her companions. She didn't know much about humans, but she knew enough not to trust them… especially not humans she didn't know. At this point, however, there was little choice but to let them tag along. If they over stepped their bounds too far, and ruined things on Ordivak, they would have the Federation to deal with, and Smyth was fairly certain that no human empire outside of the Cai-Lahra themselves could stand in the face of the Fenda:soans. Humans were far from endangered, and Smyth had heard tales of their cultures being obliterated without hesitation in order to protect other species. Only the Human Consortium stood between many of them and destruction, even when it came to the Siisakoo- it was easier to just glass an entire Tri-Alliance colony world than send warriors to fight the demonic creatures.

Not that Smyth hoped for any of that. She was a hunter, but she wasn't a violent person at heart. She didn't like to see others suffer or die, that was why she was here after all, trying to make a difference. Humans may not have been known for their empathy or their trustworthiness, but sometimes they cared. Smyth knew that her companions didn't know enough about what was going on here, and they hadn't been involved long enough to care, but perhaps they might, at the very least, not make things worse here.

"I think it's all right…" Smyth told the little dragon; she looked unconvinced. "Uh… what is your name, by the way? I'd like to know if you are going to be helping us; maybe Three could make some room for you, if you'd like."

"I don't have a name," the dragonet replied, keeping her eyes on the other humanoids. "You don't name your food, do you?" Smyth was briefly taken aback, but she reminded herself of what she knew about Ordivacian culture.

"I see," she managed. "Can we call you something?"

"Whatever you want, human," the dragonet snapped. "Whatever name you give me is meaningless in the long-run, so it doesn't matter to me."

"Um, how about Ciren? I used to have a friend by that name, and I think you'd do her an honor by carrying the name on." The dragonet shrugged.

"You people always stand around talking?" She said. "No wonder you haven't managed to change things around here yet." With that, Ciren gave one last suspicious look to Smyth's companions, and then she turned on her heel and trotted briskly past the still-swarming dragonets. Smyth offered her companions an apologetic look, but thought better of saying anything. She followed after the young dragon, her rifle at the ready, just in case any of the other dragons decided to attack.

[StarFyre]

"Two of us might travel faster," the little hatchling said.

Lajira was amused, though only a faint echo of that appeared on her face. It appeared that the dragonet, at least, was wise to the ways of treachery. Then again... she glanced over to the feasting creatures. Intelligent beings that practiced cannibalism. Granted, there was practically nothing else on this planet to sustain them, and Lajira had to wonder if such a lifestyle was sustainable for many more generations.

Still, there would be no treachery yet. More of their curiousity would be slaked by playing nice than by betraying everything on a whim.

She and her brother were inhuman, not uncivilized, though she doubted many would appreciate the difference. It was a fine line that Capsuleers of their age needed to walk, to pass the mental exams to retain their pilot's license, and it always started with consciously learning the mores and practices of society. And those mores currently stated that, no, treachery now was not an acceptable thing if they desired to get involved further with this new culture.

Perhaps later, once they had slaked their thirst for knowledge, would the betrayal occur. Or perhaps it never would -- even the small collection of knowledge Aura had dug up and translated hinted at a universe more vast, more diverse, than anything the Empires had dreamed of. To be here, communicating with creatures out of fairy tales and legends, and to know that there was more -- more species, more cultures, more knowledge -- was as heady a drug as any manufactured to enhance combat skill.

Knowledge, a Capsuleer's true weakness.

Absently, she listened to Smyth's conversation with the dragonet over... a name? Interesting. She wondered how worthy and unworthy dragonets were determined.

Once they were out of range of the feasting dragons, Lajira took the few steps to come nearly even with Smyth.

"I have been meaning to ask," Lajira started as she examined the path they were traveling. "About your Federation. What is their interest in this world, and why would they send just one person in? You may speak all you wish about 'stealth' and 'alliances with the natives', but as our new guide has pointed out, not all of the natives bow to this Three."

Unless their operative was as immortal as a Capsuleer or a DUSTer. She tilted her head to fix Smyth with an assessing stare, unworried with social norms as she examined the other closely. But what was she to look for? Out of gear, DUSTers looked like any other human, albeit taller than normal, and Capsuleers had only the capsule-jacks down their spines, which could be hidden from view quite easily. All their other alterations were on the inside, in places that didn't show to the naked eye.

^Sister, it's impolite to kill to determine immortality,^ Karjan said, having followed her line of thought. His voice was carefully neutral, but she could hear the amusement lurking beneath that.

She rolled her eyes and flipped him off. ^I'm not as uncivilized as those damn fanatics and you know it. Now shut up and play nice or actually join the conversation for once. If we're going to spend any time at all exploring these new sectors, you need to get used to socializing with people other than Capsuleers. You're the one with the high diplomatic skill, so use it.^

That shut him up, just like she knew it would.