...In Case of Emergency (Closed - See First Post!)

[Sunset]

[box]

The Introduction

Closed! Dull concept, so re-launching!

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=360732

ePyrk Orbit, aPhilos System, The Western Expanse...

"Well, there she is," Admiral Kofe took a sip of his tea, gazing over the top of the rim to the distant station that was just drifting into place. "The last module. Time to fire it up and get things moving."

The new station was not actually a station but rather a circle of them; The old Aurora-Class Transit Gate had been a single titanic circle that was capable of creating and sustaining an artificial wormhole that linked one gate to another. There weren't very many of them because their size and complexity made them very expensive, both for construction and for maintenance. Upgrading them was an even greater expense and so it was that only the Core Worlds had one and ePyrk was not a Core World. All of that was changing now with the introduction and deployment of the Aurora-II. Instead of a single station, these gates would be built up from a series of modules that could benefit from mass production, thus lower maintenance costs, thus lower initial costs, and on down the line until a Major World like ePyrk was a reasonable candidate. Depending on the economy of the world in question, they might only need six of the modules in order to accommodate the traffic and this made the baseline cost much, much lower.

With the last module in place, lights began to flicker on around the outside and inside edges. There were electronic monitoring and control systems, of course, but not every ship had access to them and of course there were emergencies. One by one the stations switched their external indicators from red to yellow to green and then there it was - a spiraling wormhole that quickly evened out to a flat plane that showed nothing but the stars of a distant world on the other side. There was even a ship already waiting; An unmanned cargo hauler, it was a titanic conglomeration of cargo pods attached to a central stalk and pushed forward by a cheap-and-efficient drive that would just suffice to get it from one orbit to another.

"All systems check out?" The Admiral called over his shoulder. This wasn't even a test. The system was so well-know that it might have been referred to as turn-key during an earlier era. "Then off she goes..."

The cheap-and-efficient engines lit up and the cargo ship pushed forward until her nose was just about to breach the event horizon and then she was gone. Any moment she'd appear in the looking glass and it would be time for the next ship to make its way through the pipeline of interstellar commerce. Except she didn't.

"Huh."

[Varagoth]

Evictus System, VGNS 'Warmaker' Battleship, Near Planet Rybrindra..

"Warmaster Radormr, we've picked up something that just warped into our system." a crewman called out as the Warmaster let out a grunt before shuffling in his seat. The 'Warmaker' a Despoiler class Battleship had been on a typical patrol of the Evictus system near the planet Rybrindra, recently a hostile band of pirates had been making trouble for transport and escort ships going to and from Rybrindra. The several mile long Battleship equipped with plasma and laser cannons along with several large rail guns could solve the pirate problem within one engagement. Now the 'Warmaker' had picked up something that wasn't a ship at all, something was floating out in space. A truncated cube which was only four meters wide on each side, it also had a hatch which the Warmaster and other crew aboard could of found some random escape pod full of future slaves.

"It appears to be some sort of cube shaped container, an escape pod perhaps?" one of the crewman said as the Warmaster waved his hand. He stood up as he looked out one of the large windows, seeing the object slowly drift in space near their battleship. He grunted as he turned and faced his crew before speaking. "I want that container."

===

A single Thunderhawk gunship was sent out from the 'Warmaker' as it approached the cube like container. As it approached a retractable claw appeared from under the hull of the gunship as it reached out and clamped onto the cube container, having it in a firm grip the Thunderhawk gunship made it's return to the 'Warhawk' for Warmaster Rodormr to open and possibly claim the contents for himself.

===

"Out of the way you hulks of filth, out!" Warmaster Rodormr roared as he pushed his way through the Gladiators who surrounded the container speaking amongst themselves about what was inside. The Gladiators made room for their Warmaster as Rodormr stood in front of the container, specifically it's hatch door as he put one of his armored bulky gloved hands on the hatch lever. Silence filled the docking hold of the Battleship as Rodormr spun the lever as the hatch unlocked and he swung it open...

[Holy Altmoran Empire]

HMS Freddie Mercury, Meridian Ocean, Greater Holy Altmoran Empire, Altmoran Homeworld

Admiral Raith stood at the Bridge of HMS Freddie Mercury. A ferocious Fomorian Class Super-Battleship. Rivaled only by 12 other ships in the entire Altmoran Royal Navy. It was the Flagship of the 1st Meridian Fleet which was patrolling the Oceans as it had been doing as standard since the end of the 2nd Great War.

However, not only did the Ship's own Reconnaissance systems detect a Hyperatmospheric anomaly but the ship received transmissions and warnings from almost every ARAF and Recon post in the vicinity. Apparently it was on a Hypoatmoshpheric trajectory and The 1st Meridian Fleet would be the closest Altmoran Force to it's predicted Crash Site. They were ordered to prepare to seize it.

HMS Freddie Mercury had 1000 Naval Infantrymen (Different to Marines) on board and they were assigned to the role of stopping any hostile presence that the anomaly may pose.

The crew of HMS Freddie Mercury waited and watched as the orange streak in the sky got brighter and bigger.

[The SLAGLands]

"Because it's too noisy here, Mistress, that's why. I'll be back in time for supper."

And with that, Thi pulled herself onto the back of Darian and was off, riding from the Citadel as fast as the horse could carry her.

Her Sister, Baylaa, had decided some time ago that Isla Sanctum's new Governor would be someone of the people--for the first time in its history as a unified state, Isla Sanctum would not be ruled exclusively by the Three Sisters. Thi--the youngest of the Sisters and the first one in two generations born into freedom rather than captivity--understood it well. She'd spoken with President Yataba when he visited Isla Sanctum, and she'd picked his brain about democracy, the vote, all of those things. And of course Baylaa had been nice enough to bring her books about foreign nations to add to her studies of Sanctumite history--she would be the first Thi to be raised among such books.

She was a smart girl. No one was chosen to be Thi who could not be trained to learn.

But at thirteen, she was in the midst of the Prayers of Preparation, the somber-sounding name that just suggested that her studies to become Baylaa--Sister of the Present, the Eyes of God, all of those grown-up titles--had begun to pick up. Before, her "training" just involved following Baylaa and Arlouesh (the oldest Sister) around, learning at their feet, meeting with her people. Now, she would become a real scholar in preparation for her role as the next Baylaa.

It excited her. It intrigued her. It especially fascinated her when the election began, when she would get to see how outsiders choose their leaders.

But it was so loud. Baylaa had called for an entire day of "debate," and discussions had already broken down into shouting and arguments.

Her people didn't understand. Adults could be stupid and stubborn, Thi had learned quickly, and she needed to get away from them from time to time. She hugged her coat tightly against her tiny body as Darian cut through the chill January air.

Beneath the high, craggy southern cliffs of Mt. Bayuhklaa, Thi steered Darian, staring up at the mountain. Bayuhnklaa was unique--a mountain without a range, which Baylaa knew was almost unheard of, pressed upward in the center of the island. Under its south wall, tall stones jutted from the ground, boulders that had crashed from the high cliffs for centuries. Some were only a meter or so tall; the tallest were three or four times the height of a man. In the spring and summer, wildflowers bloomed around the stones, but in the winter, there was only the crunch of dead grass. It would be quiet here, at least, quiet enough to read for a few hours.

But one stone caught Thi's eye--or was it a stone at all? It wasn't so much its size as it was the perfection of its shape--a cube, probably twice the height of any man she'd ever seen and just as deep and wide. She steered Darian towards it and placed her hand on it, and she was shocked by its warmth, even in the cold January air.

"Strange," she said to Darian. "It's never been here before, has it, Darian?"

Darian stopped to sniff at one side, where a number--0012--was written above a large latch. Over the top of the cube, a white canvas rested.

"I think it's a parachute," she said. "Maybe it fell out of a plane?"

Thi scratched her chin, wondering if she should go back to Citadel and tell her Sisters. After all, what if something dangerous was inside? Arlouesh would often tell her stories at night about how the dragons from Burninatonia had dropped from the sky when they invaded. Was this how they entered?

But she wanted to look. Arlouesh had also talked at length about signs from God, about looking for in each encounter a touch of the divine. "It's numbered twelve," Thi said to Darian. "I'm going to be the 12th Baylaa. That's a good enough sign, right?"

Darian sneezed. That was a good enough yes.

Carefully steering Darian into position, Thi stood on top of the horse--a trick Mistress had taught her. Brushing a strand of dark purple hair from her face, she steadied herself and grabbed on to the latch, pulling with all of her might to get it open.

(OOC: Some information about Thi is here. She's thirteen years old, very small for her age, but is otherwise a biologically normal human teenage girl. Darian is a fairly large brown horse--not quite draft-sized but still pretty big. TM me or grab me on IRC if you have any questions or anything.)

[Sunset]

Evictus System, VGNS 'Warmaker' Battleship, Near Planet Rybrindra..

[i]"Out of the way you hulks of filth, out!" Warmaster Rodormr roared as he pushed his way through the Gladiators who surrounded the container speaking amongst themselves about what was inside. The Gladiators made room for their Warmaster as Rodormr stood in front of the container, specifically it's hatch door as he put one of his armored bulky gloved hands on the hatch lever. Silence filled the docking hold of the Battleship as Rodormr spun the lever as the hatch unlocked and he swung it open...

The Universe should not toy with a Warmaster...

But yet it seemed to have done just that. What was this waste? Seedlings, packed in careful rows for transport to some far off center of agriculture and learning. Glasswares, shiny things of crimson and spring to doubtless adorn a table somewhere for a yuletide repast. Then there were toys - Toys! Sad things not even suited for the most mewling of young-lings. Stuffed animals and carved wood companions with tiny glass eyes and bits of dangling string with the only respite from their uselessness being a spring-loaded rifle that had only taken a moment for Rodormr to master and seemed only suited to putting an opponent's eye out. Trappings of weakness, all of it.

Except for the Star.

Nestled in a secure container at the very center of the container was a singular enormous gem. Bloody purple in luster, it was nestled in a jet black housing of some unusual metal that seemed to form a spiked crown around its brow. Carefully mounted on a stand made all of plastic, it was isolated in its case and this too was filled with a strange atmosphere the Adepts identified as 'neutral'. As if whoever had placed it there feared it, somehow. There were a host of other documents there as well, written in the dense language of the priests, and as these began their arcane rituals, he glared at it as if its secrets would instead reveal themselves by force of will alone.

It is a guide, they said, their voices muttering and inconclusive. A guide. The word meant something else...

[Varagoth]

Radormr took the encased gem out of the container's hull as he turned around to his fellow Gladiators, holding the case above his head he moved it side to side allowing everyone to see what he had. The Gladiators watched Radormr do so as they followed the encased gem with their helmeted heads. "This is a message" Radormr started to speak. "A message from Koðrán and we must find exactly what that message is" he said as the Gladiators stood silently as they listened to their Warmaster.

[SF n F]

Theta Sigma System--a pulsar

Keeping her Science Foundation and Federation beacon active, the 100-meter-long, saucer-shaped Brain Jar settled into a geosynchronous orbit about fifteen light minutes out from a very regular pulsar named theta sigma seventeen and powered down most of her systems. The ship was in this isolated sector of space to conduct some highly classified and potentially dangerous Foundation expriments. If they were successful, the Foundation would have the rudimentary knowledge to manufacture its first Bubble Universe Generator, its first step to ending the Trap of Time that doomed all inhabitants of this universe to a cold, bitter end. If it failed--well, the nearest inhabited solar system was a good 35 light years away, and the little ship's pilot wasn't sure that it would be enough of a buffer if the experiment went too badly wrong.

The pilot was no amateur, however. An immortal cyborg, the Metal Man was one of the Foundation's most longstanding and respected members--and he was known both for his caution and his results, That was why he had been selected for this experiment, and why he had chosen not to risk another life in conducting it.

It was this caution that led to the discovery. At full power, the ship would have blinded its sensors to the anomalous object that had somehow appeared in an unstable orbit almost a quarter turn away from the flying saucer's place in its own orbit. The more thorough scan revealed that the item in question was also definitely not of strictly natural origin, It was cubical in shape, and had a reinforcing skeleton of some sort of metal.

This meant that the experiment would have to be delayed until the object could be analyzed, some reasonable conclusion found as to its origin, and, above all, proof shown that there were no sentient beings in the area who could be harmed. If this was not the case, the experiments would have to be conducted at a back-up site. The Foundation would probably not be pleased,

Still, the object would need a VERY good sensor sweep at the least. It may contain sentient beings in need of rescue--or a plague in need of sterilization.

The short-range drive and sensors powered up. The fabricator began work on investigative probes. The Brain Jar lit her running lights and made her way over to the container. As she did, a single marking on the cube-shaped object became clear: it was numbered "0413."

[Genomita]

Qaura system, Gamma Quadrant.

It had only meant to be a brief practice flight through the asteroid belt to get back into shape after paternal leave. Yet scout pilot Conas Yuqin found hir practice interrupted when hir living ship's sensitive eyes registered a bright flash of light near hir position. With hir brain connected to that of the ship the organic scout ship became an extention of Conas body and mind, allowing the scout to register the flash at the same time as the ship. With a mental command Conas established a radio connection to hir commander's ship, which was located only a few hundred meters to the northeast.

"Commander Vors, my ship detected what appears to be the entry signature of an unknown object approximately 2 klicks south. Requesting permission to investigate."

Code: Select all

"Aye, I saw it too. Permission granted. I'll be right behind you."

Conas nodded in reply as ze turned the living ship southward, the living ship's vertical alignment and smooth, bark-like exterior giving it a look akin to a tree floating through space save for the many unblinking eyes that were visible on the surface and the thrusters running down the back of the "trunk". The two ships hurried towards the source of the phomenon, all senses on full alert. Their keen senses detected no heat signatures that spoke of invading ships, but it didn't hurt to be on the safe side. It was Conas' ship that detected the metallic cube partially embedded in a large ice asteroid which spun at a leisurely pace as it headed toward them, knocked from it's position by what must have been an impact of some magnitude. A large number reading 0031 was visible on the side the stuck out of the iceteroid. The two ships came in next to the asteroid, adjustint their speed and roation in such a way that they moved at the same speed as the asteroid while retaining a good view on the unknown nobject.

"Looks like we found our intruder Commander. From the looks of it it appears to be a cargo container of some kind, though I can't get a read on the centents. Instructions?" said Conas as hir ship's senses scanned the cube, though even the scout ship's keen senses failed to penetrate the container's hull.

Code: Select all

"Hold on, I'll signal HQ and get them up to speed. Let's see if we can get this thing out in the meantime."

While commander Vors contacted their home base in orbit of Qaura the two pilots used their ships' manipulators to carefully extract the metallic cube from the slowly spinning ice asteroid before bringing some distance between them and the hunk of ice, holding the cube between them like a package too heavy for one of them.

Code: Select all

"[code]...Okay, HQ wants us to take this thing to the research station in orbit around Qaura. Let's see if our scientists can figure out what this is all about. And before you ask, there's no rule against the person who finds something like that being there when they do."[/code]

"Glad to hear it commander, glad to hear it." said Conas as ze carefully maneuvered the cube into hir ship's cargo hold. Once everything was in place the two took off towards the research station, which gave them a nice view of Qaura as they headed back. The planet that Conas and many other Genomitans called their home was a world largely covered in vast oceans, tidally locked in orbit around a red dwarf star and just far enough into the star's habitable zone to avoid turning into a tidal venus. Most life on Qaura took place in the oceans or what little landmass existed on the day side or the terminus. Qaura was still a cold world with harsh weather on the surface, but it was also a world teeming with exotic life beneath the sea, and it only got stranger and more wondrous the deeper you went. It had not been their ancestors' first choice for a new home when they had more or less crash landed here after they were forced to flee from their original homeworld, but it had given them everything they needed to begin anew.

Conas and comander Vors were already expectedby a group of scientists accompanied by a large, powerfully built cargo drone when they landed. The large biodrone wordlessly approached Conas' ship's cargo hold at a pheromonal signal from one of the scientists, carefully retieving the cube and marching off to the decontamination section as soon as Conas had opened the cargo hold wide enough to do so. Afterwards Conas and the commander disconnected from theri ships and slipped out, parts of their symbiosuits still covered with the gelatinous mass they had been nestled in to protect them from impacts and lessen the effects of inertia. The two pilots wordlessly led their symbiosuits' helmets fold back so the scientists could look them in the eye. The head scientist was a well-aged genomitan Small with short light brown hair and an infectious smile. Ze stepped forward, all four of hir arms held open as if to embrace the scouts.

"Well now, scout pilot Yuqin, it looks like you'll have another interesting find on your service record. I wonder if this will turn out anywhere near as enlightening as your finding of the Sacrifice? Once decontamination is complete you're welcome to join us. No, no, I insist that you join us." said the head scientist with a good natured grin.

"I was afraid you'd never ask."

Once preparations were complete Conas and the commander were led into a room that contained a clear, sealed-off room with manipulators and all kinds of organic sensory equipment attatched to the walls and ceiling, with the cargo cube sitting innocently on a table in the middle of the room "So far we had no luck scanning the contents. I guess we'll have to find out what's inside the old fashioned way. Scout Yuqin, if you would."

The head scientist politely motioned Conas to the neural connection for the room's equipment, and Conas strapped in without a moment's hesitation. After a brief moment of desorientation ze began to carefully move the manipulators on the wall closest to the latch. "Alright, here goes!" ze said as ze turned the latch.

[Sunset]

Note: I will be attempting to respond to at least one post per day in this thread, in order of their posting. If I can do more I will, but Pillars of Eternity seems to suck me in quite easily...

Holy Altmoran Empire...

"Cargo pod of some kind, Sir!" The Able Seaman called up to the Lieutenant, who called it up to the Captain, and on through the chain of command. Thus it was firmly established that it was, in fact, a fallen spy satellite by the time a stowed cargo crane was rigged to the boarding net that had been pulled underneath the floating container as a sort of impromptu sling. The orange and white parachute that had become wrapped around it while it was tossed by the waves made the whole thing into a grotesque blob made more hideous by the near-immediate discovery that it was empty.

Or nearly so.

Pulling away the net and the chute, the first discovery was that somehow the crate had opened up and that most of the contents had spilled out before the actions of wind and wave had closed the hatch again. The second was that it was not, in fact, a spy satellite though that only came as a surprise to everyone not the seaman working or the lieutenant supervising. Which also came as a shock since Lieutenants seem to have a reputation for green wood the universe over. The last was somewhat more unprofessional as one of the surviving crates was opened and the quite-dry contents shown to be, "Ladies underwear, Sir!"

Indeed they were, and if they would fit the wives or lovers of any of those present, they would have made a ripe prize. Carefully made and of the highest quality, they seemed valuable enough to be shipped whatever distance this cargo had traveled.

"How many fathoms?"

A pertinent question since there were two possibilities. The first was that the cargo was now scattered along the ocean floor, which was topped by a crystal clear sea and lined with coral reefs that hugged the bottom but provided numerous places for a crate to catch and become lodged. The second was certainly easier to reach and more enjoyable to search; A chain of low volcanic islands that broke the surface just to the west and where the winds would have naturally taken them. Low smoke rose from the smallest - a faint smudge that drifted across the sky. Rimmed with shallow beaches and high cliffs, a search might be treacherous since both reefs and narrow coves served to both draw and trap the unwary.

"Sir!" A call broke the officer's long stare and he looked down to see the Able Seaman once again holding something forth from the cargo. This time it wasn't underwear but a jacket, gray and sodden. "Sir! This was caught on something. Call it unlikely, but I'd say there might have been a man in there!"

[Holy Altmoran Empire]

Note: I will be attempting to respond to at least one post per day in this thread, in order of their posting. If I can do more I will, but Pillars of Eternity seems to suck me in quite easily...

Holy Altmoran Empire...

"Cargo pod of some kind, Sir!" The Able Seaman called up to the Lieutenant, who called it up to the Captain, and on through the chain of command. Thus it was firmly established that it was, in fact, a fallen spy satellite by the time a stowed cargo crane was rigged to the boarding net that had been pulled underneath the floating container as a sort of impromptu sling. The orange and white parachute that had become wrapped around it while it was tossed by the waves made the whole thing into a grotesque blob made more hideous by the near-immediate discovery that it was empty.

Or nearly so.

Pulling away the net and the chute, the first discovery was that somehow the crate had opened up and that most of the contents had spilled out before the actions of wind and wave had closed the hatch again. The second was that it was not, in fact, a spy satellite though that only came as a surprise to everyone not the seaman working or the lieutenant supervising. Which also came as a shock since Lieutenants seem to have a reputation for green wood the universe over. The last was somewhat more unprofessional as one of the surviving crates was opened and the quite-dry contents shown to be, "Ladies underwear, Sir!"

Indeed they were, and if they would fit the wives or lovers of any of those present, they would have made a ripe prize. Carefully made and of the highest quality, they seemed valuable enough to be shipped whatever distance this cargo had traveled.

"How many fathoms?"

A pertinent question since there were two possibilities. The first was that the cargo was now scattered along the ocean floor, which was topped by a crystal clear sea and lined with coral reefs that hugged the bottom but provided numerous places for a crate to catch and become lodged. The second was certainly easier to reach and more enjoyable to search; A chain of low volcanic islands that broke the surface just to the west and where the winds would have naturally taken them. Low smoke rose from the smallest - a faint smudge that drifted across the sky. Rimmed with shallow beaches and high cliffs, a search might be treacherous since both reefs and narrow coves served to both draw and trap the unwary.

"Sir!" A call broke the officer's long stare and he looked down to see the Able Seaman once again holding something forth from the cargo. This time it wasn't underwear but a jacket, gray and sodden. "Sir! This was caught on something. Call it unlikely, but I'd say there might have been a man in there!"

Lieutenant Bellamy, who was Commanding the Salvage Operation seemed to be almost annoyed but mainly confused at the haul...He spoke these words "Okay I know we're in the Navy, but that's not funny", a few Sporadic chuckles came from the Naval Infantry who were examining the contents of the cache they had secured, then the voice of Admiral Raith came through his Comms device "Are you going to tell me what's in there, or am I going to have to go and take a look myself?"

Lieutenant Bellamy hesitated before responding "Uhhh...It's Ladies Underwear, Sir". There was an Awkward Silence before he got a Response "Listen, son. This ship is one of the most well-armed and destructive in the Altmoran Navy, I don't much care if you can't tell you elbow from your arse, tell me what's in that cache or I'll blow your balls off from here". Out of the Corner of his eye, Lieutenant Bellamy noticed a young Naval Infantryman, holding a Grey, Soggy Jacket.

He hastily responded "We also located a Grey Jacket...Looks like this was an Escape Pod of sorts" .

Admiral Raith then replied "Right...Get your arse back here and take whatever you found with you"...He then cut off the Comms link and began making his way to the Deck of the ship "Bloody Youngsters" he muttered whilst he confidently and quickly Marched onwards.

Lieutenant Bellamy then shouted "RIGHT LADS, LET'S HAUL THIS ONE BACK TO FREDDIE" . At which point the Naval Infantrymen dragged what they had found aboard and made their way back to HMS Freddie Mercury, where Admiral Raith and his Staff would be waiting.

[Sunset]

The SLAGLands...

There was a click and then the odd squishy-slow feeling of a door opening slower than one expected. Slowly it swung up and towards her until she was was forced to step back or be swept up with it. Sunlight spilled into the interior and there were...

Crates and boxes and packages and the new and unknown and mysterious. It was like finding the attic of a new house already filled with the stored-away unneeded stuff of life but without the dust, squirrels, or bugs. Everything was carefully tucked away and secured but there was a narrow walkway down the middle and she clambered inside to walk between the stakes. What did each one contain? Some were labelled and some were not but all were in an odd mixture of familiar characters with odd spellings and entirely too many apostrophes. Most of them were far too large for her to move and stacked carefully with little room to move them without moving others besides, but there was a small section in one corner that drew her attention.

Here the boxes were smaller and clearly important: A section of shelving had been marked with warning stripes and more lettering as well as a thick woven net that was hooked all the way around. Some of the boxes inside had become dislodged when it had come down and one in particular was pressing the rounded curtain of the net out to a sharp cube-point. It wasn't that big though, and didn't look particularly fragile, so after a few moments of fiddling with the catches she deciphered how and the net became a flap as she opened two sides. Some shifting and the container was on the bottom of the crate and a few more had tumbled down as well to catch themselves or sprawl across the floor.

"What is it..."

She pulled it out into the sunlight and looked it over once again. It looked scientific and interesting all by itself with one corner of the crate being a rounded-edge cylinder and the other end - the end that had been caught up against the web - having a panel on one end that held a variety of blinking lights labeled again in a language she didn't understand. There was also a small plastic-and-metal tablet tucked into a compartment and a carrying handle on the top. The reasonable thing to do would have been to use that to ride back to where she had come from and ask about the thing, but who explores an attic like that anyway?

"And this is my attic."

The front of the cylinder slide up something like a breadbox and she found the catch and pushed it up. Inside there was another long glass cylinder and inside of this, resting snugly on a comfortably thick pad and held in place by another net, was a puppy. Except it wasn't a puppy and neither was it awake. Six legs and a narrow but furry head made it look like some kind of strange cross between an alligator, an ant, and a dog with the long tongue of a puppy lolling out of the open mouth past a row of short blunt spike teeth. In contrast to the all-white interior, it was a mottled orange and red with thick yellow claws on its wide three-toed paws. She didn't see a tail - disappointing - but there was a particular arch to its back that gave it an eager and active appearance.

"Do I open it?" She asked aloud, not even considering the question, for the moment, of what she'd feed it if she did.

[Sunset]

Radormr took the encased gem out of the container's hull as he turned around to his fellow Gladiators, holding the case above his head he moved it side to side allowing everyone to see what he had. The Gladiators watched Radormr do so as they followed the encased gem with their helmeted heads. "This is a message" Radormr started to speak. "A message from Koðrán and we must find exactly what that message is" he said as the Gladiators stood silently as they listened to their Warmaster.

"Master..." The senior-most of the Adepts supplicated himself before Radormr, "Your wisdom was correct. We have taken the impressions that line the surface of the gem and through methods arcane matched them to the dead stars that dot the galaxy."

By this he meant black holes; Those singular vortexes of nothingness that continually pulled in all around them to destroy it to near-nothingness. A map was presented, along with the gem, and the connections became obvious as the Adept explained the methods of his minions.

"What remains a mystery is the purpose of this map. These are places to be avoided, Master. My only suggestion, made in all humbleness, is that there is some great treasure guarded by them in some fashion. But how, and which, I do not know."

[Arieh-Nidal]

Arieh-Nidal (earth class planet) Year 2452

Given that the only vestment of civilization left above ground or beyond would be the ruins of the old world and whatever was floating in space, only those left stranded on the international space station orbiting the planet were even aware of the event horizon of the the wormhole and the object it shot out. Due to the shockwave it gave out when it opened, the crew were immediately too busy checking each other and the space station for injuries after having been shaken about like a can of soda, to notice the cargo pod jettisoning toward the planet or be able to warn whoever was down there about what was about to hit them.

Not that it would matter because all that was aware of the impact were various automated systems that were still functioning in the ruins of the old world that were meant to acknowledge what was happening. No one was around to monitor them or do anything about it. At least no one above ground. It was only due to a group of people coming up from an underground vault to scavenge at the time, that anyone on the ground even realized it was there. The vault they had been in was once meant to house high ranking government and military officials.

So it was of very little surprise that it was their vault that would get the signals from the above ground ruins. Nonetheless it had been several hundred years since the end of the world, so the fact that anything up there was still working strong enough to track this let alone give them the signal and trajectory was still a bit of a shock to them and thus took the people still down there awhile to figure everything out and report it to the scavenge team. Not that it would help them in the end. Tracking down whatever crashed onto their planet led them through a dead forest lying around a dried up lake bed. the lake bed now being filled with small geysers and steam vents and pressurized bits of land that spewed forth toxic gases when stepped on. Whatever fell to ground was somewhere in the mix of all that, and it was causing a bit of an uproar between the various people in their group as to who would be willing to risk wandering through the steam and moisture and possibility of stepping on natural gas pockets to get to whatever was there.

If base was giving them this information and ordering them to go find out what it was, surely it had to be something better than the usual pre-war space debris that occasionally crashes to the ground. Even they know its often not worth investigating unless some spare parts were needed to keep something in the vault up and running. So this had to be good. But weither or not it was worth risking their lives for it was still currently up for debate.

[Sunset]

SF n F...

Bubble Universe Generator? Well, that was an idea that would end up with turtles all the way down.

But turtles it would be and so turtles it was. A few careful scans and that's exactly what it turned out to be, or at least something analogous to turtles. Packed away inside their storage crates were a large number of articulated hard-shelled creatures that, aside from the mentioned articulation, bore a certain resemblance to terrestrial turtles. Whether the Metal Man was himself terrestrial (or a himself to begin with), that was the closest analog that could be readily compared. There were other bits and bobs as well but nothing of particular interest unless one happened to be a housewife from Ankh-Morpork and have access to a generator and fuel for said generator and good connections to the guard so as not to be assailed as being a witch. Not that witches were bad, but they certainly weren't turtles and as it has been established the turtles were the interesting bit.

They were also the property of a certain and specific 'Mid-Western Poly-Agricultural' according to the label, in Standard, affixed to the side of the crates. Whether that might help in locating either their owner or establishing the danger involved in their relative proximity to the experiment depended highly on whether the cyborg could read Standard. Or cared to read Standard. After all, the noted linguist Howed Lydl, Head of the Languages Department at the University of New Vancouver, had often called Standard 'the most inelegant and reprehensible language of the past millenia' and further remarked that 'it should be disposed of post-haste and replaced with nearly anything that one might scrape off the bottom of a dumpster.' Not that his opinion was much considered; He'd written it in Standard, after all.

Back to the turtles.

They were sound asleep, or at least very full from their last meal, and there was little danger either in moving them or the container. But there was the question of ethical behavior regarding the cargo container. Would a man - a Metal Man - who was unwilling to risk the lives of others be so cavalier as to simply shove it out of the way and leave it to the continued whims of fate? Or was 0413 that special something that would stir his metal (or plastic) heart and send him half-way across the galaxy to return what were undoubtedly nothing more than specimens that would end up in a zoo to be poked and prodded by little boys and girls who would forget all about it by the time they got home from the field trip and instead thought the highlight of the day was when the bus driver said a naughty word after getting caught in traffic on the Sunnyside Freeway.

[SF n F]

SF n F...

Bubble Universe Generator? Well, that was an idea that would end up with turtles all the way down.

OOC: Actually, physicists theorize that your kids will be able to build them in their basements. Don't laugh too hard. A modern-day kid built a (primitive, non-functional) fusion reactor in his garage.

IC:

The Foundation wasn't going to like this. There were artifacts from primitive civilizstions, and then there was this: living zoological specimens in containers marked in a language that hadn't been used in a good four or five thousand years...with feed and life support technology that showed no signs of matter/energy conversion technology and caging facilities that showed no signs of support for multigenerational species maintainance.

This container was either the most elaborate hoax the cyborg had seen in a great many years...or it had traveled not merely through a vast distance, but over a great deal of time. Add to that the skewed quantum spins on the container's particle/wave dualities and you had the earmarks of a failed wormhole drive. The thing was lucky to have survived in one piece--and its orbit needed to be traced back to its point of origin and any other potential wreckage tracked down and dealt with. This thing hadn't been in this part of space-time very long. There may still have been survivers from other pieces of the ship that carried it floating around. Fortunately, a wormhole rupture in space-time wasn't that hard to track.

It was normal Foundation Policy to return property to its owner(s), but it was also Foundation Policy not to interfere in the eb and flow of history. What would the owners of this crate make of a space ship that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside? Of a being that was basically a tank of organs running it through a data plug, and sometimes unplugging and wearing cybernetic "suits" that resembled them to make them feel less threatened? Would just getting sensor readings on Brain Jar be ennough to allow them to reverse engineer some of her tech, artificially enhancing their own capabilities?

The solution was not particularly palatable, but it would satisfy all the ethics in question. The Foundation ship would simply have to return the property by going in cloaked, dropping off the cargo and leaving. The less anyone saw, the better.

Another thought occurred to the cyborg as he brought the container into Brain Jar's cargo hold. There were no sentient life forms here. There was nothing pressing. If there wasn't any major wreckage, this could all wait until after the experiments. At least that way the Foundation would have its data...or...well, those star systems had been notified...and would be getting telemetry...

[Perditan]

Remote forests on the West Continent
Perditan A
31.42 degrees by 62,000 light-years [GCS], Milky Way Galaxy

To the cursory observer, Perditan A would seem a wholly technology-dependent world, albeit new to the world of faster-than-light travel. Information was at the center of the economy, and the well-educated citizens of its Academies tried to clear every standing bias from their minds so as to perfect their inquiry and exploration of the world.

However, the truly informed would know that Perditanian culture was as much influenced by myth and tradition as it was by experiment. The Ascendancy, as the nearest translation from Perditan languages to English named them, were the critical mystical group of Perditan's culture. Their practitioners -- all known as "witches," believed in and actively studied forms of magic.

The Ascendancy had a strong value of community and collectivism, and found it essential for their "magical works" -- whatever that actually was. To do this, they established plain, spartan communities, mostly in the remote forests of Perditan.

In one such community, two young witches were walking along a forest stream. It was a cool morning, and light fog had begun to rise -- very typical for the ancient river valley she was walking in.

The ancient river valley was notable for one other thing -- being the home of the fruit-bearing aldeberry bush. A consistent diet of many aldeberries -- deep purple, 3-gram circular berries -- could act as an effective stimulant in the portion of the Perditanian mind that allowed for selective telepathy. Naturally, it was a mainstay of an Ascendancy witch's diet -- an aid, but not a neccessity, for their practices.The bushes, however, only grew in very particular forest settings by streams.

So, the young witches, whose names were Irethon and Mikanthi, were walking along the streambed. So far, he found none of the aldeberry bush's distinct four-leaved foilage.

"These plants are getting rarer and rarer, I swear," Irethon said, exhaustedly. They had been at the task for two hours without much results, and as the younger of the pair, he was not used to these long treks. "Are you sure they are even here?"

"They're here, it's just they never liked the climate this far south. It's the rain, and too little nutrients in the soil. The trees take most of them." Mikanthi, the eldest, was much more experienced and generally knew more. It also probably helped that her parents were the botanists of their community.

"I guess we have the Western Greed to thank for that," Irethon said. Every Perditan schoolchild was told of the event, which bitter slang called the "Western Greed," where the long since defunct nation of West Perditan had conducted reckless agriculture and pollution to fuel an economic machine. The result was soil and atmospheric effects that carried into the present day, particularly in the West Continent. To this day being called "from the west" was an idiomatic insult refering to someone who acted selfishly.

"No doubt. But, we're getting close to a large number I remember. Wonderfully self-sustaining, these aldeberries are. They grow together in large numbers where pollinators can reach them." Mikanthi loved a chance to talk about what at her house must be common knowledge. "Oh, here they are!"

Sure enough, a large growth of the plants lied directly ahead, just beside the stream's bank.

"I'll take these on the right." With that, they split off and Irethon set about picking the rich bundles of berries. He needed exactly one small basket -- no more, no less. Luckily, though hard to find, the berries were simple to collect from the stem.

Many minutes of collecting passed without incident. In fact, both of their baskets were filled surprisingly quickly. However, while moving through a particularly large bush on the far side of the aldeberry growth, Irethon's hand hit unexpectedly something solid.

"Ow!" He exclaimed sharply. He had tried to pull most of the bush back to reach the center and had smacked whatever was there.

Minding his now pained hand, he looked into the bush to find some sort of cube-like box -- quite big, at least in his mind. It was labeled, though he couldnt make out the number due to the thick plant stems covering it. However, he could make out some strange words along the side. It seemed to be in some sort of written language that he didn't understand -- which was odd, considering that Perditan's main written language had been standardised for decades.

"Mikanthi, come over here," Irethon said. Maybe this was some sort of botany kit. "I can't quite make out what this is."

Mikanthi came over. She looked at the bush and noticed the cube box. She surveyed it with curiosity.

"Really strange. I know some of the old Perditan languages, but this isn't anything I recognize. Can we move it out, to get a better look?"

The pair grabbed on to one side and pulled. Whether it was the inertia of the contents or just their own weak-muscled Perditanian forms, the cube moved only with a great deal of effort.

"What's in this thing?" Irethon inquired, looking all around the now exposed sides. They all seemed identical -- and completely without any other information. "It looks like a container. What should we do with it?"

"Well, we could try to carry it back. Or just open it here and see if there's anything worth taking back. It seems safe enough, it has a latch." Mikanthi pointed to the latch and seam. While looking, however, she noticed that the entire container -- or whatever it was -- seemed to have a deployed parachute attached. It was above them, caught in one of the trees.

"...It came from the sky?" She looked confused. "This just makes no sense."

"Only one way to find out, I suppose." Irethon reached and held the latch. After a nervous look from Mikanthi, she finally nodded.

"Just open it slightly... And be careful!"

As he was told, he took the latch. Not knowing exactly how it opened, he tried to use just enough force to peek inside and avoid opening it completely while still overcoming the force of the latch.

[Lantai]

The Dominating Kruger

"If that fucking thing even scratches my ship again, I'm going to ram it so far up your-" Captain Jam Love's lovely rant began to drone in Major Alexander Thomas's ear, something that he had always admired. In times where you entire race was about to be extinct, it made sense to be a little loose and just swear your arse off like a true sailor of the stars. "- and if you even think you're going to get out of it, Major, you're in for a real treat when I take his-" The odd box had obviously travelled from an uncharted field of space, and had unfortunately caused quite a commotion when it landed squarely on the bridges window, and then landed and damaged one of the deep space communications antennae for the Dominating Kruger just under the bridge.

The crew, Captain Jam Love and his crew of "privateers" along with Major Thomas and his company of of 100 men had offered to scout ahead for a flotilla of ships that had just exited a system that was recently destroyed by the Robotics, their current and superior enemy. Thomas and Love had been bashing skulls ever since they entered the system, but they had agreed that the habitable planet and moon would be ripe for settling on and taking a break. Thomas agreed that his company would set the outpost up while Love and his privateers would provide the muscle and scouting. "Love, if you talk to me like that again, I'm shooting you. Seriously, it's a fucking box." The radios between the two had been filled with a little bit of static, probably because of the frequency shielding the privateers had forgotten to turn off again.

Thomas stood at the box with his unique SPECTRE GEN III battleskin on, along with a jetpack and two weapons. One was a standard self defence pistol with magnum rounds - it put down the largest of rhinos with one well placed shot and dent the thickest of armours, and Thomas had opted for one with a suppressor and extended magazine. The other was rather beaten up, orange and white weapon that was known only as an "organic retriever" as it ripped the organic material of its target into shreds. It was a rather effective, and Thomas didn't want to take any chances if this was an attempt of a boarding party. "What have we got, trooper?"

"The number is probably an identification code. No visible ways of opening it, so we're going to have to crack the sucker open with one of the plasma cutters. Made of unknown material, and we don't have a clue what's inside thanks to no scanner readings, but we've got a latch, so we can open it." The trooper said, wearing similar gear to Thomas, but had an odd rifle instead. "We should be able to lift it up and move it to the airlock by the hanger, though." The trooper continued, tapping on his scanner and placing it into a pouch on his battleskin. "What's the move, sir?"

"Get it in."

---

The box had caused quite a commotion amongst the crew of the Kruger. It's origin unknown, the crew were debating how to open it. Robotics had a knack for setting booby traps for unsuspecting ships, and Thomas and Love both know what it was like to be on the receiving end of them. The general inquiry for the box was to cut the frame open on three edges of the same face, and ten pull back the wall and see what was inside. "We know the kind of material the Robotics use. If this is something cutting edge, they wouldn't use it on a container for a trap." Thomas said.

"Who cares, just cut the damn thing open!" Love replied, holding a plasma cutter. "We've handled these traps before!" Love obviously had a different definition of "handled" than Thomas did. Thomas stood in the hanger, along with around seventy armed soldiers and privateers, and decided that they'd handle it the old fashioned way - they'd open the fucking thing.

"Alright, listen up!" Thomas announced, taking his stage on top of the box. "This will be our game plan. We set up a barricade between us and the airlock. The box will go inside of the airlock facing towards the barricade, with the latch facing up. I'll hold onto the railing inside of the airlock and open the box up - if it's good inside, we don't shoot. If it's bad, we fire and launch the fucker into space. You open the airlock, wait until it's out, and then close it up. Get to it, people! Re-breathers and magnetic clamps on!" He ordered, adjusting his underskin over his head and placing the helmet over it. He jumped from the box, and began to push it towards the airlock.

The whole set up took around twenty minutes. It mostly required the crew to set up the barricade, along with grabbing the equipment that the privateers would need to help them potentially survive a vacuum, mainly rebreathers, and exoskeleton with magnetic clamps on their hand grips and boots, along with a good pressurisation suit. The whole scene had looked frighteningly like a horror film, but Love and Thomas secretly enjoyed the rush of a potential threat. "Okay, we all ready?" Love yelled, walking behind the group who were holding a variety of weapons and armour. "We're all ready, Major! See you in hell!"

Thomas stood inside the airlock, taking a knee and gripping the latch. "Damn it, this is going to be one for the books." He told himself. As much as he enjoyed the rush of an unknown threat, he was kicking himself now, especially since they were so far from the flotilla. He heard Love's called, and knew that it was time to make his. "Hope you go first!" He replied, standing up and taking holding the rail. With one strong tug of the latch, the box opened, the group raised the weapons.

[Sunset]

Genomita...

In the first moments after the hatch was opened, it was clear that something had gone wrong inside the cubic cargo pod. An amateur might be forgiving for mistaking the crystals that dotted and lined the walls and corners for hoarfrost and the results of sudden exposure to the chilling cold of deep space but these were no amateurs. There was a long pause, the probes poised right at the door, as they surveyed the interior contents and decided how best to proceed. Stacked all around the interior in a narrow 'U' shape were more crates and containers, all sealed, and all safely nestled into their various shelves and racks. Some were studded with yet more crystals while others were not and the pattern to their embrace soon became clear. Those of an artificial construction - plastic - were immune while metal structures were not. Moving closer yet still not violating the boundaries of the pod, each crystal was found to be a tiny translucent white spike.

A narrow band of silver metal surmounted each but more worrisome was the subtle tracings of aluminum - that much was obvious - that flowed from each towards their kin and over the complete interior of the pod until they found their nexus in the rear-most portion and an ominous upright cylinder ensconced in an alcove. There had once been a panel of flat glass on one side and easily visible from the door but the minute seams where it was inset into the whole were all lined and rimmed with more of the crystals. Perhaps it had been active at one time with slow flashing lights to display the status of its contents but now it was dark and cracked, the most obvious sign of the damage done. Up and around the swirling lines of thin white metal wound until they found some entrance and disappeared inside to leave the great mystery of where they came from unanswered for the moment.

Great interest aside, and with careful professionalism, a category of the other crates and containers was undertaken. Most had labels or other indicators written in Standard and while some might enjoy poking through the lost-and-found section of a shipping company, these were exactly what one might expect to find; Tools and equipment, various idiosyncratic devices of mundane but non-obvious use, parts for larger and more specific machines. Robots, drones. A collection of ships in bottles, the glass tubes of a familiar shape but the ships inside foreigners to Earthly seas. A large collection of cutlery, now ruined by the crystals that encrusted their fine blades. But of singular interest?

The crystals and their slow swirling rivers of silver and the lone ominous cylinder.

[-Resdayn-]

Fu-Fuh, first moon of Resdayn

While there were likely hairless humanoids on this moon, it was not them that found the storage container. It was the espa that found the container. (ooc:check factbooks for information about espa)

They grunted and snorted at each other in a language unbeknownced to any humanoid of modern tongue as they followed the tracks of the forest to where they thought they saw the sparkly thing from the sky, had landed.

the cargo crate was found dangling by it's parashute from some overhanging tree roots jutting out of a cliff, swaying in the breeze and occasionally splashing lightly against a waterfall. A waterfall that had special forboding meaning to these creatures due to the pond below. The pond in this shape. http://tinyurl.com/ok8fo3x The pond several times the size of a t-rex foot print and appearing to have been created recently. Prehaps within the last few generations or so. As if evidence to the idea that either dinosaurs or some close descendants still walked amongst the creatures of that land.

The box itself was well out of the reach of the creatures least one had interest in climbing the cliff, and none did out of fear of getting near the pond for superstitious reasons.
Nonetheless, there were a few brief moments when the wind carried the crate far enough away from the waterfall to notice there was something written on one side, or more accurately two but the side facing away from the waterfall was dirty and perhaps a bit scratched up and thus whatever was on that side was illegible, assuming the creatures could read anyways. But the constant splashing against the waterfall certainly seemed to clean up the other side to show some numbers against it. --- 626 --- Naturally, the creatures had no idea what this meant but were curious about the strange object swaying and dangling from high upon the cliff nonetheless, and communicated amongst themselves about it as they occasionally used their weapons to jab and point at the odd, seemingly still sealed box swinging in the wind above their heads.

[Natuda]

Many creatures personally saw the object streaking across the sky, both of the sentient humanoid type and lack there of.
And certainly the humans themselves, hidden away in their special little hidey-hole vaults might have spotted it on their great machines.
But they didn't come out to investigate. Infact, no one did. No one was close enough to tell what it was so everyone just assumed it was a shooting star or some falling space debris and soon after it left their gaze, it was forgotten about.

Even as it made a splash landing in Trinity lake. a lake made out of several mountain craters. A lake that if it was much bigger, and not on top of a mountain, it might considered an inland sea. This object, aside from the dents and scratches and general wear and tear of hurtling through space, seemed to make a splash down more or less intact. At least that is what the mermaid deduced when she found it quite awhile after it landed in a deep dark crevice or trench one day when swimming away from some other sea creature bent on having her for lunch, it would seem. She hid in the trench for quite some time, swimming around impatiently as she waited for the other creature, too large to fit in the narrow hole, to leave. It was during this time that she noticed the object. the big square who's surface partially reflected off the sunlight beaming down at just the right angle, most of the odd shaped thing covered in barnacles and various sea plants and teetering on the edge of a cliff, dangerously close to falling off and deep into the chasm below, where not even she could swim to.

Once the larger creature had given up and left, she snatched up the big shaped thing which she quickly realized to be a container of sort, and after making a mental note of the area, with plans to return and investigate more later, she gathered up the container and a few other above world things she noticed glinting in the light during her time down there, and sped off to her special place only a few others even knew about. A special little multi-room cove 3/4 in water to some degree, and, making sure no one was around to notice her, made her way in and settled the object on a sandy above water alcove, given it was one of the few places the large thing would sit without falling off, and went off to inform the select few brood-mates she had that she trusted to bring back with her and examine what they quickly deduced to be a box or crate of some kind. It took quite a bit of scraping and scrinching and generally cleaning it up to notice anything.

But once they did, all they realized was that they had little idea of how to open it or what the latches and pull handles on the sides were meant to do, and that the box had odd symbols on it they didnt understand how to read. It just said this. --013-- and had some faded dark colored stripes running across the top and bottom in various dark shades of grey or something similar to grey, one being pretty close to black.
Some of the shades were nearly the same shade as the grey box itself so it was hard to tell if the odd angled stripes were meant to mean something or just there for decoration. Nonetheless, they were mezmerized by the box and annoyed at their inability to understand how to open it.

(ooc:the mermaids in this case are based off of the mermaids from the documentary "mermaids: the body found" and appear to be more fishy humanoids than the mythical half human half fish thing)

[Tsaristyn]

The night patrol trudged down the road, torches flickering slightly in the light snow. The unit left a long trail behind them as the marched, the men holding their rifles close to their chests, even in their greatcoats, the men were shivering slightly in the winters chill. As the marched, a sudden flash and a streak of fire flew across the sky. The men checked their weapons, made sure the bolts hadn't frozen, many had expressions of fear on their face. Fire from the sky was usually a sign of mages, nobody wanted to meet a mage.
"All-right men, you know we have to investigate that, double time." Ordered the commanding officer

The patrol left he road and began a jog towards where the streak of fire landed

Several hours later

Steam still rose from the hole in the snow as the patrol arrived. The formed a circle around it, aiming their rifles into the surrounding forest. Most of the forest had been chopped down to help supply the building of what was hopefully to be the first of the city ships, to accommodate the growing population of the Grand Principality.
The commanding officer approached the hole, inside he found a small gray object, with strange lettering written on the sides.
"Men, we are heading back to Tsaristyn, and brining this object to the archivists, I have no idea what it is, and it is our duty to return it to be investigated, Natalia, Sergey, get over hear and start carrying this."

Several more hours later, in the Grand Archive of Tsaristyn
The archivists, after determining that they could see no obvious danger, and working out how to open it presented it to the Grand Prince, Ilya Romanov. He ordered the cube opened before him, hoping that it contained something that might help with the growing population, or the construction of the city-ship

[Sunset]

Arieh-Nidal...

It was bound to cause a squabble...

Whatever was packed inside the tall cube was in there solid. A thickly packed wall of foam and metal structural supports greeted whoever would be the first to open the hatch, along with a thick sheaf of instructions in an otherwise unknown language that said exactly nothing. Printed on flexible plastic, they seemed to detail the opening of the crate as well as the removal of the vehicle inside.

It was definately a vehicle of some kind but as unfamiliar to the outside as a horse and buggy to a sailor upon the ocean of the stars. Broad and squat, it didn't seem to have any visible means of propulsion but what it did have, again, was bound to cause a squabble. A quartet of stubby rotary barrels formed the flat points of a crown and this marked the contents as a weapon of war. If, as it turned out, it could be unpacked...

[Arieh-Nidal]

Arieh-Nidal...

It was bound to cause a squabble...

Whatever was packed inside the tall cube was in there solid. A thickly packed wall of foam and metal structural supports greeted whoever would be the first to open the hatch, along with a thick sheaf of instructions in an otherwise unknown language that said exactly nothing. Printed on flexible plastic, they seemed to detail the opening of the crate as well as the removal of the vehicle inside.

It was definately a vehicle of some kind but as unfamiliar to the outside as a horse and buggy to a sailor upon the ocean of the stars. Broad and squat, it didn't seem to have any visible means of propulsion but what it did have, again, was bound to cause a squabble. A quartet of stubby rotary barrels formed the flat points of a crown and this marked the contents as a weapon of war. If, as it turned out, it could be unpacked...

Eventually, after some squabbling and a lot of sounds of stress and exertion, the object was managed to be hauled out of the lake bed. Understandably, being as big as it was, it turned out to need most of the group to pull it out. between all the dangers in the dried up lake, they managed to lose two of their own people, only encouraging the rest to get the cube somewhere safe and moderately out of sight before examining it and noticing the number on the box. -- 569 ---

It took awhile of figuring out what it was and to relay the information back and forth between the group and the bunker about the box and what should be done about it. It was too heavy and there were too many dangers to drag it all the way back to the vault so they lugged it into a nearby cave and waited till some others came by to set up quarantine type measures and eventually managed to carefully and hesitantly open the box, nearly everyone instinctively flinching and jumping back a bit as the box opened. Being unable to read the plastic paper and the writing on it, the stack of paper was sent back to the vault for analysis and the box eventually opened after several days of prodding and poking and figuring out exactly how to open it by trial and error, luckily without managing to break whatever was inside.

Not that anyone had a clue what it was they had unpacked or were aware in any way that it was a war machine. I just looked like some obscure art piece or an oversized child's toy. The squabble did commence, but not about what to do with such a dangerous thing but what exactly it was in the first place and what to do with it based on various ideas and concepts. Naturally it was safe to assume whatever it was, it was not something any of them had any record of in their vault or any idea what it was. It was clearly an alien object to be sure.
There was just the matter of what it was and did and how to deal with it that they had no clue of at that time.

[Sunset]

SF n F...

Turtles being turtles, they were perfectly happy to wait. Snug in their containers, the little guys snoozed away a long afternoon in the light of a slowly dying star.It was only after the experiment had concluded and science had successfully deposed myth and sentenced it to an island fortress where it would plot and scheme for the rest of its days only to die miserable and alone did the cyborg think to look in on the contents of the cargo pod again.

Aside from the undeniable fact that they were now younger than they had been not that long ago, they were perfectly fine. Wrinkly skin a little less so, mottled shells a little less sun-bleached, but absolutely alright otherwise. The trick would be finding out just where they had come from, why they hadn't left a forwarding address, and why they hadn't called to say they were moving.

[Excidium Planetis]

757 Topaz Toyza Road
Opaliad, Jeweldaidia

A woman in a green business suit and two men who appeared to be carrying robotic dogs walked down the small street in Jeweldaidia. They stopped in front of a building that supposedly belonged to the "Pets for Kids Who Can't Afford Them" organization, and after trying to figure out how to "use" the needlessly complicated password they had been given, simply dropped the two metal pups on the doorstep.

"Somehow I don't think the four thousand NSD for those things covered interstellar transportation costs. I'll mark this down as a net loss for the company." The woman said out loud, apparently to herself, marking down some figured on a clipboard she was carrying. "Come on, let's get back to the ship."

The trio walked back down the street, heading back toward the empty lot where they had parked their Leopard Class Dropship. As they approached the vehicle, however, a large object parachuted down from the sky, colliding with the vehicle and bouncing off to come to rest in the lot below. As the dropship's anti-theft alarm went off, no doubt waking many Jeweldaidia from their sleep, as it was 7:35 am on a Saturday, the group of off-worlders approached the object.

"Gavin, cut out that alarm!" one of the men yelled at the other. "My ears might start bleeding soon!"

"Alright, Alright!" Gavin yelled back, touching a pad on his arm. The alarm cut out abruptly. "I hope that damn thing didn't debt the hull." He ran over to the 70 meter long ship to inspect the damage.

The other two went over to inspect the object that had hit them. It appeared to be a cubic crate, 4 meters on each side. It was labeled "Foster & Foster" and marked with the number 0022. A small handle that seemed as if it would open the crate was labeled "In Case of Emergency".

"What is it, Zhu Li?" The second man who was not Gavin asked the woman.

"Perhaps an emergency air drop? An empty lot in a suburb seems an odd place, for one though. What do you think, Luke?"

"Look... scorch marks on the outside. It survived re-entry." Luke pointed out.

"Can't be from our ship, and I don't think the Jeweldaidians are that advanced. Let's inspect it. Take it aboard the ship." Zhu Li ordered the man. "We'll take a closer look back at Gizmos and Gadgets headquarters. Ms. Nguyen might be interest in it."

The three boarded their ship, a strange crate now in their possession, and rocketed up into the skies, headed for the Phoenix Class Interstellar transport that would return them to their home fleet and the Gizmos and Gadgets Surplus headquarters.