Celebrating Spring Offworld (IC, FT)

[The Selkie]

Hello and welcome to Celebrating Spring Offworld!
Please apply on this OOC and be accepted before posting on this IC! Thank you and let's have some fun!

Galina Drosett.
City Hall Square of Liletraeth, Rhanbaglas-Region, Syryffio. 1657 EC.
The City Hall Square of Liletraeth, the capitol of the Rhanbaglas-Region, was a bustling metropolis of seventeen million people of many different people and many, many more visitors yearly. It was no miracle, if you asked me, Liletraeth was not only a beautiful city, but also in a beautiful region on a beautiful planet.
It was sunny, the beaches were white, the water was warm, the people were usually friendly and the laws were lax - relatively, at least. For experienced spacers, Liletraeth was paradise, for everyone else, it was pretty close.
I had been born on an asteroid mining base, about five light hours away from the star of the system. My Father had taken me and my Mother to Liletraeth when I was eight, an eye-opening experience for a pale girl like me, who, for the first time in her life, had felt the light of a star on her skin.
How things changed..., I thought and leaned back.
The City Hall Square was about fifty hectar in size, not a square despite its name, but round - and the city hall was rounded as well, taking up nearly a qarter of the outer edges of the huge square. The four major traffic routes of the city led to this square, pointing directly at the center of the circle, where a huge stone circle stood - one of the two native species, the massive and four-legged Bwytanach had built it, adjusted it to the course of the star, Gollachar, and celebrated specific dates on which the star aligned to certain astronomical beginnings or ends. Scientists called the religion Trayethian Monotheism and today, they would celebrate Spring's Beginning, the beginning of the first annual rainy season.
Many people had come to celebrate along with it.
I overlooked the square from the main balcony of the Liletraeth Grand Hotel, which took up an eighth of the circle, stood opposite to the city hall and was one of the most exclusive spots to watch the opening of the Spring Festival Celebrations. While the people on the square stood tightly packed, I stood in comfort, wearing a wide, white sun dress with a black flower and a white sun dress, which complimented my skin, and thighhigh, black armoured boots with high heels as they were in this season, my bodyguard Cathach, a Be-25 Gynoid, at my side. She made no qalms about being an android, wearing nothing but her armored cloak, her tail swishing back and forth behind her. Her golden eyes watched and scanned for dangers, currently finding none.
It was only befitting for a leading member of the Gwyrydlas-Syndicate, something between an independent stellar nation in its own right - and a crime syndicate. Of course, nothing could be traced to me despite the best efforts of the Confederated Police. My good acquaintance Anouk and his cute little police ship Gwarcheidwad were in orbit, his crew on shore leave, most likely.
We had clashed wits multiple times in the past and I would not...
"It's beginning.", Cathach observed and tore me out of my thoughts.
With a smile, I watched the stone circle: Lord Tetele, the highest priest of the Bwytanach in the area and an influential member of his species ascended the to the circle, flanked by a number of youngsters. Huge screens by the city hall and camera drones small enough to fit into my palm made it easy for viewers to watch even from a distance. I could see at least two human children and a young Dynnacath, a member of the other species native to the planet. In the middle was an altar and the massive four-legged creature made a curtsy in front of it, his company following suit.
He then put a disk onto the altar, a sky disk with markings pertaining when the sun would rise where and what that would mean for the calendar. A slight adjustment and he bowed his head, then stepped back.
Then, the children put a brazier onto the altar, filling it with their offers. It faced the east, where the sky disk told them. The Dynnacath was the last, mainly because he held a torch.
And as the sun peeked over the horizon in the distance, cutting a straight line of light along the major traffic road onto the City Hall Square, the altar and the offerings - he put the torch into the brazier, lighting it all on fire for the Sun Deity worshipped by the followers of the Trayethian Monotheism.
Cheers rose and with that, the Spring Festival of 1657 EC began. I nodded to Cathach - there was much to look at and see today! I had to smile... it felt just like all those years ago, when I had been a girl.
Well, let's see, what today would have in store!

[Polish Prussian Commonwealth]

[SOON.]

[Polish Prussian Commonwealth]

OOC: Quick question. Could I switch to a Battlegroup Anna puppet after this post? Also, sorry for the short response, but I just wanted it done.



Now Playing: Everlasting Summer(Everlasting Summer OST)

Battlegroup Anna - Liletraeth, Rhanbaglas-Region, Syryffio, 715 P.B
Anwyn O'Higgs

There's an old saying in the Battlegroup; "Deadly pirates; Dangerous insurgents; Anarchists and and bandits; none will stand between me and that giant fucking pile of salt."

The briefing passed me by. Criminal elements, governmental authorities, religious festivals; I didn't a shit, I was here for one reason and one reason only.

Chocolate. Chocolate was a luxury. It was mana from heaven. It was many, many things to those of us in Battlegroup Anna, irregardless of whether we were Cascadian or Caspian. It was a treat; it was currency; it was medicine. Chocolate fed body and soul; it was 'spirit food', as I had heard an Etiennesean put it. But for the most part, it tasted good.

Of course, I was after more practical things too. Salt, frozen steak, a good meal, maybe a new bayonet or multitool; my needs, and the needs of my squadmates, were innumerable, and it was really a minor miracle that we could scrape by without what one would ordinarily assume would be staples in any proper fighting force.

Then again; our entire existence, really, was a miracle. Hundreds or thousands of years had passed since the Great War, and we were still kicking, wandering, and looking for news of home or a way back.
But that didn't matter at the moment. For now, visions danced in my eyes of food, a full meal, maybe even video games; Annabelle from the security company had talked about how she had managed to get some at our previous stop and how they were the bee's knees.

Of course, I wasn't entirely happy. Syryffio had horrible laws about personal weapons; no firearms, the filthy barbarians. But they paid well and paid on time, and had done so for a while, so Command saw fit to trust them. I had a dagger, in any case, to fend off criminals, and if something happened I was sure that the Battlegroup would intervene. And, besides. I came along with a friend from the brigade's attached field hospital!

"Hey, hey, Franz!" I said, tugging on the older boy's hand. "Where now, brown cow?"
"General store, if there is any. Pharmaceutical vendors too." He replied dully, as he glanced about the square. "I've got to buy antibiotics and the like; we can't synthesize all the stuff we need onboard and whatnot. Then I need to buy some beef for the brigade stores..."
"Could we buy choccy after that? Or food? I've got stuff of my own to buy too, but-"
"Calm down, calm down. We'll buy that after, alright? Jeez."

[Cartoonia]

The Dawning of a New Era.

Enroute to Syryffio. 2257 A.D. (1657 E.C.)

Earth! The age of the earth is no longer. Global warming has sunk the major coastal cities of the world which essentially laid Cartoonia almost in ruins. A military junta under the leadership of General Eric von Theodore Cartman deposed Supreme Leader Sho Rolston and ceased control of the state by the 2080s which called for international unification under the Cartoon banner. By 2145, the world was under the control of the Cartoon Empire. There was only one place for the Cartoon Empire that they could conquer… SPACE!! With the invention of cheap and efficient space travel, Cartoonia was spending its resources on space colonization and conquest. 2200 saw the conquest of the Milky Way Galaxy with new technological advances, including updates on spaceships as battlecruisers, and life-sustaining materials that furthered colonization.

2257 A.D. (1657 E.C.), The Galactic Cartune Empire has spread itself across the universe. A universal superpower beyond the comprehension of the definition of superpower. The citizens of the empire take great pride in their imperial heritage. A heritage forged from necessity and strife. Democracy is not dead, but there is no other nation-state than the Cartoon Empire on earth, remnants of past states exist, but only through architecture and memory. In the new Cartoon Empire, technology is king. Citizens under the Cartoon banner now have personal spaceships that take them through all over the galaxy, people own homes on either Mars, Jupiter, or Uranus. Galaxy trains commute citizens from Earth to several other planets including ones outside of the galaxy including Alpha Centuri and Novea Terrae. One of these citizens who will be the character of this tale comes from the latter planet.

Winifred Chandler Rockbell-Elric (or Winry to her friends) is a spaceship mechanic, operating across the empire tuning up space ships and automatons, including human prosthetics called automail. She was among the top-ranked mechanics of the empire, and across the galaxy. During her career, she has seen numerous races, wars, and accidents that had called upon her services. She is known around the empire for these services. For most of her life, she worked hard. Only being ten years old when her parents (doctors in one of the many galaxy wars which will be indeed a story for another time.) were killed in action, she learned mechanics at a young age to help her grandmother keep the family business of automail afloat. She went from automail to vehicular mechanics to artificial intelligence and has become a master of her craft. She has been interested in machinery practically her entire life. So when she heard that there was going to be a festival from another galaxy, she simply had to go. She packed a few things and waved goodbye to her husband (where she got the last bit Elric from) and her kids as she leaves on the Galaxy Express (it does look like an express train pulled by a steam engine, but of course being refitted for space travel), a non-stop spacecraft express line to any of the different galaxies (and currently working on traveling to other dimensions).

She has taken the week off to enjoy herself at this festival, probably the first time she had a week off in years. She has been all over the empire on business trips only. She hadn’t had the time to go off for leisure. Her husband said that it would be good for her to take a week off, and this festival would seem to help. Right now, she is enjoying herself in the dining car, almost arriving at her destination, the planet Syryffio, a planet well off from the reach of the Galactic Cartune Empire.

“Excuse me miss” an attendant asks Winry. “Would you like tea or coffee?”

“Oh, coffee is fine thank you” she says, as the attendant pours some coffee into a mug. “Are you traveling to the festival as well ma’am?”

“Yes, yes I am. I heard of the exciting machinery on this planet and with it being displayed at this festival, I figured why not spend my week off there”.

“A machinery fantastic aren’t you”.

“Well yes, I am a mechanic after all”.

“Interesting. We are almost there. Is there anything else you need miss?”

“Oh. no. I’m good thank you”.

“As you wish ma’am”. The express was reaching its final destination. The designated station for the express to stop. It reaches that point and the passengers get off the express, Winry included. Not exactly sure what to do first, she heads through customs and after that, transportation to get down to City of Liletraeth to where the festival is taking place, particularly City Hall Square.

Once she arrived, she was in awe of the scenery, in all honesty not so far from one of the coastal cities back home, but that’s not saying much since she lives in a relatively land-locked region, not venturing into the coastal cities. She would try to find the hotel to stay at for the week she will be staying here. Luckily, she was able to book a room at the Liletraeth Grand Hotel with her earnings from her business. She walks down to the hotel to check in to her room before touring town and heading to the festival proper.

[AHSCA]

The Uzuki Couple

Fresh off the boat, that's what their ancestors of old would say because that's what this couple were. They had arrived just a short time ago having departed the traveling refinery station, the U.P.S.R.S Terra, their last stop before heading home. Well normally they'd be heading home, to their small planetary system around the star Madoka Prime on the edge of a black hole of course Homura. It'd be another few months trip back home and normally a straight shot but now they were on a pit stop. A festival? Well who didn't love a good celebration and neither had been here before, neither knew about it really. Citan and his wife Stelplena born on two different planets, joined the Guild and now worked in the scrapping and salvaging business, a small bucket of bolts they called their own. No crew, it was just the two of them but ships these days practically can run and fly themselves. Stelplena was actually in a bit of awe about the white beaches and sunny skies. "It's just like home!" Yes the two planets they hailed from were indeed like the AHSCA of old Earth, sunny skies, beaches, vast seas, actually that is what most of their planet was, just vast oceans and they were specks upon them. All except Animalia III, that alternated between a dry desert and a lush jungle as it completed it's orbit around their parent star.

"Hun, hun I bet we could see the light of Madoka Prime when it's night!" His wife was giddy like a little girl. She was usually more serious, a little more stoic but her smile could light up a room if given the chance. Citan answered, "Without a star chart on hand, I can't say for sure. But we might be able to."

Well here they were, a strange new world but seemed friendly enough. A nice place to visit for a couple of blue collar joes as themselves. Excited to get away from the busy humdrum life of derelict ships and war ravaged systems, now was just a time to kick back and relax!

Madoka Prime their parent star was G-type main-sequence star, a yellow dwarf as commonly called. It was a fairly complex system, home to a handful of planets, most of them gas giants with several moons, some dwarf sized planets, a black hole as mentioned. Frankly how anyone found home in it was a mystery, some of the planets were habitable, others only the moons could harbor life. The extremes were there as the planets made their orbits to the parent star but nothing they couldn't handle. Aurora, Citan's home world was a moon, and compared to its historical namesake, Aurora Borealis were actually a common nightly sight. Stelplena's home world was also a moon, orbiting the same gas giant as it's neighbor. But it's name was taken not from the old Corona effect but for it's raging angry seas. Hoshino was a tidally locked earth-sized planet where all it's residents resided on the equator. The poles and other hemispheres were largely inhospitable. The planet Truce was an Ice Giant now, devoid of life but brilliant rings that could be seen in the skies. It did have residents scattered about on its moons. Animalia III, a planetoid also relatively Earth-sized but with two extreme climates, extremely dry and extremely wet. Not as strong winds as Maristo which churned up the seas but it could rain endlessly or have plentiful sunshine.

On the extremes nearer the Homura Black Hole complex was a few more planets not really inhabited but served to be sponges against passing meteors and comets. No ships were known to have strayed to far beyond the event horizon but there were old stories of the system's early exploration of unlucky fools who ventured there. Chances are you'd be vaporized by the cosmic radiation it spat out anyway. This black hole is believed to be slowly siphoning off the energy of Madoka Prime star but chances are it'll be several billion years before the star is truly gone.

[Alegeharia]

City Hall, Liletraeth

---

Malik and Aither were at the city hall square of Liletraeth, a new planet. Malik was excited to be on new soil, he grew tired of the mundane worlds where it was medieval or post modern, another fully fledged space faring planet was few and far between so far for them. The 8 year old looked around wagging excitedly, he studied every person that he came across but kept a polite appearance trying not to over stare or push the friendliness of the aliens. Aither was close by looking at the different pamphlets for tourists, he wasn't going to use them, but they offered good intel without raising suspicions, Zeta would chitter in his ear now and then linking information gained from the Alvera, a Stratton class ship. It was slightly larger then a normal fighter ship, and was Aither's personal ship used for exploration and diplomacy. The fluffs from Celeste gathered attention enough being a furred race, it gained some interest from passerbys, at least it felt that way, though it was mutual with as much gawking they were doing too.

[Qhevak]

City Hall, Liletraeth

They’d arrived - characteristically for Tomlinson and less so for his partner - early, touching down a full two days prior to the opening and giving them a good bit of time to stake out the city beforehand. A spring festival perhaps wasn’t the sort of thing one would normally expect the two of them to be into, but after two weeks of helping customers nuke mountain ranges down to rubble at the Haiyon Heights Tactical Test Range it was nice to get a change of pace. Not needing to sleep, the two had managed to reach the festival square early, putting them in a nice position to watch while the first trickle of sunlight began to reflect off their metallic skin.

“Still surprised you pressured me so hard into going here.” Mr. Bobby Tomlinson said in a vaguely trans-atlantic accent. “Far as I can tell they’ll confisticate anything that shoots harder than a paintgun.” He was somewhat large and bulky for a Synthmorph, resembling a two meter tall silver fifties robot toy - a form intentionally chosen to seem presentable to baselines while still betraying his true nature.

“I would, if I hadn’t somehow managed to do enough shooting over the past month to quench my thirst for the next few. Tacticals are nice that way.” replied Hana, wearing a somewhat ostentatious dress in a style that could only be described as “Tacticool Belle Epoque”. Unlike Tomlinson, Ms. Hana Zielinski could perhaps be mistaken for a human in copious amounts of makeup and prosethetics, looking practically normal aside from her silver skin and metallic implants. Abnormally, she was armed with only a retractable nanothorn knife concealed in a belt pocket.

“Still kinda wish I’d seen if you could loophole regs with ManHack drones, but-“

“I believe that’s for the best. You’ll be heading straight for the mecha fights first, I assume?”

“Got me. Maybe head to the beach afterward, see if I can pick anything up – but I’m taking things as they go as usual. Feel free to come with, as long as your aren’t using it as an excuse to“ Hana sighed. “Network”.

“Fair enough for today, as long you can avoid talking about sabot loads. With all the excitement last week I’m hoping this vacation stays as peaceful as possible.”

[The Selkie]

OOC: Quick question. Could I switch to a Battlegroup Anna puppet after this post? Also, sorry for the short response, but I just wanted it done.



Now Playing: Everlasting Summer(Everlasting Summer OST)

Battlegroup Anna - Liletraeth, Rhanbaglas-Region, Syryffio, 715 P.B
Anwyn O'Higgs

There's an old saying in the Battlegroup; "Deadly pirates; Dangerous insurgents; Anarchists and and bandits; none will stand between me and that giant fucking pile of salt."

The briefing passed me by. Criminal elements, governmental authorities, religious festivals; I didn't a shit, I was here for one reason and one reason only.

Chocolate. Chocolate was a luxury. It was mana from heaven. It was many, many things to those of us in Battlegroup Anna, irregardless of whether we were Cascadian or Caspian. It was a treat; it was currency; it was medicine. Chocolate fed body and soul; it was 'spirit food', as I had heard an Etiennesean put it. But for the most part, it tasted good.

Of course, I was after more practical things too. Salt, frozen steak, a good meal, maybe a new bayonet or multitool; my needs, and the needs of my squadmates, were innumerable, and it was really a minor miracle that we could scrape by without what one would ordinarily assume would be staples in any proper fighting force.

Then again; our entire existence, really, was a miracle. Hundreds or thousands of years had passed since the Great War, and we were still kicking, wandering, and looking for news of home or a way back.
But that didn't matter at the moment. For now, visions danced in my eyes of food, a full meal, maybe even video games; Annabelle from the security company had talked about how she had managed to get some at our previous stop and how they were the bee's knees.

Of course, I wasn't entirely happy. Syryffio had horrible laws about personal weapons; no firearms, the filthy barbarians. But they paid well and paid on time, and had done so for a while, so Command saw fit to trust them. I had a dagger, in any case, to fend off criminals, and if something happened I was sure that the Battlegroup would intervene. And, besides. I came along with a friend from the brigade's attached field hospital!

"Hey, hey, Franz!" I said, tugging on the older boy's hand. "Where now, brown cow?"
"General store, if there is any. Pharmaceutical vendors too." He replied dully, as he glanced about the square. "I've got to buy antibiotics and the like; we can't synthesize all the stuff we need onboard and whatnot. Then I need to buy some beef for the brigade stores..."
"Could we buy choccy after that? Or food? I've got stuff of my own to buy too, but-"
"Calm down, calm down. We'll buy that after, alright? Jeez."

A pharmacy was found easily enough: Just enter the Siopa Shopping Mall, from the City Hall Square's entrance, it was only a walk of three minutes to the Ichawar Pharmacy, a pharmacy, in which one could park a small-sized spaceship in, with shelves being filled up by droids, more fleshy and squishy personell supervising and some customers milling about.
The store was mostly aimed at selling materials for daily use and users, however, as well as fulfilling the prescriptions of its customers, so it might not be the best place to buy the medical supplies needed for a battlegroup. However, it was a good place to start as a huge store usually had huge suppliers.
And the two visitors from the Battlegroup Anna were in luck, too: The boss was in the house as well, helping an elderly lady with headache to find something, which would help her.
And, as an added bonus, a general store was right across from the Pharmacy - and a supermarket not too far away.

The Dawning of a New Era.

Enroute to Syryffio. 2257 A.D. (1657 E.C.)

Earth! The age of the earth is no longer. Global warming has sunk the major coastal cities of the world which essentially laid Cartoonia almost in ruins. A military junta under the leadership of General Eric von Theodore Cartman deposed Supreme Leader Sho Rolston and ceased control of the state by the 2080s which called for international unification under the Cartoon banner. By 2145, the world was under the control of the Cartoon Empire. There was only one place for the Cartoon Empire that they could conquer… SPACE!! With the invention of cheap and efficient space travel, Cartoonia was spending its resources on space colonization and conquest. 2200 saw the conquest of the Milky Way Galaxy with new technological advances, including updates on spaceships as battlecruisers, and life-sustaining materials that furthered colonization.

2257 A.D. (1657 E.C.), The Galactic Cartune Empire has spread itself across the universe. A universal superpower beyond the comprehension of the definition of superpower. The citizens of the empire take great pride in their imperial heritage. A heritage forged from necessity and strife. Democracy is not dead, but there is no other nation-state than the Cartoon Empire on earth, remnants of past states exist, but only through architecture and memory. In the new Cartoon Empire, technology is king. Citizens under the Cartoon banner now have personal spaceships that take them through all over the galaxy, people own homes on either Mars, Jupiter, or Uranus. Galaxy trains commute citizens from Earth to several other planets including ones outside of the galaxy including Alpha Centuri and Novea Terrae. One of these citizens who will be the character of this tale comes from the latter planet.

Winifred Chandler Rockbell-Elric (or Winry to her friends) is a spaceship mechanic, operating across the empire tuning up space ships and automatons, including human prosthetics called automail. She was among the top-ranked mechanics of the empire, and across the galaxy. During her career, she has seen numerous races, wars, and accidents that had called upon her services. She is known around the empire for these services. For most of her life, she worked hard. Only being ten years old when her parents (doctors in one of the many galaxy wars which will be indeed a story for another time.) were killed in action, she learned mechanics at a young age to help her grandmother keep the family business of automail afloat. She went from automail to vehicular mechanics to artificial intelligence and has become a master of her craft. She has been interested in machinery practically her entire life. So when she heard that there was going to be a festival from another galaxy, she simply had to go. She packed a few things and waved goodbye to her husband (where she got the last bit Elric from) and her kids as she leaves on the Galaxy Express (it does look like an express train pulled by a steam engine, but of course being refitted for space travel), a non-stop spacecraft express line to any of the different galaxies (and currently working on traveling to other dimensions).

She has taken the week off to enjoy herself at this festival, probably the first time she had a week off in years. She has been all over the empire on business trips only. She hadn’t had the time to go off for leisure. Her husband said that it would be good for her to take a week off, and this festival would seem to help. Right now, she is enjoying herself in the dining car, almost arriving at her destination, the planet Syryffio, a planet well off from the reach of the Galactic Cartune Empire.

“Excuse me miss” an attendant asks Winry. “Would you like tea or coffee?”

“Oh, coffee is fine thank you” she says, as the attendant pours some coffee into a mug. “Are you traveling to the festival as well ma’am?”

“Yes, yes I am. I heard of the exciting machinery on this planet and with it being displayed at this festival, I figured why not spend my week off there”.

“A machinery fantastic aren’t you”.

“Well yes, I am a mechanic after all”.

“Interesting. We are almost there. Is there anything else you need miss?”

“Oh. no. I’m good thank you”.

“As you wish ma’am”. The express was reaching its final destination. The designated station for the express to stop. It reaches that point and the passengers get off the express, Winry included. Not exactly sure what to do first, she heads through customs and after that, transportation to get down to City of Liletraeth to where the festival is taking place, particularly City Hall Square.

Once she arrived, she was in awe of the scenery, in all honesty not so far from one of the coastal cities back home, but that’s not saying much since she lives in a relatively land-locked region, not venturing into the coastal cities. She would try to find the hotel to stay at for the week she will be staying here. Luckily, she was able to book a room at the Liletraeth Grand Hotel with her earnings from her business. She walks down to the hotel to check in to her room before touring town and heading to the festival proper.

Galina Drosett.
Liletraeth Grand Hotel, Lobby.
I did not know her name, but from my own experience with the Liletraeth Grand Hotel, I knew, that Winifred Chandler Rockbell-Elric must have had an enjoyable experience checking in, her bags being carried up by droids, herself receiving the keys and everything else she might need.
I saw the blonde woman in the lobby, nodded at her as was walking out, most likely to join the festival. My own gynoid-bodyguard was at my side as I walked past her, nodded at her. Cathach, her tail swishing behind her, followed me, gave the blonde a short look - apparently, the other woman was not perceived as a threat by her programming, which was fine by me.
In the huge lobby, light-flooded and with a huge, high glass ceiling resting on massive pillars of Sand Granite, one could miss oneself and one another easily enough. The seating groups did give a point of orientation, though, as one walked down the long, red carpet towards the exit.
Employees of the hotel and droids milled about, aiding customers or keeping things clean, serving customers by the seating groups or watering the potted plants, a few security people standing around inconspicuously.
I stopped and took in the surroundings (and, by sheer and utter coincidence, gave the blonde a chance to catch up). The building was nothing new to me, but it was wonderful to be here, in this airy, light, bright atmosphere, full of life - a far cry from the recycled air of a spaceship.
Cathach was at my side.

The Uzuki Couple

Fresh off the boat, that's what their ancestors of old would say because that's what this couple were. They had arrived just a short time ago having departed the traveling refinery station, the U.P.S.R.S Terra, their last stop before heading home. Well normally they'd be heading home, to their small planetary system around the star Madoka Prime on the edge of a black hole of course Homura. It'd be another few months trip back home and normally a straight shot but now they were on a pit stop. A festival? Well who didn't love a good celebration and neither had been here before, neither knew about it really. Citan and his wife Stelplena born on two different planets, joined the Guild and now worked in the scrapping and salvaging business, a small bucket of bolts they called their own. No crew, it was just the two of them but ships these days practically can run and fly themselves. Stelplena was actually in a bit of awe about the white beaches and sunny skies. "It's just like home!" Yes the two planets they hailed from were indeed like the AHSCA of old Earth, sunny skies, beaches, vast seas, actually that is what most of their planet was, just vast oceans and they were specks upon them. All except Animalia III, that alternated between a dry desert and a lush jungle as it completed it's orbit around their parent star.

"Hun, hun I bet we could see the light of Madoka Prime when it's night!" His wife was giddy like a little girl. She was usually more serious, a little more stoic but her smile could light up a room if given the chance. Citan answered, "Without a star chart on hand, I can't say for sure. But we might be able to."

Well here they were, a strange new world but seemed friendly enough. A nice place to visit for a couple of blue collar joes as themselves. Excited to get away from the busy humdrum life of derelict ships and war ravaged systems, now was just a time to kick back and relax!

More about the Madoka Prime System
Madoka Prime their parent star was G-type main-sequence star, a yellow dwarf as commonly called. It was a fairly complex system, home to a handful of planets, most of them gas giants with several moons, some dwarf sized planets, a black hole as mentioned. Frankly how anyone found home in it was a mystery, some of the planets were habitable, others only the moons could harbor life. The extremes were there as the planets made their orbits to the parent star but nothing they couldn't handle. Aurora, Citan's home world was a moon, and compared to its historical namesake, Aurora Borealis were actually a common nightly sight. Stelplena's home world was also a moon, orbiting the same gas giant as it's neighbor. But it's name was taken not from the old Corona effect but for it's raging angry seas. Hoshino was a tidally locked earth-sized planet where all it's residents resided on the equator. The poles and other hemispheres were largely inhospitable. The planet Truce was an Ice Giant now, devoid of life but brilliant rings that could be seen in the skies. It did have residents scattered about on its moons. Animalia III, a planetoid also relatively Earth-sized but with two extreme climates, extremely dry and extremely wet. Not as strong winds as Maristo which churned up the seas but it could rain endlessly or have plentiful sunshine.

On the extremes nearer the Homura Black Hole complex was a few more planets not really inhabited but served to be sponges against passing meteors and comets. No ships were known to have strayed to far beyond the event horizon but there were old stories of the system's early exploration of unlucky fools who ventured there. Chances are you'd be vaporized by the cosmic radiation it spat out anyway. This black hole is believed to be slowly siphoning off the energy of Madoka Prime star but chances are it'll be several billion years before the star is truly gone.

Note: Quote modified by removal of spoiler-tags.

Nia Otiroer.
I knew, that Liletraeth and its numerous festivals always attracted crowds of people, especially from work vessels and stations - be they asterioid mining ships, salvaging vessels, mining colonies on the surface of some moon, whatever. I could spot them from miles and miles away.
That was no wonder, I was a lunar mining rat myself, born seventeen years ago on Nodarra (or Gollachar-Vt) to a father, who is a miner, and to a mother, who cooked in the cantina. I had managed to pass the entrance exams for the Liletraeth Girls' Boarding School all those years ago, so now I was more or less a resident of Liletraeth.
In any case, Citan and Stelplena (of course I did not know their names) looked so full of wonder and marvel, that I could not help but think, that they had never set foot on a planet with an atmosphere before.
I did not catch their conversation, but the crowd's movements did make me drift into their direction, ultimately bumping into Citan.
"Sorry!", I said politely, bowed my head for a moment, "Are you hurt?"

City Hall, Liletraeth

---

Malik and Aither were at the city hall square of Liletraeth, a new planet. Malik was excited to be on new soil, he grew tired of the mundane worlds where it was medieval or post modern, another fully fledged space faring planet was few and far between so far for them. The 8 year old looked around wagging excitedly, he studied every person that he came across but kept a polite appearance trying not to over stare or push the friendliness of the aliens. Aither was close by looking at the different pamphlets for tourists, he wasn't going to use them, but they offered good intel without raising suspicions, Zeta would chitter in his ear now and then linking information gained from the Alvera, a Stratton class ship. It was slightly larger then a normal fighter ship, and was Aither's personal ship used for exploration and diplomacy. The fluffs from Celeste gathered attention enough being a furred race, it gained some interest from passerbys, at least it felt that way, though it was mutual with as much gawking they were doing too.

Rhodri Mewcariad.
They might feel as if they were watched and to some extend, that was true: I was watching them, especially the kid. Not in a creepy way, but in an interested way, seeing that he looked a bit like a Dynnacath.
I myself was a Dynnacath, a bipedal lifeform, around 1.6 meters tall and native to this planet. We had short fur on the arms, feet and stomach, but longer fur on stomach and legs. Our fur was our pride and joy, especially the whiskers. We had a lot of claws, on the feet and on the paws, but also catlike ears. We came in many different colourings (anthropologists loved to call them ethnicities, but we preferred fur colours), I for example was yellow and black.
My blue eyes shone as I made a decision - my friends of Cryffa would not mind me making a small detour.
"Excuse me!", I called out, approaching the two, turning to the elder of the two: "My apologies for disturbing you, but if I may ask, where are you from?"

City Hall, Liletraeth

They’d arrived - characteristically for Tomlinson and less so for his partner - early, touching down a full two days prior to the opening and giving them a good bit of time to stake out the city beforehand. A spring festival perhaps wasn’t the sort of thing one would normally expect the two of them to be into, but after two weeks of helping customers nuke mountain ranges down to rubble at the Haiyon Heights Tactical Test Range it was nice to get a change of pace. Not needing to sleep, the two had managed to reach the festival square early, putting them in a nice position to watch while the first trickle of sunlight began to reflect off their metallic skin.

“Still surprised you pressured me so hard into going here.” Mr. Bobby Tomlinson said in a vaguely trans-atlantic accent. “Far as I can tell they’ll confisticate anything that shoots harder than a paintgun.” He was somewhat large and bulky for a Synthmorph, resembling a two meter tall silver fifties robot toy - a form intentionally chosen to seem presentable to baselines while still betraying his true nature.

“I would, if I hadn’t somehow managed to do enough shooting over the past month to quench my thirst for the next few. Tacticals are nice that way.” replied Hana, wearing a somewhat ostentatious dress in a style that could only be described as “Tacticool Belle Epoque”. Unlike Tomlinson, Ms. Hana Zielinski could perhaps be mistaken for a human in copious amounts of makeup and prosethetics, looking practically normal aside from her silver skin and metallic implants. Abnormally, she was armed with only a retractable nanothorn knife concealed in a belt pocket.

“Still kinda wish I’d seen if you could loophole regs with ManHack drones, but-“

“I believe that’s for the best. You’ll be heading straight for the mecha fights first, I assume?”

“Got me. Maybe head to the beach afterward, see if I can pick anything up – but I’m taking things as they go as usual. Feel free to come with, as long as your aren’t using it as an excuse to“ Hana sighed. “Network”.

“Fair enough for today, as long you can avoid talking about sabot loads. With all the excitement last week I’m hoping this vacation stays as peaceful as possible.”

Finding the way to the Mechafighting was not hard - quite on the contrary: Near the City Hall Square, there was a Metro Station, connected to the main Ring Line and to quite a few others. Among them was the line heading out to Phalf Field, the location of the Mechafighting.
There was the need for a ticket, but no need to pay for it, as Cawar Ground Vehicles had paid for the operating costs for all the trains in the city today. In return, the company logo was printed onto the tickets.
The fifteen minute ride via the maglev train and as quick as it was, it took a scenic approach: Out of the city center, through the upper-class suburb of Dredorian and past its huge villas towards the beach. White sand passed beneath the train's raised tracks as the beach was crossed - it looked like paradise and people down there and in the train certainly knew it.
To the right, in the distance, one could easily spot the ground station of the Liletraeth Orbital Complex, it's gigantic cables leading up into geostationary orbit, where the orbital complex hung. Both Tomlinson and Zielinski would know the station, much like everyone else, who had come to the planet from abroad.
The train ran acrosse a bridge and then turned in a soft turn to the left, towards one of the outlying islands and Phalf Field. It's metro station was flooded by light and of a light grey, thousands upon thousands of people arriving with the metro and personal vehicles, using one of several overpasses free to allow transit via the huge main roadway.
Enthusiasts were getting their money's worth, for beneath the overpasses, a column of Fighting Chwylen, huge six-legged mechas, and several other machines with the markings of the Gerdwyra Mechafighting Team was passing. It was an awe-inspiring sight, Ceilygod-Leader in front.
The ground shook with every step.

[Alegeharia]

Rhodri Mewcariad.
They might feel as if they were watched and to some extend, that was true: I was watching them, especially the kid. Not in a creepy way, but in an interested way, seeing that he looked a bit like a Dynnacath.
I myself was a Dynnacath, a bipedal lifeform, around 1.6 meters tall and native to this planet. We had short fur on the arms, feet and stomach, but longer fur on stomach and legs. Our fur was our pride and joy, especially the whiskers. We had a lot of claws, on the feet and on the paws, but also catlike ears. We came in many different colourings (anthropologists loved to call them ethnicities, but we preferred fur colours), I for example was yellow and black.
My blue eyes shone as I made a decision - my friends of Cryffa would not mind me making a small detour.
"Excuse me!", I called out, approaching the two, turning to the elder of the two: "My apologies for disturbing you, but if I may ask, where are you from?"

Aither:

Aither turned to the furred alien, or rather native? To think he and Malik were the aliens for once… He listened to the being and smiled. “Greetings, we come from the planet Celeste, without comparing star maps I am not sure how far away we are from here. I am Aither Velkari, and this little one here is my brother King Malik. On our homeworld we hail form a kingdom called Alegeharia.”

---

Malik:

Malik lifted his arm up to show his gauntlet and activated a hologram showing the star map. “These here our are local stars. It is so nice to meet you, and more interesting to see other furred species spread throughout the galaxy!” His tail wagged excitedly as he looked the person up and down. “Are you a native of this world or a visitor of here too?”

[Qhevak]

The maglev gave the pair of arms merchants a fine view as it headed from the square to the station, passing by gorgeous sunlit beaches with pearl-white sand. The space elevator groundport stood visible in the distance, nanomaterial tethers stretching off towards the distant bright star that was the orbital complex, where their personal staryacht remained docked. A bit of a questionable engineering decision in Bobby's view - geosynchronous elevators might be a tad safer than orbital ring types, but were an unquestioned loser with respect to speed and cost.

There was a mech parade ongoing as the two stepped out of the overpass, attempting to make their way through the tide of thousands of onlookers that had flooded the station just as they had in hopes of getting a view. The procession was highlighted by the Fighting Chwylen of the Gerdwya Mechafighting Team – squad, hexapodal goliaths nearly fourteen meters long and over five in height.

“Oh man, did we get here at the perfect time or what” said Hana, beaming at Bobby. “Ooh, if I’m right that’s gotta Ceilygod-Leader. Thing’s set up as a mobile command center for rest of the team, has a bunch of drones too. Other two are mobile MLRS batteries for long range – shit, I promised not to rant like this didn’t I?”

Bobby laughed. “That’s it, I’m gonna network.”

“Oh fine, guess I’ll just shut up and gawk for now.”

Hana looked a bit closer. The Chwylen were quite impressive vehicles - utterly military impractical of course, but that wasn't the point, and what was mechafighting anyway, if not an attempt to rescue mechanized combat from the dehumanizing efficiency that had swamped it since the Somme? Supposedly they had a usual crew of five, through they weren't visible at present - she hoped she'd get to meet some at some point, or even get a look inside.

[AHSCA]

Nia Otiroer.
I knew, that Liletraeth and its numerous festivals always attracted crowds of people, especially from work vessels and stations - be they asterioid mining ships, salvaging vessels, mining colonies on the surface of some moon, whatever. I could spot them from miles and miles away.
That was no wonder, I was a lunar mining rat myself, born seventeen years ago on Nodarra (or Gollachar-Vt) to a father, who is a miner, and to a mother, who cooked in the cantina. I had managed to pass the entrance exams for the Liletraeth Girls' Boarding School all those years ago, so now I was more or less a resident of Liletraeth.
In any case, Citan and Stelplena (of course I did not know their names) looked so full of wonder and marvel, that I could not help but think, that they had never set foot on a planet with an atmosphere before.
I did not catch their conversation, but the crowd's movements did make me drift into their direction, ultimately bumping into Citan.
"Sorry!", I said politely, bowed my head for a moment, "Are you hurt?"

The couple still taking in a few of the sights found their thoughts interrupted, well mostly Citan's thoughts as he was bumped into by a young lady, sending them staggering, and Citan unfotuatley to the ground. It didn't hurt but maybe was a bit embarrassing this rough and tough salvager could be knocked to his feet by a simple person, I suppose he should count his blessings it wasn't some alien parasite. "Oh it's quite all right, maybe we should be the one's who are sorry, standing around like a couple of slack-jawed-yoakles." He chuckled

Stel got a little laugh at that herself, her hubby did have a sense of humor about him that she found endearing. "How bout you, are you okay? Not hurt I hope."

[Cartoonia]

Galina Drosett.
Liletraeth Grand Hotel, Lobby.
I did not know her name, but from my own experience with the Liletraeth Grand Hotel, I knew, that Winifred Chandler Rockbell-Elric must have had an enjoyable experience checking in, her bags being carried up by droids, herself receiving the keys and everything else she might need.
I saw the blonde woman in the lobby, nodded at her as was walking out, most likely to join the festival. My own gynoid-bodyguard was at my side as I walked past her, nodded at her. Cathach, her tail swishing behind her, followed me, gave the blonde a short look - apparently, the other woman was not perceived as a threat by her programming, which was fine by me.
In the huge lobby, light-flooded and with a huge, high glass ceiling resting on massive pillars of Sand Granite, one could miss oneself and one another easily enough. The seating groups did give a point of orientation, though, as one walked down the long, red carpet towards the exit.
Employees of the hotel and droids milled about, aiding customers or keeping things clean, serving customers by the seating groups or watering the potted plants, a few security people standing around inconspicuously.
I stopped and took in the surroundings (and, by sheer and utter coincidence, gave the blonde a chance to catch up). The building was nothing new to me, but it was wonderful to be here, in this airy, light, bright atmosphere, full of life - a far cry from the recycled air of a spaceship.
Cathach was at my side.

Winifred did have an enjoyable check-in. Droids were able to pick up her bags, which she thought was pretty progressive and totally different from other hotels in the empire she had always stayed at, which hired humanoid bellhops and staff, which was harking back to old Cartoonia’s sense of hospitality and tradition, which is neither here nor there. This was by far totally easier.

After checking into her room, she heads back down to the lobby to head into the square for the festival. Once she heads out into the square and spots one a person she nodded at a couple of minutes ago with her friend, which upon further inspection is an android with cat-like features. It is not too uncommon for people of the empire to see citizens that are not only human-like, but sometimes part robotic and or part animal. Also, it seems that she might have seen something like her in one of the mechanic magazines she has subscribed to, something called a... Bennyw Be-25 Gynoid.

Winry did know anyone here, so what better way to enjoy her time here was to make acquaintance with someone you just nodded at a couple of minutes ago. She is friendly after all. She goes up to her with a nice warm smile.

“Ah hello! You were the person I saw at the lobby earlier today. I hope I’m not intruding on anything”.