Adventure #1 - A Slimy World
Colony World 120353
(Results: Compromise/Close Tie, Option 2)
Keoni hadn't taken very long to decide what he would do with his life, setting off into a different part of the Fringe. As a Hybrid, he was a valuable man in simply being who he was... and that meant that he was picked up to help with a tropical world known as 120353. Names for the colony had been up on the table, the most prominent being Ventos, but it was having significant issues that kept them far from being capable of naming the planet.
The Cerco were some of the first on the planet, a branch-away having given up their futuristic ways when they reached it long ago. As such, the monkey-like people had reverted to a lower-tech society that enjoyed the simple things and despised the colonial efforts. Wildlife of various forms also makes traveling through the jungles dangerous in the thickest parts, the sole "safe" place being in the coast where the colony has been so far expanding from. And then the final touch was the system being plagued by a hard-to-track group of pirates. Keoni had drawn more than a few looks for his abilities as a fisherman and his Chimera training, of course, but never more had he been looked to with the idea of helping the colony deal with these.
His first month with the colony was hard, specifically due to disagreements among the three-hundred person community on whether he was welcome or not. Jokela owned the colony, certainly, but many had no reason to trust him nor make things easier on him. He'd burned through three-thousand of his four-thousand credits just to buy and have his own place built and furnished. It was technically one single room, walled arches and angles ensuring that it appeared bigger. His main room closet stored his armor and the one nearest his personal bedroom was for his clothes. It was a tight squeeze whenever he had to pull the Hercules suit out, but it was effective.
All that really mattered was that he was able to stabilize himself to not lose money, making just enough to start getting into what some might call a normal life. But, as he fished the jungle rivers of Ventos, he found himself lacking equipment for his small trawler that could make things far more profitable in the rich waterways of the tropical world. He'd seek out an off-world contact who could use a little more of his catch, effectively gaining the eye of a blue-haired woman named Anna. She revealed to him that she would be willing to assist him so long as he helped her get into Ventos' market. When he asked what it was, she revealed that it was a not so savory game. The Underground Galactic Slave Trade.
While he'd never been technically a law-abiding citizen, Keoni was shocked at the declaration. She promised to sponsor him and ensure the man wasn't picked up one night, but in exchange she wanted the Hybrid to both hide and capture people on Ventos. On the Fringe it was certainly impossible to prevent or outlaw slavery on the whole, but the Hybrid didn't have much choice in the matter. It was either take the deal or be hunted... and he wanted a life of his own, even if it led him down such a dark path. Anna told him a date and to bring a hover slide to transport the "goods"...
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"I wish that Anna chick had been more careful to avoid a late-night drop," The goo-like Hybrid said, guiding the hover slide in and through his front door, "I have to still work tomorrow, even if I'm holding onto her cargo..."
He turned to the left as he came through the narrow doorway, guiding the slide up and then to his right to head down the hall-like dividers toward his bedroom. The box on the slide was roughly four feet long, wide, and tall. It hadn't been making any noise, despite the bit of work to move it from the ship that had come down. On a lawless planet like this, customs and a unified government didn't have the resources to keep the colony of Ventos safe and to check every single incoming ship for illegal goods. All he knew, however, was that whoever or whatever was in the box was more than likely small or sleeping in the cramped space. A hand pressed on a terminal within his bedroom shut the door leading into the house, the slime leaving the box hovering as he quietly moved around the room to his bedroom's southern-facing bedroom window and tapped the tint-out button. The domicile at least had accommodations to grant privacy, his sight turning back to the box.
Soft footfalls filled the tranquil silence of the room, Keoni moving up to the box and letting his hand deform into a mass of dripping goo. Slapping it wetly against the top, he could feel his his hand slipping through the cracks of the wooden casing. With how heavy it was, even he could tell there was a heavier box inside. His body shifted as he pumped more of himself into the box, spreading and slipping throughout the free-space between the wooden layer and the metallic box within. By the time he had slimmed to the point his clothes were loosely hanging and his left arm seemed entirely gone, he'd finally filled the space within and the cracks connecting it to the box's sides.
"Gotcha," He said as his blob-like form gave a powerful jiggle, "time to eat a little..."
Jiggle after jiggle of his body, the sound of hissing could be heard. Wrapped around the nails and supporting the crate's top with his good, Keoni was using his Goo heritage to eat the many nails within. The corrosive power hissed and steamed, engulfing the nails and seeming to milk or squeeze them as it worked to devour them. It didn't take more than three minutes before the heavy duty fasteners were completely eaten through, the orange goo's emerald eyes glimmering as he quickly and noisily pulled the slime back up and through the crate. Squishing and shakes disrupted him as his body reassigned and positioned the slime back into his normal frame, the Hybrid looking to the crate top as he reached both hands to the edges of the box. Lifting it and tossing the top onto the floor nearby, he studied the metallic box fully...
Technology Roll (5 or lower)... 9!
And didn't understand the interface for it at all. It was in Common, but the poor design was clearly the work of an underground criminal organization trying to simply get something that isn't easy to work with. The name of the box, oddly enough, was the SL4V3.
"Slave... Limiter-Four... Variation Three. Whatever the hell it does, I guess, doesn't matter..."
He knew full well that such a machine couldn't be air-tight, which only meant he needed time. Disrobing himself, his gooey dick not present simply due to how it might get in the way, he'd climb up and onto the box. It might have looked goofy, after all, but he needed to make sure he fully covered it to make this work. With his clothes on the bed nearby he began to sink into an expanding puddle of orange slime, surging out and over the top of the box as he felt screws and fasteners and pushed over the nooks and cranny. The box was somewhat cold... as if it were frozen within. It wouldn't be long, though, parts of him already dissolving fasteners and the electronics of the box without hesitation. Anna hadn't said he had to keep the box intact... only that he had to keep the slave within (the goods) safe. Piece by piece, he dug his way into the box and ate away at it with the lack of finesse only a Goo could have.
One hour later...
Clink... clink... clink...
"Just a bit more," he said aloud to no one but his gooey self, "I've almost... got it!"
He came surging back and away, flooding up and onto the metal container. Much of the outside lacked any sort of paint or coloring, corrosion having taken a good deal out of the metal and electronic systems. The wooden box had been eaten as well, but that was simply to give him room to open it without problem. Hopping down and turning back to the box, the Hybrid took hold of the box's top-fixed lid and pulled up as hard as he could. Hissing and crackling sounded, but he at last got the crate open with groan from the strained metal. And as it fell back to reveal a still-venting cryogenic chamber, Keoni could only stare at the sort of technology the criminals were using to transport someone. But the emergency wake-up procedure had been stirring and no doubt pumping nutrients to wake up the captive by now.
Waving his arm, Keoni tried to disperse the smoke to get a good look at whoever it was that he'd be in charge of in his efforts to help his new employer...
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