The Xenogen investment in the 15th rush (Game)

[DumbAndDumber]

Aura then looks at you with a more serious expression and says "Well, now that he's past is out of the way i would like to talk about more important matters, like the planets we need to visit, i managed to gather my thoughts and made a crude flight plan on what planets to visit first. I will go pick my codex so that you can give your input in it." She turns and as she opens the door she freezes as she hears Clementine loudly moaning, Aura stands there for a moment before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

She comes back a few moments later, codex in hand and face a little red "S-she left the door to her room open, on the way back i c-closed it..." She sighs and manages to recompose herself.

"Here is the crude flight plan i made." She hands you her codex and continues speaking "At first i would suggest the planet with the three big cities to be our first place of landing, but i decided to put the world with cities and no life on the top of our list, mostly because of the Xenogen ship that got shot, if we manage to rescue the crew im sure Xenogen will be very happy with us, however, i received a new reading on the planet, and unless the data scanners from the Grey Clouds decided to go crazy, which i doubt, i dont think this is wrong. The planet's atmosphere started to change, its difficult to say when, but the scanners started to pick up oxygen on the newest readings around the time the Xenogen ship got shot, the planet seems to be terraforming itself, and this makes me really curious to understand what is happening down there. The next planet on the list would be either the planet with the three cities or the barren one with the holes, their reasoning is simple, the first one seems to resemble many of our know planets, lots of green with humans living on it, this familiarity can make it really easy to do our job, the barren one is a little more complex, we know nothing of it aside that its probably inhabited, with no information i would just like to go there to get a better grasp on it. The forth one would be the arid world with the nomadic people, its at the end of the list because it seems to be a really rough and dangerous world, that is the whole reasoning behind its placement on the list. Last but not least is the farthest planet, this one we need to actually visit it's moon, not the actual planet, and im going to be honest, im kinda afraid to go there. The people of a small colony dissapearing out of nowhere? And some time later we start to pick a strange signal that we cant decipher? That is straight up a horror movie's plot, so i left it to be the last place we need to visit..."

"So? Do you have any input on my plan? If everything is okay i can send you the coordinates so you can get us to the first planet."

 

[TheShepard256]

"Hmm...." I pause for thought. Given that the apparent terraforming happened after the ship was shot down, it's possible it was triggered by the crew's presence. "Let's investigate the one the ship was shot down over first, but we'll only proceed if the crew is still alive - who knows how long they'll last. If not, we'll plonk down some sensors and leave it for later. After that, we'll see if anything's changed elsewhere and re-evaluate our next step, but I'm inclined to go to the far moon. Given the disappeared colony, whatever that signal is is potentially dangerous, and I'd rather ward off anything like that early if we can."

 

[DumbAndDumber]

"Alright, lead the way, i can change my clothes later." She is seems to be both excited and nervous as you guys walk out of your room, and briefly flustered as she hears the muffled sounds coming from Clementine's current room when you guys pass in front of it. On the way you also see Olympia, she hugs you and glares at Aura when you introduce the two of them, the conversation is brief as Olympia seems to just glare at Aura and quickly devolves into just Aura stuttering words "If i see you touching my ship a way i dont like you're dead." She warns Aura as she leaves.

Aura is quick to send you the coordinates when you guys arrive at the bridge, she seems to be a good navigator because between the two of you working together not only you plot a quick course to the planet, you also manage to not crash the ship on the "clouds" of debris that seem to surround the planet.

Its a strange sight, the ship's equipment doesnt pick any of the strange debris, making you guys navigate it mostly by sight. The more you look at the pieces floating the more you start to think this is just trash, and the fact they are spread in this "clouds" kinda reinforces this theory, they were probably thrown into space from the planet below. And speakin of the planet now you can get a good look at it, even though you are so far away you still manage to see the sprawling cities that cover the planet, however it all seems decrepit from up here.

It takes you guys a few hours to maneuver the ship closer to the actual planet, enough time for Clementine to finish playing wih your pet, she walks into the bridge stretching herself and only wearing panties, leaving her breasts breasts exposed "Fuuuck me Steele, im a little jealous that you're going to have the doggy all to yourself, that was the best fuck i had in months, maybe years." She seems a bit dazed and her legs shake a little as she walks "I think he fucked my head a little, kinda underestimated that smell thing, but hey i discovered that if you scarf down enough Focus Pills it helps to not get mind fucked... Kinda hard to fuck and take pills but hey..." She playfully elbows Aura "...If it works i aint complaining! Though he almost fucked beyond the turning back point, he pinned me down and pounded me hard enough to move the bunk bed to the other side of the room and back again... That was really hot, but i still managed to eat some pills... Kinda makes me want to try again without the pills..." Aura's face is bright red at this point, then her ears shoot straight up as she sees something, Isabel follows her eyes and you see it, another "cloud" of debris, but this one being clearly different from the rest "Look, it must be the remains of the Xenogen ship!" Aura says, standing up from her chair "But... there's a lot of them, is this really from just one ship?" You noticed it too, theres a lot of pieces for just one scouting ship, then you also see something, most of the ship seems to be intact, only the thrusters seem to be badly damaged. "Ok, you're probably right missy, there's no way in hell this debris are from just this." Clementine says as she steps forward, pointing at the damaged Xenogen ship "Ill go get ready in case we decide to board it, i will also fetch the pup in case you want to put those metal claws to work." Clementine says as she steps away from the bridge.

Aura then turns to Isabel and says "Alright, i think i got a clear sight of the docking hatch if you want to dock it captain." She seems a little nervous but determined.

 

[TheShepard256]

"Proceed." I look over my own screens displaying the scan results, paying particular attention to the ship's life support, gravity, power distribution, structural integrity and life-form count. "How many crew did the ship have?"

 

[DumbAndDumber]

You keep an eye on the scans, the structural integrity of the ship seems mostly fine, nothing alarming for now, gravity also seems to be working fine. However, both life support and the power distribution of the ship seem to be going down slowly, both oxygen and energy will probably last a day judging by how it seems be draining. Taking a look at the life-form scanner you count four passengers, though its hard to pin-point their exact location on the damaged ship.

"Well..." Aura begins speaking while checking the auto-pilot to make sure the docking goes smoothly "...The scouting ship had around 5 people in it..." She then squints her eyes at a screen "...Wait... this ship's identification is wrong..." She points to a screen that is showing the Xenogen ship that you guys are currently docking, on the side of it, below the company's name, there is a serie of numbers that goes 065483 "...The scouting ship that was shot was numbered 075488... Something is wrong here..." She picks her codex and starts typing, after a moment she looks at you and says "I dont see any mention of another ship being sent by Xenogen, this ship also didnt contact the Gray Clouds, i would be able to see their communication records if they did."

After some time, Clementine comes back to the bridge, this time fully armored, in one hand she is holding what seems to be a modified riot shotgun, and on the other hand she is holding the leash to Isabel's pet that is following right behind her. Clementine then hands her the leash, surprisingly, he seems to read the mood of the room, he goes from happy puppy to guard dog in a matter of seconds, staying close to Isabel and being alert to he's surroundings, he seems ready for a fight.

"I dont like the faces you're making, what's wrong?" Clementine approaches Aura "Well, to put it bluntly, this isnt the ship we were meant to check upon, there are also no records of this ship being sent here, neither by Xenogen nor by Captain Satara's orders." After Aura speaks, Clementine seems pensive for a moment.

The ships shakes a little as the docking process is finished, Clementine then turns to Isabel with a grin on her face and says "So, what is our approach here boss? This could be a trap. I say we go in, weapons in hand, we find the crew and we get them to talk; what are they doing here, where is the other ship, you know, the basics first."

Aura then speaks "Well, im not a combatant, like we talked before ill be staying in the ship, ill try to help you guys from here to the best of my abilities..." She seems a little nervous, but its clear she is trying to calm down by the way she is fidgeting and staring at the screens.

Your pet is by your side, its clear he is a little confused of what is going on, but he is also ready for anything judging by he's posture.

 

[TheShepard256]

Given that the ship is intact and still has a day's worth of oxygen, I decide not to put on my space helmet for now, though I take it with me just in case.

"So, what is our approach here boss? This could be a trap. I say we go in, weapons in hand, we find the crew and we get them to talk; what are they doing here, where is the other ship, you know, the basics first."

"That's what I would've suggested, but keep your weapons holstered unless we confirm hostile intent." I lead the team through the airlock.

 

[DumbAndDumber]

You guys go through the airlock, and immediately notice the smell of smoke in the air, the corridors are simple and compact, as expected from a small scouting ship. While looking around, Isabel notices a panel in a wall, she gets close to it, and as she suspected, its a terminal that can be easily accessed. The rest of the group moves to cover her while she is checking the terminal. and as you expected, most of the terminal's functions are disabled because of the current state of the ship, you manage to check the security logs and you discover that the defenses were activated when the ship was damaged, sealing doors were deployed in certain areas of the ship, and one security droid was activated, the terminal cant track its current location. As you are about to disconnect you notice something, there seems to be a codex connected to the ships system, you connect to it through the terminal and the screen immediately shifts to what seems to be a camera. You see what looks like a rather effeminate looking kaithrit man, he is wearing a pair of glasses on his face that makes his eyes seem way bigger that they actually are "-ready told you, i am not an engineer! i have no idea how to-" He freezes as he seems to look at the screen "Wait, someone is here! Hello! Can you hear me? we... Wait, is that Isabel Steele, my goodness! I applied to join your company six times but i never managed to-" Suddenly a hand shoves he's face away from the camera and another one appears in its place, now a hyena-morph looking woman is staring at you "Hello? Can you help us!? We are at the back of the ship, a robot of some kind was activated, we are hiding in a cantina type area, its currently trying to bring the door down, we are safe... for now... Please, if possible help-" Both video and sound suddenly go down, the lights of the corridor you currently are flicker and the panel Isabel is using seems to receive an energy current that fries the screen, sending sparks flying everywhere.

"This really seems like a trap now..." Clementine then points to a sealing door that is currently blocking the corridor "That is currently on our way, how do we proceed boss?"

The obstacle in your path seems to be some sort of blast door that got activated when the ship was damaged, there's probably an air vent around or a door that you havent found yet that could provide a different path, or you can try to open the blast door, you could look for a panel on it to see if you can hack it, you are also pretty sure that your pet could easily open it judging by his muscles and size, however, he's going to brute force it, and you're not sure if its a good idea to damage the ship more.

 

[TheShepard256]

"This really seems like a trap now..."

"Maybe, but we still have to try helping them." I look for a control panel or something to hack, and also radio back to the Sidewinder. "Aura, we've confirmed at least two survivors holed up in the ship's canteen, with some kind of robot after them. Can you direct me to their location? Also, one of the ship's security droids has been activated, but I can't track it; if it's not what's attacking the survivors, any idea where it could be?"

 

[DumbAndDumber]

You run to the blast door and as you start searching for a control panel you hear Aura reply to you "It seems that some sort of power surge just happened because of the damage the ship has sustained, its jamming our scanners... but i think i can find them..."

You find a small screen on the blast door, and you immediately start working on it, its not difficult for you to hack it's system, and in a few moments the door begins to open. As your group is stepping through it, you hear Aura radio you again "I found them! Continue in the direction you already going, at the end of your path the corridor splits into two directions, go to your right and follow this new path, at the end of it you guys should see the door that leads to the canteen. Another thing, im detecting something there, its currently pacing in front of the door, it seems to be the droid that you mentioned."

The three of you continue down the corridor and to your right at the end of it, just like Aura told you guys. And as you turn to enter this new path you're faced with another blast door, this time you immediately search for the control panel, and you find it in the same place as the last one. Once again you hack it, but as the door opens you start coughing, the corridor that leads to the canteen is filled with pitch black smoke.

"Here, i thought we might have trouble with gas or somehting like that, so i packed this for us." You hear Clementine behind you, as you turn she hands you a gas mask with a small oxygen tank attached to it "It doesnt last long but it should be enough." She takes another two masks from inside of her backpack, she puts one on your pet and wears the second one, he seems a little uncomfortable and scratches it a little, but after he sees the both of you also wearing one he calms down. Isabel enters the smoke packed corridor and your companions follow you, you also start to hear a loud banging noise, and after a couple of steps you manage to discover the source of it. A seven feet tall military looking droid is pucnhing a door you can only assume to be the canteen's entrance, you dont see any visible weapons on it aside from its metal fists.

Clementine steps to your side, aims at it with her shotgun... and stops "Wait, shit!" She lowers her gun and turns to you "We got a problem, that pile of cans is a really shitty model, it doesnt even have lethal weapons, it only has a stun gun... The production of this type of bot stopped a long time ago because of how unstable they are, they can explode if they get shot at, im fucking surprised Xenogen still got ships with this piece of thrash in them..." She opens her backpack and starts rummaging inside it "We gotta be careful, this ship is already fucked, i dont want that thing exploding and adding to the damage... Fuck! i got nothing that we can use." She closes the backpack and turns to you "We could just shoot it and hope for the best, or..." She then turn to the large ausar behind you guys and says "Maybe the pup could take it out, he can overpower it easily and he's claws have a lower chance of causing an explosion... But this is all i got, any ideas?"

 

[TheShepard256]

If that's the case, anything that can pierce the droid's power core - including the pup's claws - could cause it to explode. So instead, I direct him: "Hold it down while I try to disable it."

 

[DumbAndDumber]

It takes a moment for him to understand your instructions, and when he finally understands what he needs to do, he does it without a problem. He runs towards the droid that still manages to notice him coming, it manages to use its stun gun on your pet when he jumps and tackles it to the ground, however, your pet doesnt even wince from the shock he received, in fact he didnt even notice he got tased, he's chest isnt even bruised.

You immediately run towards the tackled robot, and you start looking for a way to disable it. It takes a couple of minutes to safely deactivate it, and after the whole ordeal, you hate this robots just like Clementine, its been a long time since you had to work on something this poorly made like this droid, the sole reason of why it took so long to desarm it, is purely because of how bad the whole model is structured, if you didnt know better you would think its intended purpose was to be a walking bomb.

With the droid deactivated you're now free to look at the canteen's door, its locked and badly damaged, you quickly look for a way to open it, and surely enough, you find a familiar panel that you quickly hack into. The door struggles a bit to open due to the damage it received from the droid, but with a little help from your muscle bound pet it finnaly opens. You guys quickly enter the room and close the door behind you in a attempt to keep the black smoke away.

As soon as you enter you see a small canteen like area, its completly tossed and turned, with plates and cups thrown everywhere. In here there are four people, you spot the effeminate looking kaithrit man, he is barely five feet in height, his hair and ears a bright pink colour, he's got a cute face and he is wearing a pair of glasses that make he's eyes look comicaly larger than they actually are.

By he's side stands a female hyena-morph, she is around six feet tall, she's got a muzzled face and her eyes are amber colored, her ears are black and mottled brown, her hair is long and its fashioned in a side cut style, her body seems to be quite toned, her breasts are D cups and shes got nice wide hips, when she hear the door open she immediately does a barrel roll towards the bar counter and screams "Shit! It got in!"

A large leithan man is on the side of a soda vending machine, he is drinking from a can when he sees you guys enter the room, he seems to be injured judging by the bandages wrapped around his mid section, he is around eight feet tall, he seems to be middle aged, he's got a nice looking beard that only adds more charm to he's already masculine looking face, he's body is quite muscular and his skin colour is a deep purple. When he sees you guys enter he doesnt even flinch, only taking a sip of he's soda before saying "Weeell heeell, at least im going to die by the hands of two hot women instead of a shitty looking robot."

A MILF looking ausar is sitting on the other corner of the room, she is probably four feet eleven in height, her fur is dark brown, just like her long hair, she got blue eyes and puffy lips. Her breast are quite big, probably F cups, and she's got wide child-bearing hips, she is a little chubby but that only ads to her MILfy appearance. When she spots you guys she screams "Oh fuck!!" However, when she notices you guys arent the security droid she seems to calm down a little, when she sees your pet she bites her lip and her eyes begin roaming he's body, when her eyes land on his rock-hard dog prick she releases a breathless "Oh fuck..." but this time there's no panic on her voice, and she seems a little aroused.

All of them are wearing Xenogen clothes, after a couple of seconds where all of you just stand there, staring at each other, the hyena-morph slowly pokes her head from behind the counter when she hears what the leithan said, when she notices you guys arent the droid she fully comes out from her cover with her hands up "Well, judging how you didnt blast us apart im guessing you arent part of Satara's crew... Im also not seeing our companies colours on you guys... Are you guys pirates?"

Before any of you can answer the kaithrit man runs towards Isabel, he stops a few feet away from her when her pet stands in front of her, releasing a threatening bark, the cat boy releases a "eep!" sound at the sight of the large ausar, then he's already large eyes go wide open when he turns he's attention back to Isabel "Oh my goodness!! Its Isabel Steele!! Its really you!! You have no idea how much i ever wanted to meet you!!" He seems to be absolutely ecstatic in meeting you, he also doesnt seem to know how to present himself before you "M-my name is Kahram, i-im a software developer! I-i code things, oh im so happy to finally be able to meet you!!"

The hyena-morph releases a sigh and says "Well, im hoping a big CEO like yourself doesnt have the need to shoot four unnarmed scientists..." She makes a motion towards the others "... Can you help us? Smoke is starting to enter this room... We are pretty much screwed and no help is coming, because no one knows we are here..." Her spirit seems a little crushed and judging by the faces the others are making they are in a similar situation as her.

 

[TheShepard256]

"Calm, boy, they're harmless." I placate my pet before shaking hands with Kahram. "Nice to meet you!" I let Clem introduce herself before continuing: "Who are you all? Why are you out here?" Given they assumed Satara's people would've shot them and there's no record of them, I assume they don't have her permission or Xenogen's to be out here - and it's probably not a good idea to let them know I've got Satara's second-in-command on my ship, or to let her know any more about these people for now.

 

[DumbAndDumber]

Kahram looks at you with wide eyes "T-thanks, i-i mean, its nice to m-meet you too!"

"Who are you all? Why are you out here?"

The hyena-morph releases a sigh "My name is Soraya..." She then points to the leithan man "That is Rayan" He tips a invisible hat to you "Pleasure in meeting you all." Soraya continues introducing the rest of the group, pointing now to the MILFy ausar "And she is Alice... You already met Kahram, so thats everybody..."

She lowers her head a little, gazing at the ground as she contines speaking "...We are just a group of nobodys... We only meet a few days ago, all of us had friends on the ship that came here to scout the planet, we got really pissed at Xenogen because they didnt do shit when our friend's ship got blasted, so we decided to come here, in the hopes we could do something." She raises her head and looks you in the eye, a smile appearing on her face "And we managed to discover that they are alive, when they got shot their ship entered the planet's atmosphere and Rayan's brother managed to make a emergency landing." Rayan nods "Yep, my lil bro is the best pilot on this side of the galaxy, always managed to park our ship when we got home drunk, and that is amazing considering we always drunk ourselves to point of needing to go to the hospital the next day." He says with a chuckle.

Soraya then continues speaking, her voice filled with worry "However, we lost contact with them a few hours ago, i dont know if our's ship radio got fried, or..." She pauses for a moment "...Or if something happened to them..." She inhales a deep breath and continues speaking "So... That's who we are and why we are here, i hope you dont plan to take us to Satara's ship, im pretty sure in her eyes we are just another crew of rushers that breached her blockade... Hopefully she doesnt, but im not going to take this chances... And Xenogen is probably going to get really angry at us, we not only stole a ship but we also got it destroyed... I dont care if you are going to throws at the lions, but please, please... Can you do something for our friends? If you cant do something can you at least call someone or..." The worry on her voice is palpable as she trails off.

"Well..." Rayan speaks up as Soraya finishes speaking "...And if you're not going to throws us at the metaphorical "lions"... Can you give us a ride to the Eosphoros station? We dont want to ask too many things of our potential savior... But we kinda wrecked our ride." He gives you an easy smile as he finishes speaking.

 

[TheShepard256]

The worst Xenogen can legally do is fire them and sue for the loss of the ship they took, though Satara is a completely different matter - getting them out of the system ASAP is the safest course of action for them. "I'll help. If there's nothing else, let's get back to my ship. We'll rescue your friends, then drop you off at Eosphoros; if they're in danger, I won't have time to drop you off first."

(OOC: I forgot what Eosphoros was. Is it the 15th Planet Rush's equivalent to Tavros?)

 

[DumbAndDumber]

(OOC: I forgot what Eosphoros was. Is it the 15th Planet Rush's equivalent to Tavros?)

(Yep)

Soraya looks at you wide eyed for a moment, before regaining her composure "Please focus on our friends, we dont mind waiting on your ship, hell, ill even work for free to pay this debt."

"Yep." Rayan says, he seems a little tired as he speaks "Im pretty sure everyone else is willing to do anything to pay you back... We just want to see our friends and family back." He looks down for a moment with a sad look in his eyes.

Kahram then moves to Rayan's side and helps him stand up "We cant lose faith." The small kaithrit says "They are really good at their job, im sure they can survive whatever that planet throws at them." Rayan smiles at Kahram's comment "Well look at you, looking quite happy even though we are in this dire situation." Kahram's eyes light up "Of course i am, the person who offered to help us is Isabel Steele..." Rayan rolls he's eyes "Oh boy, here we go again..." Kahram doesnt seem to notice the comment and continues speaking "...I read everything she did in the last Rush, i would stay awake all night reading articles and wikis, and then i started looking into Steele Tech, i fell in love with administration because of their protocols and..." Soraya's voice suddenly interrupts Kahram's speech "Hey kitty! I understand you just met your number one hero, but we need to get out of this burning wreckage, so stop fanboying for now and start moving."

The journey back to the Sidewinder is troublesome due to the ship breaking apart around you guys, but after a few moments of guiding people through pitch black smoke, removing debris from the path and squeezing between collapsed ceilings, you guys manage to return safe and sound with the other four in tow.

Clementine already took off her mask by the time the airlock closes behind you guys "Holy shit, that ship really got fucked. What did you guys do to wreck it like that anyway?" Kahram's face goes red and before he can say anything, Rayan speaks up "You see, when we got here we kinda got desperate, we saw the debris of a Xenogen ship and we thought "Fuck, we were to late". To make matters worst, the ship's equipment warned us that some kind of weapon was locked on us." He then points to Kahram "Our little kitty was the one that saw the warning, so he grabbed the ship's controls and started doing all kinds of maneuver evasions. Credit were credit is due, he actually managed to save our hides back there, he dodged three shots, before hiting one of those clouds of trash. That fucked the thrusters and left us stranded, we thought the planet's artillery was going to blow us to bits... But it never happened, shortly after that we managed to contact our friends down there, we managed to confirm everyone is alive and well... And the rest you guys already know." He then plops on the ground and starts inspecting the bandages that are covering his wound.

Alice then approaches Isabel and says "Thank you very much." Her voice is soothing and motherly "We really lost hope that we were going to be rescued, and at the last moment you showed up. Like Soraya said, if there's anything we can do to pay you back, please, dont hesitate to ask us." Shw gives you a warm smile as she finishes speaking.

Suddenly you guys hear a loud bang, everyone turns around and sees Aura face down on the ground, she raises her head and trying to ignore the stares she says "Y-you're back, i managed to discover something." She stands up and pulls out her codex as she walks towards Isabel "I used everything your ship had related to reconnaissance. And i discovered that the weapons on the planet are currently inactive." She shows you her codex, and it seems to be true, everything points to the fact that the weapons that shot the two Xenogen ships are, right now, deactivated. She then shows you something else, a set of coordinates "I also manage to find a good spot to land on the planet, if you want to do it now just say the word and i can get us down there, im really excited to see those weapons up and close."

 

[TheShepard256]

The weapons are disabled? It's unlikely any automated defences would simply shut themselves off unless they ran out of power - it's more likely the first Xenogen ship's crew survived and managed to disable it themselves. Or perhaps they're dormant until they detect another ship e.g. us, but I'm confident the Sidewinder can reach the surface before it takes too much damage. "Take us in." I order.

I also make a mental note to direct Kahram to Steele Tech SR (Sapient Resources) once all this is over.

 

[DumbAndDumber]

Aura nods and the both of you head for the bridge, and after a few moments the Sidewinder is heading towards the set coordinates.

It takes half an hour of dodging the "clouds" of trash until your ship finally enters orbit, for a moment everyone is silent, afraid that the planet's artillery is going to activate, but nothing happens and everyone releases a collective sigh of relief.

After a few minutes the Sidewinder begins collecting data, Aura quickly puts everything on display. The thing that catches your eye the most at first is the fact that the atmosphere has oxygen in low quantities, enough for survival at least. You also notice the multiple structures that are similar to cities, they are impressive, the strange architecture is confusing at best, large structures that barely resemble buildings, some spires that reach the sky, all of this in a strange style, circles and squares are everywhere, from just iconograph to actually being incoporated into the buildings as structures. The squares are always followed by some sort of spiky image, and the circles are followed by wave-like imagery, its hard to explain but you have a feeling that this images are saying that squares are bad... you arent really sure what the wave-like symbols could mean.

"There, we are almost at the landing spot." Aura says as she points to an area close to a building that resembles a train station, there are strange looking rails coming out of each entrance, a few go into the "city" and the rest go indefinitly towards the horizon. Your ship doesnt catch any signs of life on its sensors, but when it begins landing you swear you see something move for a second, you quickly check again the sensors... an there is nothing on it, huh...

When the Sidewinder finnaly lands Soraya approaches you "Hey, thanks again for doing this, we aren't fighters but we will do our best to keep the ship safe." She says with a smile.

After a few minutes you are joined by Clementine and your pet at the boarding ramp, Aura is holding her codex in hands "Well, ill keep checking the sensors for anything that might be interesting, once again, if you need anything just give me a call and ill try me best to help you guys from here, now-" A strange sound interrupts her, it comes from outside the ship. It sounds like something metalic is being shuffled around, you guys wait... The sound once again happens, this time followed by what can only be described as a metalic moan, it doesnt sound like anything you ever heard. Clementine slowly decends the boarding ramp's steps, weapon in hand, she looks around and says "I see nothing, but there is something over there..." You join her, with your pet quickly following you as Aura closes the boarding ramp behind you guys "Good luck guys, and take care!".

You look where Clementine pointed and you see a shadow coming from behind a wall, whatever is projecting the shadow looks humanoid and it seems to be moving around judging by it, the metalic sounds and strange moans are definitely coming from it.

"What do we do? I have no clue what it could be, it sounds like a fucking broken washing machine." Clementine says as she points the gun towards the sound and waits for your orders.

 

[TheShepard256]

I call out to... whatever it is. "Hello? Who's there?" While I'm being non-hostile, I'm also ready to draw my pistols and fight if it's hostile and not willing to talk.

 

[DumbAndDumber]

Whoever it is making the sounds stops for a brief moment, then it starts going your direction. A strange looking figure appears from behind a wall, it looks like a naked human man, but its skin is gray and metallic looking, its eyes glow with a pink light, you also notice strange markings on its shoulders and chest that also shine with this creepy pink light. Parts of its body shift, like they are liquid, and quickly become solid again, it looks around for a moment, looking confused until its eyes fall upon the three of you. The metallic man's eyes go wide, then he's empty crotch begins to shift, metallic tendrils grow out of it, they twist and turn into a different shape, its form quickly becoming familiar as it turn into a horse cock, then it morphs again, this time transforming into a nubbed cock that resembles that of a kaithrit, just to once again shift, this time becoming a terran looking shaft. It stays in this form, it size grows until it reaches around twenty inches in lenght, the metallic surface hardens, looking as solid as the rest of its body.

It slowly starts walking forwards once its genitalia stops morphing, the pink glowing eyes jumping from Isabel to Clementine, then to Isabel again. Your pet growls and quickly puts himself between you two and the synthetic looking man. It stops and stares at your pet for a moment, then it quickly jumps to its left, and your pet quickly follows it, the robotic looking man's head tilts to the side as it watches your pet, almost studying it. Then it suddenly jumps with its arms wide open towards your pet in a attempt to tackle him, your pet however, is stronger, he catches the strange alien and tackles it to the ground, its face shifts in what looks like surprise, before the pink glowing eyes once again locks onto the both of you, it begins to shake and push at your pet as it attempts to free itself.

"What the fuck is this thing?" Clementine says as she carefully approaches it "It kinda looks like a robot...But it got this squirming liquid metal."

"Squirming." It suddenly speaks in a metallic voice, Clementine gets startled and jumps backwards, pointing her shotgun towards the alien "Hello? Whos There?" This time it speaks in a voice quite similar to Isabel's. Then it begins to speak In a voice that is clearly Clementine's, but it begins to shift into a less robotic and masculine sounding voice "Offworlders, here, here, like the queen said, incredible, incredible, i can barely contain myself, beautiful, beautiful, i must fuck,fuck,fuck!"

Eletricity suddenly shoots from it, your pet releases a pained whine as he uses he's claws to slash a large and deep cut on its chest. Your pet then throws the alien away from the two of you, it stands up, the metal around the damaged area becoming liquid, as it starts to slowly repair itself. It looks at you guys with a faraway look before saying "Glorious... I m-must fuck, sex,sex,sex...Queeeen, must knoow." It looks to be torn on what it should do for a moment, before turning away from you guys and breaking into a sprint in the same direction it came before.

You run towards your pet, afraid that he might be hurt, he's chest is a little burnt, but you release a sigh of relief as you see the tissue regeneration Felina talked about back in the Gray Clouds, the burnt area of his skin is quickly being healed, and in a couple of moments its going to look like he never got hurt in the first place. Your pet licks your face as he notices your worry, then he rubs he's face against yours in a attempt to make you happy again, and it works. You pet him with a smile as you stand up again.

"I was not expecting that" Clementine says as she approaches you "Didnt even manage to shoot the fucker. I think we should follow it, i dont know what it was talking about, but it sure could be a clue to where the Xenogen crew might be." She then looks at you and asks "Does it always go like this? You know, the first contact thing? Because holy shit, this was awful."

 

[TheShepard256]

"Well, I'm not usually the first First Contact, so I don't know. But... it's kinda like a combination of the grey goo and malfunctioning sexbots that roamed Tarkus back in the day. And it mentioned a queen...." I pause for thought. Is this gonna be another Hand So type of thing? They're probably not a hive mind, or else it would've never said 'like the queen said' or retreated to report back.

"In any case, you're right about following it; that queen probably knows about the crew, and might know about the self-terraforming going on." I turn to my pet: "Can you track it, boy?"

 

[DumbAndDumber]

He gives you a bright smile and starts to sniff around, after a moment he seems to catch its trail. You and Clementine follow your pet and you notice that the structures of this planet are truly strange, you need to climb up and down areas that have no easy way to move around. Some objects bear some resemblance to you, you see some large metallic panels on a wall that kinda resemble some sort of deactivated screen, you briefly try to interact with it, but they all seem to lack power.

After a while you follow your pet outside of this structure that resembled a train station. Now out here you are able to get a better grasp on your surroundings, the "streets" are uneven and confusing, its hard to say if they were designed this way or if something happened to it, they have spherical holes in them, you inspect one that is close to you guys and you see some sort of energy outlet at its bottom, at least seems like it. The structures are pretty basic in appereance, most resemble giant pillars or giant blocks, all have holes in them, however, none of this holes are at ground level, you could maybe climb into one by taking advantage of the strange archtecture, but it would probably be very tiresome judging by how far away from the ground some of this "entrances" are. The thing that catches your attention the most though, is how most building have large tube like structures and cables coming out of them, they all go in the same direction, towards the spires that seem to be at the center of this "city".

While looking around you spot some movement ahead, its a group of similar looking aliens, you gently tug your pet's leash and he comes back to you. You quickly head to the side of one building in the hopes of not being seen, both of your companions quickly following behind you. Taking cover behind a wall, you and Clementine slowly peak your heads from the side of the buidling to look at the aliens, there are four of them, you also notice that they appear to be fucking, they all look like some already known species, one looks like a gryvain, one like a thraggen and the other two look like suulas. They are relentlessly fucking each other, and they are being so loud you could mistake it for a group of people fighting "Great, more grey horny fucks..." Clementine says as she watches the group.

Suddenly your codex starts loudly beeping, you scramble for a moment, trying to turn off the sound. You thought it was Aura trying to contact you, but it wasnt that, you take a moment to carefully look and... What the fuck? It seems your codex caught some sort of signal and someone tried to hack it thorugh it. Your thoughts are interrupted when Clementine says "Shit! they heard it, and they are coming fast!" She pumps her shotgun and moves to your side, the three of you barely manage to move away from the wall when the four figures appear into view. Unexpectedly, the grivain and one of the suulas trip while running, they come crashing down into the ground a few feet away from you, the other two skid to a halt when they spot you guys.

The suula that didnt trip looks at all of you with wide eyes and a big stupid grin on her face, like the last alien you found, her skin is completly grey, she also has the same simbols on her chest and shoulders "Look! Look!" She starts to furiously mastubate as she speaks, almost shoving her entire hand in her pussy, and using her other hand to grope her large tits "They look really hot, they look delicious!" She says while turning her head to look at the thraggen morph "They sure do look amazing..." He says as one of his hand go to he's massive cock as he starts to mastubate just like the suula "...I am going to stuff them with so much cum..." he grunts, but before he takes a step foward, the grivain that fell down face-first into the ground, holds one of he's legs "Wait! Shouldnt we take them for a date first, you know, be romantic?!" The thraggen actually stops, he seems to think for a moment before he's eyes wander your bodies "Nah, look at them, they are nothing but cum-dumps, fuck-puppets, breeding holes..." The other members seem to listen to him with attention "...We need to fuck them good..." At this, all of them begin to advance towards you guys, the two that fell down quickly standing up as they follow their "friends"

Clementine quickly points her shotgun at them "Stand the fuck back, or else you are going to eat lead!!" She pulls the trigger when they dont stop, one of the suulas is shot square into her chest, she staggers a bit backwards, she freezes for a moment, looking at the hole in her chest "What is going on? What was suposed to happen now?" The area around the bullet holes became liquid, her body starts to repair just like the first alien when he got injuried by your pet's claws.

You dont hesitate, shooting at them with your pistols, all of them stop for a moment when you hit them, going into this pensive state and mumbling something before advancing towards you guys again. Your pet jumps into action when one of them gets to close to either of you, he uses his claws to slash their metallic flesh, before shoving them away. Their wounds are recovering, but not fast enough, after a few moments of shooting at them, the thraggen falls to the ground, still moving, but he seems dazed, looking around but not doing much else. One of the suulas jumps towards Clementine, but she is able to dodge it, she immediately unloads her shotgun into the back of the alien, she becomes this semi liquid mass for a moment, before slowly starting to reform "This one is out!" Clementine says as she starts to reload her shotgun. The other suula goes for you while the grivain targets your pet, it jumps into your pet without worry for his claws, though she whinces when he slashes one of her legs off, she hugs him with all of her might, before her body becomes semi-liquid and moving towards his crotch "Cock!Cock!Cock!" She laughs as her head reforms and immediately begins sucking him off, she doesnt manage to do it for too long though, your pet is clawing and bitting her while she does it, and after a few moments of slashing her to pieces, he manages to shrug off the rest of her off of him. Meanwhile, you dont stop shooting for a moment while the suula charges at you, you manage to jump out of her way when she tries to tackle you, however, when she hits the ground she releseas this loud grunt and says "Oww! Why did you jump out of the waaay!?" She wiggles her arms and legs in a surprisingly childish way "Is it because i dont have a cock, look! I can make one for you!" She turns to her side and you watch as her pussy shape shifts into a big terran dick, you point your guns towards her when she starts standing up.

"I told youuuu!!!" Everyone stops and looks towards the grivain morph, she has reformed a good amount of her body and has moved towards the fallen thraggen after your pet shoved her off of him, she is currently crouched beside the thraggen, poking him with a finger and pouting at him "You need to be romantic on your first date, dont you remember!?" She stands and points towards the suula that is close to Isabel "Wouldnt you like to receive chocolates before getting fucked?" The suula stare at you for a moment, before looking at the ground with a sad expression "Yeah, i guess you are right... But were do we find this "chocolate" thing?" The grivain crosses her arms and shakes her head "Well, i dont know, but we didnt even try to find it, did we?" The suula that jumped Clementine reforms and moves closer to the grivain "But we never needed to do that." The grivain looks at her and speaks in a tone that reminds ou of a mother teaching their children "Yes, we never needed to do this before, but what if that is their kink? To go on a romantic date before fucking, huh? Would you like if someone ignored you kinks?" The suula looks shocked for a moment, her eyes wander to your pet's cock, before she also looks at the ground and mumbles a "No...".

The grivain smiles, with her hands on her hips, she says "See? We need to be romantic to them!" She then looks towards you guys and says "Hello! You guys look amazing, do you want to go to a restaurant, or maybe you guys want some whine before we go fuck?" She asks with a giant smile on her face while the others start to reform and move closer to her, they look a little confused and you swear some look ashamed.

"Okay, i have no fucking idea what is happening right now." Clementine says as she moves closer to you, still aiming her shotgun towards the aliens, you pet also moves closer, still growling and bearing his teeth at the grey aliens "What the fuck do we do? Should we just blast them and run?" Clementine asks, clearly caught off guard by the alien's behavior.

 

[TheShepard256]

They're clearly sex-obsessed and have no concept of subtlety or tact; possibly new AIs or VIs that were thrown into this world with insufficient programming, so they latched on to the first thing they could and tried to make that their goal. I turn to the gryvain-bot, as she seems to be their leader. "First off, people don't like being jumped for sex - you should always ask first, and if they say 'no', respect that. Secondly, I'll... consider fucking you, later, but we're on an investigation right now. Maybe you could help us?"

 

[DumbAndDumber]

"First off, people don't like being jumped for sex - you should always ask first, and if they say 'no', respect that.

They look at each other, clearly confused "Well, we never met anyone that didnt want to fuck, soooo..." One the suulas says as she taps a finger to her chin. Its clear they dont really understand the concept of "not wanting to fuck".

Secondly, I'll... consider fucking you, later, but we're on an investigation right now. Maybe you could help us?"

The gryvain brigthens up "See! i was almost right! She wants to role-play!" The other three release a collective "Ooh!" The thraggen puts he's hands on his hips, puffing out his chest "Im going to be the detective with the big dick!" The gryvain gives him a light slap on his shoulder "Hey, the pretty lady is the one who wants to role-play, let her decide the characters." One of the suulas approaches the gryvain and says "Heey, can we start already? Im like, really, really horny!" She already has three fingers inside her pussy.

"Are we really going to ask this clowns for help?" Clementine leans in and whispers to you, she then turns to your pet, she pats he's head and says "Hey buddy! Can you still smell the other one you were tracking?" He leans into her patting, then he sniffs the air again, he manages to find it, though he seems to be having a little bit of trouble tracking it judging by how he is acting.

Clementine thinks for a moment before whispering to you again "I think we should just ditch this guys while they are bickering with each other, i would rather try our luck with our tracking pup... Though this guys could end up being usefull... Argh... I hate having to depend on luck in this situations..."

 

[TheShepard256]

That's... yeah, I'm not sure what I expected. "It's not role-play, we're genuinely looking for people who were genuinely shot down over this planet and might genuinely be in danger! We're also investigating why this planet is suddenly self-terraforming; until yesterday, it was completely uninhabitable by humanoids. If you can't help us with either, we'll leave you be."

 

[DumbAndDumber]

They notice you're not joking, the gryvain opens her mouth to say something, but the light in her eyes flicker and she stops, for a moment she just stares at you slack-jawed, she then shakes her head and says "Huh... i dont know about people falling nor getting shot..." The thraggen scratches his head and says "I remember something happened a few days ago, something... something fell... i think..." As he speaks you notice the light in he's eyes flickering in a similar way to how the gryvain's eyes did.

The gryvains eyes flicker again, but this time it becomes this dull blue color, she looks around for a moment and you swear her demeanor changed "You, please!" She says to Isabel, her voice filled with worry "The ship! It fell..." The light in her eyes flicker again, both of her hands grasp at her head like she is in pain "The Pillar found it..." She winces and grunts "...It changed... I..." The dull blue light flickers again, but just before it fades you hear a beep coming from your codex, before you can take a look at it she says "Go there! Help her! Please!..." The familiar pink light returns to her eyes as her legs shake and she falls to the ground on her butt "Oww!" She looks around confused "My head hurts, what happened?" The thraggen also seems a little dazed, he looks at her and says "I dont know...I tried to remember... something that happened..." And begins to slowly walk away.

"Wait!" One of the suulas say "What about the roleplay? Arent we going to fuck them?" She looks confused, glancing between you guys and her group "I dont know... dont really feel like it anymore..." The thraggen says as he continues walkin away. The suula then turns to the gryvain "Hey, we were going to have fun! Say something to him!" The gryvain wobbly stands up, with both of her hands still on her head "I dont want it anymore, my head really hurts. Lets do it later..." as she begins following the thraggen. Both suulas stand there without knowing what to do for a moment before one releases a sigh and says "Oh well... Bye guys, lets fuck later then! Ah, wait for us!" They both run to catch up with the other two.

A moment passes as you guys absorb what just happened before Clementine breaks the silence"What the fuck? That was some horror movie shit, what the fuck she meant by "Help her"?"

You take a moment to look at your codex, wondering what was that sound that played when the gryvain was talking. You received some kind of file, after making sure its not some kind of virus you open it. Its a bunch of numbers, you quickly recognize them as coordinates, you input them at your codex and it gives you a location on the planet, its off the city, you're not very far considering you barely entered it, the trip would probably take an hour by foot, way less if you want to go with your ship.

Clemetine takes a peak at the screen and says "Should we go take a look at this area? Normally i would ignore this type of thing, but the way that gryvain look-alike spoke gave me chills... But again, that was creepy, i wouldnt be opposed to ignoring it and trying to find the first guy that attacked us."

 

[TheShepard256]

I radio back to everyone on the Sidewinder and transmit the coordinates to them: "We have a potential lead on the missing crew; can you investigate these coordinates? Clem, the pup and I are tracking some sexbots who might yield more information about exactly what's going on on this planet."

Turning back to the pup, I instruct him: "All right, let's continue following that first bot, but remember the new ones in case we have to track them down later."

 

[DumbAndDumber]

"Alright, we're going to take a look and we call you back if we see something." Aura's voice comes in after a moment.

"All right, let's continue following that first bot, but remember the new ones in case we have to track them down later."

He begins looking for the first alien's scent, and when he finds it he begins going in its direction. You guys move in the most stealth way possible, because of this you manage to avoid other aliens for some time, you also quickly realize that you got really luck on your first encounters, you notice that this aliens that you guys sneak by arent inclined to talk like the first group judging by their behavior, you see more and more groups, they just fuck each other, and when they finish, they look for new partners, they dont show half the inteligence of the first ones you found.

After a couple of minutes walking, you manage to find a building that has an entrance low enough to the ground that you guys can actually climb into, curious to see what is inside, you lead everyone to it, and after making sure its safe, you begin to investigate it. The interior of this place looks like a giant server, wires and circuits are everywhere, well, at least you think these are circuits. You try to see if you find some sort of panel or screen that you can use, in the hopes that you can discover what is the purpose of all of this stuff, but you have no luck. Just like the other buildings, this one also has cables and tubes on its exterior, and just like the others, they all go towards the spires on the center of the city.

When you finish looking at the room you hear you codex beep, you take a look and see that Aura is calling "We are at the coordinates you sent us." She says as you answer her call "To be honest, it quite empty out here, there is only one thing, i think its a building, it looks like a big square, i dont see a entrance on it, its got some closed panels on the side but i cant really get them to open, they seem stuck in place. Im going to take another look in the area to see if i missed anything."

You guys exit the building and keep following your pet, after few more minutes of walking, your pet manages to find the bot you guys were looking for. What you guys werent expecting is how you found it, the grey alien is on the ground, currently being riden by a larger alien, she seems to be a rahn-morph judging by how she looks, and the fact she is the only alien you seem until now that seems to be more liquid than solid in the biggest clue on what race she seems to be imitating, the way the metal moves and looks actually looks like a rahns body, just grey instead of another colour, she is also massive, being around nine feet tall. You quickly notice another thing about her that stands out, she's got more markings on her body than the other aliens you seem, the markings on her chest extend to her belly and the ones on her shoulders also extend, going all the way down to her hands.

"Come on! Move those hips, you wont be able to satisfy me if you keep holding back like that!" She says towards the pinned alien beneath her. He looks up and gasps, then trys to speak again "I..Ah! I need to warn... Hng! The queen... They have arrived... The aliens she... Oh! The ones she talked about!" He gasps and moans each time she comes down on his lap. She furrows her brow, similing annoyed by what he just said "Huhh?!! Who cares about that stupid queen, we are fucking right now! Pay attention to me! You can warn her later!" However, despite her annoyance, he keeps squirming against her.

He keeps struggling under her, and she quickly loses her patience, she stands up, and with both hands grabs him, lifting him off the ground "Why cant you morons obey me! Why do you only care about your stupid queen?!" He doesnt answer, only staring blankingly at her. His lack of an answer is the last straw, her face contorts in anger, she screams and throws him away, unfortonately, she throws him in your guys direction, you manage to evade the flying grey alien as he hits a wall close to you guys, ouch...he's going to take a lot of time to recover from that...

"Oooh!" You hear as you stand up, looking back you see the tall rahn-morph looking at you, her eyes are half-lidded and a smile appears on her face "I was going to find that fool because im wasnt done with him... But this is more interesting..." She slowly steps foward, her hips moving in a sensual way as she watch you guys. You and Clementine draw your weapons and your pet begins growling towards the tall alien. She chuckles "Oh... Im so scared of your weapons, what im going to dooo..." She says, holding back another chuckle, then she stops, her face becoming serious, and asks "Are you here looking for the first aliens that got shot down?" She stares at you guys for a moment "Oh! They are alive, if you were worried about that, that stupid queen got them as soon as their ship touched ground... But would you look at that..." She licks her lips "She was actually right on this, you aliens really are hot pieces of ass..." She looking at you guys with a certain hunger in her eyes, and the way she is standing there doesnt help, she looks like a predator ready to jump on her next meal... But she doesnt move, she seems to be waiting to see your guys reaction.