MISSION: GET TO ZE CHOPPA

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: August 23rd, 2753 (OOCly forward-dated to the 1st)
Location: Uruguay National Defense HQ
Characters: All transports!
Summary: All transports are sent back to Uruguay to download a self-aware AI before it gets bombed out of existence by an early incarnation of the UE. Time distortion effects will be set right either on the way there or on the way back, according to player choice.
Warnings: violence, action movie tension, 3 terabytes of foot fetish porn.

The Transporter drops the entire transport population into what will quickly be established as Home Base, a mile from the vast, sprawling facility that is Uruguay's National Defense HQ. The low roar of helidrones moving above is pervasive, but the black ships can only be glimpsed here and there through the thick cover of trees overhead. If you keep calm and quiet, it's likely you won't be spotted. It's the UND HQ their attention is on, after all.

The population is quickly sorted by attending Initiate employees according to who volunteers to fight and who volunteers to protect, along with those with enough skill to access the computers, and those with enough skill to get them there. The fighters move out first, off to intercept the early UE's ships and ground troops, and to draw the automated defense systems of the facility alike. They'll be in a crossfire, and neither side will be happy to see them there.

The techies and their escorts are sent out far more quietly, in groups of three. Their task is to sneak past the front lines and into the facility itself. There might be alarms and automated defense drones, so those escorts may well be called on to earn their keep. The Initiative can't give any information about which building will house the AI's mainframe, that information was long since lost to history. All they can do is send out enough people to hope that one of them manages to find it.

And remember — as soon as the UE troops withdraw, there will only be minutes until the bomb drops. Everyone would do well to work fast.



[[ Mission information is here, and the techie/escort teams, along with their hacking results, are here. Each techie/escort group will have their own established thread, but Team Distraction and Team We'll Stay Here, Thanks are welcome to thread where ever and however they like! The newbie log that goes up on the 1st will also encompass the arrival back in Exsilium, if you'd like to play that out as well. ]]

Comments

Home Base | Open

[idealord]

A

[Younger person and/or interested by strange sights? Hilbert is playing with his Rotom - though he's still keeping a good eye and ear out for danger - and making Eeks do all sorts of tricks. Like creating a ring of electricity and zipping a ball of it through the ring over and over, keeping it stable. That's only on the Pokémon front, though, he's also telling them about what Eeks is.]

And a Pokémon's like an animal that lives in my world. They're all over the place where I come from in Unova! Some are big, some are small, some look scary, and some are as cute as any rabbit or puppy. But they're all really special. Eeks here is a ghost! There's even dragons!

[The Rotom staticshrieks happily, bouncing around as its electricity trick fades away.]

B

Now remember Eeks, you don't have to attack anyone. I'll... handle that. You just keep an eye out and distract them.

[Sitting on the base's border, Hilbert is (to people who've known him the past two months) unusually serious and keen-eyed. He wouldn't mind chatting it up with a fellow protector, but any kids or young teens will be sent back into camp. Eeks, as a Pokémon, isn't used to attacking humans and his trainer's not too keen on the idea either despite having gotten lessons from Kougyoku and whatnot. But that might be more because he has a shield as a sentient weapon than actual nervousness of danger.]

C [... And if your character is the type to get hurt running about, Hilbert is offering sporadic services in wrapping up cuts and scrapes and whatnot. And by "sporadic," I mean whenever someone comes up to him or he sees them hurting.

This is also the most viable time for hanging out.]

I'm sorry I'm a Homestuck with a recently expired paid bear with me...

[speakveryclearly]

Dragons exist on your world?

[A glowing alien girl with horns has been watching his lecture with fascination and approaches him the moment he seems idle.] I never thought I'd hear of a planet with civilized fauna.

I will!

[idealord]

[... Talk about the dividing line between human and Pokémon. Of course he'd seen Transports with the same characteristics around - they're hard to miss, albeit not glowing - but it's still a little odd. Hilbert nods, happy to continue his lecture.]

They most certainly do, miss! They're very rare because there's not a lot of places they can live at and they're really hard to train, but worth the loyalty and strength in the end. As for the fauna, not all of it's alive, but there's definitely some Pokémon that would fool even an experienced hiker. Oddish, for example, is a Pokémon from the Kanto region that resembles a common weed or tall grass. You have to be careful not to trip over any in White Forest, an area where I'm from that houses rare - well, in Unova they're rare, in other places they're as common as can be! - Pokémon like that.

DIVIDING LINE Hilbert no she's not a Pokemorph...

[speakveryclearly]

I think there's no universe in which dragons exist that they're not somehow special. My friend was raised by one.

That's the main function unusual species served on my home planet; there were many breeds of what we called lusus naturae, ah... [And here her excessive acquaintanceship with orphan shonen heroes shows through.] I'm not sure exactly how familiar the concept would be to a human but in essence they watch over a troll from childhood. Though of course there are many other less cultivated, simpler animal species just hunted for food and so on.

Maybe a Ghost-type...!

[idealord]

[Oooh, it sounds interesting. He nods along, though the idea is a little foreign... N would probably understand better, if he'd been raised like Hilbert heard he was.]

That's pretty cool. There's kind of a legend in Unova that tells a tale of an orphaned Pokémon who was taken in by three powerful Pokémon and raised until he grew old enough to take care of himself, though I'm pretty sure that isn't exactly what you mean... But your friend was raised by a dragon! Wow. What were you raised by?

...OK You Get Points For That Response

[speakveryclearly]

It's close enough to it. [The thing is she would call these beings her parental surrogates, but she literally barely understands that on Earth biological parents raise humans. A tragedy.]

You know how - many kinds of "insects", on your world, are all mothered by a single "queen"? [Odd that viviparous mammals made it to the top on Earth, but oh well.] My species is similar with the "Mother Grub". One of these creatures became my lusus.

Score.

[idealord]

[Like Vespiquen and her Combees. He wonders if they work the same way regarding females.]

So you're like a princess!





[He really does have some luck with royalty.]

[speakveryclearly]

Uhhhh--! [She waves her hands in denial, though she's not quite as flustered as she could be.] No, no, I'm afraid I've terribly miscommunicated! She's -- not the queen in any capacity of governance and I've no royal status of any kind, though by caste I am designated as one of her destined attendants.

This is treason, really, considering the true princess of Alternia, the heiress herself, is among the transport's ranks.

[idealord]

Oh.

[Man that kind of is a relief. He wouldn't know what he'd do if he had another lady on his hands. But an attendant to royalty is pretty up there too. Not that it matters a ton in his opinion of others.]

I've seen some of your friends around, so... Which one is she?

[Is it the friendly fishy girl he thought she was cute the few times he saw her but really busy being friendly. So he never really got to talk to her.]

[speakveryclearly]

[God she hates misunderstandings she is glad he knows better now too, and enjoys the continued opportunity to deflect attention from herself.]

Feferi Peixes? Her color is Tyrian purple - fuchsia. A seadweller. She wears a gold tiara.

[idealord]

Ahhh, the friendly girl with gilly-things sticking out of her! She was really busy when my group came here and way friendly too. I think I remember her doing something fun at the masquerade too... Your royalty has a lot of energy.

[Though they all do, from what he can tell in past interactions.]

[speakveryclearly]

Those are fins, actually, unless you're talking about those slits on her neck. It's her personal tendency to be EXCITED about almost everything. I'm assuming she gave you that guide of hers?

[idealord]

[Ah, fins... That makes more sense. He scratches the back of his head and nods.]

She did. We didn't really get to talk, but... Her EXCITEMENT [He's even copying your way of saying it, Kanaya] at anything is pretty obvious. She must be a good ruler back at your home world to be so helpful here.

[speakveryclearly]

Oh, she never actually took the throne, [and her mouth keeps smiling but her eyes are bittersweet] she was too... young. [Honestly she's half-convinced Hilbert himself is a deaged transport who by human standards needs care and coddling himself.]

And there seems to be no place for our royalty on Earth. But she does her best to lead as she can anyway.

[idealord]

[He's always been the more youthful of his friends, that's for sure.]

That's admirable... I wish there was something like that I could do too. Hey, when you see her, can you tell her that Hilbert would like to help out? Since you're friends and all.

[And she can surely get through the busy crowds when they come.]

[speakveryclearly]

Okay, um... [Failing to correctly parse that request.] Sure, I will, though I feel like I should ask why you feel your friend Hilbert in particular would be so apt for the position.

[idealord]

[Oh whoops.]

Sorry, haha, I'm Hilbert. I like helping people out is all. It'll be a nice way to make friends too!

[speakveryclearly]

[Make friends... interesting thought.]

Fond of increasing comraderie among your fellow Transports, are you? That's admirable.

[idealord]

[Thank goodness for context clues, because that isn't a word he's familiar with through daily use.]

It's important to if you're fighting together! Me and Eeks here, and the rest of my Pokémon back home, we're like family. [A family he misses terribly.] We've got to have each other's backs.

[speakveryclearly]

[KODOMO...]

That's right, Hilbert. The Initiative is a collective.

[idealord]

[Don't worry, he's still not familiar with your fancy lingo!]

Do you think they'll make us brainslaves if we go against them? Like one big hivemind.

[speakveryclearly]

No, I think that's actually what the United Earth does to their soldiers.

[idealord]

So they definitely wouldn't follow that. That's good. That makes it harder to beat them though, right?

[speakveryclearly]

It certainly does. The Masked are barely even limited by their humanity.

[idealord]

[Not even Team Plasma had that sort of thing going on. The closest was N, and he turned out fine. Hilbert frowns.]

Do we... you know, have to kill them? Can't we just stun them or knock them out or something like that?