Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Chapter 4: A Saucerful of Secrets

[jameson (ST)]

Some time later ...

Courier and Raider float through the warp opened by Adam and into Raider's garage. After all the events of the past hours they both could use some time to rest and recuperate but there is much to do and both want answers to some burning questions. They find Robert asleep and Adam is trying vainly to beat Billy at a game of checkers. The two are just sitting down to a meal when there is a knock at the door. Raider rolls his eyes but gets up regardless and andwers his door.

Outside are a young boy and three novas, that much is clear just looking at them. Two women and a man, they have the weary look of people long on the road and looking for a place to rest. Raider is about to tell them the location of the nearest Inn when he notices the column of water behind the older of the two women. Aloft on the column, almost floating, is a burned and crumpled chuck of metal. Raider however can see past the damage and immediately sees that the object is the tail section of an aircraft. Heavily damage though it may be it is unmistakable to him. Just a few days ago this would have been nothing but a useless piece of salvage, worth only the weight of the metal, but after the event of these past days Raider cannot help but wonder if he could really be this lucky.

Behind him footsteps indicate somebody coming out from within. Courier arrives at the door a sandwich in hand and takes in the situation with a detached eye. The boy bows slightly, "Mr. Raider, Mr. Courier, these nice people were loking for somebody to identify this piece of salvage," he looks excited as he continues, "They say it fell from the sky just a few days ago! I figured you might be able to help them!"

[Courier]

Doug eyes the people, then the "artifact", then the column of water, then he says in a friendly but booming voice,

"Welcome! Please come in and sit down."

Doug frowns and nods to the column,

"Wait, that's going to make quite a mess won't it? How about if I just carry that inside for you?"

If they allow, Doug walks over and effortlessly picks up the tail section in a surreal move. It's obviously heavy and may weigh tons, he picks it up anyway.

[Expendable]

Seven gawked as the boy led them from the gate, happily playing tourist - but keeping her tail tucked under her trenchcoat as they went. Her bag with her blanket and few possessions she wore outside her trenchcoat today, so she hoped nobody would notice it. She had never seen any place so huge - at least, not with anyone still living in it. Mostly it was small towns and farms that Don traded at.

And she knew they were being stared at - because of the salvaged burnt hunk of metal floating on top of the column of water under Calypso's control.

Seven hazarded a small smile when the door the boy knocked on produced two men who seemed nice - and very healthy. Too healthy. Were these men Novas, living in such a grand city as this? She got her answer as one of them effortlessly picked up the charred hunk of metal to carry it inside, making her jaw drop - and to forget her tail, which slid out from under her trenchcoat to flail for a moment as she took a step after the strong man hefting their find.

[SalmonMax]

"Less of a mess than you would think," Calypso says evenly, "But if you want to carry it, that's less on my shoulder."

She unslings the oversized waterskin from over her shoulder, and the vortex of water streams into the nozzle. When it starts to splash back out again, Calypso dismisses it with a handwave, causing the remaining water to collapse out of the artificial shape and into a puddle.

"There was an explosion in the sky, and this fell from it," Calypso goes on to say. "The metal is made in the old ways, and it's too heavy to be just empty shell. If anyone here knows anything of old machines, that's where we should take it."

[Mr Fox]

Raider smiles at the young woman. "That would be me. Please come in and make yourselves comfortable. We were just sitting down to a meal. It's been a busy few days since that explosion you mentioned. We were the first to find the wreckage and it's been a headache for us ever since." He frowns thinking of the events of the last few days, then brightens, "But please be welcomed and relax." He leads them in through the outer shop where Doug was placing the wreckage and into the kitchen where the others were gathered around the table.

[Courier]

Doug places the device(?) on the ground then walks back to the others. He snags a loaf of bread in passing and hands it to the boy who brought the new comers, sending him on his way. Then he remarks,

"You're all novas, correct? I'm Doug, but professionally I'm called 'Courier'. I pick things up and haul them from place to place."

[Expendable]

Seven followed the others into the kitchen, letting Sebastian and Calypso take the lead. The room was filled with many new faces and smells - even the familiar smell of bread seemed more intense now, it was very strange. Ever since she met up with Sebastian and Calpyso in the field where the metal fell, her nose had been smelling... more.

At first she was mortified, thinking she and the others needed baths, but that hadn't helped.

But then since she escaped from the truck, she'd been mostly alone. And before that she'd been digging her way through rubble of fallen buildings when she wasn't chained up in the back of his truck or watching the table at some marketplace. Not alot to smell or see. Maybe the world had always been this smelly and she'd just never noticed before?

"You're all novas, correct?" the strong man said, coming up behind them. "I'm Doug, but professionally I'm called 'Courier'. I pick things up and haul them from place to place."

Seven smiled shyly, nodding her head and glancing at Calypso - and the loaded table beyond.

[NFVD]

You're all novas, correct?" the strong man said, coming up behind them. "I'm Doug, but professionally I'm called 'Courier'. I pick things up and haul them from place to place."

Sebastian answers his question while removing his facewrap, this giving everyone a first glimpse of his face.

"Yeah...we're all novas, and might I say goddamn I've never seen so many of our kind under one roof. If I was a religious man I'd say fate has had a hand in all this."

The young man smiles warmly as he takes Doug's hand with his own and shakes it.

"Name's Sebastian. Sebastian Messiah. I'm sort of a courier myself. I also carry stuff around for folks, tough my speciality is speed, not strenght. I've never carried nothing around heavier than mailbags."

Pointing at the other two women he does the introductions. "The little sprog overe there is Seven. She can't, or won't speak but she's ok when she aint lobbing rocks at you (chuckle). The water-wizard is Calypso. We've only been togheter since we all converged on the crash site."

[Courier]

Doug shakes Sebastian's hand carefully and then says to tailed woman (girl?),

"Seven, sit, have some food. You too Calypso and Sebastian."

[Mr Fox]

Raider speaks up, "Sorry, that was very rude of me. I forgot to give you my own name as well. I'm Raider, and this is my shop, and all of us here are novas at the moment except Robert." Raider indicates Robert with a nod of his head.

[NFVD]

Never one to say no to free food, Sebastian sits down and after contently rubbing his hands together delves into the food with gusto.

"Yum!"

[Expendable]

Seven's tummy rumbled - she could feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

She approached the table, looking at the others warily - was this a trick? They actually wanted her to sit down? At a table, like real people?

She unbuttoned the front of her trenchcoat and slipped off her messenger bag with the blanket, putting it beside the vacant chair she selected and sat down, grinning from ear to ear. Table. Chair. Plate. Fork. Cup. Spoon. Food. Seven reached out and paused. She turned, her questioning eyes seeking out Raider's.

She mimed putting food in her mouth - it was really ok to eat?

[Courier]

Doug watches Seven for a moment and says,

"I'm not sure if you're asking permission to eat, or if there's some cultural thing about eating with men, or if you're saying your one of us who doesn't need to eat."

"But my other power is communication. If you want to talk to me just try thinking about what you want to say and I'll pick it up."

{OOC: Attempt link formation if she looks like she's trying it)

[Expendable]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Doug watches Seven for a moment and says,

"I'm not sure if you're asking permission to eat,"

Seven nods.

Quote:

"...or if there's some cultural thing about eating with men,"

Her brow furls and she frowns in confusion.

Quote:

"...or if you're saying your one of us who doesn't need to eat."

"But my other power is communication. If you want to talk to me just try thinking about what you want to say and I'll pick it up."

Seven stares blankly at Doug for a long moment, then reaches for the nearest platter or bowl, helping herself to whatever's on it. What was he talking about?

[Courier]

Doug waits a moment and then goes back to eating.

[Mr Fox]

Once everyone is settled and eating happily, Raider will take Robert aside and ply him with the questions he and Doug came up with while searching NY. "Robert, we need to know more about what you know of New York. What kind of position does James hold within the city? Is he high up in their leadership or is he doing what he is doing to influence New York or even pressure them into obeying his will? What can you tell us of the city itself? Are they interested in conquest, or would they be open to diplomatic envoys from here?"

[Expendable]

As they ate, Seven would glance at Doug curiously.

[SalmonMax]

Calypso sits and eats contentedly, letting Sebastian take care of the pleasantries. After she finishes her food though, she gives Raider a look.

"Your hospitality is appreciated," she says with a bow of her head. "I hope I'm not being rude if I speak of our business. The metal device we brought. Do you know what it is?"

[Mr Fox]

Raider looks up from his conversation with Robert and smiles, "Yes, that is the tail section of a flying craft. It was designed and built by the K'becs. Unfortunately, they had not worked out all the bugs and it exploded on its first flight. That was the explosion you saw. Because of it our city has now created a trading treaty with the K'becs. We returned a vital piece of their wreckage to them after we recovered it."

He frowns then and continues, "Sadly we also discovered an unknown enemy because of it as well. A powerful but insane nova who wants to use that technology for evil purposes." Looking at Doug sitting with the new comers, "Doug there can tell you a bit more about him." You can see a look of distinct distaste on Raiders face as he mentions the new enemy.

[Expendable]

Seven paused, her eyes narrowing with concern. K'becs made a flying machine? And Newborough had some sort of understanding with them?

And did this mean they weren't going to get paid for bringing this scrap of metal? But they were treating them to a meal. Maybe all that was worth.

[jameson (ST)]

As everybody sits down to eat Raider pulls Robert aside to talk to him a little more privately.

Originally Posted By: Raider

"Robert, we need to know more about what you know of New York. What kind of position does James hold within the city? Is he high up in their leadership or is he doing what he is doing to influence New York or even pressure them into obeying his will? What can you tell us of the city itself? Are they interested in conquest, or would they be open to diplomatic envoys from here?"

Robert listens, nodding to Raider's questions before eventually speaking. "Son, your brother and the other aberrants in York, the intelligent ones anyways, they are like rotten peas in a rotten pod. There's little doubt in my mind that they know of his plans and are at the least allowing him to continue if not helping him outright. They are using baselines as slaves to clear out the city and recycle materials and rebuild old buildings. You've seen it, the city was spared destruction, I'm not sure why but I think that it was hit by either a chemical or biological attack. Regardless... As for internal power struggle? There may be, but I doubt James would allow something like that to interfere with his plans.

"Diplomacy would fail, worse it would alert them that you know, at least in part, of their plans and that they exist. I'm sure they would not hisitate to wipe out any human city that was aware of them. And I know for a fact that the large nova population here would not deter them from killing or enslaving the population. And any novas who stood in their way would be killed. The rest would be asked to join them.

"No, there's little hope for an easy way out of this."

*****

Meanwhile the other five novas have been eating up a storm. Courier and Adam keep bringing out food and between them and the newcomers it keeps getting eaten. Drawn by the noise and the smell of food Billy comes into the dining room, his eyes light up upon seeing the meal and he quickly begins to pile a plate high, oblivious to the newcomers.

Seven, Sebastian and Calypso cannot help but be surpised. The tentacled form of Billy screams "aberrant" to them and yet none of the others are at all suprised and the old man talking to Raider even seems a bit amused.

Courier meanwhile suddenly wonders where Gregory is, indeed if he is not with Billy where is he? As if summoned there is a tingle in his head and Gregory speaks over the link.

*...I think I found KB. She is in a building in the middle of a camp, southwest of York. I can't get to it. I am in woods to the North. There is a strange mechanical thing on metal tracks near me. They came from York on it. Try not to be seen..advise..not much time... *

[Courier]

As the meal goes on Doug says,

"Not so unknown an enemy any more. We call him 'Squidward' because he's got a squid like tendrils in place of one of his arms. He's really smart, a telepath, and appears to be trying to take over the world. To that objective he's been enslaving other novas, including my girlfriend, and he appears to be trying to get into orbit to claim whatever weapons were left over from the burn."

When Billy walks into the room Doug says,

"Billy, this is Seven, Sebastian and Calypso. Seven, Sebastian and Calypso this is Billy."

(OOC: I'll give people a chance to respond to Billy & Doug's comment before moving to Gregory).

[Expendable]

Seven froze, taking in Billy's looks and glancing back at Doug. An aberrant? The tip of her tail curled up into her lap. She nodded and smiled friendily.

[SalmonMax]

Calypso, for her part, watched Billy narrowly as he ate, giving all the impression of a cat with it's back up. When no one else seems put out by him, she relaxes a bit. He must not be dangerous if they reacted to him like that. Ugly, but not dangerous. Still...why did they keep him?

Doug's words snap her out of her contemplation, and her eyes widen.

"Weapons in the sky you mean?" she demands, clearly shaken. "But that is how the Burn happened! Weapons falling from the sky! You cannot mean that he wants to burn the world again! It would not be possible...would it? Could he succeed?"

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Lily

"Weapons in the sky you mean?" she demands, clearly shaken. "But that is how the Burn happened! Weapons falling from the sky! You cannot mean that he wants to burn the world again! It would not be possible...would it? Could he succeed?"

Doug pauses and sighs uncomfortably,

"I make my living flying stuff from one place to another and/or transfering information from one person to another. I deal with a lot of tech heads..." Doug motions at Raider "...enough to have an idea on how insanely hard this idea is. The distances, the technology, the environments, the man power..."

"First time I heard it, I really wanted to say 'no'. Problem is the more I find out about Squidward the more it looks like not only is he trying to get the Burning weapons, but he's up to it."

"And he'll use them."

[SalmonMax]

Calypso stands up at her place, eyes furious.

"There is only one sentence for someone who tries to recapture these weapons! Why does he still live?! Where are your armies, so that we may march on him! You are not just sitting here, waiting for him to succeed I hope!"

Outside, thunder rumbles, though the rain is long gone.

[Courier]

Doug continues eating and says,

"Hey, I wanted him dead back when he was just KB's kidnaper. If it was as easy as flying over and pulling his head off I’d have done it already.”

Courier’s big hand makes a twisting motion with the hand he’s not eating with.

“Squid likes playing games with us, he’s big with torture and he’s an ego-manic. So far he’s stayed several steps a head of us. We make a move, he was expecting it. That’s good and bad news. The bad news is he’s still winning, the good news is by toying with us sooner or later it’s going to cost him.”

“Raider and I just got back from a really grim scouting mission. It looks like Squid has a lot more resources than we’d thought. We also have others out doing their own thing. Speaking of which…”

Courier holds up his hand and his eyes focus on something distant… although from experience Raider knows Doug does this mostly to let people know he’s busy.

{Gregory’s message comes through}

Doug tries to keep the channel open and he also raises his voice and says,

“Raider! New message from the kid. He thinks he’s found KB. He says she’s in a building in the middle of a camp southwest of York. They got there on a railroad or something similar. Sounds like they’re on a resource run.”

(Edited to remove G's message which I accidently included).

[Mr Fox]

Raider blinks and focuses his attention away from Robert and onto Doug. "We have a location? Excellent."

He thinks for just a moment, "Ok, here's what I suggest. We go in quitely, I use my ghosting ability to extract KB and as soon as I have her, Adam lays down the woopass on their location, and the rest of you follow up with whatever attacks are necessary at that point.

"I do think we need to consider that this might be a trap though." Looking to Adam, "I'd suggest putting us out a little off from where Gregory suggested incase he has somehow been manipulated by Squidward."

"I've got more bad news too, most of which can wait for after this mission, but for now lets just say there will be no help from York, Robert says that Squidward is either part of their direct plans or they are allowing him to do what he wants. We'll have to deal with them after we settle with our current business."

"Anyone have anything to add or suggest?"

[SalmonMax]

"This...York," Calypso says, calming down as fast as she'd heated up. "It's where your 'squid' enemy is? They are helping him find or make these weapons?"

She blows air out her nose and nods heavily.

"We may have to destroy the city."

The woman looks at the others and asks, "Is that something any of you could help with, or would I be seeing to it alone?"

[Mr Fox]

Raider stares in brief amazement that Calypso would have the audacity to make a frontal assault then he realizes that she's never seen the place.

"Umm... I don't think that would be feasible. York is much larger than our town and has a huge population of Novas. The only way to destroy that city would be like they did in the Burn and set off a Nuke. Any nova or even a sizable force of us wouldn't stand a chance against those kind of numbers. We'd have to destroy them so fast they couldn't react, otherwise we'd be dead very quickly in response."

[Courier]

Doug says,

"There may be another way to deal with York. From what we say I'd guess they aren't real unified. At best I'll guess they have tribes, maybe even a few strong novas dominating everything. The strong dominate... which means that they're just a few quick steps away from civil war."

"Kill a few novas, say in that power building, maybe leave someone else's calling card, and it could start right there."

"As for KB & Gregory, that sounds good."

[SalmonMax]

"You do not know what I am capable of," Calypso points out. "Novas or no, what can shield them from the fury of the storm and the sea?"

She nods at Doug. "But his way would kill less innocent people. People who have power seldom trust anyone else who might have the power to take it. Risky, but solid thinking."

"Perhaps this place they have your friends at has information we can use to strike at the vulnerable spots."

[Mr Fox]

Raider considers then speaks, "Win or lose in rescuing KB, I think Doug and I should immediately stealth our way into the city and make some mischief and make it look like Squidward did it. I'd like to take take one of those computers if we can manage it and see if we can't find a aberrant or two that needs killing. The more Squiddy is focused in York the less he'll be likely to have time to plot revenge on us. Assuming we don't manage to kill him outright in our present attack."

[Courier]

Doug replies,

"Wow... now there's a thought. None of us have Squid's power signature so how do we... ah. When we raid his place we get something. No, when we raid his place we get something, and we also have the Doc's body. I'll bet that skin thing is his signature."

"...Squid might not even be in the camp. He has minions, if it's just a resource gathering raid he probably has better things to do. Although KB's presense says otherwise."

"It's worth a try anyway. And Raider, watch KB. If it's a trap, then it might not be her. Squid has that Shapeshifter working for him."

[Expendable]

Seven frowned, her right eyebrow arched disbelievingly as she glanced down the table at the others. Was it normal to tell complete strangers your battleplan, she wondered?

But this "squid" creature couldn't be allowed to destroy Newborough, she just got here! But how could she help them?

[Gregory]

Once again Gregory breaks radio silence:

*Hello!..Anyone? I snuck aboard his train when in city. I took me here. He busy showing his ship to others. It still being built. He using KB to keep weather nice. She here. I'm hiding, but he might be able to hear me. Please hurry!

[Courier]

Doug says,

"That was Gregory again. He thinks Squid is right there... let's do it."

Courier's eufiber reconfigures into a woodlands camouflage and he picks up a bandoleer of throwing pikes. He turns to the newcomers and says,

"You’re welcome to come with us, you’re welcome to stay behind. Adam is going to open a gate and we’re going to step through."

[SalmonMax]

Calypso considers quickly.

"Well, on the one hand, none of us..." she indicates her two companions, "...really knows what to expect. How many people? How many novas? How dangerous will this be?"

"On the other, I believe you that this squidman is a danger, and your chances of success are much higher if we go with you."

She stands up. "I will go. The risk is high either way."

[Gregory]

Unsure if Doug heard him, he sends again.

*Squiddy has not heard me. He busy talking to other novas near his ship. KB guarded. When he return to train, he will look for me. I stole something important..not know what it is. Doug, please say something? Did you hear me?

[Courier]

Doug sends back,

*Got all of that. We're on our way, hopefully with three additional novas.*