[Fiction] Nebraska (Sidereal Earth)

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako pops out of one of Long's warps near a unforested section of the central North American continent of Sidereal Earth. She wanted to scout for a good camp spot, and potentially a second colony location if it's qualities are evident...

Ok, field recorders are online... LTA drones are on orbit of base camp, at 5km distance intervals... Temperatures nominal, weather... hot and humid.

Sakurako adjusts the cooling systems on her suit. She's never liked humid weather, particularly in the summer. She nears a large lake, not matching the geographical possibilities on Prime Earth. Perhaps a location that only exists here?

Field log: Found a geographic anomoaly. Light vegetation, mostly grasses and potential grain producers here. Few trees are present. The grain and grass types are... 1.15 meters high on first glance. This will be a good spot to check...

She lands on a rock and places the base-camp designator on the top of it. She thinks to her compatriots over her comlink...

Ryu, Aki... break out the tents and smores!

She takes a large backpack off her back and sets it down a couple meters from the rock and hits a button. In a minute or two Sakurako's tent inflates out from the pack. She giggles as she sits on the rock, adjusting her new armored bodysuit. This is Sakurako's first time wearing it and the cushioning of the armor still needs some work. She takes off the helmet and stretches her neck slightly as she watches her tent.

And Ryu, I think there might be fishing possibilities! And Rice for Sushi!

"I think I shall dub this camp... Camp Smallville..." She says, chuckling.

[Silvertalon]

Aki chuckles softly, "Smores so soon? You will spoil our sense of taste and smell." She shakes her head landing in the tall grass field close by were Sakurako stood. She hefted the very large pack off her shoulders with ease gently placing it on the ground next to her.

"So what is this place?" She takes a sniff of the air ears alert and moving the sounds around them picking up strange noises here and there. "Seam's to be a lot of life in the area... I can smell strange things and hear'm not to far off. I think we may of startled something." She turns to Sukurako, "The high grass is not really a good place to be, a lot of predators use such surroundings to catch unwary prey... I suggest we look for high ground of some sort."

Her eyes scanned the area slowly watching the grass carefully for any movement that would indicate possible animals or creatures near by.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako pulls out a large Datapad. "I got drones watching our backs. Any anomalous movement and they'll raise a ruckus. Got a feed connected to my Helmet as well. Got thermal monitoring for night time if needed. Trust me, I got the high ground."

[Silvertalon]

Aki rolls her eyes a little, "Well your toys are all fine an dandy but you know there could be things those tin ruckus'o'kan's wont pick up. Living creatures are crafty you shouldn't rely on tech so much.." She smirks slightly walking past Sakurako tail swaying in a playful manner.

Aki looks around herself for a moment and nods, "This will do..." She lowers to a crouching position and suddenly spins around as the tall grass with in reach suddenly flys up into the air leaving a nice radius of freshly cut grass laying on the ground around her. She reaches into her pack and pull out her tent and sets it up. When she finishes she takes some of the grass and places beings to place it upon her tent in various area's to mask the scent and visual.

[Long]

Long surveys the land and smiles. "This will do nicely."

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako looks around.

"This was the most logical choice. A water supply with potential food resources everywhere, unobstructed sun for our solar powered and charged gear, and to be honest it was way better than trees, trees, trees. The Lake is what drew me here though... there's no analog on Prime Earth. It's unique like this planet. 4KM square size can't go wrong. I think my sounder probe gathered the depth at 40 feet, with a creek providing water and a output on the other side. There has to be good fishing here. Haven't had a chance yet to see what different species there are and which are Human edible."

A fan-engine cargo drone lands near her with a second pack. It sprouts legs and walks to the rock and starts sunning itself, unfolding it's solar panels in the late-morning sun.

"Even got my fishing equipment. Shouldn't be too difficult."

[Long]

Long nodded. "You realize anything's edible to me."

He smiled and gestured. "Well let's get camp set up, and then we can go see what we came to see."

He began putting up the dome tents Sakurako had brought. In all fairness he knew he and Aki didn't need them at all, but it would be nice for everyone to sleep together here in uncharted territory.

[Sakurako Hino]

"True, I've seen that iron stomach of yours at work."

Sakurako smiles. Knowing that today might be one of those days where work is an excuse for a vacation.

"Oh, just make sure the tents have their solar panels set for a summer inclination. I don't think I calibrated them right before we left. Just have to press a couple buttons and it calibrates on it's own. Can't have my drones going on strike for lack of power." She says with a grin.

Sakurako mostly has her tent more for sheltering her more fragile drones in a storm, and for protecting her computer equipment more than a vanity. Well, to her it's vanity. Long's taught her a lot about surviving off the land, but she still loves her "indulgent comforts" from time to time.

She grabs a folded up yellowish-orange package and a rather large box left by her cargo drone. "Well, time to get the boat ready and start doing some sonar readings of the lake. If there's any evidence of underground aquifers here I bet this would be a good colony location if we want to expand after our move! Gotta have something constructive to do while fishing."

Sakurako in secret plans on also using that sonar to see where the better fishing is too. Of course anyone who knows her would probably expect that.

She grabs a pump out of the large box and hooks it up to the orange package and starts pumping into it. "Oh, remind Aki not to dig around too much, don't want to disturb the insects. The higher oxygen content of the atmosphere on this earth means bigger bugs... and hungrier mosquitoes!"

[Long]

Long nodded, and Found Aki. "Don't go digging any deep holes, Sakurako says the bugs here are big, and we probably don't want to deal with giant mosquitoes."

He smiled and finished setting the tents. After that he looked towards the Lake. "So are we gonn start with the lake?"

[Sakurako Hino]

"Whatever floats your boat!" Sakurako says cracking up with laughter, before sticking out her tongue.

Sakurako tries to figure where the quip came from, but that... that was well played she figures and continues with what she's doing.

"I'll work the surface on the boat here, you guys can do your fishing whatever style you want. Just take note of the hooks in the water when I start..."

She sighs. Remembering she's not the adaptive one of the bunch. They can be underwater as long as they want, she needs to take air with her. Then she remembers...

"Wait! I can go in with you if we take this under! Forgot I put a re-breather system on the environment controls of my suit! I can set up the sonar system to automatic, and go right on in!"

She wonders why she forgot she had that little gadget added to her suit's system. Probably more for the lab if some gas leak occurred.

[Long]

Long nodded, and simply stripped. "You and your toys Dear, you and your toys." He chuckled, and hefted the boat up with one hand.

"Let's get moving." He began walking to the Lake, his tail swishing behind him.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako grins. "Yeah... that's me. The toymaker." She says, grabbing her helmet and putting it on.

[Silvertalon]

Aki pops out of a deep hole she was digging making a pit for fire or refuge. Her head pops out of the hole with dirt falling off her head. "What do you mean big bugs?" She tilts her head slightly to the side the hands resting on the lip of the hole. A picture of a prarie dog comes to mind when you think about it.

"Although a pit will be needed for when we use fire we do not want the light to be seen easily." She pulls herself out of the five foot hole easily the dirt that came from the hole is placed off to the side near the hole. Her hands dirty and muddied, "Besides I guess I better go clean myself up.. I got dirt all over me." She laughs a bit sticking out her tongue at long "Now no peaking mr!"

[Long]

"I have already seen everything Aki.... Though I admit I always enjoy the view."

He continued on to the lake, setting the boat down in the water. He waited for his two wives, and inhaled deeply. This was going to be a fun trip.

[Silvertalon]

Aki chuckled softly with a playful wink and a soft low growl, "Well not everything sweetie" She giggles softly walking over to the lake as she left long to tend to the boat. She looked out across the lake taking a deep breath as the air was indeed very rich it was different much more so. The scents of all the creatures and plants so easily can be picked up as she looked out across the water noting many strange plants.

She heard Sakurako walking up behind her issuing some commands to a few drones carrying supplies. "So, do you think the fish will also be very large as well here? An the plants do you think there may be some predator types in the water?" Carefully Aki bent down checking the water carefully before dipping a few finger tips into cool water with a slight rumble she reached in and started to clean her hands and fur slowly. "Very cool water for a warm area.."

[Sakurako Hino]

"Dunno... that's the magic of it really... whatever fish that are down there we don't have to worry too much about. They can't get very big with the size of the lake and the creeks that feed it."

She grins. "Then again, having some armor on in this case won't be an unwise choice for this swim. Given the time animals have had to adapt there's no way we can exclude the random large critter with designs on trying to make us a meal."

Sakurako now wishes she had her sidearm she uses for trips here with her. Or Digigeist's guns... he always puts in serious ammo in them.

"Might be a bad idea though for anything to try to mess with us. We're the apex here."

She pulls a vest out of her cargo box and starts hooking it up to her suit. Since she floats naturally she needs something to allow her to regulate buoyancy.

[Long]

"Oh, something I haven't seen? I am intrigued."

He listened to them debate, and he chuckled. "Big as this lake is, you could have some good sized fish, though I doubt there'll be anything like Alligators and the like. A;; the predators are land mammals or birds, or big fish."

He dove into the water, heading down for the bottom, to see what was down there, his Blue eyes the only points of light visible.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako pushes her boat out into the water and jumps in it. Dragging her sonar gear in next, followed with her fishing tackle. She unfolds her oar paddle and starts rowing out to the center. She drops an anchor down to keep the boat in place while she runs sonar. She sees some water hit her gear and wonders where that was coming from. Her equipment's waking chirping just being incessant enough to be distracting in her head.

Then she makes sure her helmet is on good and slips into the water. Bobbing for a few moments until her vest system takes on enough water to allow her to dive. As she starts to drift down she sees all the surface fish darting about like little birds in the sky. Most she recognizes. She feels the two water bags on the back of her vest fill more as she heads down further. She stops the fill process and vents a little to get neutrally buoyant and observes the quiet universe before her.

She lets loose a tiny balloon that heads to the surface with a thin cord-like string attached to it and Sakurako's suit via a coiled mechanism on her belt. When it hits the surface it deploys an antenna and it starts receiving signals from the drones in the sky above.

[Long]

Long founded what he wanted fast enough. It was a giant catfish, easily eighty pounds. He sstabbed it once with his claws, and killed it before bringing it to the surface.

He went over to shore, and began getting ready to cook it.

"So Aki, What haven't I seen?"

[Silvertalon]

A soft chuckle escapes her lips as Long jumps head long into the water right next to her splashing her with his wake. She shook the water off watching Sakurako work on the boat setting up the equipment she was so fond of using. She just shook her head slightly for a moment getting down to all fours and shaking herself off just a bit splashing some of the water all about petting Sakurako in the process and her equipment.

"Well since I am mostly wet might as well go all out!" She jumps suddenly into the air and cannonballs right into the water sending a big splash out were she landed which of course was right next to the boat Sakurako was on despite all the protesting she did it any how quite loving the fact she was having a bit of fun. Although she was already diving in as Long came up with a catfish. She looked around for long in the water and spotted him behind her with something. She pushed off the bottom of the lake and came out of the water suddenly grabbing him with a monster like roar all in play nabbing him and pulling him under just as quickly as she came up! But poor Sakurako was yet again doused with another wave of water along with the boat!

[Sakurako Hino]

"Well, there goes the quiet..." Sakurako thinks for herself, realizing it was Silvertalon getting her gear up-top all wet.

"Just don't wreck anything up top with that rough-housing!" Sakurako shouts over her com-link. (That antenna Sakurako deployed allows her to talk with anyone on the surface.)

[Long]

He'd only just gotten the spit into the fish before it fell from his hand and he was pulled back into the water. He spun around and reached out to two spots he knew Aki was ticklish in and went to town until she released him.

[Silvertalon]

Aki eeps as air bubbles start to go from her muzzle as she squirms laughing getting tickled so suddenly in retaliation. She kept her grip upon him still enduring it but then suddenly his fingers felt nothing even where she grasped him he didn't detect her presence for a brief moment she was completely gone utterly. But then he sensed she was on the land next to the pit.

When Long came out of the water he saw her shaking herself off chuckling softly sticking out her tongue with a playful smirk. "I told you... You haven't seen everything...." Long could sense the fading effect of the quantum energy she used it felt so familiar.

"I still have a few other tricks your not aware of.. In when I prefect them I might show them to you." She reached down and picked up the fish with a playful wink, "To the crafty one goes the spoils!" She raises the fish as a toast.

[Long]

"It's not cooked yet Aki. Don't eat it raw."

He walked out of the water and lit the fire. "Let it cook first, then you can have it, this one time."

He smiled, a hand wrapping around her waist. "Neat trick."

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako hovers about 3 meters underwater, moving towards the bank of the lake...

"Tricksey hobbitzes... false... THIEVES!" Sakurako attunes with her suit and in a quick motion she stretches her right arm out like a snake, darts her hand out of the water right for Silvertalon's fish, statching it from her jaws before she takes a bite. Then her hand tosses it to Long.

"Aki-chan... respect the cook's talents, and I'll be sure to bring some extra fish up raw just for you. Nothing personal."

[Long]

"No!"

Long's voice was adamant. "Nobody eats anything raw here. We haven't done ANY tests in this hemisphere. While we may prove immune, I won't bring anything back with us, that might infect our children who don't yet have our immunity."

[Silvertalon]

Aki grinned slightly as long wrapped his arms around her as she held the fish in hand. "Raw.. Its very tasty that way..." She goes to take a bite but then suddenly its taken out of her own hands and given to long. "HEY!" She growled a little, "No fair! I won that fair and square." She couldn't help but to give a cute little huff.

She wiggled in Long's grasp curling her tail around his waist slightly. "Ah, I see why... Well then I guess that's a good reason not to eat anything raw I guess. Although just being here and interacting the experiment would also be equally as dangerous?"

[Long]

"It can be, but there's little here capable of peircing our defenses. Ingestion bypasses all of that." He looked to Sakurako. "How about it, any harmful micro organisms?"

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako spots something down low.. a glimpse in the clear dark water she thought was just a reed.

"Long, most of the stuff here is too primative to sneak past human biology. Since it hasn't encountered human immune systems. Wait... Hello pretty... Aki... Ryu's right. We don't want to become typhoid marys or put our human allies at risk. If they get ill with some sort of super bug we'll all regret it.

But... I'll toss you a mulligan. I think I've spotted something I thought would not be possible. But with all the extra oxygen in this water and the depth of the lake..."

Sakurako sees Silvertalon get bored with the description.

"Okay... there's a 3 meter long lobster down here! That's almost 10 feet! we score that and it's seafood tonight! I so wanna do the honors on this one!

Sakurako goes deeper. "Long, dear, could you toss that large, rifle looking thing in my tent into the lake near my boat above? Gonna bring that thing up with that restraint launcher binding it's claws!"

[Long]

That would be a crawfish, not a Lobster Sakura, but okay." He got the gun and brought it to her. "Here, have fun. Think you're gonna be able to reel it in?"

[Silvertalon]

Aki's ears perk as a grin plays across that muzzle, "Really now... A big ol Lobster? That sounds like fun!" She giggles and pulls out of Longs grasp and drives right in, it only takes her a minute to locate were Sakurako is and spot the Lobster. Her wings soon morph back into her body allowing to swim easier though the water. She swims quickly up to the crawfish before it notices her presence she taps it on the head. The crawfish suddenly bolts forward as she easily keeps up with it. Playfully she taps it on the back with a claw tip making it stop and spin around as it attacks.

Aki easily dodges the frenzy of claw snaps making a game of tapping the crawfish on its body clearly teasing it. The clawfish beings to quickly realize that it is going no where fast and attempts to run again this time she moves to intercept its path knocking it firmly in another direction until the poor thing staggers about and stops completely to recover itself giving Sakurako a shot at capturing the clawfish.

[Long]

Long sighed. "Everything's a game to her."

"Good luck catching it now."

[Sakurako Hino]

"Long I know my shellfish. This IS a honest to goodness LOBSTER!"

She sees her restrain rifle drift down to her location as she sinks to the lake floor.

"I mean if you saw this... wait... grab that pad of mine and take a look I got my helmet camera running."

As Long looks, He can barely make out the outline of it's claws. Then sees another pair emerge in the lighting of Sakurako's camera from the SAME BODY!

"No worries... I'll just..." More claws appear... it's not just one down here... it has children!

"eep!" Sakurako squeaks before hitting a red button on the right gauntlet of her suit then pulling a red cord. The suit looks like it loosened up for a moment then the ballast vest Sakurako was wearing vents all it's water at once, while her suit adapts to the sudden pressure change of surfacing.

Sakurako hits the surface fast. Covering all of the 45 feet in a half-minute, just getting missed by many angry claws of various sizes. She sits looking up with her suit ballooned out making it hard to move. It slowly vents to allow proper dive decompression as it constricts back to normal form. But it'll take some time. As long as it would take for a normal, safe surfacing for a diver.

"Damn... Didn't think it'd bring the family! And yes Long, they were Crawfish! So embarassing..." Sakurako says, bobbing like her nearby boat. Her antenna reels in as she floats, slowly regaining some mobility as the pressure slowly vents out of her suit. "No comment Aki... No comment..."

[Long]

Long smiled, and waded into the water, grimmacing when one grabbed his tail, but otherwise tossing the big crawfish out onto land, stunning them with the impact. "Sakurako, find me a big deposit of iron. I'm gonna make us a boiling pot."

He smiled as he considered.

"I know someone who's never come here, and would be perfect to help us."

He vanished and reappeared in Earth Prime, quickly making his way to Denver. He Found Rianna at her desk. "Hey, how would you like to take a mini Vacation?"

[Silvertalon]

Aki blinks a little as she suddenly realizes she is surrounded by many large crawfish they seam circle her slowly as more join. A quick count tell here there are around ten and about twenty claws to boot. A slight smirk plays across that snout of hers as they charge suddenly towards her she counter charges right back slamming into the first crawfish sending it bounding across the lakes bottom several good yards. As the others move into claw at her viciously she evades and blocks every attack.

The middle of the lake starts to bubble and ripple as the surface of the lake suddenly becomes choppy with waves splashing across beach. Suddenly something goes flying out of the water a good twenty feat as the white shell of a clawfish is seen flying though the air landing back in the water with a loud splash. The lake itself churs a bit more for a few minutes before everything becomes calm once again.

A few minutes pass as Aki comes walking out of the water along the surface of the lake dragging behind her four large crawfish and with out a scratch on her. She grins, "Honey they followed me home can I keep'em?" The clawfish are still very much alive trying hard to break free from her grip as she litterly dragged them kicking and screaming as it were to say out of the water. "More would of came but... I think when I knocked that very very big one out of the water they.. Kinda fled..." She huffs cute like, "Boy it was twice as big as these...I had to grab what I could although these things are pretty smart for a crab."

[Iron Rose]

Rianna looked at Long, who stood before her completely nude.

"Um Ryu, you're naked."

She nodded. "Aside from that yeah, I have nothing pressing. Where are we going?"

[Long]

Long took her hand, and reappeared in the other world, and a short hop later, he was back where Aki and Sakurako were.

"Sakurako, Aki, this is Rianna, She's here to vacation with us." With that the massive Tiger fell over backwards, and passed out.

[Sakurako Hino]

"Roger that!"

Sakurako opens her mind and opens a comlink with the large "mother drone" controlling things 3 kilometers up. She built them to orbit the planet. Large blimps carrying equipment for scanning the entire planet for resources.

"Guys, that large boulder my cargo drone's sunning on is iron ore! Completely! Sweet..."

Everyone notices as the shadow of her "mother drone" moves overhead, directing the smaller drones around Sakurako's transponder antenna on the rock. Seemingly annoyed, Sakurako's recharging drone moves out of the fleeting shadow and moves for the sun to recharge once more.

"Gonna take me a couple more minutes so I can complete the decompression process. Not long. Infact..." Sakurako sees she can move her limbs again. She attunes with her suit once more and slowly moves towards shore. Not very graceful, more like a sea-lion or penguin as she's forced to waddle. "There we go... not perfect but good enough!"

[Iron Rose]

Rianna was stunned at it all, and even moreso when Ryu just keeled over. Obviously he'd burned through most of his reserves. She looked at the two other female novas even as she knelt down to check on Long.

"He'll be fine, just exhausted." She was a beautiful woman, with bright red hair and pale skin, and the most peircing green eyes.

"You know, This wasn't what I expected. This isn't Earth."

[Sakurako Hino]

"But it is!" Sakurako says through her helmet's speaker, with an index finger in the air. Still looking pudgy form her suit's decompression mode. "But it isn't... Anyways, Sakurako Hino." She says, smiling. Holding her hand out for a hand shake. "Forgive the wardrobe... had to surface fast from a dive."

She sees Long passed out nearby. "Oh dear..." Sakurako moves as quick as she can to Long then kneels down a bit. "Tuckered out I wager..."