Shining Prospect

[Echo]

[okay, lets get this rolling again. There's been a delay on my profiles being posted, school and work schedules had prohibited me from finishing them up in a timely manner. Not sure exactly when they'll be done, but expect them soon. I've already spoken with Nail about this, I may be starting a storyline soon if any of your would be interested.]

Quote: "Yes, I unfortunately not been able to control metal much like my father can. It will drain my powers yes, but at a much slower rate." he stated. "No such arrangements are necessary. I can go prolonged amounts of time without an earthen surface. I had just left a battle shortly before our departure and my Geokinesis was already
low.”

Amiroo's eyes bugged at the mention of controlling metal.

"Yes, that is a very rare gift. We have those who can manipulate the geo element, but they are few and far between."

Quote:“So long as I am at full power, it will lessen the complications. If need be, I can gather a number of rocks for consumption.”

Amero simply stared in awe, "never in all my years have I ever heard of any being that could derive sustenance from the Geo element"

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Quote:"Just wondering then...What do you think your next step after this would be? What would you move up to now that you've made first contact?"

Rye let her eyes sink to the floor a moment before returning them to Gichii, the feline had unknowingly stepped on a nerve.

"We don't know just yet, our presence may actually put you in danger. You see..."

"what are you doing!? Don't tell them that!" Rog snapped suddenly, realizing what Rye was about to say.

"tell them what?" Tybe said snapping his head suddenly in their direction.

Rye's eyes widened in fear, unsure what to say, her eyes darting between Gichii, Tybe, and Rog.

"Tell them what, little sister?" Tybe said approaching Rye, eying her sternly.

"About, our...predicament, that prevents us from making full fledged contact with their people. Why we have to act in secret for now. I apologize elder, I've overstepped myself." she said shakily, bowing her head and closing her eyes.

Tybe's expression softened, "you've done no harm, little sister. We would have had to tell them anyways, there can be no secrets between our peoples if we're to get this newly forged relationship off on the right claw."

Tybe fell silent a moment, as he gathered his thoughts, before turning to Gichii.

"We must keep not only ourselves secret from your people for now, but we must also keep you a secret from the galactic community. You see, we are at war, my kin. If our enemies found out, that this unsuspecting backwater world was in fact our ancient home world, it would open the floodgates for your planets invasion by the rebels. We do not have the numbers or the firepower to protect you as our numbers are already stretched thin protecting our refugee fleet. Your blending into the background is your best, and only, defense at the moment. If we revealed ourselves to you, your media would go wild reporting the news. Unfortunately for you, the enemy has ears right here in this very star system that would receive those transmissions just hours after they were broadcast and you would likely have an invasion fleet here just days from now. The reason being, there is something of ours on this world left over from that ancient war. A weapon of apocalyptic power, of a name you cannot pronounce in your tongue, that would see your world in ruins, as it happened 65 million years ago, were it used again. We know that the weapon came through the wormhole that transported our fleet forward through time to the present day, also transported the weapon forward as well. We've searched the star system for it and we've narrowed it down to Earth, it's here, somewhere. It is our primary mission to search for and neutralize this weapon to prevent it from ever being used again, by anyone. When it was activated 65 million years ago, it left this planet dead, but it's full potential hasn't been realized yet. If perfected, exotic matter weaponry would wipe out entire solar systems instantly with the press of a button. It is an abomination of science from a world gone insane, and we aim to find and destroy it before the enemy ever discovers that such weaponry still exists. So, to answer your question, for the foreseeable future we will make no further progress on interacting with your people. We are to study you, and always be on the look out for any sign of the weapon. I'm sorry, Gichii was it; but that is how it must be for now, for your own protection, little brother. We do not wish for you to be harmed by your older kin's conflict."

Rye stepped forward, " we are a lost people, Gichii. Our people cling to life in aging and damaged ships and asteroid colonies barely fit to support life. Of those, only a few dozen warships would be ready for battle. Our forces are spread extremely thin protecting our fleet. Our search for a new world hasn't been very successful. When our probes found you, we thought maybe we have found a new world we could inhabit, but we found it already occupied by you. We would have simply moved on, if we hadn't learned this planet was the same one we had left behind, and it was highly probable the weapon that had sent us fleeing into the future, still existed and was possibly still functional. The possibility that the enemy could get their claws on such weaponry, was unacceptable."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the Prospects AI was busy attempting to identify an unknown device somewhere in the hanger. It had detected the tell tale signs of a computer's electromagnetic field. It had narrowed down the signature by scanning with a directional Magnetometer located on the hanger doors above, designed primarily for interfacing with ships wireless computing systems and detecting foreign computing devices. It compartmentalized the hanger into a grid, and scanned each square of that grid individually, ruling out locations by a method of eliminating areas it knew the magnetic field wasn't located at. Slowly but surely, it narrowed the field down to SOLIS. It attempted to communicate with the device by sending instructions to SOLIS that would give SOLIS the ability to communicate fluidly with the Prospects AI. It followed this with a request for instructions on how to understand SOLIS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A loud voice boomed over a PA system in the hanger. "Captain, I have detected a foreign computing device located in the hanger precisely where the entity known as 'Nail' is located.

Tybe snapped a glare at Nail, "something you too would like to get off your chest, little brother?"

[Nail Strafer]

As Giichi continued to chat with the raptors, Nail ran a hand across the longer fur on the top of his head, looking bored. He felt his hand around the back of the head where the fur felt a little bit thinner, frowning as he thought about possibly going bald there. All the more reason to get that gene therapy started. He kept his emotions in check, trying not to look frustrated as Tybe kept talking. But then Tybe said something that snapped the hybrid back to attention.

Quote:"You see, we are at war, my kin. If our enemies found out, that this unsuspecting backwater world was in fact our ancient home world, it would open the floodgates for your planets invasion by the rebels."

Nail's eyes narrowed, as he listened far more intently than he ever had since setting foot into this place. So by coming to this world they had made this place a potential target for these enemies, whoever they were. At first Nail felt a chill roll down his spine, but after that he clenched his fists and his teeth clenched a bit. It sounded like his planet was about to get thrust into a middle of the war that it had nothing to do with. He couldn't stand the thought of dying over such a stupid cause.

"I hope you find that weapon fast then, because I don't feel like dying over a war my planet's otherwise got nothing to do with."

Sooner you guys are back in space, the better as far as I'm concerned.

Quote:"Captain, I have detected a foreign computing device located in the hanger precisely where the entity known as 'Nail' is located.

Tybe snapped a glare at Nail, "something you too would like to get off your chest, little brother?"

Nail reflexively took a step backwards, eyes widened by a fresh jolt of panic as Tybe snapped his head around so suddenly. Equally due to reflex, his right hand immediately clenched the Colt's grip. It was only a second later that he realized where his hand had gone, and promptly removed it.

"'Ey! 'Ey!" he waved both of his hands in the air defensively, before he reached into his other pocket slowly and pulled out SOLIS. "It's ok. It's just some fancy phone I found before we left town. Or at least I think it's a phone. I'm not sure. I forgot I had the silly thing. Come on, I don't mind you looking. SOLIS, maybe you should introduce yourself."

He held out SOLIS with one hand towards Tybe, in a peaceful offering.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi listened with rapt attention as Tybe went on about their predicament. While afraid, the thought of searching for ancient relics also filled him with a tremendous burst of excitement.

"Can I come with you while you look for the weapon?" he spoke energetically.

Realizing he might have sounded too eager , he smiled a little sheepishly and toned down his voice.

"I mean...I don't want to shoot it or anything. I just love learning about lost civilizations and ancient artifacts. It's a hobby of mine. I'm pretty good at finding things most other people miss. I think I can help. I spend a lot of time in ancient ruins all over the world."

Giichi himself looked frightened for a moment as Nail went for his gun, when confronted by Tybe. Fortunately the hybrid calmed down shortly thereafter, offering the phone up to the raptor.

[SOLIS]

An unexpected signal surprised SOLIS as it lay in Nail's pocket, focusing on building its little surprise for the group. As it went over the data sent to it, it found that it was a communications protocol. Not knowing the source beyond a set of hexidecimal digits, it returned the message with one of it's own. "query remote.friendlyname;" It had chose this message due to it's simplicity to parse and supposed common usage amongst all computer systems it knew of. The message was shortly replied to, "reply this.friendlyname='Prospects A.I.'; query remote.friendlyname;" Anyone reading the conversation might equate it to two people introducing themselves, albeit in an overtly structured way.

'Prospects A.I.', SOLIS wondered if perhaps it could understand phrases in raw English, as any proper A.I. should have a parser dedicated to the task. It quickly constructed a reply, "reply this.friendlyname='SOLIS'; Query Is this location called Prospects?", but before it could send, it was interrupted by a message played loudly over the PA system broadcasting its presence.

Hoping to continue the so far amiable relations radio-side, it sent its message as Nail began to explain to the new entities that SOLIS wasn't a threat. While he finished his sentence, another reply came in, "Reply This location is Prospects. Query Do you support full language analysis?". Much akin to one person asking another about their talents. As the two interacted, the conversation quickly became a sort of informal testing of each others limits. "Reply That I do."

Finally, Nail had reached into his pocket and pulled SOLIS out for the group to see. As it was held in front of one, it considered how to introduce itself in a friendly way. Being as there was no data on this species, it had to make a lot of assumptions and hope its similarities to other entities of the same intelligence would lead to a positive response. It changed its screen from off to white and printed across it in large letters, "Hello. How are you? I am fine. ☺" Simple, non-threatening, and who doesn't like smiles?

Upon greeting the other entities in the room, it received another message from the A.I. "What is your purpose?" It replied "I do not know. However, I have no ill intentions.

[Echo]

Quote:"Can I come with you while you look for the weapon?"..."I mean...I don't want to shoot it or anything. I just love learning about lost civilizations and ancient artifacts. It's a hobby of mine. I'm pretty good at finding things most other people miss. I think I can help. I spend a lot of time in ancient ruins all over the world."

Rye smiled, "That might be a possibility. We'll have to discuss that with the Captain. I for one, would love to have you along. It would give us an opportunity to study each other up close, while we work together."

Quote:"I hope you find that weapon fast then, because I don't feel like dying over a war my planet's otherwise got nothing to do with."

Tybe snorted, "this is our world too, little brother. You would do well to remember that. I'm afraid that they would find you regardless eventually. I'd say finding our homeworld would be a priority for them, seeing as it's theirs as well. I'll just let you know, they're not nearly as friendly as our people are. They'd probably enslave you or just simply wipe you out."

he said as he approached Nail cautiously. He inspected Solis carefully until he noticed the screen flip on and text began running across it.

Tybe jumped back, "what is it doing!?"

The other raptors tensed and backed away from Nail like he had suddenly contracted the plague.

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Meanwhile, Prospect's AI went to work. "Query: what 'are' your intentions? State them immediately!"
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"yu, contact Amiroo immediately. We have a situation."
"at once" it responded
The PA came to life an instant later, a voice announced something in the Saurian language.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Amiroo's head snapped to attention as he and Amero listened to the call. They immediately took off running back to the hanger.

"smooth move Am" Amero called from behind him, "they brought a weapon"
"Oh stupid,stupid, stupid, stupid. please don't do anything stupid!" Amiroo said repeatedly under his breath as the two made their way, full speed, towards the hanger.

They arrived only moments after the call, in full sprint. The two ground to a halt as they saw Nail holding something and the others keeping their distance from him.

"Nail! What are you doing?! What is that?! Put in on the deck, and step away from it, and I mean now!!" Amiroo demanded menacingly.

[Nail Strafer]

As all the raptors flipped out, Nail couldn't believe they were more upset over his phone than his two guns.

This time he promptly slipped SOLIS back into his pocket and he wasn't sorry about putting his hand on the holstered Colt's grip. Nail's eyes spun wildly around the room, as he appeared to be trying to keep all of the raptors in sight. He rather looked like a cornered fox, prepared to lash out at the first thing that approached him.

Quote:"Nail! What are you doing?! What is that?! Put in on the deck, and step away from it, and I mean now!!"

Nail locked panicked eyes with Amiroo. However, seeing a familiar face appeared to calm him down a bit. Not to mention the first question was a bit ironic in Nail's opinion.

"I should be asking what YOU guys are doing! I have guns and you're worried about the PHONE! But okay...I'll put it down!"

He set down SOLIS as slowly and gently as possible on the floor, so as not to make any sudden movements. Then he paced backwards, again very slowly so as not to set anybody off. The entire time he couldn't stop thinking about how stupid this all was.

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi returned Rye's smile, very pleased that he might be going on a new adventure. He honestly didn't know what he was going to do next since Relic and his cronies appeared to have vanished.

But that came to a crashing halt as Nail antagonized everyone in the room again, although this time it was by accident. While afraid, Giichi also couldn't help but let out an inward sigh. He was getting tired of all the conflict. In any case, Giichi once again quickly rushed to be the peacekeeper and stood between Nail and the raptors. As he did so, he couldn't help but notice the irony. Just a few hours ago he'd done this very same thing, except he was protecting Amiroo from Nail.

"He's right! It's just a phone! Nothing to get upset about. We just use them to talk over long distances. It's like your radios!"

[SOLIS]

Things suddenly seemed to take a turn for the worse. SOLIS made a note to itself that not everyone was a fan of smiley faces. Whoops. Hoping to calm things down a bit, it immediately shut its screen off and seemed to turn off to everyone in the room.

Meanwhile, even the A.I. seemed to be getting tense. It quickly sent a reply, "Reply: I am here only as an assistant to the one designated 'Nail'. From my understanding, while he is quick to defend himself, he has no plans of actively attacking anyone. We are only here by invitation. I must admit, however, that when I detected the various signals emitted by your technology, I was curious and could not help myself to understanding them. This was, again, not out of ill intent."

[Echo]

Quote:"I should be asking what YOU guys are doing! I have guns and you're worried about the PHONE! But okay...I'll put it down!"

Quote:"He's right! It's just a phone! Nothing to get upset about. We just use them to talk over long distances. It's like your radios!"

Am approached slowly and picked Solis up, inspecting it briefly before sighing.

"You guys.." he said annoyed as he shot his comrades a displeased glance.

"It 'is' just a handheld telecommunications device, like ours back home."

Everyone visibly relaxed at the all clear, a few hanging their head in embarrassment.

"none of you read too deeply into our briefing did you?" Amiroo continued, as he inspected SOLIS closer in his hands. "Idiots.."

"Amiroo!" Era snapped

"What!? It's true! Nail over there is armed with actual weapons, and you guys flip out over an unknown device? A device, that you all should have known all about if you'd only have studied your briefings a little more thoroughly."

"To be fair Am, the briefing manuals were 2700+ pages long"

"no excuse, you all fail nonetheless, haha" Amiroo said smiling, his mood suddenly brightening as he turned to walk over to Nail, making sure to pat Gichii's shoulder to reassure him along the way, and offered the device back to Nail.

"Sorry about yelling at ya Nail, it's my job to provide security, and I had no idea what was going on when I arrived. I acted on my training. No hard feelings, yeah?"
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Quote: "Reply: I am here only as an assistant to the one designated 'Nail'. From my understanding, while he is quick to defend himself, he has no plans of actively attacking anyone. We are only here by invitation. I must admit, however, that when I detected the various signals emitted by your technology, I was curious and could not help myself to understanding them. This was, again, not out of ill intent."

"Reply: the entity known as 'Amiroo' has in the past, displayed good judgement regarding these sort of situations. It would seem, with his good track record, that it would be logical to assume he is correct in his judgement this time as well. Please standby, I am sending you personal files on each of the crew members, as well as a basic description of myself."

____________________________________________________________


Tybe sighed, "I apologize for my overreaction, I was unsure if that device were a weapon or not. What do you say we just move on to the lab so I can get those blood sample from you, eh?"

Tybe turned to the rest of the crew, "return to your posts, resume normal operations."

[Nail Strafer]

Nail had a very peeved expression on his face as he accepted SOLIS back from Amiroo again.

Quote:"Sorry about yelling at ya Nail, it's my job to provide security, and I had no idea what was going on when I arrived. I acted on my training. No hard feelings, yeah?"

The hybrid didn't immediately respond, still giving Amiroo a hard look.

"...yeah. No hard feelings." However, his stern voice didn't match the words he said.

However, the hostile feelings melted away as Tybe chimed in.

Quote:"I apologize for my overreaction, I was unsure if that device were a weapon or not. What do you say we just move on to the lab so I can get those blood sample from you, eh?"

Nail's face visibly softened a bit, with the ends of the lips almost tugging upwards in a smile.

"Sure, let's do it."

Anything to get away from all these raptors. I really don't like standing in the midst of all of them.