Shining Prospect

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi entered the hangar just as the group was discussing invading Robotropolis. The cat wanted to speak up, but then Nail brought out the photograph. For a few seconds, Giichi thought he was dreaming as the hybrid tearfully held up the picture to the raptors. He couldn't believe someone like Nail would actually love someone else enough to start a family. Talk about your hidden depths...

And he looks like he's about to cry. I think there's more to this than mere separation.

Nonetheless...when Giichi felt like enough silence had passed, he decided to speak up to something Tybe said.

Quote:" Nail, do you know how to get in there on foot, or anyone who does, perhaps some of the freedom fighters?"

Giichi's hand shot up.

"I do. I was there several weeks ago. That was right before Robotnik tried launching an attack against Soleanna. In fact, that's even where I met Terrador for the first time too. I can lead us in there, but there's something you need to know about first."

He waited for a second, to make sure he had everyone's attention.

"Robotropolis in this world is really a conquered Station Square. Robotnik enslaved the citizens who weren't lucky enough to escape the city in time. They're all implanted with tracking chips so that they can't just walk out of town," Giichi gravely spoke. "If you want Robotropolis bombed, then you've got to do something to make sure those people are safe. Otherwise thousands of innocent people will die. We need to free them, or make sure they don't get hit by the bombing somehow."

[SOLIS]

[Skipping.]

[Echo]

[sorry for the delay.]

Quote:"I do. I was there several weeks ago. That was right before Robotnik tried launching an attack against Soleanna. In fact, that's even where I met Terrador for the first time too. I can lead us in there, but there's something you need to know about first."....."Robotropolis in this world is really a conquered Station Square. Robotnik enslaved the citizens who weren't lucky enough to escape the city in time. They're all implanted with tracking chips so that they can't just walk out of town," Giichi gravely spoke. "If you want Robotropolis bombed, then you've got to do something to make sure those people are safe. Otherwise thousands of innocent people will die. We need to free them, or make sure they don't get hit by the bombing somehow."

"Oh you're kidding, so I guess so much for that plan. We can't bring a battle down on their heads..." Amiroo said

" It looks bad either way. We either wait here, and those people die when the planet is invaded, or we hope Robotnik can somehow destroy that ship and minimize the deaths on his own...wait" Tybe said as he rolled something about in his mind, an idea taking shape. "What if we waited for the ship to get within port gate range, then we.." tybe started.

"...Teleport onto that ship...yeah, that's seems a viable answer, an incredibly dangerous one, but our best answer if we're going to save lives here. Some are going to die, there's no getting around that unfortunately, but we can minimize those deaths if we cut the battle short by destroying the ship from the inside. Use the transmitter to lure it in to range, then teleport aboard and plant some explosives while they're occupied with Robotnik. The Narrow hallways would somewhat even the odds even if it does come to a gun battle." Era said.

"great, we're going into space now, this plan just gets more wonderful by the moment." Amero remarked sarcastically.

"You have a better idea Amero?" Amiroo asked "We'd like to hear it if so. Again, whatever we're going to do, we need to do it now. I second the plan that we destroy that ship while it's occupied with Robotnik."

"Question. How do we get back off of it again once we're on it?" Amero deadpanned.

Everyone fell silent a moment, everyone's eyes slowly drifting to Amiroo.

"I...um...that's a good question."

Everyone's mouths dropped in unison, Amiroo stumped, really?

"Maybe we take it over instead of destroying it?" Era suggested.

"yeah, everybody freeze, this is a stick up! It's a handful of us with rifles vs hundreds of you guys with every conceivable weapon known to Saurian kind." Amero offered more sarcasm, earning himself some sour looks from his comrades.

"All sarcasm aside, that actually might work. If we could take the bridge, we could probably hold it, even against hundreds. Like Era said, the hallways are typically narrow on scout ships, that'd work to our advantage as they'd only be able to throw so many soldiers at us at a time. It's been done before actually, I remember reading something in a data file, that back during the age of Humans, a mere 300 people held off an army of 70 to 300 thousand soldiers for the very same reason."

"*whistle* I remember reading something like that to. Ya know, Humans really are a brilliant species. It's a shame they get depicted as ignorant, violent/evil beings. I mean really, they're evil huh? I mean just about everything on this planet, that makes the modern Mobian way of life possible, was more or less invented by a Human once upon a time. "Oh no, those evil Humans gave everybody a toilet so they don't have to go squat in a field like common cave people, put a roof over their heads, running water, cell phones, electricity, air conditioning, and made everyone fat with their evil fast food and Sattelite tv. Oh no, who ever will save us from their 24/7 parade of mindless cat videos on their evil internet, any species that subjects anyone to that much luxury must be evil!" " Tybe chimed in sarcastically.

"*sigh* lets focus here, we can talk about the 'evil' Humans later." Amiroo said.

"Didn't they all die in the end though, the Spartans?" Amero asked

" I don't know, but that's not the point, what I'm trying to say, is there are usually only two narrow entrances to a bridge. If we can take it, a small group of people could hold it pretty much at their leisure."

"Wouldn't they just go EVA, and attack from outside? What stops them from going outside?" Era asked.

"If Solis could help, I could shut the ships hanger blast doors, and seal all exits to space. Not only that, we could maybe even use the ship's security systems against them." Rog suggested.

"ohho, I didn't even think about that, we could!" Tybe exclaimed.

Amiroo stared a moment, "that's brilliant...So.." he said turning to Nail, "You ready to go back to space?"

Quote:"I do appreciate the compliments, but there's something extra I want for doing this. It's not money though. For the past few years, I have been separated from my family due to being in prison."

Amiroo tilted his head to the side, eyeing Nail curiously as he pulled out a picture.

Quote:"My wife Canma, and my kids Ellia and Cebran. I want you to help me find them. With your technology, I don't think it will be difficult for you. But it would mean the world to me..."

"Aw, come on bud. It'll be okay. " Amiroo said lightly nudging Nail with his snout. "but um, you'd have to talk to Rog about that, he's our tech Raptor." Amiroo said, shrugging.

"I can only assume you mean the leader of F4, Canma Neuyan." Rog said typing her name into the computer console before him while the other stuff he was working on downloaded. The computer immediately yielded several files and articles from the Mobian internet.

"Hmm, most of this stuff is years old. But, this one." he said clicking a police APB report filed less than 48 hours ago. "Seems the police spotted her not too long ago, or at least thought they might have in the last couple days. Small town near what used to be Capitol city. Any significance to that area for you?"

"Look! Either way, we don't have time for this right now. We need to get going! Send that data to the ship, we're going to yank a transmitter from one of our probes." Amiroo snapped, there had been too much dilly dally.

"We'll help you find your folks later Nail, I promise, but only after this is over. Now lets go." He said hurrying off in the direction of a smaller storage hanger adjacent to the main hanger.

"Rye, little sister, get everyone weapons. It seems we're going to need them. Era, get your ship ready for flight." Tybe commanded.

"Yes elder" Rye said taking off down another hall towards what can be assumed to be the armory.

"Alright then" Era said running over to the ship and quickly disappearing into it's interior.

[Nail Strafer]

Quote:"I can only assume you mean the leader of F4, Canma Neuyan."

Nail sighed at those words, suddenly looking exhausted. He was exhausted at everyone calling her that when she betrayed F4 over a decade ago in his old timeline. She was the reason F4 all but disappeared too, considering she and he had stolen all of their money and then gone into hiding. But no one cared. Once a terrorist, always a terrorist, and no chance of redemption. He wanted to scream all of this out at everyone in earshot, but bit his tongue.

The feelings of angst quickly melted away though, as Rog mentioned he had a recent location on her. He immediately whirled around and started to move to look at Rog's screen, but Amiroo's call to action interrupted him. He stood there, still in mid stride, feeling torn between wanting to find his beloved again and the mission to save the planet.

You can't leave this place without the raptor's help, the logical side of his brain coolly reminded him. Just do what they want. If they can find her just like that, then they can do it again.

He grit his teeth and took off after Amiroo to board the ship. Now that the matter of finding the rest of his family was decided, he couldn't help but be a bit worried about this new wrinkle with the plan.

"Amiroo, do you really think it will be that easy? Taking over the bridge of a ship?" Nail said, trying to keep up after him. "This isn't the Spartan's time you know. What if they've got things for breaking a siege, like nerve gas?"

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi watched the others run off.


He really didn't like the idea of going onto the ship, even if the others had a plan for what to do. As a thief, you always wanted to leave yourself with a way to escape in case things went bad. How could you escape from a spaceship in outer space? They might have escape pods, but if you were confined to the bridge how could you get to one of them?

Plus he didn't especially like guns. The cat hoped they had something like a lightsaber instead, or maybe their guns would have a stun setting like in those old space epic movies. He decided to follow Rye first to see what his choices in weapons would be.

"SOLIS...how do you feel about being able to hack into the ship? Do you think you can do it?"

He said aloud, asking the air around him but knowing that SOLIS would be able to hear him.

[SOLIS]

[I'm assuming since SOLIS's location hasn't really been clarified over the past few posts that it was sitting on a counter near the group and Nail had forgotten it.]

Finding itself on its own once again, SOLIS prepared itself for travel and turned on it's shield, bringing it to a hover on the counter. The only other entity in the room was Giichi, now.

"I still feel this plan is very hastily assembled, given the number of unknown variables, but assuming the communications systems we encounter are compatible with mine, I'm sure I can do it, there is no such thing as a secure system. However, the time it will take can vary from virtually instantly to several years.

That being said, it might be suggested that having a high security terminal for every passage on the ship would only complicate matters more than necessary for most of the crew. We might encounter higher security at the bridge, as well as some other areas, but for the most part our access should be largely unhindered. Mind you, again this is supposition. If you are going to the same location as Nail, would you take me to him? I am not very fast on my own and do not believe I can catch up to him."

[Echo]

Quote:"Amiroo, do you really think it will be that easy? Taking over the bridge of a ship?" Nail said, trying to keep up after him. "This isn't the Spartan's time you know. What if they've got things for breaking a siege, like nerve gas?"

"I never said it was going to be easy. This will likely be one of the hardest things you or I have ever done before. I know for a fact that the rebels have many of same security systems we have, you'll wish nerve gas was all we had to worry about. But the consequences of doing nothing are unacceptably hideous."

Amiroo continued on for a bit until he came upon a pair of double doors, a dark room waiting for them beyond. Amiroo pushed the doors aside, slipping silently into the pitch black room. Amiroo silently chirped a couple times, and the veil of darkness evaporated away revealing a huge, seemingly endless, natural cave retrofitted with electric lights, computers, and endless aisles of shelves stuffed to capacity with exotic alien equipment to support what was apparently a massive warehouse.

"So.." Amiroo started as he accessed a computer terminal to find what he was looking for, "This Canma, is she like you? Has she abandoned her hatred of Humans as well? I'd feel kind of responsible if we rescued her only for her to turn around and start harming Humans. That would reflect poorly on my judgement...there it is... Stick close, you can get lost in here and I don't have time to hunt you down...don't, touch, anything." he said turning and walking further into the warehouse.

He walked for a great while, twisting and turning down seemingly random aisles, so far in fact that they must be several football fields from the exit, all that occumpanied them were aisles upon aisles upon aisles of equipment. Until suddenly, Amiroo found the aisle he was apparently looking for, stopping abruptly halfway down an aisle, ten foot tall metal shelves on either side, each peice of equipment marked by strange alien symbols.

Amiroo walked to the middle of the aisle and tapped his big toe claw on a strange faded orange rectangle Nail would have noticed are everywhere in the warehouse. A holographic display appeared in mid air with several different cart-like objects rotating slowly, seemingly a choice had to be made. Amiroo selected one and stepped back as the rectangle in the floor sunk down and slid aside revealing some sort of internal chamber, from which a cart resembling the one Amiroo had selected was pushed up to the floor via some sort of hydraulic platform. Amiroo took the cart and began loading several things from the shelves on it, something resembling a small satellite dish, some wires, a few metal boxes, and several objects that greatly resembled crystals.
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Meanwhile, Rye had entered the same warehouse just moments before Nail and Amiroo had. She and Gichii would be in very different part of the warehouse, an especially high security part of the warehouse. Rye had already loaded a couple cart loads worth of weapons and was still busy sifting through a variety of alien weaponry.

"Ah, here we go." she said unlocking a fenced locker and pulling something out that looked something like a belt with a strange 'buckle'.

Rye stepped over to Gichii and fastened the belt around the cats waist. "check this out" she said as she hit a button in the buckle. A bluish green force field of some sort erupted from the device and expanded out to encircle the cat before seemingly shimmering out to a barely observable clear, much like an invisible flame.

"This is a personal overshield, it serves the same purpose as your Mobian ballistic vests, only this protects your whole body. It can take several direct hits before it has to recontruct itself. But only from high speed objects, slow speed objects can still touch you" She said pushing him with her muzzle to demonstrate this fact, "..So beware of that. When the shield needs to reconstruct itself, the shield will have a very faint redish/orange tint to it even when you're not getting hit. It means 'seek cover' until your shield has recontructed. When it has it'll blink aqua, then go back to being clear. That usually takes about 10 seconds. Don't worry, when it starts flashing red/orange, only you can see it....now then." She said turning to the carts "what kind of weapon do you feel most comfortable with? Malee or ranged?"

Just then, Amiroo emerged behind Gichii pushing a cart of equipment, "Having fun there Gichii?" Amiroo chuckled.

Amiroo's eyes widened when he saw the arsonal Rye was preparing, "It doesn't hit you that you're going to war, until the weapons start getting broken out."

"Brother, I know it might be a bit much but.."

"Oh you'll get no complaints from me, until we know what we're up against, we might as well load up. Better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it."

Amiroo turned to Nail with a smile, "If you want one to, you better speak up. We probably need to get to ship here in a few minutes, they're no doubt waiting on us."

[Nail Strafer]

Quote:"This Canma, is she like you? Has she abandoned her hatred of Humans as well? I'd feel kind of responsible if we rescued her only for her to turn around and start harming Humans."

A soft growl escaped Nail's mouth.

"Of course she is! If you've been studying me and her long enough, you'd know she quit F4 over ten years ago in my old timeline! The whole time, she's done almost nothing but be a housewife and look after the kids. That Sarath invasion showed her that our kind are really no better than humans, and it changed her mind completely. You really should know the answer already to your question."

Despite his attitude, he watched with curiosity as Amiroo continually pulled down odd alien devices. He especially wondered what those crystals were for. Were they...

"Are those crystals anything like Chaos Emeralds?" he asked.

---

Later on, Nail looked over the wide array of weapons that Rye showed off in the carts. However, instead of taking one of them, he slipped the old M1911 out of its holster and the M1 Garand off his back and put them on a nearby table. Next to the alien weapons, they looked like old battered Revolutionary War muskets, but Nail didn't care. Familiar was better when it came to weapons. Plus whenever he saw lasers in movies he always thought they were dumb.

"Do you have anything I could use to restore these? I'd rather use these instead. I've grown attached to them."

[Giichi Twinkieland]

Giichi raised his eyebrows at SOLIS' request to be carried to Nail. It wasn't often you got orders like that from something that looked like a cell phone. Nonetheless he quickly pocketed the device and carried it along with him into the warehouse.

---

Later, in the warehouse, Giichi watched with rapt attention as Rye put the belt around him and turned it on. The cat gazed around in awe as the blue aura surrounded him, and then vanished. While he was pleased for the protection, the field did generate an uncomfortable static cling feel. His fur stood up slightly from the field. Nonetheless, he was sure it beat getting shot with whatever the rebels had.

"Thanks Rye, this sounds like it'll be really useful."

Quote:"what kind of weapon do you feel most comfortable with? Malee or ranged?"

"Melee, definitely!" Giichi said quickly. "What you got? You got like lightsabers or something?"

Nail mentioned off to the side he merely wanted to restore his old WWII weapons, instead of upgrading to newer stuff. Giichi had mixed feelings about that. He did like looking at antiques (from a monetary point of view, of course), but how well could these guns work against aliens and their technology? Regardless though, he remembered when Nail managed to shoot someone from one end of the street to the other way back in Soleanna, so he felt like any sort of gun would be useful in Nail's hands.

Seeing Nail also reminded him, as he pulled SOLIS out of his pocket.

"Hey Nail, SOLIS was getting lonely, so he asked me to bring him to you."

Giichi wasn't sure if SOLIS actually felt loneliness being a machine and all, but oh well.

[SOLIS]

[Skipping, nothing to say here.]