5punk

Dirk wrote:Aaah, foldships - I have been eager to undertake another journey on one since our last trip off-world.

I shall meet you all at the space port.

You all meet Mr Daniels at the spaceport. He's distracted by constant phone calls and emails about various dull Karma business, but he finds a little time to guide you through the process of booking in. Some of you who have travelled before have already encountered the crushing bureaucracy of space travel, but regardless the two or so hours worth of waiting around and filling out forms (including a suspicious amount of disclaimers) is tiresome and frustrating. Once this business is done with you're all relieved to board a gauss train to a launch pad, where you're greeted by a large cargo shuttle. As the loadmasters fuss over you and put you into your seats, you notice you're the only passengers. The rest of the hold is taken up by military crates with rather concerning 'DANGER: EXPLOSIVE' stickers on them. As you sit in the stuffy hold waiting to take off, a faint smell of oil and fumes hanging in the air, Mr Daniels puts his phone away for the first time since you met him.

Not as worrying as the fact Eraser is carrying grenades and Grim has a new gun he wants to try out.

This particular little set is based on personal experience. Not the most relaxing flight I've ever taken.

I'll hold Dirk's hand if he gets scared of the nibbly evils outside the window on the way.

Grimmie wrote:I shall make my merry way to the spaceport, blissfully pushing the thought of foldships out of my luridly painted head.

Ohhhh you set that one up good and proper didn't you!

(Spindle got to the spaceport by public travel)

Once we're all settled in and Mr Daniels is off the phone deej commences with the info getting.

So Mr Daniels, now that we're all set, why don't we go over the BPN in a little more detail? We are supposed to "ensure compliance" with a group of scientists I would guess?

Mr Daniels wrote:Well, in its simplest terms, yes.

He looks furtively at the loadies, who are clambering around on the cargo in the back of the shuttle, checking straps and yanking on things.

Mr Daniels wrote:The situation is rather delicate. The world we are going to is called Lilac. It is a garden world, but it's special. Basically, the ecosystem is so finely balanced that it produces some incredibly useful plant life. However, it also means that any outside contamination could destroy everything.
Some of the technicians working in the surface labs have developed a sort of Gaia cult. They're harmless, but we think they're planning on escaping to the planet. Obviously this is not acceptable. So we need you to stop any rebellion before it creates a major contamination hazard. Clear so far?

That is fairly simple, yes. Obviously you wouldn't have asked Haynes for his best team for something that simple though.

Mr Daniels wrote:Very good, you're quite right. You see the problem with cults is if you kill them off they become martyrs, and so we can't risk simply cracking down on them. But we can't just let them carry on. Either way will eventually lead to a containment breach. We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. However, we have taken other steps, but we need you to cajole the cultists into bringing about the final stage of the plan. They can't know we're involved. In fact, such is the risk involved, nobody can know what you do there or what our arrangement is. We're asking you to go beyond the boundaries of your BPN. We'll be sending you orders to do one thing, but you need to read between the lines to establish what we actually need you to do. Do you follow?

Dirk wrote:Are there any potential health hazards we should know about with regards to the local flora and fauna? Are we talking triffids and super bugs at all? Also, is there any intel on what possible arms the cultists could be packing?

Hey Brainrot, have you ever been on a foldship before? It's quite an experience. The others don't seem to get on well with it, but flux users seem to enjoy it.

Brainrot wrote:Not really, but I'm eager to try. Getting transported by interesting vehicles is my thing, even though they always make me sleepy.

Well the shuttle is fairly interesting to people who have never flown. It takes off in a rush of vibration and noise, dying down to a tolerable hum as it climbs towards orbit. Within a few minutes has risen above the clouds that have hung above your heads your whole life. Disappointingly the sky above Mort diffuses into a dirty grey colour rather than blue.

Mr Daniels wrote:Oh no, the world's perfectly safe. It is peculiar in that it has absolutely no fauna. Entirely populated by plants. As far as we know the cultists aren't armed either. There's not really anywhere they could get access to weapons, but we don't think they're that way inclined anyway. They're all Karma engineers and technicians, besotted by crazy notions of Mother Nature. Hippies, if you will.

Mr Johnson?

Mr Johnson?! D:

Nothing to see here. Move along.

We're all playing the Mr J game!

Mr Johnson?

The game?

You bastard. It's all Mr. J's fault.

Mr Daniels wrote:Well, they want to contaminate the planet, and that's not acceptable. In order for them to be, um, discouraged further we need to make an example in a way that will not encourage repetition. Thus far we have partially convinced them that the pollen abundent in the atmosphere is toxic, but unfortunately the nature of the beast is that the staff do the research and they know it's harmless. Well, they think they know at least...

5punk

SLA Industries: An Inch From Eden