ic A Walk in the Park (IC)

[Electra]

Stesha stepped wide of Tona, putting perhaps a dozen yards between them before stepping into the clearing. "Hello!" she called, raising both her hands in nonoffensive greeting. "Welcome to Sanctuary. My name is Fleur de Joie. I noticed that there was someone new in the area and wanted to come by and say hello." In the middle of the forest, Stesha was far from unarmed, but she looked entirely harmless and inoffensive to the untrained eye. "I didn't know that anyone was out this way. What are you doing?" she asked with honest curiosity. 

[Raveled]

GM

 

The blonde woman had just managed to catch the beetle, but Stesha's sudden appearance startled her into releasing it again. She started talking in her alien language again, paused, and dug through her bag. She pulled out something that looked like nothing so much as a postage stamp and stuck it to her throat. "¿Habla usted este idioma? Was ist mit diesem ein? Est hoc linguae tuae congruens? What about here, is this it?" She kept moving her finger around the postage stamp, making minute adjustments. "How in the stars is anyone supposed to live on a planet without a single language, anyway? It's madness!"

[Electra]

"That's the one," Stesha confirmed easily, "you should be able to talk to anyone on the planet using that setting, at least all the people I know of. My name is Fleur de Joie, I'm the caretaker of this region. We've noticed some strange disturbances out this way, some of our animals disappearing from the barns at night. I thought it was best to come and see what was going on. I didn't realize we had a visitor. What's your name?" she asked politely. The entire time she didn't so much as glance at Tona or make any indication that she hadn't come alone, letting the archer remain concealed and at the advantage. 

[Raveled]

The blonde woman sighed dramatically. "Oh, thank the stars and fuzzy creatures. I'm Valut. I'm sorry to have interrupted your, uh, planet, but the scanners didn't pick up anyone nearby."

 

"We didn't come from nearby." Tona stepped out of the forest. She kept her bow carefully pointed away from the alien. "We came from very far away, following a trail left from something that was stealing animals."

 

Valut's brow furrowed for a moment, then she stamped her foot. "Oh, damn damn damn! The Captain promised me that he'd stop the others raiding!" She glanced between the two other women. "I'm sorry. I'm a botanist, and I'm supposed to be growing enough food for the crew. But some of them don't like eating just salads, so they're going out to hunt. I'm sorry, I didn't realize they were going into your village!"

[Electra]

Stesha winced a little at that revelation. "If any of the animals are still alive, we really do need them back. They're an important resource for the village here, and for more than just meat. If your crew would like some more diverse foods, I'm sure we can arrange something else. What exactly are you doing here?" she asked. "This world is all but dead except for the patch we're rebuilding here, it can't be terribly ecologically interesting. As your crew probably noticed if they went hunting, we haven't even got any undomesticated animals larger than tiny rodents." Following Tona's lead, she didn't clarify exactly where they'd come from, even if some of the aliens had obviously found the village. 

[Raveled]

"Um." Valut glanced around the clearing as twin red spots burned on her cheeks. "They kind of already ate the animals they grabbed before. But they brought a pregnant goat into the hydroponic garden just this morning, is that one of yours?"

 

Tona's head whipped around to stare at a point in the foliage. She was silent for a moment, and then simply said "Incoming" before melting back into the forest. Valut shooed Fleur back under cover, before turning to watch the trees. A few minutes later two figures appeared, crashing through the underbrush. One was a squat, wide-set man with orange skin and a ragged cape that was currently covered in brambles, and the other was a snake the size of a man, bearing a curved sword and a tricorn hat.

 

The snake slithered up to Valut. "Where have you been," it demanded. "The Captain wantsss everyone back on-board. The sssenorsss have picked up sssomething approaching the ssship."

 

Valut stepped back, fear written in her face. "I, I, I, I was just trying to find some more, some more seeds. If we don't get more seedlings, then we --"

 

"Then we'll run out of leaves and fruits," the brute growled as he glared at her. "And have to find real things to eat. Gee, I wonder what we'll choose first." He bared his jagged teeth in a predatory smile and Valut shot a terrified glance towards where Fleur and Blue Jay were hiding.

[Electra]

Fleur's eyes narrowed as she watched the interchange, helpfully translated thanks to Valut's neck device. She picked up her radio and placed a call to the hive. It had been a serious technological puzzle figuring out a radio that the bees could hear and use, but it did come in handy. "This is Fleur," she murmured into the radio, knowing it would be highly amplified on the other end. "There are strangers near the hive, and I could use some help showing them they need to be polite. About five miles northwest of the human village." 

 

Clipping the radio back on her belt, she raised her hands like a conductor addressing an orchestra. All around them, the trees gave a single rustle, seeming almost as though they were coming to attention. Even the grass and bushes seemed to shiver. Dropping her arms, she murmured to Tona, "If there's a fight, take the snake," 

 

With that, she stepped forward into the clearing, imperious as a queen on her own castle grounds. "Excuse me!" she called. "This is my world you are standing on, and I would appreciate you showing some politeness while you are here! In addition, I do not appreciate you stealing animals from me, and threatening to eat other  sentient life forms! Please tell me who you are and exactly what it is you're doing here." 

[Raveled]

GM

 

Tona didn't bother to answer, merely bringing her bow to full draw and sighting on the snake. The pair rounded on Stesha as she entered the clearing, each of them coming up from a different direction, the snake putting its hand on its sword. "We don't care whossse world thisss isss, little green girl. We are the piratesss of Captain Kraken! We plunder whole worldsss, what makesss you think this will be any different?"

 

The wide-set creature circled to Stesha's opposite side. "C'mon," he growled. "Start something. It's been too long since I've broken something that bleeds and screams."

 

Valut watched the exchange, trembling, clearly terrified for Fleur and for herself.

[Electra]

"Pirates, huh?" Fleur asked, a smile tugging at her lips. "Well, that does explain the Johnny Depp look, I guess. I thought maybe you were going to a party. But this is much simpler. Get down, Valut."

 

As soon as Fleur spoke, the ground around the orange-skinned man seemed to explode with the morass of vines that had been quietly pooling there, unnoticed. They wrapped around the pirate until nothing of him was visible and he was merely a green mummy, blind, deaf and helpless. As if that weren't enough, at that very moment, every single one of those vines sprouted razor sharp leaves and thorns, digging into every exposed inch of orange skin they could find as the planet itself fought on its own behalf. "This is my world!" she repeated with cold fury, for all her first target could no longer hear her. "And pirates are not welcome!" 

[Raveled]

The plants erupted from the ground and in the space of a breath the more muscular pirate was completely encased in greenery. He struggled and pulled, but there simply wasn't anyway for him to gain enough leverage to break free. The serpent pirate hissed at the writhing vines and leaves and fled the clearing; Tona loosed arrows after it, but the reptile darted between trees agily and none found their mark.

 

The archer stepped out of cover, eyes fixed on where the snake had disappeared. "Merde," she spat. She turned on the squat man, now a low pile of vegetation. "I guess we'll just have to question him about where they came fr--" All of a sudden she froze, and looked to the sky as a low droning filled the air. In moments the sky was filled with gigantic, hovering, fuzzy yellow-and-black bodies.The wave passed in an instant, except for the one who peeled off and made a beeline to Stesha and the clearing. It let out a roar of fire and then came to a hovering halt overhead -- a bee the size of a bus, giving the distinct impression of smiling smugly. Valut cringed away from it, not sure what she should be most scared of.

 

And then the bee spoke, and it was obvious what was scariest. "THE HIVE COMEZZZ!" it roared, its voice even louder than its wings. "WE FLY FOR THE FLEUR, TO PUZZZH BACK THE INVADERZZZ!"

Edited March 2, 2013 by Raveled

[Electra]

"He won't answer us," Stesha told Tona, and with a dismissive wave of her hand, the orange-mummy-man disappeared, the plants that had been constricting him suddenly falling to the ground empty. "I have a pretty good idea of where the ship might be, and we can ask Valut." She crouched down next to the biologist. "You don't seem to fit in as a pirate," she commented to the cowering woman over the near-deafening buzz. "You don't have to stay with them! We can help you, but I need you to help us find the ship you came in on!" 

 

Standing to give Valut a moment to think, Stesha waved an arm to the foremost bee, who came circling down for a landing. "Thank you, Beeatrizz!" she told the massive insect. "I knew I could count on your prompt defense! This is Blue Jay, my friend! We need to find the ship these pirates came in on and convince them to leave. Can you give us a ride?" 

 

"WE ARE PLEAZZZED TO DEFEND ZZZANCTUARY FROM ZZZHOZZE WHO WOULD ZZZTEAL AND DEZZZTROY!" the big bee said, blowing a puff of smoke as she spoke. "AND IT IZZ GOOD PRACTIZZ FOR THE YOUNGLINGZZZ WHO HAVE NEVER ZZZEEN DANGER. LET UZZ FLY!" Beeatrizz fanned her massive translucent wings to allow a clear path up her furry back. It would be like climbing up a semi-truck, but at least there were plenty of handholds. Stesha gestured to Tona to climb on up, even as she waited for Valut. 

[Raveled]

Tona was taken aback by the idea of riding the massive creature, but after a moment she decided it wasn't nearly as bad as riding in Mali's car. At least there was no way that a living thing, no matter how large, could go faster than the insane forty miles per hour people seemed to prefer in Earth-Prime! She did take the time to stow her bow before hopping up.

 

Valut took a little more encouragement. "Are you... are you sure we won't fall off?"

 

Beeatrizz fanned her wings sharply at the idea. "WE WOULD NEVER DROP A FRIEND OF THE FLEUR! ZZZZETZZZZA'ZZZZ FRIENDZZZ ARE FRIENDZZZZ OF THE HIVE!"

 

The woman paled, but she finally climbed aboard, holding onto Tona tightly. "Please don't fall," she whispered. "Please don't fall, please don't fall..."

[Electra]

Fleur hopped up in front of Tona, seeming perfectly at ease on the massive back. The one good thing about sitting on the bee's back was that, once one was situated and hanging firmly onto the long fuzz, it was very difficult to look down. Fleur crawled forward to sit on the head, giving her a better view. "All right," she told her bee friend, "Keep going northwest another mile or so. Look for a big grassy clearing, or for any more groups of humanoids wandering around. And be on your guard in case anyone starts shooting!" 

[Raveled]

Beeatrizz fanned her wings and leapt into the air, going high and giving Fleur a grand view of the goings on. She could track several groups of interlopers, both by her spying plants and the giant bees dive-buzzing them. They were apparently retreating back to the empty clearing as fast as their various legs, tails, treads, and wheels could carry them, and it was soon obvious why. The air shimmered like a heat mirage and a huge, blood-red, roughly hexagonal ship appeared out of thin air. Pirate were charging up ramps, even as thrusters fired and the bulk of the spacecraft began to lift off the ground.

 

"WE ARE VICTORIOUZZZ!" Beeatrizz crowed, doing a loop-the-loop in celebration. "THE INVADERZZZ ARE VANQUIZZZED! HAIL THE HIVE! HAIL THE FLEUR! HAIL THE --" The giant bee suddenly had to dive quickly as a superheated plasma beam cut through the air in front of it. Cannons were coming to life along the length of the hull and filling the air with white-hot beams of ravening energy. The bees were forced to break off their harassment and focus on evasion. Still, it seemed the ship's weapons weren't designed to target such agile figures because none of the bees had dropped yet, but with the volume of fire the craft was pumping out it was only a matter of time.

 

Tona leaned forward and grabbed Stesha's arm. "We need to get on-board," she shouted, nearly in Fleur's ear. "We need a hole in the hull!"

[Electra]

"We don't need a hole," Fleur called back. "Valut says there's a garden, that's enough!" She watched as the ground heaved beneath the ship, lashing it again and again with strong woody thorns the size of combat knives. "Beeatrizz, Blue Jay and I are going into the ship. Fall back, but take shots at the ship whenever you can. Distract them! Valut, you stay here and hold on tight!" With that, Fleur grabbed Tona's arm and touched the flowers in her hair, immediately teleporting them both into the living plant matter aboard the alien ship. 

[Raveled]

The heroes had just enough time to see titanic vines and roots rise from the ground and bash the ship, causing it to shed a few hull plates. In another moment they were inside... a park? A greenhouse? Some confined space overgrown with greenery; everywhere they looked was covered and coated in vines, leaves, and blooming flowers. A few steps brought them out of the densest part of the foliage and into something that looked more like a laboratory, with computer screens framed by creeping vines. They could still hear the battle going on outside, the distant thud-crump of the guns and the occasional deck-rattling hit by Sanctuary's planetary plant defenses.

 

Oh, and the captain. They could now hear the captain speaking. "Put yer backs into it, ye scurvy space-dogs! Blast those bleeding buggering bees out of the sky, or I'll keel-haul the lot of ye and surf through the asteroid belt!" The ship lurched and the pair of heroines had the unpleasant experience of artificial gravity fighting against actual gravity as the ship began to list. "Avast! Twenty percent more power to the starboard thrusters, maties!"

 

"Excuse me." Tona stepped off to the side, bent over, and vomited nearly into a near-by bush. After a few minutes she pulled a canteen from a pocket, swished some water around her mouth, and swished it around before spitting into the same bush. Then she returned to Fleur's side. "Okay. Let's get this thing to set down before that happens again, please."

[Electra]

While Tona was vomiting, Stesha studied the layout of the room. She was no great shakes with technology, but even she could tell that one wall seemed to have the controls for the hydroponics bay on it, or at least a lot more computer screens and gauges than the others. She bet a wall like that might have the water tubes that fed the garden running through it, not to mention cables into the computers, perhaps wires providing electricity, joists stabilizing other rooms... it might be a very important wall. 

 

"Stopping the ship seems like a good plan," Stesha agreed, focusing intently on the long rows of plants and herbs. "I wonder how much damage it can take before it has to set down and shut down." All at once, vines began spilling out from the tanks like rows of huge green octopi spreading tentacles towards the computer wall. Within moments they were starting to press against the wall, firmly at first, then harder and harder, covering every bit of the wall until screens began to shatter and the walls began to scream in metallic protest. "I'd have an arrow ready," she advised Tona. "They can probably hear this." 

[Raveled]

There was a groan, and a shriek of metal, and a popping of bolts as the plants heaved their green bulk against one wall. They cracked computer screens, flattened papers and books, and soon the electrical connections began to spark and sputter. Another few moments of sustained pressure and the entire wall fell out, the metal bulkhead falling away and exposing sky outside. Tona felt her stomach lurch again as she realized she was now staring at a huge hole in the side of the ship. "Already inside," she fairly screamed. "We don't need a hole anymore!"

 

With a hole open to the sky, they could once again hear the deafening sounds of battle. Over it all they could just barely make out the captain on the intercom again. "Avast! Seal that hole in the plant lab! Or jettison the bloody thing again, see if I care." Tona shot Fleur a look and made a break for the only door she could see.

[Electra]

"No, it's good!" Stesha insisted. "If they jettison this whole thing, they've got no hydroponics and they're stuck with whatever rations they've got left, and whatever air they've got. And we can just teleport right to the ground. So, ah, stay close," she advised as they both dashed through the door and into an open corridor moments before it sealed behind them. "So, which way to the bridge, do you think?" she asked Tona, even as she casually sorted through a handful of seeds from her pouch. "I would guess towards the top, but that's just because of science fiction shows. I don't really know." Walking over to the wall, she tipped the handful of seeds into the nearest vent. Within moments, leaves began poking out as plants began to grow at a phenomenal rate behind the wall, poking shoots and roots into all sorts of places where they shouldn't be. 

[Raveled]

Tona took a moment to simply breath. Flying on a giant bee, teleporting into a room, and losing her lunch all in a few minutes was exhausting, and so she stopped for a moment to examine their surroundings and simply be still. "... No idea where the bridge is," she admitted, "but the engines are towards the back, right? If we take those out, then we don't have to worry about them being able to escape." Tona stopped and thought for a moment. "Hey, just a second. Are we trying to stop them escaping? If they're gone they won't steal anymore goats."

[Electra]

"They won't steal our goats," Stesha pointed out, "but they will go somewhere else, won't they? Someplace where maybe they don't have any defenses against pirates. I don't think these people would've stopped with just taking farm animals once they realized this planet doesn't have anything valuable for them. And if they're mad enough, they may round up some of their friends and come back for another try. I don't want to have to be watching the skies for pirates, you know?" She thought about what Tona had said. "Yes, I suppose we can try and get down to the engines. Sanctuary's own defenses have had a good go at them already, hopefully we can give them another hard push before we're too high in the sky." She began running down the corridor, leaving lights sparking and consoles buzzing fitfully behind them as the plants in the walls continued to spread. 

[Raveled]

Perhaps it should have been harder to find the engine room, or at least harder to move about the ship, but Fleur and Blue Jay hadn't snuck on-board while it was in port -- the ship was in the middle of combat, and retreating as fast as its engines could carry it. Any crewmembers that would have been inclined to get in their path were at battlestations, and while they run across a few folks rushing from one station to another, Blue Jay's hand-to-hand talents and Fleur's rapidly-spreading vines proved sufficient to subdue them without trouble.

 

The engine room was well-marked and so the pair moved steadily aft, until they came to a huge, sealed door simply marked ENGINEERING. Jay tapped on the thick metal once, then stepped back for Fleur to drop a few strategic seeds. The plants that grew out of them were easily able to pry the door open, and the two heroines stepped through into the space beyond. The engine room turned out to be an open space several stories tall, with gantries on the side Jay and Fleur were on and the huge power plants opposite them, shining with exotic radiation. All around the rest of the room were computer consoles, and spacers in various dress and fashions manning them or rushing from one to another. The one element that tied them all together was a bright gold sash across their chest, as well as a tendency towards grime and dirt on their exposed skin.

 

Standing in front of the power plants was a rather short man in a full-body gold uniform, shouting orders to the crew. He might have been rather forgettable among the menagerie of aliens crowding the room if it hadn't been for the goggles that he wore; bulky black plastic things that had only a single, red viewport off-center on his face. The cyclops looked up as the doors were forced open and pointed at the heroines. "Intruders," he shouted. "Intruders in engineering. Boys, get 'em!" And several crewmen did glance up and leave their work stations, rushing towards the ramps and where the heroines were standing.

[Raveled]

Blue Jay wasted no time in staring at the population on display. She moved forward and drew several arrows from her quiver, then loosed them at the largest group of gold shirts moving to intercept the heroines. One, two, three, four arrows went out and found their targets unerringly -- unfortunately each of them bounced off a shimmering gold force field that was projected just in front of the advancing enemies! Jay swore and fell back from the railing, considering her next move, while the man up by the power plants laughed at the attack. "You can't be so foolish as to think no one has ever tried to attack here, hm? I protect my boys!" He drew a polished blaster pistol from a holster at his side. "Sorry to say, you can't be so lucky!" He took aim and fired, his shots focusing on the green-haired plant controller more than the pierced archer.

[Electra]

"Ow!" Fleur yelped as the blaster hit her in the shoulder. "This is a new costume!" she told the pirate wrathfully, even as she fell back to better cover behind a set of consoles. She picked the one that looked most complex and important, found some kind of input hole, and dropped a handful of little acorns into it. They made a pleasing rattling sound as they fell into the guts of the machine, just before they began to grow. In moments, the console splintered into a million pieces from the force of five full-grown oak trees bursting out of it, each one large, imposing, and surprisingly mobile. "Get the leader!" Fleur told Tona. "I'll work on the underlings." 

[Raveled]

The greenery erupted out of the panel and soon grew to towering sizes, forming a leafy barrier around Fleur as the gold shirted thugs made the gantries shake with their charge. Jay nodded at the older heroine's tactical advice and moved up to the railing, drawing a few more arrows and sighting on the goggled engineer below. She nocked, drew, waited a heartbeat, and then loosed. Her arrows flew straight and true -- knocking his weapon out of his hand and over the side of the platform, to be lost in the maelstrom of energies swirling around the power plants. She smiled and laughed. "So no more gun for the tricky grease-monkey," she taunted. "Any more tricks up your sleeve?"

 

The engineer shook his stinging hand and glared up at the archer. "Oh, no. Sleeves aren't really my thing, girlie. I'm more about the eyes." He reached up and tore off his goggles, revealing that he only had one, massive, blood-shot eye on the side of his head. His monocular gaze fixed on Jay's, and he began to stare her down. She wondered momentarily why he was just staring at her, but then training about invasive mental techniques kicked in; some mind-meddlers could only work their mojo through a direct eye-to-eye contact.

 

Jay broke off the gaze and composed her mental defenses. "Nice try," she said, though her voice was shaking a bit, "but you have to get up earlier than that to beat me!"