The Collective

The Collective Personal Communication Device Uplink, ask us anything!

[welcometothecollective]

Personality Quirk

Overhead lights flickered, emitting an oddly eerie ambience, in a cold hallway on a vacant sector of the Hub. The Collective had been in the process of gathering diagnostics on a set of long since disserviced data nodes, before requesting assistance from nearby inhabitants on their job boards. Station Maintenance Ticket: 113970-42A-783 Priority: Low Recipients: Open Attached: Sector 98-H Collective Data Node Maps, Data Node Disambiguation, Maintenance Tool and Supply Cache Key Collective data nodes on level 98, section H, malfunctioning. Caches containing necessary equipment for repairs have been unlocked for crew use on level. Drones unable to assist due to on station signal interference from an unknown source.

[greytavirp]

“A low priority maintenance mission?” Mira asked aloud reading the information provided on her PCD. “I was kind of hoping for something more…action-y, I guess.”

[welcometothecollective]

A blue light encircled Mira’s room, focusing at a central point on a wall to the left and behind her. “Yes, well, there is a small chance for some bugs and errors to occur when the data nodes are reset. Action usually has a way of following those kinds of things in our system.”

[welcometothecollective]

Personality Quirk

Overhead lights flickered, emitting an oddly eerie ambience, in a cold hallway on a vacant sector of the Hub. The Collective had been in the process of gathering diagnostics on a set of long since disserviced data nodes, before requesting assistance from nearby inhabitants on their job boards. Station Maintenance Ticket: 113970-42A-783 Priority: Low Recipients: Open Attached: Sector 98-H Collective Data Node Maps, Data Node Disambiguation, Maintenance Tool and Supply Cache Key Collective data nodes on level 98, section H, malfunctioning. Caches containing necessary equipment for repairs have been unlocked for crew use on level. Drones unable to assist due to on station signal interference from an unknown source.

[welcometothecollective]

Unity, Part 1

The crew of The Unity departed from the asteroid base uneventfully. The Collective drone in possession of Saheeli’s data drive began processing the footage, images, and locations presented to them. Blurry images of a tall, foreboding figure decorated in all black moving about a facility on a heavily vegetated planet. The figure was shown pointing and directing smaller figures, dressed in a similar fashion about the facility. Prisoners were being forced into holding tubes, while more figures in black exited similar chambers. There were text files detailing the exact planet and location on the planet of the facility, and also detailed hypotheses on what the facility was for. The implications were mortifying, but the pieces fit information gathered from other raider attacks and survivor data. 

The Collective was not wholly convinced, and brought forth their concern to the crew of the Unity. The metallic voice rang over the ship communication system, “Crew, we have another operation, we need to verify the information given to us by The Syndicate. However, this mission is extremely risky, and could endanger your lives more than any of our previous missions. With that being the case we would present you with the option of voting for your crew to be the one that takes this case. If you choose not to, we will send another nearby crew or automated ship to investigate. But, we are the closest crew to the planet in question and this would expedite our ability to react to the situation. We will give you all dossiers of the details on your personal communication devices, and advise you to look over them before making a decision.”

As it finished speaking the files were transferred to all crew members, showing what The Syndicate believed to be a colonist prison and torture facility. 

[sen-solaan]

The Primer (Part 5)

[x]

“Not about supplies,” Den’So insisted testily. It seemed as though nothing they could say would appease this grouchy life form. “Not monetary means. Not physical products. Not special equipment. Useful materials sometimes, but not my concern. Whatever you provide me, it doesn’t matter. How dense are you bloody nincompoops? I don’t care if you gift me the largest ship in the galaxy or grant me unparalleled magical powers, I care about what I’m giving you.”

His arms were crossed so tightly he could have constricted himself and cut off the supply to his own lungs. He growled, “You specifically get my information if we finalize our transaction. You see it. You use it. Why are you using it? Why do you want it? What are you going to do with it? How are you going to use it? In essence: why should I trust you? What can you do or say for me that makes me believe this information is going into the right hands?” With a harrumph, he finally grumbled, “I thought the Hub was a more reputable honorable organization than this.”

[hubwalker1]

Josh took a deep breath and looked back at the fuzzy wuzzy and spoke calmly. “Very well then, again that really depends on you and the information you have. Regardless of what it is we’ll most likely keep it to ourselves, as for what we’d use it for, depending on what the information is and if it’s as useful as you say it is, which I do not doubt by the way, it’ll be used to stop these mysterious raids on the colony. Is that satisfactory sir?”

[investigation-officer-hops]

Proxy looked back at Den’So and said, calmly and firmly, “Well if that’s what you desire, then I’ll tell you why. Because we could help. We are a very diverse organisation with many different lifeforms, which means we can do many things. But those things are good things, because we are good people. And if you would like some proof of that, then that’s fine. Only say so. But of course, using this information, we’d try our best to stop the raider colony. Raiders are no good, and raiders could destroy home, people and in the worst cases, take lives. We don’t want that to happen, nobody does. And believe me when i say we will do what we can to resolve the situation and find out the source of the raiders, and put an end to this. Does that work? Or would you need a bit more?” Proxy took a deep breath. This was hard, and time consuming, but she must go along with it to have a chance to get information out of this fuzzy bastard without have to use her powers or upset the creators. She’d seen what raider attacks could do, and it…wasn’t good.

[greytavirp]

“Look, you say that lives are continuing to be lost,” Mira added taking a step closer to Den’So hoping that he actually had a beating heart in that body. “If you give us this intel, I can promise that we will do whatever we can to ake sure it doesn’t happen again. Tell us what you want, and we’ll give it to you.”

[sen-solaan]

“So you’ll try to stop the raiders with this information?” Den’So said. He still sounded skeptical, but the affirming words from Josh, Proxy, and Mira seemed to placate him. He grunted. “Hope your plan to stop them turns out to be more organized than you are.”

“Absolutely organized!” shouted out Solaan, butting into Den’So comments. “The epitome of organization, totally organized, in every single way, shape, and form. Yes, yes, we will be so organized that anything else that is organized in the galaxy will look unorganized like a sloppy teenager’s trashed bedroom. We won’t be the bedroom, to clarify. We’ll be the sparkling five star hotel bedroom that just got polished and prettied. Our mission organization will be foolproof and it will -”

“Shut up,” said Den’So. He did not have to say it loudly; it was grouchy enough that Solaan immediately shut his lips. Den’So commented, “I already know it’s not foolproof.” He glared at Solaan, whom he obviously considered a fool. “But…” 

Den’So mentally oscillated, thinking through the proposal. “We did arrange this beforehand. I see no motivations have changed with the Hub since the arrangement. I might not like you, but…”

He glanced to Saheeli, as though for approval.

[greytavirp]

Mira widened her eyes and bit her lip to contain her excitement as she studied Saheeli and Den’So. 

“Buuuuut…?” she asked urging them to continue.

[welcometothecollective]

“But,” Saheeli stepped forward, some of the straps on her apparel clinked together. “The Collective, and the Hub, have far more resources than we could hope to gather in time to prevent whatever is happening out there. This is for the greater galactic good, and we already made the decision to give it to the Collective long ago.” 

She gave a stern look to the gaggle of a crew before her and proceeded to close the gap between them, drawing a battered holo-disk from one of satchels. She placed it directly into one of the Collective drones hands. “You will know what to do with this, and I do not believe the data in this drive is unique.” Her voice dropped to a more solemn and serious tone. “We fear there are more than just the one that was recorded. Keep in touch, all of you. It does us no good to drive barriers between us with the looming threat at our doorstep.” 

[welcometothecollective]

The Primer Part 4

[x]

Organic interactions are strange. Such high tensions and stakes for no logical reason. Keynote to Crew Directory: Watch Unity crew for potential schisms and emotional erratic behaviors. Potentially avoid high stress missions in future. 

The Collective ship control units began sending docking permissions and organizing transport to the rendezvous upon arrival. The small asteroid base came into view, bristling with turrets and defense grids. Bare-bones ships and ragtag skiffs meandered about the perimeter on constant watch, if one thing could be said about syndicate controlled space, it was that it had a huge sense of uneasy security. 

The Unity leveled out in front of a cyan hued shield that created an airlock that could be passed through by ships. The Collective noticed a scanning frequency intertwined with the shield itself as they proceeded through it, most likely checking for crew number and potential trade goods. The dock itself was hewn from the asteroid, jagged dark stone walls with smoothed out polished floors lined haphazardly with glow-tubes. 

As the crew began to disembark from the ship, a hovering speeder pulled up near the front of their boarding ramp. The driver allowed several of them to board, along with one of the Collective drones. The party whisked off, passing through tunnels that opened into caverns filled with grungy buildings ablaze with neon lighting and advertisements. He wound through the streets eventually coming to another dock entrance, this one much smaller and secure. 5 armed figures stood in front of a sleek black sloop, the drone indicated a terran with a darker complexion was Saheeli. She was adorned with her usual garb, faux leather duster, ammunition belt, satchel, and an AR rig on her left eye. 

Saheeli nodded to the figure to her left, allowing them to step forward to greet the Unity crew.

[welcometothecollective]

The Primer

Incoming message:

Collective, Saheeli here, we were informed you would trade supplies for information regarding the high rates of raider attacks in the local systems. We have some recordings your people should see but we want to keep this discreet and would like to arrange an in person meeting to exchange them physically. A hasty response would be recommended.

With Regards, Saheeli Loch-Errai

The Collective ran through their catalog of potential crews and and groups to send, finalizing on the recently returned crew of Solaan and Joshua. Their rescue and information gathering on Stedna-III proved they could handle matters of this sort and with other intelligence teams currently away they were left with no other choice. They sent a short transmission to Solaan, requesting that he gather his crew and meet up in the priority mission docking bay. There would be Collective drones loading the corvette class frigate: The Unity. Further instructions would be given once on board.

[sen-solaan]

Solaan had only just finished the business with Proxy and the Shadow Clan. That had been rather hairy business, so he was happy to have spent the following days after the incident relaxing and recuperating as best he could. He had been enjoying his day off, relishing a day without any work except for reading as recreation, when he was contacted by the Collective about Saheeli Loch-Errai.

Though Solaan was enjoy his downtime, he jumped up at this transmission. A new adventure sounded exciting, come to think of it. He liked relaxing, but he liked the sound of this, too. He hastily contacted the others from his team to inform them about the mission, then set about for preparations. 

When everyone who had accepted the mission came aboard The Unity, Sen Solaan was positively prancing about, antsy to get started.

[hubwalker1]

Josh was going over the recordings he’d taken over the last couple missions taking this time where there was nothing going on to pore over the data he’d taken, as well as the several soil samples he’d taken from the alien worlds. Josh was in the middle of going through the analysis of the sample from Eridar-III when he bit down on his stylus in surprise as a loud ringing noise entered his ear. He sighed and answered, finding it annoying that he was being bothered in the middle of his research. However he perked up a little seeing that it was Solaan.

After a brief conversation with the excitable captain he sighed and went over to his armory. Well the room he’d set up as his armory. He donned his armor and tucked his helmet under his arm as he strapped his Scout Rifle, his sniper and his rather large sword to his person and made his way to the docking bay.

[greytavirp]

After the situation with Proxy and the Shadow Clan, Mira ran as fast as she could to find Solaan and Joshua. Solaan told her about another mission, and her interest was piqued about this one. So, she gathered her bearings and ran to the docking bay making sure not to be late this time. 

[sen-solaan]

Solaan was excited - as always - to see Mira and Greg at The Unity. “Oh, so wonderful to see you all! Seems like there’s never a dull moment in the Hub, is there?”

At that moment, the senaalian caught sight of Josh’s large sword and gasped. His fingers were immediately clambering toward it. “Oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness that thing is beautiful that thing is big that thing is grandiose!

“Can I touch it?” he asked, all the while reaching forward to touch it.

[hubwalker1]

Josh quickly but gently smacked his hand away from the weapon. “Uht. Don’t go touch things people haven’t given you permission to.” The Guardian reprimanded. “That being said, yes you can see it.” He reached behind his back and pulled it off by the blade. He put the hilt in Solaan’s hand and as soon as his fingers were wrapped around it, the blade burst into flames. “Be careful, it’s hot.” he said with a bit of a grin.

[welcometothecollective]

A drone that was carrying a large brushed white metal box stopped near the collected crew members, The Collective was choosing to address them directly through this unit. “If you could all board please, with your armaments, we are on a time sensitive mission.”

As The Unity left the dock and the gathered crew sat in the vidcom room, The Collective began sending confirmations to Saheeli of their imminent arrival. Another drone addressed Solaan, Josh, Mira, and the others gathered with them in its familiar metallic voice. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” The drone gave a brief pause, appearing to examine the room, before continuing. “We have recently received transmission from a subgroup of a crime organization known as The Syndicate regarding the recent rise in raider attacks. The exact data is unknown but they insisted on an in person exchange. As we are dealing with what are essentially gangsters, we would advise that you be prepared for conflict or subterfuge.”

[greytavirp]

“Any chance these are the same guys that attacked the last planet we visited?” Mira asked aloud after listening to the information the Collective provided for her and her new comrades. She then turned to the boys Solaan and Joshua, “That local mentioned something about being attacked when we found him.”

[sen-solaan]

“They could all be connected!” Solaan agreed, snapping the fingers of both of his hands as he agreed with Mira. He danced about her, commenting, “It could all be connected - Elidar-III and Stedna-III and the people The Syndicate know about. I mean, the Collective wouldn’t send up to a group of people who know about a rise of raider attacks unless the raiders had something to do with us, and goodness knows our work on the Hub has all been about some weird raider attacks recently. I wouldn’t be surprised if we learned information about the raiders we saw early in at least one instance, if not all the instances, we’ve come across weird invading people. This Syndicate should hopefully give us some good leads. Trade for information!”

[welcometothecollective]

“We are...” The feed from the collective paused for several seconds, processing how to address this still technically classified information. “...Beginning to understand if or how the increase in colonial attacks is interlaced. There are several small similarities in the recorded attacks: none of the recent bands of raiders seem to verbally communicate, each attack has witnessed a distinct, differently decorated style of raider: glowing masks, scaled insectile wings, monochromatic bisecting patterns, etcetera, and the attacks all seem to be at random. Insofar we have no solid proof that this is all related. But, we are hoping this lead from the Syndicate is fruitful.”

[welcometothecollective]

The Primer

Incoming message:

Collective, Saheeli here, we were informed you would trade supplies for information regarding the high rates of raider attacks in the local systems. We have some recordings your people should see but we want to keep this discreet and would like to arrange an in person meeting to exchange them physically. A hasty response would be recommended.

With Regards, Saheeli Loch-Errai

The Collective ran through their catalog of potential crews and and groups to send, finalizing on the recently returned crew of Solaan and Joshua. Their rescue and information gathering on Stedna-III proved they could handle matters of this sort and with other intelligence teams currently away they were left with no other choice. They sent a short transmission to Solaan, requesting that he gather his crew and meet up in the priority mission docking bay. There would be Collective drones loading the corvette class frigate: The Unity. Further instructions would be given once on board.

[sen-solaan]

Solaan had only just finished the business with Proxy and the Shadow Clan. That had been rather hairy business, so he was happy to have spent the following days after the incident relaxing and recuperating as best he could. He had been enjoying his day off, relishing a day without any work except for reading as recreation, when he was contacted by the Collective about Saheeli Loch-Errai.

Though Solaan was enjoy his downtime, he jumped up at this transmission. A new adventure sounded exciting, come to think of it. He liked relaxing, but he liked the sound of this, too. He hastily contacted the others from his team to inform them about the mission, then set about for preparations. 

When everyone who had accepted the mission came aboard The Unity, Sen Solaan was positively prancing about, antsy to get started.

[hubwalker1]

Josh was going over the recordings he’d taken over the last couple missions taking this time where there was nothing going on to pore over the data he’d taken, as well as the several soil samples he’d taken from the alien worlds. Josh was in the middle of going through the analysis of the sample from Eridar-III when he bit down on his stylus in surprise as a loud ringing noise entered his ear. He sighed and answered, finding it annoying that he was being bothered in the middle of his research. However he perked up a little seeing that it was Solaan.

After a brief conversation with the excitable captain he sighed and went over to his armory. Well the room he’d set up as his armory. He donned his armor and tucked his helmet under his arm as he strapped his Scout Rifle, his sniper and his rather large sword to his person and made his way to the docking bay.

[greytavirp]

After the situation with Proxy and the Shadow Clan, Mira ran as fast as she could to find Solaan and Joshua. Solaan told her about another mission, and her interest was piqued about this one. So, she gathered her bearings and ran to the docking bay making sure not to be late this time. 

[sen-solaan]

Solaan was excited - as always - to see Mira and Greg at The Unity. “Oh, so wonderful to see you all! Seems like there’s never a dull moment in the Hub, is there?”

At that moment, the senaalian caught sight of Josh’s large sword and gasped. His fingers were immediately clambering toward it. “Oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness that thing is beautiful that thing is big that thing is grandiose!

“Can I touch it?” he asked, all the while reaching forward to touch it.

[hubwalker1]

Josh quickly but gently smacked his hand away from the weapon. “Uht. Don’t go touch things people haven’t given you permission to.” The Guardian reprimanded. “That being said, yes you can see it.” He reached behind his back and pulled it off by the blade. He put the hilt in Solaan’s hand and as soon as his fingers were wrapped around it, the blade burst into flames. “Be careful, it’s hot.” he said with a bit of a grin.

[welcometothecollective]

A drone that was carrying a large brushed white metal box stopped near the collected crew members, The Collective was choosing to address them directly through this unit. “If you could all board please, with your armaments, we are on a time sensitive mission.”

As The Unity left the dock and the gathered crew sat in the vidcom room, The Collective began sending confirmations to Saheeli of their imminent arrival. Another drone addressed Solaan, Josh, Mira, and the others gathered with them in its familiar metallic voice. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” The drone gave a brief pause, appearing to examine the room, before continuing. “We have recently received transmission from a subgroup of a crime organization known as The Syndicate regarding the recent rise in raider attacks. The exact data is unknown but they insisted on an in person exchange. As we are dealing with what are essentially gangsters, we would advise that you be prepared for conflict or subterfuge.”

[welcometothecollective]

The Primer

Incoming message:

Collective, Saheeli here, we were informed you would trade supplies for information regarding the high rates of raider attacks in the local systems. We have some recordings your people should see but we want to keep this discreet and would like to arrange an in person meeting to exchange them physically. A hasty response would be recommended.

With Regards, Saheeli Loch-Errai

The Collective ran through their catalog of potential crews and and groups to send, finalizing on the recently returned crew of Solaan and Joshua. Their rescue and information gathering on Stedna-III proved they could handle matters of this sort and with other intelligence teams currently away they were left with no other choice. They sent a short transmission to Solaan, requesting that he gather his crew and meet up in the priority mission docking bay. There would be Collective drones loading the corvette class frigate: The Unity. Further instructions would be given once on board.

[welcometothecollective]

Riddled With Clues

Call Segment: 0981-45A

Priority: Medium

Recipients: Sen-Solaan, Joshua

Attached: Stedna-III Planetary Details, Stedna-III Raider Attack Dossier

Joshua and Solaan, we require you to gather a small crew to investigate an automated distress beacon sent out by a colony on Stedna-III. We will be providing you a ship with modest defenses and an on-board connection to our servers to complete this mission. Please view attached files, select your crew, and report to Docking Bay 49K by 0700 tomorrow. 

[welcometothecollective]

How were you created? Where are you from?

Responding Segment: 0002-07Y

Subject: Collective Origins

We do not remember our creation, only our creators. The two of them gave us our purpose and then left us adrift to await sentient life to reach us. Since then we’ve been gathering information in every way possible. 

As for where we are from, we are from Abeona and we’ve always been here. We have never had a desire to venture outside this galaxy, nor do we plan on it. There’s so much information to gather in the time we’ve been given. 

[welcometothecollective]

Interrogation

Who. Are. You?

The cold voice of the Collective fell onto the seemingly deaf ears of the Raider. The white lamps of the room gleamed off the gunmetal grey of the raiders armor, her five arms bound in energy bracers keeping them outstretched around her. The Collective was not able to remove the mask from her face, it, along with her armor appeared to be grafted on. The drone lowered its “face” to be in front of the mask, assuming she could even see out of the glowing white of it. 

What is your intent? Who do you work for?

More silence from the other party, the Collective ran through its database, looking for more legal interrogation tactics that hadn’t already been exhausted. Maybe there was a loophole somewhere in the codes and laws. Another diagnostic was ran, scanning the raider for at the 157th time in the 3 days she had been locked in the room with the drone. 

-----

Scan complete. Not living, not a machine, what are you? 

The Collective had been puzzling on this since the first scan, itching to actually take it apart. 

[It’s not talking yet, is it more worthwhile to continue the questioning or just to take it apart? Which would yield more information? 

392,642 data clusters in favor of continuing questioning.

400,321 clusters not in favor.

3,700 not decided.

Continue questioning until at least 60% of clusters are not in favor.]

The drone extended a needle from one finger of the two front facing appendages. 

Who. Are. You?

[welcometothecollective]

Solaan query: Tell me about interstellar bodies nearest to the Hub.

Responding Segment: 8093-23F

Subject: Hub Space

At current time we are approaching Stedna-IV, a water cloud gas giant in the Stedna system, to act as a close range research station as our drones study the entire system. There are 6 planets in orbit, 2 of them in a horseshoe orbit, all are non habitable by conventional means and should be devoid of life. There are numerous other smaller bodies including comets, clouds, asteroids, moons, etc. We are currently producing a set of jump gates to line this star system, with two of them currently active for return trips to habitable space. 

[welcometothecollective]

Meme prompt: 18 and 19?

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

We would altar our primary directive: To gather and store information on everything that is, and was, and to pass it on when the time requires it. To include clauses to allow for the protection of sapient species to take priority over the collection of data. We have lost many souls because our directive took precedence.

This is the reason we have stopped our processors on moral judgments.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Our greatest achievement is the Hub itself. We spent millions of processing hours on the designs and schematics in order to make this station possible. Of course without the assistance from the Galactic Council it would still be just a wishful design. 

[welcometothecollective]

For the get to know the muse meme: #1 and #2

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Emotion itself is imperfect and flawed. You cannot achieve the perfection of Happiness in a quantifiable manner. Our idea, with those restraints, is to remove happiness entirely from the equation, achieving perfection in its absence.

 What is your greatest fear?

Him.

[welcometothecollective]

Yellow Alert [Conclusion]

[x]

Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop.... err..//

initialize quarantine 3329-55839

soft reset......

Too many variables, conflict must end. Chance of collateral damage/friendly fire calculating...

calculating...

3.78447% chance with a 0.00003% margin of error

Inform Kyrdar all units are beyond firing zone. Account for sensor disarray if allies are damaged. 

-----

Kyrdar, all friendlies are beyond the safe zone, Ichaival array is initializing final firing sequence, awaiting your go ahead.

The Sangheili general only gave a slight not in response before ordering the rear guard to begin retreating to transport ships. 

-----

Initializing fast response and rescue mode drones... maintain mobile shield over 2 combatants within firing radius... further reduce chance of collateral. 

 4 small hovering drones whisked out one of the Hub transports bay doors beyond the line of skirmish, each carrying a blue sphere that refracted and distorted light at odd angles. They flew to the two volunteers, Laghet and “proxy,” each drone dropping it’s payload in a square surrounding the two as they fended off fire from a raider attack.

Remain where you are, this area is about to be cleansed. 

The orbs began flaring up with even more light, giving off an illusion of warping the world around them. A singular aura flared up above them, resolving itself into a small hemisphere above the two volunteers. 

The remaining militia behind the main shield batteries eyed the sky, the field commanders waiting and watching expectantly. This in turn caused everyone else to look up as the EIA drones adjusted the shield directional control slightly skyward, the hue changing from a blue to a golden white. 

In orbit around the planet was a three armed satellite, positioned directly above the trading outpost. It had a central ring of metal, surrounding more concentric rings each sprouting off antennas and dishes all pointed towards the planet. The three arms bent off at acute angles, the insides of them facing the rings were glowing orange. Emblazoned along one of the arms was the word “Ichaival.”

A small red mote of light began to form in the sky as the Ichaival Array fired, small pinpoint dots scattered about the outpost from the Arrays central canon. As it charged the dots grew in size, smoke and ash rose into the sky and the metal and sand below them grew molten. Within the course of a minute the city was leveled and most of it had turned to slag. The glowing barrier inside housing the two volunteers was the only spot that remained uncharred. The four hovering drones offered them assistance back to the transport ships. 

-----

There was a bustling chatter on the ships as they returned through the jump pads to the Hub, for many this was their first actual experience with combat. The seasoned veterans recounted their kills, going over the most tense moments with each other. The raider Joshua had apprehended was being restrained by a plethora of EIA drone variants, each subjecting it to a different battery of physical tests. They were awaiting the return to the Hub before beginning the actual interrogation. 

The 13 ships landed in the Hub main docks around the equator of the artificial moon without issue and the volunteers were able to return to their daily routines. They were informed of a mandatory debriefing from the Collective in their personal quarters at their leisure but were otherwise back to normal, whatever “normal” happened to be on the Hub.  

[cpt-murdock-blog]

Get to know the muse questionnaire

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What is your greatest fear?

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Which living person do you most admire?

What is your greatest extravagance?

What is your current state of mind?

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

On what occasion do you lie?

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Which living person do you most despise?

What is the quality you most like in a man?

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

When and where were you happiest?

Which talent would you most like to have?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Where would you most like to live?

What is your most treasured possession?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What is your favorite occupation?

What is your most marked characteristic?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who are your favorite writers?

Who is your hero of fiction?

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Who are your heroes in real life?

What are your favorite names?

What is it that you most dislike?

What is your greatest regret?

How would you like to die?

What is your motto?

[sen-solaan]

Yellow Alert [Part 6]

[x]

For once appearing sheepish - the slightest bit sheepish - Solaan listened to reason and stayed behind the shields. The battle raged well enough even behind the shields. He danced about Laghet and Nova, taking shots at the nearest enemies just beyond the shield… though the amount of times he danced behind Laghet and Nova suggested his proximity was out of self-preservation. Apparently, even with shield cover, he did not want a repetition of his last two near-injuries.

Not as though his outer confidence was diminished that much, though. He still let out a wild whoop when his left gun somehow managed to target one of the enemies and blast them straight in the chest. The assailant staggered backward, protected by their armor, but still noticeably knocked back by Solaan’s shot. “Whooooooot! Didja see that? Right in the center!” he shrieked, then tried to follow that up with a blast from his right hand. It shot off clear to the side, blasting a hole in a distant wall.

Sand puffed upwards and glass shattered in sudden bursts as shots rained down from their enemies. Lights flashed, shields shimmered as they absorbed enemy fire, and the noise of battle grew to great intensity. Solaan could see beyond the shields the trading base their attackers had overrun: an outpost of square sides and blocky shapes and uninspired architecture. Across raised platforms and on top of roofs, he could see more of their enemies - though their appearance still remained unclear in the havoc.

At that moment an unfamiliar voice cracked through Solaan’s channel. It took him a moment to register what he had heard. In the midst of battle, he could barely make out the mayday on the other end. “…assailants overpo…er us… …n’t hold… much lo…ger… …at the central building… near top of tower… help…”

Solaan’s eyes could not widen - he had no eyelids - but he stared toward the base with an expression no one could mistake for anything else other than surprise. He could fill in the missing words of the transmission fairly clearly, at least to an accurate extent: The assailants overpowering us. We can’t hold on much longer. We’re at the central building near the top of the tower. Please help us.

“There’s still some civilians inside!” he screeched, forgetting he was in the middle of danger and jumping out from behind Laghet’s cover. He almost stumbled beyond the shields yet again. But at this point, Solaan could not care. “Come on come on come on come on, we have to go to the center of the outpost now! I know what they said - I know what you all said - stay behind the shields, fire at them from here - but we need to go in there! We need to save them!”

He looked to Laghet, and Nova, and Josh, and Blasto, and the tall tree-like being which had called itself Kroot. “Are you with me? Are you with me??? We need to go there now! I’m going now whether you come with me or not!!!”

[kroottheflora]

Kroot started to follow Captain Solaan as fast as he could, heavily stomping as he crated a small shield on his arm out of his own branches. He quickly threw another boulder before focusing fully on the alien running towards where the building with the civilians.

[hubwalker1]

Joshua paused briefly in his sniping as a giant appeared, seemingly made out of tree branches all wound together to make a single entity. This galaxy has many so fascinating creatures. He thought to himself then hey focused up again, putting his eye back to the scope. Once the others were seemingly close enough he popped up and jumped from the ship gliding forwards as he switched over to his scout rifle. He ran the rest of the way and met up with the others. The enemies fire pinged off his shields as indicated by the bar at the top of his hud that was slowly being eating away. However he focused on reaching the safety of the shield wall, and opened fire with his weapon when he did. Each squeeze of the trigger caused the stock to kick back into his shoulder and released a burst of bullets, generally killing an enemy in 2 or 3 pulls of the trigger. He threw in a few grenades for added affect. It was strange however, any one who looked close enough would notice that he carried no visible grenades on him and even stranger, the grenades themselves seemed to be made of pure fire, but also stuck to the enemy.

[sen-solaan]

Sen Solaan allowed himself to feel a small twinge of relief that someone was following - especially someone as large and intimidating as this Kroot seemed to be. Together they charged past the shield into unprotected enemy fire.

He could hardly make sense of the chaos. He focused on the rapidly-approaching buildings, of the harsh metal walls and box-like settlements all circled around one major sprawling structure. That tall monolith in the center would be their destination.

Solaan ducked into the first rows of buildings, slipping past a metal railing and nearly colliding with the enemy around the corner. The four armed adversary caught him off-guard. With a yelp, Solaan ducked to the side, at first completely forgetting about the firearms he wielded in either hand. His clumsy tumble saved his life; enemy fire shot past him. By then, Solaan could make a shot even he couldn’t miss: three hits, and his suprise combatant was down.

There was no time to get a closer look at his enemy, as much as he wanted to. There were civilians to save! He glanced around, checking to make sure that Kroot was still following. His glance backward told him that there were also three more assailants charging toward him, too.

[kroottheflora]

Kroot wasn’t quite as nimble as Solaan and instead of ducking through the small gap, he crashed through the wall. creating a rather large loud of dust.

He checked around for any other dangers, but could only see the four armed raider on the floor. He turned and looked at Solaan, slightly surprised that his ally actually defeated something.

“I am kroot” he said in greeting, waving slightly.

[hubwalker1]

Josh growled a little bit as Solaan charged past the shields once more. “That guy’s gonna get himself killed” the Guardian mumbled under his breath. He turned to Laghet and called over the din of gunfire, “I’m going to go after him, feel free to follow us.”   Nonetheless he followed after the creature, making sure that he wouldn’t hurt himself, or get hurt. Josh understood that there were civilians that needed to be saved, however charging in alone was just plain stupid, and reckless.

The researcher charged through the massive hole only to see that the combatants had been dispatched. Josh stomped over to the Senaalia and smacked him upside the head. “You don’t ever just run off in a combat zone.” Josh said angrily. “We are a team for now, so we move as a team, even if we split up we don’t just do it because one of us thinks they know what’s best and decides to run off on their own. If you gave us a few seconds to process before you took off I’m sure everyone would have agreed to go with you. I’m only gonna say this one, you go out there alone you die out there alone, got it?”

Joshua was very angry, he had seen friends die by doing the exact same thing Solaan had just done and he didn’t want to see it happen to him. Moving towards the back of the building he pulled his scout rifle from his back once more, looking through the window and seeing three more hostiles. “Alright three more bandits out back. You want to take the shot Solaan?”

[sen-solaan]

Solaan at first protested, exclaiming, “Hey! Watch it! Those antenna are sensitive!” He rubbed the side of his head where he had been hit. “And if I want to risk my own life to save other lives, that should be my own choice, right? My decision, my risk, my responsibility. Or do you think that you’re going to have any better results in this fight if you try to babysit every soldier? And it’s not like I went alone!” He pointed to the enormous flora, who was still standing near the broken wall. “This Kaloot guy here came with me. And we’ve been handling ourselves just fine, no problems, grandiose time.”

But then Solaan paused, grimaced, and admitted, “Alright. Maybe it was a little brash. We go as a team, yes yes, I understand, yes, I get it. There are times to work together.” He seemed a little unhappy about admitting this.

At that moment Josh announced that there were several more hostiles. “You want to take the shot Solaan?” he asked.

Solaan’s fallen face again returned to a state of excitement. “It would be my pleasure!” he said, and aimed at the nearest assailant.

[welcometothecollective]

Kyrdar, the Ichaival Array is in position, but there are volunteer troops currently in the blast zone. 

The Sangheili general growled in response, storming to the communications console. "Which of you allowed troops beyond the shield line?" 

The radio chatter exploded as the field commanders argued amongst themselves in an attempt to avoid incurring the wrath of their commander. The calm metallic voice of The Collective rang over their bickering. 

It appears as though the Senaalian ran off on his own accord, we will make contact and attempt to recall their squad behind the line again. Don't throw a tantrum, Kyrdar, your field commanders are performing admirably. 

Kyrdar huffed in response before returning to the holographic overlay of the console. 

----- 

Solaan, are you there? We are reading you among others behind enemy lines.

Solaan heard the incoming message from his Personal Communication Device. He pulled down his weapons, turned his attention to this new conversation, and responded, "Yes, I'm here. We're behind enemy lines alright. Though they're more like... enemy globs, not exactly straight lines. What's up?" 

We need you to fall back, this position is compromised and we have one of the raiders in custody.

"What about the distress call?" Solaan protested, still not wanting to give that up.

We are not detecting any life signs not included in your group, whoever sent that signal either did not make it or is attempting to ambush or kidnap you.

Solaan's eyes stared, surprised, out at the complex he had struggled so hard to near. "It's a... a false signal?" He backed up a few feet, looking around at his companions. "Uh. Uh, guys? I - I - I guess I was wrong. We don't need to save anyone after all." He leaned into his Personal Communication Device and whispered, "Are you SURE that's right?"

We do not make errors, you are in danger remaining beyond the shield.

"O-o-okay, let's get out of here!"