Confrontation

[tachyon]

Kei chews over this for a few seconds.
"I'm gonna need to buy more clothes."
About half an hour later, they'd ditched the APC and began moving through the streets of Tremorton on foot, careful to stick to side streets and alleys. Though to all appearances there seems to be no increased EDF or police presence.
"Maybe they covered the whole thing up," said Kei as she peered around an alleyway corner, "they probably don't want the authorities asking questions. Guys with that many weapons have got to be on shaky legal ground."

[Machaeus]

"Still no sense taking chances," Machaeus says. His painkillers have kicked in by now, so he can 'port them back to Gordon if worse comes to worst.

[Ash]

Meanwhile at the EDF base...

The sound of a helicopter breaks through the silent chaos in front of the base. The soldiers look up into the sky, where an old unarmed transport helicopter appears.
As soon as the helicopter landed, the door on its side slides open. Two soldiers jumped out, quickly turning around to help an old man with an long white beard climb out.
One of the soldiers reaches inside the helicopter, pulling a cane out and hands it over to the old man.
The other soldier reaches inside too, pulling an umbrella out. The man looks at the soldier with an angry expression, just as he was about to open it.

"I am old. Not made of sugar.", he says before he rips the umbrella away from the soldier and throws it back into the helicopter. He looks up into the sky with an thoughtful but also sad expression. "Is it that horrible... that even heaven starts to cry?"

Slowly but energetic he walks through the rain to the building into the chaos which was a hangar only little time ago. Inside, countless men and women are busy getting rid of the battles aftermath.
On his way, he sees people who try to get a lot of foam on the ground out of the way. Some people are coming his way, carrying gas masks under their arms.
They stop and salute the old man, continuing only as he was past them. The hangar itself was filled with even more life. Countless people are collecting various pieces of metal and electronic from the ground.
For a second, everyone in the hangar pauses the work and salutes. He continues to walk slowly through the masses and stops at one long red and black piece of metal, shaped like an wing. Grumbling he kneels down and lets his shaking fingers slide over the overprint on the black part:

MA-03-D-ragon

"Don't worry, son. Your sacrifice wont be forgotten.", he mumbles.

He closes his eyes and nods a few times before he stands up again to continue his walk through the mess.

[tachyon]

With both Kei and Urufu's senses turning up nothing untoward, the tired group finally enter the relative safety of their home.
The lights are out, save for the pulsing glow of the TV, the volume turned down low. On it, a host of some late-night infomercial touts the values of owning the complete 8 series boxset of some long-forgotten television show from the early 2100s, seeming blissfully unaware that anyone who might actually have wanted it has probably downloaded it years ago.
And there in sleepmode, propped up on the couch, remote clasped in his arm-peripheral, the light from his camera dim and pulsating slightly, was Gordon. He emitted a very quiet buzz every few seconds, in time with his glowing eye.
Kei brushes him with her hand, and instantly his camera glows bright before swiveling to take her and to others into focus.
"Aw, hullo," he said, then, surprisingly seeing as he had no psychical need for it, he yawned, "bit late then eh? Musta dozed off after the late movie. Phoar, what a ripper it was I tell ya! There was this bit, right, where they'd hijacked the starcarrier an' it was headin' towards Centari City, an-"
The AI stopped, as he realized the expressions on everyones faces, and something else more disturbing.
"Hang on, we're short one..."

((Umm, I am still unsure as to where everyone lives. In some house, an apartment, do they live separately? For the sake of continuity, Kei has nowhere of her own yet, seeing as this is only days after the last RP))

[Machaeus]

(Probably the base for the TRS crew, but since we're not really continuing that, it's basically a small, abandoned but reactivated, outpost in a damaged part of the city. The original characters were here to fight off the impending robot attacks on the city. Things have apparently quieted down for a while...)

[Ash]

(( I always assumed that everyone lives at Dr. Vikels lab. I imagined the lab as pretty big.

Urufu looks at a note on the fridge, and reads it aloud. "Guys - gone to buy groceries. The werewolf eats enough for three people.

Maybe I misinterpreted that. Anyway guys, do you want to continue or shall we finish this? It is up to you. ))

[tachyon]

((Ok, so we're in some generic run-down hideout in the crappy part of town. Propose we do some redecorating in some sort of a think-tank RP, where we contribute ideas in character. After this of course.
On with the story then?))

[Machaeus]

(I was thinking the lab, but since that main story isn't going anywhere...oh well.)

[tachyon]

((Can we move it along? I'm gonna move it along.))

Puerto Williams, Antártica Chilena Province, Chile
2 hours later

Parked on a ice-covered lading pad in the small airport (that also functioned as an even smaller spaceport) Kei looked out of the back of the shuttle at the large white mountains that surrounded the worlds southernmost town. She pulled back the hood on her jacket so she could feel with all her senses the first winter she'd ever seen. But she couldn't fully enjoy the experience.
She looked out across the runway to the small terminal. Urufu, Machaeus and herself had all split up in town to buy supplies. First stop for her had been the nearest clothing shop, where they seemed not to get too many Khrohali as the staff had all asked to touch her fur.
"You alright darl?" Gordon asked from the cabin, his slightly pixelated image looked concerned.
"Fine." Kei moved to the pilots chair and sat, "Just...alot on my mind."
She stared at the snow beginning to clump on the canopy.
"If you need to talk or anythin', I wasn't just designed as a navigational aide y'know."
Kei smiled a little.
"Thanks Gordy... I'll remember that."

[Machaeus]

"And I'm telling you that that price is too high!" Urufu suddenly shouts from the market. "I've converted it to American coinage and it's like twice the price you get for it at Whole Foods! Do you have ANY idea how expensive it is there?!"
"Inflation here is very bad, sir," the shopkeeper says.
"I'll take it all for four-fifths this price," Urufu says, leaning forwards a bit.
"Nine-tenths," the man says.
Urufu rubs his chin. "17-20ths. That's halfway between our asking prices, right?"
"I think so. Done." The two exchange items after a quick run-through on the calculator. Urufu walks away with several large fruits; some small packets that appear to have other nutrients within; and a fire-starter kit, a few radios, and a couple windbreakers that he picked up elsewhere. He drops the stuff off in the ship and snaps. "Clothes for myself."
"I got some for you," Machaeus says, walking in, "Since you got the food."
"How'd you know my size?"
"I know mine, and you're not much bigger than me until you transform." Machaeus drops off the stuff and dusts his hands. "I just hope we're not there for long."
"Why? Don't like the cold after being in a h3llishly-hot region for, like, ever?" Urufu grins.
Machaeus stares at Urufu funny, then slaps his forehead. "Oh...I never told you guys...d'oh."

[tachyon]

Something in Kei's pocket beeped and vibrated for her attention. She pulled out the communicator (which was called a Cell Phone on Earth, but she'd always called them communicators) and a holographic line of text floated above its surface.
"Text from that store I went to," Kei said to Gordon, "they finally got my boots made up. I just gotta go pick them up."
She waggled her large toes in front of Gordon's monitor.
"Jeez, they'd have nothing left in the shop after having to make a pair of churches for those plates!" said Gordon, his rhyming slang throwing Kei for a few seconds before she figured out what he meant.
"Yeah, well, tough. They're cold enough as it is."
Kei got up and walked to the rear ramp, closing it behind her as she exited.
"Don't let any strangers in, OK Gordy?"
"Yeah, righto." he called as the ramp shut.
Kei began walking across the concrete towards the terminal. She hoped she'd get there in time for one of the few bus services; it was a 2 1/2 kilometer walk to the center of town and her feet were already wet and cold.

(( maps.google.com.au/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=-54.841086,-68.30595&daddr=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=15&sll=-54.841975,-68.305779&sspn=0.014827,0.04446&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=15
Where they are right now, Puerto Williams, Chile. To see just how remote it is start zooming out.))

[Machaeus]

"What'd you want to tell us?" Urufu says.
"When she gets back," Machaeus says. "It's important, and I don't want to repeat myself."

[tachyon]

Some hours later, as the sun dipped slightly below the horizon -as low as it would for the 'night'- Kei returned, her new cold-weather boots crunching the ice on the concrete landing pads.
She entered the suttle, sealed the door behind her, and sat on top of the nearest ducted heating vent. She didn't take off any of her outer clothes, not even her gloves or hood.
"This. Place. Is. Fracking. Freezing." she said, "Why would anyone build a city here?"

[Machaeus]

"Dunno," Machaeus says. "What I do know is that they had supplies, and were conveniently close to our destination."
"Were you gonna tell us something?" Urufu asks.
"That I was," the warlock nods. "Basically, depending upon how far into Antarctica we go, we have a chance of running into devils."
Silence. "What you say!" Urufu says in a poor attempt at a digitized voice.
"I said all your base are belong to us," Machaeus snorts. "And don't ask, Kei, it's an old internet joke.
"Anyways. The whole operation is run by ice devils, obviously, but basically the lot of them found a portal from the H3lls to the mortal world. They don't have any real foothold - it's a lesser operation, less attention paid to, and it closed after a couple years anyways - but we might want to avoid that particular 3 mile radius around the portal, just to be safe."
"So we avoid them unless we're itching for a fight," Urufu clarified.
"And a big one," Machaeus nodded. "I've already loaded the coordinates of the area into Gordon's computer, so we should be able to detour around that."

[tachyon]

"Right. Besides freezing my tail off and running into daemons is there anything else I need to be concerned about?" asked Kei.
"Well, there's the fact that pretty much the whole continent is a satellite black spot, an' smugglers and all sorts from space usually get in through here." said Gordon.
"Right... so where exactly are we heading and why are we heading there?" said Kei, "I mean, we've got a whole planet and solar system to hide in. Why do we need to camp out down here?"
After a few seconds, Gordon says, "Because we 'aven't been here before? Besides, you've sepnt your whole life in space and haven't been on this planet for a week yet. I reckon you could do with a bit of a camping trip.
"Besides, I've taken the liberty of downloading a couple of docs of the good old internet, and there's a surprising number of abandoned whaling stations, scientific posts and even a couple o' military bases around the place. Most of them just south of us on the Antarctic Peninsula."
The shuttle's engines purred as they lifted off gently into the twilight and turned south. Kei was still grumpy, but accepted.
"Alright... just saying we could've hidden someplace warmer. That had beaches and stuff... and drinks with little umbrellas in them. I've always wanted one of those."