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Vessa is currently sitting against a tree reading her PDA again. Her expression is not a happy one and when she moves the pages on the PDA, it is with a stabbing angry finger.
Alaria pops into existance before Vessa. Let's hope it doesn't startle her! "Oh my, are you angrily replying to a comment? Never read the comments, dear!"
Tharsis flickers into view near Vessa and Alaria, giving a yawn and stretch. "Mornin' all."
Katrin ambles off of the ship, stretching and yawning as she walks. "Good morning, everyone," she echoes of Tharsis.
Vessa twitches as Alaria then Tharsis appears, "I have got to get used to that at some point. Good morning, comments?" she asks confused.
"On the internets!" Alaria explains, "If you've uploaded a video..." Katrin gets a salute, and Tharsis gets a playful nudge in his middle before she kneels beside Vessa. "Let's take a look at that sternum then."
"I suspect that she's taking out anger caused by another source.. a living source." Tharsis says, glancing over to a tree that is lying next to its stump, the break point looking like it's riddled with holes from a weapon. As Katrin emerges he offers a wave. "Good morning."
Katrin lifts a brow, "Oh dear. Who has pissed off Vessa this time?" she asks with a sigh. "Or do I not want to know so I don't have to go murder them and leave their body hidden in the jungle?"
Vessa blinks at Alaria surprised, "Oh uh, sure. It is just a small thing I am sure." to Tharsis she nods, "Yeah, still angry about that," a pause, "Same living source." to Katrin she says, "Oh it would be the same one as last time and no need to murder them, then I would feel bad for having the Boss have to murder one of the crew, very messy." she says with a slight amusement. "Morning Boss."
"I must've missed something. Probably for the better." Alaria pauses, looking warily back to Tharsis and Katrin. "Tharsis, avert your gaze, would you?" She wags a finger at him before lifting Vessa's shirt to palpate the offending bone.
Damn his honest nature, perhaps, but Tharsis lays it out. "Majors last night pretty much indicated that we should forgo assisting these people, allow them to die, and then claim the planet for ourselves. In essence, commit genocide for our personal gain." he says, frowning. "Such a thought is... unthinkable." Nodding to Alaria, he averts his gaze.
Katrin sighs, rubbing at her forehead. "The man is... well, I suppose this is why he is no longer in command," she muses after some thought. "I can assure you, Tharsis, that I have no intention of allowing such a thing to happen. I have already instructed Wyri to begin distribution of the cure and to help them learn how to manufacture it for themselves. If we cannot prove to these people that we mean to deal honestly then we have no hope of being able to settle anywhere on this planet."
Vessa blushes red as her shirt is lifted, until the bone is touched when she goes pale, a sucked in breath the only noise after that. The chest has a brilliant bruise as does her stomach.
"I should hope we avoid genocide... Though I'll make an effort to understand /why/ he might think in such a manner. See enough wars and your perspective gets skewed." Alaria frowns as the fracture can be felt through skin. "These kinds of breaks are always so hard to mend." She draws some small, circular device from her medkit and holds over against Vessa's chest as she holds the fracture together with pressure. "This will help it bond back together, but you can't be moving about vigorously or letting Akamatsu get the best of you."
"Another aspect of human nature I have yet to fully comprehend." Tharsis says. "To lose one's compassion so.. wholeheartedly. I always thought a heart of stone was a human preverb, but he makes me think there is truth of it."
"He was hardened by his experiences," Katrin says slowly. "He is skewed in his way of thinking. It is all about the final result, not necessarily about what it takes to reach that particular point." She frowns as her arms cross her chest. "We are what our environments and upbringings have made us to be."
Vessa looks down at the device, "What constitutes moving abotu vigorously? And I will get Mister Shogun Toaster one day." looking back up to the other three she says, "He seems to have lost his care of the natives because they wanted to kill him when he was a hostage and decided to attack the crew. While I might not be thrilled at them for that either, it was not unexpected. Nothing these natives have done is unprecedented, it has all been done before, just by different people on a different planet."
"I will say that we have among this crew the most forgiving entities I've ever worked with," Alaria grins. "Might be a good thing or bad thing." She packed the device away, "Well, no doing cartwheels and such. Try not to wrestle, either. I can't do much else about your other bruises, but they'll be fine in time."
"That is what I fail to truly understand. Humans possess their own form of programming, but ours can be altered as we wish. Humans seem to be either unwilling or unable to alter their own." Tharsis says. "However I have seen it done, often called a 'change of heart'."
"But there is usually something that sparks the change of heart," Katrin replies to Tharsis. "For Majors... he shuts himself off from things that could be the beginning of such a change. He finds difficulty in seeing the humanity of certain situations. It is all just s mission that needs completing."
Vessa smiles to Alaria, "Thanks doc, I will attempt to refrain from cartwheels and wrestling. Bruises I can deal with just fine." looking around she says, "People change constantly, regardless of our desires to stop it, we are always changing. Not major changes perhaps, those come from major events, good or bad, within our lives. We can control how we change, but not what that we do. Majors has decided to shut himself off from seeing beyond his perceptions, that was his change, there is the environment he grew up in that has a hand in that, along with all of the years that led up to now." she begins putting her shirt down, "As for forgiveness, what good does it do to hold bitterness inside? It eats you from the inside and makes you do things that lead to regret, there is very little that would make me desire to hold onto the emotions that would result in the desire to kill."
"Well!" Alaria says with flourish, "We can talk and speculate on Thomas' psyche all we want, but we won't know for sure. You can tell him all of that, Vessa, though I have a feeling he shan't listen. Sometimes it takes more than words."
"Words are about all we have." Tharsis says. "But I will say I know an immovable object when I see one.. that Majors is an immovable object."
"I do have to agree with Alaria," Katrin says. "It does no good to speculate on Majors. He will be who he will be. My job is to ensure that he does not endanger anyone on this crew and to keep his more insane ideas in check."
Vessa grins slightly, "Oh, I told him all of that last night, or as close to it as I figured he would understand." she shakes her head, "Little brother listens, in spite of himself at times, but that doesn't mean he does anything about it. Oh and Tharsis and Alaria, Ruin came up with a good idea last night, could we have a look at one of those deer we brought back and some of the other wildlife to see if those were genetically altered as well?" she nods to Katrin with a grin, "Yes, a full time job that."
"I doubt he's going to go off and commit genocide all by himself," Alaria nods, standing. "Oh, sure, I can take a look at a few critters." Apparently she's under the impression that they're adorable little creatures. Alaria is Fluttershy. She fades out, but her ship body is nearby, so she's listening.
"I would hope not." Tharsis says simply. "Certainly, we can take a look at the local wildlife. It is a valid point, what else on this planet might have been part of their experiments."
"Once this is resolved with the natives, I want to do some research about the wildlife and learn what else exists here," Katrin muses. "I would prefer the natives even assist us with this."
Vessa nods in agreement, "Absolutely, the thing that occurred to me is that those deer things exhibited very intelligent behavior and I had to wonder what their native prey was. The ecosystem seems rather balanced without a seeming overpopulation of prey animals or predictors, I mean we haven't even had an attack in the landing field and all we have are crates as a barrier. It wasn't until we walked just beyond that barrier that we were attacked, this denotes caution and intelligence on the part of those critters, a rather disturbing thought actually."
Tharsis puts a hand to his chin. "Interesting..."
"I have seen some very intelligent animals in my day," Katrin muses. "But gathering more information on them would help, especially in terms of how dangerous they could be."
better." "If those deer were any bigger and if they hadn't focused so much on tackling us then we would have been very dead. As it stands they were dangerous enough and we were lucky we were armored. They also would have done better if they had attacked all at once, but these are dangerous enough as is, particularly with unarmored prey." she grins, "I still say a hike would be nice, maybe in daylight though. I would like to see the planet a little better."
"Indeed, there are some animals possessing a sense of cunning and intelligence. We'll now for sure once I examine one." Tharsis says.
"Does it have to be alive for you to examine it?" Katrin asks, tilting her head to the side. "That could prove to be a bit more troublesome."
Vessa is sitting against a tree with Kat and Tharsis nearby as they stand and chat, " We can do a hunt, maybe we can lay traps. I am not much of a hunter but if we have tranq guns then I can shoot something with that."
Akamatsu exits the ship strething a bit and happens to catch the last of that conversation, asking simply "What's going on?"
"Alive would be better to determine brain wave patterns." Tharsis says. "Dead it would be less than informative, as I would only get a DNA profile which while telling us much, won't tell us what the animal is thinking or feeling."
Katrin nods, "Well perhaps you could set up a hunting party, Vessa," she says. "I would be very little use to in a situation like this. I have little skill in something like that."
Vessa gives Aka a wave as she nods to Katrin, "Good idea Boss, I will set that up. Hello Mister Shogun Toaster, we were just discussing a small hunt to trap a living critter for study. Feel up to a trek through forest? I feel like a hike."
"Sounds good. I'm sure we can fabricate an enclosure that would allow me to study the creature without harming it." Tharsis says.
Akamatsu nods at this and replies with a shrug and hands going to sword hilts "Sure. I'm up for a little hunting. It's been a long time."
Katrin nods as she looks about. "Good," she muses. "I know a little about tracking, but I think most of my people now more than a little about that. Perhaps it is just in our blood."
Majors steps out of the Devil May Care with a lazy yawn. The Sivadian glances around the area slowly and lifts a brow. "Oi.." He murmurs.
Vessa stands with a nod, "Alright then, I can't track for anything but I am a good shot. I will get some tranqu guns." she nods to Majors, "We are going to try and capture one of those deer alive for study, did you want to come?"
Tharsis walks over to his boarding ramp and opens the supply hatch, withdrawing his mobile emitter and donning it. "My sensors should help in tracking. If I set it to exclude humanoid lifeforms, we should have better luck spotting our quarry."
Akamatsu nods at that and takes his hands off his sword hilts at the no kill part and states simply "If we want a deer all we need to do is set up a lure on a tree and wait up in it. It comes to eat the lure and then we either shoot it, or more likely in my case drop down and punch it in the temple."
Katrin nods, "I will set up a camp here and have the security prepared for if you bring one in," she says. "Good luck and try not to get chewed on this time."
Majors lifts a brow and pulls a nicotine patch from his pocket and slaps it onto his neck. "Hmm? One of the little baddies? We do need to give it a proper name. A Vessa's Deer perhaps?" The Sivadian strolls down the gangplank.
Vessa smirks a moment at Majors and shakes her head, "Who wants a gun? I will grab one for them, that sounds good Boss. We will need a way to contain the thing and not let it chew on people while we keep it."
"I'll take one. I can be a pretty good shot when I want to be." Tharsis says.
Akamatsu nods to Vessa "I'll take one, but I have my doubts whether I'll actually use it or not. I'm a good enough shot, though."
Majors slides his face plate down. The Sivadian lets out a small sigh and starts tramping towards the jungle line.
Vessa returns with several tranq guns and calls out, "Majors if you are coming then we stick together, alright team. Lets head out!" and with that she passes out the guns, catching up with Majors she hands him one, then steps into the jungle.
Tharsis switches on his scanner as the move into the jungle. "Let's just hope they're not hungry."
Majors accepts the tranq gun and offers Vessa a sly smirk behind his faceplate. "Oh? Are you sure you don't want me stomping ahead attracting the cute little buggers?" He asks.
The jungle, previously rather noisy with wildlife, goes quiet as the small team steps within it's depths. The silence seems to follow the team as they move eerie in the totality of it. Every now and again a quick motion or flash of movement indicates that a creature is startled into motion but generally too quick to see well, for the humans anyway.
For a while there is little that can be seen, tracks of all kinds as well as the normal litter and leavings of different animals can be fond.
Vessa leading makes a derisive snort, "No Majors, I think I stomp just fine for all of us. Okay, tracker guy, where do we go?"
Tharsis focuses on his scanner, analyzing the readings. "I'm picking up recent movement of a large sized animal through the jungle, bearing 153 degrees." he says. "The trail is rather fresh, but I'm not detecting the animal who made it, at least at this distance."
"I certainly would not call those Vessa Fawns good sized. They were a bit runty and mean like their name sake." Majors says as he shifts his path in the direction Tharsis pointed out. "Perhaps its a Majors Bear, cuddly and missunderstood." The Sivadian chuckles mostly to himself. "I do suppose we are a rather chatty group." He adds towards Vessa. He checks his tranq gun over as he moves.
Akamatsu smirks a bit at Majors going on about nothing but other than that simply ignores him. The ronin walks with the group and attempts to pick any fruit he might see along the way to make a lure if it's needed.
The track from the large creature is leading clearly off but there are also several smaller ones that seem to have surrounded it. Several smears of blood cover sections of the forest litter heading in that direction as well. Deep indents in the forest floor from sharp hooves that are seen by Tharsis's sharp eyes, Aka gets the chance to note the blood if not the prints.
"Well then, we might as well head that way I suppose. Do you see anything else, I think they hunt in groups, or maybe that is only sometimes." Vessa murmurs and looks around.
Tharsis studies his readings as they start to follow the trail. "Based on this blood I would presume they've just fed... I'm detecting smaller, lighter prints around the main set of prints, possibly juveniles." he says. "I'm starting to get readings of the creatures themselves... thus far they don't appear to have spotted us."
"Hmm.." Majors murmurs. "How many of the little bastards do we want?" The Sivadian asks as he pushes through the brush and closer to the readings.
As the group moves in the direction of the tracks they find a clearing, the scene of a very odd looking kind of event. Near the center of the clearing can be seen a large creature that looks rather like a rhinoceros with a long neck and a total of six legs, it is currently standing on the back four and kicking out at the four smaller green fawns that are lunging in and taking small bites out of it, a fifth deer seems to be trying to jump on the rhino type critter's back or jump to reach it's neck.
"Only one or two I should think," states Vessa before coming to a stop just inside the treeline to watch this event unfold. "Okay, well there is one prey animal I suppose." she says, "Ideas and strategies guys?"
"I strongly recommend we stun the mother first... otherwise she'll go into a rage if we appear to be harming the fawns." Tharsis says. "We'll have to capture the fawns as well, we can't leave them without their mother in this jungle."
"Poor bugger." Majors comments as he eyes the not-Majors Bear. "Lets take the Vessa Fawn going for the neck and see about scaring off the rest. Hell we can take the Tharsis Rhino with us if we work fast enough." The Sivadian muses as he readies his tranq gun. "Take the leader out, perhaps and... Oh.. are they a family unit now?" He frowns as Tharsis, the ship rather than the rhino speaks. "Considering the bleeding hearts in our group, I suppose we need to collect the young as well."
As the discussion goes on one of the deer takes a large chunk out of the 'Tharsis Rhino' who promptly screams and attempts to trample the other deer, the still holding on as it is flung around. The others seem to consider this great fun and try to do the same, well two of them do anyway, the other two, with a twitch of the ears, seem to hear a conversation at the tree line and come to investigate.
"I don't think they are a family unit Thar. They seem to be hunting to me and I don't see one that is different enough to be a mother, oh shit." Vessa gets her tranq gun ready. "Incoming."
Tharsis gets his own tranq gun ready as the two approach. "Considering how coordinated they are... and if I'm not hearing things, those sounds they're making aren't random.. it's almost.. a language." he says. "Damn things are /talking/ to one another..."
"We'll have to ask them over for tea and scone." Majors says as he lets one of the darts fly towards one of the Vessa Fawns stalking their way once it is close enough. Once its launched, Majors moves quickly to press himself against a tree. "Let us hope we got the dosage right." He murmurs.
The dart whistles quietly and goes right past the fawn, arrogant bugger even seems to make an amused noise. The other decides now would be a great time to call an alarm and the other 3 leave off of the grateful Rhino who wastes no time in trying to move off. Until 5 more come to surround it, poor thing is going nowhere. Another 2 head in the direction of the crew with a sharp call from the leader. The nearest fawn attempts to attack Majors.
"Great." Vessa mutters before attempting to shoot the nearest. "Can someone take out the leader?"
"I'll give it a shot..." Tharsis says, attempting to draw a bead on the leader. "This isn't turret gunnery, but here goes.." he says, squeezing the trigger.
"Oi...!" Majors grumbles as the Vessa Fawn comes after him. The Sivadian trips up and lets out a small groan. He tries to jam a forearm into the creature's mouth and the muzzle of the dart gun into its side and pull the trigger.
With Vessa's shot she takes down one of the fawn's but the other tackles Majors. Looking like it is trying to give the man a kiss with big sharp pointy teeth. Seeing the direction his gun is pointing it moves it's head and seems to make that amused noise again. By now the other original 3 have arrived and tries to attack Tharsis and Vessa in turn, the last being the leader who keeps back to direct the action. The remaining two are still on their way. Taking a shot at the one holding Majors hostage Vessa simply tries to defend against the one attacking her.
Tharsis is tackled by the Fawn, knocking his hologram over, but the Fawn's bites have little effect on him. "Ok... plan B..." he says, and his emitter shuts off, his hologram vanishing. Off in the distance, the unmistakeable sound of starship engines firing up and a ship lifting off can be heard.
"Oh you are a funny little wanker." Majors comments with a small smirk of his own. "Come on mate, I killed your brother the other day, try a bit harder." The Sivadian throws his head back as he hears the ship engines and chuckles. The Sivadian goes Conan and prays his armor holds up against the teeth. A big left hook is directed at the funny little Vessa Fawn.
he fawn who was attacking Tharsis is stunned with his disappearance enough to stay put to continue biting the air, convinced the nummie is still there. The leader barks at the two approaching and they stop to watch. The five surrounding the Rhino and the Rhino itself have moved off to continue their little drama. Majors still has a kissy fawn who seems to be enjoying this game and is trying to take a bite out of Majors' shoulder at the moment and Vessa now has one of her own on her who is now trying to nibble on her arm.
With a grunt Vessa tries to take a shot at the one on top of her, Majors can take care of himself for the moment, she notes the sound of the ship vaguely but is more interested in not being lunch.
Tharsis, now back in his body, flies into view, his main turret clicking into place as he barrel rolls to fly upside down, giving the turret a shot at the fawns below. First, he aims for those not attacking the other two. "Now then... let's even the odds a little bit." Setting his pulse lasers to a low stun setting, he locks in his targetting system and unloads a barrage of shots.
Majors barks a short laugh as his shoulder is bitten down on. ""Oi.. we need to stop doing this mate." The Sivadian says to the beast before he frowns. He punches at the beast once more. "God damn it."
Tharsis' guns knock the air biter unconscious and the leader seems amused as he dances out of the way. Seemingly studying these odd creatures. Majors' shoulder biter still seems amused at this attempt at punching and continues to nom. Vessa gets an arm nommer and the other two stay put, dancing away from Tharsis' shots in amusement as well.
"Hey! I need that arm." exclaims Vessa as she tries another shot.
Tharsis flies past, barrel rolls, banks around, and barrel rolls again. "Think that's funny, do you? Plenty more where that came from you four legged bastard..." he says, once again lining up his targetting system for the two observers and the leader, in that order.
"Oh you little beast." Majors seems to be repeating himself at this point, but perhaps he isn't firmly in this reality at the moment. The Sivadian tries to wrap his legs around the Vessa fawn and his arms around its throat in an attempt to pin it and perhaps choke it out.
And so the tables have turned it seems. With only the leader and one reserve remaining from the Tharsis blast. Majors is well on his way to choking the life out of his Fawn and Vessa took the chance to get nommed in order to shoot hers. The leader decides he is no longer amused and calls the other reserve to attack. It is too far away as of yet and so the leader moves to attack Vessa. Majors' Fawn is currently thrashing around fighting for air, very much no longer amused.
Vessa is about to turn to help Majors when she sees the leader and decides to try and take him out as he moves to attack her. "Almost there, come on little bastard, I want you alive."
Tharsis banks around yet again, lining up his cannon on the remaining reserve fawn. Fearing shooting the leader due to its proximity to Vessa, he targets the reserve. Unfortunately for this one, it's getting the full blast...
"Come on darling, we had our fun but its time to take a small nap. You certainly know how to wear a man out luv." Majors murmurs as he keeps tries to keep the pressure on and choke out the little beast.
The fawn in Majors hands passes out and is done. It goes limp and there the team stands in a clearing littered with several unconscious green fawns and one smear of a once fawn.
"Alright then." Huffs Vessa as she gets the leader, "We want this one for sure, why don't we take two others and head back. We can pin them and study them then."
Tharsis disappears over the trees, and lands. Shortly after, his mobile emitter re-activates, and his avatar re-appears in solid form. "Whew... man, you guys weren't kidding. Those things are nasty."
"Shhhhh shhh.." Majors sets his play date down and rolls over and lets out a deep sigh. "I rather hate the little bastards. If we are not taking them all, kill the ones left behind." He murmurs before he stands up and starts collecting Vessa Fawns.
Vessa nods to Majors, "A good idea. We do not want to leave any behind. Take the ones you kill too, food for the ship and no need to waste anything." Vessa is holding the unconscious leader and Majors is collecting ones of his own, Tharsis just repopped into the clearing as a holo dude. "Remember we want two still alive, the rest can become food."
Tharsis steps over to two of the unconscious ones and heaves them up on his 'shoulders'.
Akamatsu finally makes himself useful for this trip and makes to carry out Vessa's orders of getting food for the ship. Turns out wakizashi make good alternatives for hunting knives.
"Tasty little buggers." Majors murmurs as he eyes his playdate and reaches down attempts to snap its neck. "Sorry luv.. I do not like the clingy ones."
Vessa rolls her eyes at Majors' dialog, "I don't think it was too keep on you either Majors." she begins using a real gun to kill the remaining ones that are not being captured for study and picks up as many of the remaining bodies as she can. "Alright crew, gather em up and let's pack em out."
"Let's hope this was worth it all." Tharsis says. "I'll begin the analysis once we have then penned."
Akamatsu does as he's told and grabs his own pair to drag back for MEAT. He then goes on his merry way, probably thinking of how delicious the jerky made from these things must be.
Majors collects his future steaks and gets a move on.
Vessa nods as she looks about and heads back to the landing clearing, "Lets go see what kind of corral Boss has set up." she tosses over her shoulder as she heads off.
Vessa steps into the clearing and dumps the dead deer nearby but places the leader into a pen that seems to have both physical bars and energy fields around it, "Wow, she went all out." she says impressed
Majors flops his dead critters down and lets out a small yawn. "Hmmm.. let us hope that is enough to keep them in. Smart little wankers." He gruffs.
Tharsis looks over the enclosure. "All out is right... wow.." he says, placing the two he is carrying into the pen along with the leader. "I can't do much until they awaken.."
Akamatsu plops his pair of delicious morsels down next to Major's pair and looks to the enclosure with a raised brow as well "Well they won't be getting out of it I suppose it's safe to say at least."
Vessa nods and activates the energy field with all three little specimens inside, "Well this way we can see interaction between the leader and the other two. I expect them to be clever and tricky."
"Clever, tricky, and down right deadly." Tharsis says. "From what I observed, I get the feeling there is a bit more than usual animal communication going on here."
"No hivemind though." Majors points out with a lift of his brow. "Smart little bastards. I think that Tharsis Rhino is very likely dead."
Majors sniffs slightly and shakes his head. The Sivadian prys off his helmet and shoves his pipe into his mouth.
Akamatsu wipes the blood off his precious short sword and sheathes it before pulling the jug of sake out to take a sip before asking "So anybody care to help me gut these little guys?" He gives one of the deer a little kick in the stomach.
Vessa nods to Tharsis, "I agree, we will need to be cautious with them but this should teach us a lot about them." to Aka she grins, "I can come back out to help in a bit but I need a shower, I feel jungle gross. Be back later." she waves as she heads to the ship, "Ta ta." then she is into the ship and gone.