13422/Scouting: Up close and personal.

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Scouting: Up close and personal.
Date of Scene: 02 June 2021
Location: Milano - Lower Deck
Synopsis: The Guardians get back together, find out what Star-Lord has been up to, and set off on a hunt for the Brood.
Cast of Characters: Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord, Groot




Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    There are rules and regulations when flying a space ship into the gravity well of an inhabited planet. Many rules, in fact. Enough to constitute a significant part of the required reading for any pilot that wants to operate anywhere near Nova Corps space. And it takes a keen understanding of these rules and regulations to break all of them in one go, which is exactly what the Milano does as it jumps into the solar system, screams in from the outer planets, slaloms through the Kuyper Belt and neatly insinuates itself into geo-stationary orbit over the second largest land mass of the rather unimpressive planet marked on the charts as 'Earth'.

    Flicking three switches, Rocket spools down the main drives and pops his feet up on the control column, glancing out through the transparent canopy at the blue planet below and the collection of space junk nearby. Moments later, there's a transmission on the Guardians frequency.

    "Yo, Quill, your ride's here. C'mon up before all this crap up here gives me tetanus. Sheesh... what is this, the junkyard planet?"

Star-Lord has posed:
In reply, a crystal clear sounds comes rom the comm system; Peter. "Well, there are plenty of junkyards around here and they still use conbustion engines." He comments rather offhandedly. "if it weren't for the space babes and the guns made for Daxamites, I wouldn't bother coming back here."

A shuttle pod can be seen coming up from the easter coast of the US, "I'm on my way up. Any interesting contracts lately? I have an offer for scouting borders for Brood sightings. Good credits."

Groot has posed:
From below comes a deep voice. "I am Groot." It's actually nice down there. "I am Groot." He sounds pleased. The forest I visited is pretty. "I am Groot." The soil was nice. "I am Groot." The soil nutrients were plentful and tasted good. Each phrase has different inflections, of course. Different meanings. And each phrase is slightly louder than the last as Groot makes his deliberate way up the ladder and into the cockpit. It's a tight fit for the Collasi, but he bends down, over Rocket's chair, of course, and looks out the front view port. "I am /Groot/," he says, sounding rather cheerful. Besides. That trash makes a nice obstacle course.

He goes silent, at this point, and watches the floating trash waft past the Milano for a few minutes. Groot's eyes move their focus, to the planet below. A pretty jewel of greens and blues, browns and whites. A marble hanging large in their sky. "I am Groot," he says, his voice quieter. I never get tired of seeing planets like this.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "'bout time you came back. I was afraid you were gonna put down roots down there." Rocket mentions casually angrily to Groot as he makes his way into the cockpit. "And you don't want to sprout down there, who knows where that planet's been. I mean, look at it. It's a dump."

    Of course all of that is still on the comms, because why switch those off when part of the team is still inbound? As for new bounties. "Found a big one, lost 'em in a brawl, you know how it happens." Rocket shrugs, watching the shuttle pod approach and hitting the controls for the docking ramp, waving branches out of his face from time to time. "Asgardian called Loki, pretty big stack of Units to his name. But then someone hit me over the head with a glass and things got a bit confusing. He'll be back."

Star-Lord has posed:
"Asgardians are coming back around the galaxy, huh. There's one on this planet called Thor. Big warrior dude." Peter brings the pod around to the back, adeptly beginning the docking sequence, "is that big and leafy I hear? Welcome back Groot. Did you check out the amazon? I hear it's still around." Star-Lord cheerily asks.

Somneones in a good mood.

Groot has posed:
Groot lets a wide grin spread across his face. It's a little disturbing, that smile. Whenever he does it. With his dark eyes, it's a little on the psychotic end of things. It's not actually psychotic ...mostly... it just looks that way. "I am Groot? <So what if I sprouted down there?> I am Groot. <It tasted good.> I am Groot. <Maybe where it's been is why.>" His eyes are still out the window at this point.

But his head, and eyes alike, turn to look at Rocket at the mention of a new bounty. "I am Groot? <You lost a bounty?>" He sounds kind of surprised. "I am Groot. <That's not like you.> I am Groot? <How did that happen anyway?>"

He tilts his head. "I am Groot. <Yes, it's me you hear.> I am Groot. <Thanks.> I am Groot. <I did. It was too wet.> I am Groot. <I prefer a sliiiightly dryer climate.>" Groot seems to be in his normal mood, more or less. Neither happy nor sad nor angry. "I am Groot? <Did you have a good time down there?>"

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "If they are coming back, I say we grab that Loki one and cash him in. He's got a price on his head pretty much everywhere, all we have to do is drop him off with whoever hates him most. How hard can that be?" Ah, Rocket... never one to read the bounty descriptions beyond the Unit amount.

    "What do you mean, so what? It's 'cause you were down there stickin' yer roots in this crapheap of a planet that Loki got away anyway." Yeah, there. Not his fault he got distracted by a brawl after going into the Burnout Pub looking for a brawl. Not his fault.

    As the pod comes in, he closes the docking ramp again and finally gets down to business. "So, what did you find down there Quill? Bounties? A good heist? Someone looking to off a local warlord or sumthin'?"

Star-Lord has posed:
As the pod locks in and Peter begins to climb the ladder up into the cargo hold... "Rocket, what part of 'vacation' didn't you understand? I wasn't down there for /work/. I was down there for fun. I found a real babe down there a while back and I was visiting." As he walks through the ship, Peter has a wistful quality to his voice, "It's rare I meet a woman that actually sticks around and can handle my nomadic lifestyle."

As he enters the cockpit, he peeks around the corner first; the days of running headlong into Rocket Pranks(tm) are over! "Glad to hear you liked it Groot. It has it's charms."

Groot has posed:
"I am Groot. <Maybe the price is high for a reason.> I am Groot? <Did you read the fine print this time?>" Groot straightens from his lean over Rocket's chair, and swings his body around, and takes a step further to the side. Rocket's side, rather than Quill's. This is normal. "I am Groot. <You didn't last time.> I am Groot. <And you almost lost your tail.>" That wasn't what was almost lost, but Groot is being polite. One of them has to be, right?

Groot stands up straighter. "I am /Groot/. <You got distracted by something.> I am Groot. <Don't blame it on me.> .... I am .. Groot? <Was it.. a nice tail?>" Wait. What? Groot turns his head to look toward the ladder leading down. There's a smallish smile, for Groot. "I am Groot. <He found a mate.>" His tone is firm on that one. He raises one hand to brace it on the bulkhead.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "Vacation?!" In an instant, Rocket is standing in the seat, turning around to glare at Peter. "What do you mean, vacation?! I thought you came to this backwater to scout for jobs! Do you know how much hardware I've got stowed, ready to go? We got enough ordnance on board to blow up this whole dump, and you're tellin' me there's nothin' down here?"

    For long moments he just looks, astonished, and then sinks back into the seat, slapping both paws to his face and rubbing his facial fur. "Urgh! We gotta bring in some Units, Quill." And he gives both of his partners in semi-crime and mostly-justice a look in the reflection of the canopy. "Fuel ain't free, y'know? Wish we could all just cruise" unnecessary emphasis on cruise there "around the Galaxy to chase mates, but some of us think of the financials."

    Pause.

    "So, ya like her, then?"

Star-Lord has posed:
There's a long, silent pause as Peter /stares/ at Rocket. His face goes from mildly amused to a resigned as he looks to Groot, "He NEVER reads the fine print. He'd take a bounty on LOBO if he could find one that wasn't invalid by the time we got him." Peter moves to sit down in one of the chairs, and places both legs on the top of the chair in front of himself, reclining in the one he's in.

"I was actually looking for jobs down there, but nothing worth our time. I was mostly with Kori."

Then, Groot's words register, "I don't know about /that/ yet... she's beautiful and worth the time though. She'd make for a great Guardian, if I could convince her to leave the planet." He looks to Rocket again, a look of consideration coming to his features as he shakes his head, "I like her... and let's be fair, I only took the pod, not the Milano itself. I am very well aware that maintaining this heap and upgrading it isn't free."

He takes his legs off, takes out a tablet computer from his longcoat, and hands it over to Rocket, "The client I fonud on the way here. He wants to know if the galaxy is looking at another Brood invasion. He has potential vectors in there. We get paid no matter what we find, but double if we find Brood. Triple if we can intercept and stop any raids going on."

Groot has posed:
Groot's eye holds move in such a fashion as to give the impression of brows raising. And he stays silent. Entirely silent, at Rocket's tirade against Quill. And himself. After the raccoon has calmed down a little, he offers, "I am Groot? I am Groot. <What bounties could possibly be here? You said it yourself, it's a backwarter.>"

He nods solemnly to Peter. "I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot. <Never. Never ever reads the fine print. One of these days, he's going to wind up losing more than a tail.>" There's a pointed look at Rocket as he speaks those words. Then back to Quill, Groot just /looks/ at him. And you have to know what he's thinking. Uh huh. Mate.

To the raccoon again, Groot's eyes go. "I am Groot. I am Groot? <I landed us a shuttle. What have you been doing?>" Indeed. He hadn't taken one of the Milano's pods when he'd gone hitchhiking. That he wound up on Earth had been happenstance and sheer dumb luck.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    For a moment, Rocket squirms in his seat. Not reading the fine print will... as he needs reminding. "Yeah yeah, okay. I'll read up on the Loki guy before we go after 'im. Sheesh. You get in one little avoidable multi day shoot-out, and it's like you're the bad guy or something..."

    Which, from Rocket, is about as close to 'you have a point' as you're going to get. And then he taps the console.

    "Found some parts to tune the drives. Wouldn't worry 'bout the fuel for a while either, unless you're planning on going back to ... nah, never mind, don't worry 'bout the fuel. They won't miss it. Probably."

    Momentary pause.

    "Look, if you want to bring her along, bring her along, but tell her to keep her human paws off my stuff. You people can't be trusted around high explosives. And we might as well go look for the Brood, not like we got anything else going on."

Star-Lord has posed:
"Most Terrans don't know what to do with any of this stuff anyway... but that's besides the point. She's not human, so you're fine." Peter grunts as he stands up, stretches, and starts to head into the back, waving a hand backwards, "Find the nearest jump point and we can see if this contract is worth the time. If nothing else, we get plenty of credits for resupply. The one near Nova space seemed like a good place to start."

Yep, Peter is pointedly ignoring the 'mate' silent accusation from Groot. Not touching that.

Rocket Raccoon has posed:
    "You got it, Quill." There doesn't seem to be any further comments from Rocket either, except for a few silent sniggers as he takes the Milano out of orbit and spools up the drives.

    Begun, the Brood hunt has!