Fires burned everywhere he looked, it seamed like the whole world was on fires, and his feathers twisted around in the air as they burned. Blood ran over his body as bleeding vines grew over him holding him down... feeling him with a sense of ... peace?   And then everything shattered around him and the fire, the vines, and him where sucked out the shattering wall into space... people he didn't know became his squad mates as there blood boiled an there eyes exploded.... and then the metal eye in his face boiled and exploded......

To a metal beak pecking onto the stony eyelid that covered it. Little metallic wings flapped as rust and a screech filled the air as Tinker flew away to the sudden and violent waking 'man'.

It was morning, and the computers alarm was going off telling him he had 3 hours to prepare for the ship that would be evacuating him from the station. They didn't tell him why he had to leave, and they didn't tell him why he couldn't take his own ship, they didn't let him talk to much of anyone.... if he was going to find out anything about his own ship or what was going on he had 3 hours or risked getting stuck on the station or shoved on an overcrowded last chance ship.

In reply to Azraile (msg # 1):

Raven waved a free hand at the little bird, then sat up, glowering at the alarm. He twisted on the birth, dropped his feet to the floor, and stood up. He stretched all four arms, then went about the trouble of pulling on his shirt that hid one pair and then his old flight jacket over that. He didn't know what was going on, and only had three hours to figure it out. His kind of terms...

The splicer opened the door to the room, and headed off toward where his ship was docked.

Being such a heavy splicer and smuggler, even of fair means, he was staying on the lower levels... quite near the loading docks, making the walk a short one.

<BAD THINGS, BAD THINGS> squawked the mechanical bird as it followed along.

The dock itself when they got there was, well in a word bussy. People were working hard to make sure as much of the stock they could get was packed away and shipped out with the evacuation.

Raven took a minute to look around, and find someone overseeing the packing. He approached the man, flashed his outdated Marine ID, and tried for a commanding voice.

"You there, Commander Miller. Give me a progress report, and make it snappy."

(Intimidate roll?)

The guard jumps when he turns at the yell and the sight, dropping his data pad, quick to pick it up. "S-sorry sir, i ... I didn't know they had people l... er...." he fumbles with his pad some and swallows hard. "Sir we have most the stations supplies and important equipment will make it off the station sir. However I am not sure there will be enough time for all the merchants and shop owners to get everything they wanted out. Particularly with the ones we can't get to close up shop... those guys are causing a pain to us."

<A PAIN>

"I'm here to make sure all runs smoothly, and that you have been fully breifed. A quick test, I think. Do you know the reason for this evacuation? Well, spit it out, either you do or don't."

"The predicted paradox event, sir.  I'm afraid not everything is running smoothly. There are the merchants refusing to close up shops, people leaving in there own ships with out clearance congesting flight paths and nearly causing wrecks, and then there is the CCS Nervous Energy... it's not responding to any hails and we can't seam to find it.... I mean it says it's docked, and the computer says it's at the dock, but the ships and the tower don't see it at the dock, and the doors at the dock are sealed shut. I suppose we could try searching more or cut the doors but we don't have the manpower. Oh, and the mess up on the promenade is looking rather bad."

It wasn't looking to good down here ether... people had already knocked over a box of strange looking fruits and the mess was slowing down and congesting an already overly busy dock.

<PROMENADE PROMENADE>

Raven closed his human orb, and took a loo around the bay with his eye, to see what there was to be seen.

There isn't anything particularly out of the ordinary for a dock like this.

However the whole station dose have a rather unsettling high probability of a rather large paradox affecting it just like he said.... not sure from where though, but differently nearer to the original sections of the station. The upper levels, the promenade, the control decks, the musiem.... some where around there is the most likely area.

"Good, good. Return to your duties now, and keep up the fine job."

With that, Raven left and headed for the Promenade.

The scene in the promenade was hectic, people were crowding terminals and in a frenzy to buy everything they though they might need if something happened and they where stuck on the ship for an extended time. Places selling food, supplies, and various equipment were packed... while clothing shops, computer sores, entertainment parlors and the like barely had any customers at all. Security was now on the scene trying to organize things to keep panic from braking out.

There was a fight braking out over the last life support pack in one store and security was trying to brake it up, the small backpacks were quite popular suddenly... being able to sustain some one in space for some time with out a suit, and being much cheaper than one, they had flown off the shelves.

Once more, Raven applied the Eye of Morphius, and tried to see what it might tell him.

You find no more detail than before, but there is an awful lot of spacial distortions outside form ships leaving.

Dodging the frantic buyers, Raven made his way to the Museum to a quiet corner, and yet again tried his Eye.

<four success with three dice but Jinx to 0>

It was starting to look like a waist of time, all this time spent wondering around when he wasn't very good at this kinda thing anyway (no awareness or alertness rather oblivious bird).

Then he saw a light from behind him, a surge of paradox in his vision but as he turned Tinker landed on his head and pecked lose a particularly large chuck of crystal free causing a burst of quintessence in his face, before snatching the shard and flying off.

When the energy cleared away he couldn't see anything different than before.....

What ever it was, it was away from this side of the promenade .... away from the Museum and the docks.

Raven sighed, counted to ten, then made his way back to the loading dock heading for his ship. If this place was going up, he wasn't going with it on his terms.

It takes a bit to get back down to the merchent docks, when you ask where you can find your ship, they tell you it's not registered to launch... that you should have an assigned evacuation ship that will take you to the lunar surface, and you will be able to retrieve your ship later.

Raven sighs yet again, and trudges for his evacuation site. He could try to leave by his ship, but an unapproved launch would put him at odds with security and he wasn't armed for that level of conflict. It didn't help that his ship's weapons hadn't worked in he couldn't remember. Right now he'd join the flock, and see what the future would bring.

OK you can join the main Chapter 1 thread now..... though mostly waiting on Kairos to join in there....

most everyone is just wondering around the prominade... only person really standing out is Solan Griss.... he's in heavy armor on a rooftop watching people.... lol