The Viese tree-ship was a living thing, grown and shaped by its inhabitants to carry them through the void.  It drank in power from the red sun at the center of the system, and was propelled by the workings of space-bending mystics inside.  Over a kilometer long, the great tree was by far the largest spacefaring vessel in the Ahemait system.

Trailing behind it were two wings of lesser ships; a trio of saucers and a pair of triangular wedges that drifted at a distance behind them.  It was difficult to hide in the void, and the tree-ship had attracted its observers soon after arriving in system.  All of the observers placed end to end would make less than half the tree ship's length; the civilizations of Ahemait were still new to any great ships, and their gravitational drives were far from the power a Viese ship could bear.  For now, the emergent powers could only watch, and worry.

For now, the tree-ship was in orbit around the second planet, designated as Thyoph.  A small world with weak gravity, it had no moon, but there were settlements: both native, and from other worlds in the system.

In the tree-ship's medical lab, Picille had just received the last of the injections and augmentations meant to prepare her for her mission.

"And you're done!" Doctor Nestyl said in her usual, cheerful voice.  She was a rose-hued Viese, with short green hair, and a lab coat with slits in the back for her long, dragonfly-like wings.  "I'm a bit envious that you get to see the planet first.  You'll have to tell me what the natives are like!"

Picille was excited, and a little nervous. She had trained hard to be selected for a position on board one of Goddess Anathema's treeships, and the training and preparation had never really let up since leaving the great Prism Moon. She was a fantastic botanist, a role very important to the survival and evolution of viese-kind. She was maybe not the best botanist, but damn close, and certainly the best on this ship. That is why she was Chief Xenobotanist!

But being Chief Xenobotanist and ambassador, hooboy that was a whole other tree to bark up. She had trained for this, too, and trained up an adorable little tangerine viese named Clemmie to take her place on the ship. She would do a fine job.

Time was of the essence. Picille has a vague understanding that the treeship would slingshot around the jungle-world of Thyoph, drop off her entry pod, and then begin its trip back towards the outer worlds of the system to seed them too. The trajectories were doubtlessly very advanced. It was a lot of math and she wasn't sure why it mattered since the space-bending of the navi-mages made optimized orbital mechanics kind of moot. Maybe the engineers were just trying to make their work sound more impressive than it was; glancing out the transparent sections of bioglass hull-plating at the world below, they seemed to have been "on approach" for quite a while.

Who knew, who knew?

Picille's thoughts were brought rapidly crashing back to reality (well, a reality in any event, for Deep Mages knew there were many!) by a sharp poke in her belly. She rubbed the little bump that was welling up amid her cute abdominal spots. Maybe it was her fanciful imagination, but she felt her suspended reproductive cycle warming up already. Her cheeks flush and light up in a healthy green viese glow and she smiles to her technician, Doctor Nestyl.

"Thank you, doctor!" Picille replies, matching the doctor's cheer. "Yeah, like, it's totally exciting and stuff! So many sleepy cycles and now, woosh!" She makes an expanding motion with her hands. "So busy, much activity, wow! Hehe... but, yes, I'll keep you up to date by world prism, for sure!"

It must have been her easygoing personality that got Picille the ambassador job. Definitely. Probably? Maybe! She hopes that the natives are friendly. The clairvoyants could only scout so much of the planet. It was a hot one, from the sound of it. Arthos had been pretty cold and Picille is a pureblood, so she hoped these augmentations would last her a good long while! At least long enough for her to swap out her Arthosian lillies for a more heat tolerant native plant. "I hope Thyoph has pretty plants. They have to be, right? Tropical worlds were always pretty!"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:32, Tue 05 Oct 2021.

Looking out the transparent section of the hull, Picille looked upon the world below.  The continent they were passing over was covered in red and green vegetation and drifting clouds.  She also saw a trio of saucer ships skimming the upper atmosphere before sinking down to the world below.

Doctor Nestyl smiled and nodded.  "Do that," she said, "and I'll let you know how the other colonies go.  Hopefully we'll get all the colonies established before anyone even sees a trace of blight.  Oh, of course there will be plenty of new plants!  If it gets too hot, you can probably find something helpful near the volcanoes."

Picille's next stop was with Captain Celeste, for the final briefing before her mission.  It would only be a quick flight through the corridors.

"Down with the blight, make it all right!" Picille declares. To her knowledge, she's the only one who says that, but she keeps hoping it will catch on. "From what the files said, looks like I'm getting the easy assignment. I feel bad for Aurica, there is no way she is not getting Doros." Aurica wasn't baseline; she was born from Fallon, realm of the Forge-God Skeles, and she had radiant golden-metal skin. Reclaiming and smelting down the ruins of more advanced civilizations would be right up her alley. Picille shuddered; give her nice, friendly organic tech any day.

A silhouette passed before Tyloph and drew Picille's attention away, She nervously fidgeted with the leaves on her arms. "The other worlds in this system are worried about us," she notes, uncharacteristically solemn. "I hope they won't, like... mess with us. That would be super disappointing."

"Oh, definitely," Doctor Nestyl said.  "Tyloph is going to be the easiest world to colonize.  Duro is going to be hard.  Some of our scans indicate that the worlds with space flight are taking Duro natives from the wastelands.  They might have given up on the planet, but we won't!  I even assigned Jamyn to research plants we could import to try cleaning up some of the radiation, but he's been ducking me since we cleared the asteroid belt.  So I'll have to get started on that soon."

Nestyl gazed out the window, resting one hand on Picille's shoulder.  "We're probably their first out of system contact," she said.  "Unless you count the jump gate, but they're not using it, so they probably can't get it to connect to anywhere good.  But they'll get used to us soon!  We just have to stay calm and not escalate any encounters."

"Butthead Jamyn~!" Picille singsongs. "He's probably totally super busy and stuff." Optimistic as always~! Who would want to avoid the cute and delightful and smart Doctor Nestyl? Jammy must just be busy.

The vines of Picille's lillies softly florescence cyan at Nestyl's touch. "Anna's counting us to do a good job, after all," she finishes the doctor's thought. "Oh, boop, that's right! The captain needs to sign my orders and stuff! Sorry Doc, gotta go, I'll prism you soon as I land safely! Ta!"

Picille's wings are abruptly abuzz as she bolts out of the room to see the captain in the administrative sphere at the treeship's apex. As she blazes through the warren of organic capillary tunnels of the tree she reaches out a finger to brush against the moist and warm exposed heartwood that carries the tree's nutrients throughout.

She also nearly crashes into Ezri, the terrifying first-generation Erebus-born viese. "Oi, fly with your eyes open you bloomin' idiot!" the massive 76-inch viese yells at the retreating figure. Muttering profanities the giantess ducks into a side tunnel; probably heading to combat simulations again, Picille reckons. The warrior-viese was rough around the edges, but if the system natives attacked Picille would be glad to have her around.

Picille bursts into the bridge, slightly out of breath. She really should have spent more time in the exercise pod. "Tyloph ambassador Picille Willowfang r-reporting!" she announces herself.

"Good luck!" Nestyl called out as Picille flew off.

After some dodging the the corridors, Picille reached the bridge.  Captain Celeste sat in the captain's chair as usual, vines from the tree-ship entwining her as she sat.  Also present were the usual bridge officers, navi-mages, and the scyers casting a large image of the space around the great tree.  One of the scyers seemed to be focusing on the tree-ship itself.

Captain Celeste rose, her wings spreading as she stepped out of the vines.  She was tall, for a viese, and was mostly green, with blue hair.  "At ease Ambassador," she said.  "How are your preparations going?  Have all of your landing staff reported in?"

"Yes, sir!" Picille replies, not feeling any more at ease at all. "I just received the last of my treatments and I am ready to drop anytime. My team is as ready as they're going to get too." A few guards, an assistant botanist, a couple grunts and scientists of various other disciplines. Counting her, fourteen total as is tradition. She had not met all of them, but read all their files.

Captain Celeste nodded.  "Good," she said.  "Some crew members haven't reported in the last few shifts.  Hopefully it was just a really good party."

She looked to Picille.  "But onto your mission.  We have selected a landing site; it's a few kilometers from a native stone city site that has been built over metallic structures.  Possibly remnants of a precursor civilization.  We suspect this entire system was seeded by a precursor civilization, though we don't know which one.  The site is currently being occupied by forces from one of the other planets as well as native species.  We haven't watched long enough to determine their intentions.  We want as much information as we can get, without starting a war, of course."

Picille raises an eyebrow, alights a finger on her chin, cocks her head, and sways her hips in a manner that suggests she's straining every of a small number of brain cells in her head. It is a demeanor that her peers have called cute and nonthreatening, even if it does make her difficult to take seriously at times. She is, of course, far smarter than the adorably ditzy pose suggests.

"I noticed the scrying focused inward," Picille says slowly. "You're not thinking that we, like, have a security breach or anything... right?" Ezri would be incandescently furious at the mere insinuation, but fortunately she is not here!

"It has occurred to me," Celeste said.  "But I'm not ruling out any possibilities yet.  We are searching for them now, and looking for traces of spacial distortion."

She shook her head.  "But that shouldn't affect your mission.  Establish a colony, make contact with the natives, and defend this planet from the Blight.  The omens warn us it has emerged somewhere in the region of the galaxy.  We will not allow it to spread.  Are you ready?"

"Right, right." Security isn't Picille's job, why's she butting her head into things? Leave it to the Captain and Ezri and their staff, they're totally super-duper at their jobs.

"So: landing near mysterious precursor remnants, extraterrestrial and native occupation, gather information, and noooo fighty-times. Got it! Am ready to disembark on your word, captain my captain~!"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:48, Sun 10 Oct 2021.

"Oh, fighty-times are allowed," Captain Celeste chimed.  "I don't want you to start a war.  But if there's no stopping it, you may finish one.  Just try not to let it get to that point."

She drew a wand, and lightly touched Picille's shoulders.  "Go fourth, and begin your mission in the name of Anathema.  The Goddess be with you."

"Oh... oh my, that'd be a big responsibility." A whole war of her own? That sounds scary! That's why Picille likes plants; they don't cause drama.

Picille permits herself to be wand-booped, then salutes. "I'll make all ya'll proudsies!" With a little twirl and a mid-air curtsy of her ivy dress Picille heads to the drop-pod. She has to ask for directions once or twice on the way. The treeship is a warren and not all parts of the vessel were administered by its occupants; parts of the ship were wild, and all of it made absolutely zero since. If it weren't for their zen direction sense it'd be impossible even for viese to navigate this mess.

"Big indeed," Captain Celeste said.  "It is a last resort.  So don't start one, and don't escalate to that point."

Eventually, Picille traveled the distance through the massive ship to the entrance to the drop pod's stem.  The crew was already packing the last of the supplies and personal effects.

Picille alights in front of the crew -- her crew now, she supposes -- and takes a quick stock of what still needs to be moved. She quickly begins helping. Community; when there is work to do, everyone helps! Even leaders! Some species in the Grand Creation have codified the principles of community into an entire economic system -- communism, was it? -- but the viese are so inherently community-focused that formal rules and mandates weren't really necessary for them to function. Selfishness was not in their nature! Their creator-goddess had seen to it that they were as good as could be for the tasks she needed them to perform.

Picille had actually met Anathema once. She is not a private goddess, although sometimes reckless and childish. She didn't like being thought of as a goddess and insisted her viese address her as "Anna." She was also... ah... a little cool in her personal relationships. Picille sometimes wondered if she actually loved anyone, or even had the capacity to do so.

The storage nuts and baskets are squared away and Picille flies to stand above the portal to the pod. "Alrighty, everyone!" she announces. "Double-check your baubles, fasten your cloaks, and say your goodbyes! We're departing for Thyoph, the jungle world, and there's no last second turn arounds. I'm Picille Willowfang and I'll be colony director. I know there's some doubts about whether I've got what it takes to be a leader; I promise I totally am, honestly truly absolutely! Ah... any concerns before we board the drop pod?"

The viese scrambled to carry out their last tasks as Picille took command.  "Everything secured commander," a violet-hued viese woman named 'Aesa' said with a salute.

They were soon ready.  The drop pod was outside the tree-ship, and was entered through a stem at the top.  Once ready, and after talking with the tree-ship's bridge, both ends of the stem sealed, and it broke away, letting the pod fall freely.

High in the sky over Thyoph, the pod fell into a rain cloud.  A thousand feet above the surface, the pod passed the tops of the tallest trees.  They were soon passing through the branches, and eventually, they reached a point where no more rain made it past the branches.

The pod came down on the edge of a pond among great roots that arched some height over the ground and surface of the water.

Picille had never been comfortable with formalities. That was something she shared with their great goddess Anna. She waved the 'commander' aside, tutting."Picille is fine, Aesa! Or nicknames! Anna loves nicknames and so do I!"

Picille is the last into the pod, doing a quick circuit to make sure everything is secured. She especially double-checks the seed pit for any signs of disease or unhealth; it wouldn't do to land and find their industrial base was no good! Picille's great-great-great-great-great ancestors had managed without Anna's blessings in the past, but those were dark days she was not eager to repeat.

Satisfied, Picille takes the captain's chair and straps herself in. She does the final checks before applying a brush of deep magic to pinch off the seed pod from the great tree ship, capillary action serving to seal the stem with little input from the viese themselves.. She was proficient enough with deep magic to drive the ship herself, but she had a dedicated propulsion expert on staff who could do so and manage to land within just a few meters of the target. "Navi-mage, take us down!"

Picille watches the planet approach through her view-prism. Space! Inferno! Rain! Trees! Very grand trees, some of which could challenge the great entwined superstructures of Arthos. For one brief moment she wondered if her navi-mage was up to the task of avoiding the trunks, but she needn't have worried. The navigator easily and comfortably set the pod down in a small recess for structural stability. "Peachy-keen! Great job!"

Picille went to the crown of the pod where the stem had once been, peering out through the transparent bioglass to take visual stock of their surroundings. The viese moon of Arthos was itself a jungle world, albiet a cold one, and her eyes easily adjusted to the shadowy illumination. "Psychics; any sign of predators out there?"

"Okay Picille," Aesa said cheerfully.

The pod was in excellent condition, with a healthy seed pit.  Once they were underway, the ride went quite smoothly.  Of course, viese ships were all made to protect the occupants from the inertial forces of interplanetary travel - only amorphs and machines could survive the trip otherwise! 

"Aye-aye captain!" Cagor the navi-mage said.  Picille wasn't certain how well he could see from under his mop of blue hair, but he piloted with perfect accuracy.

The landing crew's chief psychic, an older pink and white-haired viese male named Argawyn closed his golden eyes, and rested one hand against the wall of the pod.  "One predator in the water, patient.  Waiting.  Several smaller ones hiding.  A larger one spooked by our arrival running away.  Something else is coming.  Too complex to read with a sweeping scan."
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:28, Fri 12 Nov 2021.

With enough magic, who needs eyes? Cagor does his job well so he can have all the blue hair he wants. It's quite fetching!

Picille closes her eyes and listens to Argawyn's layout. She breaks down the analyses as they come. Waterborne ambush predator; something like a frog, perhaps. Predators that are hiding are too busy avoiding trouble to make it. Viese are generally too small for larger predators to bother with. That left the complex signature. Sentient, probably. But who?

"Can you narrow that complex signature some? Is it a native, or from one of the other vessels I saw descending earlier?

Argawyn shook his head.  "It is still a distance off, but moving quickly," he said.  "I need time to focus to sense more than a shadow.  The most I can tell is that it is... something like flight trajectories, and the feel of the wind."

Sounds like some kind of avian critter then. Viese are toxic to the birds of Arthos, but birds here wouldn't know that. They'll have to be careful.

"Alrighty, let's take advantage of the momentary lull in our surroundings to scout out a colony site. Someplace pretty. Meet back up at the pod in one Arthosian hour."

Picille collects a spear, wand, viewprism, and a fistful of snack seeds before popping the crown of the landing pod and gently levitating it away with a touch of magic. The hot jungle air pours in and Picille takes a deep breath. After hesitating a moment to make sure she didn't immediately keel over in anaphylactic shock she disembarks the pod. Takes a look around, keeping her spear at the ready, then decides the most logical first step would be to ascend to the top of the nearest tree to confirm the direction of the ruins.

"Alright!" someone in the crew chimed.  "Should we stay in groups, or cover more ground by going alone?" another asked.

"Don't you listen to horror stories?" someone else chimed.  "Predators pick off Viese who travel alone."

The hot, humid air of the jungle hit Picille as soon as she opened the pod.  As she flew up, she noted a long bodied bug with a dull brown exoskeleton and three pairs of long wings darting past.  As she flew up, the buzzing of the bug fell silent, and she glanced back to see one mangled wing slowly floating downward like a fallen leaf.

"I'll leave that judgement to you! I'm a pretty good Deep Mage so I should be good on my own, but if you're not confident in your abilities or just nervous don't be shy about taking a friend!" She trusted the judgement of her entire team! Viese are some of the smartest and most prudent creatures in all of creation, so she places lots of trust in their instincts! She vaguely pities those creatures who had to evolve naturally without a divinity guiding them. So lost, but also so prideful that they'd respond to her pity with contempt if they knew. She could understand why they'd feel that way.

As Picille ascends she taps the power of her soul and brings it forth about herself. A little bubble of warped spacetime ripples and wobbles into existence around her, providing protection against almost anything that might mean her harm.

She waves to the bug as their paths cross. As evidence of its demise reaches her seconds later she frowns and mentally recites a quick prayer to wish the insect's soul well on its journey back to the planet.

4dF + 3 Esoteric Lore (Deep Magic) to create a Spacial Barrier advantage.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:53, Mon 15 Nov 2021.