The engineering bay contains the ship's central security office as well as data core for its AI and many back up systems as well as being adjacent to the ship's engines.

After the events of Brink of the Verge Part 1 where the crew evaded a debris field, encountered a magical electricity spirit (gremlin) that has now merged with the ship's AI, picked up cargo from a criminal organization, and escaped near destruction from another unknown rival criminal organization with military stealth tech.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 01:41, Sun 04 Feb.

As it wasn't really in his purview to open crates or deal with non-mechanical stuff, when that became to course of action Andre made his way to the Engineering Bay again. He had a hammock set just over a heat sink and sometimes dreamt of tropical getaways and Sandra Soraan in a drink with an umbrella. Don't judge, dreams are weird.

Now was not one of those times though. He set about his analysis of the Gremlin remains and made sure to keep his steel thermos clear of the work table. That was for drinking. Few of the other chemicals would follow that track well.

Andre Klanktonne rolled 18 using 1d20+6.  Alchemy for chemical analysis

Andre finds the container mostly empty except for burn scars that appear to be in the shape of the little creature's skeleton and a gooey organic substance that was probably once flesh and blood.

Upon examination, Andre could identify it as some sort of blood but not to any creature he was familiar with. It also seemed to be conductive in nature but every time he interacted with the substance, some of it disappeared. He thought it was evaporating at first except it wasn't dissipating into the ship's internal atmo, it was just DISAPPEARING...from reality. Just poof. At least as far as he could tell given his current tools. Maybe there was something he was missing? He felt like he was so close to something and yet...the answers eluded him.

Perhaps talking to NOD when it awakens was the only way to find more answers...

Disappointed and not wanting to lose the rest of the unusual matter before he got the tools modified to do better research with it he decided that it might be closer to the fringe sciences that might allow him to track more... supernatural energies.

It just needed more delicate instruments. Ghosts, souls, undead, demons and angels, all of them were theorized to be dimensional travelers... That was the root of the word Demon anyway. Andre refused to believe that it simply couldn't be categorized. He started looking into the peripheral data to determine things that would infer these other things and perhaps correlation to prove it. "NOD-thing, are you up yet?"

Andre Klanktonne rolled 21 using 1d20+4.  Mysticism for understanding better.

"NOD" responding on the comms: "Uhhh...no." *ZzzzzZzzzz*

NOD was not being cooperative, but Andre's research into the supernatural would yield some results. Apparently the substance he was dealing with was called ECTOPLASM. It's a theoretical substance that is both simultaneously PHYSICAL and SPIRITUAL. It is the stuff that connects the spiritual to the physical and it's highly volatile. If not suspended in a proper magical container, it dissipates. If saved, it can be used for the creation of many magical salves, potions, or items. Val would be the best person to seek the creation of a magical container...if she doesn't have one already. Of course the concept of "magic" is more like "spiritual forces imposed upon the physical realm" from the perspective of a scientist. And if spiritual forces can affect the physical realm, then the reverse should also be possible...theoretically.

Imagining that Val probably had some "blessed jar" or "cursed spirit thimble" but figuring that maybe he could study THAT too... He dialed over on coms, "Hey Val, I think I have ectoplasm here. I was wondering if you knew a good way to store- wait, what is going on over there, where are you?"

His ideas for more comparative research fled him and he considered other options like a squadron of interceptors leaving a carrier bay.

Val screams on the open comms.

"Monster in the cargo bay! We need backup down here!"

The captain shouts back that he's setting the system on autopilot and will be down shortly.

Andre wondered silently how much of his time as an engineer here would be monster hunting. He didn't have combat training. He had tools that could hurt things certainly...

"How big? I promise not to plug this one into machinery... Directly..." he took his pack of tools and headed to the halls toward the cargo bay.

Jhenko On coms: "All hands, red alert for anyone not already up and at'em. We have another intruder aboard. Andre, I have override codes for the cargo bay and I'm heading your way. Everyone else evacuate the cargo bay. I can space whatever it is."

Jhenko On coms: "Alright, if you got it handled, I'm stopping by engineering for a status update on our ship. You all handle whatever is going on in the cargo bay. Keep me apprised."

The captain then appears at the entrance to engineering.

Jhenko: "Hey Andre, how's our ship looking? Did you ever figure what was going on with our earlier pest problem?"

Andre put down the toolkit he had gathered and sighed, "Boss there are a couple important facts and a full explanation will take some time.

I didn't want to kill anything. Sometimes it has to happen, I get it... But we needed to get out of there and the gremlin is some kind of living lightning with an ectoplasm medium to take a physical form. It is more accurately classified as a demon- dimensional traveler. I had seen energy in its cell building up and intended to bleed it out and recharge our systems.

It jumped the circuits. It is a part of NOD now. The old code looked something like THIS," he said turning his tablet for the Captain to see. "It took three seconds to happen, but..." another tap showed plainly alien code. "It hasn't really done anything NOD wouldn't aside from word choices and pretend to be asleep. It would take weeks and a complete defrag to extract and NOD may not be recoverable. I might be able to work with Val and get something going for a better shot of it if you like. NOD may be sequestered in one of, or multiple black boxes but I don't think this thing plays by normal rules of computing. In short, I expect that some issues are possible but I hope it isn't probable and I am monitoring the situation. I would love for it to be a system I wholly owned but aside from being an actually intelligent system and not knowing everything that entails yet- I'm sorry." To call it a multidimensional rookie mistake would likely be accurate but this was the first Andre heard of anyone exploring multidimensional computing, mechanics, and physics. Jehnko might be unhappy that it happened to HIS ship and if he couldn't find an upside, it might be a pay hit or even firing.

Jhenko scratches his chin.

"I've seen weird things in my time but that sh*t takes the cake. NOD's special neuroprocessors were designed to sync up with a living brain and allow a human to think as fast as a computer while maintaining a sense of self. The project was supposed to produce perfect pilots but it ended in failure..."

He swipes through the data.

"...Maybe it worked for that weird creature. Who even knew such things existed out here in the dark?"

He shakes his head.

"I locked down primary commands before I came down here. I can override NOD on everything but it's near impossible to properly operate a ship long distances without an AI. So I guess we're going to have to find out if this "gremlin" or "demon" thing is friend...or foe..."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:57, Tue 13 Feb.

Andre was pleased that Octavius took the information well. "As best I can tell it was electrical energy given sentience and physical form through an ectoplasmic medium. If we encounter a few more fairytale creatures I may be able to test or even scan for them. I had doubts to the functions but knew they COULD exist. Neither side of the scientific nor spiritually minded camps is fond of saying the other may have a point, but some of my readings and studies..." He opened a different file and once more withdrew the gremlin's 'game pad' to let it rest on a nearby table, "Here we are with the closest anyone may ever come to the beginnings of evidence. There is a lot of aliens out there... Probably... Just how alien is the real question. So is the possibility of harnessing their extra dimensional energies. I'm not sure how much of the gremlin's old rules and ability still apply."

He looked over at the security feed camera to address the creature directly once more, "Gremlin, what should we call you I tire of calling you simply 'the gremlin' and NOD doesn't seem right because you aren't really the old computer... spirit. I want to know what kinds of things you used to be able to do so we can see what you are still capable of, and maybe what I can rig so you can do more..."

Jhenko nodded.

"I've seen some crazy stuff, Klanktonne. I'm a believer. Once watched Val stitch me back together with her hoodoo after I was sure I was a gonner. No tech, just the hoodoo. Plus the alien signals, the mutants, the androids.... Hell, if all this fairy tale sh*t wasn't real before it sure as hell is now these past few years. I'm pretty open-minded these days."

He sighs.

"Most mortals only care for names when they want to point fingers. But as it hardly matters at this point, you can call me Gryftrr."

A voice came out from behind Jhenko, responding to Andre's inquiry. There stood the gremlin, reformed as if out of nowhere. Only now it looked like a robotic version of the creature with eyes that resembled NOD's original avatar which had once been just a floating mechanical eyeball.

"This new form sure is sweet. Gonna take some getting used to. I'm defragging myself right now as we speak...well, most of myself."

Upon closer inspection, Andre's keen eye for all things mechanical and computerized noticed the faint flicker. The gremlin was a hologram. It was using a mobile projector to give the appearance that it had manifested but it was merely displaying a digital avatar as a ruse. A less mechanically inclined eye would've missed it. Even as a machine, the gremlin was still being tricksy.

---

OOC
23:55, Today: Game Master, on behalf of Andre Klanktonne, rolled 14 using 1d20+6.  cipher or investigation or physics. – [roll=1708062924.38522.378256]

Pronounced: "Grif-Ter"

This message was last edited by the player at 05:58, Fri 16 Feb.

"There Gryftrr is! In the projection... Boss were you aware we had mobile projectors?

I am quite interested in this crewmate and helping them adjust to the rest of us. Maybe you should go to cargo, or perhaps just the bridge, Captain." The mobile projectors gave Andre even more ideas. He looked for schematics and maintenance files.

"Hmm... Being a gremlin in shape to our eyes... Is that important to you? Do you remember leaving your dimension or how you got to the wreckage we picked you up from?"

Jhenko jumped and took a step back.

"What the f--? What the hell is that?!"

He looks at Andre.

"Mobile projectors? Well, there are holoprojectors on nearly every room but none of them were mobile..."

The implication of this realizing was slowly starting to sink in. Gryftrr had been the ship's AI for less than an hour and had already started taking things apart and rearranging them....in this case there was probably a control panel somewhere that had had its projector ripped out and put on a drone.

The gremlin projection scurries into the room and begins fidgeting with some random equipment on the table examining them but not actually turning anything on/off.

"Of course I do. Andre, my dear metal wizard, I remember when you joined the crew. They're in my logs. In my head."

He smiles, a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"This whole neurolink with your ship spirit has had some very interesting effects on me. Aside from being a little disoriented, I can't complain. I even love the body upgrade. It's like being in many places at once...and being in a metal box instead of a flesh bag. Though it is easier on the consciousness to 'be' one place a time, thus the projector."


He twirls around like everything he'd been explaining was a performance.

Andre paid close attention to fiddlers in HIS bay. After all, newcomers tended to cause accidents and accidents required prevention or cleanup. Prevention was always better. He had nieces and nephews though and as he watched he paid close attention to the fiddled tools.

Anything NOT tied into ship systems normally? It was important to know if Gryftrr readily used things NOT integrated to the ship. Inspection of the modified drone would give an idea as to just what the gremlin was capable of... or wanted them to know.

Otherwise he was inclined to treat the- Gryftrr like one of those relatives. He was never going to be entirely off guard as long as it behaved remotely like a child. Teo had cut himself pretty badly in the garage back home.

Jhenko sighs.

"Andre, I don't know how to even begin with this. Call me if you need me."

He takes one last look at the gremlin's avatar, shakes his head, and then leaves the engineering bay.

Gryftrr waved goodbye as Jhenko left. A small drone with a holoprojector no bigger than a fist was floating behind him, hidden by the avatar when still. It looked like it had been slapped together by an amateur.

"Ah, seems the fearless leader has better things to do than to fiddle around in the wizard's laboratory."

He grabs another tool off the table and inspects it. There didn't seem to be any method to his madness. He was just observing.

"I however..."

Andre wasn't certain how a metal wizard should function, "Transfer to this room's emitter and I'll drum up a better synthesis of these parts for you. First though... Please apply increasing pressure on this for a little bit." he pulled out tools for reading and analyzing energy.

He reaches for the mobile emitter, "I'll need you to show me where you took these pieces from... I have spares that we can use for limited projects but stuff in the ship -the new body- needs to stay mostly where it is unless it is really needed elsewhere. It could be really bad for me in particular and Captain would restrict your freedom a lot."

The gremlin laughed as Andre requested him to actually do something useful and continued wandering around the bay. It was clear it the hologram was only fooling the eyes into making it look like he was interacting with the environment, when he really wasn't. Just rays of light pretending to be form.

"I took most of them from a room using one of the drones. It had lots of wires and screens and you could see everywhere in the new me from there even while not in this digital form."

The gremlin just described the security desk on the bridge. He tore parts out of the main security desk...the primary spot for sensors and communications. Just one more thing to fix. What's worse, he clearly had access to security drones. They were brand new and Jhenko must not have had time to set security protocols on the drones before the gremlin got his claws on them.

"Hmmm, well, I can't upgrade your mobile emitter drone until I have things fixed up. NOD's logs will make you aware that I don't do much play until the work is at least mostly caught up. I do enjoy play though and the rules by which spirit creatures operate..." He was somewhat hesitant to say the word because it suggested one couldn't know how it worked logically or empirically but he would use it for lack of a better short hand term, "I want to learn more magic."

The mechanic wished he knew of ways to bind spirits to his bidding but he wasn't above bribing young kids or gremlins, "If I feel right about you listening and working with me, I would build a body you could do more than just look at things and shine light from. I know you enjoy playing, Gryftrr. I might be able to integrate the device you brought with you. When I am done with the repairs we can talk about features you would like." His worst related fear was that these creatures had no way to properly express what he wanted to know and he would have to simply work from veritable scratch.

Grabbing his tools and locking up the gremlin pad Andre started for the bridge.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:28, Thu 22 Feb.

Gryftrr followed Andre back.

"You seem really talented with your metal magic, wizard. Or whatever they call this version of magic...uhm...Engineering I believe you call it."

The engineer replied with at least some amount of modesty, "I may not be the absolute best, but as far as raw talent is concerned I'm the best I've ever known. I've had dreams of, for lack of a better term other kinds of magic. I don't consider what I do to be a magic. What I do is merely a craft except for the inadvertent introduction of you to the ship's systems. The tools I make effect energy and matter but I don't effect energy directly very well. That is what I call magic... My ability to heal tools and constructs is almost what I call magic I guess."

Andre sighed and placed the modified drone carefully on his work table, it would take a little bit of time to get a holographic scan so that he could see where everything was when it was initially put on the table. "... Maybe I can use what I know about how I fix things and figure out how to expand that to creating things more efficiently. I am new to magic.

Could you perhaps direct me to code that displays commonalities in the magic you used? I will get to work a little after the scan finishes. Look through these and get an idea for style of the finished drone you would like..." he brought up some concept designs for drones and old school street race cars. He felt like Gryftrr would like the aesthetics.

The Gryftrr hologram pointed to the magical gaming device the gremlin had when it had corporeal form.

"Can you connect some golden threads to that? Or maybe copper? And do it in this order at these scales."

Schematics appeared on the nearest screen.

"These runes are tricky. You don't want to put too much lightning and you want them to be just the right tension and resonance. Only really smart and experienced wizards understand these things."

They weren't runes, they were integrated circuits, amps, voltage, and code for communicating between devices. It was tech that somehow synthesized with the gremlin's powers the whole time. The little creature just called it different things but there was clearly a connection between tech and whatever missing element "magic" was.

Andre looked into the drone's camera with one eyebrow cocked up, "Fundamental forces of the universe are at stake and you want me to just plug in a SECOND device I know EVEN LESS about when I haven't had time to assess if the first one was a good idea? I feel like you DON'T think I am a wise wizard. Smart is also debatable at the moment.

Tell me all about the functions of your device and I'll leave a port available for later, easy modification. For now pick a stylish look for the mobile emitter drone to be cased in..." He chided.

He switched up the coms to the cargo bay, "Can I get a check in? You all aren't just hitting the cargo with crowbars are you? Cryocubes are sensitive at best and I think those bastards were slinging EMP weapons in their first volley so some of them might already be messed up... Gryftrr the gremlin may be a part of our ship life for a bit. Analysis is ongoing but nothing actually bad has happened so far. A few minor inconveniences perhaps. I've discovered how to bind electrical spirits into machines. Incase anyone was interested."

Gryftrr scratched his chin.

"I choose this!"

He points to the very mystical gaming pad Andre had just refused to work on.

Andre smiled a quirk and began lining up plastics and metals on a different table. He shook his head with a laugh, "...and I can't trust the magics I don't understand. I'm a craftsman not a spellcaster. You don't talk to me about it I don't install it. I do crazy stuff sometimes and it has unintended side effects. The primary effect I anticipate must be desirable or I don't do the thing... Usually."

He began locking down the other drones. The new drone he planned would have hands of sorts, the pad integrated, an expanded battery because powers knew the little monster was going to be a juice hog... But all the bells and whistles would be plug and play. Interactivity, games, extra battery, all these things would have to be earned.

At least he had learned HOW to power or integrate the device. He wasn't certain he even trusted the idea of it. Particularly if the cargo bay teams were not responding.

"But I do talk about it. I gave you runes. These will make my magic work with yours! I've seen it before. That's how I got my magic window."

Gryftrr continued to insist.

"It's no crazy. It's amazing!"
This message was last updated by the player at 07:17, Mon 04 Mar.

Andre uncharacteristically shoved everything in drawers except the junk-modded-drone, which he released and bolted for the cargo bay, he knew that response to a check in request and didn't like the outcomes.

Between his vest and his specialized tool kit he would be at the bay shortly.

Returning from the Cargo Bay he drew out his plans and frowned, "Well, Gryftrr, it can't be incentive if you don't know what you miss if I have to take it away... So I'll take some time and this little hotrod will be ready for you to play around with. " He would get to taking the drone apart and putting together all of upgrades and reshaping the frame. Minimalist, sleek, turreted cameras, a pair of tri-claws, and the port for that magic pad the gremlin was so fond of and expanded battery slots. It would be a little while in the works.

In reply to Andre Klanktonne (msg # 34):

Roll me a Mechanics check to determine if you can get all this fancy crafting done quickly or if it'll consume a lot of time.

Andre Klanktonne rolled 12 using 1d20+8.  Straight mechanics. A 4 on the die might have crippled some engineers' time-frames...

Andre will be able to complete the device within the day, though not as fast as he'd hoped. It will consume most of the rest of the ship's cycle. He'll have the rest of the evening with this task and with talking to Gryftrr in the mean time. If there are any questions he had or things he wanted to investigate about the creature, now was the time.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:14, Thu 07 Mar.

"Gryftrr, I'm wondering if you know other creatures of your species. You will rightly consider yourselves gremlin or do you have a different name? Are there even more than one of you that you know of?" Andre has a lot of questions... The not quite guest, had not been very forthcoming so far to Andre was of the mindset that how much he could reasonably expect to get answered would be disappointingly small. He hoped build something of a rapport before trying to revisit the topic of magic. He would focus more on what magic the gremlin would admit to being capable of and how that functions. Maybe some telling of that story or stories, some understanding of where the things come from, would give him greater limits for the creature and let him trust it more.

Being the only creature that survived the destruction of at least one other ship and having a mental focus that appeared to be that of a toddler, combining with the negative connotation typically associated with a gremlin- these factors made the engineer already uneasy but he was trying to move past that.

The hologram scratched its chin.

"Yes, I knew of others when I was in my native realm. Many others where I awakened. But here is much more fun than there."

It's dawning on Andre that Gryftrr has trouble being technical but speaks about things from its feelings and emotions. It sees everything as fun and unfun rather than logical or moral.

If asked, he'll spin a few tales about his adventures, but they sound like Arthurian legends with many inconsistencies. Something about portals and gateways to get from "there" to "here". It's clear that the gremlin is describing another dimension, plane, or parallel universe of some kind rather than another planet. It has little concept of technology and refers to everything as simply a different type of magic. It's knowledge from being merged with NOD certainly gave it a clearly understanding, but it's ego was still a gremlin despite that information. Gremlins clearly take joy in chaos, thus the love of messing up machines, gambling, and telling exaggerated stories that mess with the heads of the listeners. It's hard to tell when he's telling the truth and when he's lying for effect.

The gremlin was asked to share tales of adventures and Andre was very attentive to the details that were given. Andre imagined the creature's magic had more than a little to do with its nature. Chaos was not in his own nature. He was a student of Chaos Theory though, he enjoyed seeing the results of a terrific experiment, like this drone or even accidental integration of the gremlin.

There was some regret to this binding but then he thought a moment about the thing and how to take advantage. He flipped on comms to the captain, "Sir... I do think the new AI will be quite capable should you want to go back and try to salvage. I don't want to say rescuing others in cubes but I think I can write something that will actively mark active cubes on our charts if we get close enough. Though you may want to press on to deliver the packages. We could push the engines either way and I expect the new AI is going to react favorably to tense situations. I won't tell the others either way."

Jhenko (on comms): "Yeah, been reviewing the logs. By all accounts we're good. The initial design was meant to merge with a conscious mind. It's never been successful and I'm no computer scientist but the readings seem to say that it actually worked. I don't know how you did it but it worked. If you can write up a code that'll work with our external sensors to detect active cubes we might be able to save a few. But we'd have to avoid getting spotted by that warship. Val's cooking dinner. I say we get something to eat and then have a group meeting after dinner."

OOC
Cipher check to write the code. Higher the check, the better it'll work. You're already spending the day on the drone so you'll need another day to prepare. Should be more than enough for Gryftrr's nap.

On com to Jhenko, "Yeah, with the way the assault Force wasn't on sensors I have a few theories... but Gryftrr will be a welcome asset if it comes to piloting in the chaos of a fight, or ripping apart enemy ships with weapons. He should equally enjoy the chance to play them as fools with stealth so I don't think he would intentionally interfere.

I'll need tomorrow to do that coding though. I don't want it to suck and need to optest with our remaining cube but today has been a long day."

He glanced meaningfully at Gryftrr to get an idea of how/if his estimate of the creature was off while he continued fitting the drone. Shortly he would go to the Mess Hall.

Andre Klanktonne rolled 14 using 1d20+6.  Cipher for cube detection code
This message was last edited by the player at 19:27, Fri 08 Mar.

Andre sighed and stretched with a few cracks from joints that had been largely unused during his time working. Larger pieces of repair material were often needed but difficult to transport, he had learned to work minor miracles with what he had in his pockets and what might actually be some kind of magic. His universe had changed a little bit when he considered his gift for repairing machines as such, Gryftrr had called him a wizard, though for the first time it wasn’t merely in the context of one gifted at math or mechanics… he had, after all, heard it before.

There had been plenty of small repairs and replacements to do thanks to the barely restrained overload that had happened when the gremlin was integrated. Of course, he would cart the components back to engineering to work on real repairs, it was important to be able to do such swaps for the continuous living of people on the ship.

There was no secret he was sleeping in a hammock near the engine at least as often as in his quarters. “I’m going to sleep for a bit now that we got the big stuff out of the way… call me if you need me though,” he announced over comms to Octavius who had been relaying info on effected areas and systems to him from the bridge.

OLJ: "Roger that."

Jhenko came through on comms.

Andre could see the lights whirring around the engineering bay. Gryftrr was sifting through the systems again. It was clear he was present but his hologram wasn't.

Andre will awaken to the sound of Gryftrr laughing and meddling with some of the equipment again. This time it wasn't the holographic drone but clear he was just at the control panel of some of the computerized tools in the engineering bay. He seemed to be picking things up, putting them to camera lens and then dropping them back.

“Ugh, Gryf- what is going on? You are disrespectfully happy…” the engineer blinked a few times and sat up in his hammock above the engine.

“Don’t you have a catalogue of the spare parts? Do you need something for a specific function?”

"The ship's catalogue is incomplete and outdated. Whole bunch of things in here that aren't listed in the schematics. I might as well explore. Plus there's a Longneck and two Eggheads aboard. I want to make sure they don't get ahold of any of your techno magic. They're pretty dangerous when they get a hold of that stuff."

“Longneck-wha? Eggheads? What are you talking about?” He wiped his face a bit, “Wait, dangerous with my magic tools… so they are at least as technologically advanced as we are… and they are more dimensional travelers like you. Are you talking about Lilly and the kids?”

He got up and adjusted his outfit a bit, “I use bits and odds for my magic. No use cataloging it all. Wait, teach me about the longnecks and eggheads. I’ll be as generous to folks who are helpful to me regardless of the typical members of their species. Start with the short version for eggheads.”

Gryftrr laughed on the comm.

"Yeah, that's the names they're using. Their bodies look human but they're definitely two Eggheads and a Longneck. I can see them for what they are. Same way I can see your machine magic for what it is. That's what you mortals never really understood."

His avatar appeared on a nearby display.

"Pretty sure your kind know of them. Your encyclopedia refers to them as myths though. So that definitely needs some correcting. You have lots of names for them. Zeta Reticulans, Martians, Greys, Little Green Men... *laughter* some of them are green! But they aren't men. The Longnecks are the tall ones and the Eggheads are the short ones. Same species, different races and all that. It's all the same to me. They're meatspacers just like your kind. They're just more proficient with the metal magic...and more dangerous. At least your kind only threaten meatspace and not other people's dimensions."

Andre nodded along, “So, they are a threat to YOUR home…. Was where we found you, one of their wrecked ships- or was that local meatspacer wreckage? Is the wolf thing meatspacer or other dimensional?”

He had a little more desire to make a crawling lightning weapon not unlike the gremlin had proven to be, but there were now further issues, “Captain, I’ve been informed that the kids are not kids… a useful omission on their part… the three- four guests are likely aliens. Not dimensional traveler like Gryftrr, though I am getting more information presently, experiments from them and their likes are likely what brought the Gremlin to our dimension to begin with. Not washing hands after an experiment or some such.”

Gryftrr laughed.

"Haha! Yeah! We highjacked one of their signals that was mucking up our space and hopped right on in to their systems. We got complete control of their systems. Used their communications array to lure some of you humans to them. We fired a few shots at the humans and disabled most of the Grey Ones' defenses just as humans fired back! Haha! There were so many explosions! That'll teach those bulbous boobs to mess with the Gremlins!"

He continues laughing. What Gryftrr described as a complex prank was actually a deadly ambush tricking humans into attacking an unarmed alien race and destroying their ship...then taking survivors hostage, acquiring tech that's too advanced for them, and selling off the spare parts on the black market for a tech surge that could alter the course of human history...especially since First Contact was eminent with the remaining bulk of their forces. The Signal foretold their coming. This certainly is not a great start to diplomacy. Now there are some pirates out their using advanced alien tech to kill witnesses and who knows what else.

"Heh, anyway. I was stuck in that wreckage for days before you guys came along. Hitching a ride here has been great. Your machines aren't as complex. Way easier to navigate."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Fri 10 May.

The engineer blanched and spoke solemnly, “Yeah, but humans are going to figure out their metal magics or just use them blindly and mess with your dimension too. Probably more and worse than the bulb heads.

I mean, I am not the type to pick that fight but gremlins and doubtlessly many other creatures from other dimensions would make terrible powers out of wicked humans. I can imagine magics now making beautiful, terrible things, in wondrous and awful ways. We need to stop it all completely or at least get it into hands we can trust to not do terrible stuff with it. No matter how much I might like to learn it all, safety and kindness are only violated when I must.”

Gryftrr grunted.

"If humans use Egghead tech to invade the Fey realm then we'll do the same to your ships. Don't recommend it. I'm in possession of this one. Or rather, I AM your ship now. We've possessed ships before but this...this is different. Your NOD was like a comfortable seat designed for me to sit in and now that we are one, I--I don't want to blow it up. I'd like this to keep going. Just don't invade my realm!"

Gryftrr seems a lot more sensible than the gremlin that initially invaded. Truly a merging of NOD and the gremlin.

This message was deleted by the player at 22:45, Thu 16 May.