November Miniplot: Clever Pests

[savmods]

Who: Anyone and everyone
When: Around and after November 17
Where: Avagi
What: A small-scale reunion

Escalation

In the last week, the opening portals have brought a range of opportunities to Avagi. Some station-dwellers have leapt at the chance to be outside, exploring the gardens or the Forest of Renewal. Others chose to test themselves in the Temples. Still more have met with the Kaittans, trading knowledge and training for resources they could bring back home. Among these items? Fresh, delicious food. Those residing in _______ Suites were already familiar with the occasional skittering sounds. Recently, those noises have increased abruptly—in volume, and in the areas they can be heard. Strange odors and paste-like droppings have turned up throughout the station, and breakable materials may be torn, gnawed on, or otherwise despoiled. Actual edibles left out are stolen, or devoured on the spot. Whatever creatures are responsible leave a variety of small bite-marks, and seem to target both plants and meat.

Emergence

Many may be motivated by the current crisis. A few have been making efforts from the start. A partnership self-dubbed Extermination Squad Alpha (araignee_du_soir and squadgoals) has faced continued frustrations against the creatures in the walls, attempting traps, cages, mines, and tracking tech, and finding themselves repeatedly outmaneuvered. In light of the new incursions, they redoubled their efforts, comparing salvaged feathers against the Kaittan's repository of knowledge, and diving headfirst into the ventilation system to pursue the vermin to their lair. On Nomber 17, success will be found... of a sort. While Avagi has neither day nor night, it's a quiet shift for those still on the station. Many occupants are off attempting the trials or otherwise exploring Kaittos. Others are occupied with rest or repair. Those who are conscious may note a slower, bulkier scrape making its way through ceilings and walls. Vent maintenance? Persisting for several hours, it seems innocuous enough. Until, suddenly, it isn't. A loud explosion can be heard over the animal nursery: metal and insulation crunching and giving way, followed by loud shots. Those close enough may spot the bright blue flares of biotic energy, or even the larger figure that hits the floor amidst collapsing ceiling, damaged machinery, and a spatter of what were probably once eggs. As for the smaller shapes that flood out across the station? Everyone will have ample time to get a look at them. Coffee mug included for scale. Those present for Thisavrou's collapse may have reason to remember Region Six. The creatures nesting above the Animal Nursery include all of those species, and several more. However, the escapees of the former Ingress Complex research labs differ from your previous encounters in one highly significant way: Adults range from the size of rats to no bigger than a small chicken. With their nesting site wrecked, the mini dinos will stampede throughout the station. Aggression levels vary highly, and while some of the herbivorous species will avoid encounters, others will charge (or swarm) anyone who gets in their way. What these creatures have lost in size, they've gained in intelligence, and they will show several adaptive behaviors well outside what might be expected of a natural breed. Pack behavior is common, as is teamwork between even unrelated species. While predation does occur, most of these creatures have moved to a scavenging model of survival: and you and yours have recently laid out a full buffet of treats. Velociraptors can open doors—though biolocks may offer more delay. Over the next few days, the chaos will settle as the pests that do escape find new retreats to nest in. They will, however, be seen more commonly throughout the station after. Those who are able to catch, kill, or calm one long enough to examine it will find the creatures aren't merely small, but shrunken, and all to a close scale at their adult growth.

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Comments

[araignee_du_soir]

[Okay, even Widowmaker has to admit a micro t-rex would be kind of cute with its even teenier little arms.]

People are going to be idiots and try to keep them as pets.

[squadgoals]

Practically a guarantee.

[That she would be among those idiots is not something she is currently willing to cop to.]

So we cull what we can, lay down guidelines for proper care of any that stick around. Microchipping would be a good start.

[There's some various empty plastic sounds in the call, followed by:]

Got some containers. I'm going to start loading them up.

[araignee_du_soir]

You are sounding suspiciously like a leader, Shepard. [There was a hint of amusement in her voice.]

I do hope whatever location the portals take us to next has the means to produce bullets. I will be using a fair amount of what ammunition I have.

[squadgoals]

[There's an amused scoff, and a rattle of containers.] Well, don't keep a recording. I don't want rumors going around.

What does your gun take? Might know someone who can help—or at the very least, I might be able to provide you with a hold-over solution.

[araignee_du_soir]

No promises.

[The chuckle that followed made it hard to tell if she was joking or not.

LaCroix followed that up with two different kinds of ammunition calibers - one for a fully automatic assault rifle and the other for a very powerful sniper rifle.]

How could they help?

[squadgoals]

[There's a shift of a bemused eyebrow, but she lets it slide away, moving on to munitions.]

Got a friend with a fabricator—scan the bullet, and you can make more. It's not a perfect solution, since you'd have to self-fill the propellant and primer, but it'll work in a pinch. Just takes a little more patience.

[araignee_du_soir]

Interesting. Well, Shepard, perhaps I will look into that. I have to look into the resources needed to finish the bullet, but it will do in a pinch.

[She chuckled.] Patience is not an issue. But I will see about capturing these vermin live. Disposing them via the air lock does not require ammunition.

[squadgoals]

That's something I don't have personal experience with, unfortunately—only ever read about it. [What do you mean your gun is not a tiny mass relay slingshotting singular shavings off a block of metal???] Still—with the right supplies, it's doable.

[There's a gentle, empty thud, followed by a repetitive muted bump of something being placed inside something else.]

Quite the variety, here. [How many different species were hiding out, cooperating to chew their damn bedsheets to tatters?] Could probably make a hell of an omelette. [Or... what was it? Huevos?]

Copy that on the airlocking, by the way. I can help you shepherd them in the right direction—I shouldn't be in danger of running low for a long time yet.