[Chapter #1.2.1 - Crude Solutions]

As the scout group had safely returned to SS Philemon carrying some very noteable news, they were greeted well. Those present would've helped to haul Robert out of his wrecked spaceship and would soon come to realize the man was easily around 3 meters tall, with huge claws for arms, which stretched almost the length of his body. Apparently, he hadn't been gravely injured at all from the damage his ship suffered. A hardy bastard, one could say. Likely inhuman. Having him on the ship made the atmosphere feel heavier right away. He didn't seem genuinely friendly at all as the first thing he did was push whoever tried to assist him away.

Regardless, an audience with the Captain was swiftly arranged, with people from the scout group being invited to it. Robert was ushered to the bridge by Axis, having no choice to object as his medical state wasn't alarming. Axis seemed to be brimming with excitement. She kept asking Robert some things and he seemed fed up with her enthusiasm, shaking his head and turning away from her, which ultimately had no effect on Axis’ pursuit.

“My sis fought pirates a couple times in the army!” Axis said as she grinned. “She’s told me you guys were like, the best drinking buddies! But uh, not much else. So is plundering and drinking all you do?”

Robert frowned, bending his arm to massage his forehead with his claw fingers.

You followed them. You were not ready for Axis' excited scream.


"Ah, so you've come." The Captain smirked, first looking at Axis before raising his head to face Robert. "You must be Mr Robert. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." The Captain extended a hand at which Robert frowned before extending a claw. One moment later, the claw had already grabbed at the air where the Captain's hand used to be. Captain had retracted it with ample dexterity before it could be grabbed. The tension was tangible.

"Name's Cimeies." The pirate growled. "And I ain't 'ere to make pleasantries. I'm here to take you to Libertaria, as per our captain's orders."

The Captain raised an eyebrow. "Am I to assume your captain is the one you call Um Necheip?"

"You can assume whatever ya want."

"And the reason why we must come to Libertaria is because we now know your location. All thanks to your actions against my crew. Is that too correct?" The Captain smiled and winked to you onlookers.

"Tch." Robert's frown intensified. His face had turned into a visage of contorted muscle. With his grotesque form, he looked very ready to crush the Captain into a pulp. However, the Captain stood firm with that unwavering relaxed attitude of his. This seemed to make Robert hesitate before doing anything. "Ya threatenin' us now?" He uttered, grinding his teeth.

The Captain merely shrugged.

Perhaps it was time for you to say something.

After towing the other ships and setting them down in the hangar the Waddle-dee's started to pile out of their own Trouble-Bubbles after properly docking them and another large swarm of Waddle-dee's started to work on maintenance of the ships and helping the other pirates to their medical bay gently carrying them out and heading on their way.

With their means of communication once they were in range the Waddle-dee squad had sent the message ahead to the Waddle-dee's working on the ships Bridge, So that the Captain was well informed on what happened out there before their guest even got there.

The Waddle-dee's then headed up to the bridge with the rest, following long with Axis and making sure the apparently other new person that came was also lead there, best to have everyone in the bridge for now, at least those from the mission anyway, and this one seemed to be a stowawa on one of the fighters from the rearguard.

As the group travelled to the bridge, the Waddle-dee's on the ship where everywhere, constantly moving and working and keeping out of everyone's way while going about their duties, carrying supplies, Maintenance work, cleaning, food, as the group continued they would see Waddle-dee's of all shapes and sizes. As the group got on the bridge there were Waddle-dee's there too working on the ships consoles and standing and working at Stations as they worked the ship.

As the Captain and the Pirate representative started to talk, The Waddle-dee's where making sure things were running smoothly on the ship, some seemingly just walking up to other waddle-dee's and just waving before just standing with them.

One of the Waddle-dee's though was given a notepad and a pencil and it started to write and then a bunch of Waddle-dee's helped to lift the one with the notepad up so that the Pirate was could read the notepad [color=blue]"I believe the Captain is simply trying to confirm with you what happened int he cloud, we really mean you no harm, Please understand, as much as you want to protect your home this ship is the captains home, We are both trying to work together now for the benefit of both groups. Threats at this point would be rather pointless."

Aryll meandered around the white halls, clutching his head. Since the battle had ended, he'd been wracked with splitting headaches as the processors in his mind frantically tried to process the situation, resulting in a tempest of errors, variables and zeroes and ones, making it damn near impossible to think straight.

The beast that had saved his life in space padded along beside him, looking at him with concerned eyes. He'd only learned its name when he had looked down at the small screen built into his forearm, which flashed with: [LOADED PLUG: NIHIL]. He'd only learned his own name when Nihil had told him, and the turmoil of thoughts and confusion inside him didn't help.

Suddenly, as he wandered the halls, a peach colored, round creature jolted him out of his stupor and beckoned for him to follow it...he hadn't a clue where it would take him, but he decided to trust the little thing and followed it. He knew it wasn't the wisest decision, granted that the inhabitants of the ship could scrap him at any time, but he wanted to see what the little creature wanted to show him.

Johnny could definitely see the tension in the air as the seemingly alien-looking creature took up half the freaking the room. Johnny was honestly a little nervous at the situation as his heart monitor would go a little faster with the waves being a little more pronounced not by much though, he thought fighting demons would be scary enough but Robert over here quickly proved that there are much scarier things in the universe then demonic marsupials attempting to claw at your head. Johnny would try to follow the Captian's example of staying calm in this discussion.

Axis enthusiasm was not lost on Johnny the excited screamed startled him but he tried to remain calm, He learned that Axis had a sister so that was something? Johnny was curious to know what the army in post world would look like? Probably like the crew on the S.S Philemon where it was a mix of Human's Machines and Aliens. But Johnny quickly gained focused again at the conversation at hand making sure he heard everything so he can make an informed statement.

He decided to introduce himself to the big hunk of an alien "Nice to meet Cimeies my name is Jonathan, but everyone calls me Johnny." The Guitar Cyborg didn't bother to offer a handshake because unlike the Captain the cyborg probably couldn't pull that trick with Robert.

Johnny was just trying to think about how to approach this conversation. The Waddle Dees should Cimeies their little notepad the Guitar moved around the room to look at what the little Dees wrote with the idea being that he might have something of value to add, he then said to the tall alien in a polite but firm tone "Believe me Mr. Cimeies if we were threatening you there would be a lot more shouting and Persona summoning involved." Johnny trying to get this conversation on track thought to ask about Libertaria as he was fairly curious about this new alien world. "So what can you tell us about Libertaria? Anything we need to be wary of? What's the environment there like?" Johnny was thinking about how different this new world could potentially be to earth, maybe the planet was all ocean? or perhaps it was like the moon? OH! That would be an excellent idea for a song, about the anticipation of entering a new world.

However, like Zeta Johnny can see this is probably going to take more than questions to get the alien to budge in any direction, perhaps threatening them is the way to go but Johnny would try a diplomatic approach first. Johnny then looked for a Waddle Dee that didn't look occupied with anything serious and kneeled down next to them asking for a favor in a soft and gentle voice "Hey little guy can I get you to fetch some drinks from either the cafeteria or the bar? I would like some Ginger Beer please if they got any, you might want to ask the other people if they want any drinks." Food and Drinks is usually a good conversation tool among humans and seeing as Cimeies was a humanoid looking alien Johnny was hoping similar logic applied to their species as well. Hopefully, things don't go south and turn violent but Johnny with his knowledge of pirates thanks to all those songs about them would not discount the idea of things turning violent.

Something the Captain said made the cogs in Cain's head start turning. He was highly suspicious of those pirates, believing they were going to be lead into another assault, and when the Captain said "And the reason why we must come to Libertaria is because we now know your location," he understood why his concern was justified. If Um had game ended the scouts right there, they wouldn't know the location of the SS Philemon, while the Philemon crew would know where their trouble most likely was. The unreasonably pacifist requests from the Dees must have made Um certain enough in his plan to send Robert off with them.

These were pirates. They steal and kill, just like they tried to do to do the scout crew earlier today. Even in the off chance they truly wanted a peaceful resolution, they were still criminals, criminals who had attempted to wrong them personally. The ship was still in a damaged state. If they chose not to come to Libertaria, it's possible the pirates would find them before they got far enough away, assuming they didn't already know and wanted to fight them from their home base on Libertaria. Striking first with a direct assault seemed to be the best option, however, stating all of this while Robert was in the room would make it the only option. He had to wait for a chance. Until then, "Ginger beer? Is that ginger ale and root beer mixed together?"

Robert's face began turning a surprisingly vibrant red as the Captain shrugged. The exposed upper part of his arm muscles tensed up as he obviously used most of his concentration on preventing himself from smacking the smug man. The Captain wouldn't flinch though.

"Please read what the small ones are showing you." The Captain told Robert in a calm voice, prompting the giant to look down in confusion, scanning the room for the 'small ones'. He found the Dees holding up a note for him to read. "Tell that to yer Captain. To my ears the threat was as clear as day." He said before turning to Johnny. He remained silent while examining the guitar android. In fact, he seemed to raise a brow in a show of interest. This expression faded as quickly as it appeared. Robert was again frowning. "Stop tryin'a make me buy yer bullshit. I will take whatever ale you got, though." He smirked and the Captain nodded. "Please make it so. Give Mr. Cimeies one of the purple beers in my stash. They're excreted by the insects on Motovon. I'm sure you've heard of the ale. Would an iron bucket be an acceptable container?" He smirked, looking at Robert's claws. "Whatever, just bring the beer in something that won't break if I hold it."

Robert cleared his throat only to grin. "Libertaria's our place. A normal place. We keep it hidden an' safe. I honestly think it's a bit borin' staying hidden an' passive down there though." He replied. "The planet ain't called Libertaria though. Only our city." He added.

"I see. Your captain seeks to protect this place. I can understand that."

"Exactly, so ya better behave if ya wanna keep yer heads and yer wits about you."

"Quite a predicament..." The Captain said, placing a hand on his chin. "It seems there's a clear risk of death whichever decision we reach." He said in a contemplative, but calm tone. Robert would've grinned had it not been for the Captain's levelheadedness.

The Waddle-dee's managed to lead a new person tot he bridge as another gave a note to the captain explaining that the new person was brought in on one of the fighters apparently, and so they brought him hear to speak to the captain. Meanwhile a few other Waddle-dee's scattered once the request was made to get drinks for everyone.

Filtering out of the room the Waddle-dee's ran to several different places, some went to get extra glasses and trays, some got larger drinking vessels, while others grabbed some chairs, A few groups headed to the Cafeterias and a couple to the bar that was owned by Tequila, joining up with others that brought with them what little funds the Waddle-dee's kept for themselves, after all they knew they had to pay for things from Tequila after all, as well as from the cafeteria.

Eventually a Mega-Dee was called in to help them carry all the supplies since it was much larger and it would make carrying the drinks and some foods easier, The food was an Idea given to them by one of the people working in the Cafeteria after they asked a Waddle-dee what they were doing there, and so some simple choices for food were also taken.

Eventually the Waddle-dee's started to arrive in the bridge carrying chairs and setting them up for everyone they even had a chair large and strong enough Robert to use. While another group carried in a table and set it up, these groups then left as another group rushed in and served the food, placing the large trays on the table, with a varied selection so that it would be easy for someone to find something they would like on them.

Finally the 9' round Mega-Dee came walking down the hall carrying the large containers of drinks, it walked into the room matching Robert in height, but it was also round so it took up a lot more room then the pirate, and it set the drinks into chilled buckets for people to take from. Once again the selection would make it rather easy for them to find something they would like. The Mega-dee then nodded and scooted off to the side to stay out of the way.

Finally a group of Waddle-dee's came from the captains private area on the ship carrying the beer he requested and a reinforced drinking Vessel for Robert, setting them on the table for them to enjoy before Saluting and then waving as they left the room.

With that all done it looked like there was a mini banquet table rather quickly set up on the bridge, but it was well done, and the Waddle-dee squad pluse a few extra Waddle-dee's and a couple of Mega-dee's where now in the room, staying off to the sides so that they were not in the way of everyone but they could clean up once everything was done with.

Finally the one Waddle-dee with the notepad held it up "Refreshments are now served" the note said as it smiled at everyone quite happy to help.

Aryll followed the little creature down the labyrinthine halls of the ship until they reached a room that opened into a wide chamber lined with monitors and windows into empty space. However, what struck him less then the features of the room itself were the inhabitants; A huge man with claws for arms stood near a man with silver hair and a crisp suit of a similar color, and dozens of the creature that had led him there, not to mention a massive one the size of the large man. Everyone he'd seen in the hangar where he'd arrived was there, and a new one he hadn't seen before. A man with a...musical instrument instead of torso?

The motley crew was a bit hard to take in...so hard in fact, that it strained his already taxed mechanical brain. his headache redoubled, and he clutched his head while making mechanical stuttering noises. He had no idea why the round alien had led him to what looked like a debate, but he soon didn't care, his mind overloaded with a string of errors. The wolf beside him looked at him, a little concerned as he stood, confunded, in the doorway.

Johnny just looked somewhat annoyed at Robert as he apparently still has the idea of the crew being peaceful didn't make it through his thick skull, oh this is going to be a long one, isn't it? Johnny turned to Cain to answer his question about Ginger Beer "Not exactly Cain. Ginger Beer is brewed and fermented while Ginger Ale is just a carbonated drink like regular soda. All you need for ginger beer is some ginger, water, a starter culture, and some sugar then start fermenting that stuff, its pretty good," alright with that out of the way Johnny could focus more on Robert. Johnny put his left hand his guitar hip and waved about his right hand "If the threat is clear as day you should have no problem telling us what the threat is?" While Johnny was little worried he came off as too snarky but he felt like in order for this conversation to go into the crew's favor he needs to get Cimeies to understand he is in a mostly safe place, he just has to ignore Zeta and this Penguin woman he has heard whispers about.

Now as for Libertaria, ok so it wasn't a new planet, rather just a city. Johnny guessed this was like the pirate's secret hideout and they don't want people to know about it. "So I am going to hazard a guess and say you are worried about us leaking the location of Libertaria to some galactic authority? is that what's getting you worked up?" if only Robert knew about the hivemind that was possibly chasing the ship at the moment, but Johnny should probably not mention that for the time being. Just as Johnny was pondering on what to say next, the Waddle Dees came in with Drinks and food, not what Johnny asked for but he wasn't complaining, he wasn't feeling incredibly hungry but he might grab some crackers or something. Johnny then said to the little joyful orbs "Thank you Waddle Dees." Johnny just picked up a can of Ginger Beer and with a click, he opened it and started drinking. He wanted to ask Robert another question "So what's the planet called? is it a water world? is the planet desert like?" Johnny couldn't help but show curiosity about the planet Libertaria is on? The idea of visiting another world still excites Johnny to his very core. This is the type of thing people could only dream of back in his day.

However this train of thought would be quickly interrupted by a black-haired person with a wolf similar to Tequila's wolf standing by his side, he didn't look well, that came out of nowhere. Johnny was not prepared for this but he knew he should probably do something about this. Johnny walked up to the boy and his wolf and said "Hey you should probably sit down. Hey, Cain can get some help here please, I am worried he might collapse." regardless if Cain helped or not Johnny would sit Ayrll down on one of the chairs the Waddle Dees have prepared. Upon walking with Aryll Johnny could hear the mechanical sounds coming from Ayrll's head. Sounds like to Johnny this newcomer is actually an ASSW, ok so he is dealing with a very sick looking machine. Well, this doesn't bode well, but hopefully, this doesn't put a damper on the conversation at hand. Johnny took the effort to make sure the newcomer was safely in a chair before looking back to the rest of the group. "Well that was unexpected."

If Libertaria was only a city, did this perhaps mean it was an otherwise inhabited planet? It was possible, but it could have been otherwise empty. Directly asking Bobert that might provoke suspicion. Upon hearing the description of ginger beer, he was not looking forward to trying it. Wasn't fermenting what they used to make those funny drinks? "Ah, so it's alcohol?" Not a fan! He was more of a soda drinker, especially that green stuff for gamers. Disregarding that, he would indeed assist Jonathan in helping the funny man obtain a seat. His boy Johnny may have viewed it as unexpected, but the C man had another way of phrasing it. "Not exactly normal!" It wasn't every day you saw a funny man with a strange dog. After saying this, he looked back towards the centre of the room, smirking for seemingly no reason in particular, at no one in particular.

Robert's eyes turned to slits as he stared the Mega Dees down when they entered. He seemed caught off guard at first that something of such form would also have such grandiose size, but he quickly channeled his confusion through anger and an animal-like competitiveness. As the Dees set the table and placed chairs for everyone, the gathered all took their seats, the Captain sitting on one side of the table facing Robert, while the rest sat on the sides. The Captain casually took the bucket and a rather large flask filled with a vibrantly purple liquid, pouring its contents out into it before sliding it very slowly towards Robert, who placed his claw around the bucket to test it out. Squeezing hard enough seemed to be enough to bend the reinforced bucket's shape. "Tch." He uttered annoyedly as he proceeded to handle the container with an amount of poise and precision he was obviously straining to accomplish with his clunky arms. He glared at the Captain. "This the best you got?"

"Clearly. The Waddle Dees would have found a better suited container if one had been available to them." The Captain calmly replied.

"Tch, guess I'll let it slide for now." Robert looked at the ale. He was probably only fine with it because the ale was worth it. "Anyways, yes I'll be glad to tell ye what I mean. Yer Captain was thinkin about how he was gonna get away with leakin our info. Tryina blackmail us." He said to Johnny. It made sense, though it was hard to see what was really going on behind the Captain's polite mask. "But he realized ye couldn't get away quickly enough. We'd kill yer asses before you could get to anyone ye could report us to. Isn't that right." He looked at the Captain, who looked at Johnny.

"He is indeed correct." He said with a smile. "I did insinuate this threat right at the start, but thinking more on it, they've likely got us trapped here already as we're so close to their base. Especially so with our damaged engines. I assume you're already aware of that as well?"

Robert let out a rowdy laugh, taking a big sip from the bucket. The bucket got bent like a can as he did so and some of the beer spilled across his chest, sending a waft of fairly bitter yet strangely salivating scent across the room. "Of course! Who do ya think we are?"

The Captain smiled, handing a tissue to the Waddle Dees nearby, who would likely get that he was asking them to clean the mess up at Robert's side of the table.

"And lemme tell ya. Libertaria's on a desert planet. Nothing there cept our fine city. We have plenty of supplies so let's just say it would be in all our interests if you would come peacefully so we could fix ya up and you could, say, become our business partners?" Cimeies grinned, extending a claw towards the Captain. He moved the claw towards the Captain's chin and neck. The Captain kept smirking.

"I see." He replied, closing his eyes in thought. Robert, grinning widely, likely thought he had the grip on this entire situation and that there was no way this could end in their loss. However, you guys felt that perhaps there was a way to pressure even this pirate. Even in this situation.

A way to turn your otherwise problematic situation into a powerful bargaining chip. As if time slowed around you, you noticed Captain's icy purple eye turn towards you. His eyes were grinning and focused upon you. Their weight was clear and he was watching your actions with the attention of a trained predator. Cimeies hadn't yet noticed this. The Captain was expecting you to speak or stay silent. He likely knew he could raise the situation up and use it to his advantage.

Johnny looked annoyed at Robert, thinking he was the one holding all the cards and now he is threatening the Captain, Johnny was going to field trip with this pirate. Johnny finished the cheese and crackers that were in his hands and started to walk up to the pirate and the Captain.

Johnny cleared his throat and started to address the towering pirate. "Do you wanna know how our engines got busted? I think it would be in your best interest to know." Johnny had a very very serious look in his eyes, to show to Robert that what he is about to say is actually fairly serious "We were attacked by the ASSW Hivemind not too long ago because we have something they want and that's bad for not only us but for you aswell." Johnny would let that information sink in for a moment, after about a minute Johnny would continue with a fairly serious tone "You and your pirates are more than welcome to waste time, but the more time you waste threatening this crew, the more and more closer the Hivemind gets to your precious Libertaria."

Johnny leaned closer to Robert's face with a far more intense tone "Tell me, Robert, if you and your crew got their asses handed by the S.S Philemon's crew, what hope do you have that makes you think you can handle several Hivemind ASSWs." Johnny gave an intense look at the pirates, he was more afraid of the Hivemind then some stupid alien who thinks they have all the cards in the deck

Johnny would also get Namtar ready to react, not in the form of an attack no rather if Robert attacked Johnny out of the blue, Johnny would summon Namtar to be used as a sort of shield against the Cimeies claws. "Do you understand that you are putting Libertaria at risk, just because you wanted to feel like you were in control of this little discussion. Johnny looked at the man and sighed "You guys wanna be culled by the Hivemind be my guest, I have given you a fair warning about the thing that's tailing us." Johnny would hope this stern talking would actually rattle Robert. Johnny felt like he should've thrown in a bluff as well about being able to contact some outside group, maybe this human empire he keeps hearing a lot of? Perhaps that might be a good idea. But first Johnny would need to see how the Pirate would react first before seeing if he should apply a bluff or not.

Action???:

Aryll looked up at the two people who had assisted him, murmured a quiet thank you and took a seat. He observed as the large man began to sound a bit agitated, and could nearly visualize the pressure rising on both sides of the table. Suddenly he felt extremely uncomfortable.The suit-wearing figure cooly answered the large man's questions, then turned a chilling purple eye on the people sitting on his side of the table. He nearly shuddered...

Then, he listened as the man with the instrument-body spoke up, mentioning the ASSW hivemind, which rang a bell in Aryll's mind and showing aggressive, threatening tone and posture. As Aryll nervously watched these events play out, Nihil seemed to tense up at the mention of said hivemind, the area around him growing slightly cooler.

He raised his hand, and asked a question directed towards the people sitting opposite the large man.
"...what exactly did you do to aggravate the hivemind...?" He asked cautiously.

Seeing Jonathan go all in on Bobert made Cain feel respect for him. He completely forgot about the supposed robot army that could have been hunting them at this very moment. It was also possible they decided not to, and gave up, but he shouldn't mention that. However, when the funny man spoke up to inquire about the Hivemind, Cain was unsettled, but responded. "What a lovely question! Asides from destroying some of their own, we also... Huh, well, they don't need to know that." As he said this, he turned to Robbie. "Unless you're okay with the risks that information would entail?"

The Waddle-dee's take the Tissue and a few others and they scoot over to Roberts side of the table and they all flawlessly cleaned up the mess as now that they had info on how strong the Guest was another group of Waddle-dee's was already assembling a better container down in one of the main supply rooms, making it look more cup like but using must stronger materials and build, so it wasn't just a bucket.

At the same time other Waddle-dee's where making sure everyone was served food and kept making sure they had their drinks filled or making sure the refreshments where okay, meanwhile the Mega-dee's in the room where standing there but one offered a friendly wave to Robert when he glared at it, and then resumed to standing there waiting for their need to take things back and clean up, but it seemed the negotiations would take a bit longer.

Then Johnny got closer to Robert and started to tell him about the situation, the Waddle-dee's were aware of the situation a few Waddle-dee's moving closer in case ether Johnny or their guest got violent, but they hoped they wouldn't as another group of Waddle-dee's where looking to the new person and Cain as he cleared up the situation a bit. One of the Waddle-dee's nodded to What cain explained to the new person, another placed some food in a bowl for the wolf like creature near Aryll and smiled at the creature.

Finally the Waddle-dee's rushed into the room carrying the new drinking vessel and gently took the Preoccupied Roberts bucket and poured his drink into the new drinking container, one made to better handle his strength, and they placed that on the table near his hand now so he could more comfortably drink from it.

Over all the Waddle-dee's where just around, helping everyone and trying to keep things neat, tidy, and comfortable, despite the goings on, though if one thought they would just back off if things got violent, well...the captain probably well knew if that happened they would be the first ones in to break up a fight rather then join a side in it if possible, the Waddle-dee's like to have everyone get along if possible after all.