driftfleet | First Post

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First Post

Who: Quatre and you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Huntress, planetside
When: Quatre's arrival and later

Broadcast
Hello, everyone. My name is Quatre Raberba Winner. It is nice to meet you all.

I am sure that this has happened often, but I have some questions about this place if anyone would be so kind as to answer them.

Action - Huntress
[After a short time on the ship called the Marsiva, Quatre found himself here... on the ship called the Huntress with some surprising random fanfare.

So he sets out to explore the ship, see who else is there and what the ship is like. It was weird, he thought, that he had been assigned as a cook when he had so many other useful skills... Well, maybe he can put them to use anyway]

Action - Planetside
[This planet... this planet was beautiful. It was everything he had ever pictured planets to be. He takes to wandering the settlement enjoying the scenery.

But he can hear it, practically feel it in his space heart. The planet is trying to say something to him. To all of them. He's sure of it. As much as he loves the scenery, this part bothers him greatly. In the early morning, he stands, trying to figure out the planet is trying to say]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hmm... interesting. So in a sense your ships are living beings so they have healing the same way a natural being would.

I know it probably isn't possible, but I would like to see one of them if the chance ever comes up.

Yeah, I... I guess they are.

[Keith hadn't really thought about it, but the Lions had personalities and low level autonomy... even something akin to an animal's level of sentience, or maybe even a bit more. They were kind of "alive", weren't they?]

Well, I have... something.

[Keith closed his eyes for a moment, letting out a soft breath as he visibly settled himself to focus on something. After a moment, he opened them again and opened the door to the bridge.

A robot lion, about the size of a housecat, floated in, hovering just above the floor with tiny rockets. It was black, with a pair of thin red wing-like fins on its back. Keith bent down and picked it up.]

Atroma thought it would be funny, I guess, but we got our ships... just, they were small. Really small.

[He held out the Lion for Quatre to take a look.]

Normally, I can stand inside its mouth. When the chin is flat on the ground, the line for the mouth is at my shoulders. And I'm like six feet tall.

[Quatre tilted his head as Keith closed his eyes, focusing on something. When the door opened and in floated a tiny black lion with red wings. His eyes went wide with surprise but also delight]

That is amazing! I have never seen anything like this before, full size or size of a cat.

[He leaned in to look at the lion that he was holding]

What sort of abilities does it have? Would it have normally? Where is the cockpit located?

The cockpit's in the head. This particular one is kind of the all-around fighter. It's fast, but also powerful. There's a massive laser in the mouth, and a smaller one in the tail tip. And, if I tap into it deeply enough, I can get it to teleport. That's pretty hard, though, and takes a lot of energy.

Also, when we have the other four Lions, they can transform and combine to create a person-like robot called Voltron.

Just... like this, [Meaning tiny...] the lasers are just lights, and it doesn't really have any of its main abilities. It's more like a smart toy that I can sort of control with my mind.

Huh... interesting.

We have humanoid robots back home, but there is nothing that combines into them to make them. We do have a few that can shift form. Wing can transform for flight. The Gundams all different specialties.

Well, the one I had before this one was the fast one. She also had fire-based attacks, like a lava gun, and had the strongest resistance to heat. She seemed to work better in hot climates, and had kind of a temperamental personality. But, she was Voltron's right arm when we combined. The Black Lion here is the head and torso, and therefore, the Paladin for the Black Lion usually ends up being team leader by default.

[Yes... Keith had just implied that the Lions picked their pilots.

However, in talking about Red, Keith's tone had turned a little nostalgic. He missed his first Lion sometimes.]

Interesting that they have personalities. I always thought the Gundams did, but others have given me odd looks for thinking it so maybe it is just me. So the Black Lion's paladin is always the leader. Do paladins normally switch lions?

[He noticed nostalgic look. He could tell that he had enjoyed his time piloting Red. In fact, he can feel it too, that he's having nostalgic feelings and it brings a faint smile to his face]

You liked Red?

Maybe they do. I mean, in a way, cars do, too, right? [Keith shrugged.] After what I've seen with the Lions, [he shook his head] I wouldn't discount that at all.

But, no, we don't usually switch. And there's only been two or three Paladins per Lion anyway. The first Paladins were lost when their leader turned on them.

When we came into the picture, the Lions had been dormant for over ten thousand years. We were the second ones to ever pilot them. After we had to switch, I was technically the third for Black, Lance the third for Red, and Allura ended up being the third for Blue. Pidge and Hunk stayed with their Lions.

[Keith smiled a bit and then nodded.]

Yeah. We were really close. It's something that happens when you work with them. As the bond between the Paladin and the Lion gets stronger, then they can do more together and unlock new abilities.

It's the same for Voltron, too. As the bonds between all ten of us get stronger, the five Paladins and the five Lions, Voltron gets stronger.

I suppose you could say that they do. Or people assign them personalities.

[He listened to description of Voltron and the paladins, nodding to show that he understood]

I am sorry to hear about what happened with the original paladins. But it sounds interesting, the bonds that you are able to develop with them, how that helps your ability to fight. Definitely sounds like they are more alive than being a robot would suggest.

Yeah. They're pretty amazing, actually.

[Not that Keith was biased or anything... because totally wasn't giving the house-cat-sized robot in his hands a fond look. Nope.]

Based on what I can see with your miniature version, I would agree with you. They are pretty amazing.

[He smiled, leaning over to look at the tiny lion]

[Keith smiled a bit in return, giving a small nod.]

I kind of wish I had the full-size one, but these ships wouldn't hold him. The hangars are too small.

I wish I could see them full sized. This ship would probably fit in the hangar of the Lions?

[He's curious for a size comparison]

Well, it would definitely fit inside the hangars we kept the Lions in... though, the Lions themselves don't have cargo bays that big. We can carry a decent amount of stuff in them, but nothing like a full ship. But we needed a really big ship to carry all five Lions... probably something more along the lines of the Iskaulit or the Marsiva.

Oh I see. They are pretty big then.

I wonder how they would compare to the Gundams. I'm getting the feeling the Gundams might be smaller just based on how you speak of the lions.

The Gundams are your giant robots, right? How tall are they?

[Keith was curious.]

Well, Sandrock is 16.5 meters in height. They were all about that. Some slightly taller, some slightly shorter. Sandrock was between all of them.

That's still pretty big. The Lions are bigger, but 16.5 meters isn't something to shake a stick at.

The lions are still bigger? Impressive. The Gundams are some of the biggest in our world. There are few mobile suits that are bigger, but not many.

Yeah. I mean, when just the claw is higher than I am tall, I'd say they're pretty big.

[Keith nodded.]

It's still really impressive with yours, though. Who built them? The Lions were made by an Altean alchemist ten thousand years ago.

Oh... yeah, they are big if the claw is bigger than you. [He studied the tiny lion as though looking for a comparison]

Originally, the scientists built them. There was one working on each Gundam individually. Of course they had help and tools so it wasn't just one man alone. Wing Zero, though, I built that one.

You built one? [Okay, that got Keith's attention.] And Atroma made you the chef... go figure. We could have really used an Engineer. [He took a breath, settling his reaction a bit more.] That's really cool, though. I can't imagine even trying to figure out where to start.

[Black shifted his head and looked directly back at Quatre. There was definitely some kind of sentience there... like one would expect to see from a cat or a dog.]

Even at this size, the Lions are pretty complicated. Princess Allura's dad built them. But he was like... a genius. [Alchemy and quintessence helped, too, but Keith wasn't exactly sure how to go about explaining those, yet.]

That's why I'm surprised too. I'm much better qualified to be an engineer. [He smiled though] Not much that can be done about it.

I had plans to go off at least. I didn't design it from the ground up, but all of the programming and everything had to be done.

[See why he was saying he could do it anyway? He sees the lion turn to look at him and smiled]

Hello.

[Keith nodded at the comment, and then glanced down at the Lion when Quatre spoke to him. There was a beat, and then Keith looked a little surprised.]

You're more than just an engineer, aren't you?

In terms of what I do? It's only a small part. I'm also the leader of the team, I pilot one of the Gundams...

[He looked back at the Lion]

And my space heart allows me to sense things others don't.

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