Lucca draws the pistol from her belt and lays it on the table. "So you've built the spaceship version of pointing this at your temple. Cultus iktus as far as I'm concerned."
Lucca rubs the bridge of her nose. "Uh, sorry. I meant hunk of junk. Worthless crap. I would be less shocked if you brought along some faulty antimatter bottles, 'cause that's something I've dealt with before. I vote we scrap that thing, 'cause it'll just kill us in the most embarrassing way."
The Captain stands with her arms crossed, an almost uncharacteristically serious expression on her pockmarked face. She nods at Phateon. "Phateon's a smart fella. I've trusted 'im fer years, and 'e 'asn't let me down yet, either in general trustiness or sciency meddlin' that I can't make sideways of. 'Sides, Litics was years ago, and I wouldn't let 'im put somefin like that in me Tinderbox if I weren't completely certain he were capable enough t'not blow me up 'fore the Fates get their right chance."
Lucca returns the pistol to its holster. "Really? 'Cause he doesn't seem too confident in his invention. Here's to hoping we never have to use it."
The Captain nods at Lucca. "Yer concerns're noted, Miss Owen. I was finkin' it'd work best as a last ditch gettaway at most, really--somefin's comin' at us faster'n light and we needs t'be even faster, 'nd the like." Cap'n Sam's grin returns. "I've certainly tried--would be a shame to just end up as another name in th'list o'the demised rather'n th'first t'conquer Siren." Her smile spreads a little more as she flips some more switches to bring up a rough spacial map leading to Siren. "As ye can see, we needs t'make a few more jumps 'fore we reach Siren--various spacey anomalies 'nd dangerous phenomena litter th'trail t'Siren, makin' the trip itself almost half th'battle!" She gives a single, loud laugh before continuing. "Once we reach Siren, o'course, it won't be so simple as marchin' in and grabbin' whatever loot we feel should be ours; we'll 'ave t'think strategically about dangers known 'nd otherwise. 'Ence, Phateon's modifications. 'Ere's what we know so far..." She flicks yet another little switch, bringing up a few pages with pixelated images, quotes from minor reports, and generic bullet points. "Siren lies in a very unstable system. Its star is in some whack-job part o'its life, spewin' bursts o'fire 'nd radiation at near random intervals. The whole system's full o'asteroids 'nd meteoroids 'nd little messy bits what mess wiff a ship's sensors 'nd engines. Some reports make mention o'strange anomalies showin' up on sensors near Siren, on one case almost attackin' anyfin' that came int'Siren's orbit. Then there's th'planet 'erself--no report 'as ever been able t'pierce atmosphere o'Siren wiffout bein' dragged down t'the depths, never t'be 'eard of again 'cept by whatever might be lurkin' on th'world's surface. We can assume that it's dangerous 'nd covered in the wreckage o'past attempts, 'nd hopefully bountiful riches, eternal youth, 'nd the meanin' t'life all in one." She smiles, turning back toward the crew. "So! Goin' off of what horrors we know of, how do ye all think we ought to approach the matter?"
"Well, we could go in hard and fast, blitzing past whatever might be waiting. Might be like slamming into a brick wall in the process though. Might want to give that star as much of a wide berth as we can manage before we make our final approach to the planet; having our engines fried is just going to be a pain in the ass." Lucca clicks her tongue as she studies the data onscreen. "Yeesh, with that many rocks, seems like a couple planets must've been destroyed recently. Normally they'd form predictable orbits, or smashed into something by now."
"Sounds delightful. I say we should go in carefully and subtly and try not to get blown to oblivion before we get the chance to land." "So something's blowing up planets? Can't wait to find out what that could be."
"No guarantee on that; just the, uh, 'logical' explanation? Still far-fetched though; blowing up a planet is no small feat. Maybe an eruption from the star did it; maybe the rocks are a cleverly disguised minefield set up by someone with too much time on their hands."
Whyt seems to perk up at the mention of "blowing up planets." Her grin returns as she rubs her chin. "I would like to meet that someone! Such dedication to explosives, who knows what they have in their arsenal?!"
"Assuming such a 'person' would exist, which is doubtful, I don't think they'd approve us just waltzing into their sphere of influence. Maybe one of the planet destroying weapons might come flying our way."
".....Welp..I doubt that stuff has any hand in it, sounds like only a handful of folks can master it and I doubt our local Chief here could even think of a way to twist it to planet-busting scale..it's probably a button with dangerous toys....probably more up Whyt's alley.."
