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Even just arriving at the station started to raise some red flags for Kinou. His contact was a no-show. There were far more questions than normal regarding him coming in, far more than even others that were from the same shuttle. But he would never have gotten to where he is if he let something like that mess him up. And the spot he was supposed to meet his contact ended up being just him spending a few hours with no one interacting at all, though he could tell at least a few people were watching him. After going back to his Hotel and making sure that he was not being followed along the way he finally got a message from his contact at this station. Go to a place far outside of normal traffic, where there'd be some difficulty in being sure that there is no threat and to come unarmed. He knows it's likely going to be a trap, it'd be far too easy for them to ambush him in the location they're having him go. But if he wants the information he'll just have to go anyway and hope for the best. He'll definitely take precautions, but it's worth it to try and get some information on the chance that the offer is legitimate. Kinou walks to the meeting place and then suddenly sighs as he hears the sound of many more people breathing than he really should expect to. He casually raises his hands up into the air and forms a tight barrier around himself. He hid a battery so it should be good to drain for a little while. Not guaranteed to stop everything, but should give him at least a chance to react should things go south. A few humans step out from around the corner and one puts the gun right up to his head. Unfortunately, it's poking right into his ear and is very uncomfortable and if it does go off at that spot, it wouldn't matter if the barrier protects him completely, the sound alone is going to really hurt.

"I don't understand," Kinou protests, feigning ignorance and not even bothering to try and calibrate his orb to them. "What's going on?"

"You don't need to be playing coy with us," the words instantly begin translating for him. So they kept the information of his recorded language on file. That'll certainly make things a bit annoying to deal with. "The truth of the matter is that we were expecting some kind of response from you at some point. Only a matter of time. We actually had a pool on how long it'll be before one of you shows up. Boss taught us quite a bit about what to look for and I have to say, what you've done is just so sloppy. Honestly, I would have expected far more. The boss is worried over nothing if you're what they're sending. You didn't even forge any documents, just flat out admitted that you're coming from the station. Instead of sending anyone competent all they send is just some brainwashed human trying to play detective. Well, detective, sorry to say this but your luck has run out."

Kinou couldn't help having his head tilt at the boastful monologue of the human, but maintains his barrier against the gun so that the human holding it there wouldn't notice. It also frees up his ear a bit, though the act of the extra barrier will burn through his battery a bit faster and hiding his head moving would drain the phasic cell as well. But as he begins slowly drawing out some of his daggers from his belt he assesses the situation. Far too many here to really just fight them all off, not without having to reveal his cover and even then, it'd be pushing it. He's not even going to consider that an option without a bit more information on who he's dealing with and a much more advantageous situation. And if he did kill them all off, he'd be left without a single lead to go on. He'll have to leave that as a last resort only. He can get away. He's sure of that. It's just a matter of how much of his own abilities does he reveal to his enemy. But under the best of circumstances it's best if he just plays dumb and try to talk his way out.

"I don't understand. I was telling the truth the entire time."

"Well, it's honestly no matter," the one says and gestures off to the side. "We have a telepath in our midst. It'll be a simply thing to just have them scan your mind and then tell us if you're telling the truth. If you are, then I will make my most humble of apologies and compensate you for our indiscretion. And if we are right about you working for Them, directly or otherwise, we'll know that as well, as well as if there are any others like you on their way."

Kinou frowns. Having to deal with a telepath would definitely not be all that good. As part of the Shadows he's had some training in passively blocking out a telepath's ability and how to resist them searching his mind at least a little bit. But it isn't going to be perfect and if it's a strong enough telepath it wouldn't make much of a difference. He hasn't felt them trying to intrude on his mind yet and they haven't opened fire meaning they aren't strong enough to do it at a great distance. Whether or not he can keep them out completely remains to be seen. But at the very least even if he can block them out, it will let these humans know that he is trained and with this many around they won't hesitate to either try and torture him for information or kill him. He still doesn't think it's a good idea to reveal too much right now. But he figures that kind of act would work.

Though he is able to remark that they clearly aren't all that skilled in what they are doing. A part of him is almost disappointed in that he's dealing with such a green crew. His Shadows are trained far better than this. Though it is possible that this is another test it is still not what his organization would do. If someone was suspected or even just needed to be checked, abduct them, keep them sedated long enough to secure them and then send the telepath in to scan their mind when they have no real recourse. That's what they did when they snatched the guy trying to send many little bombs onto the station. He was half expecting this kind of behavior. To just send a bunch of armed people and then physically tell him that there's a telepath coming to him without securing his arms first, that's just lazy.

He readies up a phasic cell by his boot and hides one of his blades in the sleeve of his arm. When the telepath gets close enough that they won't be able to stop him he drops the cell and closes his eyes tightly. The humans exclaim at the sight, but too little, too late as it detonates, burning its entire charge in a single bright flash of light. He uses this opportunity to duck out of the way of the gun at his head, sending the dagger to his hand and then he throws it at the neck of the telepath. Then with a quick reflex he grabs the gun that had been right next to him and extracts it from the human before firing off three rounds at that human before making a break for it.

Once they figure out what he's doing they shout after him and try firing where he thinks he is but he knows how to move to avoid them being able to track him easily. But even with his eyes having been closed when it went off his eyes still hurt from the explosion of light. Which must make them absolutely blind for a moment while he can at least somewhat still see, though blurry as his eyes recover. And then it's just a fairly simple matter of getting away from them all. To that end their choice of something way out of the way aides him. No cameras, this station doesn't use any tracking features like the chips Foznetal uses. A simple illusion to hide his presence is more than enough to give them the slip and then make his way back to his hotel. But where to go from there is another matter.

Back on Foznetal, Anyol walks into the hydroponics sector of the station. Particularly he's on the human sector's hydroponics bay because the person he wants to speak to is regularly in this location. Of course, the fact that he is in such an open environment means it is extremely easy for him to tell that he has acquired a new tail. But for the time being he sets that aside as they don't seem to be making any sort of move against him, merely following behind him. Not that he'd be in a really good position to do anything about them if he did confront them now. But it is a strange place to be nonetheless. Because of the station spinning all of the light is artificial rather than actual sunlight. Further they painted the ceiling to look like a sky. Some people tend to walk these areas to avoid going stir-crazy. But he personally prefers the more gentle and pleasing colors of the halls in his own sector. But he can't exactly fault an aesthetic choice that has no real negative impact on how the station is being run.

The kitsune stops for a moment and then readjusts his course as the sprinkler systems go off. It wouldn't do to have his clothing become unnecessarily ruined by having the treated water soaking him. After a few more minutes of walking through the place and checking to see that his shadow is still there he finally finds the human he is looking for. He waves to get the man's attention. The human sees him and puts down what he was working on before heading in his direction, not even seeming to care about the sprinklers getting him wet or not.

"What can I do you for?" Robert Jennison asks once close enough, not even bothering to stop and wait to calibrate Anyol's orb.

Which isn't too surprising a trait for him. People only come find him in this place if they have something to talk about with him and since he is so well known he actually can get a bit annoyed if the person seeking him out doesn't have their orb automatically calibrated to his language. He even has it set that you could have it calibrated as you enter the area.

"Anyol Corella, representative to the planet Pouren," Anyol says, giving a bow to the human.

"Okay, what can I do you for, Anyol Corella?" he asks again.

"Well it's two things, really," he begins, reaching into his satchel to pull out a data plate. "My planet's been having a problem lately with their main crop. The plants seem to all be sick and we haven't been entirely able to figure out what all is causing the issue. I was hoping that either your group could figure it out or worst case scenario have one of your dryads do a house call to go visit the planet and see what is wrong with them and what all can be done to bring them back up into full health."

"That seems simple enough," Robert says, taking the data plate and giving it a once over. "Can't make any real guarantees, though. It is entirely possible you're dealing with a foreign parasite that they have no resistance to. I won't be able to guarantee I'll be able to save your current crop but I feel we should be able to at the very least give you an answer that will at the very least save your next crop. So what's your second issue."

"This is a more personal request. Do you have any Dral Root Juice? It's for a religious ceremony for a friend of mine and I would like to surprise him with a bottle."

"I don't know if we have Dral Root or not. Wouldn't that be something that you would be better off checking in with the market?"

"For this particular thing, no. Dral Root isn't an ordinary plant. Only a dryad has the ability to turn a root vegetable into a Dral Root. And as most of the dryads on the station are working for you. I figure you would be the one to request it from."

"Jisella!" he shouts off into the distance and then waits for a moment, while taking a brief look at the information about Anyol's planet's issue. Eventually a dryad in a gardening dress begins to walk up to the two of them. "Do you know of something called a Dral Root?"

"Hmm? Oh, um, yes. It's a special kind of thing we can do. We don't really do it all that often."

"Is it harmful?"

"Nah," she waves a hand. "It's nothing dangerous. It's a special kind of fermentation. It adds a very unique and powerful taste. Not quite like an alcohol. But far more potent in its own way. It really isn't something that even takes us all that much time to make. The reason we don't do it much is that it tends to go bad very quickly. Chilling doesn't work. Preservatives spoil the effect. And after a day or two it can become toxic. Why, does he want a bottle?"

"If you'd be so kind," Anyol says, bowing to the pair.

Jisella looks back at Robert. He shrugs and nods and she walks off. Anyol stands back and peaks quickly to see that his tail is still watching him from a distance. Not even a really good tail at that since they aren't that good at tracking him in a very subtle manner. It's extremely obvious to anyone that they're following him. To what end he doesn't know yet, though he'd rather not have to find out if at all possible. Robert just passes the time looking at the information that Anyol had given him.

"So what are we talking about if we can't fix your problem with this crop?"

"This crop?" Anyol thinks on it for a moment. "Should be minimal. Unless the leaders at home have been lying and have secretly squandered our reserves we should be fine for this crop. It is our main export so the planet itself will be hurting for cash for a little while but we have enough food reserves for this very reason that we shouldn't have any starvation if this crop's a total failure. If we can't get it fixed with the next round, however, we'll probably have to kick off thirty to forty percent to prevent starvation."

"That high, hmm?" he says while not looking up from the plate. "Has your planet had to deal with this kind of problem before?"

"Once, about two hundred years ago. Though that wasn't as bad as this one. And that is a completely different situation. There was a plague of fire-beetles that came with a shipment of farming equipment from another system. We were slow to react to the problem in time and they got through about half our food stores before we could kill them all off. We were evacuating while we dealt with it but that was a completely different situation and we've had further precautions put in place since then."

"I see, I see. Any recent developments in regards to chemicals or pesticides? Any new crops introduced to the ecosystem?"

"No, none of that is the cause. We may not have your expertise on the matter, but we are an agricultural planet. We've already ruled out all the more common explanations and couldn't find any."

"Just have to be thorough. Had a Raeshael representative show up once saying their crops were dying and the reason ended up being that they were mixing the chemicals they were using to keep themselves clean with the ground water that was being fed to the plants. And it took a lot of convincing to get them to realize that something designed to kill everything on the skin isn't good for a plant."

"That's fine, I suppose," Anyol shrugs.

"Though an agricultural world, huh? Don't really see that many of those. I mean, most worlds will have portions devoted to farmland, just not the entire world."

"Well, that's because travel times are so long between systems that there is little benefit to it. But when the situation aligns for it, it can be extremely profitable. We're actually the second habitable planet in the system. The gravity's a bit higher than most want because the planet is a good deal larger than most. But the air is good. The water is good and clean and the ecosystem is perfect for an agricultural world. And with the two worlds we were able to become a hub system. So we get a Gate we can use to transport food to all the other hub systems in the Mythic and Human empires very quickly. And since we do still provide a ship we are allowed to have a representative as per the charter, even if we aren't the only planet in the system."

"And they felt the need to have a representative at this station?"

"Well, what better place can you possibly think of to best arrange trade deals to ship off our excess food stores to other systems. My people don't really ask much of me, only that I do my best to aid in our exports. We are a fairly wealthy planet that currently supplies food to over two dozen worlds. But with our crops being sick, our ability to do so is hindered. The biggest problem if this season's crop is ruined is the loss of all the money we would have taken in from selling our excess as we will have to instead put everything we had promised away to feed our own people. The loss of money will definitely hurt but I've already spoken with all of our trade partners about our situation and they all seem to understand. Hopefully, with your help we'll be able to at least honor some of the trade deals."

"Well I'll see what I can do. But like I said, I can't guarantee it'll be fixed for this crop," Robert says.

"I understand. I cannot ask any more of you than I already have."

After another moment the dryad returns with a corked bottle and a small little device. "Which eye?" she asks when she gets close enough. Anyol points quickly to his right eye. Jisella raises up the device and scans his eye. She then lowers it and looks at the display on her side. Satisfied she hands over the bottle to Anyol, his tails wagging a little bit as he goes about hiding the bottle in his tails, making sure it's well protected since he doesn't know how dangerous the one following him is going to be. He then bows again to the two of them and walks off, making sure to stay as far away as is convenient from the other person following him.