ic Written in the Stars (IC)

[Tiffany Korta]

The Traveller

As they jumped into space Sitara's HUD blazed into life feeding her information about the bulk of the ship before them. She'd faced bigger before, and mostly won!

 

Making her way towards the ship, if not as rapidly as some, she did a lazy spin to take in the scene, for both situational awareness and just because those views were always beautiful. Then to business!

 

She took her two parts of her Power Pike bringing the beams of them together to get a solid hit on one of the turrets of the craft, wasn't much but it was a start!

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus was again momentarily dazzled by the display of Moon-Moth's magics, and was saved from certain red reptilian doom by an interposing Justicar Vor'an!

 

Too close!  Good to see the Star Khan's man is willing to defend us, though.

 

He gave Vor'an a quick salute, then clicked the heels of his sandals together.  The tiny wings emblazoned on them shimmered with mystical energy, bearing him aloft, and he zipped closer to the hangar bay doors. 

 

The League and Praetorians are making short work of Dovox's soldiers, but those fighter craft look ready to launch at any moment, and they remain untouched! 

 

Along the way he hastily withdrew components from his bandolier pouches, assembling what looked like a copper slingshot with a cup modified to hold crystalline darts.  He launched the projectiles at the launch bays, and as they hit they exploded into a large plug of some quartz-like material.

 

Ha!  Let us see them get through that!

 

[Avenger Assembled]

The Patriot 

 

In the engine room, trusting Ghost to do his thing and knowing he needed privacy to do it, the Patriot stepped out where everyone could see her.

 

The room was full of frightened-looking technicians, a few greyskins that looked like armed soldiers - none of the big meta-threats that might have been present. "Hey!" she called in Lor. "Look at me! None of you have to die. You've already lost." She hit a button at her belt, closing her helmet fully around her head, her blue and white outfit extending until it covered every inch of her skin in a tight, almost-vacuum-sealed appearance. "You can get out now and you can tell your commanders that you saved the lives of engineers and warriors so you could win the next battle."

 

In one hand, she snapped open one of her tonfas, which gleamed with sharpened metal on both ends. She pulled a grenade from her belt and put her finger on the trigger, holding it directly against the glowing, pulsating thing behind her that she was almost certain was part of the reactor. 

"I'm the Patriot and I'm from Earth. I know you think we're just - a bunch of dumb savages. If you stay here, you're going to see me count to ten. Ten. Nine - " 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Inside engineering, the armed troopers all momentarily freeze, uncertain what to do given Patriot's threats. Meanwhile, most of the technicians and engineers run for exits or take cover where they can.

 

In the hanger, a dozen troopers try to track Velocity's path, opening fire and sending a dozen energy blasts all over the hanger trying to hit the speedster. Another group opens fire toward the heroes in the middle of the hanger, two hitting Moon-Moth in the air and another two hitting Artificer as more moved into position to begin firing at the heroes.

 

Velocity turned toward the group of alien enemies massed at one end of the hanger, accelerating as the entire area at the end became a blur of yellow as dozens of unconscious aliens went flying in all directions almost at once. When the yellow blur finally cleared, the area was almost completely clear of any enemies. One damaged mecha was still on its feet, with a more heavily damaged one lying on the ground. One of the Boran’s was lying on the ground, but not quite out of the fight.

 

As she continued moving through the hanger, the yellow clad speedster began vibrating so fast she became insubstantial as she tried to draw fire from the remaining massed troops.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

Now this is some interesting tech. It's familiar enough to Casper that he can actually work it (thankfully its not some kind of bio-tech or anything like that, then he would have no idea what to do aside from just rip the reactor out of the sockets...), he just need to figure out where everything goes.

 

Casper has no idea what Patriot is saying or what language it is, but even without looking over his shoulder, he's sure that she's threatening them, which... fair enough. Glancing over his shoulder, he sees the grenade. That's... not optimal. Suicide missions are really not his thing.

 

So, what can he do, now that he's getting into the generator?

 

Propulsion? That's gotta go. Can't let these guys get closer to the Earth.

 

Weapons? Oh yeah. No guns, no fun, and there's a few Praetorians out there.

 

The lifts? He'll save that for later.

 

"Hey, gang? Ghost here," he speaks into his communicator. Both the League and the Praetorians should be looped in there, right? "I'm at the ship's generator with Patriot. Fun little thing. Real interesting. Anyway, I'm gonna shut down the weapon and propulsion systems now, if anybody wanna make some badass boasts and tell them that bad space invaders don't get to go anywhere in their big spaceship. Oh, right, and you can tell them that if they keep misbehaving I'll pull the generator out into space."

 

Reaching in, Ghost shuts it down. And then... no weapons. No propulsion.

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Stepping out of the remaining mass of troopers at one end of the hanger, another of the black clad aliens came into view, this one focusing on the fast-moving form of Velocity as it sent a mental blast at the speedster. The mental blast hit the speedster, but this time she barely broke stride as she shook it off and continued moving.

 

The one that had previously targeted Moon-Moth once again hit the Praetorian with a metal blast.

 

The Boran facing off with Justicar Vor'an raised up his battle axe to strike the Zultasian. However, Vor'an was able to deflect the attack side, so the axe once scrapped along the deck of the hanger.

 

Another Boran moved forward, aiming his blaster up at Moon-Moth. The powerful beam shot through the air, striking the Lanturian squarely.

 

Meanwhile, three of the Hunter mecha moved out of the crowd and aimed their main weapons as the barrier Artificer had placed over the hanger opening. All three powerful weapons opened fire, trying to blast the barrier out of the way so the ready fighters could launch to try to deal with the Praetorians outside the ship.

 

Two more of the mecha fired at the fast moving form of Velocity, only to have their blasts pass harmlessly through her. One of the blasted a parked fighter, heavily damaging the spacecraft. The other struck the side of one of the parked dropships, causing it some damage as well.

 

Another of the Hunters rushed forward to close into melee range with Gaian Knight, a plasma blade flashing to life in its main weapon arm, ready to try to cave into the hero.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight

 

Tarrant wasn't not concerned by the plasma blade rapidly coming his way, but far better him than someone else. Had he been hit by a plasma blade before? Surely he had been. He was still alive, it was probably fine.

 

Less fine was the overall chaos of the battlefield. One stray shot in the wrong direction.... "Your ship's about to lose power!" he announced, raising an open hand; his alien-consuming serpent seized in place, dissolving into a long and twisting cloud of rock that hung over the heads of their enemies. "You're losing this fight, and Dovox is facing worse than us down on the surface. Stand down," he said - the hand clenched into a fist and the fist came down like a hammer, as did countless stones - "while you still have a vessel left to leave in."

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Despite the display of power by the various heroes in the hanger, and the threat of the ship losing power, the various aliens following Dovox seemed unwilling to surrender just yet. The large Boran that had managed to withstand Gaian Knight's latest attack raised his weapon again and tired to strike the League member, but once again the veteran hero avoided the attack, causing the alien to snarl in frustration.

Meanwhile, several more Boran moved their way through the gathered troops at one end of the hanger, trying to get closer to the group of heroes. Two of them managed to get clear and start rushing towards where Artificer and Justricar Vor'an stood not far from Gaian Knight.

[Ecalsneerg]

Galvanic

 

Chlo'zel wasn't done trying to destroy the ship's weaponry. Even if they managed to shut down the reactor from within, this ship could still harm many others. After all, they'd so often failed to bring Dovox to justice. Bracing her feet against the ship's hull, she reached up with slender arms and grasped the underside of the slanted cannon from beneath, vacuum distorting behind her as jolts of lightning propelled her up and back, floating unsupported in the void with her teeth straining, steam streaming from the melting ice of Galvanic's blue skin, turning even paler in the unprotected void. 

 

Inside the ship's helm, red warning lights began to flash and emergence sirens pealed as one of the ship's main guns fully detached, floating in the void held on the shoulders of a much-smaller Galvanic, grunting as she shouldered the barrel, getting a solid grip on it, her hands distorting the metal somewhat to form handholds. 

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As Gaian Knight's rock attack swept in hit and sent the large Boran in melee with Vor'an flying and momentarily dazing the large alien, the Justicar took a step back to reassess the situation as he remained near Artificer. Turning in the direction of two more charging Borans, the Zultasian leveled his power pike at one of them.

 

The weapon's end glowed with energy as a powerful beam shot out to strike the charging Boran dead center. The blast knocked the creature off its feet and sent it flying back dozen of feet, where it slammed into several troopers, knocking them all to the ground as well.

 

The Justicar then lifted his weapon back up into a ready stance as he prepares for the next threat to appear.

[Exaccus]

Moon-moth grumbled as a painful fragment of a energy blast refracted through his barrier singed his fluffy shoulder, he drew himself aloft into the air, angling his wiry frame above the chaos below, whilst this made him easy pickings, his sightlines were vastly improved.

 

he unleashed terrible power from his eyes, carving a glyph into the sky with lines of prismatic light a great eye that sprung to animated life, casting its blazing gaze upon the hanger, filling their minds with an overload of guilt and regret to flood their neurons with decades of misdeeds and pinning them in place, much like butterflies in a display case.

[Tiffany Korta]

Traveller

Things seemed to be going well inside the landing bay, she was impressed and a little proud that the Terran heroes were more than up to the task. And Galvanic had the brute strength that she couldn't bring to bear, well not without a quick reworking of her suit routines and that was practical right now. So it was time for a new plan, she scanned the ship and spotted an airlock close to the bridge, it was a risk but with everything else going on they might just be focused everywhere but there.

 

"I'm going in!" she pointed to show where she was going, just in case they tried to listen in just like they had.

 

She smiled when she saw the airlock, it was a design she'd recognised from her time in the Khanate and it had a simple override that she now used to get the airlock to cycle open. With a quick check around she stepped in and allowed the airlock to cycle open into the ship.

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Good, good, the crystallos barriers are holding, he thought with satisfaction as he witnessed the mecha's failed attempts to blast through his blockage of the main hangar bays.  They will not hold under a sustained assault, but they do not need to hold for long, just enough for the others to subdue the- oh!

 

A large movement at the back of the hangar caught his eye as more hangar bay doors started opening.  "Oh, you naughty barbarians -- trying to slip out the back!"  He flew towards the rear and drew back on his 'slingshot,' flinging more fast-growing crystallos chunks which quickly expanded and blocked the exits.  

 

[Avenger Assembled]

Patriot 

 

If you had a good reading knowledge of some of the languages of space, it wasn't hard to figure out the all-call button on the engine room's intercom - probably typically used for an engineer to give an emergency message to the rest of the ship. In a low, throaty voice, she spoke directly into the microphone, so close the audio pickup caught her breathing, deliberately making her tone off-putting.  

 

"<Hi. Patriot here. You don't know me yet. But you will. I want to hear the sound of escape pods. Otherwise I'm going to get angry. And you know what happens when Terrans get angry, don't you? You will.>" She clinked her grenade off the side of the intercom and said, "<Twenty.......Nineteen.....>" 

[Thevshi]

GM

 

The armed guards inside the engine room certainly seemed affected by Patriot's speech and threat, what others around the ship might be thinking, was harder to guess. But then, a few moments after Patriot's speech, the intercom she had been using cutout and a calm voice spoke over the system. It was the voice of the herald that had given Dovox's threat earlier.

 

"The Terran's threats are hollow. She would not throw away her life, or those of her fellow Terrans on this ship so recklessly. Remember, you are in the service of the great Prince Dovox, help to clear these intruders from our ship and great shall be your reward. Abandoned him, and his punishment will be severe. Efforts are underway to retake engineer and secure the hanger."

 

Waymaker's words seemed to harden the resolve of the armed troopers still in engineering. Where they had initially been ready to flee for the nearest escape pod, they now had a look of determination on their faces. Whether it was due to the motivational words of the herald, or just plain greater fear of Dovox, it was hard to say. The six troopers drew their weapons and began firing at the two Freedom League members, but all missed as energy blasts flashed around the two.

 

Down in the hanger, the troopers that had avoided being caught in Moon-Moth's spell began spreading out around the hanger, some sprinting toward the far end, while others only moved a short distance. It was clear they were trying to be more spread out, to prevent Velocity or Gaian Knight from taking out as mean with each of their larger area attacks. Some of those that moved short distances opened fire, three of them shooting up at Moon-Moth, with two of the blasts hitting the Praetorian. Another three fired on Artificer, but Justicar Vor’an stepped in the path of one of the blasts, which glanced harmlessly off his armor, while the other two went wide.

 

Up near the bridge, Traveller cycled through the airlock, stepping into one of the hallways inside the ship. She found herself looking at the entrance to the bridge, outside of which stood three figures. Two were large Borans, each armed with blasters and large melee weapons. The other was a figure familiar to Traveller, Tal'gar, a descendent of renegade Lor Mentats that had fled to a system that now lay within the boarders of the Stellar Khanate centuries earlier. Tal'gar had aided the old Star Khan in his attempt to reestablish his grip on the Khanate and retake worlds that had broken away.

 

Tal'gar looked toward Traveller, a faint smile on her face as she signaled the two Borans to stay where they were. "Praetorian Shashikala. I would not suppose you are here to surrender?" She asked as she took a few steps forward, blades of psychic energy forming in her hands as she did. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Velocity's goggles quickly provided her with data about what was going on amidst the chaos in the hanger. Artificer was blocking the exits from the hanger, preventing any of the readied fighter craft from launching to engage the Praetorians outside (or going down to attack the planet). Between herself, Gaian Knight and Moon-Moth, a large number of the enemy had been dealt with, though there were many still up and in the fight, if only barely. The Khanate Justicar was in the fight as well, staying near Artificer and helping protect the Atlantean as he went about his tasks.

Turning her attention to the last third of the hanger she had not yet gone after any enemy in, the speedster noted that the still mobile troopers had managed to spread out far enough to prevent her from getting all of them at once. But she could still get quite a few, as well as some of the more dangerous enemy, such as the three mecha trying to clear the barrier over the main hanger door.

 

Zipping over towards that end of the hanger, the speedster once gain was a blur of yellow, which seemed almost to be everywhere at once, her fists flashing out faster than most could see with faint sounds of the attacks breaking the sound barrier as she went. Within moments, dozens of troopers were down, as where three of the Borans caught in Moon-Moth's spell. All three of the mecha firing on Artificer’s barrier were knocked to the ground, each damaged, their pilots dazed for the moment.

 

A moment later Velocity came skidding to a halt near Gaian Knight and the Boran that was in melee with him. "Seem to have things pretty well under control here for the moment."

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As Ghost and Patriot were focused on the alien troops firing at them in the reactor room, they failed to spot another alien pass through the roof of the room. The lower half of the alien’s body was a long, snakelike tail and the figure slithered along the roof at great speed before dropping down behind Ghost. It was only the last moment sound of its twin blades whistling in the air that alerted the hero to the alien’s presence, as he just dodged the two long knives of the similarly intangible foe.

 

Hissing at Ghost, the alien weaved past him, moving on Patriot, who had now been alerted to its presence. The alien become solid once more as it swung its blades at the patriotic heroine…

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Hey!" Ghost moves back, out of the way just in time to avoid the alien swinging knives at him. The way it moves and everything, it's ghosting, like him. Or maybe not quite like him. And it goes solid. "Patriot, watch out!"

 

Too late. It goes for her before he has a chance to dive in, but, as he lets go of the machine and dives towards it, Casper realizes something else. The alien is solid again. It has to go solid to be able to attack Patriot. That means it can't fight both of them at once, and... 

 

"Man, don't go fighting someone else just because you missed me! That's rude!" 

 

He sticks his hand through the alien's face, sending a shock through its entire system. It should hurt. A lot. 

[Thevshi]

GM

 

At one end of the hanger, three of the Hounds that Velocity had previously knocked down managed to climb back to their feet, two looking rather unsteady as they did so. The third, an insectoid, focused on the yellow clad speedster over near Gaian Knight and sent a mental blast at her. Velocity gave a small cry of pain as the mental attack hit her, causing her to take a step to the side, but she remained on her feet and gritted her teeth. "Those telepaths are really getting annoying."

 

At the other end of the hanger, the various Hounds the speedster had knocked down with were recovering from being dazed by the attacks, but otherwise unable to do anything. Similarly, the large Boran near Artificer and Vor’an seemed to clear his head, turning to look at the Justicar with a scowl.

 

Through out the hanger, several of the Mecha climbed back to their feet, a few appearing rather damaged and unable to do much more at the moment. But three were still able to open fire on one of the barriers Artificer had put up, the powerful blasts impacting against the barrier.

 

Throughout the hanger, most of the various Hounds, Hunters and the Boran that Moon-Moth had paralyzed remained so...for the moment.

Up by the bridge….

Tal'gar rushed forward towards Traveller, crying out as she swung one of her psychic blades at the Praetorian. The renegade Mentat's attack was just good enough to strike Traveller, the psychic energy coursing through her body…

[Fox]

Gaian Knight

 

"Well, it could sure be less under control," replied Tarrant; he'd spread his feet a bit and cocked his head to the side, gaze - even hidden behind his goggles - vacant the way it only ever was when he'd shifted his attention away from his eyes and toward the feel of things. He never liked picking up vibration through the kinds of things they built starships from - too clear and too loud all at once.

 

He drew both arms back, and that was all the warning their opponents got. As he drew them forward again, dragging his fingers against some invisible weight, the stone littering the battlefield dissolved into sand and surged upward against anything hostile that happened to be nearby - whereupon he closed both his hands and it hardened again into something too tough to be sandstone and too actively-constricting to be stone at all. Effective, if not trivial - his eyes were glowing through his goggles now, and little bits of spare rock had started to orbit him like moons. "Hang in there, and let me know if you spot anybody who needs a bunker."

[Thevshi]

GM

 

The Boran that had been rushing toward Arificer and Justicar Vor'an had managed to partially avoid being trapped in the sandstone like confinement controlled by Gaian Knight, but still had his legs partially covered in the substance. This slowed the large alien down considerably, but he was still able to close the distance towards the Atlantean, raising a large club to attack. Justicar Vor'an stepped between the two as the club came down, easily deflecting wild attack away with his power staff.

[Ecalsneerg]

Galvanic 

 

Chlo'zel floated back from the ship a little, straining as she brought the barrel of the gun around, wielding it like a baseball bat. From the outside it looked like the ship had been disabled, but this was a full battlecruiser assaulting a planet without its own fleet. If they got the power back up, it'd be a disaster if it was still pointing at the Lighthouse.

 

Winding up in the lack of gravity, she cartwheeled, the gun rotating like the spoke on a wagon wheel before she tensed her shoulders, a soundless shout failing to echo in the void as she caught the side of the ship with the barrel, sending the entire vehicle spinning to one side, beginning to lazily arc away from the planet, Galvanic managing to steady herself, holding the gun over her other shoulder like a pitch-hitter having just hit a home run. 

[Thevshi]

GM
 

When Galvanic hit the prow of the cruiser with her makeshift bat, the massive vessel did not just make a slow start to its turn, but instead quickly shifted a full 30-45 degrees to one side from the powerful impact. The result was everyone aboard (that was not flying or otherwise not directly relying on standing on the deck of the vessel) were jolted to the side and had to struggle to remain standing.

Velocity was caught off guard and fell to the ground, as did Justicar Vor'an. The few free opponents in the hanger similarly were throw off balance and to the ground. 

Down in the engine room, the snake like alien fighting Ghost and Patriot II also lost its balance, ending up on the ground as did all the armed guards in the room.

 

Up in the hallway near the bridge, Tal'gar and the two Boran standing guard outside the bridge similarly were pitched over and knocked to the ground.

A moment after he fell, Justicar Vor'an climbed back to his feet, swinging his energy staff through the air to bring down on the Boran that had tried to attack Artificer. The powered weapon knocked the larger alien out, as the Justicar stepped back and looked about the hanger for any remaining threats.

[Exaccus]

Setting his eyes on the mech that remained standing and unbound by the terran hero gaian knight's geomancy, moth traced a circles in the air with his long slender forefingers, coalesscing rings of blazing prismatic light that were sent soaring one after another through the launch bay towards the back of the mechanical assault vehicle, a veritable torrent of high energy projectiles that buzzed like saws as they went, even as many bounced harmlessly off their target and shattered, vanishing into sparkling particles like thin sheets of ice

[Thevshi]

GM

 

The brightly colored barrage of high energy particles unleashed by Moon-Moth slammed into the only free Hunter mech, which was already unsteady on its feet after being damaged by Velocity. The impact of the attack knocked the mech a short distance back as it crumpled to the deck, its pilot knocked unconscious.

 

But as the mech fell, one of the doors to the hanger opened as a tall female humanoid entered the hanger. The alien had a four arms, two of which held a staff with both ends glowing with energy. Moon-Moth recognized the new arrival, a Shoon known as Mare, who had been one of the late elder Star Khan's bodyguards when the weakened tyrant had launched his attempt to reforge the Stellar Khanate and take back worlds that had declared independence.

 

The Shoon looked quickly about the hanger and then took a couple running steps before leaping across the hanger to land next to Gaian Knight, as she brought her energy staff down at the prone hero. The blow landed with tremendous force on Gaian Knight’s back as he tried to get back to his feet…