ic Incursion: The Conquered Flesh

[trollthumper]

Rock's blow resounded like a cannonball striking a giant tuning fork. Great cracks began to form in the computronium shell, spreading quickly from the wall to the floor and ceiling. The wall fell away like an avalanche, letting the light of the setting sun stream into the dim chamber. The red lights fled away from the circuitry just seconds before the circuits themselves collapsed.

"YOU CALL THIS VICTORY. IT IS FU-T-TILLLITY. OUR NUMBERS ARE LIKE STAR-AHR-ARSS IN THE SKY. YOU ARE FEW, AND FLEeEeETING. WE ARRRREESESFF--"

The Communion's speech bled away into static and droning as the hub fell from the ceiling, crashing through the floor like an anvil through ice. Cavalier wasn't one to waste the opportunity. He ran for the hole Rock had gouged in the wall, leaping into the sky but remaining close to cover Eclipse and Rock's escape.

And as he looked down, he saw more of the city's former citizens, rushing towards the ruins of the tower.

"We've got company, and I don't think they're gonna be happy we punched a hole in their slave driver. Where are we on the evac?"

[Fox]

"Good job, Rock," Eclipse congratulated, sheathing her sword but leaving her gun in her hand as she leaned through the hole to survey their newly-hostile surroundings. "I was gettin' sick of hearing that thing talk anyway. Not going to lie, though: I was kinda hoping it'd shut down all of them, too. Nae-Dae?"

She put a hand to her commlink, looking out in the direction of her ship. "Nae-Dae, my little miracle-worker, I am really hoping you have good news for me. We could use some air support and a quick getaway." She paused for a moment, taking pot shots at the once-normal citizenry, hoping to slow them down. "....really hoping those don't climb, too. Remind me to invest in a jet pack or something. Rock, if we've gotta, what're the odds we can charge through that and get to the other side?"

[Gizmo]

Standing behind Eclipse, Rock leaned forward himself to get a better look out the hole he'd made, looming over his captain. His mouth compressed into a thin line as he considered the hordes of anitbodies forming a mob between them and the site of their crash landing. Straightening, he did some rough mental arithmetic before shrugging and giving Eclipse a sloppy thumbs up and a game smile. "Rrrock." Flexing his knees a few time to the sound of scraping stone he cracked his neck loudly and gestured for her to get on his back. "Rock!"
 
Before he could carry them through the ruined wall the antibodies below were pushed stumbling back by force pushing down on the from above. Looking upward the trio saw the Horizon hovering near the top of the tower and descending toward them, atmospheric engines crescendoing into a small roar as it got closer. Nae-Dae's voice rang out over the comms, free from static with the destruction of the server room. "Yeeehaaaw! Lookit who's here to save all your two-armed butts!" Laserfire spewed toward the ground erratically, automated targeting keeping the shambling corpses honest while the cargo bay door began to open. "Oi, boss, we really gotta talk about getting a booster seat or something in here."

[trollthumper]

Cavalier let out a triumphant cry as Nae-Dae brought the Horizon down. He took to the air, levitating just above Eclipse and Rock. He was able to stay out of the range of Nae-Dae's automated laser fire, but he figured now would be a good opportunity to add to the heat. He turned his blaster up to full power, spraying into the crowd below. The elevation gave him a better firing angle and allowed for a better range of spray while still keeping any stray shots from hitting anyone else.

You heard the thing. There's nothing of them left. Whatever was there of them was either ripped out of them by force and shoved into the Communion, or drowned under a tide of nanotech. This is putting them to rest. Making sure that, wherever they are, they don't feel like their bodies are being defiled.

That thought still brought him little comfort. But it was enough.

[Fox]

"Ahh, you're a beautiful sight," Eclipse sighed. She holstered her weapon, took a few steps back, and made a running leap through the opening cargo doors - and she did it in a too-high, too-long graceful arc implying that either her species was a bit faster than it looked, or not all her alterations were visible to the naked eye.

She hit the cargo bay in a forward roll, using the momentum and her tail to end up back on her feet and in a dead run for the cockpit with the doors still opening behind her. "This, see, is why you don't settle on engineers. You get the best, or the best gets you, and then you always have wind under your wings. Nae-Dae, if Rock gets on board before I get to the pilot's seat, point us straight at the sky and race the Knight to the atmosphere. There's nothin' left on the ground that wouldn't be made better by a face full of thrusters."

[Gizmo]

Waiting the beat it took for Eclipse to disappear into the Horizon, Rock took a step back himself before leaping into the air, arms swinging to provide momentum "Rrrrooock!" The tremendous force of his legs kicking off of the tower's floor propelled him surprising speed and left deep impressions that quickly gave way to crumbling computronium as the already ruined building further collapsed, burying the antibodies trapped on the level below them. Rock caught the edge of the cargo bay door with a grunt and hauled himself on board, making a mental note to bang out the dents he'd just caused when they had time. Turning around he slapped the control that closed the hatch behind him, giving the hordes below and by extension their proselytizing master a particularly rude gesture before disappearing from view.

[trollthumper]

Behind the group, the tower fell in pieces, tumbling like a sand castle hit by the waves. The hordes of computronium-infested citizens turned away from the ship, now well out of their reach, and devoted their attention to the remains. They scrambled over one another, hands open wide, and began to pick up the pieces. They descended on the fragments, jaws opened wide, and appeared to consume them whole. As the ship pulled up, the ruins were disappearing at a rapid rate, taken into the bodies of the servants of the Communion.

What the hell is it doing? Cavalier thought. Data retrieval? Recycling? Putting on a show? In any case, he kept watch until the Horizon began to break away, trying to log everything he was seeing. Soon, they were breaking orbit, with nothing approaching the trouble they'd received trying to make planetfall.

"So, we're not dealing with an all-encompassing hive mind that wants to instill unity and brotherhood by force," he said. "We're dealing with something worse."

[Fox]

"Give the Knight a prize for understatement of the cycle," Eclipse replied, though there was a lot of concern and no venom in the statement. She settled into her chair at the helm, tail softly clicking as its segments pulled back together into a slightly shorter length. "That thing didn't strike me as a hive mind so much as a...I dunno. It's like it ate everything around it - didn't take people over so much as just digest 'em, chew up their souls and suck out the useful bits to make itself bigger and stronger."

She sighed, holding her head in her hands for a moment. "I really wish we had something on this ship that could glass a planet. Rock, Nae-Dae, remind me to buy something that can glass a planet."

[Gizmo]

Rock felt like he was probably supposed to offer a reasonable counterpoint to such excessive force at that point but watching the planet shrink behind them on the scanners he was hard pressed to think of one. Sitting on his reinforced seat with his hands in his lap, the stoney goliath ultimately settled for a succinct, "Rock." After what had been done to it, that wasn't really a planet anymore, anyway, just an over-sized computer with delusions of grandeur squatting atop a corpse. There was a sound of scraping shale as Rock's hand clenched into fists. He knew they had been very lucky just to escape with their lives but all he could think was that he very much wanted another chance to punch the source of the patronizing, self-justifying voice until it broke into a billion irreparable pieces.

[trollthumper]

Nothing offered them any trouble as they left the system. The orbital defenses that the Communion had sent after them in the first place were now silent, lurking in whatever subspace corridor they had made their home. The Zone of Exclusion, still scattered wreckage, passed them by soon after. Cavalier looked back towards the borders of the Khanate, trying to think of what he could do. They had their intelligence - the Communion had claimed some of the worlds, inducted the citizens into its masses, and worked on terraforming the surface into computronium to enhance its network. But there were still gaps. They'd only touched down on one world. They didn't know how many of those towers were on each. Aside from the converted, there was little idea of what offensive capabilities the towers had.

And worse... they didn't know if there were any survivors. Perhaps, on some corner of Tarza, there were people who'd managed to escape the conversion. Who were hiding in silent corners, waiting for help. There had to be something they could do - send a relay point for communications --

Which they'd likely capture - and given the last time they got some of Mentor's tech, they hurt him bad.

-- send in a rescue patrol --

From who? We're splintered enough already. And do we want to put 12 of us against an entire planet, and more of those towers?

Cavalier shook his head. He didn't know the answer. He could only hope they'd retrieved enough information to drive a wedge into the Communion. The sooner this thing was driven back to the void... the sooner they could work on finding any survivors.

Just another thing he'd have to live with.