ic Incursion: Stop-Thrust (IC)

[Fox]

Gaian Knight barely moved as the antibodies rushed him - he deftly side-stepped two without losing any ground, and let the third claw into him without much contest; claws met the cloth of his jacket and precious little else, finding no purchase on the hero's skin.

He didn't give it much time to plan a second attempt - pinpoints of golden light appeared behind his goggles and the edges of his platform went off like a landmine, hurling shards of rock outward in all directions - with little consideration for what was in the way.

"Hangar's clear," he announced, gathering his earthen arsenal back up with a wave of his hand. "Moving on. Tiamat, pick us a target and meet me there."

[KnightDisciple]

When one of the drones tried to stab him and only barely failed, Gabriel spoke a couple of words that, moments later, left him glad he had not stayed on the PA system and was not otherwise broadcasting his voice. Stesha, at least, would have given him such a talking about using that kind of language, while Tiamat and Frost would probably approve, which really wasn't much better.

 

Such were the idle thoughts of a hero locked in mortal combat with alien horrors from the dark places of the universe. Years of experience, not to mention his more basic instincts, told him to get some distance between himself and the drones. His spear was decent for dealing with one or two, but with three more bearing down on him, it seemed prudent to open up the range a bit.

 

Gabriel floated back a few yards, giving himself enough distance to, hopefully, get some breathing room, but not so far his aim was impaired. Then he leveled his spear at one drone, and his palm at another, and loosed twin blasts of sonic energy at them. The staccato bursts of force raced forward, but the strain of putting out that much energy at once, combined with the surge of adrenaline from almost getting disemboweled (again), meant that his aim was not as true as he would have liked.

[Thevshi]

GM

One of the Communion antibodies was blasted back by Gabriel's first shot, breaking apart and slamming against a far wall. However the sonic hero's second blast missed its mark, and the two closest antibodies rushed forward towards him once more.

Once again their claws slashed out at the white clad hero. Gabriel managed to dodge the first one, but the second one scored a hit, raking its claws across his left thigh. Gabriel felt a sting of pain as the claws dug into his flesh, but the wound was a minor one.

The other antibodies that were part of the group had begun to spread out, two of them going after the automated defense systems that had engaged. One of the antibodies managed to rip out the net gun, but the other weapon took a hit with seemingly minimal damage.

[Fox]

Tiamat was scanning the monitors when Gaian Knight's update came over the comms; she'd been doing so since Frost had dropped the last drone, trying to get a map into her head covering who was doing what where.

She didn't quite get the full station covered by the time he asked her for a new target, but she did at least have an answer for him. "Stairwell down, third right," she shouted back, gesturing at one of the screens - more for the benefit of the technicians than anyone else, in case one of them got lost. And at that she shot out of the room at a breakneck pace, boots thumping against the corridor as she hit the stairs and started hopping them several at a time, cursing about 'tiny human dwelling spaces' the whole way down.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I could not agree more, Lady Tiamat!" declared Comrade Frost, boiling out of the ductwork to swarm over the first antibody she saw - instantly flash-freezing the big machine to so much icy scrap in a matter of seconds. The ice vampire seemed to be thoroughly delighted with the siege, a song of delight in his voice as the swirling cloud that was his form moved towards the group of antibodies that had been targeted by Gaian Knight and Tiamat. "But tiny though it may be, it is ours!" He laughed as he approached the other antibodies. "You dogs! You iron sons of whores! You have stepped into house of mightiest of Earth!" Diaphonous arms stretched out in invitation as red eyes glowed from the midst of the Frost-cloud. "Come! Let us see things you are made of!" 

[Thevshi]

GM

Moving on to another part of the station, Comrade Frost comes across the group of Communion antibodies that Tiamat and Gaian Knight were set to engage next. The group has spread out in the time since the needle fighters that carried them had crashed through the hull of the station. One had managed to take down one of the Lighthouse's auto defenses.

But Comrade Frost was able to quickly take down one of the antibodies. One of the net guns was still active in the area, trying to snare another antibody, but missing as the silver coated creature nimbly dodged underneath.

Down where Gabriel was fighting, the remaining active autogun fired another energy blast at the antibody attacking it. This time the blast hit the antibody dead on, knocking it back against a wall where it crumpled into a heap on the deck.

Then the entire station shook once again, as another group of needle ships crashed into it. Down on the level where Velocity was still facing off with two antibodies, another pair of needle ships arrived to merge with the two already piercing the hull. This allowed the two new arrivals to disembark the group of antibodies they were carrying, now putting the speedster up against ten of the creatures.

Over their communicators, the League members heard one of the technicians in the command center giving a situation update. "The second wave was a smaller number than the first, but we still have three pairs of the fighters that have breached the hull. One pair is down where Velocity already is, another is in the hanger again, the third is down towards engineering, where there is already one other group."

[Thevshi]

Velocity quickly took in the arrival of the additional group of antibodies while still keeping close tabs on the two she was already fighting. "Just wonderful." She muttered as the technician's update came over the communicator. But she knew she could not slow down, there were still a number of groups that no one was facing yet, and who knew what damage they might be causing to the Lighthouse.

Once again the speedster became a blur of yellow, as she zipped about the area, moving from one antibody to another. A rapid series of loud *CRACKS* echoed in the station, caused by her fist breaking the sound barrier as she struck each of the antibodies, attacks happing so quickly after another that the mini-sonic booms they created almost seemed to take place at the same moment.

Around the room, nine of the Communion were knocked off their feet by the force of the blows, smashing into walls, and even each other as the crumpled into heaps, broken and smashed. But one of the antibodies that had just arrived took the powerful hit from the yellow clad speedster without even so much as flinching. Its cold eyes locked on to the yellow blur, following it to where Velocity came to a halt a short distance away.

"Damn it." The speedster stated as she saw the remaining antibody still standing, knowing this was going to delay her…

[Electra]

Fleur ran as fast as she could through the empty corridors of the Lighthouse, but even though she was gasping for air by the time she arrived on the deck where the nearest boarding party had landed, they were already beginning to split up and move out. "I don't suppose..." she gasped, "we could get... a short time out? Compensate...for super-high oxygen... level? No?" If nothing else, her words did draw the attention of every Antibody.

 

As they began coming towards her, she launched a handful of seeds at the group on her left. Vines sprung out like snakes released from a can of peanuts, wrapping around and entangling all but one of that group. Hastily she grabbed another handful, spun halfway around, and tossed it at the other group. Every one of them was captured. Stesha breathed a sigh of relief that was hard to make out through the panting. "I gotta start jogging..." 

[Fox]

"Got it, Tiamat. I'll be right--"

Gaian Knight was cut off by the sound of the new arrivals in the hangar - and he rounded the corner just in time to see them start to spread out. "Cancel that, Tiamat, we have new arrivals down here. Tiamat? Aw, for the love of...."

He planted his feet, stone platform breaking apart out from underneath him into a swarm of earthen shards - combined with the ones he'd already been using, it formed a storm of churning projectiles that he sent sweeping through the room. "Good luck, you old dragon," he muttered, as two of the more fortunate invaders closed in on him. "Good luck to all of us, maybe. We might need it."

[Thevshi]

GM

The antibody that had managed to escape from the first set of ensnaring vines opened its mouth to let out a high pitched shrieking before it rushed toward the green haired heroine. The creature appeared to once have been some sort of insectoid humanoid, its cold eyes fixed on Fleur as its silver coated claws slashed out at her. As with the one in the command center, the antibody managed to land a hit, but once again Fleur's natural durability proved more than capable of handling the hit.

Down on a lower level, the last Communion antibody facing Velocity charged at the speedster, throwing itself at her with a bit of reckless abandoned. But with only one opponent, the speedster had little trouble moving out of the way of the slashing silver claws, moving back a few steps as she prepared to try to put this one down so she could move on.

Back in the hanger, most of the antibodies that had just dispersed from the newly arrived fighters went down in the hail of rocks sent out by Gaian Knight. But two had managed to avoid the onslaught, while a third had taken the hits with seeming little effect. All three charged towards the League member, although only two managed to reach him. Silver claws lashed out once again, both landing hits on the rock wielding hero. But once again his armor proved capable of taking the attacks from the alien creatures, and they both glanced harmlessly off.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel grit his teeth at the pain in his leg. He'd had worse; a lot worse. His blessed armor had absorbed the majority of the damage, anyways; the bleeding didn't feel too bad. Not yet, anyways.

 

He didn't like fighting groups like this; he couldn't reliably really just "split" his attacks like he could with regular humans, as there was a higher risk of spreading the energy out too thin. And trying to just willy-nilly flatten them might leave him too tired to face the stragglers, or other attackers. Then again, trying to take out too many one-by-one was going to wear him out fast, too. But he felt it had a better chance of ensuring specific enemies went down.

 

So he grit his teeth as he floated back some more, and held both now-empty (having stowed his spear with a thought) hands toward the remaining drones.

 

"God have mercy on your souls, you poor blighters, because I can't afford to give you any quarter today!"

 

This time, both barrages of sonic energy slammed home with his normal accuracy, bolts of energy lancing into the Drones all over their twisted, metallic bodies.

[Thevshi]

GM
 
Gabriel's twin sonic blasts quickly dispatch the two antibodies that had been engaging him. But even as they went down, two others quickly closed to attack the white clad hero. Their silver claws lashed out, but Gabriel was able to parry the first with his spear, and just avoid the second. The last remaining antibody was focused on trying to destroy the autogun, but the defense weapon proved resilient, taking the hit with little effect.

At the group of Communion that Comrade Frost had moved to engage, a pair of them turned their cold eyes towards the swirling cloud that had appeared from one of the air ducts and frozen one of their kin. The two antibodies let out high pitched shrieks as they moved forward toward the Russian vampire. Their silver claws slashed out, proving completely ineffective against Frost in his current state.

Further down the hallway, another of the antibodies moved over to try to destroy the net gun that was still operational, but the defensive weapon retracted backward slightly, managing to avoid the antibodies attack.

The other three antibodies in the area started stalking off down the corridor, away from Frost and in the direction that Tiamat was currently approaching from...

[Fox]

Tiamat was still grumbling about the unsatisfactory size of human dwellings when she rounded the corner, boots skidding slightly on the floor as she belted down the corridor. "--at least twice as wide and half again as tall to even hope to permit any reasonably-sized creature - GK! I'm here, you stupid earthmover, so you'd better have left me something to play with and youuuu are not the knight."

She slid to a halt as Comrade Frost and 'friends' came into view, the few locks of crimson hair that had escaped to slump across her face not quite managing to hide her confusion, and then her ire. "....of course," she growled, brushing the hair back. "Of course I'd somehow end up fighting alone with the ghoul. Tell you what, machines," she offered, cracking her knuckles and marching square-shouldered toward the antibodies, "you help me find an airlock to toss him out of and I'll kill you quick-like instead of having some fun first."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Whaaaat?" Frost slapped one of the machines with a frozen palm, his body half-solid mist, and abruptly the antibody fell over and shattered, flash-frozen to brittle shards in an instant. "But space is so cold, and your fires so hot!" he added with a wink in her direction. "What would your fellow dragons think, if they could see you bedeviling innocent Russian ice monster?" he inquired, all innocence despite the stench of frozen blood and death that stalked him at every turn. "Come on, robot scum, don't you think Lady Tiamat should give Frost a chance? I have so many qualities, such as pleasing personality!" 

[Thevshi]

GM

The antibodies around Comrade Frost and Tiamat seemed oblivious to their exchange, their cold eyes focused on the two figures with unblinking intensity. The automated netgun that was still active in the area fired at one of the antibodies, managing to completely immobilize it in the net, thus cutting down the numbers even further.

Down on the level where he was battling, Gabriel was able to see, out of the corner of his eye, the autogun try to take down the antibody that was trying to disable it, but the silver coated antibody, which looked like it had once been some canine like humanoid, easily dodged aside, avoiding the blast.

Up in the command center, the Lighthouse crew were busy trying to coordinate everything while the League members were dealing with the boarders. Outside, the Lighthouse's external defense continued to fire at the Communion ships, focusing on any of the needle fighters that launched to prevent more boarders. Some of the technicians were busy trying to guide crew members on other parts of the station in falling back to safer sections, others were trying to monitor the battles going on in various locations where there were boarders.

One of the technicians was busy at work at his station, when he glanced over toward the station of one of the crew members that had been injured when the a pair of the first wave of needle ships had crashed into the command center. Moving over to that other station, a troubled look quickly came over the technician's face as he studied the readout. "Umm...we may have a problem. There are some strange fluctuations coming from the power core." He transmitted over the League comm system.

[Thevshi]

Velocity gritted her teeth slightly as she heard one of the technicians broadcast about unusual fluctuations in the Lighthouse's power core. That certainly did not sound good, especially with a number of Communion boarding parties still loose on the station, unaccounted for.

The yellow clad speedster focused her attention back on the remaining antibody facing her and in a faction of a second had closed once again, one hand darting out in a blur that was almost faster than most could see. But this time Velocity tried to put a bit more of her speed into the force of the punch, as opposed to its accuracy. The compensation almost allowed the antibody to pull back at the last moment, but only almost.

*WHAM*

The supersonic punch hit the antibody squarely in the chest, knocking it off its feet and sending it flying backward into an internal wall of the station. Unfortunately the wall was not nearly durable enough to withstand the force that had transferred to the antibody, a section of it breaking apart as the antibody continued past to eventually end up in a heap with the debris from the shattered wall.

"I am clear where I am for the moment." Velocity transmitted over her communicator. "I will get down to the power core to try to see what is going on."

[Electra]

Fleur stared in annoyance at the single remaining Communion drone that hadn't fallen victim to her snare. "I swear, one of these days I will figure out how to get all of you with one shot," she groused at the drone, even as it made its way towards her. "Cause this is not an efficient use of my time." Some of the vines already on the ground suddenly leapt up behind the drone, tripping it and wrapping it up, quick as leafy striking snakes. Her concentration on the single target meant that that vines did a very good job, wrapping the drone up from head to toe like a green mummy. 

 

"This is Fleur, I've got another group taken care of, or will in a moment. Anything close to me?" 

[Fox]

Gaian Knight tried not to think about how close the new scratches in his breastplate had come to being scratches in his own flesh - instead, he concentrated on spreading his arms wide, fingers spread, in apparent disregard of the two monsters trying to kill him and the one monster still coming his way.

He gave the latter just enough time to get close before snapping his hands together - the Communion drones may or may not have followed the gesture, but the shards of stone that were lining both sides of the hangar certainly did. As his palms clapped together two near-solid walls of fragments slammed into the hero's foes, carrying each, tumbling, in their wake.

He gave them just enough time to make sure they weren't going to get back up before exhaling, rocks clattering to the floor as he caught his breath and gathered his wits. "Gaian Knight here; hangar's clear...again. They're persistent, I'll give them that."

[Thevshi]

GM

Even as three of the League members managed to clear the area near the of Communion boarders and prepared to move on to the next, lights throughout the station began to flicker. The flickering lasted only a few brief seconds, before everything went black. The sudden loss of lighting was not the only immediate effect those aboard the station noticed immediately. There was also a suddenly lurching feeling everyone felt within their bodies, as a sensation of weightlessness came over them.

Across the station, faint emergency lighting activated, providing at least dim light in most main areas, as the League members quickly noted the various objects floating around them now that the station's artificial gravity was gone. A faint background humming of the station’s life support, a sound that had become so common place that everyone had not even noticed it until it had stopped, started up once more.

"The core just went offline." Came a slightly static message from one of the technicians in the command center. "Main power is down, backups have activated and are powering life support and emergency lighting, but that is about it!"

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel grit his teeth as his stomach protested the sudden lack of gravity. Even when he flew with his powers, he still had a sense of up and down, still felt the tug of gravity on his body, making the thrill of defying that gravity all the sweeter, even when it was routine. Losing that sensation, even simulated in the Lighthouse, threatened to throw his entire system off-balance. Thankfully, he was able to assert control over his body, preventing a situation that would be awkward for the technicians and station residents later on.

 

Thankfully, while it was a bit strange moving in the air with no gravity, he was able to keep himself stable and oriented thanks to his natural flight powers and years of practice with them. He used that stability to help point himself toward one of the drones, though even as he floated away from them he knew his exaggerated movements were leaving him open to attack. It was the only way to guarantee a hit, though.

 

With a wordless snarl, he unleashed another barrage of sonic force, though the conditions seemed to be affecting his aim, and the assault only barely struck the drone.

 

'I need to finish this fight, and soon, so I can help the others. At this rate the station's going to be in big trouble.'

[Thevshi]

GM

Gabriel's blast sent one of the three Communion antibodies slamming against a wall, before it hung limply in the zero gravity and began to slowly drift away from the point of impact. The other two Communion were regarding the white clad hero from where they were floating, clutching on to something to keep them steady. Then, both pushed themselves off, propelling themselves away from Gabriel toward an open doorway. They each caught an edge of the door, and swung themselves inside and out of sight.

On another level, two of the antibodies near Tiamat and Comrade Frost pushed off a wall, sending them both "flying" toward Tiamat. The now weightless dragon managed to dodge the first, but the second’s claws slashed out and caught her across the right shoulder blade, sending her spinning slightly as the force of the blow dazed her. Two of the others seemed to ignore Comrade Frost, as they ripped open a panel on the wall and began tearing out wires inside.

[Thevshi]

Velocity felt her stomach lurch as the Lighthouse's artificial gravity suddenly gave way. But the speedster was hardy enough to shake off the sudden queasiness that accompanied the feeling of weightlessness, as well as fast enough to grab ahold of a nearby counter to keep herself from completely floating free in the zero gravity.

"Alright, might take a bit longer to get down to engineering after all." She said to herself as she pulled her feet back toward the counter bracing them against it before pushing off as hard as she could. With tone legs that were far stronger than they appeared, the young speedster managed to propel herself through the air rather quickly, pushing off a far wall to continue down the hallway.

A few moments later she was near the central column of the Lighthouse, just managing to grab ahold of an edge to one of lift doors as she was almost propelled past after a superspeed push off a ways down the hall. Her momentum caused her to slam into wall, which stung a bit, but she held on as she pulled herself over the lift door and began the process of manually opening so she could have access to the central core that would allow her the most direct route down to engineering.

[Electra]

"Well that's just freaking wonderful," Fleur muttered as her feet left the ground and her stomach headed for her esophagus at around the same time. She swallowed hard a few times and pulled the LED flashlight from her belt, thumbing it on as she tried to orient herself in the room. When she was sure she wasn't going to vomit and that the air was still good, she briskly opened another portal flower to swallow up the bound prisoners. "You're all luckier than I am," she muttered venemously as the last one disappeared. "A nice break in a warm place on Earth  with gravity and everything. The wages of sin these days..."

 

Still muttering to herself, she hand-over-handed one of her own vines to the wall, then pushed off, heading as best she could towards the last group she'd seen on the monitors before leaving command. Her flashlight cut a single bright beam through the darkened corridors and she made fairly good time, till she blapped face-first into a door that did not open to her approach. Saying a few words she definitely would not have wanted Ammy to hear, she shone her light around, looking for some kind of manual release. There was one, right on the side of the doorframe, next to the giant claw marks. Stesha stiffened and looked around, bracing for another fight. 

[Fox]

"....well. Alright," Gaian Knight muttered as he found himself floating an inch off his own platform. For a moment he'd worried that his last attack had hit something vital in the hanger, but the delay didn't make sense - and from what he could see through the door to the corridor, the problem was a lot more wide-spread.

Reaching up to turn on the little-used nightvision built into his goggles, he reached down to grab onto his platform and sent it towing him down the corridors that lead toward engineering. "One more reason to always fight planet-side, I suppose," he grumbled, nearly clipping his legs on a doorframe as he awkwardly turned around a corner. "Don't suppose we could politely ask these things to fight us down in a nice empty wasteland."

[Thevshi]

GM

Although Gaian Knight's speed on his rock platform was unaffected by the lack of gravity, like Fleur and Velocity, he found that he could not fully utilize that speed now that automatic doors and the like were without power and had to be manually opened to allow him access to passages between decks. Just as the hero managed to get the doors to a lift opened so he could access the central core and have a direct path down to any level, a pair of the Communion antibodies leapt at him through the opening.

Green energy crackled along the forearms and hands of the two antibodies, as they slashed out at Gaian Knight. Although somewhat disoriented by the lack of gravity, the League member was still quick enough to avoid the attacks.

Elsewhere, Fleur turned out away from the door she had come to, just in time to shine her light on a pair of Communion antibodies as they prepared to launch themselves at her. Green energy crackled along their arms as they glided over toward her. The first slashed at the green haired heroine, causing her to pull back from the attack, right into the path of the second artibody's attack.

The green energy arched over Fleur's torso, causing pinpricks of pain throughout her upper body. Whatever it was the Communion footsoldier had done, it was much more painful than the more direct attacks they had been making thus far.