ic Incursion: Opportunists and Opposition

[Thevshi]

Corona's transmission reached out to the various vessels in the area, the Aphelion included. Almost immediately after the transmission, the Nomad view screen activated with a responding call from the main pirate vessel. On the screen was a very large Broan, with red skin and large, white tusks and open slits for a nose. The Broan was wearing rather finely crafted armor, and its nose slits flared slightly as it snarled before replying. "I am Prince Dovox, and you Lor shall come to know me as Sovereign! I claim this expanse as part of my empire, and will do so over your corpse if necessary!"

Out in space, some of the pirate ships began adjusting to the arrival of the Lor ship. Two of the interceptors turned and started firing at the Nomad. Bright lights flashed through the darkness of space, but Corona was just able to veer the Nomad to one side, as the beams streaked by into the void.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Not today," said Galvanic, and vanished from the passenger bay in a sudden streak of electric blue light, displaced air cracking behind her form. Almost immediately, on the viewscreen, a white blue blur was seen streaking through space. It rocketed at amazing speed towards the huge pirate ship, looping around towards the cargo bay doors.

 

It coagulated there, leaving the Tempestian corporeal. Around her, a nimbus of energy shimmered, stalling the cold and pressure of space even as it used the background radiation in conjunction with her innate abilities, replacing her need for oxygen by stoking her internal battery.

 

She drew back slightly, grasping both fists together, and spinning around full circle. She let her weightless surroundings carry her towards the door even as she delivered a resounding hammer blow of a punch, aiming to punch the doors right open.

[Thevshi]

Galvanic's powerful attack struck where the halves of the cargo doors connected, smashing the both back and creating an opening easily large enough for her to make her enter the hold. The atmosphere that was inside the hold was immediately sucked out of into the vacuum, but the few metal crates currently in the large space were magnetized and remained locked firmly in place. There were a few pirates in the room, two were pulled off their feet and towards the opening as the room depressurized, but they were able to activate the helmets of their spacesuits and seal themselves from the vacuum. Two others were also able to activate their magnetic boots, and remain on the ground in the face of the depressurization.

The other pirate ships continued repositioning, as the nearer of the two smaller ships fired a few shots at the Nomad, which also streaked by the Lor ship and off into the darkness of space.

[Raveled]

Corona felt her anger rising at the pirate 'king's' statement. "This space is under the protection of the Lor Republic," she snarled. "If you can't understand a simple fact like that, I'm sure a few years breaking asteroids in a prison will serve to reeducate you."

The Nomad danced in space, the Lor officer's light touch sending it sliding around plasma bolts and between missile blasts, keeping it from being so much as singed from the deadly energies flying around it. The vessel slid into position near one of the Aphelion's cargo pods, the bay doors sliding open as the civilian transport's own doors yawned wide. The door to the cockpit opened and Corona quick-stepped through the common area, tapping a last few commands to the shuttle on a wrist-mounted computer build into her hardsuit. "Memorial, Mechanized," she called out. "I want you to clear any boarders off the Aphelion." She didn't even pause at the edge of the bay doors, hopping out of the shuttle and into space. Golden energy surrounded her, as her hardsuit protected her from the pressures of the void. "I'm going to do something about those pirates," she said to herself.

[horngeek]

Memorial didn't make any particular comment about how she might be suited to taking out the ships- right now, she really wasn't able to be mobile and use her firepower at the same time, and she figured that Corona knew what she was doing.  

 

Instead, she nodded to Mechanized, before pushing off and out of the ship.  She covered the distance into the civilian transport quickly, the heroine looking around as she spoke in Lor.  "Hello, my name is Kyla, and I'm here with officer K'Zan of the Lor Republic.  We're here to help.  Or more specifically, to help you repel your boarders aaaaand no one's here."

 

She looked around, before turning and waiting for Mechanized to make the jump across.  

[souffle_girl]

When the cargo bay doors opened, Mechanized stared into space, only a tiny layer of fabric protecting her from the lethal grip of the void.

 

"OK, Emily, you can do this. Just aim the jump pack and... here we go!"

 

The jet engines on her armor's back flared to life, and Mechanized found herself flying, spinning towards the open cargo hold on the other side as the Aphelion's hull closed in at amazing speed.

 

Never, ever, ever again! she thought, and a moment later she landed on the floor of the Aphelion's cargo hold. I made it, I'm across!

 

She pulled herself together, fighting back a wave of nausea; her heart slowing down as she took in the reality she had made the crossing safely.

 

"Mechanized here; I crossed and I'm OK. Everything good, Memorial?" she asked over the comm.

[Thevshi]

Mechanized and Memorial both made it over to the Aphelion's cargo holds without any incident.  Inside they found the large space filled with stacks upon stacks of cargo containers, all securely fastened down to prevent them from shifting, and in this case, floating out into the depths of space when the doors were part way open.  The both spotted a doorway toward the interior of the cargo pod, which appeared to be an airlock into the main hull of the merchant ship.  Overhead, the cargo doors began to close once more.

 

Outside, the three interceptors continued to streak around the black void, two swinging back around to make another pass at the Nomad while one took aim at the Aphelion.  The bright beams of the interceptors' energy weapons streaked through space, one pair of beams missing the Nomad, while another pair struck the Lor vessel.  The third interceptors' blasts struck the merchant ship toward the aft engines, causing the entire ship to shake slightly, but the large vessel seemed to withstand the attack, for the moment.

[Ecalsneerg]

Galvanic moved through the entry hole she'd punched, surveying the cargo hold. The pressure was holding, and some of the crew had managed to activate their clamps, preventing them from free-floating out into space. But some had not, and while they were pirates, she was not.

 

That didn't mean, however, she was going to let them off lightly. She blurred towards the nearest pirate as he floated, summoning the reserves of might in her muscles as she swung a fist towards his gut, careful not to shatter the faceplate of his visor or punch so hard as to damage his internal organs. The Tempestian then used her momentum and the stun inflicted by her sudden blow to grasp at the criminal firmly, to stop him from being spaced.

[Thevshi]

Pirate Flagship

Galvanic's punch struck the floating pirate solidly, knocking the humanoid alien out completely, making it easy for the small Tempestian grab ahold of the pirate and keep it from floating out into the void.

The other three pirates did not waste any time in drawing their energy pistols from their belts and taking aim at the intruder. All three opened fire, but only one managed to hit Galvanic. However, the Tempestian was able to shake off the energy blast with little ill effect.

The Aphelion

As Mechanized and Memorial looked over towards the doorway into the airlock connecting to the merchant ship, they thought they saw some sort of flashes of light through the window on the door.

[souffle_girl]

"Ouch! That can't be good," Emily said when the ship suddenly rocked, then she catched the flash from beyond the door. It might have been nothing, but there could be a fight going on.

 

"Did you see that?"

 

Mechanized cautiously walked close to the door. There was a control panel, and when she touched it the door slid open revealing a short corridor and another door.

 

"Memorial, stay behind me; I'll open the airlock and take a look," she said, walking inside, a hand on the inner control panel, ready to activate it.

Edited November 18, 2014 by souffle_girl

[horngeek]

Memorial nodded, as she made her way into the airlock behind Emily.  "Yeah, I did.  Looks like there might be a fight going on."

 

She frowned.  "This might be a bit tricky.  Your suit is tougher than I am, but I speak Lor, so I'd be able to identify who's on which side sooner.  And we can't really go together, mostly because of how low this door is..."

 

Kyla sighed.  "Yeah, you go first.  I'll get out as quickly as I can after you, all right?"

 

And then, she readied herself for the door to open...

[Raveled]

Corona fell into space, her suit sealing around her as it was exposed to the harshness of the void for the first time in... too many months. It had been too long since the Lor agent had been in space, a fact that was made evident when her stomach started flip-flopping. There was no up or down, things floated along in their own plane of reference or drifted in hypnotic spirals, and she felt bile begin to float up her esophagus. She swallowed, hard; she wasn't about to vomit inside her helmet but it made good sense for her to get gravity under her feet again.

Aya's hardsuit registered a sharp electrical pulse near the pirate flagship, and she recalled that one of her passengers was a Tempestian. She angled her strange, inexplicable powers downwards, blasting off for the enemy ship. If she had been neglecting her hard-vacuum time she had not been neglecting her flight time, and it was easy to zip over the skin of the enemy cruiser and slip inside the hole Galvanic had made. She took in the situation quickly, and a blast of hard radiation slammed into one of the pirates, leaving him lolling limply. "Need a hand," she asked the other woman dryly, her powers easily anchoring her against the rushing escape of atmosphere.

[Thevshi]

Pirate Flagship

 

Corona's blast sent the other pirate that had been being pulled toward the opening flying backward to slam into one of the magnetic stack of crates, the pirate clearly unconscious.  Up at the breach in the cargo doors that Galvanic had made, a forcefield sprung to life, sealing the breach once more.  Those inside the room could feel a slight change, as the unconscious pirate Corona had blasted dropped down to the floor plates.

 

Through her link with the Nomad, Corona was receiving information from the vessels sensors.  The rest of the pirate ships seemed unwilling to risk a short at the Lor vessel, for fear of striking their prize just beside it.  Even the interceptors, as they looped back around, held their fire in the next pass, when the Lor vessel showed no signs of returning fire.

 

The Aphelion

 

Memorial joined Mechanized in the small airlock, just fitting in behind the Earth woman and her large battlesuit.  The door to the cargo hold sealed shut behind them, and the room began to pressurize to match the inside of the vessel.  Once that was done, the opposite door slide open, and the two were greeted by the sound of energy weapons firing and yells in languages that neither Memorial or Mechanized recognized or understood.

[Ecalsneerg]

Galvanic sighed as the breach sealed and repressurised. One-handed, she held out the pirate as she spread her arms wide, electric currents bursting and crackling around her in a corona of blue-white light, ready to disperse energy bolts, and to lash out and shock anyone foolish enough to strike her in close combat.

 

With a dismissive movement, she hurled the pirate towards the feet of one of his comrades, and nodded at the captain. "Seem to be coping adequatefine. Try to contact crew, tell them to stand down or I will destroy their ship insideout." With that, she blurred at the far door, ceasing movement as she collided with it, two fists solidly ahead of her projecting powerful destructive electric fields.

[souffle_girl]

Mechanized stormed inside as soon as the airlock's inner door opened, ready to fight. The place was a chaos of screams, yells and gunfire; what appeared to be the crew was trying to retreat going left, while the boarders chased them down like hounds on the hunt. It wasn't hard to tell one group from the other: pirates were the ones doing the killing.

 

She strode purposefully in the middle of the fight, trying to cut the path of the attackers while trying to look as dangerous as possible, and her force cannon shot in the air at low power.

 

"Everyone, drop your weapons! Or I swear I'm going to knock some sense in those empty heads of yours. With armored fists!"

 

The chances the pirates understood her were slim, even if the message was clear. Not that she expected them to really stand down like this. Why do they never stand down?

Apparently, they understood the general meaning of her message, and a brutish thug snorted before aiming his gun at her. Well, she couldn't say she didn't try...

Edited November 20, 2014 by souffle_girl

[Thevshi]

The Aphelion

 

Moving out of the airlock and into the hallway beyond, Mechanized entered a wide, dimly lit space that seemed to run a good way along the length of the merchant vessel.  To the left she saw two humanoid aliens which she took to be the crew running back toward the front of the ship.  To her right were a dozen aliens of various shapes and sizes.  All were humanoid, but there were ones that were clearly insectoid, a couple that appeared to be reptilian.  The two that perhaps stood out the most were two hulking figures at least eight feet tall, covered in fur with large horns coming from their heads.

 

As Mechanized fired her warning shot and demanded the pirates stand down, the vast majority of the pirates seemed unfazed by the threat, although a pair of them did seem to hesitate slightly.  The two hulking pirates with horns clearly seemed unimpressed as they snarled and seemed ready to charge.

[Raveled]

"It doesn't pay to be overconfident," Corona said, raising her forearm and taking the energy blast without a reaction. "Everyone can use a little backup." She flourished her hand and a beam of condensed radiation shot out, catching another pirate across the chin and slamming him back against the wall.

The Lor moved to a communications panel set on the side of the wall. It was a standard type of comms panel, and it took the experienced officer almost no time at all to patch into the ship-wide communications. "This is Aya K'zan, speaking as a representative of the Lor Republic," she said, her voice filling and reverberating around the ship. "Your 'Prince' Dovox has placed you direct challenge to the Republic; this is a fight you cannot win." She glanced over at Galvanic. "I am proceeding through this ship with a Tempestian. Surrender to either of us and you will not be harmed. If you continue to resist, you will be met with the full weight of Lor law."

Edited November 20, 2014 by Raveled

[Thevshi]

The Pirate Flagship

 

Corona's voice echoes over the comm system of the ship, presumably throughout the entire pirate vessel.  But the only gauge of the effectiveness available to the Lor was the lone conscious pirate remaining in the cargo hold.  The pirate was a Zultasian, and made no move to lower his weapon or otherwise surrender at Corona's proclamation.  "The Republic might imprison us, but Dovox is certain to kill us if we betray him."  The pirate replied.

 

Out in the hallway just outside the cargo hold, Galvanic saw two large Broan round the corner to her right.  The pair immediately spotted the Tempestian, snarling as they started forward, each holding a large melee weapon in their hands.

[horngeek]

"Oh, well, it was worth a try."

 

Memorial soared over Mechanized, making a beeline for the closest of the two big and ugly pirates.  As she did, she called out in Lor.  "My name is Kyla Han'denor.  I am the last daughter of Belran, Gravespeaker of a murdered world."

 

She drew her fist back.  "And you.  You're just... picking over the scraps, while the things that murdered my home destroy Lor-Van, while they try to kill and worse..."

 

Her teeth clenched.  "You fools.  Well, at least we can stop you."

 

A fist flew forwards, hitting dead center... and doing nothing.  Guess she'd have to go for some more vulnerable parts, huh.  

Edited November 24, 2014 by horngeek

[Thevshi]

The Aphelion:

As Memorial spoke to the pirates in Lor, she had the distinct feeling that several of them did not understand her. But at least a few did. The large pirate that she had flow up to did not appear to understand her, but he understood the attack well enough, even if he took it with seemingly little effect. Snarling, the pirate swung a large fist at Memorial, but the sole surviving Belran was able to duck under the swing and avoid it. His equally large companion stepped up to try and assist, bringing one large fist down toward Memorial, but once again she was easily able to sidestep the attack.

One of the pirates that seemed to understand Memorial was an insectoid alien nearby. Drawing a sword that crackled to life with energy, he stepped forward as he replied in accented Lor. <"If your so concerned *click* with those that killed your world *click* Perhaps you should be fightin' them."> With that, he swung his sword at Memorial, but she again dodged the attack, but by a narrower margin.

Another pirate stepped off to a side around Memorial, aiming his energy weapon down the hallway toward Mechanized as he fired a blast of energy that struck the human woman's armor squarely. But Emily's battlesuit was more than capable of handling the attack, the blast deflecting harmlessly off. The pirate seemed to snarl as he shouted something to the other pirates around him.

At his orders, the other eight pirates moved up, breaking into groups of four on either side of where Memorial was in melee with three of their comrades. Each group of four took aim at Mechanized together, firing off time shots at the armored woman. One group missed with all four shots, the blasts flying down the hallway beyond and striking a far wall. The second managed more success, with three of the four blasts striking Mechanized. But as before, the battlesuit's armor easily took the hits with no ill effects.

[Ecalsneerg]

Galvanic eyed the hulking Broan as they advanced. Tiny in comparison to them, she floated a few feet off the ground, keeping eye level with them. They might have the size advantage, but she very much doubted it would provide them with any kind of physical benefit against her. "You heard. Stand. Down." To punctuate her warning, she hurtled down the corridor at breakneck speed, a corona of lightning blazing behind her. 

 

She brought two fists up, aiming a double handed punch towards the chest of one of the pirates. If they refused to surrender, she'd just need to keep ploughing through the ship until they made a smarter decision.

[Thevshi]

The Aphelion

Mechanized stepped forward as the blaster fire of the various pirates glanced harmlessly off her armor. Bringing her fists up above her head, she slammed it down on the deck of the merchant ship with a loud *WHAM*. The powerful strike caused the deck to buckle as a shockwave reverberated along the deck toward the gathered pirates. Several of them managed to brace themselves against the shaking deck, remaining on their feet, but five of the pirates were knocked completely off their feet and onto the ground.

The Pirate Flagship

The large Boran managed to step back from Galvanic's powerful double handed strike at just the last moment. Around the corner behind the two Boran, half a dozen more pirates came into view, a collection of several different alien species.

In the cargo hold, the last remaining pirate still on his feet in the room brought his weapon up and fired at Corona. But the Lor officer had already started moving aside, easily dodging out of the path of the blast, which struck the wall behind her.

[Raveled]

Aya side-stepped the blaster shot and it slammed into the comms panel. She tch'd and stepped away, glaring at the pirate. "If ya'll are really itching for a fight, you don't have to bust up your own ship to let me know." And then a whole new crew of pirates rounded the corner, bearing down on the Lor and the Tempestian! "More of you? Damn me, but if we have to knock out every single one of you renegades we'll do just that!"

Glowing gold with accumulated energy she flew forward, her fist cracking an insectoid creature with scything arms upside its armored head. As her armored fist made contact there was a flash of light as her energy flared, engulfing the entire group in cosmic radiation!

[Thevshi]

The Pirate Flagship

Corona ignored the pirate in the cargo hold and flew out into the hallway beyond where Galvanic was facing a number of the pirates. Flying over to one of the pirates in the middle of the new group, the Lor officer delivered a powerful strike that sent cosmic energy blasting through the corridor. Galvanic was able to brace against the explosion, emerging unharmed.

Five of the smaller pirates were blasted off their feet, sent flying back down the corridor or into walls, where they fell to the ground unconscious. One of the pirates managed to somehow remain on his feet, appearing unharmed. Another pirate was blasted off his feet and back down the corridor. While he appeared hurt, he was still on his feet.

Both the two large Broan were hit by the blast, one knocked off his feet, dazed but still conscious. The other was able to brace against the blast and emerged relatively unscathed.

[horngeek]

Memorial chuckled grimly.  "Heh.  And leave you lot alone to do your own thing, is that what you're getting at?"

 

She paused for a moment.  "If I didn't have a good sense of what one person was able to do on their own, I might.  If I wasn't perfectly aware that, oh, I can't beat them on my own.  No one person could beat the Communion on their own."

 

She swung again, directing another hit- one more powerful, this time- towards the big alien.  But more powerful meant less focused, and he managed to deflect the blow, causing her to frown.  "If they aren't hit by a united fleet- a galaxy working together, then they're going to win.  We need as few distractions as possible- as few niggling little things dragging us all down- as possible when the time comes."

 

Memorial flew up, facing the pirates.  "Or whatever you get out of this little raid?  Won't matter much when the Communion's done with this galaxy.  Believe me, when the time comes to strike, back, I'll be there.  But right now..."

 

She clenched her fists.  "Right now, I'm helping make sure we're all ready.  And that means stopping you, however I can."