Huh.
Okay, hull held out a fraction of a second longer, but a couple of punches and I'm inside.
Since they probably don't have nice inter-panel seams to fit fingers into, after all.
And that was a pretty good trick Krillik pulled, so I'm stealing it. Reach ships usually have their main support beams-
Are they called 'beams' in a ship?
Going to haul it manually? Could work, especially if you can push harder than their station-keeping thrusters can.
-about here, yeah that feels right. Deep breath, disruption aura off, grab it and push. I can feel the station through the hull -feels smaller than the one we just wrecked- and… Either this ship's hull shields me, or they won't shoot their friends, or… It's got to be harder to work out what's going on, right? Delay them? Anyway, I accelerate it-
All they saw was a flaming meteor crash through their companion's shields and then it's hull. Who knows what they're making of it...
A Reach guy flies past me, sort of… Flattening? And gets pasted against the far wall.
-towards the station, and… Yeah, they're shooting it and I think its shield is still working. Makes sense; unless they get totally wrecked Reach ships can usually put them back up. I don't think the ship is using its engines… Not that I've tried this before. Station's getting closer… Closer-.
Pushing harder than their inertial dampening systems can handle, eh? Inertia is a harsh mistress in space, so the Reach probably aren't enjoying this little unwanted manoeuvring session.
CRASH!
Dis-.
Agh. Agh? The ship just sort of broke around me. Guess I didn't make it hit hard enough to hurt me. Lost my grip but apart from that… Nothing-.
That's what happens when your body is tougher than their hulls. Still, at least one ship is disabled, since smacking at an odd angle into a space station can't be good for the bodywork or the crew (Who would have been moving at the speed Marty was, and no dampening to stop them now... The front walls of the ship are probably a lovely shade of red, or
whatever colour the Reach folks bleed.)
Shaking from the back of the ship. The other ships are going to try shooting through it, but this fleet is smaller than the other one. I start disrupting again and fly through the battered and twisted hull and into the station.
"Krillik!"
Right, you guys should have a better idea of the layout now, so no need to waste as much time finding the important bits.
Nothing yet, but I was slightly ahead of him.
And I'm learning! Reach person in spare armour just in front of me. Grab the gun, chuck it aside, grab the helmet without melting it yet.
Ah, good, leverage. Want the helmet back? Answer the questions.
"I'm destroying your interdiction field generator. I can do that with everyone dead or most of you alive. Where is it?"
"You are not Written."
Well, that's just
rude. Calling him the equivalent of 'Infidel!', I'm guessing.
I flare the disruption aura around my head. "Lotta other people I can ask."
He points to his left, towards the bottom of the station. "That way."
At least he's smart enough not to try and play dumb.
I shove him aside and then drop him. "Thank you. A lot of your people wouldn't have died if they'd given answers like that."
"It-."
To be fair, fanatical loyalty and an ingrained sense if superiority don't exactly make for a cooperative crew.
I ignore anything else he says, smashing and burning through the station-
"Prime!"
Ah, there's Krillik. Hopefully he can keep the flotilla under control long enough to deal with the station.
-until I get to… Looks like a Star Trek engine room. Bunch of Reach people, but they're backing away rather than grabbing their weapons.
I point to the exit. "Run." And then I walk to the buzzing, glowing thing.
Let's hope they take the hint. Otherwise, they can learn the consequences when he opens up.
It takes them a few second, but once they start going they really commit to the running thing.
"Yeah, Krillik?"
Not profitable to try and stop him, after all.
I was probably a bit too enthusiastic about the last place. Just wrecking the machine so they can't make it work in ten minutes should be enough. Disrupt… That… To slag, and we're good.
"Krillik?"
Now, two more relays to wipe, and this station's down.
Could be nothing, could be too far away, could be busy-.
I flare my disruption aura to maximum and fly right out the way I came, bursting through wall after wall-. And there's space, and the ships are moving away-.
Best to err on the side of caution, given the opposition.
The flaming shooting star that is Krillik goes flying across the battle space… He's not in control, but a moment later he recovers and flies at one of the ships. He grabs it, and I start smiling and give him a little cheer.
And then a wide blue beam hits the ship and sends him flying again. Who was-?
Ah. that'll be why he called out. Looks like some up-close and personal resistance.
Is that a Scarab? Purple armour, some sort of multi-barrel over the shoulder weapon tentacle gun thing-.
I fly, blue beams shooting past me-. Behind that ship? Doesn't look like he's morphed that big gun thing at the moment, and it should be able to take-.
This will be tough. They have better sensors than you do, better long-range firepower options, and bloody-minded aggression.
He's stopped firing.
Okay, I killed Scarabs back before I got super strength. Hurt, and I had help, but there's two of us and…
The super-strength will probably be a lot handier here if you can get close.
Where'd he g-?
AK!
He-. Ax-. Shallow cut but that fucker-. Where's he gone?
Monomolecular edge, or matter-disrupting? Either way, that could be trouble.
Keep looking around-. "Krillik? You dead?"
"No, Prime." From… Below me, he starts flying towards me. "Hurt, but-."
Fortunately, Martian-style shapeshifting helps with patching themselves up.
I fly down, full speed with my disruption aura on, space blurring-. BAH!
And back in normal space, grab the Scarab's axe hand, disruption-.
I would have simply removed it entirely, but I suppose that's harder with only one hand on them.
Her armour is sort of shimmering along with it, but it's not-
OW! Fucking face!
Yes, they have
guns. Gotta keep that in mind, Marty.
-actually melting punch the fu-.
She's gone. Can't.. feel her. I know Scarabs can use stealth, so it's not that-.
And phasing effects could probably make it harder to 'feel' telekinetically, too.
I look around. I hate interstellar space. It doesn't feel like you're actually moving when you move, because the starfield stays the same. I came from-. Fuck, I got turned around.
Ah…
It's the lack of parallax. Not the giant space fear bug, the visual
sense of lateral movement. Without easy frames of reference, well...
Okay, that's… The brain farm planet, over there. Which means I came from that system. The interdiction system's destroyed, but I need to check on Krillik. This shouldn't take-.
Augh-!
Scarab's still on your ass, remember?
Something-. Something just hit-.
Move move move. I don't have vital organs. It doesn't even h-.
And if it has faster-than-light weaponry, he could feel the hit before he sees the attack launched...
AAAAAAGHOOOKAy there it is. Took a moment. That's new.
Fly.
Stay mobile, and find her, man.
Space jumps again and-. A system with fucking lights, because the other fucking problem with interstellar space is that you can't see where anyone unless they fly across a star and you're looking in the right direction!
"Krillik?"
One of the hardest parts of deep-space observation, yes. Without
occultation, we wouldn't know about half the shit out there.
"Prime."
I look around. He's sort of.. limping in space, but a few more ships are wrecked then when I left so I guess he's mostly okay.
Well, you
did draw away the Scarab, so he could get work done...
"Scarab Warrior got a boost. Think we should head-?"
DURGH!
That'll be the Scarab crashing into him from behind, I bet.
