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I am starting to like Zartok more and more. "I want to become a powerful emperor and if I have to be compassionate and just to achieve that, so be it."
Well that was a depressing POV. Also, I just realized that now it's Cheshire's turn to help a woman who's in a dark place which will eventually result in said woman being attracted to her/doing something to Cheshire due to mind control/alteration. If this happens, Cheshire and Paul should compare notes.
That should say 'knew'."There's.. no point. They almost certainly new the moment I got somewhere with the repairs."
Thank you, corrected.
Ah, Agnie. And it's not surprising that the young lady (I assume she's young...) is on the verge of panic. This has been a stressful day for everyone, never mind the weakest of the citizenry. Hell, it's probably been a hard week or two, disabled in enemy territory and slowly being cooked in their own ship...
She's really riding that mantra, huh?
If this works, you won't have to be that person any more anyway.It's easy to work like this, entirely in the now, all thought of what came before and what will come after banished from my mind. Who is that coward and traitor Agnie, who turned on her shipmates to live this half-life? Not me. Not here.
"How's it look?"
Ugh, that this shit has her stifling even the thought of hope...Even this, another act of betrayal, isn't something I would have done without someone pushing me. Cheshire didn't throw up her first blood porridge. Cheshire didn't shrink back from the first Citizens to challenge her. Cheshire saw a way-.
No. Don't think it.
I expect anyone poking their heads out would be fried in their own suits almost immediately."I can repair it enough to work. Without going outside."
"Good. I don't think the Reach are feeling that generous."
Don't worry about it. This wreck isn't going anywhere except to a safe place.The auto-seals have worked, which is why the air is thin and we're breathing through masks rather than needing full suits. But I'm repairing by tearing out melted components and replacing them with similar parts I salvaged from other parts of the ship. Some sort of… Local power surge strong enough to arc past the surge protectors? And some EM spill over from the shields. There are probably… A lot of systems like this. And I doubt that the Reach have anything compatible.
And with Scarabs enroute, I expect they're already prepping boarding craft."How much functionality do you want it to have before we call the bridge?"
"As much as we can. It needs to be completely clear that the Reach are about to board us."
Let's just hope they're not aggressive as some designs, like a Caestus Assault Ram... (Basically, a dual torpedo with guns designed to melt a hole into the target ship's hull as they hit.)"What if they're not?"
"Then we wait until they are. But I don't think we'll have to wait long."
Yeah, knowing enemies are on their way to kill you as you speak probably wouldn't inspire anything but fear...
Pfft. You think Jade wants to hang around these lunatics any longer?
Or they'll test you. Probably let you off with just a few broken bones."What, because I killed Dulcya? I wasn't sure that's how it worked."
"Not just.. that. Your… Presence. Your purpose. If we live, the leaders will view you and find you worthy."
That's good. This plan might just work."Lucky me, but like I said, I plan on jumping ship."
A bit more power flowing. The connections are holding.
Yeah, Sportmaster wasn't exactly 'father of the year' material..."How do you do it? Become…"
"How? Oh, that's easy. I was trained as a killer from birth. My species are considered adult at eighteen and I killed-. I murdered for the first time when I was fifteen. If you see enough violence close up, you just get-. Numb to it. It becomes your 'normal'. Have you finished?"
Might not want to be right there, though. Especially if something overloads.I nod as I complete the connections and use my bracer to restart the computer. Start up looks good.
"Yes. Just.. bringing it online now."
And they'll probably take it as a signal that the Citizenry are starting to get their ship functioning, and thus launch an assault...
Yeah, I don't doubt the Reach ships have every sensor they can pointed at the Citizenry vessel..."Should we get out of this section before running the scan?"
"There's.. no point. They almost certainly knew the moment I got somewhere with the repairs."
It won't take much to spot incoming trouble..."So they want us to see. I wonder why?"
The first returns of the scanner come back. The external components are damaged. If they make any active effort to hide, we won't see them. But-.
Easy on the sarcasm there, Jade. I doubt the captain is that stupid that she'd fall for such bad acting."There's-. There's a troop ship. It's heading for us."
"How about that? We should probably let the Captain know."
At least they have some body language traits in common. Or at least enough to pick up on the obvious."How did-? You-? Know..?"
Cheshire's mask makes it impossible to read her facial expressions. But the set of her head makes me feel like I've asked a stupid question.
And it would probably require being outside too."Can we tell if they've got any Scarab Warriors with them?"
"No. No, those-. We'd need main sensors of that, and they were completely destroyed. We don't have the parts to rebuild the detection system."
No doubt Jade is on the line with the Darkstars as they speak."But they'll probably have a Scarab. At least one. Okay. Can you tell where they'll come from?"
I activate my bracer's hologram display, showing their location relative to us.
Even elite troops like that are basically disposable, other than the Scarab."Here. They know we don't have shields or point defences here, and their ships around this area are in position to shoot with small-sized weapons if we somehow push them back."
She nods. "Nice that they value our lives more than the lives of their boarding party. Are they transmitting any messages to us?"
It would probably consist of rubbish like 'Surrender immediately to our boarding party. Do not attempt to resist.'"This system isn't-. Isn't designed to pick up messages. I-I can't-."
"That's fine." She-. She pats me on the shoulder-. Oh. "Don't worry about it. Let's get to the other side of the bridge and then signal the Captain."
You're probably over-reading things. And still stuck in 'We're not going to get out of this...' mode, too. Forget the Citizenry, they're a dead end.I follow close behind her as we cross the ship-. The wreck. I see two other engineers working under the watchful eyes of their 'protectors', and I can see that their expressions are the same as mine. The others we see are soldiers, some trying to rest while others work on their weapons.
So, I'm… Cheshire's property, now. I… Don't think that she's taken anyone since she joined-. But if she's going to be made a full Citizen, maybe she thinks this is the time? Working on a ship with her would be better than working on a ship with-. Like this. If-.
...I'm pretty sure neither of them are telepathic. Unless Angie has suddenly developed an unconscious faculty for broadcasting.
...Still, some things can be read fairly easily even without telepathy. I bet she saw the girl's body language shifting..."Sorry." Cheshire glances back. "I forgot about the hand-on-the-shoulder thing. I just wanted to reassure you. Don't read too much into it."
Oh.
"Give me a second for my ear to stop ringing..." Indoor voice, Captain."Okay, this should do it." Cheshire finds a reasonably intact wall communications unit, and… Signals the bridge.
"WHAT?!"
...Lady's going to blow a gasket at this rate. Good for her."Captain. We got a sensor back in working order. Sending-"
"YOU'RE BOTHERING ME FOR-?!"
...Somehow, I don't think the Reach are going to enjoy her 'welcome aboard' gift basket."-now, enemy boarding party incoming."
"Oh. Then I guess you get to live." The Captain smiles, cruelly. "Guess I better go welcome them. COME ON, BITCHES!"
Yay, progress!The Captain steps away from the bridge monitor without bothering to deactivate it, letting me watch as she kicks a broken body out of the way as she heads for the door.
And there's the portal machine.
...Two steps forward, one step back...With a woman's head shoved half-way through it.
How am I supposed to-?
...I think even Allyn might have trouble repairing this one. Unless it's just a matter of scraping off the grey matter..."Don't worry. We don't need the full thing. Just single person point-to-point."
"I… I can't-."
"You won't know until you try, and we don't really have any other options. And if the worst that can happen is the same as what happens if we do nothing, you may as well try."
Pfft. You think Jade wants to hang around these lunatics any longer?
Yeah, Sportmaster wasn't exactly 'father of the year' material...
Easy on the sarcasm there, Jade. I doubt the captain is that stupid that she'd fall for such bad acting.
I get the feeling Jade sometimes forgets just how much stronger Paul is compared to other OLs.For an instant I wonder why Allyn didn't just smash it into the wall with a pneumatic ram, then I remember that I'm used to what Paul can do.
Hole."If we're lucky, through a hold in space made by super-inflated gravitons."
More that Paul thinks outside the ring-box and has his Hammerspace bag of tricksI get the feeling Jade sometimes forgets just how much stronger Paul is compared to other OLs.
Let's hope the Captain didn't leave anyone alive in there, then. Though I doubt she'd have accepted any of her goons wanting to avoid the fighting. And if they're her18th January 2013
23:42 GMT
No guards outside of the bridge. Agnie readies her bracer to bypass the door control only for the door to open the moment she touches to control.
I could ask Agnie if the door controls were damaged, but I-.
Yeah, death is never pretty, what with all the biological systems losing control. The room probably smells like a mixture of an open sewer and a slaughterhouse.I switch my mask controls so that they filter the smell. Usually I don't like doing that because every sense is important, but I don't think I'd be able to smell anything over the blood and… Waste.
Well, let's hope the Reach boarding party can put her down for you.It doesn't bother me, exactly. And from the way Agnie is headed right for the boom tube generator it looks like it doesn't bother her either, at least not enough to distract her. But there was a line from Paul's favorite book, something about assassins with no morals still having standards. This isn't even the work of a brute. Tuppence would have known better than to kill her own crew in this sort of situation. This is the work of a rabid animal.
Okay, that sounds pretty decisively dead, yeah. I bet the Boom Tube generator is a right mess...Agnie doesn't just pull the woman's head out right away, probably because she doesn't want to risk making the damage even worse. I don't recognise her species, but I do a quick check to make sure that she's dead. No, I can see where the Captain gripped her skull hard enough to put her fingers through her skull. She's dead.
I step away to give Agnie some room and check the other bodies. A technician has a couple of tools and some small spare parts that I put within arm's reach of Agnie, but there's nothing else…
All these mentions of a mask... Is she wearing her classic mask, or just a very useful piece of Citizenry survival gear? And good luck hoping there's going to be enough left of the ship once the fight's over to bury corpses....The navigator has a small hologram projector. Single image. I tap my mask to check it for traps, then press the activator.
I take a moment to compare the face of the woman in the family picture with the face of the corpse. And then I turn it off and put the projector back on her body. If we get out of this it can be buried with her.
...Not a pleasant death, then.One last body to check, which just happens to be next to the communications station. This one was stabbed in the neck, and I can tell from the spray exactly where she was standing when it happened. From the broken fingers and the footprints in the blood, it looks like she was trying to hold her neck wound closed. That can work if the victim gets immediate medical attention, but in a situation like this all it did was draw things out. Moving over to the console, I see that external communication is wrecked. Internal communication…
Ah, Darkstar headcomms. I can't help but imagine it to be like 'Ghost in the Shell's wireless comms.
Hopefully not.
...Oh, how to put it.
...Sounds about right."Agnie, how does it look?"
"I don't understand this. I'm just pushing parts back and then gluing them into place."
Outlook poor.
I guess Jade's not trying to hide the body language cues of 'talking to someone not present in the room...'
The Captain probably just yelled at whoever did know how to use it to press the buttons.The Reach would probably talk to me. But I don't want to encourage the Scarab Warrior to rush the bridge.
"No." I tap the buttons to make sure that internal communications aren't transmitting anything that we're saying. I don't think I have to worry about the current captain having a off-network secure monitoring system. I'm not even convinced that she knows how to use the regular one. "Friends."
Ooh, is Allyn coming through his own separate portal?Chance Reach will attack when tube activates. Prepare to flee through portal.
"Can your friends-?"
It'll be fairly obvious. Do cover your ears, it's loud."Stand up and step away." She does at speed. "And get ready to run."
"Where?"
Admittedly, that description does sound a little strange if you're not up on the physics of it."If we're lucky, through a hole in space made by super-inflated gravitons."
She takes a stance, which I suppose is-
Any port in a storm, eh?BOOM!
-all I can expect. The portal appears next to the boom tube generator, and Agnie straight into-.
Gotta love when two people with a mutual acquaintance meet.An Orange Lantern's chest as they-. He, comes through from the other side. And just like that mission is over and I activate my exo-mantle, the red and white costume appearing over my body in an eye-watering shimmer.
"Darkstar Nguyen." He checks Agnie for a moment as she cringes back, then focuses on the boom tube generator, construct tools appearing around him. "I'm Lantern Allyn. The Illustres recruited me."
Yup, sound would carry something fierce in a closed environment like a spaceship. Especially when a lot of the usual background sounds are silent..."Generally, you shouldn't tell people things like that. Agnie, lock the doors. Everyone must have heard-"
My exo-mantle receives a message from the Darkstar ship about half a second before the ship shakes.
Ideally, do it in a reasonably permanent way, hun'. Not like anyone's coming that they might want to let in..."-that." Allyn is already fusing the generator back into shape while Agnie is paralysed with indecision. Run or stay and help. "Lock the doors, then you can go through."
She gives me a nervous nod, then scurries over to the door controls.
Well, shit. Guessing it's a lot higher-spec than what he's used to.
After all, he was a Ship Master, not an engineer...
I think you'd be better placed to pull it out, Allyn. Not only are you closer, you've got more leverage via a few grapple constructs..."How long are we giving it before we give up?"
"If the Reach start shooting, tear this out of the deck and get through-"
...Probably a good thing she didn't hear that last bit.Agnie uses her cutting torch on the door control panel and then awkwardly creeps towards the tube-.
"-the tube." I nod. "Go, go, thank-" She runs through the tube "-you. They won't just shoot her, right?"
I guess anyone able to push the button for her is already dead."She'll be in a small compartment next to the hull. There isn't anyone else there." The generator looks… A bit more together than it was, but-.
The light on the internal communications panel blinks. The Captain almost certainly heard that, but she should be occupied with the Reach soldiers right now. So why haven't the Reach started shoot-?
Eh, don't be. She was an asshole, going by the evidence presented on the bridge.Chime!
I dive forward, twisting in the air as I do so to bring my maser to bear. The dull blue of the Scarab Warrior's tibia blade scythes through where I just stood as they rise through the deck. Was the captain trying to warn me? And now I feel a little bad.
Might be a good time for Zartok and Grood to get the fuck in here...My maser shot goes through the Scarab Warrior's head, whatever it's using to phase saving it from being hit. Don't know if that would have actually killed it; normal masers take a couple of hits to pierce their armor and this is the scaled down model. I also don't have the strength boosters or flight system a normal exo-mantle would have, and that's why fighting Scarabs is usually a Lantern's job.
And the Scarab knows it. I see it assess me and deprioritize me a moment before Allyn's construct sword swings at it and forces it to parry.
Big difference between 'level 1 Lantern' and 'level 100 Orange Light Shaman', after all.For an instant I wonder why Allyn didn't just smash it into the wall with a pneumatic ram, then I remember that I'm used to what Paul can do.
Bugger, a Dual Boss. Always a pain, because you can only usually block one way at a time...Right. My x-ionised sword should still go through its armor if I hit it at the right moment. I need to keep back and-.
The bridge door explodes as another Scarab charges inside!
There's a word missing here, I think. Probably 'leaps'?The portal appears next to the boom tube generator, and Agnie straight into-.
If she's not just being terse, perhaps 'that my mission'?
I think this chapter ending might be spread through intercourse, guys. Normally it only happens to Paul.
Thank you, corrected.There's a word missing here, I think. Probably 'leaps'?
If she's not just being terse, perhaps 'that my mission'?
I can write something about Felicity if you want? She's not doing anything particularly interesting.I really hope we get to see more of Agnie in the future and that she isn't just forgotten about like with Felicity.
I don't even remember who Felicity was. New Catwoman? Her girlfriend?
the control?
Thank you, corrected.
See, this is why you should have been closer to the expected portal point. Honestly, I don't know why you didn't just all three go through at once. Unless you were worried about tripping over each other...18th January 2013
23:45 GMT
"Allyn to Zartok. Both Scarabs, close quarters."
I fly as fast as I can through the ship, Grood only a short distance behind me, cursing under my breath as I go.
Since her in-combat skills aren't exactly up to this level of fighting...Could the cannibals not hold the attention of a single one?!
"Drusa, keep monitoring!"
And I can just picture her rolling her eyes in exasperation at him.
Oh, hey, something for Drusa to do: Restrain Agnie. After all, she might know something useful.A woman not on our crew climbs out of the hatch to the outer hull. She's unarmed, and unless she's a highly trained liar she's a coward too. I pull her out of the way and then dive for the portal.
"-relevant."
Dang, not quick enough. But it did give Allyn a chance to bolster his defences.Glaive.
I pass through the portal as the larger Scarab Warrior charges Allyn's weak construct barrier, my glaive's edge projecting a phase disruption field as I dive under the Warrior's arm and swing at its back. It responds my charging faster, my swing merely nicking its armour instead of slicing through its spine. With the Scarab distracted Allyn is able to reposition himself while focusing his efforts on getting the boom tube generator to work.
Layered shields, Zartok. This is why.A create a shield as the other Scarab decides to endure the Darkstar's maser to take a shot at me-.
The shot destroys my construct shield, though it fails to actually penetrate.
Something you just can't do with a physical weapon, even if it's got a retractable blade. Nice to see him taking advantage of Construct tricks."Orange, Green?" The smaller Scarab twists like a tumbler to avoid the Darkstar's sword, firing three shots at Allyn as it does so. His shield stops one and fails, and I'm forced to create multiple shields of my own to block the other two. "I can't tell-"
I slash at the larger Scarab as if shifts its back to project a force field. My glaive is deflected, so I spin it and change the blade to the other end.
Not a killing blow, then. I doubt the fight would be ended that quickly, after all."-the difference between-"
Cutting low, I slice through the left greave as the Scarab clumsily turns. Ah, it lost its flight system to make the force field. It stumbles as it turns, but the injury will knit itself back together before long.
Maybe the Scarabs should focus on defending instead of taunting..."-different colours of meat."
The large Scarab pushes off its uninjured leg, flying towards me and towards the boom tube generator behind me. I smile and ignore it, lunging at the smaller and more talkative Scarab, who is forced to switch from a blade to a pistol to shoot out my spear. No matter.
Dynamic Entry for the win!I swing my arms as if the spear were still there, reforming it with a phasic blade as the Scarab attempts to disengage. Behind me, the larger one has realised that something is wrong and switches its back module from a force field generator to a flight system.
Meaning that when Grood barrels into it through the portal, it has no momentum with which to evade.
Ah, old school. Going for the old 'rip and tear' style, eh? Extra intimidation and distraction bonuses for the mouthful of fangs, of course."HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR!"
Grood's only construct is a construct Grood, enhancing his already impressive strength and toughness to superlative levels. The larger Scarab has hit the wall before it's fully processed what is happening, and Grood's far faster with his phasic blade-tipped claws than it is with its morphed shields. It gets a gash along its side before it can interpose the first, then a gash to the face as it drops its gird too low. The shield then extends but Grood has already switched to grabbing and pulling like a frenzied molath and the Scarab hasn't anchored itself properly.
Argh, don't you hate when the opponents have gravity control and just all the blades?Good.
The smaller scarab appears to think that if it swings at me with blades from all of its limbs that will in some way threaten me. Its right arm blade swings down, cutting into the deck as I jink aside and thrust forward with my spear. The blade retracts and the Scarab spins clockwise, ducking around my spear and slashing with its leg-blades. I reverse my spear and parry each of them, the Scarab allowing its spin to be countered and flapping its wings to gain space.
...Wow, rookie mistake there, bug-boy. Leaving such an obvious weak point exposed?The Darkstar takes the opportunity to slash at its wings, slicing through the left wing before the Scarab can cover it with its elytra armour.
Wings.
Because even if he knows the flames won't hurt him, the instinct to be wary is still there..."HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR!"
Heat washes over me from the larger Scarab firing a plasma weapon at point blank range to try and force Grood back. It works, for all the good it's going to do, and melts about a third of the room-.
Best do as he says, Jade, this is way above your pay-grade, now...The Darkstar suddenly pulls back, keeping-. Her armour isn't rated for that level of discharge. I suppose it's unreasonable to expect infiltrators to fight on the front line.
"Darkstar." I bombard the smaller Scarab with energy pulses, preventing them from attacking as they're forced to shield themselves. "Disengage."
Unless you can get in a really lucky back-stab, Jade, best to back off...She doesn't move immediately, instead taking a stance-.
"Do you require assistance?"
Oh, joy, the Captain's still alive?The body of a Reach marine flies through the bridge door, hitting Grood in the side and breaking in half, spraying swiftly-cooking viscera across the room.
"WHY YOU RUNNING, BEETLE BOYS?!"
Much the same as anyone else's, I expect."Do you?"
The New God commanding officer. I did wonder what god-blood looked like. "No."
Heh. See, you did learn a few tricks from OL, even if you'd never admit it...The smaller Scarab reforms its other arm into a gun and fires at me around its shield, forcing me to-. To block with control panels torn from the ship in order to shield Allyn, because it is clearly using a construct disruptor and simple mass is better at resisting it.
I will express my gratitude to the Illustres for teaching me that at his funeral.
Don't get distracted, Zartok. Still live enemies to deal with before you admire the bloodshed.The Darkstar moves towards the door, ducking around the flailing limbs of the large Scarab and Grood, who appear to have both anchored themselves to the floor to better flail at each other. The Scarab isn't bothering with a shield any longer, just accepting the blows on its thickened armour in order to strike Grood, who seldom defends himself in any case. I can't help but be a little stirred at the sight of two fearless warriors unleashing their full strength without hesitation.
Heck of a flinch reaction. Lady must have a combat-related domain."WHO SAID-?!"
The New God is wearing green armour with strange lines running across it, and carrying a mace of some sort which she uses to parry the Darkstar's attack without looking around. The move is so instinctive to her that she actually looks a little surprised when she sees who she parried.
...Definitely some kind of war-god...
Huh, must be one of Grayven's own, then. Probably gives her some edge over the Citizenry, then.Then she backhands the Darkstar, sending her flying.. directly through the portal. I suppose that gets her to safety, and her head was reasonably well protected.
"Darkseid's balls, I wasn't even aiming-. Guess I'll just have to kill the rest of you."
Still, having to regrow them in combat isn't going to help any. Whereas Grood's ribs are already fixed."HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR!"
The Scarab gave up on weaker hits and switched to giant rams for its arms, striking Grood in the chest hard enough to crack his ribs through his construct. Grood responded by dragging his claws through the Scarab's head from the back, tearing out its eyes along the way. Not necessarily fatal; the Scarab implant is usually located on the spine and can restore a great deal of damage-.
Damn, the tide's turning. This could get painful."Midget-bug, go fight the other Lantern! I want this one!"
Grood tries to claw at the front of the large Scarab's face, but its armour has thickened again and Grood's own movements are visibly slower. Even its impaired motions are enough to fend him off.
...Huh. I suppose she had to be somewhere. Guess she joined Grayven's retinue in this timeline instead of the Renegade's.I sneer at the godling.
"Who are you to demand anything?"
"I'm Knockout." She hefts her mace. "Now guess what I'm going to do."
It responds by charging faster...
I create a shield as the other Scarab decides...
I slash at the larger Scarab as it shifts its back to project a force field.I slash at the larger Scarab as if shifts its back to project a force field.
...then a gash to the face as it drops its guard too low.
Why are the Scarab's sandbagging so much?
I believe it is canon and not fandom that scarabs come in different power tiers, the lowest being the blue scout class. These may just be lower level or outdated scarabs. Its not like they expected to encounter multiple lanterns on this mission.Why are the Scarab's sandbagging so much?
We saw what they could really do when they almost took out LePaul after all.