RP: The Wayward New Heights (Ep4)

Space Chase

Adiel eyed the strange... thing suspiciously. Why had it turned around? Was it toying with him like a puppy?

Then, it charged. With a loud curse in Seraphim, Adiel pulled the yoke backwards as hard as he could, also performing a roll. The thing adjusted course, but he had prevented a full-on collision, his shields taking the brunt of the damage.

Adiel growled in a furious blood-rage. No-one and nothing treated Adiel Avraham like a fool.

The Elysian pushed the throttle up to maximum on a course for the asteroid, keeping an eye behind him to see what the odd craft's next plan of attack would be.

Asteroid

Brigid aimed at one of the objects advancing towards Ana from the direction of the ship and opened fire. "Get to the ship, Ana!" She shouted, running towards the shuttle and then jumping into the air. Once she was off the ground she fired her thrusters.

In the air, she could maneuver better. She flew towards Ana, firing at the robots. "I'll try to keep them distracted. Be right behind you."

As soon as the polyhedrons starting rushing toward her position, in a flash Ash drew her laiz pistol, letting loose a beam of purple energy at one of the things. She quickly glanced at the nekovalkryja as Hana tugged on her arm.

"No wait-"

And then Hana starting floating off away from the probe.

"Dammit," said Ash mostly to herself, holding her liaz pistol in a two-handed grip for more stability, firing off two more beams at the oncoming polyhedrons. She activated her thrusters and pushed herself away from the probe in the direction Hana went, hoping to draw some of the things away.

"Hana!" yelled Ash over the comm. "Find some cover and wait for me there! I am right behind you!"

"Hey guys...Hana and I might need a pickup in a minute after I dispatch these things."

Asteroid

Ana and Hana both went separate directions when things got messy, which caused the team as well as the opposition to split up to follow them.

Asteroid - Shuttle

On the way to the shugglteAna was almost hit by one of the objects, but was saved by a shot from Brigid that knocked the black mass to the ground. This gave Ana the time to reach the shuttle, but the door could not open immediatly and had to go through its depressurization cycle. This left Ana and TB rather open, and it looked like the attacking objects planned to use this chance.

Both Brigid and Stefan managed to make it in time, however, and put themselves between Ana and the attackers, giving enough time for the doors to open.

Asteroid - Otherside

Hana made a 'sprint' for the other side of the asteroid where there was cover, with Ash covering her back. Their pursuers were not particularly quick, so they were able to make it to the other side with minor difficulty, and there was just as much terrain to use as cover as they were told, they could easily duck behind a ridge and fire back at the objects. However, they were now even further away from the ship and would have to push through even harder.

Space Chase

The opposing 'ship' did not slow down as it approached, but thanks to Adiel's quick thinking he did not take a direct hit and deflected the ship away with his shields, however, he was left with only 10% shields after the powerful impact. Nothing stood between him and his allies on the asteroid now and he was able to quickly close the distance.

He could see the events unfold on the surface and he had entered firing range, though it was hard to say how accurate he would be, the Swordbreaker could not form a lock on the objects. The one shaped like a fighter ship still pursued him as well, looking for a chance to strike.

Shuttle

Ana kept an eye out as TB worked on the door to get it open. She shielded her head instinctively just as one of the black pods tried to get at her. Luckily, Brigid managed to keep them at bay. Once the door was opened, she slid inside, looking back to the others, "Hurry! Come in!" She added as she slid in further, "Tanja, once the others are inside, let's just go around and scoop up the rest...leaving the outer door open so that the others won't have to wait for the cycle."

Ash bided her time until the shuttle came to pick them up, aiming at the polyhedrons that approached and making each shot count, her laiz pistol sending out bright purple beams of energy.

"Screw these things," she said, aiming and blasting down another one. She was glad they did not appear to be armed with any sort of ranged weapons. But with how quickly those things could maneuver in vacuum, all it would take was for one to smash into your faceplate and then that would be the end. Ash had no intention of letting that happen if she had anything to say about it. She spared a glance at Hana to make sure she was out of sight from the polyhedrons and then turned back toward the task at hand.

"Three. Four. Five," she began to count as she dispatched them with accurate blasts.

"How about that pickup? Any time now would be great. Really," she said over the comm sarcastically.

Space Chase

Adiel watched the chaos below. Energy beams from his allies' weapons were missing the illusive machines. They appeared to be having trouble. So did he, for that matter, as his shields were low, and that damned thing was still chasing him!

The ones on the asteroid were on their own, it seemed. He still had his own troubles to deal with. Besides, a shuttle was coming to extract them.

Still, he could attempt to lighten their burden. He could unleash the swordbreaker's much larger guns. Aside from there being a larger chance of scoring a hit, he would most certainly draw their attention away from the crew.

Wait.

Was this... selflessness?

Selflessness- such a weak trait. Selfless people only ended up harming themselves. Adiel had no care for it.

No, it clearly wasn't selflessness, Adiel mused to himself, quickly stamping down the thought before it could take hold.

He simply would grow bored out in uncharted space if several crew members died.

Yes. That was all.

So, unable to achieve missile lock, Adiel opened up the ship's cannons, aiming for the outer fringes of the swarm, well away from the Goat-Woman and Hana.

"Pardon me, just passing through." he muttered with a weary sigh as he shot past the asteroid. He checked his rear view and snarled at the "fighter" drone. "As for you, you insignificant little shit!"

It was time to employ a maneuver that Flynn had performed whilst the duo were being chased by pirates. Don't ask. Adiel cut the thrusters, using his momentum to keep the ship moving forward. Next, he activated the ship's inertia control, performing a backwards "somersault" that lined up the drone in his crosshairs. With a growl he squeezed down the trigger so hard that his knuckles turned white. The ship continued its loop before returning to its starting position, where Adiel activated his thrusters once more.

Asteroid - Shuttle

Brigid backed into the shuttle, laying down suppressing fire until she was inside. "Let's go! I don't want to find out what happens if they catch Hana and Ashtoreth. I don't want to lose anyone on my first day on the job." She said, keeping her gun trained on the open airlock door.

Part of her wondered if they could capture one of the objects and study it. Maybe they could figure out exactly what they were, or what they wanted. Could be that they were just defending the rock, but she found that unlikely. Unless they lived inside of it, like some sort of nest.

Shuttle

Stefan was the last into the shuttle and backed in while shooting down as many as he could, then he shut the door. "I know you want to keep it open, but they'll get inside not just the airlock but the ship if we leave it." He spoke with a slightly apologetic tone as the sound of banging could be heard on the door. "We'll make sure everyone gets off this rock together though."

The airlock cycled quickly and let them through into the cabin, where Stefan immediately made his way to the pilot's seat and got the shuttle off the ground.

Space Chase

The heavy lasers on the Swordbreaker fired in tandem, just barely missing the objects after Ash and Hana, but the impact was powerful enough to throw them around along with a lot of debris.

The maneuver that followed worked out smoothly as well and gave Adiel a difficult, but clear shot at his target. Unsure of how the Ion cannons would work, he fired the slower heavy lasers, getting one shot with each, but both were clean hits that broke through the opposing craft, twisting it with the impact. The craft did not explode, but it had no shields, and it only moved carried by its momentum now, whatever it was it seemed 'dead'.

Other side of asteroid

Hana ducked behind a ridge to keep herself out of sight. She was not expecting a fight and wasn't sure what to do.

Ash couldn't hold everything off on her own, however, so the impact from the heavy lasers was welcome, many of the objects were damaged and scattered about.

With a quick count, however, Ash quickly realized one of the objects was missing, and just when she noticed, she heard a scream from Hana over the comms and then a crackling. With a look back Ash could see the missing object, just having collided with Hana's chest plate, and Hanadrifting motionlessly, unconscious.

"The shuttle is on the way" Stefan's voice came over the comm as the shuttle began an approach, the hook that held the beacon hanging low for them.

Shuttle

Ana winced as the objects thudded against the outer door of the shuttle. She simply nodded and went into the main compartment, settling herself down as she buckled in for the ride. She drew her knees up and sat there, staring off into space as she waited for Stefan to get the shuttle to the others and hoped that everyone would be alright through this.

After a few moments, she shook herself and focused on TB, checking the bot over for any damages. She made note of any that she couldn't fix right away and worked on what she could if needed. But as far as she could tell. he was working just fine.

Swordbreaker

Adiel smirked and brought the ship around, chuckling darkly as the twisted drone slid past, lifeless, behind him. He shot back to the asteroid and took stock of the crew, narrowing his eyes as he saw Hana.

"Ash," said the angel. "Recover Hana. I will cover you."

And with that, he employed the same strategy, strafing the outer fringes of the swarm as he made another pass and shot back off into the nebula.

"Herdtitan shit! Hana!", exclaimed Ash as she blasted the last remaining polyhedron with her pistol.

"Thank you, Adiel. You're a lifesaver."

Grateful for Adiel's covering fire, Ash hopped up from the asteroid and pushed her thrusters hard to slow her momentum and to match speed with Hana's drifting form. She gently wrapped her right arm around the neko's torso and began to thrust back towards the drill site to meet up with the shuttle. She gave a quick look at the neko's damaged chest plate, but it did not look good.

Ash could not help but think it was somehow her fault.

"Why does death and misfortune follow me wherever I go?" She thought.

As the shuttle flew overhead Ash was able to grab onto the hook that was lowered and be pulled away from the surface of the asteroid without any trouble. As they ascended, Ash could feel Hana breathing, she was alive, but she'd seen better days.

With the enemy 'fighter craft' already destroyed the shuttle did not need to stop and instead flew straight for the Anbruch, and Adiel could soon follow.

Anbruch - Hangar

Ash as allowed to hop off the shuttle with Hana first, then the shuttle took its time to land, followed by the Swordbreaker, everyone had made is back. At the entrance to the hangar stood Tanja. "All injured get straight to the infirmary. Sorry Brigid but I'll need you to do some work right away." She then turned her attention to Stefan "I need you to look over the sensor readings and figure out what exactly those things were."

With a nod, Stefan took off his helmet "I'll get right on it." He then quickly made his way out of the hangar and towards the science lab.

Anbruch Hangar

After making sure TB was working, some what, Ana stepped off the shuttle. She went up to Tanja, "What were those things? It was like...they were mechanical and yet...maybe sentient?" She set TB down so he could scuttle off towards the engine room as Ana stayed with Tanja, following her to wherever her captain went to ask questions and find out answers.

She was still in her suit, so was a bit cumbersome, but she was more curious about those things than worrying about changing into something more comfortable. Besides that, she was fairly sure she'd need to get back in it when they go to the next 'site'.

Anbruch

Ash wasted no time in making her way towards the infirmary with the unconcious Hana cradled in her arms. Upon entering the infirmary, Ash set the Neko gently down onto the examination bed and then unsealed her own helmet, tossing it off to one side. Ash was relieved to see that Hana was still breathing, but knowing next to nothing about Nekovalkyrja anatomy, she reluctantly waited for Brigid to arrive.

"Stay with us, kid," she said, clearly upset about this whole situation.

Anbruch

Brigid nodded a response to the captain. "On my way." She said, stripping off her EM-G7. After returning it to its proper place she hurried to the medical bay. She saw that the Iromakuanhe had beaten her to the room. The woman looked upset.

Great, dealing with emotional people is why I couldn't handle working in a hospital, she thought. She touched Ash's shoulder reassuringly. "Could you get Hana's Environ Suit off, please?" Brigid asked. She faked a concerned appearance, frowning slightly. From experience, she knew that people felt disconcerted by Doctors that looked like they didn't give a shit.

She walked over and grabbed the portable medical scanner. "Can you tell me exactly what happened to Hana?" Brigid asked calmly, pulling on a pair of gloves.

Infirmary

Ash nodded grimly, putting her business face back on. She gently began to remove the chestplate and bodyglove from Hana's void suit.

"One of those polyhedron...things. Smacked her right in the chest and knocked her unconscious," she said, pointing to the obvious damage on the chest plate.

"Truthfully I do not know how she is still breathing. The hit she took looked like it should have cracked her sternum.

Hangar

The Swordbreaker elegantly glided back into the hangar, a little banged up, but otherwise fine. The adrenaline in Adiel's blood began to subside, but his soul still burned with excitement, urging him to soar back into the void. Almost reluctantly, he shut down the craft and disembarked. Looking back at the fighter, Adiel rubbed his chin in thought. Flynn had once said something about how not naming a ship was bad luck. Adiel himself had never been big on superstition, but somehow, he felt that the ship needed a name.

"Henceforth, you are Babylon." announced the Elysian, the name coming to him from an old religious tale that his parents had told him as a young boy. It was a story of conquest and ruin. This craft was capable of both.

Wardroom

Turning on his heel, he strolled to the armory to remove his void suit. Clothes in hand, he made for his quarters, where he quickly showered and donned a fresh outfit. Then, it was right back to the Wardroom, where he'd been before all of this nonsense: Reading quietly, with a drink in hand.