RP: The Wayward Out at Sea (Ep.5)

REAL Space

Nan was getting a little frantic at the constant slamming of the cyber fish and the slow erosion of his shields. He was used to cyber opposition but from a purely code perspective, he wasn't quite ready for the in person attacks.

Either way his swarm was doing it's job and he knew he had to hold out. While he continued firing bursts at the fish he also reinforced his shield when he could and even tried creating a bubble around groups of fish to help slow down their direct attacks.

Space-Battle

"Very well," Adiel replied to Quinn, kinda-sorta beginning to understand where he was coming from. "Shall we split apart, and then head straight for each other? If we time it right, we can slide past one another and cause our two separate groups to collide."

Anbruch

Meanwhile, back on the ship and where the captain and Analiese were located:

Ana stepped up behind Tanja with the welder and could see the incoming bugs that were trying to get into the ship through the breach. She looked to TB, who had been trying to find the right frequency to talk to these things since they had captured the one, "TB. Please tell me you can get them to stop...somehow." She then ducked in and went to work, trying to weld the breached area together. She let that be her focus, since she didn't want to harm the bugs any more than necessary.

TB, meanwhile, sat there and continued to work on the frequency, attempting to at least get the attention of the space bugs in order to relay that the crew was on a peaceful mission

Space

"Yes. That's exactly the plan. Brigid get ready to fire on the point where we'll pass." He used his mechanical eyes and his grip on the controls to note the rough sweep and roughly the point they'd pass each other and sent that information off to the others. "Lets do this thing, head to the left, I'll take the right. Provoke and Evade." He would wait for Adiel to acknowledge his plan, and then Quinn would bank right and head off into space, taking a wide swing around and hoping the cloud bugs would divide themselves between the pair of oncoming fighters.

Space

Ash smiled as she launched the shuttle out into the void, relishing the chance to flex her neglected piloting muscles. While one would think the go-to for this situation was one of the swordbreakers, Ash wanted to ensure she knew how to pilot the shuttle confidently, as it was sure to see much use in the future. She flew out into formation with the rest of the crew towards the large ship. She then suddenly yanked at the controls to dodge out of the way of the oncoming projectile.

"Hey! That thing is firing at us!" she said over the comm. As more of the cloud bugs came out of the large ship, Ash listened to Quinn's plan.

"You got it!" replied Ash, turning the shuttle around and into a holding pattern near the Anbruch. She warmed up the plasma cannons as they were sure to be needed soon. But before she settled into a firing position, she flew around the Anbruch to see if she could locate the breach that the torpedo had caused.

Space

"Engaging."

Adiel fired off a few shots to draw attention, then banked to the left, Performing the same, wide arc as Quinn and lining himself up for their game of "chicken".

Space

The torpedo shooting past her Frame surprised her. Last time they encountered the bugs, they didn't seem to possess weapons. They also didn't display immediate hostility. The little ones obviously had a different purpose it seemed.

Brigid couldn't resist the grin that crept onto her face. Despite her profession involving preserving life, she enjoyed the feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins that came with a fight to the death. It wasn't as thrilling as watching the life leave a man's eyes, but it came pretty close.

Quinn's plan sounded pretty reckless. She liked it. "Will do, boys. Watch my fire, though, I'm not good enough with this thing to guarantee I won't hit you." Brigid said sweetly. She looked at the information on the trajectories of the fighters. "Hope these things aren't much better at this than we are. We can get some payback for Hana now."

She was worried about Ash and Ana. If any of those bugs got by and reached the ship, they could be in trouble. There wasn't much hope for a peaceful solution. They couldn't rely on the enemy having mercy on them, either. They didn't even know if it was organic. Can't let them get through. At least I got backed up before I joined this crew, she thought. Would be a shame to forget the past few days though.

REAL Space

It felt like minutes as Nan attempted to fight off the school of fish, but he knew it was only a fraction of the time in the real world. That only amplified the danger though, it meant to stall for time would be impossible, and he had to fight his way through.

Just as things got desperate, his shields almost gone, the swarm managed to find the proper door. The metallic honeycomb changed from yellow to green so that Nan could see it. He just had to escape from the fish.

Anbruch

The 'language' of the CloudBugs was still a mystery, with only one sample they could not make much headway. But TB was able to send out messages that he thought might work as instructions to stop. However, there was no response from the bugs.

When Ana stepped into the room, Tanja followed and quickly switched from her rifle to a knife and pistol, in the close quarters it would be better.

The breach would not be easy to seal though. There was some structure that had pushed through and cloud bug came out of it. They would have to get it out of the hole before they could seal it.

Space Battle

With a quick pass around the Anbruch while the other's got into position, Ash could see the object that struck the ship. It was shaped vaguely like a torpedo, but it was the same material that the cloud bugs were made out of. Of course, it had no visible propulsion and it didn't seem to explode on impact.

It was a simple task for Adiel and Quinn to draw the attention of the cloud bugs. With two Swordbreakers they were able to keep ahead of them, but it was not an easy task.

However, not all of them were persuaded. Quin and Adiel had elongated diamonds chase after them, probably similar to interceptors. However, there were larger, slower moving Icosahedrons only 3 of them, but they were not distracted. Instead from them a shower of 'spears' launched towards Brigid and Ash.

REAL Space

Things were looking pretty bleak to Nan, a surprisingly hard concept to imagine for the youngster. They say hindsight is 20/20 and for the first time Nan actually comprehended that saying. He came in to this situation woefully unprepared, thinking that him being a hotshot in front of a keyboard would carry him. Now he was doing all he can to stay afloat.

Luckily his abundant enthusiasm always seemed to win out. He quickly centered himself and called to "life" a hastily thought out and implemented script. It wan't his best work but he could only hope the piranhas did not judge him for it.

Springing to life all around him were blocky Nan-esque characatures. Most had too large of heads and gangly arms and all were dancing in various styles. One was doing the disco inferno, gangnam style, walking like an egyptian and even headbanging. The list went on and on but the real focus was that the movements would hopefully confuse the fish enough for Nan to break away.

Which he attempted to do under the cover of the decoys, hopping on to his space scooter and driving off toward the honeycomb at a frantic pace.

Anbruch

Ana knew that TB would not be able to get through to all of them. There were too many. She was hoping that, at best, she could get to where the breach was and be able to work without the Space Bugs swarming all over her like ants.

"These particular ones seem to have only one thing in mind: swarm! It almost makes me think of ants or bees or something...anything with a hive mind. I wonder if...maybe...we should find their 'queen'...?"

She worked as best as she could around the incoming infestation, pushing the obtrusive thing out. Her intent wasn't to harm any of the bugs if she could help it, but she wasn't afraid to use the torch to force them back as needed.

Space Battle

Adiel grinned smugly and rolled the craft, sliding past Quinn in a maneuver that would have made even a Rixxikor a little nervous. Then, there was the matter of weaving through the oncoming cloud bugs that had been chasing the ISDOL. Guns blazing, Adiel shot out of the other side off the horde, his shields taking whatever damage he would have sustained.

"Oh, damn." He muttered as he watched the larger ships continue on their course. "Ashtoreth, prepare yourself!"

The Elysian banked the craft hard and began pursuit of the other three ships, going for missile lock on the middle one.

Space

Ash whipped the shuttle around to get her guns into position. She then began to fire at the incoming spear-things.

"Haha! Eat it!" She said as she fired the pulse cannon as fast as they would go. She jinked where she could to avoid the spears impacting against the hull.

Space

Quinn dodged and fired on as many of the cloud bugs as he could as he and Adiel passed and when he was free and clear he tightened every muscle and tendon available in his legs and fought through the urge to puke as he took a tight turn and headed for the trio of ships. The cloud bugs were annoying but at the moment they were less of a threat than the three bigger slower ships. Of course Quinn thought ahead and at least attempted to drag the cloud bugs past and/or through both Ash's fire and the cloudbug's own fire in an attempt to either get them destroyed or at least put off of chasing him while staying clear of the incoming fire himself.

REAL World

The distractions worked, or rather they were at least enough to divide the school and give Nana an opportunity to break through. Of course, the fish that stayed on him gave chase as he fled, but with the water scooter's help he was able to make it to the honeycomb and swim right through, narrowly avoiding his foot being chomped.

He had passed the first two walls of security, and was now out of the water, in fact, he tumbled down a curved slope since there was no platform for him to stand on. It was sticky and uncomfortable, but at the end of the roll he could stand up and see ants the size of vultures buzzing around and flying, they did not seem to mind his presence. In the distance was a golden castle.

On its way from that castle was a hornet, larger than the ants and it did not look like it was going to ignore Nana, rather it made its way straight for him.

Anbruch

Tanja spoke up as she struggled with keeping the Cloudbugs out of the room. "If there is a queen, it would probably be on that ship."

Things did not look like they were going to go well for the two but as Ana worked to weld what spots she could, she noticed a reaction from the Cloudbugs. They kept their distance from the torch after one of them was nearly welded into part of the ship. Rather it was the 'flame' of the torch that they stayed away from.

"What is going on they're moving weird." Tanja spoke when she noticed the strange behavior, but she was too busy fighting to see why.

Space Battle

Adiel and Quinn's trick worked. they were able to shoot many of the Cloudbugs and they flew through the other swarm, and the rest ran into each other. For a moment things looked good, but a quick glance and they would notice their shields took an intense beating and were nearly depleted.

Ash was able to shoot down many of the spears, she couldn't stop the barrage of them, but it was enough that she was able to avoid any direct hits.

The larger ships took a few hits as well but without much reaction to it. Adiel was able to get a lock on. But at this time they noticed, those that slammed together or were hit with spears began to move again as they absorbed the thing they hit. It seemed that they could not destroy each other using their own material, and it did not stop the assault. The small ones split up to attack everyone now, larger, but less than half remained. And the large ships focused their attention on Quinn now.

Anbruch

Ana paused when she noticed the bugs going wide of her when the flame of the torch came too close. She tilted her head, "That seems to be how bugs back on Nepleslia would react. I remember seeing that happen sometimes when we'd have to clear them out of the machinery. TB, go get a blow torch! Maybe we can drive them back with that kind of fire!"

As she worked, she tried to clear more and more space with her smaller flame, easing them back bit by bit as she closed more gaps.

Space Battle

Adiel raised an eyebrow and blasted past Ash, looking back to see his own personal swarm of bugs. He also noticed the larger ships making for Quinn. Suddenly, he had an idea.

He raced beneath the Anbruch, pulling back on the stick to perform a wide loop that brought him up and around the hull and heading back towards the fight. He pushed his throttle higher and raced for the larger ships, where he proceeded to weave in between the strange machines, getting as close as he could.

The cloud bugs did not seem that intelligent, and previous experience had shown that they could be goaded into ramming each other. So, in short, Adiel was going to use the smaller bugs to destroy the larger ones. Work smarter, not harder.

Space Battle

Brigid opened fire on the ships as they converged, white hot bolts of plasma flying at high speed towards the surviving Bugs. Red warning lights flashed on the Frame's screen as the sensors detected incoming projectiles. She could see the light reflecting off of long, thin objects coming towards her. Reluctantly she switched from targeting the ships to trying to shoot down the spears before they could reach her. She dodged the best that she could, but the thing wasn't exactly built with mobility in mind.

Her dodge threw her into a spin and she corrected, turning towards the ships again. She changed course to put herself between the Anbruch and the approaching larger Cloud Bugs. "Moving to intercept those uh ships heading towards the Anbruch," Brigid answered. "And be more cautious guys, don't want to spend days out here trying to find all your body parts so we can glue you back together." She joked.

REAL Space

Nan paused as if maybe, just maybe, he didn't move the ginormous hornet wouldn't see him. Of course he very quickly and logically deduced that it wouldn't matter because he was in a virtual space. He glanced around, taking in the ambiance and the dutiful comings and goings of the worker ants. He was sure now that these "cloud bugs" were part of a hive mind and these representations of the fish, ants and hornets were his minds way of grasping the intricacies of the alien community.

The school of piranhas showed how they attacked, a school generally moves in a concerted effort one following off the other. The Ants showed that they had a dedicated worker mentality and caste and the hornet. Well the Hornets are a form of defense because let's face it, Hornets are jerks.

Sadly without any large cannisters of 'Raid' Nan was left to his own devices, which came easily to him. As per his last little ploy he quickly set about creating before him a large and quite generic looking magnifying glass, complete with a wooden handle. It hovered before the young hacker as he lined up his right handed gauntlet, focused the beam and unleashed through the glass.

Now he understood this was a mostly traditional way of sacrificing ants to the great sun god but he figured it should work just as well on a hornet, as long as he could hit the big bully.

REAL World

The magnifying lens digitized into existence at Nan's command, despite how it looked in this digital representation, what it really was was a simple protocol to help his programs get past automated defense systems. Which is why it was such a surprise when the large Hornet dodged the beam that was fired at it, then swooped past trying to sting him, just catching his sleeve and ripping it.

Something was up, that should have worked on automated defenses, but yet the Hornet was still there and it came around for a second pass, not allowing Nan much time to think. It obviously was focused more on speed than precision.

Anbruch

The Cloud Bugs continued to flee from the welding torch as Ana worked. She had sealed most of the fractures, but now the problem was that the 'missile' was still lodged in the hull, and it would have to be removed in order to properly seal and patch the hole.

"How's it looking Ana? more and more keep coming out, I can't hold them for long."

Tanja was right more and more of the bugs came out of the missile, it was almost like they were endless, and the pile of 'dead' bugs on the floor grew larger and larger.

Space Battle

Brigid had managed to catch shots at several of the CloudBugs during the excitement of the chase, but many still remained.

As Adiel closed in on the larger ship with the small ones following, a barrage of powerful energy blast sailed over his ship and battered the large CloudBug, the Anbruch had fired its cannons and destroyed the creature.

"Don't slam them together, they combine with themselves and grow larger." Gabi's voice came over the radio soon after the shots, and it sounded a bit on edge, the situation inside the ship was not that good.

Now with one of the large ships gone, Brigid had more room to work with, since the one firing at her was done in. Quinn however was not so fortunate, he was being pressured by two of the spear ships, and Ash tried her best to shoot down the spears, but the bugs at her back kept her on the move.

If things were that simple the situation would be easy to solve, but now several CloudBugs made their way towards the Anbruch, the half-dozen laser arrays fired to try and keep them away, but they were rather nimble and slowly closed in.

"Someone get them off me. I'm going to fire the main cannon at the big ship and end this!" The android did not sound happy any longer as the Gauss Impelled Positron Canon on the top of the ship moved into a ready position and powered up.

Anbruch

Ana wished she could wipe the sweat falling in her eyes as she worked. But the suit prevented it. She glanced at the incoming bugs and whimpered a bit before looking at TB and taking in a breath. "I can't get it all sealed with this missile in the way. However...TB. I know this will be suicide for you...but maybe if you build up a really strong EMP...I will get you working again, but hopefully that would at least kill off the bugs long enough for us to push the missile out and we can seal up the hull better."

She widened the nozzle just enough to make the flames wider to push back the bugs more before narrowing it to seal what she could. Even as she worked, she tried to get closer to the missile, ready for when TB could put out the EMP.