warning! warning!

[thespaceopera]

[The nebulas are beautiful in this region of space, at the very least. They gleam as great distorting clouds of space-stuff that your scanners don't even want to attempt to analyze. They affect the ships' instruments much like other areas of disruption have in the past, but these are actually visible as large swathes of light--like giant flames frozen in their swirling shapes, suspended across impressive stretches of space. For once, there's something like scenery to look at, out here in the black...

And then, the proximity alarms begin to blare.

From a gap between the two nearest clouds comes an assemblage of ships! Familiar to some and new to others--they do not respond to hails or communications of any kind, and they're gunning straight for the Fleet without slowing. Their weapons are locking on and firing as soon as they are in range.

Many passengers have been through this before, and many of the ships are bigger and better than they'd been in the previous skirmish. Today, the Drift Fleet will put up a better fight, even punch a few holes in their attackers.

Your augment knows where you need to go! Do you run to your station? Do you dodge your job? Are you unsure how to help? Are the captains giving orders or panicking, and are their crews paying attention? Everyone's got a chance to fight back before the enemy fleet runs them into the nearest nebula--and things suddenly take a bad turn.

As soon as each Drift Fleet ship hits the nebula, its systems overload and short-circuit before going dead. It stays silent for minutes, no radar, no comms, no network. Stubborn stragglers are ganged up on and forced into the cloud, followed by the poor ships on autopilot being bodily hauled into the nebula with tractor beams. Once the entire Fleet has been set adrift as sitting ducks, before the Marsiva can get too close, the attacking fleet... turns and flees through the cloud, seemingly untouched by the nebula that scrambles your ships.

Eventually, the systems flicker back to life, blinking on one by one. It will be several hours before any other effects of the attack will be noticeable. The network shows up as live again, but Atroma never shows up to explain a thing...]


ooc: the out-of-character event post is over here! respond to this post any way you like; you can have action, comm messages, play during the attack, being stuck in the nebula, checking in after the network comes back online, or whatever else seems fitting.

Comments

VANQUISH

[geonomy]

[During the attack]

[When the alarms blare, Clay jerks in his seat, hands gripping the arms of the chair and first looking towards where the noise is coming from, then out towards the view he was just looking at, heart racing from the sudden shock. He sees it then: ships heading towards them. At first, he thinks that he should try to contact them, seeing how he's never seen them before.

But then, he sees the ships fire at them – fire at the fleet. At that moment, he feels his shock turn into something else entirely, and he leans forward to grab the controls and move the ship out of the way of the shots fired at them. While he does so, he flips on the device to let him communicate with the rest of the crew, then talks to them in a stern, stressed but level voice.]

[Locked to: SS Vanquish]

Vanquish crew, we're taking some fire here! I need everyone to listen to me!

Zessica, you're up here with me; I need that ESP of yours!

Pearl, we might take some damage; make sure the ship doesn't fall apart on me!

Tony, either help Pearl or find another part of the ship that might take some damage!

Eugene, cover Pearl! Rogue, cover Tony!

Call to me if something goes wrong! And remember - [He swerves the ship to the other side to avoid more fire and pushes forward, flying downward as an enemy ship flies right towards their ship.] - We're the SS Vanquish and we're fine!

[Fleetwide]

This is Clay Terran from the SS Vanquish! We don’t have any weapons to fight back with; support requested!

[After the attack]

[Fleetwide: Audio]

This is SS Vanquish. We're a-okay here, though we've taken some light damage. Is everyone else all right? Report in.

[Vanquish: Action]

[Clay’s still pretty high on energy and adrenaline, and he paces the ship, seeing over the damages, trying to make sure everyone’s all right, constantly tugging on his gloves. He seems collected on the outside, but man, is he nervous as hell on the inside.]

o7

[zessica]

[The moment she feels the sudden jerk of the ship, Zessica's tossing aside her book and hurrying out of her personnel room towards the bridge. Another sudden shift slams her against the frame of the door with a grunt, and she enters, rubbing her shoulder as he finishes his announcement.]

After this is done, I vote we pad the rough edges around this place! [She grabs the back of his chair with one hand, the other dropping from her shoulder to reach around him and rest on his over the ship's steering controls.]

The time it takes to tell you where to go is time we don't have to spare. Trust me?

[geonomy]

I'll work on it! [In response to the padding, anyway, because hell, that is a good idea.

But when she puts her hand on his and tells him to trust her, Clay doesn't hesitate. He nods, spacing his fingers a bit so that she can hold on easier, let him tell what she's going to "tell" him easier.]

You got it.

[zessica]

Good. [Shuffling can be heard as she spaces her feet apart for a better stance, gripping the back of his seat tighter.] Because there's really no other way to do this.

[Her right hand suddenly becomes a little warmer, a glow beginning to appear around her entire body. As soon as she adjusts her hand on his, she jerks them to the left, ship following almost immediately. Sensors indicate a shot narrowly missing the starboard side of the hull.]

No getting sick anytime soon, okay? [Clearly she's done this before.]

[geonomy]

You don't need to worry about me. I was born for this!

[He's had training in dealing with forceful changes of direction and high speeds like this, he's fine with this. He follows her movements, jerking the controls to the left when she does, only taking a glance at the way her body's glowing. He straightens out the ship afterward, keeping a close eye on the ships ahead, knowing there are likely some behind as well.

The ship shakes when a shot hits their port side, and he cringes and ducks his head because of it before he keeps his sights ahead again.]

The port side needs some cover! [He repeats his request for support to the fleet, though he knows they likely won't get much; they're busy with their own ships, after all.]

[zessica]

[Zessica all but growls, jerking Clay's hand on the controls downward, slightly lessening the shot on the port side, and causing one overhead to just skim across the outer shell.]

I'm really used to doing this in a machine built to amplify my powers! [Whoop, here they go into a diagonal ascent.] And it's a lot smaller than this ship...

[They're rattled again by one that slid by onto their starboard rear. She yelps, almost falling over, and her hand goes from his to steady herself. Once her hand's back over his, she exhales sharply through her nose.]

Dammit, Clay, get Rogue up here!

VANQUISH

[survivalistcookbook]

[Pearl. Pearl. Right, the . . . engineer? Ballerina?

He really, really needs to socialize with the crew more. That's the background thought, the conversational, quippy thought that someone who knew him might have been able to pull out at that moment. The overwhelming majority of him, though, clicks into a cold recognition and sings live-wire adrenaline with the familiarity of danger and being attacked.

He reaches for a knife out of hard-won instinct, heart in his throat, fingers closing on the handle before he remembers that attack is so much easier to fight back out here. Back into the drawer it goes, and he dials up Pearl's frequency, too deliberate to be completely steady.]

You heard the captain. Where are you headed? I'll meet you there.

[stickupherforehead]

[Steven's out there on another ship and she's not there. Instead, she's stuck here. Because they're under attack. Right.

She hesitates another moment. They're already outgunned on this ship. An SR shuttle would probably have even worse odds, and then she wouldn't be useful to anyone.]

Port side. I think I heard something from there. [and off she goes!]

[survivalistcookbook]

[Eugene still isn't exactly what you would call speedy. But with a goal and the prickle of danger, he gets close, arrhythmic three-legged gait of shoe, prosthetic, and crutch loudly rounding the port side of the ship until he see her.

It helps that the place isn't exactly spacious.]

Okay. Just tell me what you need.

[It's a promise more than a command, more focused than he's been in months.]

[stickupherforehead]

[slight glance back, and then Pearl's focusing on the paneling next to the closed door.]

We're here to assess damage, and to see if there's anything we can do about it. If we can't, we'll simply have to lock it down and fix it at a later time. [she lets the computer do a quick scan before she opens the door]

If it looks like we're about to get sucked out into space, say something. [she seems waaay too blase about this]

[survivalistcookbook]

. . . uh.

[He picks his way in behind her, trying to force a swallow despite how his mouth's suddenly gone dry.]

Assuming there's enough air to do that? Sure. I'll . . . definitely do that.

[Fleetwide: Audio]

[save_the_souls]

[Well Allen sure feels a lot of relief when he hears that broadcast. He'll switch on the audio to report back]

This is SS Blue Fish. We took a bit of damage, but we're alright. Do you require any assistance?

[Fleetwide: Audio]

[geonomy]

[There's certainly a wave of relief that comes over him too, though that still doesn't stop his pacing. Don't mind the sound of footsteps, Allen.]

No, I think we're fine. We're not in any immediate danger or anything.

[Their shields are pretty wrecked, but at least the ship itself is in okay shape, considering the attack.]

Were those the ships that attacked before I got here?

[Fleetwide: Audio]

[save_the_souls]

I'm glad to hear that. [Though he sure hears the sound of pacing...yeah, he should probably check up on that in a moment]

Yeah, that was them alright. So much for thinking they lost interest in us.

[Fleetwide: Audio]

[geonomy]

[There's a HUFF on the other side; right, just as he thought. But why attack them?]

Do we know who they are? Or why they're attacking us?

[Fleetwide: Audio]

[save_the_souls]

No, we don't know anything about them as far as I know.

Though...I'll admit I wouldn't be surprised if they were part of Atroma.

[touchofrogue]

[Oh crap.

Kicking herself for not just sucking it up and switching her augment, Rogue moved to obey. Tony didn't need an engineering augment to be a genius, and if she was at his back she could make sure no debris fell on him or if they were boarded... well, she'd take care of that too.

She sped through the halls on her assignment.]

audio;

[recopy]

Um--yeah, we're okay too, I think. The Golden, that is, that's the one we are. Still need to run a...proper check on the power systems though. That was, uh, that was really...

[Somebody still sounds exceptionally sleepy and more than a little disoriented at the moment--power surges from nebula fields aren't a lot of fun for all kinds of machinery, as it turns out! Things are a lot better now that the field's grip seems to have abated, at least--it's just still taking a bit longer than usual for some things to register. Like voice recognition, for example. But, after a moment--oh--]

Wait, Clay--this is Clay, right?!

audio;

[geonomy]

[That's definitely a relief, hearing that Megaman's okay... though he does sound a bit weird. Clay, meanwhile, is pacing, stressed out and frazzled by all of this, so his footsteps can probably be heard. He does, however, pause when he hears Megaman's voice, then lets out a sigh of relief before it turns into a dry chuckle at the recognition.]

Yeah - Yeah, hey, it's me. You sure you're okay over there?

[recopy]

Oh, good! [Clay isn't the only one to sound pretty relieved, at any rate--apparently Megaman's still lucid enough to express that much off the bat too.] I'm glad you're okay! It looks like the whole fleet got hit at least a bit by these guys again...

[He trails off then, though, and then there's a sigh that sounds almost as frazzled as Clay is feeling about now. It's not visible, but he's rubbing his eyes about now. (He doesn't even need to, not really, but it's one of those lingering human tics....anyway--)]

I mean, I guess--I've probably been better? Something about that nebula seemed to trigger some kind of power surge in our ship. Hit all the machines... [INCLUDING...HIM.....but that's just the robot lifestyle, apparently.] Er, I've still, got a few processes smoothing out, but I'm a lot better now that we're out of it. They told me the network went down too....did the same thing happen to you guys?

[geonomy]

Everything went down here, too. The network, the lights, the controls, everything. We were sitting ducks out there. It doesn't surprise me; nebulae all have a high amount of energy made out of ionized gases, so going into something like that can definitely mess up some systems.

[He pauses, then brings up something that's been on his mind since the attack itself, confirmed by what Megaman said.]

So you guys fought them before? They're the ones who attacked right before I got here, yeah?

[recopy]

Ah, so that is a usual thing for a nebula? I suppose that sort of explains it...

[Yet another thing to add to the list of the dangers of space, looks like...]

Before? [There's a bleary pause from Megaman's end as he puts together where Clay's getting at--with half his processing still working on debugging after his impromptu shutdown, his own thoughts are still a little bit staggered at the moment. But this, though...] --Oh, yes! Yes, these are the same guys...I'm almost sure of it. The ships looked the same, and acted the same way too.

[Another longer pause, as he pieces together a thought that he's been working on ever since they got out of the nebula to start.]

...But I really don't know why they left us alone in the nebula? If everybody had the same problem, with the ships.... [Nasty thought, that. And yet--] Did they really just leave?

[fleetwide audio]

[stefanged]

Everything's fine here on the SS Paisley. Thanks for checking in. [Really, bro. Stefan sighs of relief.]

Hey, since you don't have a lab tech - do you need someone to look at your crew? Or do you have that taken care of already?

[fleetwide audio]

[geonomy]

[Clay lets out a similar sigh, but still keeps up his pacing. Ugh. Ugh. This is all so stressful.]

No, we're fine. We've got some bumps and bruises, but we'll live.

[fleetwide audio]

[stefanged]

Good. Let me know if the situation changes at any point.

Though honestly, I still have no clue what hit us. Didn't think reality shows could make enemies out here.