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

action

[pompous_today]

[Simon was never sure what to do during situations like these aside from "hide and wait it out". He was pretty useless when it came to defending the ship and repairing its systems; people were the things he knew how to deal with the most.

And even then, he'd been drowning in guilt and self-pity lately. He wasn't sure he knew how to deal with people still.

Still, when he heard Riku, he knew it was important to let the crew know he was still there.]

I'm here, Riku. Medbay. Things have been tossed around a lot, but I think we're okay...

[limitstorm]

Good.

[ he exhales a nervous sigh of relief, before he ventures an awkward, but kind smile. ]

We'd be in real trouble if we lost you. [ back to all business: ] Captain says we should be back on with the power soon.

[pompous_today]

That's good, then I can prepare for-

[Simon's words died on his lips as he got a good look at Riku.] ... am... am I seeing things or are you... it looks like there's something flowing out of you.

[limitstorm]

[ ...?

--oh, shit. riku quickly glances over his shoulder at that teeming mass of inky blackness and looks back to simon with his hands up, palms towards him. ]

Uh--don't worry, it's just... it's part of my power. It'll calm down a-after a little while.

[ i hope. ]

[pompous_today]

Okay. [Simon relaxed a little, but he was still a bit on his guard. Riku would know his own powers better than anyone, but still.] Were we attacked again?

[limitstorm]

Yeah, we were. I got a few shots at them before we were thrown into... whatever that was.

[ he relaxes, slightly--and so does that darkness. ]

[pompous_today]

[Simon nodded, thinking.]

I wonder if their goal was to push us into this disruption, then. I mean, from what I can tell, we are sitting ducks here for them to pick off or capture at their leisure.

[His heart began to race at that. Would Atroma really stoop that low for entertainment?]

[limitstorm]

I was talking with a few other people--Hiro said that his ship got tractor beamed into it. Looks like they wanted us to be vulnerable.

[ but that does not help to ease simon's anxiety, and he quickly continues-- ]

But I'm fully armed and with my powers back, I can fight them off if they try to pick us off. We're safe.

[pompous_today]

[Simon bit his lip and sucked a breath in.]

Well, I'm thankful for that. If we are boarded, I'll try my best to hold them off, too. [He could be dangerous if he cut or prodded the right place, after all. Not that he enjoyed inflicting harm.] Of course, if they did this to us deliberately... why haven't they continued fighting us?

[limitstorm]

[ he shakes his head. ]

I dunno. Wouldn't you wanna attack while your enemy's down? Maybe they wanna learn more about us first...

[pompous_today]

Assess our weaknesses? Possibly. Or they have some sort of defense against the interference and are setting it up. Because to me, it doesn't make sense to pull us into this field then just... leave us here.

[limitstorm]

... could it have been to protect us?

[pompous_today]

[Simon paused at that.]

... that's an angle I hadn't considered. Shutting our systems off is one way to hide that we are here, after all.

[limitstorm]

I wonder if there's a planet nearby--maybe it was a warning...? We've been on a planet that tried to kill us before, but we didn't really know until we left.

[pompous_today]

And then there was the Iskaulit... it's not beyond the realm of possibility that there are diseases here that could infect us, too. Once on a ship, it could spread person to person very fast.

[limitstorm]

That's right. [ he makes a face. ] That happened, before... kind of, anyway. We should've made some sorta rule about that--people get tested before they get back on their ships to make sure we're all okay...

Since we're all from different worlds, there's no telling what any of us are immune to, or weak to. [ MAKING ANOTHER FACE ] I'm weak to everything, so I guess that's easy.

[pompous_today]

Exactly. [He sighed.] And yes, that's very true- not everyone who comes onto the Fleet will have a healthy immune system to begin with. Trouble is, there are ways a disease could still sneak on despite any quarantine protocols... [He stopped himself and grinned.] Not to be a mood dampener here or anything.

[limitstorm]

Heh, like "maybe we should be prepared to do quarantine and tests" isn't enough of a mood dampener?

[ he laughs a little, shaking his head. ]

Anyway, I hope I don't get sick for your sake. We're all from different worlds, after all... if I get sick with a head cold, who's to say one of us aren't gonna have weird reactions to it?

[pompous_today]

All very true. And I know not everyone here is human... so that complicates treatment options. Hopefully it will not come to that- Atroma would likely provide the tools to help.

[limitstorm]

[ he just. gives simon a grim expression. ]

I... hope they do. It's not what I'm used to...

[pompous_today]

Mmmm. Maybe they'll let us suffer a little first... but they don't seem to want us to actually die. ... Right?

[limitstorm]

Who knows.

[ he frowns, before looking at simon and looking a little... helplessly awkward. ]

Sorry, I'm not shedding any light on this, huh?

[pompous_today]

It's fine. I suppose we will have to wait and see either way.

[limitstorm]

[ he shakes his head as if to get the thought of his head. ]

Yeah, you're right. I should get back to making sure everyone else is okay.

[pompous_today]

[Simon nodded.] Be careful.