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

BLACKOUT in which the engineer is in need of some engineering probably smh

[recopy]

[Megaman's been doing pretty decently up to now--or at least, that's what he'd like to think, anyway. Thanks to their shields and an active pilot, the Golden hasn't taken too much damage over the course of things, but that didn't mean it was entirely immune--and so, much like last time, Megaman has been sprinting back and forth betwen different parts of the ship, keeping track of the essentials and slapping a patch on whatever crops up as soon as he can.

Towards the end of things it's becoming apparent that they'll probably need additional materials for a proper fix on some of these bits...but it's alright, that's probably doable, maybe they'll run into a waystation soon once they're out of this mess--and that's what Megaman's mulling over, making his way back to the bridge to retrieve a few tools he'd set there earlier. The ship lurches, though, and the nebula outside the windows brightens--and everything inside goes dark.

On--several levels! In Megaman's case, at least. He has no recollection of even blacking out, but opening his eyes takes a titanic effort when he comes around again a half minute or so later, head ringing, a dozen different internal errors and warnings buzzing under his jaw. Dimly he realizes he's on the floor now, half-crumpled against a wall; even more dimly, he's aware of his power reserves suddenly remarkably low, and the presence of a backup generator kicking in somewhere in his person--but even then it's barely running, as if it's being choked down.

Sitting up a bit more takes another enormous effort, head tipping back against the support of the wall; through half-open eyes he can just barely make out a silhouette in the dark, forming and growing down the hall. Probably a another crew member...oh--]

What... [The word drags out. He frowns.] What--happened? Is everybody...?

[unconfines]

[Oh, this is... oh. They weren't blown up when they very easily could have been, which he's ticking off as a point in their favor, since even the ship seems to be handling the unexpected power surge all right, but this is a variable he hadn't considered.

Patching up people is one thing— that's something he understands, something he can manage. Getting the ship cobbled back together enough to get them out of the cloud is something else entirely, and more importantly something he knows he's not equipped to do. Beyond that, there's a moment of clarity where he realizes that he has no idea how Megaman himself is supposed to function; he has no idea how serious this is, or if he should be trying much, much harder to hail for help from one of the other ships.]

The rest of us are doing leagues better than you, from the looks of things. I'm going to guess that this might be a little outside my wheelhouse. [That was mostly for his own benefit; he babbles when he's nervous.] Can you count how many fingers I'm holding up?

[He's not holding up any, for the record.]

[recopy]

[It's more difficult with the dark of the hallway, because it doesn't really help the feeling that things seem to be moving at a snail's pace. Or maybe he's just taking things in at a snail's pace. That seems quite a bit more likely, actually...but it's easy to forget the difference. Anders solidifies into proper view, settles close, speaks up, and he knows the face and the voice but it takes a painstaking handful of seconds for an actual name to attach itself to the presence. Oh, that's not good. That's never happened before...

Megaman blinks, frowns, and tries to sit a bit straighter again, prop himself up by an arm or something--but even that's still exhausting, and so that plan gets abandoned rather quickly. There's a pause, as the question takes another moment or so to register.]

Fingers? But, you're nooo-- [That word drags out even worse than the last, startling even him; it's just enough of a jolt to for him to muster clapping a gloved hand over his mouth, eyes wide. Voice peters out, and his hand drops. The next words are almost a whisper (because that seems...easier, at the moment....)] Sorry. I'm...the power, what happened with the power? The ship?

[unconfines]

[The response is not as reassuring as it could have been. He does his very best not to communicate this directly.]

Not sure I'm the one you want answering that question, to be perfectly honest. Something knocked everything out, I can tell you that much. Lights, comms, engines, everything.

[Not everything, but enough of the most visibly important things that it feels like everything, to him.]

Is that what's going on here? The power? You seem off, to say the least. [A beat. He casts a glance up and around the immediate surrounding area, like some inkling of what to do next might be hidden nearby.] I didn't think that was how [a vague hand gesture] all of this worked.

[He's getting the false impression that Megaman is somehow hooked in to the ship's power supply, not quite tech savvy enough to understand that the power surge might have just taken out all the electronics on the ship.]

[recopy]

Everything's off? [Softly repeated with dismay--things might be registering pretty slowly, but that doesn't take long to puzzle out at all. That does explain things, though...well, sort of. Megaman frowns further at Angers' question, as it parses through. Honestly, Anders seems just as lost as anyone else, and he suddenly desperately wishes he were just a little bit more lucid, so that he could help explain--well, whatever this actually is. Ah.]

Mm...yeah, it must be the power. Maybe some kind of--energy field... [painstakingly pulling those two thoughts together:] Those ships, the ones that were shooting at us, did they do something? Ah--

[But if everything's off, who knows what might be happening to the ship at the moment? What facilities would be most negatively impacted? Things that need looking at, and probably need fixing....and he tries to get up another time, only to sink down against the wall again, looking flummoxed.]

I'm sorry, I can't....I'm really tired, all of a sudden? ...I think, I'm going to need a bit...

[unconfines]

Shoved us into some kind of big cloud ["nebula" is the word he's going for] and then buggered off. Bit rude, actually.

[He jokes out of nervous habit, because he's not sure what else to do. He chews on his lip, and then apparently makes a decision, because he shifts to make his shoulder available for Megaman to put his weight on.]

Here, let's get you off the floor to start, yes? Can you stand? Medbay should be all right, we can set you up in there.

[recopy]

Big cloud? [Mumbled thoughtfully, more to himself than anything--he hadn't figured there were clouds in space. Or are there? His astronomy database isn't terribly robust on a good day anyway, then again--and that puzzle quickly falls to the wayside for another time. After all, if the enemy ships had--buggered off, as it were, that was probably a good thing...even if it is kind of strange. Pushed them in and left? That's a bit...oh, there's a shoulder being offered to him now. With a bit of internal effort Megaman attempts to pull himself back to the present.]

Oh--yes, I think I could... [Standing, that would definitely be a good start. And the support turns out to be a lot of help indeed; reaching up to take the offered shoulder, pulling himself onto his feet ends up being quite a bit easier. --Though it's still a kind of wobbly process, and he ends up mostly leaning on Anders anyway.

For such a small person he's actually surprisingly heavy! Which is what happens when you're all metal parts on the inside...] ...Thanks, I know this is a lot of trouble...you're a good captain. [Admittedly the last part just sort of slips out, as tricky as it is to parse out thinking and speaking at the same time for the moment--but it's honest, at any rate.]

[unconfines]

Hah.

[Something twists in his chest, and he turns his face away slightly, ostensibly to check down the hall for anything that might have shifted during all the commotion. Megaman is heavy, and Anders is just a mage; there's a lot of focus on keeping them both upright, here. He slings one arm beneath Megaman's shoulders to help distribute the weight more evenly.

He thinks if he were a good captain this wouldn't have happened in the first place. But— it did, and all he can do is deal with it.]

Might want to wait until we get out of the mess before you start showering me with compliments. Come on. We can figure out what to do next once we've found you a better place to sit.

[One foot in front of the other, here we go.]

[recopy]

[Fortunately for Anders, Megaman indeed doesn't notice the latter's reaction to his words there, subtle as it is anyhow; he probably wouldn't have noticed it even on a good day, then again, and it's even easier to miss in the darkness of the hallway. Instead he hums a bit, distractedly, half his focus set on keeping his own steps as even as possible while the other half of it tries to keep up with Anders' words. There's still a pretty noticeable lag, between listening and actually responding...but he's trying.]

Well, I mean...we might be halfway through the mess already, right? It could be sort of like, a halfway compliment... [That--might have actually been an attempted stab of humor, there. Megaman frowns at what he can make out of the hallway floor, grateful for the extra bit of support under his shoulders when Anders slings an arm there too. It's been a long time since he ever felt this tired...and it's certainly the first time he's ever felt quite so heavy. Or maybe he's always been heavy like this, now that he's in the real world, and he's just now feeling the literal lead in his limbs for the first time...

One foot in front of the other, right. --Though there's probably a couple of near misses where he almost trips over Anders anyway, at moments. Sorry about that, man.]

[unconfines]

My, my, listen to you. Bit of sass in there after all! [He's good-natured about it, anyway, and he manages to take any swaying and stumbling in literal stride.] Still, that would make me a halfway decent captain, wouldn't it? I can live with that.

[It's still a deflection, technically, but... if he can get them out of this without any more injuries, that might just actually count as halfway decent, in his estimation.

Luckily for them both, it's not excruciatingly far to the medbay. The doors are ajar and the things Anders didn't have time to lock down are strewn about this way and that, but for the moment he's just focused on finding Megaman a place to sit. Anders steers them towards one of the nearest, narrow cots.]

Here we are! Just— careful when you sit, will you. I'm not sure I have it in me to hoist you back up again.

[recopy]

I-I don't know about sass... [It's an almost embarrassed sort of mumble, but he actually is pleased that Anders picks up on the humor all the same. It's a little bit comforting? Somehow...

He also wants to mention something about glasses of water and the nice things about them being halfway full, somewhere here, but he never quite gets around to it--which is probably for the better anyway. Soon enough they're steering into the medbay, and Megaman dimly notes the current bit of scattered mess, in their bout of recent space fighting. The help with finding a cot is appreciated, though, and Megaman sits down without too much protest--his entire frame wilts almost as soon as the support leaves, head tilting down as he closes his eyes for a moment. Still though...]

--It's okay. I probably, shouldn't move too much yet... [Even as he says that he's making a valiant attempt towards sitting a bit more upright, though, opening his eyes again and frowning up at Anders.] How long has it been, since the...cloud thing? ...Is anything of yours damaged?