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

[save_the_souls]

Oh, Right. Nebula.

[Shit. Was he supposed to know that? ]

Something bigger? You think they could be?

[delincuente]

Is there any reason for us to think they aren't?

[save_the_souls]

Well, no...but really we don't know a thing about them, so it could be anything.

[delincuente]

Yeah. We don't even know if there's, like, people in them. They could be some kind of killer drones.

[save_the_souls]

...I'd take killer drones over people, truthfully.

[Less moral ambiguity in blowing those guys up]

[delincuente]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

[She's never even caused purposeful physical harm to anyone. She's still a cinnamon roll, Allen.]

... So what now? We just keep drifting?

[save_the_souls]

[yes good stay a cinnamon roll. They are good and not covered in blood.]

We're working on getting the ships working again. Does your ship have an engineer?

[delincuente]

[is that a requirement because she's totally been covered in blood before]

Yeah. New kid, Kirito. But there was nothing much he could do.

[save_the_souls]

[MORE THAN THE USUAL PARADISA AMOUNT I MEAN]

I see.

I know Sokka or Hiro would be willing to help out, if you need it. We should at least try to get the fleet to a waystation.

[delincuente]

We'll be fine. We seem to have some kind of psychic on board, she kept telling us what to look out for.

[She's not actually a psychic - the reality is a lot less simple and more disturbing.]

[save_the_souls]

A psychic?

That must be useful. Blue Fish doesn't have one of those. [Just lots of dirt and water. Thanks benders really]

[delincuente]

Dude, we're swimming in supernaturals over here. Like our new engineer's the only normal one.

[save_the_souls]

Really?

- Wait. Does that mean you have powers too? [YOU'RE ALWAYS SO LAZY HE's NEVER SEEN YOU USE THEM OK]

[delincuente]

...

. . .

[Honestly at this point Alex just assumes everyone knows SORRY ALLEN.]

I'm a wizard. Oops.

[save_the_souls]

...Really? A wizard?

[delincuente]

I mean, you can say "witch" if you want. But yeah. I've got the wand and everything.

[She picks it up, still glowing green at the tip, and gives it a twirl.]

[save_the_souls]

- Whoa!

[That really is a wand! Sorcerers in his world didn't use those, but he remembered getting one of those when the castle changed into that one school. Which hey-]

That's incredible! Does that mean you went that Hogwarts school? I've only seen them use wands!

[delincuente]

[She has to grin at that. She's finally impressed someone with something other than her laziness.]

No, me and my brothers were homeschooled. And our magic's a little different. We sort of come up with spells on the fly, instead of memorizing a bunch of magic words.

[save_the_souls]

[Well it helps that her laziness is mostly what he's known. Otherwise he wouldn't be as awed, lets be real here]

That's incredible...most sorcerers in my world have to study for years to reach that sort of level. [a little smile] I think I'm a little envious.

[delincuente]

Lemme show you something, just a sec-

[She taps her wand against her mouth for a moment, and then something comes to her. She picks up an empty drinking glass.]

An empty glass is of no use,
Let's have instead some nice, cold juice.

[The cup fills with cranberry juice, and Alex takes a sip to prove it's not an illusion.]

There are spells that are just memorizing words, but I was still learning those, and they're really limiting. This way, I can basically do what I want.

[save_the_souls]

Oh my God- you just conjured juice! Actual juice!

[HE IS SO AMAZED RIGHT NOW. HOLY SHIT]

Now I'm definitely envious! That's incredible!

[delincuente]

[Alex would be beaming if they hadn't just been attacked by enemy fire and a giant glowing nebula BUT SHE'S STILL PRETTY PSYCHED.]

And that's just the tiny stuff. I kind of once accidentally erased someone from existence.

... Multiple times, actually.

[save_the_souls]

- Eh?!?

[OKAY THATS LESS COOL AND MORE TERRIFYING]

[delincuente]

Yeah, learned my lesson there. Never make stupid wishes out loud while holding powerful magical objects.

[save_the_souls]

That's wonderful, but what about the people you erased?!