thespaceopera: (red alert)
Voices from Heaven ([personal profile] thespaceopera) wrote in [community profile] driftfleet2015-09-13 10:53 pm

warning! warning!

[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.
tothefly: (facewipe)

After!

[personal profile] tothefly 2015-09-19 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[For all that Natasha is bent on surviving this herself, on not letting people get too close, she's still not going to let anyone get hurt if she can help it. They couldn't do much, but with two engineers and two of them on weapons, they could at least discourage a few of the attackers from targeting the Vanquish. She'd lost sight of most of the other ships when they'd hit the nebula, which is partly why every response she gets is another bit of relief.]

Clay? ...to hear you made--[a metallic CLANG]--repeat, made it. Everyone's fine here. Few cuts and bruises. Are you in the nebula?
geonomy: (☆ we never carried days on our own)

After!

[personal profile] geonomy 2015-09-19 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
No, we flew out as soon as the systems were back up. We shouldn't be staying there long. [Being in there is dangerous, especially for such a long amount of time. But realizing that Windrose doesn't have a pilot...] Are you still in there?
tothefly: (put you on hold)

[personal profile] tothefly 2015-09-21 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Right in one. We're stuck here until the Marsiva gets moving again. As soon as we can reach Atroma again, I'm going to be fixing our lack of a pilot.

Any sign of a response from our friends out there, or did they run?
geonomy: (☆ lately i've found)

[personal profile] geonomy 2015-09-21 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
No, it looks like they left. They even left the Iskaulit completely alone. [Which is bizarre, and makes him wonder why. Maybe they didn't think it was part of the fleet? In any case...]

I can try to get you out of there. A nebula is made out of a high amount of energy, so the longer you spend in there, the more your ship might suffer from it. Requesting permission to do so.
tothefly: (busy now)

[personal profile] tothefly 2015-09-22 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
[That is odd. Leaving the Iskaulit alone is even more reason to doubt the attacks as being from an outside source. Why leave the ship that looks most abandoned, that doesn't fight back? Why not take it and run? She's getting more twitchy by the minute, here.]

Permission granted. And--thank you. For whatever you can do.
geonomy: (☆ we never carried days on our own)

[personal profile] geonomy 2015-09-22 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
No problem, Natasha! Give us a few minutes and we'll get you out of there.

[Clay informs his own crew of what he's going to do, then heads back into the nebula. Yeah, it probably means letting their ship be susceptible to even more equipment going haywire, but if it means getting other ships out of there, then Clay won't hesitate to do it.

He flies past the Windrose, then turns the ship around until it's facing the side closest to the nebula.]


I'll try to go slow, but it's going to be a bit bumpy. Hold on to something stable!

[He'll give her a moment to tell everyone else about the order, then takes action. He moves the ship forward, bit by bit, until the nose of the ship starts to push against the Windrose. The speed increases once he's sure that the ship can handle the contact, but not by much. Best to go slow here, just in case.]
tothefly: (uh oh)

[personal profile] tothefly 2015-09-22 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
[Luckily, she's got some idea as to how Clay's going to pull this off. It's not like they have tractor beams, after all--not like their little raider buddies and their fancy high-tech, nebula-traveling rigs. So she warns the engineers, and the crew, and by the time the Vanquish has maneuvered itself into position, their shields are at max power to help buffer the ride. Still, there's a clang and a muffled curse as Natasha hits a console.]

Going to take a lot of sanding to buff out these dents.
geonomy: (☆ you make me sing oh la la la)

[personal profile] geonomy 2015-10-06 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry! I'll help you out with that when we're on solid ground!

[Yeah, it sure would be nice if they could have fancy tractor beams, huh?]

So, in all the time you've been alive, did you ever think you'd get stuck in a nebula?
tothefly: (Default)

[personal profile] tothefly 2015-10-08 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)

Just get us to solid ground and I'll be happy.

[She doesn't mind flying, doesn't even mind space, really. Just another environment to maneuver through. But not being in control...that she's really not fond of. Is it showing?]

It wasn't exactly on my bucket list, no. You're loving this, though, aren't you? Minus the hostiles.