driftfleet | Alert! Alert!

[bright and early one Sunday morning, proximity alarms begin to blare. could it be another set of disorienting malfunctions?

no... this one is for real. the Drift Fleet is under attack!

any ship with a scanning array will pick up a small swarm of ships--roughly the same caliber as the ships in your fleet--swooping in fast from distant space. any pilot, engineer, or communications officer who remembers those strange blips in the radar over the last several months can confirm that this is that very same group that's been following them. this time, they're not leaving room for negotiations, and they will not respond to any hailing or threats. they are on a mission.

within minutes, weapons are live, and the fleet is fired upon. suddenly, the casual drifting of the fleet turns into something much more real, and much more dangerous.

do you follow your augment's call and run to your station? do you flee your responsibilities? do you wish you could help and can't? are the captains leading or floundering, and are their crews even listening?

for a few terrifying moments, the fleet will be hammered, and Atroma is silent. you are all on your own, dear passengers. your little ships are not prepared for this, you have not been trained--and your enemies have no such trouble. a few ships are even shot down, forced to make crash-landings on nearby stations.

things look grim as the terribly-outmatched little fleet fights to defend itself... until the attacking fleet suddenly turns and bolts back into the darkness without warning.

maybe the attack was a warning. maybe they were just testing you. maybe something frightened them off.

whatever the reason, you are all left beaten and confused, without explanation at all.]

ooc post → here
this is a little event to kick off April! and it is essentially a glorified themed mingle, so there is no rush to reply to this immediately. the outcomes of the ships have been predetermined, based on the augments of the crews. all of that information and more (including info for people on hiatus and who wish to opt-out) can be found on the ooc post as well.

flourish or buckle under the pressure, help or hinder, and most importantly-- have fun!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They sure as fuck did. We take any prisoners, it'll only be after the ones shootin' at us stop. [ That's how it works in shoot outs, so that should carry over to space battle, right? Per Fenris's instructions and Axel's reluctant agreement, Ladon makes a bee-line for the ships firing on the more vulnerable of their fleet. He's at least good at that, playing chicken is par for the course in some of the chases he's been in.

Only, the hayburners he's used to driving are little more expendable than a space ship. And they tend to crunch or flip over more often than they would explode-- and there's no diving out the passenger side door option available here. So his driving style might be a bit too reckless for this kind of a vehicle.

But hell if he's going to just wimp out here. He might pull a very hard left to avoid plowing straight into an enemy ship, though. ] Whooooa there.

That's the spirit.

[They might want to go down fighting, and Fenris is more than happy to indulge them in such a thing. As Landon flies like an erratic spidermonkey, he fires off the ship's plasma cannons (noting the weird pew pew sounds) at the enemy engines. See, he'll be good and not murder them or anything. Axel, you owe him booze for that.

But yes, that was a bit terrifying, so he'll turn to blink at Landon. ]

I'm not sure what you were trying to accomplish there.

[If they live through this, he'll buy you a drink on the waystation, Fenris. One that definitely doesn't taste of despair. The laser canons hit their mark, damaging one of the attacking ships and sending it pulling back. Axel grins and pumps a fist in the air--]

Whoa--!

[--and then very quickly grabs onto the nearest seat when Ladon yanks the ship hard to the left, barely catching himself and ramming his shoulder into the wall.]

Jeez, Ladon, this isn't bumper cars, okay? [He rubs his shoulder and stands behind Ladon's seat, gripping the headrest. This ship needs some seatbelts!

[There's another blast from somewhere nearby, and the ship jolts. After a moment, Axel notices something odd. He seems to be... floating? With a yawp of alarm, he flails his arms and tries to put his feet back on the floor, but there's a bit of a problem.]

Who turned off gravity? [That last shot must have knocked out the generator! This is going to make things complicated.]

You fellas wanna drive? [ He takes his hands off the steering column momentarily, then realizes that's probably just as unwise as letting go of the steering wheel on the highway. He grits his teeth then and glowers at the panel of buttons and lights in front of him. ] Ain't as easy as it looks, yeah? You wanted us closer, I got us closer. Lay offa me will y--

[ And then the gravity goes out. And to his credit, Ladon manages to keep one hand steering the ship, while the other slams his hat back down on his head the moment he feels like it's going to drift off. He's glad the pilot seat has straps to keep him in his chair. ] The fuck's goin' on?

[As he floats upwards, Fenris jerks on the joystick that is their crappy plasma gun aiming device. There's a pew and a shot fires near one of those now too near ships, grazing it. The elf swears in Tevene, trying to wrap an arm around his chair, while keeping the other on the joystick. ]

Oh, wonderful. This makes aiming and firing the highly explosive weapons so much easier.

[ Here is a distressed wail. ]

No! Why are you flying? Come back!

[ There's a potted plant slowly escaping its pot in the way in here. And Asteffiel is trying to swim through the air after it. ]

Ladon, could you not? [Axel makes to dive over the seat and grab the yoke as Ladon lifts his hands away, but he wouldn't really know what to do with it if he grabbed it anyway. Ladon slaps his hat back down on his head when it tries to float away, and Axel makes a frustrated noise.] Hands on the wheel, pal. [He clamps both hands down over the hat, holding it against Ladon's head. If he's that worried about it, Axel will play hat patrol, but please just worry about flying the ship.

[He looks over his shoulder when there's a horrified cry then, and makes a face.]

Asteffiel, what are you doing? N-no plants on the bridge! Er-- [Wait, that's racist.] No potted plants on the bridge!

Hey, hey, less plant-shamin', more navigatin'. Where'm I goin'? [ Ladon is reluctant to put the fate of his hat in Axel's hands-- literally-- but he doesn't seem to have much of a choice. The enemy ships are firing on them again, and Ladon is doing his best to steer them out of the line of fire, but they're still starting to take some damage. ] Much as I wanna ram these fuckers back out into space, we ain't gonna last much longer if I do.

[Fenris pulls the same face he always does whenever poor Asteffiel is in the same vicinity as him. He may have accepted the thing isn't a demon, but that doesn't mean he wants the thing anywhere near him.

Instead, he focusses on trying to aim the guns, one handed. Which really isn't that easy, at all. ]

I doubt we will last much longer either way, at this rate.

[Holding Ladon's hat on with one hand and twisting to swipe his other hand across the comm panel on the wall, Axel grits his teeth.]

There's a cluster behind us, 7:00, and a pair off to our 3:00--I think those two are focusing their fire on that ship. [He points to the other ship out the side of the main viewscreen. He thinks it's the Red Fish. He narrows his eyes.]

I've got an idea. Ladon, if you head straight for those two ships there, how close do you think you can get before you have to veer off to avoid hitting them? If you can evade fire from the ships behind us, we might be able to get them to fire on their own ships, you'll just have to get close enough that it's unavoidable when we get out of the way.

[ Axel asks how close he can get and Ladon just smirks to himself. He's played chicken enough times to know where this is going. ]

Let's see, yeah? Hope you ain't too attached to the paint job. [ Rather than try to wrap his brain around the physics involved, he shifts his way of thinking. If this was a car on Nieve's streets in the middle of a shootout, what would he do?

'Floor it,' he tells himself, and lets the augment do the rest. They're not going to come out of this without a few dents, but if he's lucky, they'll still be in one piece. And the Tourist zips off in a way that the other ships seem unprepared for. This battle is starting to look less like a space combat and more like a bullfight, and it's doubtful the enemy has any experience as matadors. ]

[It's a good thing Fenris has spent many years with Hawke, and is as such used to plans which verge on the edge of 'absolutely batshit crazy'. He'll just ling to the chair to try not to float off and let Ladon do his thing.]

...I'm actually a little surprised that worked.

[He sounds vaguely impressed though. Fenris Approves, I guess.]

[ Yes Asteffiel is not much help here.

Particularly when his runaway plant has definitely floated toward where the others are doing Important Things. Like making them not die. And one is Fenris who he likes to avoid because he doesn't like to get glared at. ]

It keeps floating away.

... I will get it later.

[ He is going to ... space swim his way back to his other plants. Sorry little flower, you have been abandoned. ]

Alert! Alert!

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