Log:Contact

Worlds Apart 2014/07/20 	 Mesmer Forge Spirit Paragon Ten Interface Aoi Aurora 2

Enceladus The ground stretches away, a sparkling plane of white ice. The ground seems to slope away sharply with the horizon being only about a kilometer away though great crags loom from beyond it. Overhead loams Saturn with its rings, dominating over thirty degrees of sky. Its surface gravity of just over .01 Gs makes most activities difficult, causing a feeling of weightlessness even while providing a requirement for escape velocity of several hundred meters per second.

Aoi moves forward to peer out of the cockpit windows. "Is there a texture difference down there?" she asks Forge, pointing to a spot on Enceladus. "Can you zoom in your sensor view?"

Aoi proceeds to scan the area herself using her neutrino scanning system.

It is at this point, while Forge and Anton are conversing with Aurora, that the unknown object goes hurtling past. With its heavy deceleration curve even this short distance above the surface it is still moving remarkably fast. It is clearly identifiable as some sort of man-made construction. Long and cylindrical, it isn't quite the conventional rocket shape as it lacks the pointed nose or any sort of airfoils for stability but it is clearly metallic with a motor at the one end and small reaction control motors studding its surface. It is perhaps only 10m wide but about 100m in length.

Ten just watches: she can't do much else.

Having been along, but mostly kept quiet while she consulted Julius as well as the onboard computers, Allison seems... to not even be paying attention to the newly arrived energy sphere that was reforming into humanoid shape. She's far more interested in the technology of the rocket than in whatever the sphere's abilities may or may not be.

The fact that the ship, for lack of a better term, is obviously designed for space, not atmospheric flight... means that to her, it's a purpose built design.  "I should be out there. I want to get to the landing site..." she says, finally speaking up. Yeah, her nanotech body has been sitting there quiet pretty much the whole time and she simply stands up as everyone deals with meeting the sphere named.... Aurora, and she heads for the airlock.

As the ship goes hurtling by two objects detach from what might be termed the fore, the end away from the engine. Actions in space being what they are their flight path is a bit strange. They continue to recede away from the jet for a few moments even as they are moving away from the unidentified object. However, it is only a matter of moments before they have completely arrested their motion and are now streaking directly for the jet at very high velocity.

"Little busy at the moment," Forge says as he slams the jet's engines on full and begins to execute a lateral move to try and get out of the flight path of the objects.

Dorian moves forward to where he can see out the front port. "Just keep them in view. I need to be able to see them." His form shifts back to his energy state.

Aoi activates her quantum phasing system and passes through the hull of the Quinnjet so she can try to deflect the incoming objects. Which she suspects are missiles.

Paragon watches Allison as she finally reacts and heads to the airlock. "Be careful," she offers with a small hint of concern. She can't exactly follow her friend very easily without the power of flight, so she moves towards the front of the vessel to see what's going on.

"If I keep them in view," Forge says, "Then I have to point the nose of the jet at them. Since the engines are in back that's not a good idea."

Spirit says, "Or...Aoi can handle it. She's as good as I am at it."

Anton turns to Aurora, "I don't suppose those are friends of yours?" He asks the slowly emerging energy sphere as the mentalist huddles in a little closer to his seat, ready to teleport away if needed.

Airlock... yeah, inside the airlock, Allison is told...  So long as the internal door is sealed, Allison hits the emergency override on the outer door and is ejected into space with what remains of the airlock's atmosphere. She reorients herself with her onboard thrusters... and then pods form out of her nanotech, growing from calves, back, triceps... and she engages the grav-field drive... launching herself on an intercept course for the rocket's landing site as fast as she can move.

Aoi fires focused gravity pulses at the incoming objects to deflect them away from the jet.

Aurora is engrossed with another seat when Anton speaks. She does not sit in it, but prods it with a digit to explore it's many mysteries. "Friends?" The not-voice warbles. She now looks where others look to see what has caused all the activity.

Aoi thinks. o O (They didn't open communications, say hi or stay away or anything. Just fired rockets at us.)

The missiles explode spectacularly and silently in the void of space as Aoi shoots them out of the air. As the unidentified object touches down on the surface of Enceladus Interface goes streaking down toward it with her gravitic drive. Three more missiles emerge from the nose of the object, again streaking toward the jet while a panel in the side of the object opens. "Landing vector, yeah," Forge says. "Think the best I'm going to be able to do at the moment is a low pass while people bail out."

"Roger that, we'll see if we can't stuff a potato in this thing's tailpipe." Anton says, calling up a display so he'll know where to teleport to when... you know other people show up on scene so his odds of getting blasted by rockets is lower.

Ten nods. "Bailing out, can do." She heads to the airlock.

Arcing down, Allison disengaged her grav-field... giving her a null amount of carried over velocity. Inertialess drive... almost. She lands with her thrusters pretty much right as the rocket lands. . o o O O (Fusion. What was it using for reaction mass?) she thinks as she approaches said rocket. Tech fascinates her of course, and she's hoping to make contact here...

Spirit heads to the airlock with Ten. "I'm too used to investigating things on my own...without being in a rocket."

Aoi stays where she is and prepares to deflect the second batch of rockets.

Paragon blinks a few times, looking about. "We're bailing?" That happened fast. She heads over to the airlock with Spirit and Ten. This may be a rough escape.

Spirit chuckles. "Think of it more as a 'paradrop'."

The objects inside the large object are leaving the the big object? To investigate the object Aurora followed. Aurora's form begins to lose its cohesion, molecules returning to the atmosphere. Her energy returns to spherical before it passes through the floor and hull.

Ten says, "Just without the para."

Spirit says, "Exactly."

Paragon smirks a little behind her faceplate. "Oh. Well in that case..." she doesn't have experience with that either. Although she's no stranger to dropping without a parachute.

As Allison begins to investigate the cooling engine Forge commences his 'bombing run'. Given the minimal gravity on Enceladus it is a tricky maneuver as he actually has to fly toward the moon (and missiles) to give people a reasonable downward velocity. "Now!" he shouts to his passengers as he begins to redirect the jet's exhaust to keep him from slamming into Enceladus. The three incoming missiles also explode brilliantly but silently in the darkness of space as they are shot down. It is at this point that a half dozen people equipped in space suits emerge from the open panel on the side of the rocket, weapons at the ready.

Spirit says to Paragon and Ten, "Be careful with how much force you apply. Restraining is better than killing."

Ten says, "I don't kill."

Spirit nods. "I was just more concerned about mistakes, rather than something intentional."

Paragon nods once. "Not a problem." The problem is in maneuvering in a bulkier suit on top of already bulky armor.

Ten says, "Oh. Mistakes I make."

Ten,from the airlock, snaps out her staff so it connects with the rocket, then pulls herself towards it, using the play in the staff to reduce the relative velocity so she doesn't hit *too* hard.

Scanning the area, Anton stands up from his seat and begins the process of teleporting down to the rock, he is opting for about 100m from the rocket itself and just above the surface of the giant named moon.

Glancing upwards as the beings emerge from the rocket, Allison/Interface really wants to make contact with any computers on board but... *sigh* She shakes her head. Radio signals are sent their way in what amounts to a universal friendly greeting. But she places a hand on the skin of the rocket... attempting to see if the whole thing is one computer or not (attempting a mindlink if possible)... but holding otherwise.

Spirit wraps a tendril of light around Paragon, and takes off with her in tow, flying down toward the rocket.

Aoi elects to stay with the Quinnjet in case more missiles are fired at it at least until it can get below the horizon, changing her position to keep the large rocket in sight. She can fly back under her own power.

One of the first things that the more experienced of you can tell is that these guys are fast. Not speedster fast. Not even faster than super trained martial artists. They are, however, significantly faster than you would expect for any form of 'ordinary people', including those ordinary people such as special forces personnel. Spirit, with his electromagnetic senses, can pick up radio bursts being broadcast between the individuals but cannot make them out as they appear to be highly encrypted. Two of them open up on Ten with some form of energy rifle while another two open up on Spirit, Paragon, and Allison. Ten hardly feels the shots, and isn't even knocked off balance by them.

 announces Julius as the grav-shield pops up just in time to intercept the incoming attacks. Allison nods and stares at the rocket's hull. She radios Spirit and says, "There is a computer in here. I can maintain the shields and try to access it if you like..."

Spirit places Paragon on the surface, and the tendrils of light dissipate.

Aurora's energy form begins to solidify once more as it floats to the surface. Directy for the strange beings that emerged from the rocket and are discharging energy. Why? She does not know. So she investigates.

Paragon gives a thumbs up to Spirit as he tows her along. "Thanks for the lift!" She says as she gets deposited on the surface. Gravity gives her a little pause as she tries to undercompensate for the low gravity. She curls a large gloved fist and leaps at the nearest shooter.

Paragon lands quietly by one of the shooters, moving much slower than usual. The clumsy punch misses as she tries to catch her balance from the leap.

Ten decides to try to swipe at these guys while they're still in a group. She moves toward them as best she can and lashes her staff about wide.

The shots seem to largely glance off their suits. Whatever they are made out of they are tough and the low gravity makes it difficult for Ten to put her full power behind the shot. However the lower gravity also works in her favor as she knocks the 4 people over.

Anton is away from the rest of the combat, he does this on purpose... he'd rather not get hit, but he does focus his attention on the most distant rocketman from the main group. Attempting to blast his mind.

Well, that's going to leave a mark. The man furthest on the end drops his rifle and grabs hold of his helmet. In the microgravity of Enceledaus the rifle floats at the end of a short tether as the man writhes.

Spirit flies a bit closer to the gunmen, leaving a trail behind him and remaining upright as he reaches out a hand toward one of them. Thin strands of light extend outward, trying to wrap the gunman up.

The strands of light wind tightly around the fifth figure, wrapping him up and rendering him immobile. He falls toward the icy surface in a microgravity slow motion.

Nodding to herself, Allison just leans in ot the hull of the rocket. She closes her eyes and reaches out, <> she thinks as she tries to make contact, her appearing mildly distorted through the gravity of her shields.

As Allison reaches out with her mind she makes a tenuous connection with the computer. There seems to be something wrong, however. While the computer seems moderately advanced it is also a relatively specialized machine. It shouldn't be so difficult for her to establish a connection but something in the design appears to be shielding it.

"It is shielded. I'll break through the firewalls soon." says Ally over the radio...

The four people who were knocked down by Ten get to their feet, turning and opening fire on her. The one caught up in Spirit's energy tendrils twists, looking for an escape. He then makes a sudden and convulsive movement and goes limp. The person next to him moves away from him, rockets on his back carrying him across the icy surface as he opens fire on Spirit. This leaves the remaining two, one who also moves and fires at Paragon while the other continues to fumble at his helmet.

Spirit furrows his brow. . o O (There's something wrong here. Why did he go limp like that?)

Ten is completely peppered by the shots from the four who regain their footing, though it doesn't seem to even phase her. Against Spirit the spacesuit clad figure seems to be unable to draw a bead while the remaining one fires at Paragon, shots largely bouncing off her armored form.

Aurora observes all the energy being exchanged. Various wavelengths from RF to visible and more. Maybe they are communicating, since vibrational frequencies are ineffective. She floats into the midst of the large collection beings and offers a broadband greeting. Multiple openings in her shell open and expand, while the energy within spikes in radiance and intensity.

As Aurora flares brightly the figures in suits shield their eyes. Their darkened visors may provide some sort of protection but it is not enough in this case.

Ten mutters something as she's blinded, though the words are lost to everyone but herself.

Paragon winces and brings her hand up to her visor, her glowing eyes shrinking down to pinpoints. All she can see is spots and afterimages of whiteness.

Spirit seems to be unaffected as the light washes over him.

Aoi releases her grip on the wing of the retreating Quinnjet and flies back towards the rocket getting to it but without time to act effectively.

Spirit pivots to aim at the agent that fired at him...and he repeats the process, attempting to entangle that one as well in threads of light.

Paragon shakes her head and wishes she could rub at her eyes. The pinpoint light set in her helm try to expand in size as she opens her eyes, but she can't make out a thing. "I don't know exactly what happened, but I'm floating blind here, guys."

While still blinded the second one is an easy target and is engulfed in Spirit's tendrils of light much like the first.

Aoi quickly takes in the situation. She decides that continyuing to deflect is the best way to help her team mates, and readies herself to block any shots made by the rocket beings against the heroes.

Ten may be blinded, but she was standing amidst her opponents when it happened, and if they're still there she reckons she has a fair chance of connecting with them.

That shot scatters the four space suited individuals around Ten, knocking them away in the fractional gravity of Enceladus.

<< Sorry about this... >> Anton says as he unleashes a mental explosion in the midst of all the fighting, attempting to end the conflict quickly.

And much like before the blast from Anton's mind causes the space-suited figures to grab their helmets and reel.

"Sorry? For wha-OWW!" A blinded Paragon clutches her helmet and stumbles a step or two from the unexpected attack. "Ohh...-that-..." she says as she recovers her balance.

Spirit winces, clutching his head. He looks around for the source of the mental attack.

Ten winces and holds her head. That hurt more than anything's hurt her in a long time.

Narrowing her eyes... yeah her face still responds to her emotions as if it was organic... Allison is almost ignoring it all and totally focused on the task at hand. She hides behind her shields and summons her will. . o o O O (Knock, knock... I'll huff, I'll puff, and I'll rip apart your firewalls like they were made of ) she thinks as she takes a couple breaths. . . No, not real breaths, it's more preparing for this than anything more.

The energy release is enough to be felt by Aurora and her consciousness, but she doesn't appear visibily shaken. She does not hold her head or any other extremity as one as no more focus of her thoughts than another.

And just like that, the fight is over. The two people wrapped up in Spirit's energy tendrils lay on the icy surface, the first person blasted by Anton lies on the ground, the four victims of his mind bomb sink down and even the remaining person who was rocketing away from the group can be seen arcing bonelessly toward the ground, rockets cold.

Spirit grabs the one that moved away from them and pulls him in...to make sure he doesn't float away entirely.

Ten keeps waving her staff about herself wildly, unaware that the fighting is done.

"Well, that was more effective than I hoped it would be." Anton says over the microphone. Clearly... he's going to have to try that again sometime.