Log:New Starguard Adventures, Scene 10

New Starguard Adventures 2016/07/20 	 Chen Elephant-Man Grimm Malcolm Psyn Psycho-Spider Torus Victory 10

The first thing that's striking about the engine room is the noise - the constant whine of the engine and of water and steam rushing through machinery, loudly enough to make conversation softer that shouting impossible. There's the main engine room, a large hall with the engine taking up most of the center of the space. Around the sides of the engine, there's space to walk past easily. There's an elevated control room overlooking the main engine...

Another thing that's hard to miss is the cobwebs -- it's hard to move through the space with out encountering the filmy strands. Right now, there's a costumed figure, seated up in the control room. There are crew down in the spaces alongside the engine -- maybe a dozen people in total. Also along these spaces there are a number of of devices with ominous looking red blinking lights, fixed to the exterior walls of this space at regular intervals. Right now, the crew members are motionless.

Psycho-Spider says to no one in particular: "I won't say it again... you have five seconds to stand down or else we will blow the ship." Meanwhile, on the bridge, the crewman repeats the same words for Wade's benefit. She shows no signs of having notices Grimm. At least not yet.

The Torus watches intently from the bridge. Once 5 seconds is set for the amount of time SG has to resposnd, and pull out a countdown appears in the back of its mind's eye.

For the Torus, 5 seconds is a lot of time- relatively speaking. At least to calculate and to think. Acting is another problem.

The digitizedf voice or the Torus speaks over comms: "I am unsure how we can stop these malfactors in the time they've permitted."

Chen is entirely unaware of what is happening elsewhere. She's got a punchable villain in front of her and that's good enough. "You punch like a girl." she taunts Elly-Man. And shows what she means by punching him.

Elephant-Man crosses his arms in front of him and uses them to ward off Chen's attack. He's remaining on the defensive for the time being. "Hey, don't you Starguard guys care about the crew? Don't think that Spider won't do it!"

Wade says over the radio, "Forge? What's the call?" He grimaces, realizing that if he doesn't hear back, he's going to have to make the call either way.

Psyn sees the ones outside gone now and then she turns and then starts to fly through the hole after Abby, figuring that is the best place for her to go.

Chen switches to a fast jabbing punch aiming to get past any attempt to block. "You have to get lucky everytime. I just have to get lucky twice. Well maybe three times... Uh, what are you talking about anyway? I'm not Starguard. I'm just helping out because it gives me an excuse to punch guys like you."

Elephant man shifts his defense and blocks the next punch. "Hmph. Well, if it's gonna be like that, then..."

Victory hasn't gotten a response yet from Forge...and there's only about a second remaining. He decides to make the call himself. He can't be responsible for the crew dying. He says over the radio, "Fine. I'm going to make a decision. Stand down."

Grimm looks around at all the cobwebs scattered about. If there's anything that gives the Queen of Nightmares nightmares, it's spiders. Her senses canvas the area, trying to find a space away from any cobwebs. And that's when she locates Psycho-Spider. She sucks in a breath and concentrates, vanishing from her spot and reappearing behind Psych-Spider just moments before the stand down order.

With a name like Psycho-Spider, Grimm is on the defensive for a psychic assault. Hopefully, her powers can trick Psycho-Spider into not noticing her, even if she touches a web.

Psycho-Spider still doesn't seem to notice Grimm.

Forge isn't sure how he ended up in charge of a situation like this - shouldn't this be a matter for Lt. Col. Hearns? - and he suddenly understands why the commissioned officers get the big bucks. Coordinating all of the tactical information that he may or may not be receiving from the various members of his field team is a task of Herculean proportions.

"Agreed," growls Forge more or less in tandem with Victory, "Stand down. We're here to save the crew, not get them killed."

Psyn finishes making her way to the engine room, using her powers to cloak herself or at least trying to.

Strands of cobwebs stick to Psyn as she enters the engine room. Psycho-Spider turns towards Psyn. Spider tenses, preparing to fight.

Chen sighs, "Stand down? Okay. You got it. I hope there's a good reason."

"I see you!" Spider says to Psyn. "Back. Off." she hisses.

Grimm stays in her hiding place, holding off as Forge gives the stand down order. Her shoulders hunch up as Spider announces seeing someone. She can feel Psyn entering the area. Afraid that Psyn may panic Psycho-Spider into pushing the button, she tries to spot the trigger mechanism.

Psyn drops her psychic cloak and becomes visible, holding her hands up in a pose of surrender.

"Because they're about two seconds from blowing this ship up, hostages included, and we cannot secure the ship in that amount of time," replies Forge to Chen. He takes a step away from Chen and Elephant Man, eyes narrowing as he waits for a status report and/or earth shattering kaboom.

Torus chimes in over comms, <>

No sooner than that's said the mysterious device from the future disappears from the bridge.

As the wormhole deposits the Torus (now reconfigured as a sphere, the width of a pencil) the device takes note of its surroundings. The sheer amount of webbing makes it very questionable that the others could move through this hold without being detected. So it decides to attemtp to avoid contact with not only the webs but anything else for that matter.

At Torus's reduced size, it's able to navigate the cobweb strewn engine compartment, without touching any of the strands.

Psycho-Spider says. "Alright. You and your people are going to let my people board our ship. You are going to let us escape. Once we're away and certain we're not being followed, I will release my control of the crew and the detonators."

The Torus relays its sensory data to StarGuard systems- a full 3D map of every web, crate & container down in the engine room.

It reports over comms <>

Victory nods to the two on the bridge with him, "Agreed."

Chen comes out of her combat stance and steps back a pace. She nods to Forge, "Good enough." Then looking at Elephant Man she grins, "Want to meet up somewhere to finish this?" she asks him.

"Maybe we could get some ACTUAL time to make sure other commands under the StarGuard structure don't try to shoot you down? As a show of good faith?" intones Forge, arms folding across his chest as he swivels his gaze between Elephant Man and the enthralled crewman on the bridge. Hopefully one of them can relay the message to Psycho Spider, who seems to be the one in charge of bombmurder.

Elephant Man grins. "I've got nothing to prove. Got something bigger ahead of me." He relaxes his stance and walks past the heroes towards the deck. "See ya around, kid," he says to Chen.

Grimm realizes she has no idea what a real bomb charge would look like outside of movies. But she still suspects some sort of treachery on Psycho-Spider's part. She keeps alert and watches for any signs that she'll go back on her word.

Psycho-Spider/The crew-man responds to Forge: "They won't shoot us down."

Victory hadn't heard what the crewman was responding to, since Forge isn't on the bridge. "Umm...yeah."

<> The Torus says over comms.

The center of its attention is focused on a singular explosive device- the transmitted data centers on this as well.

Those looking in to The Torus' POV would see small a small robotic spider-bot attached to each charge.

<> It adds as it tries to analyze the small robotic device.

Above the container ship, an aircraft shimmers into view, decloaking. It's a futuristic design, sleek, aerodynamic, and capable of vertical flight as it descends towards the deck. It's larger than a fighter jet, but smaller than a lot of commercial passenger planes.


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Forge is just outside of the bridge. He looks over at Victory and then back toward the hulking form of Elephant Man making its way toward the deck. Turning away from the door to the bridge, Forge sets his jaw as he comments, "Focus on ways to evac the crew, Torus."

Chen stalks off looking insulted and annoyed by Elephant Man's comment. Which is true but not the main reason for her making her way to the deck. She's figuring on hitching a ride on the aircraft she can hear approaching.

Grimm frowns and rubs her chin as she senses something...big. She decides to stick with Psycho-Spider for now, suspecting there may be something to learn if she can get to their ship. While cloaked from the minds of those around her, she can't even communicate with the others. Not without risking giving away her position.

Victory keeps watch on the 'captain' on the bridge, since that's one of the attackers. "What's your name? I've heard the names of hte others, at least."

Psycho-Spider leaves the engine room, headed for the deck.

The captain shakes his head. "I'm not as showy as some of the others. I'm sure you'll figure it out..." He moves to the deck as well.

Grimm follows behind Psycho-Spider, treading carefully to avoid any webs.

Mayfly emerges from the water and starts ferrying people to the aircraft hovering over the ship. First Stinger, then Elephant-Man.

Forge plants one metal-coated foot on the railing as his attention fixes on the aircraft shimmering into existence. Whistling low and appreciatively, Forge puts his collected knowledge of vehicles to the test.

Victory looks out from the bridge at the ship. "Hmm."

<> The Torus says after getting direct orders from this contingent's Field Commander.

As Psycho-Spider makes her exit- the Torus teleports to an area void of her dastardly webs.

Then it drops- coming to a stop a hair's breadth above the floor before floating silently towards the nearest crewman. There it confirms its original findings. <>

Victory can't help wondering where the group got something quite that advanced, but he doesn't say anything over the radio, figuring that Psycho-Spider would hear it indirectly.

<> intones Forge. He narrows his eyes slightly behind his tactical visor, grey eyes scanning over the hull of the aircraft floating above the ship.

Mayfly ferries Elephant-Man up to the ship. "Oolf! You putting on weight big guy?"

Chen notes the ferrying. o O(That's four) she thinks.

The captain is the next to get transported to the ship.

Victory takes a deep breath, hoping that the group they let go actually is true to their word.

Psycho-Spider is the last on to get trqnsported. "Remember. Don't follow us. Once we're clear, the crewmen and the ship is yours."

Mayfly flies Psycho-Spider onto the ship.

<> The Torus replies.

Then connecting to the Port Authority network it finds a location it can ferry the civilians via a jump gate.

Once that is decided, the Torus prepares to open a wormhole in the space not covered in webbing, nearest to the crew. Time being short, they will have to leap through the portal before the explosives go off. It does not like their chances- considering they are so spread out (over 30m).

Grimm looks up at the ship, preparing to shadow step abort. But as Psycho-Spider says her demands, she recalls Forge's stand down order, and the long talk they had about her having to trust him and accept his orders when on the job with Starguard.

Her fingers flex, then clench as she forces herself to stay put and follow orders.

When the last of the villains is on board Chen turns to Forge, "I can hitch a ride on their craft. Go or no go?" she asks, defering to his command decision.

"No go. I clock that bird heading for space at best," replies Forge, frowning sourly toward the bow of the aircraft, "And ACE doesn't play around."

Chen seems to accept the decision calmly. Although the ship's deck railing where she is holding it gets bent and twisted as she takes out her irritation on it.

The ship rises and re-cloaks as it flies off.

Torus has calculated every permutation and shape available to it. <>

Victory takes a deep breath and says to the crewman in front of him, "You're off. Release the crew and the bombs."

Grimm uses her senses to monitor what direction the plane is going as she suddenly appears standing next to Forge. "So. We gonna follow them once the hostages are safe?" she murmurs quietly aside to him, eyes fixed on the plane.

The crewman says. "Not just yet... We'll put some distance between us first..."

After a while, the crewmen sways and falls to his hands and knees. "Huh - whaa?

Victory says over the radio, "Looks like hte crew has been released."

"Not going to have time, Grimm," replies Forge. Me may, in fact, be difficult to hear as his foot bears his strength down on the railing around the bridge/conning tower. Bowing and bending the metal rail, Forge grits his teeth before he shifts his gaze back down toward the deck of the ship.

"We need to be in position to get the hostages the hell out of that engine room in a hurry," abruptly intones Forge. He gestures toward Grimm and then generally in the direction of the engine room.

>

Across the ship, the enthralled crew members come to their senses. The explosives remain quiet, for now.

Victory helps the crewman down from the bridge to join the others, "Gotta get you off the ship. C'mon."

Victory says over the radio, "Do we have a demolitions expert with us?"

Angstrom nods to Victory. "Are we -- are they gone?" he asks meekly. His words come slowly, slurred a bit.

The crewman nods to Victory. "Are we -- are they gone?" he asks meekly. His words come slowly, slurred a bit.

Chen tells Forge "I can envelop some of the explosives. How many depends on where they are. Not sure how much it would help if they blow them but it's the best I can think of." And having said that she goops into a liquid form and hurries away to do as she said.

"Right, Sir," Grimm answers very officially. "They're going to be beyond my range to get us to them very soon, anyway." She looks towards the engine room as he gestures to it. "It's got spider webs all over it. I don't think I can get us in there without setting them ...off..." she trails off as she comes up with an idea on that.

Victory nods and says to the crewman, "They are."

"Friends..." the crewman says. "... Engine room..."

Victory nods. "We're working on evacing them now."

<> The Torus replies- then it shoots through a hole in the webbing along the ceiling before splatting against the wall.

There it flattens itself out and grows along the length of the ship. Here it makes the largest frame for an interstice it can create while locking the coordinates for a StarGuard debrief room to its systems.

Only then does it connect the two points with an open wormhole.

The Torus looks more like a porthole into the room than it does anything else at present- but already air ic circulating between the two rooms.

<> The Torus reports over comms a few seconds later.

Chen gets to work disarming the charges after checking out whether she can do it safely.

Victory gets the crewman to the others, making sure the crew all gets evaced together.

Victory says over the radio, "Any idea what they were here for? Of their number, two were associated with Next Gen. One with ACE."

Chen works slowly and carefully, able to take her time now the crew has been evacuated.

Grimm vanishes from Forge's side and reappears in the engine room, her body shadowy and transparent. Any webs of surfaces would go right through her desolid form.

The Torus speaks up, once Chen begins making her way through the engine room in her liquidy form.

"Alright crewmen- if you could take a walk through the JumpGate on the starboard side of the engine room. I will teleport you to safety." It says in a very friendly tone. A tone it's calcuated as the most friendly and approachable voice available to it.

Chen looks over at Grimm, "You might want to wait a bit. If I slip up we could go bang."

<>

Forge shifts back a step or two, turning to face the bridge again. Breathing slowly, Forge rolls his shoulders and enters the bridge again while he continues issuing orders.

<>

Grimm nods in acknowledgement. "It won't hurt me when I'm like this. I'll keep an eye on the remaining hostages and be prepared in case things do go boom." She walks over towards the crewmen and helps to escort them out through the jumpgate. <<On it, Sir>> she radios back. The word sir is so foreign to Gabrielle's vocabulary, so unfamiliar to the tongue, that her attempts to say it almost always sounds sarcastic despite being genuinely meant. It's probably because she pronounces it so thickly due to being unused to the word.

Chen separates detonators from explosives and stores them temporarily inside herself. After doing the obvious visible charges she searches for any hidden explosives. . o O(I should ask if I can have a communicator. It would make life easier.)

Victory nods and says into the radio, "On it." He makes sure the remaining crew members get through the gate, and he heads through himself afterward.