Log:Starguard Adventures, Scene 8

Starguard Adventures 2014/01/31 	 Cerana General Nabokov Ghost Paul van Sterran Spirit Ten Vajra

8

A call goes out for any active SGG members to report to duty immediately. A secondary call goes out to other local heroes over HeroNet, calling them to meet at SGHQ to assist with an emergency.

Paul van Sterran is on hand in the briefing room, waiting for the SGG team to assemble, and for the visiting heroes to arrive after going through the security checkpoint and receiving visitors passes.

Ten slips out her her lecture, changes into costume and swings to HQ as fast as she can.

Vajra, who was out on patrol, radios back, "Hi hi~! This is Vajra, responding to your call. I'll be there in a few minutes!" She finsihes wrapping up a mugger and takes to the sky, arriving, as promised, a few minutes later.

Ghost was sampling Earth coffees in Past Times when she notes a new post on HeroNet and after reading it she makes her way swiftly to Starguard.

The briefing room is a high tech conference room, longer than it is wider, with a conference table at the center and an vid-screen that takes up the entirety of one of the walls.

Ten takes a seat at the table and looks to see who else is arriving.

Ghost pins her visitor's pass on her sleeve and makes her way to the briefing room. "Hello Paul. Hi, Ten." she greets those she knows. Then looks over to Vajra and smiles, "Hi. I'm Ghost."

Ten smiles back. "Hey."

Paul van Sterran presses a button on a remote control and shifts the vidscreen display to be a map of Europe and Asia. The display zooms in on Asia and in on Kroskev, focusing on Khabarovsky, a Siberian state that borders the Pacific Ocean. A red circle on the map indicates some sort of emergency in the region.

Ten says, "Something up in Kroskev? Do we even operate there?"

Vajra leans forward, "Korskev? Interesting."

"Greeting everyone. I'll get down to business. We're a little spread thin right now with the crisis in the Midwest*, but our sensors have detected some kind of nuclear incident in Kroskev," Paul says.

Vajra starts (O O), "A leak or an explosion!?"

Ten says, "When you say 'incident', how KABOOM are we talking?"

"We don't operate there, Ten, but this might be an exceptional situation," Paul says. He turns to Vajra, "Neither... we can only say for certain that whatever it is is giving off immense levels of heat. It's not dissipating, and it's on the move."

Ghost asks, "Radiation?"

Vajra nods (- -). "I see. So possibly a meta."

Ten says, "So we're going in? With or without the knowledge of the local government?"

Paul nods to Vajra. "Quite possibly a meta. We're detecting high levels of radiation as well."

Vajra hmmms, "My Kongou-no-Katchuu Power Suit is fully hardened against radiation, as well as heat, so I should be OK."

Paul van Sterran says, "We've been stonewalled on a diplomatic front. The only reason we're even considering this is that the center of the heat and radiation is approaching a mining town, population in the tens of thousands. We don't think that they'll be able to evacuate in time."

Ten frowns. "Isn't Kroskev taking their own steps to handle things?"

Ghost listens, accessing her memory files on the area and metahumans who are capable to producting that effect.

Paul says, "I'm sure that they're trying. But will it be enough?"

Ten nods. "So there's potential to run into whoever Kroskev has sent too. Fun."

Vajra says, "Hopefully they'll be more concerned with saving their citizens than beating us up, but I'm not so naive as to think it will work like that."

Ghost says, "How long before the assumed metahuman presents a threat to the mining community?"

"It's going to be a matter of hours." Paul says. "Transportation we be via Transmat to the West Coast, then Low Earth Orbit Vomit Comet to Kroskev."

"Unless there's a better mode available," Paul adds.

Ghost says, "Give me a minute if you will."

Vajra shakes her head, "I don't fly very fast, so I'll need the transport."

Ghost slumps back limply in her chair and shows all the signs on not being at home.

While waiting for Ghost, Paul tells Ten: "As the senior Starguard member, you'll have the final say on the ground, Ten. I don't mean to heap any more pressure on you, but politically this is a delicate situation."

Ten nods.

Vajra makes a mental note to add Kroskev to her catalog of linguistic and cultural studies.

"Further emergency rescue crews will be on standby," Paul says, "But we need to be sure first that Kroskev won't shoot them down at the border."

Ten says, "Alaska and Kroskev in winter, fun. I'm glad the cold doesn't get to me..."

Ghost appears, standing beside her own limp form, a translucent slightly hazy image. "I can fly us in from whichever TransMat portal you decide to employ." she says in a thin reedy voice.

The heroes travel via Transmat to Alaska, and then on to a Starguard base in the Last Frontier. They they meet their plane and their flight crew, Soup and Maytag. As they travel, Ghost's messenger arrives and inspects the scene.

Ghost says, "My messenger is at the location." She appears a little distracted.

Ten nods and stays quiet to avoid breaking Ghost's concentration.

It's Kroskev in the winter time. Everything is blanketed in white. Kroskev Army soldiers are out in full force, fighting an enemy that towers nearly 60 feet tall. It looks like either a giant automaton or a power armor, a hulking contraption clad in red and black tinted steel. It's completely contained, except for it's head which is ablaze with a terrible blue-hot fire. It seems mostly unaffected by the gunfire and tank shells that the army is lobbing at it. Fighter jets streak overhead on an attack pass. The behemoth wades forward, in the direction of the mining town. It's main weapon seems to be a cannon for a right hand that pours blue-white nuclear death on anythin unfortunate to be in the way.

The Kroskev troops are fighting a losing battle, falling back towards the town as the behemoth advances.

Ten says, "I guess the good news is they'll probably like the help...."

Ghost blanches. "Okay, I have vision of the scene from the messenger. It's not good. There's a large, as id tree top height, automata or power armor wading through the snow, ignoring gunfire and tank shells, and dealing out instant incineration to the soldiers trying to stop it."

Vajra (O O), "Um, wow. I guess I'll get to see who my KnK suit really holds up. But, I don't have any anti-tank capabilities. All my weapons are non-lethal."

Ghost tries to sketch a representation of the enemy in headware and displays it on the screen of her PDA. "I'm no artist, but it looks something like this."

Ten says, "I guess the good news is they'll probably like the help...."

Ten says, "But yeah, I'm not offensively powerful either."

Cerana has been, as is often here way, silent to the point of invisibility during most of the trip. She asks Ghost, "Is there any way we can get a visual?"

Ghost smiles grimly, "Well, yes. Very shortly we'll have a visual. We'll have eyes on the thing. Of course that means it will have eyes on us."

Vajra says, "We might want to exit our ride before we get too close."

Ten says, "Hm. I might get to find out how invulnerable I am...."

Vajra high-fives Ten, "We can be Team Target!"

Ghost sighs, "Judging from the way tank shells are bouncing off, direct firepower is not likely to be effective. Not from me at least. My enchanted needles might, might, affect it. But there'll probably be no more than pin-pricks. We need to find a weakness."

Cerana says, "Getting inside may be best, but I can't teleport this far away from Colonial Bay ... or fly for that matter, should our ride fail."

Ghost sends the messenger into the enemy to try and gain information regarding the interior.

Ten says, "I'm thinking the cannon is the first thing to worry about...."

On the battlefield, leading the attack for Kroskev, there seem to be two metas: one is a little person, less than four feet in height in a dark colored body suit and leaping towards the behemoth like a madman. The other is a black masked, long haired soldier, blasting at the bemehoth with a high-tech rifle.

Ghost glances at Ten, "No kidding!"

Ten shrugs. "Well, rampaging giants can do damage even without cannons."

Together the two seem to be using tactics, the gunman drawing the attention of the behemoth while the dwarf leaps around to the backside. He successfully springs onto the back of the behemoth and he pries loose one of four bolts holding a protective plate in place between the shoulder blades of the death machine...

Cerana smirks and jokes dryly. "Ten, if you were to stand on it, what do you think the chances are that you could get it to shoot itself?"

Ten says, "I was considering trying the Bugs Bunny trick: get up the barrel and see if I can make the cannon backfire. Not that I know if even I can survive that."

That's as far as the dwarf gets, before the behemoth swats him down to the ground, and lets him have it with the right hand cannon. The blast is continuous and the death machine pours on the beam for a frightening period of time before letting up.

The impact of aircraft missiles draws the machine's attention towards the skies. Meanwhile, the long haired solider, whose uniform bears a red star on the chest, drags his barely-moving comrade to safety.

Ghost reports events to the group, keeping them informed of what she is seeing through the 'eyes' of her messenger. "Judging from the way the giant responded to the attempt to remove the panel between its shoulders at the rear I'd say that was a weak spot. We may want to strike at that."

As the SGG plane nears the state of Khabarovsk, Soup says, "We've got company... MiGs." She looks to Maytag, "Prep countermeasures."

Soup announces to the passengers, "We've got two Kroskev MiGs closing in! Buckle up, this could get rough."

Ten nods. "Think I should go for that panel too? Or should I try Operation Bugs Bunny?"

Ten buckles up, more for fear of hitting others than being hurt herself.

Ghost says, "The panel I'd suggest, Ten. If that fails you can try the other maneuver. If you try the 'bugs bunny' first you may not be in a condition to go for the panel."

Ten says, "Very true."

Ghost says, "There's a internation emergency radio channel isn't there? Ten, you're in charge. You may want to try talking to the Migs. Explain we're here to help. Because it sure looks like they need some."

Cerana reaches for the buckles, but pauses. "Soup and Ten, how good is your Russian?"

Ten says, "Nonexistent - yours?"

Vajra says, "I don't know Russian either, sorry!"

Cerana says, "I won't pass as a native, but I doubt we should need to."

Ghost says, "Guard channel for aviation is always English. It's an international convention."

Dorian has apparently been on board the plane the entire time, though in communication with folks back home...and therefore occupied until now.

Ten gets on it, and after getting help to find the channel says into the radio, "This is Starguard. We are here to give assistance, repeat, we are here to give assistance." As an afterthought she adds. "So please don't shoot at us."

Maytag shouts: "Incoming missiles!" One of the MiGs launches a pair of air to air missiles at the Starguard transport.

Ten says, "Maybe we should have tried Russian...."

Ghost activates her spacesuit armor field. Just in case.

Cerana says, "The please was a nice touch. May I try?" Then curses in Russian and dives for the radio when the missles launch."

Ten tries to position herself so if the missiles strike she's shielding the crew from the direction of the debris.

Vajra heads for one of the normal crew to try to shield them as best she can, as well.

Spirit shifts form, unable to maintain his human-looking appearance as his other powers come in to play. He extends a hand and energy shields pop up outside the plane, protecting the craft from the missiles.

Ghost instructs the messenger to go visible, approach the meta soldier on the ground and tell him the group is inbound to give assistance. So can he call off the Migs and let us land. She hopes he understands English. And that will be the last command she can give. After that the messenger disipates.

After the initial attack, the fighter jets veer away, seemingly giving up and returning home. A Russian accented voice comes in over the radio. "Attention Starguard. This is General Nabokov, commanding officer of the Khabarovsk region. I must apologize for the.. aggressive approach of our fighters. Your arrival in our airspace is unscheduled. May I ask what brings you to Kroskev?"

Ten gets on the radio. "We detected a massive amount of radiation heading in the direction of one of your cities. We are here to lend assistance in protecting your population."

Dorian shifts back to his more mundane form, letting Ten take the lead with the communications.

On the ground, the Russian super soldier drags his wounded friend to safety with one arm. He quickly snaps his rifle to aim at the messenger. He doesn't pull the trigger, but he doesn't stop moving either, he listens to what the messenger has to say.

General Nabokov says, "Yes. We'd had an incident with one of our reactors, but the situation is under control. You are welcome to leave our airspace."

Dorian shakes his head quietly. . o O (Why did SG okay this mission? This is only going to end badly.) He looks to the pilot, "How far out from the site are we?"

Ten says, "Perhaps we are talking about a different situation, general. I was referring rather to the rampaging giant robot. Are you saying you don't want assistance with that?"

Ten thinks. o O (Maybe if they know we know they'll let us help.....)

Cerana sits back and away from the people at the radio. "Let me know when I can help."

General Nabokov pauses at Ten's words. "... We have the situation under control. You are free to leave," he says. Off-mic there's some commotion. Hurriedly, Nabokov says, "General Nabokov out." The transmission terminates.

Dorian shrugs and smiles, "'Free to leave' doesn't necessarily mean 'Get out', either. It just means they won't shoot us or detain us.""

"Hope you're right," Maytag says. "I'm not looking forward to spending time in the Gulag."

Ten says, "That's how I read it. It may be he even wants our help - unofficially. They'll lose a lot pof people without it."

Ghost perks her ears up. Figuratively. She replays the just recorded transmission, trying to enhance the audio and make out what the off-mic commotion was.

On the ground, the soldier says to the messenger: "We could clog it's cannon with one hundred tanks and the thing would not stop. What can you hope to do?"

Sadly the messenger disipates before it can either relay that comment to Ghost, or respond in any way iyself.

Dorian hadn't gotten an answer from the pilot yet. "How far out are we?"

Soup says: "Five minutes to drop zone."

Dorian nods. "Do we have enough fuel for you to remain airborne and get back? Because if you don't need to land...don't."

Maytag says: "We're good, assuming we don't have to dogfight on the way out."

Ghost comments, "I've lost the messenger. I'm blind at the location now. Also, do you recall the noise off-mic at the end of the general's transmission. (I've run audio enhancement. It sounded like the robat was approaching the commend centre. I heard at least one blast from its cannon."

Vajra says, "I'm ready to deploy whenever!"

Cerana says, "Good. With my verbal skills, I may be more use in the command center than against the robot."

Vajra jumps out of the plane (carrying Ten if she wants the lift).

Spirit carries a couple of people on platforms of light to assist them to the ground. "What do we know about the robot, other than 'Robot, Giant, Rampaging'?

Ghost checks if anyone needs a lift. If not she leaves the plane mid-air and flies to the meta soldier to hopefully continue the conversation with him.

Ten says, "And has massive radiation cannon and a flaming head? Not much."

Ten says, "But I'm guessing it's supposed to be a military secret."

Ten can make her own way as soon as her staff is in range of something to swing on.

Cerana says, "I'm betting a certain general can tell us what that access panel is for."

Ghost reaches the soldier, who's carrying his comrade to a medical jeep. "Who are you?" he asks of Ghost as he hands the dwarf meta over to a pair of medics.

Vajra flies toward the Giant Rampaging Radioactive Robot (henceforth GRRR!).

Cerana can spot the command tent, with a man outside bearing General's markings on his uniform, barking orders into a radio, carried on the back of another soldier.

Ghost answers, "I'm called Ghost. You saw my messenger a minute or so ago. I'm one of a group of metahumans here to assist you in stopping this thing, whatever it is, from rampaging through the mining town in its current path."

Ten swings hurriedly toward the robot.

Spirit heads toward the robot as well, keeping pace with the others.

Cerana gives the general a quick once-over, noting what she can about the man, his situation and his posture then says a few encouraging words in Russian when he turns to face her.

"I am the Captain," the solider says. "Captain Kroskev. Frontal attack is hopeless, it's only vulnerable at the panel on it's back. Remove the bolts holding it in place and you can directly access the reactor. The heat is incredible -- it's almost impossible to approach the thing! Karzalek almost lost his life doing so."

Ghost says, "Captain, most of our group are immune to heat effects. If you permit we'll attempt to remove the panel."

"Yes, do it," the Captain says. "Even if it fails, it will give us more time to move the civilians."

As he nears the robot, Spirit does a quick scan...his eyes glowing bright white while he tries to determine what kind of radiation threat they're dealing with.

Ten isn't bothered about the radiation. As soon as she's close enough, she attaches the staff to the robot itself and draws herself up to the panel.

Ghost nods. Shouting to the others she says, "Captain Kroskev tells me the panel behind the robot allows access to the reactor. If the panel is removed it can be shut down. I suggest we try that. I'll try to put it down on the ground if someone immune to heat is ready to remove the bolts."

Ghost casts her TRIP cantrip on the robot's feet.

Spirit says over the comlink, "If there's not an obvious 'shutdown button', I can take care of turning the reactor off once we get access to it. I have a background in nuclear physics."

Ten shoots out her staff to the robot's back and yanks herself up tp by the panel. COntractng the staff, she uses it to try to blast/lever the panel off!

Upon entering close proximity with the GRRR, Ten begins to feel the intense heat and radiation given off by the machine.

Ten doesn't make it as far as the robot itself, the wave of heating coming of it stopping her, but she does blast the panel bolts with her staff!

Ten's blast knicks one of the 3 remaining bolts with a blast.

The General looks to Cerana and replies in Russian: << It's unstoppable... we need to pull back! >>

Cerana nods, agreeing. <<"Have them assist with the evacuation. With your permission, the robot is our problem now. Once we get that access panel off, how do we shut it down?>>

<< Once the panel is off, the core is vulnerable. A well placed blast should destroy it! >> The General says.

Cerana turns on her broadcast radio and says, "A single blast *inside* that back panel should disable the entire robot." as she whips out a boomerang and throws it in a looping arc at that damaged bolt.

Vajra flies closer to the GRRR, closing to within 15m. She pirouettes, bends over and pats her butt in its general direction, "Hey big and stupid! You're so stupid, you think Russia is on the Red Planet. You're so ugly, even in Soviet Russia, you break mirror!" She turns around as weapons pop out of her wrists and fires off a series of dazzling, deafening burst mixed with sprays of nano-chaff!

The boomerang strikes true, but it doesn't damage the bolt.

Spirit raises a brow, "There are safer ways of shutting it down rather than blasting it."

Cerana says, "Enlighten us."

Spirit says, "I already said I had a background in nuclear physics. Let me get a look directly at it."

"Of course," the General says, "But it's too dangerous to get our scientists close to it."

Cerana points. "How much closer do you need?"

The behemoth slows a bit searching around the area for targets blindly.

Ghost says, "The other side of the panel is probably a good starting point, ladies and gentleman. Let's concentrate on that first, and deal with shutting it down after we've done that."

Ghost sees the robot have been blinded by Vajra's flash and switches plan. Instead of using a trip cantrip she advances closer and fires at the damaged bolt with an enchanted needle.

Ghost's needle shears a good chunk out of one of the bolts. It's almost gone.

Ghost says, "Thank you, Anthony."

Spirit flies up behind the robot, keeping a healthy distance away...about 10 meters or so. He then release a laser at the panel on the back, attempting to open it up.

Spirit's blot destroys one of the bolts, leaving just two to hold the protective panel in place. The GRRR stands its ground, swaying a little against the force of the blact, but keeping its footing.

Captain Kroskev hangs back and snipes from range at the back of the robot.

The energy blast glances harmlessly off of the panel.

The robot, effectively blinded for the moment, turns its cannon on the closest target it remembers, Ten.

CHOOOOM! The stream of radioactive death barely misses Ten. The robot cuts a deep swath into the earth with it.

To Be Continued