Scene #2626: Ice Pirates?

Owner	Pose
Cirno	The signal is getting stronger very quickly, and once those investigating get nearer, it's pretty easy to see why. Shaped like a diseased potato, the source of the signal appears to be a large... lump of ice? It's not water ice, most likely, but it definitely looks to have been frozen over through some means. Ice just doesn't /collect/ like that, it would look different. Either way, the lump has been floating through space for who knows how long, and is now approaching a fitful, weak star that is nonetheless warm enough to have started melting the makeshift 'comet' there. The signal is coming from within, and the vague shape of something large and dark can be seen inside the ice. No warpgates are SUPER close, but it isn't a long trip for any ships. The Freezing Reign, Cirno's ship, comes out of lightspeed with a small lurch for the passengers within. It sets up an intercept course for the comet, already scanning. Inside, to Laer and Lute and Melissa, Cirno is already shouting for her crew to prep things. "If you need suits, there are some in there. I'm going out in the Azure Wing, myself. Let's take a look at this thing."
Lute	Lute has suited up on approach. he sighs, though. So few of his Pokemon are /really/ fit for space stuff. ...Nor is he, really. So, his options as a whole are INCREDIBLY LIMITED. But, he wanted to come along anyways. Get more of a feeling for space. He's slowly began to master sea combat. He has a number of methods to fight in the air. The next step is, quiet obviously, going to be SPAAAACE. "...So what are we doing here exactly? Tracking some bizarre signal? ...Are we going to blow it up?" Next to him, also getting suited up, is one of his very few human form Pokemon. A male Gardevoir. It's dress-shaped part of its body can kind of fit in with an oversized suit, and other parts of its body are mostly humanshaped. Plus, it attacks psychically, meaning it can attack even while in a suit!
Flint Hawke	Flint's ship comes out of warp not too long after the Freezing Reign arrives, the black shape of the battleship slowly materializing from whatever method of faster-than-light travel it uses. On the bridge of the ship, the Captain sits in his chair and waves his hand a bit, "Oi oi, looks cold on that thing. Hope whatever's broadcasting is worth the effort," He comments. He waves to a helmsman and then says, "Set course. Open hailing frequencies to let people know we're on the same side. Last thing we need is to get taken for hostiles on this little salvage mission," He commands as well, sitting back in his chair lazily and then putting his hands behind his head, resting them there as he adjusts his hat. Assuming his orders get followed, he also waves a hand idly, "Prep an away team for me. See if any of the Wolkenritter want to stretch their legs. Have em dress warm," He adds, adjusting the coat he's wearing and then moving to a standing position.
Laer	Laer doesn't need a suit, strictly speaking, but the bard would rather take one. After all, it would be something of an insult to her host not to take her up on the generous offer! The elf will stretch out after getting into it, trying to see if it can move with her at all. She won't admit to it, of course, but space kind of sucks for her abilities, at least in part. It was hard to really get a good performance going over radio, after all. "Hope these things keep heat okay." She'll say, though knowing Cirno, they probably won't. Or rather, will intentionally be colder than Laer would prefer. Still, it was worth it to go poke at and annoy some people for daring to send out that sort of signal.
Melissa	"It's fine, I don't need one," Melissa replies. It's pretty obvious why, too! She's putting the finishing touches on prepping her own transport in the cargo bay of the Freezing Reign... namely a large, skull-faced suit of robotic power armor, with wings at the side. The Mecha Knight has better flight, but the SAMAS should suffice for this mission, she reasons. "Everyone can hitch a ride on me so you don't waste fuel," she adds as an afterthought. The SAMAS thrusters don't use much propellant, after all. It's that which she uses to sail on toward the comet once Cirno lets them out.
Starbound Flotilla	The Core Fleet of the Flotilla has arrived as well. Possibly sometime near the time Cirno does, likely a short while after. They've jumped out of FTL in quick succession, and in tight formation. The SFS Vehemence is an ultramodern white craft, a heavy weapons platform that leads the other five. Just behind it, the SFS Abdication -- a miniature house-sized castle-looking spaceship with a large sensor array -- and the SFS Kaleidoscope -- four other ships welded together, lashed with vines, and given a heavy railgun -- slip in as well, and beyond them, the trio of the SFS Rapacity, a pyramid-styled craft bristling with strange red gems, the SFS Mendacity, a modern, chunky durasteel industrial craft, and the SFS Connoisseur, a light blue fish-styled sleek spacecraft. The ABDICATION immediately sets about performing a TOPOLOGICAL SCAN, attempting to locate areas where a drilling team could pierce the ice of the massive structure itself, as well as deeper scans to discern if there's any interior structure that would be worth sending the ground team through. Another craft opens its own communications frequency. "This is the SFS Connoisseur, handling communications for the Flotilla Core Fleet, hailing the Freezing Reign. Our most respectful greetings to you, we come with the assumption that you seek the source of these unusual readings, and an assurance that we seek the same. Our associated fleet is also arriving. Might we explore this structure together, without dispute?" The speaker's voice is a pretentious-sounding male. They're already approaching the odd comet, pulling their ships into an array around it. While the VEHEMENCE insists on keeping between the Freezing Reign and any nearby Flotilla-allied craft, the Core Fleet and the associated Flotilla members like Captain Hawke seem entirely peaceful right now.
Yagami Hayate	The Wolkenritter would like to stretch their legs! Specifically, Vita and Zafira are both already heading for the bridge, and Hayate is there anyway. She's finally standing regularly, and in her Knight Clothes at the moment, sans hat. "I think I'd like to take a look too, Captain. If you don't mind. I haven't really gotten to go out a whole lot since I um... could." It is hard being crippled, isn't it? She probably wants to literally stretch her legs, now that they can be stretched... even if she'll likely be flying. Vita mutters, "I am getting a little stir crazy in here. Captain, you think we'll have to fight?" Even she can use some subtlety now and again, fully aware that Cirno is their ally.
Rory White	The COGNIZANT ODYSSEY makes an appearance in orbit around the star at quite some distance out, some hundreds or thousands of miles from the strange 'ice ball' but closing at a slow and steady pace. The ship is a frigate - the size of a medium house that could handle two families or so, with powerful engines in the rear and an array of scientific instruments swiveling, pinging, observing, where one might normally find weapons. Weapons? It doesn't have many of those. The IFF gives its name and Argonaut affiliation very clearly. It's a research vessel, politically neutral. No life signs aboard, if anyone scans it. None whatsoever. Of course, anyone familiar with Rory White will know why. The ship is her body, and she's having a merry time taking in all of the sensor data and going over it. With several other ships also appearing nearby though, particularly some familiar ones, Rory joins the radio conversation. "This is the Cognizant Odyssey, on approach to mysterious frozen object to all nearby vessels. Greetings! I wasn't expecting the rest of the Flotilla to arrive so quickly." Several small drones equipped for close-range space flight launch from the Odyssey to get visuals and other scans from all angles. And with the Core Fleet here, Rory's also attempting to link up with the S.A.I.L. network for added sensor net coverage. But her main thought thread? Well, she's turned a simple optical scope on the darned thing.
Cirno	Cirno shakes her head at Lute, "No... well, maybe. We need to figure out what it is, first! Maybe it's a giant pokemon egg, you wouldn't want to blow that up would you?" Meanwhile, the Flotilla, Black Sun, and Odyssey get a transmission! A little green-haired fairy handling the comms. "IMBECILES! HOW DARE YOU INVADE UPON THE CLAIM MADE BY THE UNSTOPPABLE BLIZZARD WHO FREEZES ARMFULLIANS IN PARSNIPITTY! YOU SHALL BE-" It's cut off when Cirno actually adjusts the Azure Wing's comm system. "Sorry, my first mate can get a little overzealous! I'd rather not risk damaging it. If we have a disagreement over who takes it home, we can figure it out after we know what it is. No point in fighting over an old power core or something fairly pointless." Lute already got answered. Laer's suit is pretty chilly, but not so much that it will make her fingers numb or anything. It's plenty good for keeping the chill of space and the comet out... and as Melissa(and the others, most likely) approach it, the away team can spot several cracks and holes where the comet is starting to come apart from the heat, allowing investigation inside. This also applies to FLOTILLA MEMBERS, as a quick scan will note three places of possible use. One large crack along the 'underside' of the comet(if such directions mean anything in space) that looks like it goes all the way through, a smaller crack along a large lump that is tighter, but more close to the source of the signal. Finally, a kind of borehole is atop a small mound in the ice, which definitely leads straight down but is in what looks to be an unstable area of the comet, possibly close to collapse.
Flint Hawke	Hardened pirate though he is, Flint can't say no to Hayate, "Of course you can come along, lass. Stick close to me, then," Flint says. Despite his warnings about the weather and wearing protective gear, he's wearing his usual outfit due to his ability to survive ridiculous environments. Vita gets a smile a moment later, "Maybe. Might be some kind of space monster, after all, even if they want to do this peaceful-like. Place is deserted for a reason, after all," He says to her hopefully, trying to assuage his perceived desire to attack some Confederates, "But, for now, the Confederates will collaborate with us." It's not too long before he's heading out to one of the drop ships in the hangar, pretty much intending to leave the ship on a follow-course and take the drop ship down to the surface. Unless Hayate wants to go somewhere else, his general goal is the borehole in the comet's surface. Almost as soon as Flint leaves the Captain's Chair, his second in command steps into play. The tall and calm Mister Blade directing the bridge with a crisp efficiency.
Yagami Hayate	The magical Knight Clothes are also environmentally sealed, so at least Hayate doesn't have to worry about that. "Signum and Reinforce can stay on the ship for defense, and Shamal can monitor us from afar. It'll be fine." She'll take the dropship with Flint, rather than flying though. "Space Monster, huh? That would be fun," Vita admits, squinting out the viewport toward the icy lump. "Then again I think I've had it with ancient evils frozen in time."
Rory White	DRONE 1 lands on the target near the borehole and extends an arm with a telescoping camera and light into it for a better look. DRONE 2 lands near the crack and does the same thing. DRONE 3 lands on an unimportant frozen expanse and attempts to take surface samples and determine what kind of ice this is. Water ice? Frozen methane? Etcetera. Rory doesn't have a face like this, but she shrink away from the screen if it was possible, until Cirno comes on. "O-Overzealous is correct. No, there's nothing worth fighting over. I'm simply here to study an anomaly!" A feat that she's having a lot of fun with. But spotting a BOREHOLE, the Odyssey diverts more of its power to shields. In case there's something dangerous in there, jsut waiting to flip out. Cracks are natural. Boreholes are not.
Melissa	Melissa will drop Lute off at whichever entrance the trainer and his pokemon will want to use. She herself is heading for the largest crack, maneuvering the SAMAS in with some skill, even if she's not an elite robot pilot by trade. The juicer lowers the output on her jets so as not to melt the walls, and brings the SAMAS in... mostly nice and easy. Patience is not one of the virtues she has, so she isn't even waiting for the Flotilla to join her, despite what she said.
Lute	Lute, at least, as an idea on space physics. So, as he and his Gardevoir leap out of the ship, Lute gives his Gardevoir some instructions on what to do over the radio. He has it use its psychic powers to slowly push both of them towards the comet, to land upon it. The Gardevoir then goes to work, trying to scan the asteroid psychically. It can't do a /lot/ of scanning, it can mostly just tell if there is some sort of thought inside of it. Lute, meanwhile, is trying to get some ice chips collected into a small container, for analysis. It could be a weird magical ice, or something.
Laer	Laer, once suited, is still able to move around on her own through space courtesy of her own magic. And teleportation, if all else fails. She's following after Melissa, freefloating in her own suit, aiming for the largest crack as well. She's more interested in the people than she is in the comet itself; Laer will be listening carefully over the communications, trying to get a sense of the who of being here as much as anything else. She doesn't actually know much about the Floatila, and a chance to learn now is a chance to screw over later. Something like that, anyway. She'll try to avoid getting too close to Melissa if things look hot and melty, but watching the entrance is impressive alone.
Starbound Flotilla	It's not long before things are figured out. Risk-takers can take the borehole, that's their business. The Starbounders are here for salvage, and salvage means combing every single inch of what you find, not leaving anything to chance. As such, they move on on that "underside", while the Connoisseur continues an exchange. "Of course; one cannot write the story of a battle without first understanding its context, if one intends to write it at all. Let us work together to see what is worth taking from this salvage." They offer some links to their SAIL network, as they do for Rory, who gets to see their sensor data easily. "Move in to deploy." "Aye aye, movin' in, chargin' teleport array." "Floran deploy cold nanossskin for friendsss." "So, who wants to take a five-pixel bet that it's gonna be zombies?" "Undead could not be found in such a place that is anathema to life." "Amused. You should take the bet, then." Coming to a stop near the crevice, their ships discharge six heavy red beams into its interior, shining brightly as they stream around Melissa and Laer. This is using a line-of-sight TELEPORTATION BEAM to get as far into the interior as possible, where they'll appear in formation, drifting and stabilizing with their armor's energy-jets, and granted oxygen and minor environmental cold hazard protection by COLD NANOSKINS. Each are in their standard Durasteel exploration equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces and powering them. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a set of futuristic EVA-combat and exploration armor in a suit that glows a gentle red at the faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator. First thing's first: Activate the flashlights on their armor and examine the interior, and where they can go from here.
Cirno	Cirno decides to take the second crack, vanishing into that with a little flare of icy jets and sparkling wings. This conveniently removes her from the scene for a while, except over radio. "Weird readings..." It is weird readings. The ice chips are pretty darn cold, given that it isn't water ice. Frozen methane is right! No wonder it's starting to melt so drastically. This also means the ice is not as firm and structurally sound as water ice would be, though... more like a packed frost. It has trace elements of some other materials, mostly metallic, but some complex ones... and most importantly, probing deeper catches a faint radiation. Nothing serious, hardly even detectable, but at some point this ice held an element that broke down. The borehole also isn't natural, but it is pretty old... whatever made it is long past. It goes straight down, edges not quite smooth after so long in space, and ends on what looks like a scorched metal plate, the outside somewhat melted and dented. Those looking into the crack(including the drone) will find the interior to be... ragged and still cracking, but it's breaking apart over a period of days, not hours or minutes. Tiny threads of some black material can be seen the further in the group goes... until a 'wall' of rippling grey and black material can be found, still sealed behind perhaps a foot or so of ice.
Flint Hawke	When the dropship touches down, Flint hops off it easily. As he steps out into the frigid surface, a black pulse runs through him as his Pure takes various measures to keep him alive despite his own negligence, "Well then! Let's get to work!" He claps his hands together, grinning at the two girls and the wolf-man hanging around with him. He's all too eager to step into the borehole, putting plenty of faith that between a hammer and a wolf, they can get dug out of here if things collapse, "So Vita! You feel like a bit of the smashing after all?" He raps against the plate a few times with his knuckles, "Seems like rather the specialty of the best hammer in space to open the way a bit."
Starbound Flotilla	"Form up with the others. Scan for structural entry points. Dig and breach." "Looks like threads, maybe wires, maybe cords... Lemme take a look." "Floran sssee big metal, maybe! Like place for live! Robot friend, check!" "Contemplative. It may not be a traditional wall, that is correct. Scanning." "Got me Matter Manipulator, time to dig for treasure." "I shall join Pavo. This is a mystery that requires such digging." The Starbounders chatter among themselves. Albert and Biteblade weightlessly move to provide cover in case of danger, keeping their hands on their Matter Manipulators, ready to draw weapons or industrial tools in case of strange goings on. They intend to help cover Melissa and Laer, of course, and give them some sense of security while they do whatever they choose to do. For now, SEFT pulls a heavy industrial scanner array out of the compressed space of her Matter Manipulator, intending to pulse some scanning through the ice layer into the structure behind. Is it solid? Artificial, synthetic? Any particular weak points, or entry thresholds? George gets to work looking at the threads. He has lived on space stations and in space ships all his life, whatever this is, he intends to thoroughly examine it and try to match it up with some traditional archetype of space engineering, or some traditional space engineering phenomenon. Pavo and Moonfin get to work on mining the ice, pointing a wide blue beam at it with their Matter Manipulators, which will disintegrate and collect the ice in front of them, hopefully at any point Seft can identify. If there's any entrances, they'll take them, if there's any weak spots, they'll try to dig through them. Assuming that was even a structural solid before, and not just a giant mass of something horrible lodged in the ice like a deathtrap.
Lute	Lute feels there is one easy, simple option to figuring out what is inside: Let it loose. If it is some eldritch entity, it'll be happy with them for freeing it and possibly ally with him. Plus, Lute is pretty good at recruiting monsters, so he can negotiate at that point. But Lute forgot how combustible Methane can be. Sure, this stuff is frozen, but... It still is a significant risk, and the only reason this hasn't melted yet is the lack of heat. And so Lute releases his Arcanine, for just a moment. His Pokeballs are strapped to the outside of his suit, just for this sort of situation. The Arcanine appears, and immediately launches the super powerful burst of flame, right towards the methane ice. At the same time, Lute temporarily dislodges his oxygen tube, pointing it towards the spot the flames are aimed at. Just for a moment, before hooking it back up again. Lute, of course, is giving his Gardevoir instructions over the radio to pull the two of them back, while Lute recalls the Arcanine into the Pokeball. The two float away, and a barrier forms between them and the asteroid due to Gardevoir's psychic powers. Just in case.
Rory White	Rory White is SILENTLY FUMING at the way this investigation is being handled, but is powerless to stop the assault on all proper procedures for investigating anomalies. Oh well. Her silence is also caused by watching a COMPLETELY UNSHIELDED DUDE dive into the borehole. That necessitates a few reality checks. And sensor scans to figure out just WHAT is going on there. All in all she's lagging behind the rest of the group. But on the good side this gives her more time to study and record. And find that the dimensions of the 'comet' are indeed quite odd. Huh.
Yagami Hayate	"Okay, stand aside," Vita says... over telepathy, of course. This is because she can't speak in space, she's using her Knight Clothing to keep her environment around her. Plus, you know, she's not human. Hayate floats up and away, along with Zafira, to let Vita do her work. Heaving her hammer up, Graf Eisen silently shines and probably says something in the near-vacuum. The spike on one end pops out, and with a twirl of her hammer, the little redhead heaves it over her head and down, aiming it right at the plate to try to smash it apart and bust her way into the... structure?
Melissa	For her part, Melissa is... not a scientist. She does have some spec ops training, though, and she knows when to stand by and let the smart guys do their work. So she hovers to the side, then plants the feet of the SAMAS lightly on the side of the crevasse, raising the rail gun to hold it steady toward the wall. "You guys have fun, I'll shoot anything dangerous. I'm not really a science person... I'm lucky to have had comms training, let alone how to interpret squiggly numbers on a screen." Advanced Calculus was not something the Coalition taught its soldiers.
Starbound Flotilla	"Tall robot-drive friend, Floran underssstand. Floran ssspend lotsss of ssseason, not know anything about anything! Hard to undersstand. Then, Floran read all the booksss, get all the degreesss. Squiggly numbersss are ssscience for Floran eyesss now!" Biteblade makes casual conversation with Melissa, and occasionally not giving her large robot enough personal space. Albert grunts unpleasantly. "The Apex were subjected to a universal intelligence enhancement program, and any collateral damage was irrelevant to them. You're lucky your training was standard." He keeps alert for dangers, as always, focusing on being a lookout.
Laer	Laer is also not a scientist, but she has a great variety of knowledge at times. This is not one of those times, though she'll keep an eye on the proceedings, taking some reasonable enjoyment in how much someone seems to be seething about the space plague. She's not really one to pass on that sort of opportunity to annoy, so her eye on the proceedings will be lax at best. This might actually be less than completely safe, given that she IS still drifting downwards into the comet, even if it's a bit behind the others.
Cirno	Let's cover the sensors first. That power spike is growing rapidly now, and some of the ice is shifting. Scanning it will reveal that power fluctuations are now going throughout the metallic core of the comet, as if it were... well, might as well say it. 'Waking up' is a good term. The Flotilla crew can detect that there /are/ hollow pockets inside, but the scanners don't reach very far in. There don't appear to be many large entryways either. Whatever this is... it isn't biological, yet it isn't a ship. Laer will arrive just in time to see something happen... but let's go to Hawke first! As Vita smashes into the already-damaged plate, the powerful magical hammer shatters the scorched shielding, breaking it open to reveal... numerous wires and a thick nest of cords. These immediately start to glow, and in an instant come to life, lashing out and trying to wrap around Flint and Vita with a tight grip of steel-like cabling. The tips are sharp, attempting to bore into the skin, but fortunately aren't strong enough to pierce any real protection. Yet. The 'wall' that the others are facing is what Laer sees, along with Melissa and the Flotilla that stayed watching. The scan gets interrupted when Lute provides an oxidizer, flame washing over and causing a blast of an explosion, small but powerful, which shatters the ice in front of him. The rapid temperature change really did a number on it... and reveals numerous /thick/ cables which start to unravel, smaller ones snapping out toward Lute's spacesuit and digging in with an attempt to tear it apart... and draw in the material. The larger cables are heading right toward the biggest source of metal available: Melissa's SAMAS.
Rory White	The moment ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE, Rory White tells her drones - which are all unarmed, flimsy, and full of valuable machinery - to EVACUATE. They all fire thrusters and detach from the crumbling ice, heading away in ALL directions. The Cognizant Odyssey is thankfully hundreds of miles away. SHOULD be safe from grasping, right? Rory's not taking chances. Her FTL drive begins charging and preparing as far as it can without actually engaging. "Hostile. It's hostile..." One of the Drones gets a view of Lute being assaulted and TORN at. Oh dear. "it IS eating."
Flint Hawke	Vita, for all she looks like an adorable child, can handle herself quite well. So she's not the one Flint is worried about as the cables lash out to try to grab the two of them. Flint moves between Hayate and the source of the cables, tanking them straight on as they burrow into his skin. They leave black and red stains in his shirt from his blood and the general output of his Pure. "Oi, please. A bit clingy, this is," Flint says as he looks down at the cables currently buried into himself. But, he's intrigued by the machine as it burrows into him. So he doesn't disconnect the cables, because whatever it is, seems artificial and alive. "Lass, please clear out. I recall your powers work best at a distance, and we may need quite some large cannons," He advises to Hayate, even as he uses his hands to grip the cords. The radio is going off in his ear, so he's established from Rory that it's a space craft and from Biteblade that it's a predator. He grins a bit and tugs on the tables. As they burrow into him, black Pure energy begins to flow into the machine, trying to probe out what it is and how it functions. Trying to draw the principles of its survival, how it has survived this long, and imprint them on the Pure itself to make Flint and his ship better.
Lute	As the thick cables fling towards Lute, there isn't much he can do to stop them. The barrier Gardevoir created between him and the ice is shattered competely, and large chunks are pulled out of Lute's spacesuit. But, there is one piece of tech on him he absolutely doesn't want taken in by this strange thing before them. His Pokeballs. And so, he starts tossing them behind him, his Gardevoir keeping them all floating closely together in space with its psychic powers. Still, the violent intent of the mechanical thing within the ice is certain. And so Lute will be testing a theory. He has one Pokemon that he is uncertain if it can fight in space or not. It is a particularly odd Pokemon, so the chances are in his favor that it might be able to move through space. And so Lute speaks, loudly. "GO, GIRATINA! USE SHADOW BALL!" And with that, Giratina appears from his Pokeball. He flaps his wings, moving 'up' from Lute's perspective. Its mouth opens up, and a gigantic ball of shadow forms. It fires towards the metal cables trying to tear apart the space suit. Sadly, Lute now has several holes in his space suit.
Laer	Laer will get there just in time to be there when things go all kinds of to hell, and she's lucky enough to not be much of a target to start. Unfortunately for her, she's going to have her rank called upon by Melissa nearby, and she's got all sorts of obligations to not just run away and let it devour Melissa or Cirno. Or Lute, probably. Laer will lift up an arm, trying to see just what she can manage against the metalic monster that's attacking Melissa's craft, starting with one that she thinks might work on metal. An arrow of acid will attempt to fly at some of those tendrals, as Laer watches to see if it actually has an effect. She's fairly certain her boosts won't actually have much effect on the combatants involved here.
Melissa	While Melissa is piloting an 'old-style' SAMAS, it does have its standard loadout, thankfully. That means that Melissa, standing guard there, has a big-ass rail gun that's a rapid-fire heavy weapon capable of firing 40-round bursts. She proceeds to do JUST THAT and start blasting the cables coming for her with pretty good accuracy. The fact is, they're still cables, and there are a lot of them. "Crap," she swears. Swatting at another cable, she has to rely on the Flotilla for some support here, but her goal is actually to put some space between her and the berserker. This isn't an enemy she can fight in hand to hand while in a robot like that. "Withdraw and regroup! We can't fight it in this ice cavern, it could collapse at any minute!"
Yagami Hayate	"GET AWAY!" Vita shouts, yanking Graf Eisen back. The haft is actually solid mana, so unless the machine can 'eat' that, it's not going to help. She probably has SOMETHING worthwhile on her, though... so she's starting to float up as well, while Zafira lunges in to snap his jaws at the cables, trying to free Vita and also cover Hayate's retreat from the borehole. Hayate herself soars up and out, just as asked. Wings spreading, the tiny girl floats there and frowns. "I can't use my spells while you're in the way! Well... wait. Most of them." Immediately, the Tome of Night Sky manifests in her left hand, paging through to seek out a spell she can use. "Hold on... I think I know a way to help, I just need a little time." It's going to cause one hell of a magic surge though, which might make her a target.
Starbound Flotilla	Albert and Biteblade were already ready to work! "Get distance /now/." Albert says, grunting heavily as he pulls out a heavy space-combat laser. He braces the massive industrial tube-like machine over one shoulder as if it were a rocket launcher, and starts lancing at oncoming cables heading towards the SAMAS with a wide shotgun-like spray of slicing lasers. "She is right, we have to take advantage of open space." Biteblade synchs with Laer here. While Laer handles the main body of the cables, Biteblade draws a pair of POWER DAGGERS from her Matter Manipulator, scrambling onto Melissa's SAMAS like a little leafy backpack and doing her best to make sure anything that got wrapped around gets cut away quickly and simply! The rest of the Starbounders are evacuating quick, activating their maneuvering jets and booking it right out of that comet, hopefully into teleport range of Albert's craft, their main battle-boat, while the SAILs of their other craft get their ships some distance! The heavily armored, shielded, and armed main craft, the SFS VEHEMENCE, offers to function as a base from which the group can launch their attacks against the creature!
Cirno	Rory's sensors are in the best position to notice that the berserker is powering up in bits and pieces, sluggishly canniballizing unneeded subsystems to repair power feeds. There's also a definite number of dead patches all throughout, meaning it's probably desperate for raw materials to repair itself. That's why even human blood will work. It's feeding off Flint now... and he's getting /something/ from it. Unfortunately, he can probably feel the /wrongness/ in this, that something is broken in the berserker. It might make it hard to use whatever he's getting... or perhaps just make it unreliable? Vita and Zafira are of less interest, and fortunately, even if Hayate gets its attention, the ice is still sloughing off and thus the few cables that escape aren't enough to grasp /anything/, especially with the Freezing Reign slicing off any that get too far out of the crumbling false comet. With Biteblade slashing the last few cables, Melissa is able to get a good head start, zipping out of the crevasse. Laer shouldn't have much problem, being distant as well... but she'll see that her acid arrow is actually eating through the external plating, making it difficult to repair until the spell has run its course. THat's something, at least. Acid is pretty effective against this thing, at least magical acid. Lute's shadow ball slams into the 'wall' of cables, causing the thing to recoil and giving him a chance to escape. Yes, the space suit has holes in it, but fortunately the melting comet is providing a modicum of pressure so it doesn't immediately vent. It does smell bad, though. Some of those trace elements are pretty awful. With all the chaos and the still-awakening berserker injured, the slicing lasers cover the retreat of George and the other Starbounders. The group will have a moment to breathe and gather their wits, formulating a plan or regrouping at the ship before the Berserker starts its next attack, which seems to be coiling several tendrils together and sending it launching toward the nearest ships. One of these is the Reign, the other is the VEHEMENCE.
Rory White	The thing about 'space combat' in the world Rory's from is, up front, it almost never happens. Whoever shoots first will probably win, and weapons that tend to crop up in popular sci-fi are largely useless. Nuclear missiles? Almost completely worthless. Lasers? Lasers are just heat, and anything rated for space will probably handle a HELL of a lot of THAT pretty easily. KINETIC IMPACT is normally where it's at. Railguns are the weapon of choice. A slab of inert, dense ANYTHING flying at unfathomable speeds will give ANYTHING a bad day. But is that smart, if the target is some kind of material-eating 'monster?' She's about to find out. As soon as she gets a single clear shot, the Odyssey's weapons light up. DEPLETED URANIUM slugs the size of a man's fist, accelerated to INSANE SPEEDS. It will take a bit of time for them to arrive... and by that time, it's ALREADY STARTED MOVING. The slugs go flying off into space. Maybe in a few millenia they'll hit an asteroid or something. So with that plan out of the picture, the Odyssey tries a second plan. A PARTICLE BEAM BOLTER swivels around the nose and aims at what appears to be the machine's ENGINES. This weapon is completely invisible, except for infrared - and even that will be difficult to spot in space except for where it begins... and where it strikes. The weapon fires near-lightspeed particles, with enough together equating to an enormous kinetic impact and superheating. Things might start vaporizing or exploding! Thankfully, aiming lightspeed weapons at this distance at moving targets is way easier to calculate firing solutions for.
Flint Hawke	"It's fine, lass! Just shoot through me, you know I can take it," Flint calls back in a jovial tone that entirely contradicts what he just told the young girl to do. He's digging his feet into the ground and wrapping his hands around the cables now, gripping it tightly as he prods at the inner workings of the machine. A sense of wrongness is worrying. Then again, for a man whose heart is also a living being that constantly demands selfish action or the generation of strife, 'wrong' is a feeling he can learn to live with. That's why he's willing to stick with this a while longer. He's going to see what he can pry up from under the conceptual floorboards of the being. But he can't do that in his current state, and so... Activate Shift The Pure is a primal being, conceptual and non-communicative in intricacies or normal ways. But it communicates concepts, and it amplifies concepts. Its concept is, specifically, 'survival'. Because that was the guiding reason, the guiding concept, behind Flint getting a Pure in the first place: He wanted to survive something that would have killed him. "Tell me, my friend. Do you fear death?" The pirate asks with a grin across his face. So, as everyone else prepares to launch killing blows, Flint uses that circumstance being replicated to amplify his own. He channels shift energy and primal communications into trying to reason with this machine at the most basic level. There aren't words in his conversation, but concepts being present. Concepts like 'Certain death' and 'escape' and 'persistence' being presented to the machine.
Yagami Hayate	There aren't many 'safe' spells for Hayate to cast, but the white-glowing little girl in space is still casting one. Her aura flares brighter and brighter, while Vita and Zafira fend off some cables and urge Flint to get out of there. But let's face it, right now it's the mage that is the focus of anyone's attention over the Wolkenritter. That's because, over the comms, she's starting to chant at last. "Approach from beyond, mistletoe branches, become spears of the silver moon, shoot and pierce! Petrifying spears, Mistilteinn!" Seven spears of light shimmer around her, then lance down toward the berserker starting to awaken. It's a temporary spell, not something too useful by its own... but where the spears impact, the metal and cabling will have magic attempting to petrify them, trying to turn the creature to stone. Or the device. Whichever. It probably won't last long, might not even get the whole thing, but it will keep it from grabbing a ship!
Cirno	Flint gets a signal! It says, repeatedly: "WE COME IN PEACE. WE COME IN PEACE." The impression behind it is an unstoppable, bottomless /hunger/ however, so the transmission has no real 'thought' put into it.
Lute	Lute hears the chatter on the radio. This thing might just be trying to repair itself? Well. That almost makes Lute want to just let it go. But, if he does, it'll attack the ships nearby. And he doubts he could talk it out wtih this thing. Also his spacesuit is rapidly filling with methane which is not pleasant at all. He speaks, giving orders to Giratina over the radio. Just... Go full out now, he supposes. Finish this up, adn then get back to the ship. "Gardevoir, Helping Hand. Giratina, Shadow Force." And, the two Pokemon go to work. Gardevoir boosts the power of Giratina. And Giratina starts to gather a ridiculous amount of energy, the power of the Distortion World. This massive burst of energy gathers in its body. Giratina flies towards the ship, its body becoming a mechanism of raw death. It tries to slice through the berserk ship with its body as a giant weapon, trying to burst through the other side. And all this time Giratina keeps being boosted by Gardevoir.
Flint Hawke	Words communicating with concepts is an interesting language barrier. Flint tightens his grip and the Pure continues to 'parley' for him, so to speak. It surrenders, but the hunger is still there. Flint scowls and then rips the cables out, "Bah. No use. I got some ideas from it to make myself better, but really just kill it all, then," He turns and lifts his hand, waving off the beast before resolving to just leave it to die and take some pieces for his ship later.
Laer	Laer isn't really interested in not killing it; acid, however, is not really one of her specialities, and she only has a spell or two that can do anything with it. As such, she's going to follow up with another acid arrow volley, following that one with one of her more known spells, a blast of lightning down to try and drive the acid home. If it's like many other metalic things, the lightning either won't work at all or it'll piss the machine off to the point that Laer is going to need to run. Either way, she's going to start to try and put some distance between herself and the beast at this point, heading out of the crack at top speed. Unfortunately for her, her top speed is relatively low.
Melissa	Bullets from the rail gun might work well enough against the cables, but Melissa is already figuring that when compared to these starships, she's small potatoes. The SAMAS is her weakest power armor, aside from the Recon ones, so her options are limited. Limited, but not completely gone. Two rockets streak out from the power armor's wrist, exploding hopefully on the stonified parts of the machine, if Hayate's spell worked. Her Rail Gun, she'll use to snipe any cables that reach for Laer, giving the Colonel room to escape. She'll do it for Lute too, but she's less worried about him.
Starbound Flotilla	The Starbounders get aboard the SFS Vehemence with a quick teleport, and get right to their battlestations. Turrets light up. Missile launchers load and arm. The shield becomes optimized and heavy. Unlike Rory's craft, the Starbounders' heavy weapons platform is pure science fantasy. Plasma, lasers, missiles, the works. Fully manned, their craft stars an intense volley on the target, intending to blast away the ice and then exhaust its damaged stores of energy. The Starbounders want to keep whatever functions as "organs" for the massive creature intact. This is while the creature itself attempts to coil around it, though! Seft suffers some severe burn wounding when the coiling overloads a shield subsystem, causing it to explode next to her and slag part of her arm, but the shielding helps brace the armor and lets the thrusters remain clear of the wrappings, keeping it from getting pulled in too easily! Biteblade, however, didn't go with them. She kept holding on to Melissa's SAMAS . Some thoughts they have on the matter: The creature's signal came from a 'mouth'. And almost all animals keep their 'mouth' next to their 'brain'. Biteblade has teleported back to her own heavier artillery craft, the Kaleidoscope, with the giant railgun mounted on it. Using a combination of Seft's INFORMATION GATHERING and Biteblade's own HUNTER'S INSTINCT, she tries to aim for the signal's source, and then for where the 'brain' would logically be relative to that, in the context of macro-organic interstellar organism evolution. They aim the tremendous ship-killer STARHUNTER railgun, charge its capacitors, and fire the heavy slug of durasteel right at the intended target.
Cirno	Spolier: The berserker doesn't have 'organs' per se. It does have numerous redundancies, though. And fortunately, it's already damaged? Why? We'll see. The spell from Hayate partially petrifies the berserker as it frees itself from the prison of ice, and this makes it crack and crumble in places from the inertia. The Freezing Reign is already powering up grasers to blast it along one side, at least until one cable slams in and starts to /eat/ it. Munch. This is short-lived, because the rail guns and the particle beams are lancing out, while the volley of acid arrows keep it from fully integrating and bypassing damaged systems. With a lurching twist, it starts to turn away so it can find an easier target... only for the beam to blast into the engine systems, causing a failure that sputters them and almost kills them entirely. Regardless, for a few precious seconds it's dead in space, on a predictable trajectory. The central core is targeted and blasted, while it's preoccupied with 'talking' to Flint. This causes a meltdown... literally. The remaining power core overloads, slagging numerous systems in a self-destruct. The damage before this was extensive, though. Many systems were not yet reconnected, and the self destruct did little to them. While the central core and AI is slag, the sudden husk of the berserker has a number of damaged but interesting weapons systems and various pieces that are salvageable. A LARGE chunk of it is just sitting there, juicy and relatively intact... because Lute's pokemon sliced through it moments before the berserker was 'killed,' no doubt contributing to the massive damage from the volley of high-tech ships and in the process, ensuring the self-destruct didn't mess it up so bad.
Rory White	One of the drones - the size of a motorcycle, though vaguely crab-shaped - scooters over to Lute on its miniature thrusters. A manipulator claw attempts to catch him on a flyby. It's not exactly comfortable as the drone has plenty of pointy parts, but it heads towards the Reign's airlock!
Starbound Flotilla	Seft, the Glitch member of the Core Fleet, stays behind. She's too wounded by the encounter to help. On the other hand, George, Biteblade, Albert, Moonfin, and ESPECIALLY Pavo are bolting out their teleporters and pushing off to the floating wreck, Matter Manipulators glowing, eager to claim their fair share, from which they intend to create some terrible new crafting table or another, most likely. With so many systems dedicated to making a spaceborne interstellar organism, they'll likely be collecing valuable mechanical artifacts that they can work on their vehicular engineering with, reasonable alongside quantities of valuable astro-engineering materials! The five Starbounders who aren't incapacitated start spreading out and industriously start prying, digging, disintegrating, unwelding, and similar suchlike. The Confederates get first dibs on that bit Lute saved, of course, but they're going to take anything that the Confederates don't. This place is going to be picked completely clean by the time this is all done.
Flint Hawke	For Flint's end of it, the man is a bit disappointed that he wasn't able to convince the crazy berserker ship to become docile and merge with the Black Sun to enhance its Pure capabilities. But that's Inside Flint. Outside Flint is much more jovial as he returns to the dropship with the two Wolkenritter and their master. "Oi oi, Mister Blade," He calls into his headset. A calm male voice answers back, "Yes, Captain?" "Get the salvage ships out and the boys to harvesting. I want my fair share of the loot. Put what we can in the ship, sell the rest," He calls back in, rubbing his hands together. "Yes, Captain. Right away," Says the cool voice. Fairly quickly after that, scavenging probes launch from the ship, along with crewmen and tools. They'll take a fair share of the loot for Flint and his ship. The Captain himself is clapping his hands a bit as he walks back, "Good day, good day. Profitable day, I imagine. Today will call for a special meal. I think I'll pick up some fresh beef for the galley, have them make steaks or a stew to celebrate." He casts a look over his shoulder, "Maybe a bit of wine. Finally convince Miss Signum to sit down to dinner with me." He ponders over it as he walks and lets the crew do their work.