Scene #4499: Eyes in the Storm

Owner	Pose
Morrigan	Jupiter. The loss of the Jovian system could be seen as the turning point in the war against the GTVA. With the loss of it, and of Artemis Station, Calder's Third Fleet had nowhere to go. Usually, the whole planetary system would be crawling with GTVA military hardware - but they're not there at the moment. For whatever reason, Steele is redeploying is forces. Which gives the Fedayeen an opening. Jupiter's storms rock the Fedayeen fighters left and right and even the Kopis, the Fedayeen military transport, needs to fight against the raging storms. But CASSANDRA's estimations are good, so, they manage to find a relatively safe path to the station. The station in question seems to be an old refinery. Over fifty years old, it has more in common with Tev design hallmarks than the Federation. GTI - the precursors to SOC - secreted away their research data on the Shivans and on Nagari on this platform. If the Fedayeen are going to have any open of finding Ken, then they'll need the data. And they'll need to get it before Steele's people do.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr is packed into the transport along with the Fedayeen marines. She's not seated, holding onto a bulkhead to brace against the turbulance... but she seems to be in her element with the storms raging outside. "Once we're on the ground, I'll let you guys do what you do best, but if you get in trouble, call me and I'll give the Tev bastards a beat down." Divine Wind chimes softly. <Master. I am ready to perform hacking routines. Setting up, Mistral Form. Mistral Squall to Orbit Mode.>
Morrigan	The Kopis touches down on the platform and the Fedayeen troops - about a dozen or so - move out as one. It's somewhat disconcerting to see. Much like Falcata wing in the Dreamscape, they move with a sense of precision that's somewhat... too-calculated. They get the outer doors open and head inside. Inside, the platform is abandoned and has been for some time. Fifty years of detritus and things that weren't important enough to be taken during the Fall of Jupiter linger in alcoves and on shelves, at work stations and on chairs. Above the platform, Falcata wing - Laporte, Kovacs, Falconer and Vidaura - circle the platform.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr watches the troops moving... "They're almost like robots..." she muses to herself, before disembarking herself, following the group inside. "Dee, see if you can't tap into the system, seal off all the outer doors except the one we came through. Might buy up some time." The Device chimes, and the Mage keeps walking. Metal boots clank on the deck. She's taking this all just a bit blazé, really. Then she gets the inbound vector of the Vasudan transport. "Time to go say hello. Dee? Seal that outer door, and see if there's anything you can make explode around it while they're working." she turns, and heads towards the predicted landing port, waiting for them to maybe breach the door.
Morrigan	The Fedayeen fall on the GTVA forces. Without CASSANDRA's simulations, they are flying blind and easy prey. But numbers makes up for predictions and some of them break through Laporte's perimeter. One of those ships is one of the Vasudan transports, as its counterpart plunges deeper into Jupiter's atmosphere, burning and spalling. Divine Wind has no problem getting into the station's equipment, and certainly no problem with locking it down. The Vasudan transport finds a mooring on the other side of the station, and it is almost certainly disgorging power-armored aliens. Some of them, remembering the Pesedjet mission, will be armed with 'fucking /swords/' as one unlucky Gef had put it. Zephyr watches as the door begins to heat. They're cutting through it.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr's eyes narrow as the doors start to heat up from the cutting work. Old station, nothing explosive left on the outer platform to detonate in their faces. Pity. "Maybe they're just coming to try and sell cookies." quips the Mage to herself, earning a gutteral-sounding chime from her Device. "Oh don't start." Quite the flippant way of going about things, when there are at least a dozen eight foot tall aliens with 'Fucking Swords' about to burst through the door. "Okay, showtime. Mistral Squall to Area Mode. Concussion Burster, on the door as soon as it breaks. Lets give them the royal treatment." <AREA MODE. CONCUSSION BURST READY!> chimes Divine Wind, the Bits of her Mistral System spreading out to encompass the entire deck for 100m around her, and a shift in air pressure as a 'knot' of compressed air gathers right in the doorway. It'll explode back at the Vasudans once the door breaks, blasting them with the force of an Exposive Decompression event.
Morrigan	The door breaks, and then the Vasudans are through. A civilisation of artists, philosophers and poets, the Vasudan marines have a certain beauty to their aesthetics when compared to their Terran counterpars - but there's no mistaking the huge cannons they wield, or the swords they hold. Of course, the concussion burst sends most of them flying through the door and out into Jupiter's atmosphere, where they're collected by the storm winds and given a terrible death. Some of them keep their footing, through luck or skill, and lower their cannons to return fire!
Zephyr Windstar	The gambit works... mostly. Then there are some very angry Vasudans firing back at her. Zephyr dives to the side, letting those cannons turn the bulkhead behind her into slag, only barely managing to get clear of the blast. She dive-rolls, then brings her axe up in challenge. "COme and face me like real warriors, if you dare!" she roars, pouring some energy into the blade of her axe, making the edge glow an eerie mix of white, orange, purple and blue, rippling along the edge like some kind of chainsaw.
Morrigan	The lead Vasudan - perhaps an officer of some sort - answers Zephyr's taunt with a roar of "Sa Vasuda!" He leaps the distance between the airlock and Zephyr with three long strides, and swings his blade, one that looks vaguely like a terran khopesh, right for Zephyr! Outside, the battle seems to be descending into a chaotic furball. Zephyr can hear the reports from Falcata wing in her ear.
Zephyr Windstar	"Finally a real warrior, not some Terran Pra'shrun." remarks the Mage, meeting the kopesh with her axe. She grits her teeth, being forced back by the sheer force and momentum imparted by the larger alien... but she doesn't lose her posture, taking the strike and skidding backwards with sparks raising from her boots. And then she gets her footing again, bracing and pushing back against the sword. Zephyr grunts, and turns the strike aside, stepping through the Vasudan's guard and bringing the blunt haft around to strike at his back. "Show me your Fury, and I shall show you mine in kind." she banters, bracing then leaping in to strike once her opponent turns to face her, hacking a heavy overhead swing down onto the Vasudan after a leap to cover the distance.
Morrigan	The Vasudan doesn't appear to be the sort to give in to taunts and banter. Zephyr's hit is a good one, caving in the armor at his back, and so he shoves at her - aiming to push her back to bring her into just the right distance where his sword can find her. It doesn't seem to be a particularly interesting blade, perhaps more ceremonial than anything, but the sheer strength behind it-! And then Zephyr brings her axe down on the Vasudan officer in a heavy arc, and he crumples to the deck. By the sounds of it, though, the Fedayeen marines are engaged with SOC operatives. They'll need help, before Steele decides to have his prize destroyer blow the entire platform to pieces.
Zephyr Windstar	Tch... what a shame. Zephyr watches the Officer fall, then turns her eyes on the other Marines. "I suggest you leave, before your friend Steele decides you're worth sacrificing." she says. "He's already sacrificed his own people for his goals, what're a few non-humans to the mix." She then lifts off the deck, and with her Bits in tow, whatever the remaining Vasudans decide to do, she's blasting through the corridors, to get to the Fedayeen marines. "On my way, coming through west corridor B-5. Stay in cover and keep your heads down."
Morrigan	Maybe it's what Zephyr says. Maybe it's what she says combined with the mysterious loss of Bellwether. Maybe it's Recamai's own dislike of Steele - but the Vasudans are pulling out. It's almost surreal to see, but the marines collect their fallen officer and bug out. Elsewhere, the Fedayeen marines are engaged with the SOC. The Fedayeen marines wear grey, looking like sharkskin, all sleek and efficient. The SOC are similar in black and red, and both are keeping their distance as they fire up and down the corridor. Neither can move, but that's worse for the Fedayeen when Steele himself is raining down nuclear fire. The platform shudders as one of his warheads finds its mark. The structure groans.
Zephyr Windstar	And then the SOC find their flank very much exposed, as Zephyr, coincidentally with the warhead strike, blasts through a bulkhead, and starts going to town amidst the SOC's ranks, slashing with her axe and firing point blank with purple magic bullets. "Come and show me YOUR Fury, if you have any!" she roars, a flurry of magical light dancing amongst the black and red.
Morrigan	Zephyr plunges into the SOC ranks like a fox amongst chickens. They're good, they're disciplined and they're well-equipped - but they're here to fight Fedayeen. To fight with rifles and knives, not against magic and axes. They're not as heavily-armed as the Vasudans had been and, so, Zephyr's axe has no trouble splitting them open and her magical abilities blast them against bulkheads and ceilings. In response, she finds bullets being sprayed at her, and some of the operatives she gets closest to trying to stick her with knives - but they're not Elites.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr is good. She's fast and agile, but bullets are still dangerous, and knives, when they come from unexpected directions can still kill. She dances through the SOC troops, bullet holes appearing in her Barrier Jacket as shields shatter and fail. The offenders are cut apart, or blasted away as soon as they've fired their first volley, but that leaves her exposed to one stealthy trooper, who manages to get in close and stab his knife in her side, between the breast and back plates of her armour. "GYAH!" she slams her elbow into his face, then starts floating towards the Fedayeen, firing supressive bursts of magical bullets.
Morrigan	The Fedayeen move backwards as one. They leave their dead - the platform is going to be destroyed by Steele soon enough and Jupiter's atmosphere will sanitise the area better than they ever could. % Inside the Kopis, the survivors strap themselves in. One Fedayeen immediately sets about adminstering first aid to Zephyr, without asking and without saying anything. Like a robot, responding to some kind of stimulus. Or like an ant in a hive. The Kopis shudders as it pulls out and blasts its engines to full, fighting Jupiter's immense gravity as it climbs clear. Outside, the Atreus rains down missiles while Lapore and her Falcata wing duel with Steele's elite stealth wing. The fact that they're in a tin can while unimaginable firepower goes off outside doesn't seem to bother any of the marines.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr winces as the medic goes about treating the wound, blood soaked into the fabric underlayer, turning the orange and yellow into a dirty looking brown. She does look dubiously at the marines... looking at their faces. 'Like ants in their hive.' goes through her mind for a moment, and then thoughts turn to Laporte, and the ants crawling in her dreamform's shadow... Are they really going to destroy Ken, or let him all the way /in/? she wonders, but thoughtfully remains silent on the subject.
Morrigan	There's a brief shudder as the Kopis lurches into subspace and then, another, as it arrives back at the Masyaf. That's it. The final piece of the puzzle. In a few days, they'll be able to find Ken. But what that means exactly, what it'll lead to... no one can say.