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Starbound Flotilla     The trail of leaking radioactive fuel suddenly vanishes near the west coast in Pueblo Corporate Council territory. Tracing it with the Watch's resources was difficult, but not impossible. After setting down in a hastily-repurchased hangar generally used for private aircraft, the trail goes cold -- though the badly wrecked Vehemence II has clearly been disassembled and shipped elsewhere. Where, though?

    Extensive investigation has found a network of tunnels running under the hangar and leading further to the coast. Deep Lacuna, the network is called -- and the Flotilla were using it to deploy from somewhere hidden. The shadowy labyrinth takes a couple hours to navigate on foot properly, but Starbound Flotilla security measures start popping up. Electrified floors and elementally-rigged walls, complex webs of lasers, turrets, and doors demanding security clearances, all made with their traditional alloys.

    They're doing aerospace manufacturing here, to establish their corporate presence no doubt. Now: Split up, or stay together? There's a dry dock, a control center, and a cargo shipping area all possible to attempt accessing through these tunnels, though taking the objective ship will mean opening or blasting apart the massive hangar doors that contain the drydock.

    What's the best approach here? Form up all together in these dank, horrid tunnels, and hit them hard the way they hit the harbor hard? Split up and flank with lighter breaching? One thing for sure: This one /can't/ be very quiet, not a ship-hijacking.
Corona Arclite You see this? This is a good example of why Corona said to be prepared for anything. She's worked both with and dealt against the Flotilla to know they have a bit of everything at their disposal. And this was a case were familiarity had her more paranoid rather than less, because there was no telling what they were coming up against.

Electrified and elementally infused surfaces in the tunnels, that's a good example to start with though. But between the infrared imagers over her goggles and the energy signature detector in her analytical device the vixen spots the polarized floor before stepping on it. Holds up a hand to Tiny and whoever else was following her. "One moment."

Corona pulls her Terminal Viscosity gun out of inventory, and a canister to load into it. Once locked in she flicks on the pump with a thumb and starts spraying the insulating compound over the floor. "Don't dwadle, that stuff ain't gonna hold up forever."
Selene      Selene is not a subtle person at heart. Sneaking into places looking like a teenager is one thing, but actual stealth is beyond her. She knows that the Flotilla knows what she and her Pokemon look like, anyway, so trying to shmooze her way in would be a waste of time. With time being somewhat of the essence, she can't afford to just learn how to sneak in properly, either.

     That's why she's opting for the tried and true method of just going straight ahead. Once she starts encountering the SECURITY HAZARDS, Selene aims to just make a mess of things and get eyes her way. "Alright, Torra... Light it up, but don't light me up this time." She gives the black and red cat in her arms am enthusiastic pat on the head (which it doesn't seem particularly fond of) as she passes it off to the giant blue bear/cat thing. The giant, holding it a bit more gently, steps forward and 'aims' the cat as the feline starts spewing flames at the HAZARDS.

    Selene's plan: Burn all the turrets and lasers down so they can't cause problems later!
Leyanne Leyanne is just behind Corona, warning her of anything she can feel with her antennae that Corona might have missed. The Megamouse is carrying an M-2 Browning heavy machine gun, an armoured belt-feed linking it to a hopper on her back not dissimilar to the ones Damocles will recognise from fellow Marines using heavy bolters. She guards the fox as she lays the foam down, darting across as soon as the carpet is in place until she hits a convenient point for Corona to leapfrog back in front.
Hamada Haru KAMEN RIDER TETRA is present. He arrived on the back of a fancy motorcycle, and then proceeded to become ghostly and partially transparent. He responds on the radio, << "Extrasensory Perception. Another way of saying psychic." >>

He strolls along behind Leyanne and Corona, being... actually, not useful at all. Kamen Rider Tetra is simply walking through hazards and obstacles alike. He gestures loosely with his left hand and asks, "Why is it that you're involved in this operation? What is your interest in the situation?"

His tone is neutral. It doesn't seem like he has a particularly strong opinion on it.
Nova Terra     Nova moves along behind the group, her visor down over her eyes to provide her with better vision in the lower light of the tunnels. She's leaving handling the traps and security to those in front while she organizes her reinforcements. She's already planning to head for the dry dock. Getting the doors open will allow her to call in the troops from outside, which should help in securing the ship they're after. And they'll need the doors open anyway to make their escape.
Sarracenia      Princess Sarracenia has actually come out for a mission! She feels a bit out of place though. She hasn't gone on a truly Watch-affiliated venture since the watchtower that the Concord destroyed. For now she is just following along after the others in her usual battle dress with her hammer resting over one shoulder. She follows Corona's advice about getting over the insulated obstacles quickly, and really tries not to whine too much about the conditions. "Why is it that these things are never in nice tidy castles or well-kept military fortresses?" she grumbles as they travel the tunnels.

     When they encounter turrets, she joins Selene in destroying them through a mixture of hammer strikes and bob-omb tosses. Which probably don't do much to cover their approach. "Let us just hurry this up so I do not have to remain in such a filthy area any longer than necessary!"

     Haru asks his question and Sarracenia shrugs lightly. "My allies need aid, and I suppose I have to aid them every now and then to earn my keep." she says.
Damocles As someone from the space-future, people often think that Damocles must know something about space ships.  He does not.  He's never been on one.  He's never known the particular touch of Imperium gravity-plates, only the dull pull of natural celestial gravity and occasionally, the self-imposed nonsense gravity of the Warp.

As such, hijacking the ship itself isn't something that Damocles feels he'd be very helpful in.  Likewise, recovering the hostage isn't exactly an area his powers are too well suited for.  If you want precision, you call a sniper.  If you want the whole area to be a smoking crater, that's where you call a sorcerer. 

Which leaves Damocles, scientist and sorcerer, with mission objective 3:  Fuck shit up.  For this task, Damocles decides to go with the team headed for the Drydock.  It made sense to him: Nova is bringing stealth, precision and technical expertise, so he'll bring wanton destruction and magical knowhow.

Damocles is equipped, as he normally is, with a Force Staff and his usual sorcerous armor (not to be confused with sorceress armor.)  As an added precaution, he's also got an earpiece to connect him to the tactical radio, just in case something blocks his magical communication.

"Well, think about it this way," he responds offhandedly to Sarracenia's question as he moves towards the drydock.  "If this were a really well maintained, nice base, you'd feel bad about ruining it.  We're actually doing them a favor by destroying their garbage heap of a base, though."
Big Boss There's a hum. It's not mechanical or supernatural. It's vocal - someone humming as they walk. A woman with bright red hair, a pair of goggles concealing her eyes completely, and a smirk on her face levitates alongside Nova. She's levitating, her feet not touching the floor, allowing her to bypass the obstacles. This must be Dakkar.

She's covered in shotguns. Just, completely covered in them, even with a cloak over her. All different types - sawn-offs, tacticals, etc.

"So, you're the elite operator here, huh? What's your plan?"

And then, towards Haru, telepathically if he's too far away, "I get paid. I'm a mercenary. I believe in the cause as well, but, you know...cash is nice." Beat.

"Oh, you're not all getting paid, are you? Sorry."

She's not actually sorry.
Starbound Flotilla     Heading for the scientist isn't a bad idea. At a total guess, he's more likely to be nearer the control centers than the cargo area or the shipyard. Through heavily locked-down doors, the control center offers cramped rows of insecure terminals for creating blueprints and chemical engineering data, and locked-down access to a main control area. THE VIP is visibile as well, albeit through repeatedly reinforced bulletproof glass; the Flotilla has him working on something down here. A tunnel-inaccessible chamber could be reached through here, where the chemical mixing and handling is going on!

    This place is also populated with many of Pavo's cultists. Her scowling face is on display the moment that those heading to the CONTROL CENTER get there; it pops up on every monitor as avian cultists in golden robes leap out of their chairs and draw scimitars and small arms.

    "Well well well, now here comes some more blasphemy. I didn't even know you were involved. Don't even know some of you. You've got the one warning only, leave." She says, with all her usual dismissal and ego through dozens and dozens of screens.
Amelris Belthrone      Amelris knows his fair share about untidy maintenance tunnels full of traps. It never changes, it's never different no matter what world you might end yourself up in, even if his sample range is rather limited. The Red mage moves along with the traps, keeping his eyes open for the alternate paths that are given to them.

     "That's a tragedy." Amelris agrees with the floating lady, "I suppose that's why you're not here in physical form /just/ yet, aren't you?" Amelris comments, tipping his hat briefly as he silently moves on into another direction in the HORRID tunnels to head to the COMMAND CENTER, or allegedly COMMAND CENTER.
Starbound Flotilla     The dry dock is wide, open, and distinctly automated. The ceiling must be five storeys up or so. Drones flit all around, carrying massive pieces of ship machinery. The Vehemence II is being reassembled and repaired in the middle, but several other ships are underway, not the least of which include one that Biteblade designed: A sleek craft that looks like several corp's aircraft welded together. Perhaps that's the one that is the objective! It might fly under the radar through all sorts of IFF spoofery and suchlike. It's hard to tell which corporation one might leverage it against, with so many hulls of so many helicopters and suchlike put together... but it's a transport large enough for a Flotilla team!

    High above, thick durasteel lines blast doors that keep the dry dock shut. If they get in the ship, they won't be able to just ram out, that's for sure! They'll need to get those heavy doors open.

    Yet, in all the chaos of ship parts in motion, a small zen rock garden can be found in the central chamber, and right in front of it, a fish-man, sitting in a position of meditation.

    The moment one steps into the dry dock, there's a palpable sense of danger from him. If one has any battle-instincts at all, they go on alert. He knows they're there and he'll assault them brutally if they keep advancing into the dry dock chamber.
Corona Arclite Corona Arclite cants her head just enough to watch the Rider just walk through everything like it wasn't there. Some folks prefer doing things the easy way.

"Cuz that fellar knows things that ain't safe to get out in the open... And they took him from us after we did all the work of takin' him from the rich bastards that were misusin' that knowledge." She makes a brief face when Dakkar mentions popping the guy if they can't recover him, but she can't really fault the logic behind the backup plan either. "One way or the other."

That's about all the answer Haru is going to get, because there's not time for more elaborate explainations (that Corona doesn't really know the depths of the matter to anyways) as they find the Control Room, and as the Red Mage surmised, a lead on their target.

And of course loads of Avian followers. Corona makes another face when Pavo appears on all the screens. "Gee, that ain't cliche at all." She rests her weapon up against her shoulder. "Com'on, ya know this aint personal... but we are a bit annoyed ya makin' us have to rescue this fellar a second time. So how 'bout ya all just hand 'im back over."

Of course she suspects this of having little to no chance of working, thumb still resting ready on the safety of her weapon. The fox's tail twitchs a little, gunslinger reflexes already tensed at the ready.
Leyanne Leyanne nods to Corona "What she said." Leyanne confirms to the Rider, swinging down her Browning - which has the name 'Ma Deuce' scrawled on the side - and starting to sweep around carefully, catching Corona's tense mood.

Leyanne's not really the talking sort, at least not when it comes to negotiations so she stays quiet, her tail lashing back and forth as she scans the tunnel for signs of an ambush. She opens her mouth to speak but closes it, instead choosing to let her tail carry the weight of the front half of her gun for a moment to pull a cigar from a pouch, chomp down on it and light up.
Amelris Belthrone      TURNS OUT Amelris is going in the /right/ same direction as theses people, which makes it a little awkward when he pokes out to meet with them again, after finding a deadend. He strolls along as if nothing really happened on that front.

     Then, an ultimatum is given. The Red Mage stops, giving the fox, the mouse, the... shade? and the floating psychic a look, before clearing his voice, adjusting his outfit's collar and taking a step forward.

     "Naw. I DO have this nice royal-purple velveteen vest for you if you are interested for a nice price, mind you." He snaps a finger with his gloved hand. Not as easy as it sounds. "Also, we want the scientist back and I'd like him free."

     Eyes wanders left and right between the armed cultists. "I'm figuring no, right?"
Starbound Flotilla     "You're figuring right. And I know it isn't personal. That's why I'm telling you to leave." Pavo announces, taking a disdainful posture. "You might have /small/ plans but I can guarantee they're not nearly fast enough to fix this properly. You can't do anything worthwhile with this scientist, not without an industrial base like ours. I have a world to bring salvation to, and I'm not tripping over the mortals who decide to lie down in the path, even if I know their names." She speaks in a commanding tone, to her cultists. "Save their equipment. Dispose of the rest."

    Click. The screens go dark.

    The command center lights up with small arms fire as cultists in cover around lines of computers open up with their pistols, submachine guns, and the odd shotgun or two. Corona, Leyanne, and now Amelris, maybe even Tetra, find themselves caught in lines of incoming fire!
Hamada Haru "'I suppose I must' isn't a compelling reason to do anything." Kamen Rider Tetra responds to Sarracennia, actual aggravation seeping its way into his tone. He shakes his head, only raising his vision from the ground in response to Dakkar's telepathic message. He thinks back at her -- assuming she can hear and respond, At least you have some sense.

He turns his head towards Amelris, and pointedly does not explain whether he's bodily present or if he's simply capable of rendering himself intangible.

The appearance of Pavo along the monitors gets a vague dismissive wave out of him-- but he's not dismissive towards /her/ that he can tell. He says, "No blasphemy here."

He raises his left hand, pressing a button on a watch-like device seated on his forearm. There is a roar as a GHOST MOTORCYCLE bursts through the ceiling and comes to settle at Kamen Rider Tetra's side. It may or may not be clipping through somebody or something.

Climbing onto the motorcycle, Kamen Rider Tetra declares, "I'm not joining in pro bono work for an 'I suppose I must', 'Because it's bad not to', 'But we'll kill the exfil if we can't', and a thoughtless 'no comment'."

The lenses of his helmet flash as he asides to one of Pavo's monitors, "There is no need to dignify such lack of philosophical grounding with blaspheme. These are just goons."

With a roar of his Rider Machine, Kamen Rider Tetra ascends through the ceiling and is gone.
Nova Terra     Nova is asked about her plan. She turns to look at Dakkar, a smirk forming below her visor, "Overwhelming force." Pause. "Well, okay, that's not much of a plan. But I didn't exactly have much prep time. Or intel to work with. This is a bit of a rush job."

    Walking into the large hangar, Nova raises her visor to rest on her head and looks around. She nods, impressed by the sight, "Not bad..." She pauses at the sight of the frankenstein ship, "... Okay."

    However, Nova's Ghost-senses start tingling and she turns in the direction of the small zen garden. Spotting the fish-man, Nova focuses on him for a moment... Then smirks. She remembers that one. She looks at the others who came with her to the cargo bay, "I'm going to see if I can find a panel or something to open those bay doors." Blue light washes over her as she vanishes from view, though she does offer up, "Good luck." Yes. Nova just left the rest of the group in plain sight of the Flotilla member, while she hides and scouts out the rest of the bay. Totally not rude.
Big Boss Dakkar's psychic senses alert her to Moonfin, as she speaks to Nova. "I love your sense of planning!"

And then, Nova moves to disappear and leave her in the dust. Lame! Dakkar just starts grabbing a shotgun, checking it - sawn off - and approaching. As soon as Moonfin moves to strike - and she reads his mind to find his 'immediate course of action', something interesting happens.

His nerves would start to lock down, giving her an advantage. "Oh, sorry! I don't play really play fair, fishman. Good night!"

And then she offloads the sawn-off into his center of mass. How rude! But it serves as a great distraction for Nova.
Corona Arclite All that pretty much sums up into the response Corona was expecting. There's a reason she's got her gun ready at her shoulder, and even flicks off the safety as Pavo finishes the speech and blips from the screens as the cultist act on her final command.

... Actually, the blantently visible weapon turns out to be a misdirection.

The wily fox snaps up her other arm and fires the grappler from her gadgeteer gauntlet at one of the cultist's even as she's doing a classic gunslinger dive and roll out of the direct line of fire.

The grappler is aimed to snare the cultist by weapon and arm, so as Corona comes back up from her side-roll the cable locks and she heaves, intending to swing his firing away from her allies and in the direction of his own allies.
Sarracenia      "The important part of that was 'helping my allies'! And there is the stolen ship and scientist!" Sarracenia responds with a huff to KR Tetra as they continue through the tunnels. Damocles makes a point that Sarracenia can't really argue, and so she laughs. "I suppose we are!" she says, still giggling as they walk.

     Sarracenia makes her way into the dry dock area, but pauses when she spots that fishman. She is not always the brightest, but even she can tell he is dangerous. Of course...she kind of likes danger and fighting, so she smirks lightly and steps slowly toward him with her hammer lightly tapping against her shoulder. "Well...aren't you the intimidating one." Despite her confident tone and posture, she stops before getting too close. "Honestly, I am not entirely sure why this ship is important, but when my allies call I respond. So, I suggest you step aside or else you will face the wrath of Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom!"

     She does a showy flourish with her hammer, twirling it about herself skillfully and elegantly and twirling in place herself in the process. The flourish ends with her hammer pointed toward the fishman. "So...what will it be?"
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin's powerful vision is evolutionarily evolved for exactly one purpose: ART APPRECIATION. His outrageously powerful senses do nothing to help him detect Nova, who can get into motion. Good news: Security is relatively light. Bad news: From here on out, dealing with it is going to be tough, because she can't just break stealth and rip it apart. Defensive turrets and security drones sweep wide, dangerous cones of sensor light, scanning around nooks and crannies and patrolling in tight formations. There might be gaps, but they'll be hard to find and harder to exploit without tremendous amounts of effort expended on mobility enhancements.

    And most importantly, the most accessible access panel is near the ship itself, and the objective ship itself has Biteblade skittishly wandering atop it, meaning once Nova starts getting the doors open, she'll have to deal with Biteblade trying to pursue and interfere. Is there any way to redirect that attention?
Amelris Belthrone      "Aren't /you/ mortal?" Amelris comments as the screens are going dark, unsheathing his blade to brandish it out, his free hand waving to draw his casting gem out from his belt, facing the armed people. "I admit, I have zero experience with you folks, so, /sorry about that/."

     As people opens fire, the Red Mage leaps up in the air in a long, far standing flip with his blade glowing with channeled energy. He attempts to land behind the front line to at least get himself SOME cover from his own allies, swinging his blade downward as he get his feets on the ground.

     Then, following up, an outward blast of lightning spreads out from him, spinning around his current location to get as much people as possible. This is ballsy of a manuver, certainly, but he's a bit in a problem situation right now. Hopefully, that can be taken care of by his fellows.
Damocles Damocles senses something, not quite magical, but it's something. He stops, and then sees the zen garden.  Ah right.  That guy.  He remembers that guy.  They fought once before, but Damocles wasn't able to do much against him.  The fishman also said many things about Chaos which were interesting enough to string the sorcerer along to continue getting involved here.

Damocles isn't the only one that remembers him, though.

Him!  He mocks the power of Chaos.  Denies your strength.  Tear blood from flesh and make of him a sacrifice!  Rip out his skull and add it to my throne!

Damocles shakes his head a little, trying to pull all his attention away from the ranting voice of chaos to focus on the task at hand.  He steps forward, along with Dakkar, but motions his staff in her direction to ward off her as she moves to attack.  "I'll keep Blinky busy."

The Chaos sorcerer steps forward, stopping when Moonfin reacts to his presence.  The bottom of his staff clacks against the ground with a resounding echo, a touch louder than it probably should be.  "Well well.  Fancy meeting you here.  You're looking a little pale, I must say.  Something weighing on your soul, friend?"
Leyanne Leyanne looks to Corona "I don't think I like that guy." She comments cussing as a round smacks into her armour and knocks her back half a step. As the fire gets thicker, she steps into cover, readying her 50-cal for Corona to do her thing. She nods approvingly, waiting for the moment everyone dives for cover from the burst of friendly fire.

She takes that moment to step completely out of cover and make sure that both feet are firmly planted on the deck... before filling the control centre with noise and lead. She concentrates fire around Amelris' intended landing-zone, to help make sure that the Miqo'te doesn't end up perforated before he can act.
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin's nerves begin to lock down under Dakkar's influence. The man only manages a brief, sudden motion before he's left a bit more disabled and stunned. It takes about two and a half seconds to send the man from from fully capable to cognitively dampened, and he only managed a few motions from his seated position.

    Unfortunately, with these few motions, he's wound up behind Dakkar, Sarracenia, and Damocles, sheathing his sword. By the time the surging lockdown has reached each part of his brain and caught up with the motions sent through his muscles and through the neural interface that commands his powered armor, his first attack is long past. "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style: Still Waters Hiding Storms."

    He kneels as the weight of the cognitive lockdown hits him, but that'll be the moment the others can know how much they avoided his high-speed slash barrage, one heavy wide swipe for each of them in an elegant pre-programmed pattern coded into his armor. And if Dakkar thinks that even the strongest neural lockdown could stop a Hylotl from talking mad shit, they get to learn otherwise now.

    "As one ought to expect from the Watch. A dishonorable rogue, some kind of human Habsburg detritus, and /you/, /again/, midguided adherent of ill-informed chaos." He practically spits the last words.
Selene      At first, Selene's path puts her in the same direction as Dakkar and Sarracenia going loud, Nova going stealthy, and Damocles going mindly. "Looks like there's a lotta cool stuff in the artzone here... Plan B, guys." She murmurs to her Pokemon, who have enough sense to stop spraying fire on everything, but don't really.. DO anything until she elaborates.

     "... Break stuff over there!" That'll do it. It's not too different from what they were doing before, but now they're headed towards the cargo bay following a bit of discussion with her allies. Why? Because there's probably more stuff to break there, and also because her allies asked nicely enough. It's not like she needs a lot of convincing, thanks to the power of BREAKABLE OBJECTS.

     And maybe stealing some stuff, too, if she can get her grubby mitts all over something sufficiently shiny enough. She's not being particularly quiet about it either way, though, between the larger cat carrying the smaller cat that's lighting fires along the way.
Nova Terra     Nova presses herself up against a catwalk pillar. She glances over in the direction of the fight breaking out... They'll be fine. Probably. Her MECC fight with Moonfin was a close one. But they've got the numbers... Maybe she better get through this quickly.

    Seeing Biteblade hanging around their target ship, Nova already begins working out a plan to handle her, knowing what she does about the Floran. But for the moment, she needs to deal with this security in her way.

    Nova has to assume that those directional scans can probably breach her cloak. Enough to raise the alarm, anyway. And it'd be better to get the doors opening before that happens. So Nova falls back on her training and experience at infiltration. Watching the swinging arcs of the turrets, the patrol paths of the drones. Wait for the right moment...

    A quick dash, followed by a dive into a roll, bringing her up against a cargo container. Her cloak shimmers just a bit from the movement, but you'd have to be looking right in her direction to see it. And given the fight currently playing out, it's unlikely anyone is.

    Crouching, Nova slips around the container, coming to the next patrol path. Tch, it's difficult. The turrets have it pretty well covered. And the gaps are included in the drone patrols. If she tries to get through, one of those drones will fly overhead and catch her in one of those sensor cones...

    Nova glances at the container she's leaning on. Hmmm... If she can't go under the drones. Maybe over? Nova waits for the correct timing, watching the sweeping turrets and the drone patrols. Just as one of those drones is moving into the gap, Nova leaps. She plants a foot against the side of the container, simultaneously channeling her psychic powers into a short burst of telekinetic energy. Which she directs against herself to boost her mobility as she pushes off. The result sends Nova soaring through the air, twisting as she tries to clear her body over the floating drone.
Starbound Flotilla     The friendly fire sprays wide from a submachine gun. Armored cloaks suffer brutal shots and down several cultists. The hefty hawkish man whose gun was ripped aside draws his blade and slashes at the grappler, trying to get it off and discarding his gun. He rushes Amelris, whose electrical blast has just taken out a number of wounded or partially-wounded other cultists. Powering through the pain, he comes in fast hefty sword swings, calling out in a zealous tone! "Our god knows the truth! That the division between mortal and god is /not real/!"

    Another brash, brave cultist, this one a woman with two scimitars, raises one and charges, ducking and weaving with surprising speed around the incoming fire. "Divinity is what we make it! Our blessings are /just as real/!!"

    She suffers several of those 50-cal bullets dead on, refuses to go down, and tries to fall on Leyanne sword-first. Without medical aid she'll probably be dead in about a minute and unconscious in maybe thirty seconds, but that doesn't stop her zealous efforts to keep Leyanne from suppressing the counterattack against Amelris!

    Pavo is beginning to stride into the room from the opposite end as the tunnel entrance, gleaming with divine gold light and swishing that gold robe stylishly. "I am a god because of what I do. I bless, I smite, I answer prayer, I give wisdom. What is the difference between me and the greatest of gods?"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is many things. Elegant, strong, graceful, outspoken...but unfortunately evasive is not among those things. When Moonfin slashes at them, Sarracenia barely has time to react let alone avoid anything. She yelps as the strikes and falls to a knee herself as cuts seem to her to just appear on her and her dress. Even one on her cheek!

     She growls lightly and stands again before turning to face the kneeling Hylotl, then smirks again. "Is there someone else here? I am a princess, so none of those things applies to me." she says of his insults. She starts toward him again and reaches into the satchel purse she carries with her, then pulls out a cute little black spherical creature with big shiny black eyes and big yellow boots for feet. "In fact, the only detritus I see here is a giant foil-wrapped fish stick!" she says as she throws the bob-omb with a grin on her face."
Damocles The heavy slash is met with Damocles's magical barrier spells and advanced armor, and just like before, the sword is quite effective at breaking them both.  It's not a hit that was unexpected to the Chaos Sorcerer, but it's one he didn't really have a great plan for.  He's aware of how fast Moonfin's strikes come out, and there's really not much to be done other than stacking armor.

Still, something about what Moonfin says after that, sticks into Damocles even worse than a sword.  Ill-informed Chaos?  Damocles follows Tzeentch, the Weaver of Fate.  The Keeper of Secrets.  Nobody is better informed.  Perhaps it's time for Damocles to make use of that.

Damocles doesn't normally like asking Tzeentch for anything, but in this case, something compels him to.  Perhaps it's just the fact that he briefly heard the voice of Khorne in his mind, and felt the need to realign.  Whatever reason, the Chaos Sorcerer asked his patron a simple question. 

And got a simple answer.

Damocles turns slowly to look at Moonfin, who stands behind him.  Despite the gash across his chest, the sorcerer laughs, a slow, deep, quiet laugh.  "Ill-informed, you say.  I guess you're right, I don't know much about your people.  Perhaps I should have a chat with the Drowned Florans?  I hear that nobody knows the /true/ glory of your people quite like they do, eh?"

One small flaw in Moonfin's fighting style has been noted by Damocles, who does expect a follow-up strike from his words.  Moonfin announces his attacks.  So, instead of trying to prepare a defense, Damocles waits until Moonfin declares a style.  If he does, the sorcerer immediately slams his staff into the ground again, sending a powerful shockwave radiating out in all directions from himself.
Leyanne Leyanne attempts to bring down the charging cultist, even making a swing with that big gun of hers to try and block, but sometimes, sheer bloody-mindedness can carry the day. The sword hits Leyanne's breastplate, skitters down the metal scoring deep, and then slices through the bodysuit in the areas not covered by the plating. The mouse staggers back with a cuss, holding the wound even as the cultist drops at her feet.

She ducks back into cover a moment, slapping a patch over her the gash in suit before stepping half-way out of cover, resuming her covering fire - with a bit less accuracy than before, and a narrower field of fire.

    "Took a hit... still in the fight. Fuckers are brave."
Starbound Flotilla     Selene makes it to the CARGO AREA. This area is well-stocked with huge incoming shipments of various chemicals and raw ship materials, and outgoing shipments of mostly chemicals. Yes, in the big dangerous barrel format. There's a number of other things being made in this manufactory as well -- weapons, armor, other suchlike -- but this is the key.

    Albert is the one who is here, though. Lugging around a big-ass assault rifle and a hammer over his back, too! Shit. She's not being particularly quiet, which means he notices her fast. Oddly enough for Albert though... he doesn't open fire instantly. "You again. Found a different plan?" She mentioned her intentions last time. So, this time, Albert isn't attacking her instantly. But he's /thinking/ she might not be as much intending to join them. It depends, of course, on what she says next while the gun's trained on her amid those rows of barrels and shipping crates.
Corona Arclite The cable is sliced off and the cultist is on his merry way after the sword-mage or whatever it is Amelris is. The rest of it is discarded on the ground so the device can reload before Corona needs it to do any more fancy grappling maneuvers. It got the job done, giving her teammates a chance to move in. She switchs to her own firearm, popping off a few shots at random cultists.

And then Pavo strides into the room in person. Despite the size of the chamber you can almost feel it become crowded by that ego.

"Huh. Ya are actu'lly here." Corona turns to level her handcannon at the Avian. "But don't that kinda make the whole shtick with the screens redundant?"

She fires the overpowered gun, if only to try and keep Pavo from charging headlong into the fight and making things a lot messier for the moustian and the catteman. "Ah mean, points fer style, but it ain't all that practical."
Big Boss Dakkar is stunned as he slashes before he's controlled. The sudden slashes she wasn't expecting slice into her, cutting her armor and sending her staggering backwards, bleeding lightly across the cheek. And then, she laughs. "You're so cool! Let's crush you."

The sawn-off is finally fired this time, straight for Moonfin's chest. He finds that she's not only fast, but she levitates, allowing her to basically skate across the ground like a ballerina.

"Dishonorable rogue, that's cute. Call me more names."
Starbound Flotilla     Nova's over the rainbow, or in this case, the patrol route! Through deft maneuvering and careful avoidance of directed sensors, she's managed to make it past and to the panel, though she'll have to gracefully grab onto it in time and find a way to mitigate the sound -- or to distract Biteblade when the sound happens?

    There's also the key matter of how to keep her from interfering once the doors start opening, of course, but the panel itself (a maintenance hatch that lets one access some bare wires to hotwire the door) isn't too hard to deal with! Biteblade paces tensely, clearly wanting to go get involved with one of the fights, but dedicated to staying here for security's sake.
Amelris Belthrone      The lightning having done it's desired effect, the Red Mage brings up his sword to brandish it up against the rushing Hawkish man, gritting his teeth. A scimitar versus a Rapier is not a great matchup for the second but Enhancing the blade should fill the gap up. Amelris grit his teeth, ears turned back in effort as he holds his other hand behind his blade, gem glowing as he pushes back. "Well, /good for you/. Perhaps you should think of REBRANDING yourselves because even as fake Gods goes -- and I've seen my share -- this ain't very divine. Then /again/,", The Red Mage snarls, light coming off his casting gem, condensing into a spiral of purple light that condenses out into a large point-blank blast at the man, through the blade. "I don't really know her."

     Then the Goddess herself comes striding in. He know they have some fearsome technology and power at their disposal, but despite in middle of /all/ this fighting, his attention is on the dress. The Red Mage disengages from the man whenever his blast do the job or not to leap back out, sliding accross the floor to get behind some cover -- then let out a loud, /appreciative/ whistle.

     "HOOOOO my, my, my, MY!" Amelris calls out, Arcane energy gathering up in his free hand. "That's /what you look like/? I can FULLY believe some people are thinking you're divine with that /gorgeous/ dress. Is that synthetic silk? Reinforce with some treated energy flows? Kudos to the artisan, they have done a WONDERFUL job on that front! Not aetheric but I can sense the energy from over here! Good Heavens! Not divine in the slightest beyond the artisan work, but HEY, this is /ELEGANT/."

     The Red Mage unleash a blast of energy, followed up from his previous one out over at one entrance -- that is, trying to clear out a path to get to the Scientist.
Selene      When Albert makes his presence known, the Snorlax actually shows a bit of initiative and brushes the back of the Torracat's head, halting the flames. That gives the Apex and the human the opportunity to address each other without the threat of fire or being fired upon right away!

    "Oh! Hey, it's the doctor from that movie again!" At least she didn't say monkey. "Yeah... Nah. Wait. I think it changed, yeah. Boss' got his plan going to do... Something." She furrows her brow, pursing her lips for a moment before snapping her fingers. "Oh! Yeah, I think it's some kinda secret, though, and I wasn't really paying attention because everyone was going on about weird financial stuff or things that don't get us paid, but I'm pretty sure he's got something going on in there because he's got that mysterious hot old guy vibe going on, so it's in his contract not to reveal it until dramatically appropriate."

    Selene's speaking rather candidly, although she's still keeping one foot ready to dive just in case things get hairy. "You're still gonna do that zombie truth serum thing, right? I'm just here to break and take stuff if you wanna... I dunno." She looks to her left, then to her right, then tries to pick up the nearest barrel.

    She is not nearly strong enough to do that. "... Join me in breaking stuff? It'll be fun~"
Nova Terra     Nova has reached the panel. Victory! Okay, premature victory. But Nova is already working on a way to distract Biteblade. Nova knows one obvious thing about the Floran. She's a predator that hunts. And what do predators like?

    Nova pulls a stimpak from a compartment on her suit. But she doesn't inject it. She doesn't need the boost right now. Instead she removes the canister containing the happy fun time juice and replaces it with an empty one. She then jabs the needle into a slot in the arm of her suit, designed specific for this. The canister visibly fills with blood.

    Removing the canister from the injector once more, Nova fiddles with it, forcing the cap open. Not too much so the contents spill out, but enough that a good jolt will knock the cap free. She then throws the canister into a different part of the bay. As it hits the ground, it breaks open, Nova's blood beginning to spill out and pool.

    Nova watches the Floran closely, hoping she'll take the bait. Only once she does, does Nova proceed to work on the panel to start the doors opening. She doesn't expect the distraction to work for long, but once the process has started, Nova can focus her attention on preventing anyone from stopping it.
Starbound Flotilla     "I should expect such ignorance of human 'nobility'." Moonfin grunts. Stimulants rush into his system, trying to counteract the neurological lockdown. He's speedballing in his brain, honestly. But it gives him what he needs. He goes to slice the fuse off, but what he winds up doing is slamming the bomb to one side, only loosely averting the blast. Then he takes a shotgun shot dead-on, and armor layers spray wide.

    He stumbles. He listens, too, but that's something he can't stop. He grits his teeth. "You make this claim that you, too, have a plan, simply in secret. You have nothing. What can be achieved without the resolve to build is nothing at all." And then Damocles says something in particular. Both eyes widen and the third eye locks onto him. "You would speak of the Drowning of the Florans?" He stands in a much less shakey stance. "I see that you can see knowledge. You cannot see truths. How fitting. How fitting! You simple humans can see plans and knowledge and know no truths that would spur you on to the action you need."

    He flicks his sword to one side. "What an appropriate name. 'The Watch'. So many insolent sub-Hylotl primates that can see so much and yet /know/ so little. You people, who can see the world fall apart and yet have no /vision/." The venom on his voice sounds hateful. Violently hateful. He draws -- shit! Suddenly he draws a heavy pistol and tries to blast Dakkar and Sarracenia! A surprise move from a samurai who always fights with his blade. But it's still in his offhand! "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style:"

    The shockwave blasts his kneecaps apart. Despite sustaining the damage, he refuses to stop advancing. /That/ may have been difficult to plan for. "Shores Crushed Beneath Tides!" His slice is meant to behead Damocles, and it's unthinkably fast.
Damocles The Chaos sorcerer is not beheaded this day, saved by the fact that his staff is held upright next to his body, and must be cut through first.  This is not nearly so easy a task, as the staff, Eye of Tzeentch by name, is a Force Staff of ancient construction, fortified by the power of Chaos of the Architect of Fate himself. The impossibly fast strike hits hard against the neigh unbreakable weapon, and time itself seems to pause for an instant as the universe tries to decide how to resolve this clash.

In a flash, Damocles is sent flying backwards, landing on his hip, and rolling back to his feet.  His glowing eyes are slightly narrowed, but the sorcerer laughs louder this time. 

"Oh, but I see *quite* clearly.  I see a man, diluted by visions of his own grandeur, willfully blind to the overwhelming harm he leaves in his wake!"  Damocles stands tall again, holding his staff defensively between himself and Moonfin as he continues, his voice rising loudly one, "I see a bloody tyrant who holds himself above others, and believes his imagined superiority gives him the right to rule!"

Damocles smiles, a barbed, wicked smile, hidden by his shadows hood and yet still as plain as day in the slight curl of his glowing eyes.  "You spoke of the true Chaos in you, and for the first time, I see it clearly.  *Brother*."

Damocles holds his staff in front of him, and channels the subversive force of Chaos through it, directed at Moonfin again.  It manifests not as lightning or fire, but a dark, blighted fog that seeks to seep into his body through his very skin, and settle like a heavy brine in his muscles, slowing his every moment to deprive him of that speed he has used so effectively. 
Starbound Flotilla     "I was upstairs." Pavo says, brushing that question about where she was off quickly. She snaps, and sparks with golden lightning as her cloak deploys a pair of healdrones that go for the collapsed, unconscious sword-master that Leyanne took down, stabilizing and saving her. "But I answer the prayers of my flock. I bless them with what they need. I hold power over their life and death." The shots arc at Pavo fast, but are blunted by three orbs that rush in-between, melting together into a geometric shield! One they rip through, but it's enough to stop her from biting it.

    She hears what Amelris has to say. Not even a blush. Not even a moment of indignity. Yet, something changed about her emotional approach. Pavo simply points a gauntleted finger at Amelris, which flickers with a soft red light at the fingertip. He said the Bad Words, about divinity, and about Pavo not being divine. "Die, blasphemer." From nowhere clear or obvious, a beam of golden heat rips through the control center, slanted a bit, tearing up rows of computers and trying to annihilate Amelris with artillery force. He cleared the cultists out of the way with his energy blast, but now they're out of the way of the incoming beam!

    As she keeps her finger pointed at him, a few hand motions result in those three orbs suddenly beginning to lash out, whirling in wide arcs at high speeds to try to beat Leyanne and Corona thoroughly with brutal impact. The magnorbs are tough little things!
Starbound Flotilla     MEANWHILE IN THE DRY DOCK

    One of the heavier gunships under assembly in the dry-dock hums to life, as if remote-activated. A huge turret atop it, near the nose, swivels around, points directly at the control center area, and lances a golden beam of heat through the wall. This doesn't affect anyone in the dry-dock, but it's happening where they can see it.
Leyanne Leyanne looks down as the one she shot up is saved, giving a slight nod of approval. "Doesn't make you a god, Pavo. I had the same trick done to me." She calls out, about to say more when an orb smashes into the side of her helmet, knocking her to the ground and causing her to say a very bad word on the way down. She lets go of her gun and disengages the ammo-feed, standing up and looking around for a drone, a trickle of blood running from one nostril as she pulls a heavy-head torque wrench from somewhere.
"Right..." she mutters. "It's time to show you why I got banned from the Polar City Baseball park"

    The next time an orb comes for her she takes a half-step forward and swings her wrench with everything her left arm has got, hoping to smash the incoming orb into one of the others.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia huffs at the way Moonfin says 'nobility'. "I could say the same of you, thinking you could treat the Watch in this way without expecting reprisal!" she says to his comment about ignorance. Despite that, she clearly is ignorant of some of what is going on judging by her clueless look when he mentions the drowning of the Florans. Talking about seeing truths though, that makes her huff again. "Of course we cannot simply see truths! One would need omniscient powers to simply see truths! We can only go by what we know!" She doesn't really know that Damocles can talk to chaos gods either.

     That becomes a bit more clear when Damocles talks about seeing things. He could be talking about observations he's made, but Sarra considers herself pretty observant and this seems more like the seers kind of seeing. And there's the whole true Chaos line.

     And then...a gun! Sarra yelps and holds the giant head of her hammer in front of herself, deflecting most of the shots aimed her way except for one that manages to catch her in the leg. She yelps again and once again ends up on a knee. "I am not sure what is going on between you two..." she says to Damocles and Moonfin, "...but you -do- seem to be the more deluded one, Mr. Fish Fillet. Talking about the ignorance of others and speaking as if you are somehow superior to us. I have read enough heroic novels that I know such is the talk of a villain! And as an aspiring heroine, I am happy to stop would-be villains!"

     She is about to do something when that gunship hums to life. She watches it a moment before smirking and pulling out a large green leaf. With a squeeze it disappears in a puff of white smoke which surrounds the princess for a moment before disapating, leaving her with a raccoon tail and ears. She starts running, then takes to the air and flies up above that gunship. With some idea that it might be causing other allies of theirs some trouble, she goes into a diving spin and hammers that gunship, aiming to forcefully redirect that beam toward Moonfin.
Big Boss A pistol wound suddenly hits Dakkar in the side, as she slides backwards, reloading her shotgun. "Shit, shit, he's great!" She's a little bit manic, a little bit high-energy, but she can keep her eye on the prize.

Taking this man down.

A hand is waved in Moonfin's direction, and suddenly, psychic sedation hits him hard, trying to render him numb and tired. He's already wounded, so it's probably pretty effective, and is basically 'her equivalent of non-lethal damage'.
Starbound Flotilla     Albert grunts. "He won't change enough. Soldiers, police, security. The status quo's immune system. The man is nothing but soldier. He won't fix this. Doesn't know how to imagine a better world. Only guerilla tactics to achieve it." He chambers a round. "It's /my/ stuff." He's probably about to open fire; unless Selene has a compelling thing to say, he cuts loose with quick, controlled bursts trying to kill this child before her fun cartoon animals can intercept his attack.
Corona Arclite The handcannon was being leveled for another shot just as the magnorb hurtles through the air, knocking the weapon out of Corona's hand.

With the other hand she pulls and uncollapses a riot shield. The second arc of the orbs slams into that, and the durable alloy takes the blow but the kinetic force still makes Corona skid backwards. The next arc does the same. She grunts, then ears flick up as she hears the clunk behind her as her firearm bounces off one of the consoles and clatters to the floor. Thanks to her exceptional hearing she doesn't need to actually look to tell what direction it landed in.

A quick calculation in her head and Corona waits until the last moment to yank her shield -out- of the way and let the orb slam into her. At the same time she flips the shield to catch the handle of the handcannon and catapult it back into the air. She hits the ground with a groan, but skidding on the floor from the impact allows her to catch the weapon.

No time to worry about how badly bruised her side is going to be in the morning, even with the reinforced duster. Corona drops onto her back, reloading the gun as she does, and kicks the shield into the air above her, waiting for it to be flipping end over end at the right angle to fire her handcannon. The shield is sent hurtling in one direction to likely imbed in a wall from the force as it deflects the round in the opposite one. At an angle to hit an opposite wall and ricochete towards Pavo from an entirely different vector, hopefully before she has a chance to recollect the orbs into a shield again.
Amelris Belthrone      In a way, he's pretty glad he blasted the cultists out of the way. He wouldn't have wanted them to be 'smitted' by the 'divine rage' of this 'Goddess'.

     Amelris's beaming face don't budge as she raise a soft, red lighted fingertip aimed at him. Yep, that was to be expected, her comes the retribution for his blasphemy. With the exception that it does not come from anywhere /near/ he expected it to be, or to be of the same size.

     "Oooooooh SHITE." The Red Man lets out, eyes wide as he dashes out of his cover -- one console that is instantly destroyed in his wake -- and keeps dashing at full speed to stay out, just keeping ahead with just a few inches. His back get caught up in it as does the rear end of his soles, the tip of his tail burning up into an ember of flame by being to near to it. That's gonna take a while to regrow! Then... something comes up on radio.

     Ah. A ship. From the Dry Docks. Firing a golden beam. Which means it's being directed...

     A daring plan forms up in Amelris' brain as he reaches up to the wall, diving doen to slide along it in his perpetual mad dash to avoid being plasma blasted by a golden beam of pseudo-divine light. He leaps against the wall, soaring up to grab up one of the hard light lamps attached to the ceiling, swinging himself to the next and keeping mobile. The sole of his boots burns up with another close call with the beam, burning up his foot while he takes turns and tumbles accross the room with his swashbuckling antics...

     Until to finish it up from the other end of the room, rocketing accross the charred ground like an arrow and his rapier drawn at high speed against Pavo, taking good note of where the Dry Docks is and, with a good hope, confused things enough to make the Golden Beam a problem for /her/ as well.
Starbound Flotilla     Bait set. Now, being fair here, Biteblade doesn't have massively superhuman senses of smell, but she *is* a cannibal carnivore, so when Nova's *intentionally* putting that delicious fresh-meat smell on the wind, it does leave Biteblade with an urge to go see about it. She leaps a rocket-assisted jump over one ship nearer to the blood, sniffing at the air to try to figure out more about it. She's not got the senses needed to tell exactly where it is, which is why she's pacing around staring in its direction at a distance. But this means her eyes aren't on the panel anymore! They'll only be there when the doors start opening!

    The panel is straightforward. Wires for power and control systems are clear and simple, the Flotilla built this thing about last month so it's all simple, rather prefab, that sort of thing. She can hotwire this thing to open up -- when she wants, of course.
Selene      "Oh. Right. You're in the Flotilla and I'm supposed to be breaking Flotilla stuff.. Riiight right right." Selene almost forgot about that. No, she definitely forgot about that. "Well, why not both? You've got your plan to fix things from the bottom up, and that's cool. He's got his plans to do... Whatever Bossy things he's got in his head, so we could just make both things works somehow. Besides, he's probably smarter than I'm making him sound which isn't that hard because I don't know what kinda stuff he's thinking but it's probably not gonna mess up your plans unless you don't want him to do cool beard guy things."

    She's kind of grasping at straws here. Unles that actually ends up being compelling enough, Selene's going to have to dive for cover! She's not exactly an athlete, though, and she takes a round in the arm before the giant bearcat can move into position to cover her. The smaller firecat, meanwhile, leaves the safety of the bearcat to fire back at Albert with literally fire, spraying it wildly at him and whatever's nearby!
Nova Terra     The Floran is distracted, Nova takes the opportunity. She pulls the panel off. Reaching down she draws a knife from her armored boot. She uses it to slice into wires, starting to rewire them to force the doors open.

    As Nova does this, she quietly orders into her radio, "Eagle one, move into position now. Prepare for a run on my signal. Condor one, hold for the moment then proceed on Eagle's go."
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin is hit, suddenly, by a wave of heavy muscular lockdown. And a fresh wave of neurological lockdown as well! Every angle is designed to deny him the power of that speed he so often exploits, and it's working. While he keeps his stance, he's not capable of any of those dash attacks, not at all. Yet, still, despite sedating him, he still speaks with determined focus. "'Imagined superiority'? You think I have the same delusions as the fascists of your galaxy?" He narrows all three eyes. "The superiority of the Hylotl is no propaganda. Our way of life is utopian despite galactic suffering. Our knowledge is the greatest of any race despite our limited lifespan. Our combat prowess, even bound by honor and pacifism, are the ultimate end of any war. And our people shall never allow lies to prop up our society the way humans do."

    He brings the sword up. A ready stance. His teeth grit intensely. "This world is built on a foundation of lies, and when that foundation crumbles to dust, humans will curse that they were unworthy to be blessed with this third eye by nature." And then comes the beam. Sarracenia is delivering Pavo's own holy light directly onto Moonfin's head. He grunts in intense pain, armor shearing off as he's forced to kneel by the impact. Blood spills, and sparks fly. "And you. You think yourself a heroine in training, an aspiring protagonist to the tales you've read. You're fighting, without an ounce of understanding, to save a status quo that will lead to complete ecological collapse, with no vision, no scheme, no plan to save the world, only to save a moment's worth of miserable peace. The ultimate display of the truth of the Watch: Observation, without vision."

    When the beam ceases, Moonfin is kneeling, propped up on his katana. His zen rage rumbles under the surface, but there's too many things keeping him from pursuing -- if he could even survive doing so, with the wounds inflicted on him. This might be the time to grab that objective ship, but it might take way too long to finish the fish-man off.
Starbound Flotilla     "The power to do that doesn't make me a god. Anyone with enough medical knowledge can do that." Pavo says, advancing with an arm folded elegantly behind her back. "You know what makes me a god? Nothing. Nothing, and everything. I am a god because I dispense wisdom, because I smite, because I bless, because I answer prayer. Those don't mean anything, and they mean everything. I am a god because I say I am when I save a life and when I take one. The word has never meant anything. I am divinity in its most pure and tautological. And that is why I can bring salvation to this world. Because whatever I do here? It is by divine right. It is salvation."

    A glance to one side. Leyanne has damaged two of those orbs. Pavo's eyes widen when she sees Corona going for her gun, and with a small twitch of the hand behind her back, she brings even the damaged orbs in. They're slower, but they form up a shield between her and Corona... and then the bullet it bent, bouncing around and catching her in the hip, with the shield too slow to intervene!

    She can't move when the beam is drawn over her. Armor slags. Elegant finery and silks are charred to ash. Yet, Amelris is coming in close. Pavo lashes out a power-assisted gauntlet and tries to slam it around Amelris' neck while it's harder for him to see in the blinding light. As the beam is suddenly swept away by impacts elsewhere, her gleaming gold eyes shine through the resulting dark. She's in so much pain and she's so generally unstable that there's a good chance she's not one hundred percent conscious of an effort to choke the man.

    The scientist can be recovered while she's busy with this. The cultists are scattered but trying to regroup, so get it and get out fast if you want to. Might be wise to use the massive hole torn in the control center, which gives easy access to the dry dock for those willing to deal with a long fall or a precarious leap to the top of the ships.
Big Boss As Moonfin goes down and begins arguing with Damocles, Dakkar seems to not be paying attention to the raving. She /is/ paying attention, because she's not stupid or actually truly disrespectful, but she purposely cultivates the air that she doesn't care.

When the beam comes down and ceases, Dakkar...says her piece on the radio, that he's too fun and gets to live, and then starts floating at rapid speed towards the ship.

"Get ready to drive once everyone's in! We're out of here!" Dakkar shouts out, not being licensed to fly /anything/.
Starbound Flotilla     "If the Watch is in the way, we won't 'allow' anything." Albert says, blasting and blasting. "Compromise at the end of the world is for people with poor self-esteem." He is lit on fire, and so now Albert Petrov is on fire, which doesn't seem to have discouraged him in the slightest. There's the smell of burning flesh and hair. Armor systems overload. The man blasts the firecat, the bearcat, the child, with a demanding stance that refuses to nenter cover tactically. He's trying to shock-and-awe her, to force her out of the room with mindgames.

    Barrels are starting to burn and leak. Chemistry is getting wild in here. The fire is spreading, and fire suppression systems are starting to desperately spray! Part of this is shock and awe, another part of this is... an intent to staunch the bleeding and force Selene out of this cargo bay before Albert gets to extinguishing the growing blaze! "There is no collaboration. Can't wait for diplomatic meetings, appeals to heroic gut-feelings. Have to cut this problem out before it becomes terminal."
Damocles Damocles slowly walks towards Moonfin.  Not in a threatening way, but so casually that one might think he was going to offer to help him up.  Damocles's staff is held loosely at his side, in a spot conveniently able to rapidly come up and block if Moonfin announces an attack or starts to move, but definitely not in a combat posture.

Damocles pulls down his hood with his other hand, revealing his unshrouded face.  He's smiling gently, his face looking sympathetic, almost pitying as he shakes his head slightly.  He clicks his mouth as he continues to approach, finally stopping when he's a respectable distance again.

"Tsk tsk.  Is that really what you see?  Hmmph.  I wonder if your people ever even invented the mirror, or if turning that 'special eye' of yours onto yourselves was just too painful to think about.  You could certainly do with some reflection."
Amelris Belthrone      Amelris didn't precisely expect a powered gauntlet at his throat. Daring plans tend to have daring consequences, that's just how it is.

     The Miqo'te slams straight into her grasp, the Red Mage's eyes wide with some surprise as he stare back into her golden eyes as she speaks, a hand up to struggle against the squeezing gauntlet. He gurgles for a moment, his burning tail flailing wildly behind him. Darkness falls around them and, he presume.

     "Not... too different, huh?" Amelris tries to wheeze out, manipulating his rapier to slides it up at himself in the grip, between his neck and her hand. He cuts himself, sure, but it gives him some leverage. "I encourage, I ... aid dreams, I destroy when they are out of line."

     He snaps himself out of her grasp, gasping with a hand to the slight cut to his throat he just done to himself. "I guess the main differences are of ego... or that everything around us is divine and all depends on perceptions?"

     With a cough, he rubs his throat and nods at the two others. "Let's get out of here. Quick."
Damocles MEANWHILE, in the mind of a Chaos Sorcerer:

KILL HIM!

LICK HIM!

Why would he lick him?

I want to know what he tastes like.

I could tell you.

It's no fun if you *tell* me!

It wouldn't be fun either way.

Spoilsport. 
Sarracenia      Sarracenia lands on the gunship after hammering it and watches the beam and the fishman until both stop. "...what are you talking about? I am not defending any status quo or trying to cause an ecological disaster. Not that ecology has done my home any favors. Where I live it works every day to break the city and its people down. As I understand it, we are saving the world from becoming a mind-controlled dystopia! People are supposed to be free to make their own choices!" she says to Moonfin before following Dakkar to the ship.

     But, before she heads inside she looks toward Moonfin again. "You fought well, and you seem to have some nobility somewhere beneath those scales. So...here." She reaches into her purse and pulls out...a green mushroom! She floats it toward Moonfin, then slips into the ship and heads toward the pilot's seat. She settles in and tries to familiarize herself with the controls as they wait for the doors to open and the other Watch operatives to join them.
Selene      "Ow, crap what the... That really freaking hurt, jerk!" Selene snaps back at Albert, actually sounding somewhat angry for once thanks to the power of BLEEDING. The shock keeps her from just passing out on the spot, at least, but it's clear that she's not meant for fighting when that's enough to get her on the back foot and losing coherence. "Compromise, my butt... I thought your plan was cool enough to work even without the Boss'!"

     Perhaps some small part of her actually managed to remember something. "It's not like /everyone/ in the Watch is slow. Long and boring plans are for vampires and old babies, and I'm neither! So just chill your... Hairs and... Suh..." As much as she's trying to form coherent thoughts, Selene's having a fair bit of trouble doing that /and/ getting something to staunch the physical bleeding on her end. The Snorlax does an admirable job backing up with the trainer to start getting out of the cargo area, absorbing all those shots meant for her through its girth and roaring angrily, only kept in check by the need to keep the much frailer human from getting shot up entirely.

    The cat, meanwhile, still ahs its temper flaring as it gets shot and keeps firing back. It takes a couple of shots to the legs and hobbles around to get back to relative safety with Selene and the Snorlax, and it's clear that this is becoming more of a fighting retreat for the trio.
Leyanne Leyanne nods to Corona and surges forward, past Pavo and Amelris and to the room where the scientist is contained. She punches the door until it's dented enough for her to get a grip on and then rips it from his hinges, throwing it out of the way for Corona to get inside and disarm any other security that might be containing him. She doesn't say anything, taking a moment to finally try and staunch the bleeding from her nose. "Ow..."
Corona Arclite Took a combined on the fly effort, but it's slowed Pavo down enough she's occupied with ... well, poor Amelris, but a Hero of Light can handle some of that right? Right?

Corona rolls off the floor and onto her feet. "You got this!" she shouts encouraging, then vaults over a terminal and scampers for the scientist's interrement. No time to be delicate. "Hey Tiny, Ah could use an open says-a-me over here!" Which Leyanne is already on, good girl.

The fox is already hatching another on-the-fly idea, swapping the previous grappler device for one with a stronger tension cord.

Once the martian has broken the containment open for her Corona grabs the scientist and pulls him out. "Don't panic, it's us. Again. And hopefully the last time." She does her best to smile reassuringly. "But yer gonna have to hang on. This is gonna be a ride."

Corona fires the grappler up to snag a chunk of structural support jutting out of the hole blasted in the command center, using the stronger mechanism and tension to hoist both him and herself out through the opening.

It's a few moments of possibly panic causing free-fall outside that follows, until they're far enough from the opening she can deploy an emergency glider to sail down to the opening hanger and ship the others are 'appropriating' for their escape.
Starbound Flotilla     The hangar blast doors pop wide, courtesy of Nova Terra. A quick hydraulic burst, and then a slow drind as they open wider and wider... She'll have to keep them hotwired the whole time! Which will probably necessitate jumping onto the ship as it passes by. Because fucking /typical/ action-setpiece design. Sarracenia finds that this isn't too difficult to understand how to pilot; Glitch cockpit design is a lot closer to her homeworld's airship design than anything else, really! Everyone but Damocles will get their chance to jump aboard the fresh ship and its oddly patchwork multi-corporate design. Where is this thing being taken exactly?

    Well, out of here for one. The doors are just wide enough to fly out now. Albert only pursues Selene enough to make sure that she's clear of the room, because he needs to get that fire suppressed /now/, before more product gets damaged. Leyanne has managed to rip the space-airlock-grade door apart, which is about what one would expect for a door designed to deal with pressure and not with overpowered robotics. The scientist has no nearby security measures to prevent Corona from grabbing him and gliding outta there to the ship! Leyanne and Amelris have mostly dealt with Pavo, but the cultists in the room are about to be a lot less dazed and a lot more shooty; now that nothing's more at stake here, might be a good idea to exit quick, tempting though it undoubtedly may be to shoot the dazed Pavo to try to finish her off.

    The losses are one ship, one VIP, and a pretty hefty batch of product. It's going to take a while to regain steam, and the Flotilla can't muster a pursuit force.

    Yet.

    Will be a good idea to put some distance between you and Deep Lacuna fast. Welcome starlight streams in through the dry-dock hangar doors. Better get this thing out to those stars.
Nova Terra     Nova keeps the the doors opening, watching as the others secure the ship they're here to grab. She won't be able to leave the panel until they're away, else the doors will close too quickly on them. Nova herself will not have much time either, but she's already planned for that. Well technically it was plan A. This is more plan B. Things change quickly on a battlefield. Nova orders over her radio, "Eagle 1, hit it!"

    Through the opening hangar doors a blurred distortion in the air flies it. It quickly slows, moving to a hover in the air. Suddenly rockets begin to appear from it, flying out to rain down on the contents of the hangar, helping to cover the escaping ship. In particular, the turrets and drones Nova had to evade find themselves amidst the explosions, giving Nova a satisfied feeling.

    Once the transport with the others has escaped, the blur moves down to Nova's position and decloaks, revealing the form of one of Nova's Banshees. The Ghost runs, jumping up onto the top of the craft and grabbing hold before radioing, "Go! Go! Go!" The twin rotors of the Banshee rev up faster as the craft quickly accelerates upwards, barely fitting between the bay doors as they close once more.
Sarracenia      Once the others are onboard, Sarracenia giggles with child-like delight at getting to fly the ship. Sure, she has her own personal airship, but nothing as fancy as this! Her wooden VTOL really can't compare when it comes to aesthetics, even with this being an amalgamation of different ships. As the doors open the ship rises just enough to be airborn and rotates toward the doors, then Sarracenia grins and calls out, "Hang on!"

     Explosions follow in their wake thanks to Nova, and as they rocket through the doors which are barely open enough for the ship to fit she lets out a whoop and a laugh before sending the ship into a barrel roll. To ensure they don't get hit by any pursuit fire, of course. Totally not just for fun. "Yeeeehaaaaaw!"