Scene #4176: The Plunder

Owner	Pose
Morrigan	Mars is buzzing with activity. Finally, Netreba and Calder have given the go-ahead for the so-called Big Op. Today, the Wargods are going to strike the GTVA where it hurts and, in so doing, buy some time for the UEF fleets to regroup and repair. It's a bold move, really. They'll strike at the GTL Agincourt, a massive logistics ship responsible for keeping GTVA ships in the war. A GTVA mole has been instrumental in passing along its jump schedule. The UEFg Altan Orde and UEFg Katana will strike Jupiter, drawing Steele's attention there. As that happens, the rest of the Wargods - UEFg Yangtze and UEFg Indus, along with their allies - will hit, and steal, the Agincourt. The mission is simple enough, as Simms explains. Take out its escort - the cruisers Elissa and Utica and the corvette Siren - and splash its attending fighters. Then take out the Agincourt's engines and board it and do this in ten minutes without backup or reinforcements. See? Simple. The Indus and Yangtze jump out, and arrive in the vicinity of the Agincourt. Jamming goes up immediately and the Wargods sortie for the kill. The Agincourt is a big ungainly looking thing, easily the size of a Tev destroyer - all fuel pods, containers and huge engines. The three attending Tev warships are all modern ones, and the corvette especially seems built to kill warships with three spinal beams. They turn to meet the UEF assault head on.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr's hanging back with the strike team this time out. She'll jump out and go starfighter if need be, but her place will likely be on board the Agincourt, hacking computer systems and messing with the GTVA defenders by sucking the air out of compartments or locking them out of certain areas... so she waits, watching and sending prayers to the fighter jocks and the capital ships.
Corona Arclite	This is a bit more dangerous than usual, so Corona has swapped her usual cosmic western duds for an actual space-jumpsuit. But still has the stetson hat. Even a cowboy in space needs the hat. Granted it's a -space- stetson that can turn into a space helmet if she needs it to, but still! With that and her gear harness loaded up, she looks ready to rock and roll out when the strike team crashes the big ship party. Idly she pumps the action of the Forge Sweeper to arm it. It emits the same sort of 'chng-chnk' pumping a shotgun would, but instead of loading shells one can see the green-blue glow crackling to life in the power generator that composes the chamber as its pulsarium core starts building up plasma. "This is gonna be just like wranglin' up a smuggler train. Just, y'know, in space an' all."
Rory White	If this was pure Argonauts business, Rory wouldn't be here. She's yet to meet with the GTVA, and there remains an uncertainty about the perceptions surrounding this war. Yet... A close friend is bound and determined to help these people, and she's never one to abandon a friend. Shortly after the operation begins the COGNIZANT ODYSSEY emerges from a jump, blurring into realspace from a flash of light. The Erchius drive is a weird, weird thing, but at least it's reliable. The large SCIENCE YACHT - perhaps big enough to be classified as a frigate - wastes little time in joining in on the jamming operations. LONG RANGE frequencies are jammed hard, leaving only the short range frequencies. But a tight beam transmitter also deploys, a dish emerging from a panel on the Odyssey. It deploys ADAPTIVE JAMMING, seeking to overwhelm as much of the sensors and radio reception of the Elissa and Utica as possible. Even if it only buys ten seconds of confusion... that's significant. "The less blood shed for this stupid war the better." Rory White declares in a disgusted huff. She regrets every shot fired and life lost, but at the moment, if she wants this to end with the least bloodshed... Breaking a few eggs is required. She just has to try and guide HOW they break... "Beginning operations."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa was also here on board Rory's ship and she was not in her primary body today, she was in the fully synthic one that Rory had given her as a gift. Given the nature of space combat she'd figure it would be best if she didn't need as many resources, right? Or to deal with the problems her few remaining organics would have here and she was going to assist Rory with info warfare and hopefully moving to help her friend. She'll hook herself up to the ship's systems to let Rory make use of her systems as needed while she gets ready for some more direct action.
Morrigan	With Corona and Zephyr with the strike team, they're probably crammed in with what feels like several dozen UEF marines, all wearing full suits of power armor. They're waiting for the signal - and it shouldn't be long now. With Rory jamming the Tev beams, the GTCv Siren turns off, exposing its broadside pulse batteries to the Indus and Yangtze - which also makes it a larger target. The two UEF frigates fire as one and, quite literally, snap the Siren in half with two volleys. And then they're amongst the cruisers, trading cannon fire and missiles with pulse batteries. It's a brutal knife fight, and one where the Tevs are outmatched. Their fighters duel with the Wargods but it seems like the fight will go to the UEF. Elsewhere, the Gloire rumbles into and out of subspace. The marines bristle - now they need to make it to the Agincourt without getting shot down.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr listens to the radio chatter... that intercepted message gets her frowning, and Rory's suggestion to keep an eye out for anything leaving the targets, she stands from her position, and heads towards the airlock, flicking her Void helmet on, the faceplate sliding into position as her Barrier Jacket adjusts. She cycles the airlock, and 'falls' out of the Gloire, before kicking her Flight spell in and forming up alongside, her Device in its long-range, Battle-axe form. <SCANNING.> chimes Divine Wind, looking for anything making a beeline away from the transport, or the cruisers.
Corona Arclite	It's a good thing Corona isn't very big! Or all that uncomfortable looking, despite being surrounded by a lot of big soldiers in heavy armor. She works with big burly miners and laborers all the time. If anything she probably fits in better here than she would with the starfighters, and not just because she's packing her own BFG or the large hammer slung across her back. Her tail does give a twitch now and then, but that's just in anticipation of the -real- action about to come. Okay maybe a little envious of Zephyr getting some room to stretch outside, but not that bad.
Morrigan	One by one, the Tevs drop. Small explosions for the fighters, larger ones for the two cruisers. The Wargods slip around the Agincourt, popping some rounds into the large vessel's engines - they cut out, the crew having gotten the message. The Gloire moves in close, towards one of the forward airlocks of the Agincourt. Inside, the marines ready themselves. The transport shudders as the airlock connects. It hisses open. The UEF marines pour out, ready for anything. For an instant, they float - someone's disabled the artificial gravity.
Zephyr Windstar	Well the fighter screen's up, and the transport is disabled. So she peels off as the Gloire docks in, and pulls around in a tight arc against the hull of the giant logistic ship, navigating to another airlock on the far side from the UEF transport. She gets Divine Wind to hack the outer door and cycle the airlock to get inside. Luckily for her, she doesn't care about gravity, being a flight mage, and so just continues floating under her own power through the hallways, heading to the cargo bay. She's keeping her Device ready, several small motes of purple light floating around beside her.
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite follows the marines out, only to yip a little in surprise as soon as she steps out the lock and not onto the actual deck. "Whoop, Gravity's off!" She clacks her boots together, and a moment later clunks to the nearby wall. "Reckon it's a good thing Ah wore the polarity heels on mah boots. Get it together guys, we ain't got long." She starts marching along the wall a bit, if only to be ready with her shotgun while the marines get themselves in order.
Rory White	A lack of Artificial Gravity doesn't affect Rory White's boarding forces at all. Although they are much smaller than her previous efforts, they're nonetheless wicked looking. A pair of vertical disk-shaped reapers, writhing and unfolding head inside with Zephyr, as does what looks like some kind of... mechanical, silvery... spider. The spider has TURRETS on its back and it's a bit bigger than a person, but... In either case, the reapers fold up and WHEEL THEMSELVES across the floor on magnetic tracks, while the spider clings to the ceiling, each foot ending in a magnetic clamp. Of course, anyone with Tacnet access, like Kotone, knows that the spider is Rory's flexmorph. The only downside is that this mode of transportation is pretty noisy. CLANG CLANG CLANG. But it's also unnatural, inhuman. The steps are completely of the wrong rhythm. Might unnerve people into thinking some kind of weird ALIEN'S aboard or something...
Morrigan	Outside, the Wargods tangle with the fighters from the Agincourt and the bombers returning from elsewhere. The bombers send out distress call after distress call, over and over, but none of them get through Rory's jamming. The mission holds - that is, until something with more power jumps in for a resupply. Inside, the UEF marines spread through the ship. Corona and the team she's with hit Engineering, securing it easily. No resistance. They get the armory, too, and there's no shortage of GTVA Komodo suits there - big bulky things, designed to tangle with enemies that spit plasma and breathe vaccuum. Things that look remarkably similar to Rory's turreted spider form. In engineering, though, Corona might spot a problem: someone's fried the jump drive entirely: the Agincourt isn't going anywhere. Elsewhere, towards the gargantuan cargo deck, Zephyr finds a bunch of GTVA deckhands setting about, yes, destroying their cargo, the vital supplies that were the whole point of the operation. She can probably stop them with diplomacy or firepower - or simply inform Simms, but there's no telling whether Simms' threat is a bluff or not...
Zephyr Windstar	Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. Zephyr lifts higher in the air, and calls out. "Stop right now, or I will shoot you down." the motes of light around her growing brighter, as she levels her axe at the deckhands. If they raise weapons, or ignore her? They'll get peppered with multiple bolts of purple mana. It'll be like a barrage of beanbag rounds. Hurt like a bitch, but not do any lasting damage.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is now hooked up after all it's time to get going Kotone knows they need to board and she's going to be deploying with the drones. She's still hooked up with with the ntwork but she's been launched with the rest as she's going to be boardering herself with the rest she's going to stick t a humanoid form, as she's in an armored space suit but that's mostly to protect her body from rapid tempature changes and the like as she joins the boaridn party she's got a lot of freezer foam and other things to tie up the marines and the like but it's time to do what she can if she can find a point to get into their systems...
Rory White	Of course the forces Rory brought are heavily equipped with non-lethal over lethal. She's studied the armor in use by the GTVA marines and other forces by now, and has come up with countermeasures. The array of turrets are largely for show - only a few are intended to be used and actually contain functional lethal weapons. The Reapers are instead equipped with a number of OTHER systems... In particular... A choking white gas, thick and nearly impossible to see through - is flooded down corridors where soldiers are approaching. Then the Reapers deploy speakers that unleash DEAFENING, head-splitting noises. Sight and sound presumably overwhelmed they then flip up to the ceiling and start speed-crawling past patrols and dumping loads of solidfying foam on them. The Reapers are thin disks that unfold extra systems as needed and amble around on flexible tendrils - these slim profiles makes them EXTREMELY difficult to shoot... It's a question of whether they can complete their subdual routines without getting disabled themselves first. Rory White in her arach-form in another corridor though, she takes a different approach. The Flexbot's holo projectors thrum to life in preparation for an arriving squad, projecting a VEEEEEERY realistic illusion of many horrific monsters and creatures she's encountered in the Multiverse, and just other things for good measure. FERAL GHOULS and GASFELLAS and CHRYSALIDS scurry down the corridors making all kinds of horrible noises. GASFELLAS swinging their picks, CHRYSALIDS LUNGING IN with their horrible mandibles and piercing legs, and FERAL GHOULS snarling raspily and flailing into melee! She doesn't expect this to confuse them for very long. It's not meant to. Just distract them long enough from her setting up to spray the whole lot of them with freezer foam from her tanks and pin them all up in solidifying GOOP.
Corona Arclite	Oooh, guns. Armors. Fancy future tech.... which Corona never actually gets to seeing. An ear twitchs, diverting her attention elsehwere as the Marines go to poke through the armory. Even with all the elaborate technology surrounding them, advancements don't conceal the telltale sign to an engineer that something is not as it should be in the machinery. Corona keeps her shotgun cradled in the crook of one arm even as she pulls her analytical device from a belt pouch and flips it open, using both hands to manipulate the controls twice as quickly. "Sunnova!" The sharp yelped cuss is followed by her sprinting for the jump drive engines proper. "They've sabotaged the jumps! Likely hopin' we'd be stuck longer than it'd take more of their forces t'show up!"
Morrigan	On the cargo deck, the Tev deckhands don't seem to listen to Zephyr. One of them, a big guy with obvious tattoos beneath his coveralls, says: "Try it, Buntu scum." He goes down under a hail of purple bolts. His compatriots stop what they're doing. The cargo is secure. Kotone manages to police the GTVA marines, securing them in their quarters so they can't get any idea about escaping or further sabotage. There's plenty of system access points, too. Rory makes quick work of any GTVA crewmembers she finds who haven't stood themselves down - most of them will have a nightmare or two, thanks to her methods, but they're incapacitated and harmless. That's all that matters, now that they're pinned to the walls of their ship. The Agincourt is captured. Unfortunately, it won't be going anywhere any time soon. By the sounds of the comm chatter, though, it seems like the UEF has a contingency.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr lands, and plants an ironshod foot on the downed deckhand's chest, glaring with unfiltered anger. "I am not a practitioner of Ubuntu. And if you think I won't turn off my stun-mode should you keep insulting my honour as a warrior, well.." Divine Wind chimes, a little bit /too/ cheerfully. <STUN MODE HAS BEEN CANCELLED.> "Try me."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite frowns again at the readings, but it sounds like these guys had a contingency plan in store. "Okay, so we're gonna have to take it slow then. Guess we might as well make use of the time." The foxlady wanders back to the Armory with the Marines, grinning the entire time. "Hey, guys?" She pulls the Matter Manipulator off her belt, twirling it in one hand like a gunslinger would a pistol. "Got anythin' on this bucket you -really- wanna make sure we keep? Ah can stash it in subspace, even if we gotta sink the ship later."
Kotone Yamakawa	<<I think I got access point.>> She's making heavy use of freezer foam and even when she does take a few hits? She's hurt but there's no blood only the breaking of the illusion that she's flesh at all from them she however. Wonder what they got in mind she's getting into she sees they are handled for now and she'll be going to wrap them up and keep them under restriant for now she takes a simulate deep breath and for once is happy to not be in the flesh as it were she was able to keep her head far better like this.